 resh and New – Wu Mingzhong’s Painting" exhibition opens at Today's Museum in Beijing from the 8th to 22d, August. The curator Huang Du and the artist have a dialogue about the life of the artist and how his art reflict his emotional experiences.
Huang Du (hereinafter Huang as shortened form): Let’s talk about your motive for the painting. Why did you work like this? How did you find this way of painting?
Wu Mingzhong(hereinafter Wu as shortened form): It came from my early love crisis.
 Huang: Why?
Wu: Love, it broke up, I felt the emotional vulnerability and began to doubt the truth of love. At that time, I thought the art might express the vulnerability when I went through the pain, and that may be an erupting inspiration. In that case, what manner can deliver my idea? I was using the inflatable balloon at very beginning but it was very fragile. Since the figure was not legible after the balloon being enlarged, but I wanted a concrete image. Later, I thought of the essence of glass that is hard but brittle, with that on mind. I began to produce some small-size paintings, while the works were out of my expectation, then I started enlarging the work till I had found the clues of glass portrait.
Huang: Why you introduce the political issues to your paintings?
Wu: I had plenty of art practices before the glass portrait painting. Among that, the political theme series <Egg> that demonstrates a distrustful attitude. People’ bodies are real in the painting but their head are "eggs". The first piece of glass portrait painting entitled <Shoot!>which has a political meaning, it’s about the negotiation between two countries and they are suppose to reach an agreement, then it might change, break the agreement. Then I began to consider the vulnerable connection of people, nations and parties, another reason for the glass portrait actually is that the building had collapsed in seconds on "911" in the United States. In 2002, I produced a painting in which a group of people is chatting in a big cardboard box, just like us, but you have not noticed the danger outside, the painting entitled < Handle with Care, Buddy! > reminds people of danger.
 Huang: That is to say, your work has a meaning of care.
Wu: Yes, I just want to remain people that the fragile and brittle matters are actually existing there, do not crumble it, such as the connection of people.
Huang: In fact, you linked the transparency with fragility in your work, did you?
Wu: Yes, the visual strength would be weak if I just draw a transparent glass portrait, so I added hues to it, such as orange juice and XO, in 2005, I replaced the hues with wine, because the wine has meaningful color and a striking visual impact.
Zou Cao(hereinafter as shortened form Zou): Does the wine have any implications besides its striking visual impact?
Wu: I thought the wine’s color is stronger than the previous ones from the visual point of view, and it also implies the desire, seduction, and the material, wine’s color looks beautiful.
Huang: The wine is red that contains a lot of meaning, it might suggest the luxury and desire in today's social life. Perhaps it does not have a specific indication, but it might create something to the imagination.
Wu: The wine and XO in my painting that have its realistic significance, we live in a wonderful material world, people is chasing after the luxurious vanity. Otherwise, we need to reconsider and question the material, and its connection with people.
Huang: Apparently, Wu Mingzhong’s work stresses that everything is transparent, and the transparency has become the necessary condition in today’s society and cultural development. The glass transparency has more implications besides the physical character of glass, in other words, it has associated with the democracy, freedom, supervision, openness, commonality and affiliation, and the critical transparency becomes the social surgery that have disclosed and eliminated the villainous root, which comprised the dictatorship, manipulation, conspiracy, crime, concealment and corruption. It based upon the awareness of this contradiction, Wu Mingzhong has expanded the transparency to the contrast of toughness and fragility, falsity and reality, his paintings conveys a message of controversy, the glassware for example, is an indication for the upper class, the glass portrait in your work lives in an extravagant atmosphere and with an exposed sense. You are very concerned about the tangled political issues, besides the analysis of day-to-day extravagant life, such as  your work <the Six-party Talks> alludes to the tough and fragile international ties, the fact seems to be confirmed “the Six-party Talks" ends up with the absence of North Korea. It can be said that the previous efforts to "the Six-party Talks" were all in vain.
Wu: Yes, the caution is very important! I produced two paintings on the theme of "the Six-party Talks", one is six-party round table talks, entitled <let’s discuss!>. The second is the scene of handshake, entitled <Buddy, shake tightly!>. I was worried about the absence of North Korea in the peace talks. In fact, this is just a psychological demand, but we can do nothing, since it’s determined by the texture and attribute of glass.
Huang: The subject is not the crucial factor of contemporary art. Any depicted object can be the subject, while the critical matter is the methodological issue in painting.
Wu: I think, art creation should start from the expression, if the expression is yours, you would know there is no referential language or methodology to use, meanwhile, the creation is likely to emerge. What I want to express is the crispness and fragility, there is no one did this before in art history.
 Huang: Despite the art history provides us a wide range of experience, but we could not mechanically apply it in each of the artist's experience. Review on the art history, it is not difficult to find some artists methods and concepts that had changed the evolution process of arts. Such as Fontana (born in Argentina in 1899, moved to Milan, Italy, 1905), he was not in accordance with the realistic approach on creation, but to explore the painting’s extensity in moving and changing condition. Fontana had changed the painting space with his random knife cut on canvas, that "occasional" outcome had broken through the painting’s space concept in Western tradition, since the Western traditional painting has adopted the perspective in the plane and color’s changes, to shape a visional effect that is three-dimensional space. In a sense, Fontana went beyond the logic and practice in art history. Therefore, we may not judge a art practice upon experience, just like you said, you had an erupting fragile emotional experience because of love crisis, and transferred it to your art creation that brought you a new art manner.
Zou: Fontana’s cut with knife originally might be a sporadic happening or an occasional impulse, but his persistent artistic cut had proved that he had fully understood the impulse, and this cognition or understanding was evolving into his artistic creation.
Huang: In China, most of people can only stare at the linearity logic and its token of Western modern art. In fact, the development of Western modern art mixed with some very complex factors, in addition to individual experiments by the artists, it also includes economic and commercial factors, while the most important factors are cultural movement, politics, philosophy, and other ideologies. However, the so-called popularity is blending with a number of factors, for instance, a number of galleries or exhibitions promoted artist's self-confidence or a sort of pop art. Behind the phenomenon, it relates to the cultural logic of capitalism. Especially in the US, the commerce operates the art behind.
Wu: I started these works in 2002, and I was inspired since I participated in two exhibitions in 2003. Some people started collecting my works since the end of 2005.
Huang: In this case, your art creation has stabilized since then. I think today's art is inevitable to involve in commercial.
Wu: The commercial achievement brought me self-confidence; they bought my works since they liked it.
Huang: This series of works are depicting the daily consumer items, and the painting belongs to the style of still life, however, beyond that you have revealed today’s political issues related to the depicted objects, that is, an artifact has been put into the consumption, entertainment, emotion, and even the political and religious topics, by doing so, the art language is more ingenious and full  of strain.
Wu: Actually it is a metaphor, a metaphor of people by glassware.
Zou: I think Wu Mingzhong has created an unique language, and he was not intend to create a language by doing so but to express in his language.
Huang: Wu Mingzhong has created a new painting style. Well, what the style like? It is obvious that his painting is neither realistic style, nor the pop language, neither the “Cynical Realism” style, nor the “Gaudy Art”. However, we can see that his painting has a clear character of integration or intermixture. It is worth noting that the language of his paintings reveals a very strong intuition, painting’s strokes are bold and not in detail, but a glimpse from the distance, the painting has integrality and details, simple but rich. Even the playful daily life, and the politics become a segment of game, the segment is not the former grand narrative. It’s really hard to tell what the style is, this perhaps is an important feature and an essence of Wu Mingzhong’ painting!
Wu: I have been confusing that I know my work is not like others, but I cannot tell what it is? it is something like this.
Huang: In fact, the concept and language in Wu Mingzhong's painting represent a changing character of this period, a mood of new century painting after the "Political Pop" and "Cynical Realism". The painting has significant difference to the others with a further study, it is low profile and unassuming, relatively restrained and relaxed, it does not pursue the kind of grand narrative, but stresses the intuitive sense of design and daily experience. In other words, if we say that the "Political Pop", "Cynical Realism" and "Gaudy Art" expressed the consciousness of political criticism and moral satire by China's elites, while Wu Mingzhong’s painting has a conceptual  language to illustrate the psychological vulnerability of people, to convey his suspicion on the historical value of social events from the contrast of fake and authenticity. Although it is not clearly stated, the painting has implied something further.
Wu: Yes.
Huang: The glass in your painting is reminiscent of something else. Many artists have such features and orientations in China’s contemporary art scene, it’s a very interesting art phenomenon.
Zou: I know Wu Mingzhong very well since we often talk to each other. I think his art practice has pushed a step forward of contemporary art. On the aesthetics, the ideology is a sort of Plato’s in reverse, and its significance lies in the fact that he has created an object, then to realize, explore and observe the world by using this object. Although he had many series works with complex ideology, I personally think that there are two most important issues or breakthrough – one breakthrough is the form, the other is the content. In art form he has created and employed a vitreous form of language, which is indeed a strong orientation. Such as his recent painting <Jesus Christ>, he has depicted the faith as a vitreous item that is filled with red wine, while the faith is extravagant and fragile, thereby he has united the form and the content perfectly; The content of his work does not present a certain objective facts, but to show some sort of realistic images with rational psychology. So I think it is hard to define him. The reason is that the previous art theory and practice could not explain and verify his work. Therefore, it’s a new subject to comprehend his works, in other words, we should define him with new knowledge of arts, because his painting has already broken through the conventional ideology of Chinese contemporary art. At this point, firstly his work is the post-modern, then the modern.
Huang: It’s just Lyotard's narrative sentence of post-modern.
Zou: Yes. At this point, he has more breakthrough and criticism than others. It would not be accurate if defines it too early.
Huang: Wu Mingzhong’s painting has comprehensive characters, and such an uniqueness is difficult to define, generalize and express by any style or manner.
Wu: In this century, many works are very comprehensive and comprise a lot of elements, this is a new tendency which is constantly evolving. But it’s quite strenuous to explain this new tendency in one accurate word.
Huang: A group of artists has a common mood, and the mood reflects a phenomenon that does not relate to stylistic language. Moreover, the painting is unlike the previous ones that had a specific image or a portrait-style.
 Zou: Yes.
Huang: Wu Mingzhong’s painting is indeed a special case, his art language is unique, that is to say that we can hardly find the similar language or style with him, because his painting was created with a reverse thinking, that is why his artistic language, style and concept cannot be stated clearly. This is a very interesting story. If you look at the genealogy of Chinese contemporary art, we want to know what new painting is after the "Political Pop" and "Cynical Realism". If the "New" of painting does exist, what is it? What is the "New"? What is the connection of the new and the old?
Zou: It is a rupture and continuity as well.
Huang: I think Wu Mingzhong’s painting is a sort of mutation, because there is no comparable works with it. We might reconsider the issue of painting’s core through the case. For art criticism, we might study and sort out many problems through a case. Wu Mingzhong’ s work might be a chance that is a path to start a new topic.
Zou: We can only look forward to an in-depth research by the critics.
Huang: The distinction of Wu Mingzhong is that he subtly observes the changes in the world with a global political vision, it not only goes beyond the issue of China, but also brings China into the global relations to understand and analyze. His painting "the Six-party Talks" for example, is to probe into the North Korea's "nuclear" program, this regional political relations include China, North Korea, United States, Japan, South Korea and Russian. He seems to use that vulnerability to reproduce and demonstrate the nation’s game for the interests and its complexity and uncertainty. He also observes the experience, problems and changes in daily life in a new perspective, Wu Mingzhong’s paintings, Chen Wenling’s sculptures, Qiu Zhijie’s installations, video arts by Liao Xiaochun and Qiu Anxiong, paintings by Qiu Xiaofei, their methods and narratives are different from the other artists. They have completely different language system from the former  successful artists. Now it’s hard to describe it accurately with theories, but I can deeply feel the distinction.
Zou: This probably is a phenomenon of heterogeneous aesthetic in Chinese contemporary art! Wu Mingzhong’s recent works that is about the relationship of couples, I think that is an intimate contact with daily life, or our life per se.
Huang: This just represents a sense of apathy among people in today's society.
Zou: And that sense of alienation, people have it 1000 years ago or 1000 years later. This is an eternal topic in our life, is a kind of psychological confusion in life experience.
Wu: The connection of couples should be the most intimate and combined ones, but it’s not, why?
Huang: The matters in daily life appear to be simple, in fact the image implied a lot of untold meanings behind, the painting’s subtle subjective portrayal conveys loneliness, isolation, contradiction, conflict and psychological alienation inside. Therefore, new painting by Wu Mingzhong has delivered something more than the image itself, the charm of painting that brings people’s ideas. The charm not only refers to the visual pleasure, but also includes the meditation, this is just the higher state of painting.
Wu: Touch people's hearts.
Huang: We found that you have been concerned about the changing issues in your recent works. Why are you concerned about the couple’s connection? Why the faith and politics? This is not all about the image, more important, it also includes the analysis and dissection of the real world. Especially the analysis of "Fake Authenticity", so the seemingly fake glass figures have reproduced the social and cultural relations in the real world - conflicts, contradictions, uncertainty, fragility, vulnerability.
Zou: This is a cultural force behind the art, which responds to the people who can solve the problem.
Wu: This culture force does not refer to a country or a nation, but a global cultural force. Artist needs to start the artistic creation on a global vision. At present, the contemporary art demands lofty Chinese artist, the previous imitated and transformed works that even blended with Chinese subjects are out of date.
June 5, 2009, at Wu Mingzhong studio, Hei Qiao Village Beijing
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