Author: YANG JIECHANG 杨诘苍

Size: 120×30cm×16；350×250cm

Signed and dated: Made in 1993

Estimate: Estimate Upon Request

Final Price: unsold

LITERATURE
2004 The Monk and the Demon：Chinese Contemporary Art/P26-27/5 Continents Editions
2004‘Pluralism of Individuals，Aspects of Chinese Contemporary - The Monk and the Demon：Chinese Contemporary Art （Fei Dawei）’，embodied in Art Scope

EXHIBITED
2004 The Monk and the Demon：Chinese Contemporary Art，Musee d’Art Contemporain de Lyon，Lyon，France
NOTICE
The work is to be handled and claimed in Hong Kong，China. Please contact Beijing Poly Auction Modern and Contemporary Department Staff for further details.
In painting，forms are easy but the spirit is difficult. Form is physical structure； spirit is the working of the spirit.
——Yuan Wen，Song Dynasty
A major aspect one can perceive throughout Yang’s artistic oeuvre is the ambivalence of perception and experience. The artist looks for experiences that make the viewer feel insecure and tries to push the perception or the experience of his work to a point where the individual life and the life as natura naturans，as well as mind and body get close to each other. This understanding of life again is related to Chan and to Taoist thought. There individual life and life as a creative force of nature are regarded as entity，as are its material and its spiritual aspects. The influence of Taoism is also evident in a subversive strategy the artist applies. Indeed the paintings，even though done in the traditional Chinese technique of ink and wash，show an anti-traditional and anti-cultural attitude. In his series 100 Layers of Ink he subverts the technique as well as the aesthetic appearance of Chinese painting by obsessively putting layers on layers of ink，thus creating a black object that does neither show skill，nor imagery，nor personality. In fact，one can consider this a deconstruction of Chinese painting and its tradition into its basic elements：paper，water，ink，as well as the action of applying it to the paper. However，the elimination of skill，imagery and personality is nothing less than the sublimation of the self，the ultimate aim of the cultivation of personality the Chinese literati practised through painting and calligraphy and it therefore also closely relates Yang Jiechang’s painting to Taoist thought and to the Chinese tradition，Yang Jiechang’s painting thus offers through the practise of traditional values，through the aspect of self-sublimation and deconstruction of the ego，as Hou Hanru mentions，a valuable and interesting approach to the contemporary context of the post-structuralist search for alternative concepts of a cultural or personal identity.