GAL’S WORK

Surprisingly, the creator of these works received formal painting training. Over 30 years ago, Hsu Yu-jen graduated from the National Taiwan Academy of Arts (now, the National Taiwan University of Arts). The schools was originally established by Cai Yuanpei and Lin Fengmian near the West Lake and has a long-standing history of innovation based on the foundations of tradition. However, tradition was dominant at the school when Hsu Yu-jen studied painting there.

In his own words, Hsu Yu-jen ‘muddled’ into the school, for he did not start learning to paint until six months before the entrance examinations. As a young man, he liked travelling and having girlfriends. In order to go to college, he left Jiali, a rural town in South Taiwan and went to the metropolitan Taipei. He had a revelation one day and fell in love with books on art. He then frequented the library and read all the books in the school within half a year. In the meantime, he also started painting. As he did not receive much systematic painting training and learned to paint by himself, he had a distinct style that set him apart from others. ‘I think my painting is special. It is different from the works of anyone else. I did not know the so-called “style” then, but I felt that I could really paint! I found my potential and my passion for artistic creation. I began to follow the direction I liked and made do with the schoolwork.’

As his painting deviated so much from the traditional techniques taught in the classroom, and the teachers merely followed the traditional standard in grading the works, Hsu Yu-jen had a hard time graduating from the school. The teachers had a poll on his grades. Almost all the teachers in the department of ink-wash painting found his works problematic, with only Hong Ruilin, a teacher from the department of oil painting, recognizing his talent and making sure that he could finish his degree. Hsu Yu-jen did not regret his choice, and followed his ‘rebellious’ path firmly.

‘I Aim to Find an Absolutely Original Style of Ink-Wash Painting’

With his concern for social reality, Hsu Yu-jen began to experiment in different materials and forms such as sculpture, oil painting and ink-wash painting. Over the last ten years, Hsu Yu-jen has endeavoured to be innovative in the medium of Chinese ink-wash painting.

‘Look at my ink-wash painting. You can hardly find any predecessor of this style. Although I use fine lines, they are different from the traditional fine-brush works. I aim to find an absolutely original style of ink-wash painting. It will be totally different from Western paintings as well.’

Hsu Yu-jen has turned all the ‘don’ts’ in traditional Chinese ink-wash painting techniques into ‘dos’. He makes use of these skills and has created a distinct style out of them.

He returned to the starting point of any painting. Although the ink, paper, ink stand and brush are ancient tools, he does not regard them as ancient elements, but basic and modern ones, similar to pencils and pens. Hsu began to adopt dry brushes, short strokes to paint dots and broken lines. The free-hand brushwork of traditional Chinese painting was thrown away. Everything in his painting is a combination of dots, lines and planes.

Hsu Yu-yen is very good at thinking in the opposite way. He overthrew all traditional structures of ink-wash painting, and adopted the horizontal and vertical lines, triangles and cubes that were discarded in traditional ink-wash paintings. ‘If I go back to the tradition, I will never be able to get out. So I began to paint ink-wash in a geometric way. I began by painting out my spiritual world, and later added some other subjects.’ The houses are rectangular, circular and triangular in shape. The pattern of the waves is triangular. The rays of the sun, moon and stars are straight lines, whereas the trees are shaped in a shallow rectangle … all are reversed. Hsu Yu-jen’s works may be resemble sketches or woodcuts, but the viewer receives a totally different experience when they study the original works. The small dots in the shape of paramecium (a single-celled microscopic aquatic organism) are the smallest units and are integrated in the works by Hsu.

In terms of perspective, Hsu Yu-jen does not adopt the Western focal perspective, nor does he use the cavalier perspective found in traditional ink-wash paintings. He is more concerned with the abstract relationship between different objects. While he is painting, he looks at many pictures and books and sometimes places bizarre objects together. These things remind him of the stories that moved him in the past.

Within an ink-wash painting, some components take a perspective as seen from above, some take a straightforward perspective, some take a focal perspective, and others take a perspective as seen from below. Hsu Yu-jen points out that blank space can give rise to wonderful perspectives. ‘I base all perspectives on the blank space. There are many perspectives in a painting. I follow my instinct in drawing and express more with blanks.’ Hsu Yu-jen said, in self-mockery, that he was old now and had to rest every now and then while drawing, as his eyesight was failing. He said he often had new ideas while resting, as he watched his painting from a distance. ‘My idea would often change at this time. I started out in a certain direction, but ended up in another. It gives me the feeling of touring around the world.’ Hsu Yu-jen said that he felt as if he were shuttling between different spaces when he drew different parts of the same painting. ‘It’s like diving in the sea: I dive into the sea from the land and watch the colourful world underneath the water.’ Hsu Yu-jen compared the wonderful feeling of creation to diving, with which he is most familiar, as he grew up by the sea. ‘I wish to draw as if I were playing a game. The space in my painting is fluid and yet discontinuous. I wish to draw with my own characteristics.’ These ideas are interpolated in Hsu’s ink-wash paintings. ‘There are many original seeds of ink-wash painting in my mind. All I do is sow them and let them grow by themselves.’ He pursues simplicity and leaves many things unexpressed. Simple and clean as his paintings are, they are also rich and have a flavour of spatial montage. Because of this characteristic, different parts of Hsu’s paintings can be magnified and made into separate paintings. Every point in his paintings is a seed and every part is independent.

Hsu’s approach to the number four is also highly individualistic. The number four is taboo in Chinese culture because it is homophonic with death. In many public places such as hotels, a four cannot be found in room and floor numbers, and car license plates avoid the number. Four is equal to death. ‘I like four, for death connotes life’, Hsu says. You can find four trees or stones in Hsu’s paintings. Four sometimes also represents the painter’s sentiment towards the ecological pollution and the damage that human beings cause.

‘When I brush ink onto a piece of thin silk, the drying process of the ink itself is a dying process. However, the painting comes to life. The completion of a painting marks the end of a creative idea and of the relationship between the painter and his work, but it also marks the beginning of the communication between the painting and the spectators. Chinese people comprehend four as death, whereas the Indian scriptures regard the number four as life. So life and death are constantly converting to each other. The dichotomy is always dynamic.’

Rebel as he seems to tradition, Hsu Yu-jen has a profound insight into the mutual conversion between yin and yang in traditional Chinese culture.

Original Forms Should be Connected with the Content

Hsu, however, does not search for innovative forms for their own sake. ‘I have worked on ink-wash paintings for many years and experimented with many forms. A pre-condition for an artist to select a form is that it should express his instinct. That is to say, original forms should be combined with the instinct. It cannot come out of nothing, but should be based on reality. We should not search for forms for their own sake, or we would be chained by the shapes.’

Hsu Yu-jen grew up in Taiwan. In his childhood, Taiwan was still an agricultural society. ‘The farmers would walk barefooted. It was the case when I was a junior high student.’ Later, when Taiwan was opened up to the outside world, factories were set up everywhere. The agricultural society became industrialized and, in the process, pollution occurred. The destruction began in the 1980s. Taiwan faced serious environmental pollution and excessive cultivation. As more damage was done to the environment, the coastal areas suffered from more floods and other disasters. The situation became more and more serious and Taiwan also suffered from the 921 earthquake. ‘When I was small, I did not have the feeling of instantaneous destruction of the living space. I worked in U.S. and came back to the countryside in Taiwan. The seashore used to be very clean, but suddenly garbage was everywhere. The environment had changed so much. The almost instantaneous impact on nature is absent in ancient ink-wash paintings, but in modern times we have to face this problem almost every day.’
When he went to college in Taipei, Hsu Yu-jen found the scenery in the ink-wash masterpieces similar to what he saw in childhood. The mountains and rivers in the paintings are elegant with profound charms. Hsu thought that to draw mountains and rivers in the traditional way is actually a process of recollection, as Taiwan has long ceased to be what it was. And it is not just Taiwan that suffers from serious environmental pollution; so does Mainland China, and the world as a whole. This is an issue that humans cannot afford to neglect. Hsu decided at that time that he would draw the contemporary environment and ecological situation using the medium of ink-wash painting.

‘I think that there should not be only one method of ink-wash painting. One of the reasons is that by simply inheriting traditional ink-wash paintings, painters are divorced from reality, which is actually a regression. Another reason is that I would have never succeeded if I had chosen the traditional method, as modern painters cannot be compared with their predecessors over the last 5000 years in their ability in handling forms and expression. Ancient Chinese wrote with brushes. They lived in a different natural environment and had different states of mind. I have to find my own original method.’

Hence we find the ‘view of the mountains and rivers’ in Hsu’s original fine-brush ink-wash paintings: bare, stone mountains, leafless trees, water and stones, or waves and sand patterns. Stones are a typical image in Chinese ink-wash paintings. As Taiwan suffered from excessive cultivation and forest exploitation, entire mountains were left bare. ‘I remember that I found that entire mountains were changed when I worked as a geological surveyor pollution in Taiwan to draw his ‘paintings on Chinese mountains and rivers’.

The ancient Chinese lived in an agricultural society within a traditional culture. They read the various classics and scriptures and were immersed in Confucian, Taoist and Buddhist ideas. Today China is on its way towards becoming a fully industrialized society. We also read ancient classics, but the life we live is drastically different. Society nowadays is a multi-dimensional, multi-layered information society, integrated with economy, politics and culture. Meanwhile, we are also faced with many practical problems. It is obviously not enough to simply return to the tradition.

Hsu’s paintings are full of reflections on industrialization and death. Though there are no human beings in the painting, traces of human interference can be found in the geometric forms, triangular mountains, rectangular block-like trees, and the triangular wave patterns. The sea enclosed by a cement dam is like a beast in the cage. The treeless triangular mountains are related to the excessive cultivation problem. The four withered trees express the painter’s sorrow at the destruction of the forest. The triangular wave pattern is also related to the dams. It can be said that Hsu Yu-jen has created a painting of the site of nature after the industrialized civilization, or the death of nature under the pollution of industrialized society. Hsu Yu-jen portrays the post-industrialization site through his ink-wash painting and expresses light, nostalgic sentiments. In contrast to the desolation on the earth, the straight rays emitting from the sun, the moon and the stars are symbols of eternity. These rays bring hope to his paintings. Hsu Yu-jen views this issue from the height of the entire universe. The fact that life is transient spurs Hsu Yu-jen to pay attention to images of eternity. The paintings also embody his reflections over the time.

Renovation and Inheritance

Most people think that Hsu Yu-jen painted his works with fine points. ‘I actually painted with brushes. Brushes, ink stands, and ink are brilliant inventions of the Chinese people. Western people would not understand our feelings when creating with the traditional drawing tools. Japanese people did a good job in preserving the tradition. They have been using them since Tang dynasty. Nowadays in Japan, important documents are still written with brush and ink. There are many ways of handling the brush in Chinese tradition.’ Hsu Yu-jen is very passionate towards the traditional ink-wash painting.

Although Hsu’s paintings portray a polluted, damaged world, they are clean and simple and the mountains in them are almost semi-transparent. Why are his works so clean? Hsu explained that it was difficult to find a clean thing nowadays. ‘I paint the scenery clean and present a complicated state in an absolute, pure way. I think this is in accordance with the spirit of the blankness in ink-wash painting.’ Chinese painting attaches special importance to blanks. ‘Or the space, in western jargon. What I mean is, the ideas about the space, not necessarily the structure of the space. Actually the entire science of ink-wash painting is about nature.’

According to Hsu, Chinese paintings can stand repeated appreciation if the spectators are familiar with and feel deeply for the traditional culture of ink-wash painting. Chinese ink-wash paintings are apparently very similar to each other, but actually they are very refined in details. You may feel different things when you see a painting in your twenties, thirties, and even seventies. It is not like the works nowadays, which are shocking at first sight, but become bland and flavourless when seen repeatedly. Ink-wash painting is a special branch of human artistic creation.

‘Among all the ancient civilizations, only the tradition of the ink-wash painting in China has never been interrupted. No other art developed in this way in the entire world. Oil paintings in Europe had many forms and did not develop along the same line. In modern times, all the traditions of oil painting were overthrown. Why do so many Chinese painters over thousands of years love portraying stones, mountains and flowers ? Are they crazy? No. They love painting these objects, as they find many touching, subtle, precious things that modern people cannot comprehend. The paintings are very touching. Emperor Huizong of the Song dynasty was good at refined paintings of flowers and birds, and also at calligraphy. We have to absorb the nutrition of the tradition while making innovations. Few took the time to feel the refined details in the paintings. The tradition is old, but it will never die. It has been alive for thousands of years. Isn’t that amazing? Ink-wash paintings contain a lot of traditional philosophy, in which the Taoist view of nature is dominant.’

Chinese ink-wash painting was called ‘painting and calligraphy’ in the past. Ink-wash painting and calligraphy are regarded as belonging to the same discipline. Most ancient Chinese students would learn calligraphy for several years and turn to painting. Most painters are calligraphers as well. Nowadays calligraphy is separated from painting. ‘Painting and calligraphy’ is also closely connected with poems and stories. The two employ symbols and images and complement each other with many philosophical insights. Hsu Yu-jen inherited this tradition and often writes his poems or stories on his ink-wash paintings. For instance, on an ink-wash painting of the sea, he wrote the following words in his idiosyncratic handwriting, ‘the sea flows continuously… nothing but the drifting forms … transient … transient … transient … transient …’ It is a beautiful image.

His perspective on painting is also different. Hsu Yu-jen said that he now approaches western paintings in a different way. He used to look at western paintings with reference to aesthetic ideas and theories. Now he looks at them from the perspective and ideas of Chinese painting, especially Chinese ink-wash painting. There are a lot of overlapping ideas between different cultures, though the superficial forms are not the same.

However, there are many fixed forms in Chinese ink-wash painting. It is difficult to make major changes within the fixed, sophisticated forms of ink-wash painting. ‘It is hard to create something of your own within a fixed form. That’s why we have to break this frame. I cannot boast that I owe a great deal to our tradition. I cannot return to the traditional times. The times changed, and so did I.’

A Traditional Way of Life in Accordance with Nature

Hsu Yu-jen likes dawn and dusk very much. While watching the sky lighten up or dim away, he is fascinated with the elapse of time. The light in the room changes in accordance with the light in the sky. He also likes seeing things in the dark. This is related to the habit he formed in the environment where he grew up. He seldom turns on the light wherever he lives, be it New York, Taipei or Beijing, except when he has to read or work. He likes to have dinner in the open, so he can watch the stars while eating. ‘Such a natural living state fosters my introspection. I am stirred emotionally. I try my best not to be bound by artificial values. The values that one accumulates in action is the biggest shock to mankind.’

Most people do not view themselves from the values of nature. Hsu Yu-jen often wishes to be reincarnated as a tree in his next life: ‘A tree stands still. It blossoms and bears fruit, and dies as it is. Humans have to die as well.’ He always bears such a Taoist philosophy of nature in his mind, which is integrated into his world of ink-wash paintings. ‘Humans have to suffer a lot. It is much better to live as a small tree, which grows in the cracks of stones, or as a bird, which can fly everywhere, or even as a stone. The traditional mindset is more resilient and open-minded.’

As he likes nature, Hsu Yu-jen built his two studios in a natural environment. One of his studios is located in the back of the Yangmingshan National Reserve. ‘When I painted in the forest, I felt as if I were an ancient Chinese who painted in a cottage in the mountains. I like this house very much. There is a spiritual and spatial connection, a connection to the natural world outside. Man and nature become closely related and can communicate at any moment.’ When I asked him whether he feels isolated when living alone in the mountain, Hsu Yu-jen said that several fellow artists also live there. ‘I have several friends who can drink with me. I have a really close friend who is a pottery artist. We often drink together.’ Hsu likes the feeling of drinking. It is mind-freeing and relaxing and can expose one’s true personality. ‘Wine is a great friend. You have to handle your relation to it, become good friends with it, but you should not be controlled by it. You can become more active in thinking when you are fully relaxed.’ It is said that Hsu Yu-jen drank three times with Gu Long, a well-known Chinese writer. ‘Gu Long is a great intellectual, although he writes swordsmen novels. He is very liberal in character. This is a special character that is bred in the culture of the Yellow River Valley.’ Hsu has adhered to the tradition of making friends through wine and tea.

Having grown up by the sea, Hsu Yu-jen also likes seashores and islands very much. He found a cement house in Hualian on the eastern coast of Taiwan and has made it into a studio. The flat, blue and wide Pacific Ocean is right outside the verandah of the studio.
‘Taiwan is very small and the skyline is always hindered from view. The skyline here is really open. The western coast of Taiwan has a view of the sea as well, but it is not quite as pretty. The eastern coast is wide and the mountains are steep. The sight of the sea is boundless when I view it in the embrace of the mountains. I like observing the wide ocean and the subtle changes of the seawater: at dawn, the sun rises in the east, and the sea changes within minutes. At dusk, mists arise and the sea is changed every instant. The sea unfolds different scenery at different times within a day and in different seasons.’

Hsu spent many years in U.S. He worked as a part-time marketing executive, and as a jewellery designer, but he never stopped painting. ‘When no one would buy my painting, I would work, save money, and continue painting.’ He forged ahead in this way. ‘I would keep notes and a diary while working. I wrote down my thoughts, drew many drafts, and explored new methods of creation. I never stopped such practices. Self-training is really very important, for it is also an accumulative process for painting. Many thoughts would have be lost if I had not jotted them down. Once they were written, they materialized and accumulated.’ Hsu says that many of his creative ideas are ‘old stuff that resurfaces on the lake’. While accumulating his experience and thoughts, Hsu also likes instantaneous imagination and thinks that only blind instinct can give rise to art — a typical trait of the Pollux people. ‘There are many doors in the world. You have to open them slowly and break them.’

Hsu has been improving himself through such reflections and self-training. Now his paintings are collected by many overseas museums and by private owners.

‘Recently, I have become interested in moving the real space to the sky, or the so-called universe.’ Perhaps in the near future, we will again witness the outstanding expression of Hsu Yu-jen’s endless imagination on ink-wash painting.