 n curator Zuo Jing’s words, artist Wang Yin is a scholar; because of this, the solo exhibition “Wang Yin 2009,” held at the Iberia Center for Contemporary Art, would cause some unease in the audience who have got used to modern and contemporary art and conflicts.
Over 30 works Wang had created since 2003 assembled there, which turned out to be another grand show after Wang’s solo exhibition in Germany in 2007. Wang, graduated from Central Academy of Drama in 1988, has been involving himself in contemporary oil painting development as well as cooperation with theatrical circles constantly. From his early struggle at the artist village in Yuan Ming Yuan Park till his establishment as a professional painter at Song Zhuang, he had been focusing on painting only, keeping himself somehow estranged unlike other painters. Walking into the exhibition space, you would find the lack of political metaphors, the absence of deformation and abstraction, and even “common works” like the painter’s self-portraits. However, it’s also this set of works that make me experience a new potential; the audience, when viewing these works, have chance to discover limitless potentials in the painter’s works if they are interested or concerned enough. When the 798 Art Zone has been reduced to a popular pre-wedding photo shooting spot, such a calm return to art is rare and valuable.
 Even in curator Zuo’s eyes, Wang’s works are “unintelligible to people unfamiliar with the painting history,” and some works are also “beyond his grasp.” Chinese scholars share a tradition of pursuing scholarship in art, and Qian Zhongshu served as a good example; Mr. Zuo treats Wang as a scholar too in painting world. His serious review and meticulous analysis of Chinese oil paintings remain a rare conscientiousness and persistence. Of course, whether the sleep-talk like paintings, such as repeated depictions (and slight changes or adjustments) of the same scene, and uses of painting brushes to depict on picture images of former Soviet Union’s exiled writer groups, are more significant to the artist himself or to the audience remains something different people hold different opinions about. On the exhibition scene there were no detailed explanations for each piece of work, so without my later interview with the curator, I wouldn’t have had the knowledge that the huge piece “Flower” was first painted with traditional techniques plus on-the-spot learnt perspectivism (which Wang taught those folk painters, for there’s no such a complete perspectivism in traditional Chinese paintings) by folk painters Wang invited, and then treated by himself with oil painting techniques. Such follow-up work I do not expect to see easily at the exhibition scene, because many of us may have become accustomed to interpretations from a hodgepodge of theories, but the exhibition giver, through other ways, should have provided some related background information about the painter’s creation. It’s more important to give people chance who bother to explore than simply to sing high praise clamorously.
Translated: Hu Zhu
Below art part of the images from the exhibition:
Exhibition Scene
Exhibition Scene
Exhibition Scene
Spring grass in the Pond I, II. Oil on canvas
Flower. Acrylic and oil on canvas
Gas station. Oil on canvas
Four seasons: Summer. Oil on canvas
Untitled. Oil on canvas
Untitled. Oil on canvas
Portrait. Air brushing water color
Self---portrait I II III. Oil on canvas
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