A World of Dark and Desperate Beauty:

Wang Mao Creates Drama on Canvas

By C. M. Voskuil, Ph.D.

I always feel a bit of trepidation when asked to review the works of a new artist.  One must view art with an open mind and critical eye.  I must honestly describe what I see, whether good, bad, or something in between.  Yet, if disappointed, I must state clearly and perhaps harshly the shortcomings of the work as I see it – leading to disappointment and perhaps shattered hopes for those involved.  Fortunate I feel, then, when I find myself in the presence of art that is truly what art should be.  I feel relieved, and in a few rare cases, inspired.  Such was my experience during my visit to the studio of the young and rising painter Wang Mao.

Wang, at 28 years of age, is a quiet and unassuming person – humble and serious in a way that few artists are today.  His background has provided a fertile soil for the cultivation of creativity.  As a young boy, Wang’s parents were part of an opera troupe, thus he grew up surrounded by drama: elaborate sets and costumes, stirring music, and thrilling stories.  When he decided to undertake further studies in the arts, he was accepted as a student at the prestigious Central Academy of Theatre in Beijing.  There, he chose to focus his varied talents on painting.  Today, he lives in a spacious apartment with sparse furnishings and cement floors in the outskirts of Beijing – in one of those sprawling, massive apartment cities that defy individuality and spit in the face of nature.  The most notable aspect of his flat is a large floor to ceiling window that admits an abundance of natural light.  As a result, it is an ideal ‘garret’ for this serious artist.  Here Wang can spread out, focus, and make use of the solitude and light he needs to paint.  As for inspiration – well, that he seems to find in a place deep inside of himself.  While many artists today are involved in creating a ‘cult of personality’ instead of producing art that is profound and accomplished, Mr. Wang is the antithesis of such ‘artists’.  He said very little as he presented his works to me, letting the art speak for itself.

Although his immediate surroundings are bland, his inner world is what one sees on the canvasses.  It is a world of dark and disquieting beauty – reflective of the drama and depth of emotion that he has experienced during his own young life, and mixed with the elements of a vibrant and cultured imagination.  Wang claims that his artistic influences range from the Chinese ink wash artist Ba Da to the disturbing modernist painter Francis Bacon, and certainly these are evident.  One can also see in his works traces of the styles and techniques of some of the European romantic painters, as well as impressionists such as Cezanne and Sisley, and Pre-Raphaelites such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti.  But there is also something completely unique and stirring about Wang’s paintings – something that is his alone.

This distinctive quality is no doubt the result of his excellent training and unique experience.  Wang is a contemporary Chinese artist with exceptional technical skills whose works exhibit a penchant for the desperate and the dramatic, as well as a deep reverence for the natural world.  It is in this that his ties to Romanticism seem most evident.  Take, for example, his series of animal and insect paintings.  These large scale works show a scholar’s awareness of the biological characteristics of the subjects:  a rhino, a frog, a chick, a bee, a lobster, a fish.  Yet they are alive with movement – each seems frozen in a split-second’s action, yet still appears to be in motion.  The scale (the canvasses are larger than most humans) brings each into almost lifelike proximity to the viewer, and particularly the smaller creatures make one feel miniscule by comparison.  This is the worship of nature in its truest form; the depiction of the animal world in a way that inspires a thrilling awe for its beauty and dignity.

The same respect and dignity is also applied to Wang’s human subjects.  Like the breathtaking Bee and remarkable Chick, the work entitled Baby conveys to the viewer a sense of the awesome beauty of the human child, a being as dignified and worthy of wonder as are the creatures of the animal world.  The baby also seems simultaneously frozen in time and in motion, allowing us the opportunity to examine the spark of life so evident in the very small and the very hopeful.  Indeed, nothing says ‘hope’ for the future of humanity more than a baby like this one, chubby and smooth skinned, ready to burst forth into the world, yet not fully knowable, like a question mark, surrounded by a sense of mystery.