Catch a glimpse of life—Liang Quan , 2020, 1 min 27 s. Video: Liang Quan. Editor: Q Lin
“When I went back to Shanghai to move to a new place to live, I came across a wooden washboard that had been used by my grandmother. And I had a moment of enlightenment. The structure of a washboard is like a mounted painting. The upper and lower parts of a washboard are comparable to the silk brocades mounted above and below a painting; and the part in the middle of a washboard is just like a painting surface.”
In the past two months, we have invited our artists to record video clips that offer glimpses of their life and thoughts during quarantine. In this video, Liang Quan will talk about some of his recent thoughts and show viewers glimpses of his apartment. Liang Quan figures prominently among both Chinese ink painters and Chinese abstract artists. After 2000, Liang cuts painted xuan paper into strips and pieces, which he then layers onto abstract compositions using traditional methods of mounting. For Liang, both structural order and literati sentiments are essential for a painting. He once explained: “I like abstract compositions, though the tone of my painting is figurative. My paintings present the rhythm of traditional landscape painting.”
