【Interview】Conversation with Zhang Fan: Three Thousand Wasted Paintings

For Zhang Fan, to create is to confront the history of painting alone, a voyage into the art form that is painting. In recent years, the role of “writing” in Chinese traditional art has become the central theme of his exploration of the universe of painting. Long been neglected as a method of creation by contemporary culture, Zhang Fan neither wants “writing” to be a mere reproduction of the heritage of the ancients, nor does he want to follow ephemeral fashions of the day. The “Self-Narrating” series and “Improvisation” series are the result of “having wasted 3000 canvases” (meaning of course that he practices endlessly). Day after day, year after year, Zhang creates. This process has nothing to do with the contemporary times, though they are apparently related in some way.

Li ：You once said that art, when reacting to the times, should keep its distance. At the moment the position of contemporary art towards these times is somewhat ambiguous. So how do you regard your own artistic creation today? Has its relation with the times changed? 

Zhang：When used in the context of discussing art, the term “era” is a broad, vague and inconsequential notion. If we must talk about the subject of “times” when discussing artistic creations, we should consider it starting from two principal definitions. The first is with reference to contemporary social reality, the second to the spirit of individual artistic creation, and we are often unable to describe these clearly in details. From the point of view of this first sense of “times”, I am not seeking in my work to relate to the reality of life. Painting is devoid of practicality. It is unable to discuss reality and improve the status quo. Even representation of social life is not the function of painting. And I am more reluctant still to use artistic creation to repeat things that have been said more directly by others. For though a professional might change the world by their actions, if a so-called artist chooses to make his work and reputation by using reality then he must be unscrupulous. Scientists and politicians are those who have the power to make contributions in the real world, not perfectionists, not artists.

Now from the second perspective, one sees that painting as an art form has many limitations when compared to literature, music and movies. But it is from exactly these limitations that painting derives its charm. Painting is fundamentally a universe which is simultaneously rational, empirical, and illusory. What is important in this world of painting is the relationship between different works. One can only communicate and confront these relations within the language of painting. Therefore, I use my paintings, my method of painting and my understanding of painting to convey my ideas about what is happening now and what has happened in the history of painting. This is my answer to the second meaning of the “times”. This way of responding is more effective, and better represents the value of art than any other.

Formal regulation is an important theme for the development of abstract art in the last century. “Art for art’s sake” was once regarded as the famous slogan for art in one period. The earliest abstraction sprouted in modernism, and then gradually became mature after the 1960s, and began to fade the mainstream.

The meaning of “art for art’s sake” is as unquestionable as “physics for physics’ sake” and “mathematics for mathematics’ sake.” The era of Wassily Kandinsky and Piet Mondrian was the “prehistory” of abstract art. Everything about abstract art was just taking shape, the artistic language began to emerge, but there was no rhetoric. They defined the form of the genre and set out the lines for its subsequent development. However, the treatment of abstract elements was still at the stage of “barbarism”. The aesthetic rules and specifics of abstract art had yet to be refined and practiced. These artists revealed the existence of a “new continent”.

In the decades that followed, abstract painting went through perpetual refinements. This is resembled the progression from primitive art to classical art. Abstract art gradually began to have its norms and standards in artistic language. This evolution continues even today. However, progress is advancing by smaller and smaller steps. Just like in a running race - eventually, it is comes down to winning by just one ten thousandth of a second, which in theory is still possible, the same is true for traditional painting. Coming after the work of generations of masters, only a little room remains for us to advance, and an improvement in an area, however small, is some kind of achievement.

For me, it does not make any sense to differentiate between mainstream and alternative - it is not the criteria to judge whether a piece of work is good or bad. I don’t think in terms of who influences whom, or who has been influenced by who. For those who have drawn well still continue to draw well, clowns still play the fool - we focus on our individual paths and without disturbing one another. It may be the case that most of the public prefers to follow the trend, which makes some genres of art and some artists appear outsiders. But this has little to say about artistic value of personal creation.

Li ：The way that Antoni Tàpiess handles the material is very impressive. His reference to Eastern calligraphy has also been borrowed by later generation of artists. Please talk about his influence on you, and can you elaborate on the possibility of placing calligraphy into a universal aesthetic context?

Zhang：Antoni Tàpies is one of my favorite artists. I have been doing abstract painting for more than 20 years, and now I believe to be the equal of some artists that I once worshiped. It is only Antoni Tàpies that I still venerate. Of course, his use of materials is wonderful, and can endow any kind of everyday object with a kind of divinity. But what I admire more still is another feature – his exuberance, manifest in his raw and elegant strokes. Cruelty comes from self-confidence, grace from self-cultivation. Both these elements blend perfectly in his works. Whether in his small drawings on paper or large installations, we see the integration of both temperaments. In addition, he uses diverse visual elements, not like artists such as Rothko shackled to a single graphic motif, and these rich and varied forms and free-spirited visual effects, are also an incarnation of the exuberance of Tapies. If we compare the art of Antoni Tàpies and Cy Twombly, one looks like a hero of the world whilst the other like a stunning beauty, one conquers whilst the other seduces by charm.

Concerning calligraphy, all the masters of Western figurative art have to a greater or lesser extent been influenced by Oriental art. They have discovered the Western use of the idea of “writing” in calligraphy and in scholar paintings. Calligraphy is the refinement and research of “writing”. It is unlikely that calligraphy will become part of what you called the universal aesthetic context. However, “writing” can achieve this. Calligraphy, even in modern China, has lost its original cultural significance. In daily life, calligraphy has also lost the effectiveness of communication, but the “writing” behind calligraphy is something that the intrinsic development of painting must rely on. What I am searching for in painting is the human component. For example, with the same word and same method of writing, the result from different people will have different appearance and tone - this is the human component. Although the thousand-year old system of writing and calligraphy brings with it myriad constraints and norms, differences still are still present because of individual humans. In fact, it is precisely because of this system that art can be fun and meaningful, and not so nihilistic. For example, Chinese traditional arts are interested in their origins – to different understanding of the definition of art, because of this, new artistic creations are not unduly popular. In this sense, art is also a refinement and improvement of the character of self-expression.

Li：What do you think of the creation of artists such as Jasper Johns or Frank Stella, and of the changes in modern and contemporary art?

Zhang：It is human nature is to look for new and easier directions when facing difficulties. Be it Post-Modernism, Pop Art or all the other kinds of contemporary art, to a great extent, they are just strategies in a game born from such a mindset. I have always believed painting to be the most difficult medium. I couldn't bear going round the “mountain” of painting just to climb a small hill, and there plant a flag in order to set myself up as avant-garde or one who is keeping up with the latest trend.

The art created after modernism had a strategy: since it is so hard to make it into the elite, why not pull them down from the podium. These artists “cleverly” used different word games and the appearance of new works to pass themselves off as pioneers and spiritual leaders. When the first group who did it succeeded, it became a behavioral pattern.

Li：At first, you started making art with the medium of printmaking. In the early days, you created a series of works with geometric grids. Please tell us about your inspiration for this period. Geometry is the ultimate idea of Plato's “Ideal Nation”. However, in Chinese culture, there is no such context in this area. However, in the era of globalized consumption, people's perceptions of things are intertwined and interrelated as their way of living changes. What do you think about the development from rational abstraction to minimalism?

Zhang：In my early works, the grids could be viewed on two levels. First, the grids were utterly unimportant and might just as well be replaced by any form or constituent element. From this point of view, one could say that the grid was the just most convenient “tool” for me at that time. But a tool that can be used at any time is fated to be abandoned. For if an abstract artist persistently uses the same motif, this is because they have nothing else to say. Therefore, these grids had to assume a role on a second level, that is, through the perpendicular structure of grids, with the excellent texture of canvas, expressing my pursuit of solemn, sublime and subtle paintings. 

Minimalism owes its existence to the fact that the art genre it was confronting with was abstract expressionism. It was in opposition to Pop Art. To communicate an indifferent attitude towards onlookers and present the so-called “coolness” it needed to have that cold and somber demeanor. Good artists must judge the trends in art around them, rather than merely following them.

Li：Tell us now about your views on the plural form. In your earlier articles on comparing Eastern and Western cultures, you talked about the existence of a kind of “playful” mentality in China in the process of observing cultures. After many years, is there any change in your opinion?

Zhang：To be “playful” one must have something to play with, and this is one of the reasons I am not interested in conceptual art. It boils down to the perennial question of what is art.

Works without technique are just concepts – no matter how profound they are, it is not art. Works with inadequate technique is poor art; works that are just about technique is handicraft. From the improvement of techniques to artistry is the process of art production. Thoughts that are embodied in artistry are aesthetics. Aesthetic-oriented activity may be the “playing” we talk about.

For example, I put a lot of details in the tableau whenever possible. These details may reflect the mentality of “playing”. The process of creating these details is the process of improving technique. Controlling and unifying these details is the leap from technique to artistry. To be able to put the selected details of unified craftsmanship into the theme I want to express without disharmony is making good art. These are interlocking cycles and only by entering into these cycles can one's artistic skills improve.

Li：From the “Paintings of Water(Shui Tu)” of Ma Yuan to Huai Su’s “Autobiography(Zi Xu Tie)”, you interpret them in a contemporary form with the artistic language of printmaking and stone rubbing. What difficulties have you experienced in this process? How could the traditional combine with the contemporary?

Zhang：The relationship between my works and the Song paintings is like Yin and Yang. My original intention was to eliminate the forms. Based on my philosophy of painting the result of this is series “Mountains and Streams” and “Hand Scroll of Water”. From the early criss-crossing grids in paintings, to the hard texture of vertical structures, then the complete elimination of the order of geometry in the picture - building the structure of abstraction by a physical order covered by several layers and blanks in turn. Through the development of these phases, when all direct visual symbols vanish, the only thing that can be felt is the mood. This mood contains a touch of Northern Song Dynasty paintings. Therefore, I used the title of “Mountains and Streams” for reference. Because of the simple descriptive painting methods of this series, I was unable to convey as much as I would have liked, and in the hope that of the information might get distilled and that the physical and emotional state may be accurately expressed in a single moment, I began to put a little of this “writing” in “Hand Scroll of Water” series. In a process similar to the evolution of the philosophy of Chinese painting, I fully applied this method of “writing” in painting in the “Picking Flowers In Reclusion” and “Improvisation” series.

Li：The story “Picking Flowers In Reclusion” comes from the tradition of ancient elites went to the hermitage, it seems that it becomes a reflection of the artist in the troubled world finding their own destiny in your work, why is this sense of taking distance?

Zhang：“Picking Flowers In Reclusion” series can be said to be my studies, like daily sketches of students, but the series has another purpose, which is to convey my respect for painting. Good art should have a semblance of pride - every stroke in a good painting should be brimming with pride. A good artist must first learn to say no. Painting should reject the elements that don’t belong to painting, as well as the low-quality elements of painting, and should renounce that which functions as graphic illustration. From the perspective of painting, the stroke is all. Because no matter what I draw, I finally have to put it down through strokes. I can’t think of anything more important than brush strokes. Of course, I mean “stroke” is in a broader sense and this is about how to draw.

Li：In your work, you emphasize that the work should be completed within a relatively short period of time, and that the “aura” serves as a potential standard for evaluating the quality of artistic creation. Therefore, a large proportion of abandoned/wasted painting generate in your creative process, just like in calligraphy. From this perspective, how do you think about the prevalence of Chinese abstract art today?

Zhang：My early works (such as monochrome grid paintings) might give people the impression that I had applied many layers of paint before to achieve the texture, but in fact I painted only a single layer. The “Improvisation” series was also done just once. That series is intended to represent the gestures present in the process of “writing” through connecting traces of lines on the canvas.

Traces originating in the most primitive gestures of writing rapidly give the work a coordinated sense of rhythm, detail, texture, emotion etc. These elements instantaneously emerge in the process of “writing”. My task is to seize opportunities and make them inevitable in the final refined result. Therefore, the “short period of time” that I emphasize does not refer to “aura”. My point is that we should not rely just on hard work to enrich or give meaning to the tableau, nor replace hard work with a concept. I believe that finishing a piece of work by labor is a miracle - in theory, anyone can make a painting. They just have to repeatedly apply a simple mechanical action to an object to produce a wonder. For example, if a dog urinates on a piece of paper every day for ten thousand years, then the visual appearance of that piece of paper will surely surprise and shock. However, this does not mean that the dog knows how to paint; neither does it mean that this piece of paper is a great work of abstract or conceptual art. It is only a phenomenon of nature. Chinese traditional painting and calligraphy builds on heaps of wasted and spoilt canvases necessary to reach the finished state of a mature work, which is a judgment of artistic value. Paintings that have been repeatedly modified are not considered to be significant - it means that practice is essential and, especially in calligraphy, to obtain something truly great one must build upon practice. In fact, this is common sense and should need no further justification. Just like in music or dance - everything must be practiced every day. Although the series “Improvisation” was finished in a very short time - one four-meter by two-meter large painting completed in just an hour, I had to practice beforehand. Making mistakes in repeated endeavors, ruining canvases, endlessly deleting the unnecessary elements from the painting and constantly adjusting myself till finally the work came to be effectively complete. Here, effective completion means that it conforms to my expectations. Looking on the vast majority of contemporary visual arts, we have stopped practicing like this, disregarding the course of practice, almost turning art into a game or riddle.

In traditional Chinese painting there are just a few genres and themes in the process of stylization. One must realise that the decisive factor that determines the quality of a painting lies not in what has been drawn, but in the character of the “act” of painting. So, when it comes to the concept of “abstract painting”, the emphasis must fall not on the abstraction per se, but on the act of “painting”. I do not want my abstract paintings to become decorative paintings or patterns that only provide visual pleasure. I couldn’t bear the fact that my tableaux were made of essentially decorative blocks and strips. My creativity is focused on taking the initiative in manifesting and then refining the act of “painting” or “writing” and the character of these actions, rather than passing off a particular surface (such as a canvas) as something that pretend to be art. Just as presenting the spirit of traditional art should not begin by painting the symbols of landscape and so on, then demonstrating the essence of abstract painting mustn't turn into playing with graphic composition or industrial design.