An Interplay of Poetic Scenarios : Solo Exhibition by YANG JINSONG
Sept 9 - Oct 9, 2006
CP ARTSPACE, JAKARTA




Yang Jinsong
by Jim Supangkat, Curator

From the notes on Yang Jinsong’s artistic journey as a painter, we can learn that he began painting realistically. However, in phases, his paintings developed so that they became less and less realistic. Yet, within this process, he did not employ simplification with the intention of analyzing/considering form.

The changes in realistic forms in his paintings seem motivated by the desire to emphasize his expression of the reality he embraced as subject – an approach known as intentional representation. This motivation is not based in the desire to create an artistic composition. This motivation feels emotional and not overly concerned with such considerations. It is strongly possible that he works spontaneously when painting.

The paintings by Yang Jinsong featured in this exhibition at CP Artspace, “An Interplay of Poetic Scenarios”, reminds one of the paintings of Marc Chaggall, a painter originating in Russia, who moved to Paris in 1923, and who, since that time, has gone down history as a famous French painter. Through this similarity to the paintings of Chagall, there are several things about the paintings of Yang Jinsong that can be immediately felt and understood.

The paintings of Yang Jinsong emerge out of a sense of the lyrical. Because of that, his works can be seen as visual poetry. The subject matter in his paintings, which can be compared to the themes occurring in poetry, constitutes a representation of reality that does not make its presence known through thought, but rather through insight and intuition. The emphasis of his works – apparent in changes to the realistic images in his paintings – is elicited by this lyrical feeling. Thus, the artistic elements of his paintings – distortions, wavy lines, the organization/composition of objects, brush strokes and facial expressions – invite a feeling of the poetic.

As in the case of the paintings of Chagall, reality gives rise to a sense of the lyrical, and then to insight into the creative process. The matters that Yang Jinsong brings up in his works are not major issues, such as the problems of mankind, the mystery of nature or the drama of life. The source of Yang Jinsong’s visual poetry, as reflected in the subject matter of his works, is his own personal life. His life with his wife, their daily routine in their apartment, his fondness for his personal possessions and his routine, might seem boring to someone else.

This tendency is certainly nothing strange within the context of Chinese art. The tendency was first apparent among the Avant-garde artists in China toward the end of the 1980s, who reflected the major changes occurring as China transformed itself from a closed communist nation to a country opening up due to economic considerations.

As a closed communist nation, the atmosphere in China was one in which individuality and private life were certainly not advocated, but, rather, discouraged, shoved far beneath the surface, through social pressure; or, more exactly: forbidden. Life as it is can never really be eradicated from the way of life of human beings. When China began to open up, signs of real life rose to the surface and emerged in works of art. Initially, only the artists behind the Chinese Avant-garde movement had the courage to bring this all forward.

Yang Jinsong seems to continue to feel the import of all of this. Understandably, within the way of life in China, in which personal, private life was ignored for so many years, these signs of life are very precious indeed.



Jim Supangkat | Curator

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