"Inactivity - The Spirit of The Grass"

The Philosophy of the Painter Heng Li

by Barbara Leicht M.A., Art Museum Erlangen 2009

You wouldn't expect inactivity behind the works of the young Chinese painter Heng Li, in the contrary: the usually large format and the meticulous finish would even legitimate an intensive artistic impetus and studiousness.

There are terms that we Europeans substantiate with a negative meaning, such as the term "inactivity".

To do justice to the painter Heng Li, you have to take a look at his biography.  Heng Li will finish his current academic career at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg within the next years.

The Nuremberg Academy followed studies at the Russian Academy of Arts St. Petersburg and the visit of the Affiliated High School of China Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. There are about one thousand applicants for this school each year and only about 40 are accepted. It is an indication of Heng Li's huge talent for him to be one of them.

His development led the artist from traditional Chinese art of his home into a European cultural center of the modern age, to St. Petersburg. Its world famous Eremitage, the former collection of the Russian czars, displays art of utmost quality. The students of the academy get access to copy some of those works. This trains their eyes and hands and allows them to deeply take in epic master pieces.

Heng Li also used this opportunity and approached the European art history by copying paintings.

The art of old Europe offers few connections to Asian art.

One exception is the Chinoise vogue of the baroque era with its china, textiles and miniatures for the cabinets of the nobility.

European art is somehow new for Li. It contains another cultural background than Chinese art, although both being focused around the rulers' courts.

The interested painter Li honors the quality of the traditional European painting school and in his studies today is able to bring his experience from both cultures together. The paintings of "The Spirit of Grass" from "Inactivity" display the current state of his intercultural creativity.

Europe for Li is another cultural area, like Chinese art for us is a new experience. We own another mentality and mindset than the people from the Asian region.

These differences are rooted amongst other things in philosophy and religion.

Therefore we Europeans need to read his image language differently than we are used from our traditional iconography.

The painting of grass is the focus of the young artist for about two years now. Grass fascinates him.

Grass stands for the eternal seasonal cycle of creation, growth and decay as well as the continuous restart.

It stands for human beings that, according to Buddhism, are forced into this exact cycle of life, until after several rebirths they can enter the state of nirvana, the highest form of being that cannot be described with words and that of course cannot be painted.

It is an absolute state, a kind of deep peace and calmness.

According to Buddhistic conception, grass like everything in the world has a spirit, that depicts itself by inner beauty.

Grass stands for human beings. It is a piece of nature, like we are.

A human being in a crowd is comparable to a blade of grass in a meadow.

Grass has characteristics that allow it to survive although it is weak.

Trees are disrooted by storms, grass withstands by means of its softness.

Heng Li created his own language by concentrating on the writings of Chinese philosophers. It is mainly affected by Laotse's images of the Dao-de-Jing. Inactivity means "not to act", which allows oneself to engage with life's cycle, where a human being just does what he is destined to do, by following the nature of being. Growth and decay. No synthetic actions or unnecessary things.  Recollect what you are destined to.

Several times the Dao-de-jing features the terms softness and not to act.

Laotse in the 43th verse says:

"The soft in the universe overcomes the hard.

Water is without form, but it is still capable to go anywhere.

The high art is not to act."

In the 76th verse he says (excerpt):

"... The hard and stiff is the ally of the death.

The soft and tender is an ally of life.

If the army is hard and stiff it will be defeated.

If the tree is hard and stiff it will fall in the wind..."

The destiny of Heng Li seems to be painting, which he uses to show his reflections of society and the world with little means but with deep philosophic background, being aesthetically, impressive and on a high quality level.

The formal closeness to calligraphy can be felt in the accuracy of implementation. The blades of grass are not painted, but scratched into the color layer. What seems to be green is not green, but is created during the painting process:

On the canvas Li uses Parisian blue on a yellow foundation. A green color appears that in fact is none. Additionally the process of scratching contains a ruminant aspect that is similar to the concentration when creating calligraphies. By scratching, the painting receives a sculptural effect and another dimension.

Very few means of expression are sufficient for Heng Li, to express his emotions and reflections. This is another hint of his tradition and the classic Chinese aesthetics to express a lot with reduced means, fully in line with philosophy.

With a single color tone and isolated quotes of our material world, Heng Li is able to create an atmospheric dramatic art.

The Painting "Grass with red Chair" features the clash of the western world and Chinese philosophy.

Our consumption-oriented system, that we cannot avoid, creates greed for the synthetic high-gloss world of the displayed goods in the shops. We see the appeal of the material world, but we overlook that the happiness that ownership creates, has only a short lifespan. As soon as we own the modern acquirement, in this case artistically interpreted as the red garden chair, and we sit on it, we cannot stand the pseudo happiness of the red color. As an analogy: we cannot see the mountain any more, once we stand atop.

Li's colors are strongly reduced and very intentionally used.

In the tradition of "not to act" the painter reduced itself to the quintessential means of expression.

Pink stands for the romantic background of the grass landscape, but at the same time also for the omnipotent decay of a creature, its demise, the death.

Red is rooted in the tradition of the classical Chinese art.

White and black denote an absolute state, a final stage - absolutely nothing.

Li himself calls the romantic in his painting a kind of sadness and lonely beauty with an irresolvable secret.

Romanticism also means to question the creation and decay and reflect the reason of one's own destiny.

Given these aspects, Laotse's request to break down the being to the essential things of life becomes more and more convincing.

Grass, with its just explained features is the base for Li's landscapes.

Wide grasslands appear, they seem to go on forever. As far as the eye can see only grass, horizon and clouds are appearing.

What might lie between sky and earth? Where does the earth end, where does the sky start? According to Buddhistic and Taoistic assumptions the nothing or emptiness of all being cause the elusive space between sky and earth. The nothing causes the existence of sky and earth. Without the nothing there would be no sky and earth.

This emptiness is not tangible but can be understandable.

Without the emptiness our system wouldn't exist.

The emptiness in the paintings of Heng Li therefore is a quiet but important element of his artistic reflections. It reminds us to tendencies in the sense of the European Romance.

When interpreting these "philosophic" paintings it is therefore allowed to detect some criticism of society.

Why the capitalistic system ceases to function, as we can see in this recession,  could be rooted in the pursuit of more and more, better numbers and even more growth. This could create greed and avidity in some of us, synthesizing our actions and synthesizing our whole world.

Laotse says in the 37th verse:

"Without action the Tao lies still,

but nothing remains undone.

If kings and emperors would follow this way

all things would array according to their nature.

If they would not have the longing for action

they would return to nameless simplicity.

Without names there is no desire.

Without desire there is silence

and all things array according to their nature."

So viewing Heng Li's paintings delights us because of their aesthetics, but they also invite us on their meta level - especially in these crisis plagued times - to remember our true destiny and perceive less for more.

Laotse says in the 48th verse of the Dao-de-jing (excerpt):

"Daily you will be doing less

until you do nothing at all.

But nothing remains undone."

Maybe Heng Li through his art is able to show us a way to fulfill our life.