MIANHUA’S PAINTINGS, TRANSCENDING THE ERA AND THE REGION

PENG Feng
Scholar, curator, Dean of the School of Art, Peking University, curator of China Pavilion for the 54th Venice

My first acquaintance with Mianhua and her works formulated a question in my mind. Her work is dominated by beauty. My work deals with contemporary art, which requires us engaging in the society with critical perspectives, and sometimes being “cool”. Mianhua’s works are exclusively aesthetic and full expressions of positive energy. As we know, contemporary art is inundated with negative energy, mostly making criticism, revelation or satire on society. After further exchanges with Mianhua, I’m convinced that her positive energy is not pretended, but real. In my opinion, what really counts is being truthful emotionally.

Mianhua’s artwork doesn’t ingratiate itself with certain people, nor does it try to please the art market. They are all expressions of her true emotions that flow naturally. Her creative process doesn’t involve much sophisticated calculation. She is guided by her natural instincts and her art works are rich in expression.

Mianhua doesn’t belong to professionally trained artists. She is special. Curators favor exceptional cases for their shows. In Europe and America, especially in the United States, most of the artists who have succeeded in getting into the art market are independent artists. There is a word called “genius” in western art theory, which could be interpreted as someone born with exceptional talent. Genius refers to a certain kind of instinct, an artist driven by his or her instinct. A friend of mine who teaches art theories in Chicago published a book in which he makes an argument that artists cannot be educated or taught to be, for art-making simply couldn’t be taught. I couldn’t agree more. The essential element of art is an extraordinary disposition, which is basically innate. What we can teach students are basically some skills, which are far from enough to make someone an artist. To become an artist, one must have a natural endowment.

Artists who grew up in the art academies found themselves too much constrained by certain things like burdens and disciplines. Under so many concerns and rules, they can’t be fully free while making art. In this sense, it’s not a disadvantage for an artist, but rather an advantage, or a fortuitous opportunity, to be able to grow and create good works without receiving academic trainings. Mianhua is lucky to be a self-taught artist and has a wider audience. How come? The art academies have grounded their traditions within certain cultures geographically and historically. An artist like Mianhua doesn’t confine herself to such limits. When we look at each individual in different societies, whether Americans, Chinese or Europeans, everyone shares something in common. Therefore, Mianhua is able to reach out to a much larger community with her works that are created under the guidance of an individual’s instinct. It’s not easy to maintain as sincere and authentic as Mianhua does in her works in our society today.

In my view, the most impressive works that Mianhua had made is an installation titled The Rhythm featured in a solo exhibition at Today Art Museum in Beijing in 2013. The installation consisted of a series of outworn farming tools used as a medium for expression. I grew up in the countryside and had a profound experience of rural life. At the time while I was studying in Beijing, the place where Today Art Museum is now was largely surrounded by farmland. Nowadays, row upon row of tall buildings are found there instead. Looking back on the past, we could be astonished how fast the entire country has developed in the last two or three decades. A lot of things worth our pondering during this transformative period. And these are precisely questions into which Mianhua’s installation provides meaningful insights. I especially hope that this work will bring memories and reflections to people of my generation born in the 1950s and 1960s.

Mianhua’s works are mainly devoted to life, love and mysteries. I do hope that everyone can catch the meaning behind those lines and colors. We can seek out real and profound philosophical implications in her art works.

College of Art, Peking University, April 2018