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Strokes Of The Brush
Kasimir Malewitsch's "Black Square" is one of the icons of 20th's century painting. Malewitsch used it to deny all relations of art and its representations to nature. But the famous "point zero of painting" is not smooth and shapeless: the structure of the Black Square has been created by fine impressionistic strokes of the brush, the edges of the square are frayed out. Heng Li also fills the canvas with strokes of the brush. They remind you of blades of grass as well as monochrome painting. His paintings have names like "At The Beginning", "Now" or "The Black". While the work "Now" offers the view of a green meadow without horizon, "At The Beginning" forces the viewer to enter the center of the picture. "The Black" is pure surface in which lines and strokes of the brush, blades of grass are engraved.
Heng Li is not interested in concreteness, this becomes apparent when viewing "Apparently Beautiful", one of the few concrete works of the artist. On a black, wavy sea of grass stands a red chair. It is most likely the most common chair on earth - without a famous designer and available for only two Euros around the world. Heng Li allows the chair to cast a shadow, thus cleverly adding another level. By having this most common object throwing its illusion onto the black illusion of the grass covered ground, Heng Li negates the borders of nature and concreteness.
The question what his paintings depict is apparent. Is it really grass? Heng Li studied at the Academy of Visual Arts in Nuremberg from 2004 to 2009 and was named Master Student 2009. Before that he studied classical Chinese calligraphy in China for many years. Painting grass is the focus of the young artist for two years now. 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. A point zero. The so called "Grass Characters" are one of the five main categories of Chinese calligraphy. Attributes of this italic style are the simplified structure, blending strokes and flowing lines. Within the five styles of Chinese calligraphy, the "Grass Characters" resemble abstract art most closely.
Like Kasimir Malewitsch's "Black Square" Heng Li does not deny the art of painting. Both take the stroke of the brush seriously. Malewitsch dissolves it, makes it nearly invisible on the black surface. Heng Li moves between a reference to nature (grass) and scripture (calligraphy). Meeting this fine line exactly creates the tenseness. We are reminded that the "point zero of painting" nearly hundred years ago was not the end, but the beginning of a never ending discourse. Heng Li discusses the potential of the stroke of the brush and in the end asks for painting's power of reference in a globalized culture.
Ottmar Hoerl 2009 |