Liu Chunjie returns with his new engravings that shock me a lot. The style of his works has changed from the dreamlike lyric into contemporary painting language of intervening life and criticizing reality. It feels as if a lyric prose writer suddenly becomes into a cynical essayist. I appreciate his change as well as the language he uses, such as his collection Wild Ponderer and leisure seals on his works including " Lü Xing Tian Xia" (traveling around the world on the back of a donkey), "Wu Ya Zui" (crow-like people who can predict misfortunes and often talk about bad things), "Ma Hu" (these two Chinese characters are two components of another one "Lü ", meaning donkey), etc. These not only show his wit and sense of humor but also reflect his frankness and honesty.
Someone says the form of art is zero; someone thinks the content is zero; and someone believes that it is not zero any more if form is added to content. Someone holds the view that everyone is an artist but others have the opinion that nobody is an artist. Are these views important? What matters the most in the creative work? Emotions! It matters most whether the painter has expressed his/her inner feeling, whether he/she has feelings for, pays attention to or understands himself/herself as well as the surrounding life and environment, whether he/she has taken the responsibility of an artist by providing any answer or help for the people interested in art, rather than justify and entertain himself/herself in a small circle.
Liu answers the above questions with his own practice. He said, "When the living and working environment change, the content and form of creations should change correspondingly. I agree with him. Accordingly, Wild Ponderer came into being as well as the hundred woodcarving illustrations. And the recent Worship Series were created because of Wild Ponderer. These new works derive from the same origin.
Liu chooses responsible criticism. That is why
I wish Liu a very successful solo exhibition!
Li Lei
Executive Director of