Hong Ling is one of the fewest artists who still talk about “esteeming the past over the present” and respect for the ancient painters submitting to the nature. In fact, he isn’t a modern painter but a man living in the Song Dynasty and a prototype landscape painter, in terms of emotion.

– Zhu Fengming: Hong Ling, the Spiritual Light of the East

Compared with the concept of “landscape”, the concept of “mountains and rivers” embodies the special significance of Chinese culture, namely it more contains Chinese spiritual world and the inner awareness of the nature, which is different from the visual scenery in the meaning of Western “landscape”. Perhaps we can say that, Chinese mountains and rivers belong to a kind of “cultural landscape”, while Hong Ling’s continuous efforts over many years confirm and expand the space and possibility in the field of Chinese mountains and rivers expressed by oil painting materials. Summary and research of Hong Ling’s artistic creative process and his artistic thought, have a forward-looking significance and value for the development of Chinese oil painting in the future.

– Yin Shuangxi: Boundless Meteorology – the Art of Hong Ling

After Hong Ling entered the 21th Century, he has a moral taste of setting the mind for heaven and earth, mountains and rivers is ingenious, tortuous, strong and moist, revealing a kind of rising majestic demeanor. Setting the mind for heaven and earth is not only the Chinese tradition of literary, but also the tradition of Chinese landscape painting. But setting the mind for heaven and earth is a remote and strange voice now. In this aspect, Hong Ling directly inherits Huang Binhong rather than Wu Guanzhong, who didn’t set the mind for heaven and earth, but setting a garden, a window and a path in the regions south of the Yangtze River. Hong Ling sets the mind for heaven and earth, and he is the only painter setting the mind for heaven and earth after Huang Binhong.

– Yang Jian: After Huang Binhong – the Art of Hong Ling’s “Landscape Paintings”

The most dazzling thing that I saw in any city is the presentation of cultural monuments, which are not blocked by any modern construction waste, such as an Egyptian hieron or the European church is a national determination to maintain the ancient spirit, and also presenting the respect for the power of the value of ancient civilization.

– Hong Ling: Sidelights of the Journey

Emit light in a chaos, and halt the spirit in the oil painting. Although it is neither similar to the Chinese painting nor the Western painting, I have my value and meaning. It is Hong Ling.

– Ji Shaofeng: Open a Kind of Inner Impulse (On the Art of Hong Ling’s Oil Painting)

The landscapes of Hong Ling’s works are the sceneries blended in the memory of landscape culture, blended in the generous and vast of the north, the bright and beautiful scenery of the south, blended in the spiritual yearning and the practice of temperature, and it is the life landscape enlightened by the natural silence.

– Xia Kejun: Hong Ling’s Painting – Tacit Agreement of Mind and Nature

I have always thought that if my life only stops in the city and comes to a halt, I have no idea what is the direction of my life, while placing the feelings on the landscape for a long time open a door to the spiritual space… I think we all love nature and landscape, because she is the matrix nourishing us.

– Hong Ling: Notes of Mount Huangshan

About Hong Ling

Born in Beijing, China, in 1955, Hong Ling graduated from the Art Department of Beijing Normal University in 1979, and completed the Graduate Program at the Department of Oil Painting, CAFA in 1987. Currently he is the professor of the 3rd Studio at the Department of Oil Painting, CAFA, and member of China Artists Association. Now he lives and works in Beijing and Anhui, China.

Solo Exhibitions

2015  “HONG LING: Beauty of the Nature”, National Art Museum of China, Beijing

2014  “Aspiration – Hong Ling Solo Exhibition”, Poly Gallery, Hong Kong, China

2013  “A Spiritual Intuition of Natural Principles – Hong Ling Chinese Ink Painting”, Soka Art Center, Taipei / Tainan, Taiwan

2013  “Nature – Hong Ling Solo Exhibition”, Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei, Taiwan

2012  “Hong Ling – Contemporary Chinese Landscape”, Asia House, London, Britain

2011  “Boundless Momentum – Hong Ling Solo Exhibition”, Today Art Museum, Beijing / Zhejiang Art Museum, Hangzhou, China

2010  “Any Scene You Want – Hong Ling Solo Exhibition”, Soka Art Center, Taipei / Tainan, Taiwan

2008  “Spiritual Landscape”, Soka Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan

2006  “Spirit of Mountain”, Soka Art Center, Beijing, China

2004  “Hong Ling Solo Exhibition”, Cap of Good Hope Gallery, Singapore

2003  “Spirit of Mountain”, National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, Taipei, Taiwan

1998  “Hong Ling Solo Exhibition”, Cap of Good Hope Gallery, Singapore

1996  “Hong Ling Solo Exhibition”, International Art City, Paris, France

1995  “Spirit of Landscape”, Schoeni Gallery, Hong Kong, China

Group Exhibitions

2015  “The Temperature of History: CAFA and Chinese Representational Oil Painting”, China Art Museum, Shanghai, China

2014  “Resonance - Works by the Teachers from CAFA”, National Gallery of Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia

2014  “Reset Chinese Contemporary Art”, Soka Art Center, Beijing, China

2014  “On the Scene-The Second Chinese Oil Painting Biennale”, The National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China

2013  “From Beijing –Works by the Faculty of China Central Academy of Fine Arts”, New York Academy of Art, New York, USA

2013  “Destruction and Creation –Cai Guoqiang, Hong Ling, Xu Bing”, Soka Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan

2013  “The Revival of Tradition-Chinese Contemporary Art Exhibition”, Istanbul Convention Center, Istanbul, Turkey

2012   The Splendid China – The Marching Chinese Fine Arts in the New Century”, Chinese Palace, Shanghai, China

2012  “Vision - Soka Art 20th Anniversary”, Soka Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan

2012  “Creative City - 2012 London Olympics Art Exhibition”, Barbican Centre, London, Britain

2012  “Group Exhibition of Chinese Oil Painters”, Busan Museum of Art, Busan, Korea

2011  “FUTURE PASS - Collateral Event of the 54th International Art Exhibition”, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy

2010 “Clouds: Power of Asian Contemporary Art”, Soka Art Center, Beijing, China

2009 “Mountain and Water - China Contemporary Art Exposition”, Guan Xiang Art Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan

2009 “Transforming Pictures : A Contemporary (Re)presenting of Traditional Thoughts”, National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China

2009 “A Celebration of Autumn Dream”, Soka Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan

2008 “ART TAIPEI 2008”, Taipei World Trade Center Hall 1, Taipei, Taiwan

2003 “From Beijing to Melbourne”, the Melbourne Art Association Art Center Melbourne, Australia

2002 “KIAF2002”, Seoul, Korea

2000  “20th Century Chinese Oil Painting”, National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China

1999  “Gate to the Century - Exhibition of Chinese Art 1979-1999”, Chongqing Art Museum, Sichuan Province, China

1998  “Comparative Exhibition of Chinese Traditional Painting and Oil Painting on Landscape”, China Oil Painting Institute, China

1998  “Exhibition of Artworks by Teachers from the Department of Oil Painting of Chinese Academies of Art”, Beijing, China

1997  “47th Venice Biennial - Future, Present, Past”, Venice, Italy

1995  “Post Modernist Chinese Art”, Fine Arts Museum of Brussel, Brussels, Belgium

1994  “2nd Chinese Oil Painting Exhibition”, China

1994  “Invitation Exhibition of 5 Artists”, China Artists Association / Beijing Crown Plaza Gallery, China

1994  “Art Critic Nomination Exhibition”, National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China

1992  “Chinese Contemporary Famous Artists Exhibition on Oil Painting”, Hong Kong Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong, China

1992 “Exhibition of Artworks by Teachers from Central Academy of Fine Arts”, Chung Kiu Investment Holdings Ltd., Singapore

1991 “Extractive Collection from China National Museum of Fine Arts”,  Kawaguchiko Museum of Art, Yamanashi, Japan

1991  “Chinese Contemporary Oil Painting Art”, Hong Kong Heritage Museum, Hong Kong, China

1991  “Contemporary Chinese Oil Painting Exhibition”, Chung Kiu Investment Holdings Ltd., Singapore

1989 “7th National Art Exhibition”, Nanjing International Exhibition Center, Nanjing, China

1989  “Chinese Contemporary Oil Painting”, Seibu Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

1988  “3rd World Arts Exhibition”, National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China

Courtesy of the artist and CAFA ART INFO, transalted by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO