Beyond The Landscape: Arnold Chang, Tang Ke and Wang Mansheng

Finding contemporary relevance in the brushwork and composition of literati ink painting is the central concern of Arnold Chang’s work. This exhibition will include Chang’s abstract landscapes, in which he explores the ever-changing viewpoint and angle of vision in Chinese landscape painting. His works argue that there is no fixed viewpoint—creating, instead, a non-directional image in space. In 2010, in response to curator Hao Shen’s invitation to create a painting in dialogue with a work in the Boston Museum of Fine Art’s collection, Chang chose Jackson Pollack’s No. 10 (1949). Chang’s creation was exhibited alongside the Pollack, both lying flat in a case like a Chinese handscroll. Chang analyzes orthodox Chinese painting through the lens of Western abstract expressionism. In the realm of abstract expressionism, Chang still applies traditional Chinese literati painting’s principle of handling the brushwork in a balanced and fused manner while breaking away from the limitations of traditional compositional structure.

With his work, Tang Ke examines the synergy within brushwork, transparent materials, background lighting, and other mechanisms in order to create an atmosphere that presents a direct platform to engage with the ancients. Using transparent acrylic film and lightings, Tang created his distinct classical Chinese landscape composition by adding layer upon layer of paint onto transparent acrylic film, often applying both sides simultaneously. When the film receives light from the front, traditional oil painting modeling and techniques are displayed; when the back receives the light, the symbols on the screen seem to drift away from the plane, floating into space. When painting on the transparent film, the effect changes with the light. There is a sense of uncertainty, but it is this sense of uncertainty that defines Tang’s view of the status quo of today’s society. Tang seeks the origin of Chinese classical paintings and tries to keep the “hints” given to him by the ancients as much as possible, while fusing the contemporary “painterliness” with the traditional style.