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Chinese painters are currently evolving under the combined cultural influences of East and West, inheriting long-standing and wellestablished traditional Chinese culture while finding themselves plunged into the swirl of influential contemporary Western culture. All aspiring artists are asking themselves, at the bottom of their hearts, the fundamental question of which course to follow. Some painters, influenced by the vague slogan of innovativeness, produced many immature works, which turn out to be mere formal exercises, thus lacking depth and meaning. This awkward situation occurs due to the inability to absorb spiritual nutrients from traditional culture as well as the failure of properly digesting the spirit of freedom inherent to Western art – seeking the superficial glitter but failing to pursue the essence.
Compared to other painters who got academic art training, Wu Tai, the artist featured in the exhibition Deep from the Source is an autodidact under rather different conditions and very special artistic influence. Although coming from an artistically endowed family, Wu Tai was not born at ‘the right time’, since his childhood coincided with the turbulent years of the Cultural Revolution. As such his father, Wu Hao, preferred to have his son learn painting at home after school – thus becoming his private tutor. As he learned painting with his father, it’s only natural that Wu Tai started with emulations, just like the ancient people did. Since an early age he had painstakingly emulated masterpieces by eminent painters, expending great efforts into learning from ancient masters the ‘formulism’ of brush and ink. Hence he excels at the changes in brushwork, image modeling and composition.
Living in today’s world, Wu Tai certainly would not just confine himself to ancient painting and ignore the reality. He has vast interests and loves the old as much as the new. In addition to visual art, he has a passion for reading, travel and Western classic music. These hobbies can not only cultivate the artist’s personality, broaden his vision and enrich his knowledge, but also benefit his creative work, as they have become motifs directly depicted in his artwork. For example, he often paints young women playing violin, so brilliantly delicate and pretty that they would remind you of those elegant, refined, blue-blooded girls featured in impressionist paintings. His landscape paintings are a blend of traditional Chinese and Western painting techniques. His trees, grass, and flowers are drawn in minute detail. For example, in his painting The Pond of Lou Lim Ieoc Garden, his brushstrokes, which retain a subtle impressionist flavor, are reminiscent of Claude Monet’s Water Lilies series. Wu Tai not only uses texture strokes and washes to suggest trees, but also frequently organises his paintings in a complex manner, using fine, subtle strokes and meticulous outlines to achieve wonderful tints and create harmony between density and sparseness.
Therefore, his paintings have a stronger sense of perspective, and to a large extent show the magical effect of pointillism, a technique from Postimpressionism. Using the firm foundation of Chinese tradition but
taking advantage of the strengths of Western painting, Wu Tai takes his traditional Chinese paintings to another level, making them emanate an aura of modern flavor laced with ancient glamour. Besides, his painting exudes the charm of self-ease unique to Chinese literati painting. He expresses a kind of natural ease and calmness through his forceful strokes. In a word Wu Tai inherits the essence of Chinese painting, while also conceding importance to the humanistic values of new-era painting and to new formal aesthetics. As to the results of his efforts in enriching and broadening the contents for new-generation literati painting, they certainly merit the attention of the academia.
The Macao Museum of Art organises this exhibition with the aim to convey to the public the new message of inheritance and development in Chinese painting art in the 21st century. In line with this desideratum, the exhibition is divided into two sections: ‘Refinement’ and ‘Refreshment’. The former displays Wu Tai’s achievements in emulating ancient masters. The latter showcases creative results embodying the artist's inheritance of ancient painting techniques and spirits combined with his own modern ideas. From these emulating and original works, we believe viewers will certainly get a glimpse of a contemporary painter’s tribute to art classics as well as his observations and reflections on the nature and sublime beauty of life. It is precisely these common aspirations in art, by both Chinese and Western, as well as ancient and contemporary artists, that we are appreciating here.
Chan Hou Seng
Director
Macao Museum of Art
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