I met Huang Guorui in Bologna,a few months ago,during the opening of a collective exhibition of Chinese painters.His works,which showed a strong personality,instantly attracted me and l immediately started to talk with him.Since then.every time we met we kept discussing many topics concerning art-art in China,art in ltaly,art in the world,and especially Huangs own art.The young Henanese is talkative only when it comes to this topic-it looks like other aspects of everyday life barely ever touch him.There seems to be a flame which enlivens his eyes when he is lnvolved in the realm of art-his own life is all imbued with a burning passion which Huang needs to pour out through and in his works.

His paintings both express a transitory though strong feeling towards a specific event in his life an atmosphere,a pleasure.the view of scenery.the magic of love.and translate into the canvas his more established ideas on painting and technique.The deep knowledge of different materials-which he often adds to the more conventional oil paintenables him to achieve subtle yet forceful effects through fresh combinations of textures and colors.Huang likes to experiment with materials which are used in other fields,like bitumen,petrol,or vegetal oils which.dripping on the canvas,create unusual effects of transparency and cause the yellowing of the other tints.His yearly experience gives him the ability to predict the reaction of the different materials used,and makes him a sort of alchemist who masterly creates are always new effects.

Expressiveness:beyond figuration and abstraction

I wonder whether Huangs paintings can really be considered abstract.They are not fully figurative,either.I wonder say that what matters for Huang is the expression of himself in a way that is not merely traditional nor necessarily referring to a fixed style or tendency.

Bored with the ancient symbols of the ink and brush painting(Chinese painting),at the same time he needs to keep a distance from the realism and from the fixed rules of the academic figuration.

For him,art is not a display of skill or a decorative play of colors and lines,not it is a repetition of pattems and subjects seen elsewhere.Rather,it is a serious matter that pushes his way out from his deep self,and needs to concentrate in a unique way to be able to represent the artists own feelings,thoughts,and passions.The interplay of different materials,enriched with some figurative (though stylized)symbols and geometric forrns,is constructed in a way that follows Huangs interior complexity,combining the result of his experience in life and in painting with transitory emotions.

At the same time,Huang is keen on keeping himself updated with the situation of art in China and abroad.His recent trip to Europe has enabled him to see the originals of works he previously had seen only in reproductions.He admits his admiration for artists like Paladino and Clemente,among others,and somewhere his works show this predilection.Yet,he elaborates motifs and textures in a very personal fashion that he wishes to be appreciated in any cultural background.This is one reason why he not concerned with the national character of his paintings,which seldom ever show any Chinese symbol.

An idealist in the material world

Huangs path toward art has not been an easy one:before having the chance to devote himself completely to painting,he has been working hard.In the past he used to deal with painting materials and tools;the very fact that he was selling them enabled him to get to know all possible kinds of colors and tools available in the Chinese market.Still,the time and effort he could then devote to painting was not enough to satisfy his soul.He did exactly the opposite of what many inteIlectuals and artists are up to in China nowadays:he decided to quit his successful business and to dedicate his day to art only.Once his money is used up,he will reconsider what to do next,he says.Painting is not a hobby for him:it is the great impulse that dominates his lire.Such an attitude can only arouse our admiration:idealists are a tiny minority in these days.

More closely on Huangs paintings

Through the medium of abstraction or semi-abstraction,Huang is trying to express feelings which are often very physical,just like the sensation of great heat,the sight of a snowy scene or even the burning passion for a woman.All these feelings are physical and at the same time very abstract,and cannot be represented simply by painting figurative objects or environments.The artist chooses them to express his feelings in an analogous way:material and non figurative at the same time.The texture of the dye is very evident and physical,while the sense of every painting is hidden,suggested in the rich composition of different factors.Huang relies only on himself for the creation of a series of references that replace the usual subjects we can find in traditional painting.He relies on the strong reaction of different textures,on the interplay of thickness and transparency,on the energetic,almost calligraphic use of the brush,as opposed to the careless dripping of liquid left free to flow in every direction.

The colors are wanrm,earthly;in them,the black brushstrokes often prevail.The hues are similar to those remaining on a desolated landscape after there has been a fire:deep black tracks everywhere and the remains of the bums,wounds that are still open and painful.The black brushstrokes are often dry and extremely dark,as if they were made with charcoal,with the bumed branches of a residual tree.On the other hand,the white,often used for large areas of the canvas,is so white that it looks like it has been exposed to an immense heat.On it are oozing the varnishes and the natural or artificial oils the artist has chosen,dripping as if they were melted by the heat which emanates from Huangs burning passion.

Some of the paintings are very complex,structured in a complicated way;others are instead the result of a quick vision that tries to recreate in a simple yet strong way a unique sensation,a recent memory that is still alive.In some of the complex paintings there are straight lines or other symbols like arrows,crosses;they contribute to create an human environment,they are like a grid which at the same time sustains and compresses the other brush strokes which are freer and more personal.

In a painting like“The green scallion slope”(1996),the result achieved through the superposition of different layers,the dripping in different directions,and the intervention of the artists tools recalls the appearance of a“landscape stone”,like the ones which are very appreciated in the Chinese tradition.The sedimentation of different layers,which has taken place through the centuries,is here reproduced by Huang in the faster action of his creativity,yet so close nature.

Huang and the Chinesase Painting

Huangs paintingstopics often refer to the most characteristic topics of the Chinese tradition,like“hua niao”(flowers and birds).This is partly due to his rebellion toward the traditions repetitive attitude,yet at the same time there is a sort of expressive challenge:Huang Guorui wishes to express sensations and subjects already experienced and cultural meaningful in a new,fresh way.If you look at a painting like“land scene No 11” (literally“mountain and water”,shanshui)(1995).you will notice that with two different shapes and materials the artist translates directly,without referring to the traditional symbolic code,a dualitV which is the very cofe of Chinese painting.The mountain,on the left,is rendered with two bold brush strokes that recall the shape of a mountain-its simplified shape isnt new in Chinal-While the water is symbolized by a liquid(presumably vegetal oil)oozing on the white background,causing it to become yellow.It is a sort of direct translation that,with an amazing clarity of mind,has chosen the simplest of ways to express a subject which has been covered with so many cultural meanings,visual stereotypes and technical skills.In this case the painter has expresses his own point of view on art and creativity rather than an extemporaneous sensation.

What strikes us,in Huang Guomis paintings,is his direct,original way to find a medium between his own feelings and the materials,and the canvas.Avoiding as much as possible the traditional visual language,which to him sounds old,known and therefore sterile and stereotyped,he struggles to find his own way,sustained by his deep,strong passion for art and life.

Monica Dematte

Bologna (ltaly)

1998