Sun, Dec 19, 1999 page18

• Absolutely modern classical

  • By Mark Caltonhill
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  After a single glance at Lee Yi-hong's scroll paintings, one knows he is a Chinese painter of the old school. His towering cliffs, rolling waves and miniature humans clearly identify his genre as shuimo (landscapes). After a second glance, doubts arise however. Indeed, the longer one looks at the works in Lee's latest exhibition `Infinite Cosmos -- Infinite Buddhism,' the more modern they seem. One might even wonder whether they were painted by a Chinese artist.

  Lee is Chinese; he was born in Tainan in 1941 and graduated from the National Academy of Arts in 1966.

  "Like all artists of my generation I undertook a thorough study of classical Chinese painting, first at the academy and later as a student of the famous painter and calligrapher Chiang Chao-shen. Chiang was himself a student of the last Ching Emperor's uncle." As Lee talks about his life and work, his conversation is peppered with quotes from Tang and Sung dynasty shuimo artists. Asked to place his art in historical context however, he replies without hesitation, "Absolutely modern."

  

  Compassionate Peak

  PHOTOS: COURTESY OF LEE YI-HONG

  "The brushstrokes I used for `Quiet Meditation' are much broader than those found in classical works, whilst in Arhats amongst the Pines, I wanted to experiment with covering every inch of the paper. Shuimo makes great use of unpainted spaces. Space on the canvas but feeling in the stomach."

  Lee makes little use of the symbolic language found throughout Chinese painting. Pines, trees that resist the cold and do not shed their needles, symbolize longevity, steadfastness and self-discipline. Bodhi trees, like those in Lee's `Bodhi Path,' represent the road to enlightenment. Caves, like Juewang Cave, Lion Mountain, are a habitual haunt of good-natured spirits and hermits.

  Wandering around his own exhibition at the Lungshan Gallery, the artist points out many of his favorite locations around Taiwan. In addition to Mt. Lion, Lee identifies numerous seemingly abstract scenes: a tree in the grounds of a local monastery or a cliff on the coast road south of Su-ao.

  

  Meditation

  Cliffs figure prominently in this series, their majesty and permanence contrasting sharply with the almost insignificant human figures meditating beneath. Buddhism teaches that all earthly phenomena are impermanent however, and cautions against "clinging to the unreal as real." This was never clearer than during the 921 earthquake, which, after depriving Lee of his creative impulses for several weeks, became a new source of inspiration.

  "I didn't want to paint rent earth and shattered lives though, I could capture those with my camera," says Lee, whose photography has also won numerous awards. His main post-earthquake work, `Compassionate Peak,' is intentionally ambiguous, perhaps depicting a farmer, perhaps a monk. Lee is interested to see if the raised levels of religious compassion and communal cohesion observed since the disaster will be long-term additions to Taiwan's social climate that had been lurching towards unfettered materialism.

  "Chinese art, like Chinese Mahayana Buddhism, is more usually interested in Bodhisattvas, particularly the Bodhisattva Guanyin. Guanyin took a vow of compassion and abandoned her own pursuit of enlightenment and salvation to assist in `ferrying the myriad living beings across the sea of suffering to the other shore of Nirvana.' I chose to paint arhats because they are at an earlier stage of spiritual cultivation, and therefore much nearer to us."

  

  Chanting and Observing

  Lee admits that whilst he might think of himself as a Buddhist, he still eats meat and does not meditate. "Actually, I know very little about Buddhism or any religion. ... I just liked the feeling of peace that the arhats brought to my pictures. I never really planned to put them in there."

  The artist then explains that, of the two methods of executing shuimo paintings, either with meticulous planning or through "an instantaneous outpouring of emotion from one's stomach," he favors the latter.

  "I never alter a piece. If I like it, I select a chop and a pad of red ink and affix my name. If I don't, it goes in the bin." Chinese paintings which do include arhats generally concern the sixteen who were personal disciples of the Sakyamuni Buddha. They are painted with well-established distinguishing characteristics such as Pindola with his bushy eyebrows or the Tiger-Subduing Arhat. Lee's arhats are cartoons in comparison and represent his own emotions more than any classical form or religious ideal. Similarly, the texts accompanying many of his works are as likely to be his own observations as quotations from Buddhist canons.

  These texts help to draw the viewer up close to the painting, a technique often used in shuimo to enable the work to be considered from a variety of angles and distances. This is definitely applicable to Lee's current work. However long one looks and from however many angles, one comes away with the feeling of having merely experienced a fraction of what the painting has to offer.

  Summing up his approach to art, Lee Yi-hong says, "Instead of using abstract expressions to discuss real phenomena, I try to use concrete expressions to discuss abstract concepts."

  For your information

  Lee's solo exhibition is on display at the Lungmen Art Gallery, 2F, No.2, Lane 150, Sec.5, Hsinyi Rd., Taipei, until Jan.15. Paintings are priced from NT$200,000 to $1,200,000.
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