No. 42. 1995

Creator(s)

Chuan WANG 王川

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Date

1995

Format

Slide

Materials

Ink and color on paper

Dimensions

180 x 95 cm

Description

Against a neutral, white backdrop, WANG applied chunks of black ink in numerous ways: some more dispersively like a spillage of ink; some where inks are applied repetitively, like "impastos" (this might be a legacy of the oil paintings WANG practiced earlier in his life); some narrower, more accented lines are connecting compositions; and some placed we believe the artist used sharper tools to render colors, like the technique "cun" ("皴法") in Chinese paintings. The black inks do not orchestrate into a decipherable image or iconography; rather they are more like vehicles that carried and delivered WANG's intricate emotions. "Expressionism" might be an appropriate term to assign to work here. The emotions refracted upon the paper could be somewhat extreme, or intense; and they might find roots in a mental disease that accompanied WANG for long: bipolar disorder. The ink-on-paper work, then, might gave WANG the remedies which he just needed in his time of blue. (Yan, 蚌病成珠——王川水墨艺术解读, 2016, Artron, available on http://news.artron.net/20160823/n859881.html). (Jerry Wu'23).