"All That Flies High are Not Birds, and All That Dives Deep down are Not Fishes" Han Shaoguang's Painting Show

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TEXT：Sue Wang DATE： 2012.4.19

Poster of All That Flies High up is Not Birds and All That Dives Deep down is Not Fishes

Entitled All That Flies High up are Not Birds and All That Dives Deep down are Not Fishes, Han Shaoguang's painting show is considered a presentation and discussion of the artist's recent work. Several pieces of his new series were presented in Painting after Art Goes Abstract: Graffiti, Image Reproduction and Multiple Themes organized by Himalayas Art Museum in September last year. In face of the fact that theme and methodology of contemporary Chinese painting were getting increasingly unitary, the show aimed to shed some new light on how to open more possibilities for or restore the essence of painting. On 21 April, 2012, this series of Han Shaoguang’s will be put on display at Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, which will be an opportunity to take a look at the conception and development of his painting.

All That Flies High up is Not Birds, and All That Dives Deep down is Not Fishes 01

Han's early oil paintings were influenced by non-figurative oil painting which integrated the form of oil painting with traditional Chinese painting subjects and became a mainstream in the history of modern Chinese oil painting. Non-figurative ink brushwork was replaced by oil colors, and landscape in a sketching style, non-figurative landscape. The sense of writing lying in the brushwork and the non-spatiotemporal nature of composition laid the foundation for such replacement. From Han's early non-figurative oil paintings to his recent works, how the language of modern painting develops in his work and how ideas are rearranged can be perceived. What will be displayed at Duolun MoMA features both a linkage to early non-figurative oil painting and a brand new pattern of painting - the painting after art goes abstract.

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Man and nature and our attitudes toward them are a long-term theme of his thinking. Eventually, he presents us with a conclusion: illusion. The development and changes in Han’s painting reveal how figurative landscape has been made into a land of illusion via intervention of modern painting. Modern painting features two-dimensional language on the one hand, and surrealistic combinations on the other. The collages of contours and images finally make illusion come true. Han puts his ideas into practice not only in the form of painting but also in words. The somewhat fragmented writings give out a similar sense of his fragmented paintings. Floating clouds and bathing in heaven highlight the two core themes, which, together with all kinds of emotions and scenes derive from them, make All That Flies High are Not Birds and All That Dives Deep down are Not Fish. A Quest, Art Myth and Wilderness, the three chapters in his book, compose a trilogy of the artist’s work.

"Heavenly Bath" is a significant element featured in Han Shaoguang's recent painting, which, naturally, is closely related to the images of mountains, waters, clouds and human figures. An absence of a central focus could be perceived in his work from 2008 to 2011: the image of bathing in the heaven is gradually localized; mountains and clouds are turned into geometric lines, and human figures, contours.

Thanks to Cezanne and Matisse, the two-dimensionalization of painting has become the fundamental ideal of modern painting. Baudelaire's attempt to see Delacroix's painting as Arabic decoration was concluded as formalism in Roger Fry and Clement Greenberg's critical theories. The value of decorative patterns in modern painting was recognized. Visual geometric relationships rather than a literary theme feature in this kind of painting and critical theory. In his recent works, a connection to modern painting and the reuse of the legacy of modern painting can be perceived. His painting shows how images are dismantled and reassembled. To some extent, to look at his painting is like looking at a kaleidoscope. The somewhat fragmented images give out a sense of constant fluidity and uncertainty, mixing up different times and spaces. It's a new start for Han's journey with art. Since 2008 Han has started to explore subjects like bathing in heaven and mountains surrounded by clouds. Such exploration could be seen as having been fulfilled in 2011 when the transition from three-dimensional space to two-dimensional space was realized. In a sense, the plane he creates in his painting is different from Clement Greenberg's idea of plane due to his use of surrealism.

All That Flies High are Not Birds and All That Dives Deep down are Not Fish is an introduction to Han Shaoguang's exhibition. The aircrafts and submarines in his painting are more than visual signals. Despite the sense of weirdness and intensity generated by the appearance of aircraft and submarines in the middle of the images of bathing in heaven and mountains surrounded by clouds, it effectively highlights the sense of contrast between nature and the man-made. At the very beginning, "all that flies high are not birds and all that dives deep down are not fish" is just a dream of human beings, but now it has come true. Such a land of illusion turns out to be the theme of Han's painting. What on earth is the world supposed to be like? What else would happen? Probably the answer to these questions lie exactly in the sense of surrealism in his painting.