A Heartfelt Encounter at the Peak of Flair and Eminence

I first heard the name Gao Yun at the 6th National Art Exhibition. His picture storybook Luo Lun to Take Imperial Exam truly amazed me! This was not because he was awarded the Gold Prize at the National Art Exhibition, it was the work’s expressiveness and vivid form that deeply touched me. Was there such a talented person? Although there were many picture storybook masters among the past predecessors, and they deserved the greatest admiration, Gao Yun was still different. He had his own uniqueness; his grasp of personalities and figural styling has reached an exceptional height. His outstanding talent was thoroughly revealed.

It should be said that he was so gifted that his intelligence was shown everywhere. Don’t forget he was only in his twenties! Such talent really impressed me. Coincidentally, his picture storybook The Palace of Eternal Life appeared in the public with another form and was awarded the highest prize in a national picture storybook competition. The magnificent scene, the distinct and clear lines, they came from the tradition, yet completely broke through it. He painted out his formidable talent without any restriction, truly unexcelled!

Maybe people are destined to meet, what is opposite the scenery could be another scenery. When I was admiring him as much as I can, he was also admiring me at the other side. My gongbi paintings Hillside Field and Autumn of Nineteen also participated in the 6th National Art Exhibition and were exhibited in Nanjing. That is where Gao Yun lives and works. Naturally, he saw my works, and that also foreshadowed our acquaintance in the future. We first knew each other through small stamps. That was probably in 1987, Mr. Shao Bolin from China National Philatelic Corporation contacted me and asked if I could design a set of commemorative stamps for the 110th anniversary of Liao Zhongkai’s birth. I was honestly surprised: how did he know about me? It turned out that Gao Yun was designing a set of stamps about Xu Xiake for the corporation, and he recommended me to Mr. Shao, saying that I would definitely be qualified for the designing job. Thus, we finally met in Beijing at the China National Philatelic Corporation. We talked about our reverence for each other, and found out that we were standing on the opposite sides of the sceneries and admired each other. The good affinities in the world are created through good thoughts. Before long, my wife and I visited Gao Yun in Nanjing as I was there for academic activities. His home was very clean and beautiful, doors and window frames painted in white, displaying a bourgeoisie taste. At that time, I was only living in a 30m2 small apartment. Their living condition really impressed me. Gao Yun and his wife warmly welcomed us. Two young ladies of ours were so graceful and charismatic. Mrs. Gao’s radiant eyes gleamed intelligence. But Gao Yun was even more intelligent and confident, always wearing a positive smile, as if everything was in his control. Talking with him was also a learning experience, his favorite saying was either ‘do you know…?’ or ‘I’ll tell you’ See how confident he was! It seemed that he always knew more than you, and I always felt like a student when having a conversation with him.

During that time, we were all preparing for the 7th National Art Exhibition. I had always wanted to paint a big scene, but what should I paint? I admired Gao Yun’s mastery of big scenes in his picture storybooks, was it possible to collaborate with him? In this meeting at his home, we decided to do a painting of the tragic love story at Mawei between Emperor Xuanzong of Tang and Yang Guifei. The combination of the masculinity of Imperial guards and the femininity of Consort Yang would definitely bring out a remarkable effect.We discussed some ideas. In reference to how imperial guards were represented in the mural painting in Li Chongrun’s tomb, we decided to use red as the main tone, and named the painting Broken Soul at Mawei. As Gao Yun had made detailed research on this history when he painted The Palace of Eternal Life, he was very familiar with this love story and had his own ideas about it. For example, he said: ‘do you know why there’s love between Emperor Xuanzong of Tang and Yang Guifei? Because Yang Guifei never treated Emperor Xuanzong as an emperor, they act as unruly and naughty as all other couples. Normally, concubines were very respectful to the emperor, but that would not lead to true love’. Later, this painting was drafted and designed by Gao Yun. Based on the characters in the story, I made sketches of people of different personalities, trying to avoid similarities and stereotypes. Gao Yun had his own profound insights into the styling, composition, forms and lines. His achieve-ments in picture storybooks were not groundless. He believes that lines are the fundamental of Chinese painting. The delineative lines in Chinese painting are not only calligraphic, but also carry an artist’s mood, sentiment, disposition, self-cultivation, moral character, and even the body. It is no exaggeration to say that the lines represent the person. Therefore, the lines in Chinese paintings are
not only functional in styling and shaping, but also the profession of an artist’s nature. In terms of delineative lines, he likes Li Gonglin’s rigorousness, Chen Hongshou’s shapes, and Ren Bonian’s subjectively abstract structures. When applying lines, he pays great attention to the entirety and the spatial performance of structures, as well as the rhythm, temperament and style of lines, and also how the composition of lines produces an abstract beauty of form. His lines are liberal, distinct and succinct. This is why he made such a tremendous design of Broken Soul at Mawei and successfully drew the framework of a big scene. Together with my characterization that filled each figure with animation, this painting won both the Silver Prize and the Best New Artist at the 7th National Art Exhibition.

Gao Yun is different from other artists. He is a scholar as well as a painter, keen on self-cultivation and constant learning. This can be seen from his picture storybook The Palace of Eternal Life. To accurately portray the architecture, clothing and furniture of Tang Dynasty, he traveled around the world to gather relevant material, making records and textual research. He painted with a scholarly attitude.

Besides his achievements in picture storybooks, the stamps ‘Commemorating the 400th Anniversary of Xu Xiake’s Birth’ he designed also won the highest award for best stamp design at the National Stamp Awards. He then became one of the three designers specially appointed by the national postal department. In terms of Chinese paintings, he is good at all genres: figure and landscape, gongbi and xieyi…… All in all, Gao Yun’s paintings have achieved top-notch height and breadth. There are too much to talk about in his paintings, yet a major subject of his practice is the female subject.

The beautiful scenery of Jiangnan and the humanistic Nanjing have polished Gao Yun’s senses. He can see the inner spiritual beauty through the superficial, and spares no effort to chase for that. There exists not only a world of senses in Gao Yun’s paintings, but also an ideal world that pursues the truth and beauty of human nature. Looking closely at his paintings of female subjects, we can find that they contain an ideal colour that transcends reality — that is also the source of his aesthetics.

Gao Yun’s works of female subjects show a noble and ideal beauty of femininity. This kind of beauty does not linger in the chambers of young ladies, nor in the sweetness of girlish maids, it only belongs to those talented women who have their own judgments, and have ambitious goals. It is not the beauty of appearance, but that of patriotism as shown in The Peach Blossom Fan and Autumn in the Han Palace. In the face of this beauty, I can think of the ancient Roman sculptures of women. Although the women in Roman sculptures are strong and well-rounded, quite different from the delicate and graceful women
in Gao Yun’s works, they share the same ideal beauty — they are lofty and admirable, all have a sense of the sacred, transcending the worldly. It is also not difficult to find his wife’s elegance in some of the works.

In Full Moon Over the West Chamber, Gao Yun did not deliberately suggest, but we know the painting depicts Li Qingzhao at a glance. This means that the woman in his painting has been given the spiritual essence of Li Qingzhao: elegant and detached, romantic and talented. In No Trace of the Worldly, Gao Yun painted a sense of elegance and rationality that transcends the mundane. These artistic approaches that praise female characters and portray an ideal that transcends realistic sense express Gao Yun’s aesthetics: no affected pose, no sentimental style, it is open-mindedness and tenacity that lie beneath the gentle and serene appearance.

The pursuit of beauty is inseparable from the creation of a formal language. Speaking from that perspective, Gao Yun uses long lines to depict women for most of the time. These refined lines create a celestial atmosphere, and making these women more sacred and sublime. Such sublime is not about strength or the lofty-noble-and- perfect way to depict characters, as used during Cultural Revolution, it is a sublime with religious implication, coming from their purity after detaching from the chaos of the mundane. Such sense of sublime, rhythm and epic is fully expressed in Gao Yun’s works surrounding the female subject.

To me, woman is the symbol of beauty, tenacity, and of course the maternal love and warmth. Such rich spiritual characteristics of woman means it would be very difficult to paint them well. I have seen many works with female subjects that often fall into two traps: either too conceptual or visually dead; or sticking to a superficial appearance, blindly following photos. But Gao Yun is different. He is good at using the traditional language of lines to distinctively express both
the inner and outer beauty of women. Every female in each of his painting manifests a different beauty: there are female soldiers of the New Fourth Army, women in the workforce, and also classical western women…… the beauty in Gao Yun’s works is not a superficial one unable to withstand scrutiny. It is the beauty of the spiritual.

For artists, the ability to discover and interpret beauty cannot be achieved only through diligence and skills. It is an ability that harmonizes with the artist’s temperament. The Gao Yun I know is tasteful, elegant, and slightly aristocratic with a good aesthetic taste. These traits are reflected in his works of female subjects, and reached a congruity. A good artist pursues the ‘three highs’ throughout his or her life: a high goal, a high skill level, and being highbrowed. Only with these ‘three highs’ can one paint admirable and religious female themes. I think, this is Gao Yun’s forte. Of course, Gao Yun’s strength is much more than that.

He is good at translating traditional language into modern language. There are three tendencies in contemporary Chinese painting. The first is to follow the tradition completely without any innovation; only the imitation of the tradition and the past are seen. The second is a full westernization, cut off from the tradition. This may seem to correspond to the current popular taste, but it has drifted away from the tradition. The third continues to follow the artistic language developed during the Cultural Revolution, which has its particularity but now seems a bit inappropriate. Gao Yun is clearly aware of this problem. What he pursues is both traditional and modern, and even western. These three seemingly contradictory academic orientations are naturally integrated in his practice.

He can not only paint in an authentically traditional way, but also knows how to consciously and naturally match with the contemporary aesthetic need. Therefore, the women in Gao Yun’s paintings are a fusion of classical and contemporary beauty, showing the elegance that is both ancient and modern. A few days ago, I saw one of Gao Yun’s paintings at Shanghai Art Festival, for which he made adaptations based on Ingres’ original work. In the painting, he filtered out the shadowy part and refined the rhythmic lines, making it a very expressive work.

In the absence of shadows, the painting still exhibited a complete structural space and a restrained sense of prudence. We can see that he knows how to draw nutrition from Western paintings, and this attitude could be very instructional for many gongbi painters.

Also, Gao Yun is meticulous about tension and relaxation. To paint a gongbi painting takes a long time and strenuous effort. In the process of painting, one’s initial passion is easily worn down, and the work is reduced to a monotony. The final presentation can be glorious, exquisite and refined, but lacks feelings — dull brush movements without energy.

In effect, in gongbi exists also xieyi. Gao Yun’s works are permeated by a touching aura, especially surrounding the female subjects. It is precious that Gao Yun’s works exemplify not only formal precision and exquisite execution, but are also vivid to the eyes and heart-moving for the viewers.

It is often said that a painting resembles the artist, and the artist is like his paintings. Gao Yun is a cultivated and cultured person, so are his paintings, and especially those of female subjects embodying an exquisitely literary and celestial aura. As the name ‘Gao Yun’metaphorizes in Chinese, ‘lofty silk-thread, clouds arising from rock cave’, his exceptional character and righteous artistic endeavors are admirable. As his friend, I hope this article offers future grounds for us to exchange ideas.

May 2019 in Beijing