Statement

The exhibition features 83 paintings and sculptures, characterized by the artist's bold questioning of conventional "illusory" artistic concepts and values, including the so-called laws of "beauty" and fixed views on what a work of art exhibited in a fair should look like. The exhibition also showcases a comprehensive exploration of modern art, seeking diverse ways to embody the "modern spirit." These works can be broadly categorized into two tendencies: one explores a pure language of pictorial plane and sculptural space, the language of form and color, and the belief that an artwork is an independent, harmonious organism, parallel to nature, and ultimately achieving a higher unity with it. The artist has complete sovereignty over how to express this belief, manifested in similar "abstract" forms and in the relationships between form, color, and space. Secondly, it attempts to transcend the purely artistic language of painting or sculpture, building a bridge between art and life. This is primarily manifested in the combination of three-dimensional and two-dimensional elements, the integration of reality and fantasy, and the collage and composition of objects. Here, we leave behind familiar oil paints and brushes, sculpting clay and chisels, and enter a new and broader realm of diverse materials. The novelty of materials and tools requires a conceptual shift. Works made with traditional materials and techniques are not necessarily works of art; works made with non-traditional materials and techniques are not necessarily works of art. The interpenetration of these two contradictory tendencies is precisely a characteristic of contemporary modern art. We do not want to be confined to any fixed mode of expression, because any fixed and unchanging idea means violating the laws of objective development.

Regarding the understanding and appreciation of works, if we want to delve into what a work specifically "represents" and why it is represented in this way, we would like to quote Picasso: "Everyone wants to understand art, so why not try to understand the song of birds? Why do we love the night, love flowers, love everything around us, but don't want to understand them?" When people view a painting, they think they should understand it. But they should first understand the artist's work, and most importantly, that it's because they have to work. The artist is merely a grain of sand in this world, and shouldn't be considered more important than other things in the world that provide us with pleasure but which we cannot understand… A painting is just a painting.

We hope that this viewing will allow us to gather a wide range of opinions, which will contribute to future artistic discussions.

May 9, 1983

Lin Jiahua, Huang Yongping, Jiao Yueming, Yu Xiaogang, Xu Chengdou (Signatures)