By Fan Di’an | President of Central Academy of Fine Arts, Vice President of China Artists Association
Artistic creation relies on the cultural conditions provided by the age, as well as the artist’s firm pursuit of ideal and personality. The art of oil painting has been developing for centuries in China. In the new cultural context, Feng Wei is one of the Chinese painters who are beginning to construct more consciously the oil painting’s time spirit, striving for higher academic standards in oil painting. Though the conceptual and style of art is multiplex today, he has been maintaining the attitude of full devotion in art, without hurry and haste, without being affected by the fashion. He has gathered profound experiences, showing out his typical spiritual pursuit, so that we can see his pure inner world.
A constant theme in Feng Wei’s paintings is landscape. He has been insisting for years on going to the nature and good at painting landscape outdoors. Back in his studio, he also elaborately constructs his works with the inspirations drawn from the natural scenery. He has his own favorite scenic concept either in his scenic sketches or his own creation. Bearing the aspiration and longing for art, he keeps searching for landscapes and visiting picturesque scenery, opening his heart to the communication with the scenery. He turns the language of painting into sincere narration, brings life and soul to the paintings and draws out the flavor and breath of the scenery.
Feng Wei, Meizhou Island, Oil on canvas, 100 x 120cm, 2013
An introspective soul is always seeking for the solemn and quiet scenery. Feng Wei is not so talkative. However, he yearns for the state of eternity, and is obsessed with the classical culture. His landscapes focus on misty lakes, tower shadows and aged alleys. We can particularly see in these works what his inner world’s yearning for. From the West Lake in Hangzhou to the West Lake in Fuzhou, his pictures describe the misty lake shimmering and glimmering like a mirage, missing the by-gone days in the shade of trees or on the broken bridges. Some of his works in this series were composed in two ways of image perspective known as “level distance” and “deep distance” in Chinese traditional paintings. He metaphorized his depth of sights in the flattening composition, while being absorbed in longstanding feelings in visual fields. From Leifeng Pagoda, Baochu Pagoda in Hangzhou to Kaiyuan Temple Pagoda in Quanzhou, he depicted the figures of the pagodas in the drastic historical changes, and remained the mottled timestamps on them as well.
Actually, the architectural image of pagoda is hard to be expressed in paintings. As the symbol of Buddhist culture, pagoda’s shape is both concise and full of embodiment of architectural structure. It is likely to be drawn vaguely of its appearance instead of molding in depth, and easily to be depicted in architectural structure and material quality while losing its artistic signification. In painting pagodas, Feng Wei reduces the interference from the other objects, grasping the symbolic forms of pagodas and catching their major figures. The floating clouds mass and scatter, creating a picture harmonious with the muscular pagoda itself. He emphasizes the spirit of pagoda so as to make its significance become a kind of culture symbolism.
He has also made numerous visits to the famous culture heritage ——Three Lanes and Seven Alleys（Sanfang-Qixiang）in Fuzhou, rambling at dawn and twilight, or roaming around under the moonlight and lamplight. Strictly speaking, the most fascinating thing about Sanfang-Qixiang is not only its overall arrangement of streets and alleys, but also its rich connotation of humanistic history. Lots of well-known writers, artists and scholars of modern Chinese history ever lived in the lanes and alleys. The thoughts of pursuing socialistic democracy as well as inheriting creative culture and art were germinated in those courtyards full of scholarly atmosphere. Due to that, Sanfang-Qixiang has become an important cradle of Minhai (Fujian) culture in modern Chinese history. Feng Wei’s visits to Sanfang-Qixiang are intended to the spiritual conversations with the sages in history. In different seasons and times, he has searched over and again for the stories that ever happened in the deep and aged lanes, depicting the ever-shifting scenery and the spiritual image of Sanfang-Qixiang. There is no figure in his pictures, but we can feel his self consciousness, which leads us into the history; his dreamlike pictures show the prospect of history and retrospect of civilization in a mystic, subtle and misty atmosphere.
Feng Wei, One of the coordinates of Fujian sea, Oil on canvas, 180 x 145cm, 2014
Feng Wei’s pursuit of humanistic landscape also constitutes his pursuit of pictorial language. He attended art classes in the Central Academy of Fine Arts and China Academy of Art, which are both famous in the south and north of China. He learnt a lot from the predecessors of the two art institutions and began to consider the trend of Chinese modern painting. During these study periods, his own artistic orientation was influenced unconsciously.
China Academy of Art, located in Hangzhou, inherits Lin Fengmian’s educational tradition, such as “blending Chinese and Western styles” and “mastery of both the art and the theory”, which lays emphasis on the pursuit of Chinese and western art theories and the fusion of the two. It follows its own logic of art creation that starts from observation, experience to expression. To be open in the visual perception of “seeing” and “gazing”, it touches the nature of the material, and finally achieves the spiritual state of “Taoism” (to be clear in heart and peaceful in mind). Located in Beijing, Central Academy of Fine Arts always concentrates on the tradition that art should be the reflection of life while caring about the reality at the same time, showing concern over sociology and major social themes with the strengths of realism and representaionalism in artistic approaches.
In these two academies, Feng Wei was getting to understand and realize the different experiences, traditions and advantages, especially in Beijing, which provides a rich land for modern art. While considering opportunity and challenge of Chinese art, he became more and more determined about his own artistic orientation. Gradually, the thematic consciousness of his landscape painting and artistic recreation came into being, and the humanistic element contained in his landscape theme made his works distinct in contemporary consciousness. Returning to the Chinese tradition of art, he pursues his own pictorial language with impressionistic brushwork and poetic expression. With the combination of the two, he has become much more mature in art. His personality and temperament make his paintings both figurative and impressionistic. In the works, he not only creates figures on the feelings of specific landscapes, but also uses montage to create aesthetic mood, seeking after the elegant hues, applying more exquisite, mutable cool or warm tones in the form of transparent glazes with calligraphic brushwork, so as to transform his technical ability into kind of expression heartily, and to make his composition full of the classic quality and refined spiritual taste.
Feng Wei, Yu Chi Mountain, 150 x 120cm, 2015
In the context of globalization, Chinese modern artists are faced with the challenge of how to transform the oil painting—an introduced painting form into their own, and how to convey Chinese culture with the perspective of modern art. Feng Wei’s artistic concept and principle rely on the localized culture, especially when he has got rid of worldly tastes and clarified himself, achieving the state which I call “back to home of the spirit”. It is a kind of return of cultural spirit. To be precise, it’s a kind of cultural consciousness which we need earnestly in our time.
Feng Wei, Flowers blooming, 160 x 100cm, 2016
May Feng Wei achieve further progress in art!
Written in Beijing, Autumn 2013