The Art Journey Of Fan Shao Hua
The Artist – Fan Shao Hua
Just like Guo Wei, Yue Minjun, Liu Xiaodong, and Liu Wei; Fan Shao Hua was also of the generation of artists that were born in the 1960s. This generation of artists was among the early batches of students entering the academies that re-opened in China at the end of the 1970s. They were systematically trained via a four-year curriculum. Their training was focused largely on sketching and Social Realist Art. Their works were lauded as high quality and sought after internationally.
Fan Shao Hua’s interest in art began at a very young age. His father was conversant in both Chinese calligraphy and painting, and painted in the Lingnan style, which was the earliest exposure that he had in art. During his early education, his art teachers also influenced him greatly. That led to his admission into the well-known Guangzhou Academy of Fine Art in 1981 where he was trained in Western paintings. At that time, Western Art education was the most sought after art discipline in Chinese Academies and the acceptance into the Department was highly competitive. During the time when Shao Hua was pursuing his university education, renowned second-generation Lingnan-style artists such as Guan Shan-ye and Li Xiong-chai were leading professors in the Chinese Art Department in the Guangzhou Fine Arts Academy. As a result of these multiple influences, Shao Hua is also very familiar with the Lingnan style of Chinese paintings. Shao Hua graduated in 1985 with a Fine Arts degree with strong foundation in Realism technique.
Realism
An investigation into Shao Hua's realistic works shows his keen sense of observation and thoughtful interpretation what he observed. Coupled with his ability to draw and paint with accuracy and detail, he puts on his canvas captivating stories that goes beyond aesthetics.
Many artists attempted to paint scenes of Singapore and Chinatown. Shao Hua had also painted similar scenes. However, when looking at his landscape paintings, do not forget to pay attention to the human figures he puts in those paintings. The facial expressions, the postures and the interactions; they all formed part of a dynamic scene that depicts human relationships and interactions, expressing an identity and a culture that holds the society together at that point of time1. This is a demonstration of his ability to observe, interpret and accurately depict the image that he sees in his mind.
Aside from the Singapore River and Chinatown series, his works also record interesting behaviours of people on the street, in the public transport system and the natural surroundings that people move and operate in. They all reflect his keen sense of observation - his observation of the daily trivialities that make up the character of a nation, the unnoticed art of a culture, which we so often miss as we rush through the daily routine of life.
In his portraiture works2, his strong ability to depict human anatomy is even evident. He is also able to portray the sitter’s character well. This enables his portraitures to go beyond the mere representation of his models’ facial features. It also allows the audience to assess the character of his models and appreciate the emotions that the artist desires to describe. His understanding and masterly use of light and shadow are crucial to the suggestion of space and mass. In both his portraiture works and his paintings of daily living, he pays careful attention to light and shadow, hence the suggestion of three-dimensionality in his works.
Shao Hua’s realist works are not just merely faithful records of images but they are dynamic representations of the real world. They include the trivialities of daily living, the behaviour of a culture, the relationships between human and his surrounding within a given environment, the interaction between light and shadow as the destiny of the world and each entity therein unfolds, and the colours that make mankind more than just a black and white world. By looking at these details in his paintings, and being involved in the characters he placed within his composition, his paintings go beyond just being a feast to the eyes. One can be emotionally involved in the world that he depicts and interprets.
From Realism to Surrealism
At a point in his art journey, Shao Hua decided to go beyond Realism. It was about year 2000, when Shao Hua attempted to experiment a style of art that he can call his own – a style that can further interpret his understanding of life and living.
The Lotus flower, in traditional Chinese Culture is often seen as a depiction of purity, compassion and spiritual awakening. It grows in murky water. It gives rise to the flower’s most literal meaning and that is: rising, awakening and blooming above the muck of the world and all its sufferings to achieve enlightenment and contentment.
Shao Hua has chosen this quiet flower to become the icon and theme of his later series of paintings. Done both in oil on canvas and colour pigment on paper, the different treatment and expression using varied colours and flow of pigments, requires the audience to go beyond the material world to investigate and appreciate the deep thoughts and wisdom of man3.
In the late 1910s and early '20s, surrealists investigated the relationship between the individual and his sub-consciousness. Via different attempts to invent strategies to glimpse into that hidden realm of the sub-conscious, a new significance to the ancient Greek exhortation to know oneself resulted. It also explored the relations between the individual and nature. In all, surrealists use visual imageries from the subconscious mind to create art without the intention of logical or systematic comprehensibility, as they believed that the subconscious mind has the power to give better or new light to the contradictions in the world and motivate changes for the better.
Shao Hua’s Lotus paintings are not meant to be mere visual recording of flora beauty in different poses. They seem to reveal or speak about the inner needs to an individual and of mankind. The contradiction between beauty and mud, serenity and muck, are reflective of the chaotic reality in the human kind and the search for a solution requires more than just fixing the materialistic reality. There is a realm of the soul and the spirit that has often been neglected and needs urgent fixing.
Look at Shao Hua’s Lotus flowers. They have plenty of space to grow and flourish. There is the sense of freedom, spontaneity, fluidity, movement and energy. They are painted with appropriate light and shadow to bring out the volume and solidity of each flower. The flowers are real. Yet, there is no need for a platform to hold up the flowers. No pots or ponds are needed to suggest where the flowers are being staged.
The flowers are set against a cacophony of colours that formed the painting background. Take notice of the texture and suggestion of texture. There is a dominant colour use for the background, which is inter-mingled with various shade and tones. There are the occasional black lines and splashes that suggest branches and leaves. The background is unclean, impure and sometimes, even chaotic.
Take a step back, look at the painting in its entirely, observing the details mentioned above. Close your eyes and feel the movement, the freedom, the energy, and the spontaneity against the chaotic mess of colours in the background. Connect with the senses of your sub-consciousness, the soft petals of the lotuses and the soft fragrances that they emit. They are not flat images. They are real. In quiet meditation, ask yourself as to what is the painting saying to you? Be immersed into the painting and enjoy the painting with that deep sense quietness, purity and spontaneous movement. Perhaps, this is another way you can enjoy this series of Shao Hua’s meditative works of art.
Shao Hua’s has taken this style of painting further to include birds, branches and even human figures4. In his art laboratory, he continues to investigate and expand this technique. Certainly, to him, art is more than just nice aesthetic images. It is about expression. It is about getting in touch with other parts of our consciousness. It is about perception and meaning.
The Journey Continues
Shao Hua’s paintings have evolved and clearly demonstrate an integration of east and west ideals in many layers. There is the layer where the Western’s search into the sub-consciousness of man and the Chinese spiritual pursuit of purity are suggested in his genre of lotus paintings existing side by side. In terms of art techniques, Shao Hua paints with oil on canvas, watercolour and pigments on Chinese traditional art paper. He integrates the Chinese brush-stroke technique with the painterly way of western art. He also uses solid images via a clever use of light and shadow, used by western artists for a long time, and merges them with flat representations that are seen often in traditional Chinese paintings.
Amidst the hustle and bustle of daily living, is there an aspect of the Singapore life that perhaps Singaporeans are missing, which is beyond material pursuit? Has the artist discovered in his laboratory some dimensions of living that we should be paying more attention to? The art of Fan Shao Hua is a journey of discovery.
Footnotes:
1Catalogue, Exhibition, 花慧,人间:范少华的绘画艺术, (Guangzhou: Lingnan Art Publishing House, 2007), p 76-121.
2Catalogue, Exhibition, Portraiture, (Singapore 2002).
3Catalogue, Exhibition, Fan Shao Hua at Ode to Art, Singapore, (Singapore: March 2007).
4Catalogue, Exhibition, Fan Shao Hua at Atrium MICA Building, Singapore, (Singapore: October 2007).
Dr. Woo Fook Wah
An art collector and has also completed the Master of Asian Art Histories program with LaSalle College of the Arts.
艺道 · 中途
Journey in Art, Retrospective Exhibition by Fan Shao Hua, Singapore 2015
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