By Gao Minglu

Mao’s theme, the narrative of object, was first developed in the middle of the 1980s when he was contemplating Nature. At the time, Mao had the impulse to depict some sentient objects found in nature, such as the red earth and green trees on Gui Mountain in Yunnan. Later, Mao directly responded to the question of self-existence and social problems with themes such as, “people” and “private space”. In 1988, perhaps because Mao’s personal life had a new beginning, his “narrative of people” theme, was replaced by the symbolic “Parents Series”. Since the beginning of 1990, Mao has focused completely on his creation of “portraits of object”. 

In Mao’s earliest work, the “Gui Mountain Series of Paintings”, one can still see the trace of Symbolism found in Gauguin. Many people regard Mao’s painting in this period as depicting scenes from the rural countryside. However, I do not share this view. This school of “Rural Realism” originated in Sichuan, the southwest region, and Tibet during the 1970s. The major themes for this school are farmers, female cowherds, and the atmosphere of minority tribes. This school always has a cause for narrative; always concentrates on truthfully transforming a rural natural scene onto the painting. The style of this school focuses on “Naturalism”, using “Photo Realism” as its means, and emphasises details. One can regard this art trend as the reverse of themes found in the school of Realism, which focuses on political issues. As a result, ordinary people and natural scenery became the main themes for the school of “Rural Realism”. What is more, it revealed a return to human nature following the Cultural Revolution. It became part of the modernisation goal that the Chinese intellectuals strove for after the Cultural Revolution. However, its themes and perspective are nostalgic; and focus on rural countryside. It seems to deliberately avoid depicting modern city life. But this nostalgia is not unusual throughout various periods of modern Chinese history and has always been entangled with modern culture. 

Mao and other artists in the Southwest Group, such as Ye Yongqing, Pan Dehai, and Zhang Xiaogang, visited Gui Mountain and painted there. Although the objects in their works, such as minority tribesmen, animals, hills, and forests, seem to be no different from those favored by the school of “Rural Realism”, their attention was no longer to show an exotic country atmosphere, but to reveal the hidden life in Nature. It is the glorification of human nature; a criticism of the country atmosphere. Mao once quoted a criticism of the modern tendency, made by Max Beckmann, a German philosopher and painter: “One should liberate oneself from the pointless copying of objects; feeble techniques; decorative space; and an erroneous, sad, and exaggerated Mysticism. We hope to get a transcendental realism in modern days and this realism is found in the love of Man for Nature and his fellow Man.”1 This metaphysical view of life and existence has decided that Mao’s “Gui Mountain” is simply a major theme but not the countryside itself. Red earth, goats, white clouds, and blue skies are nothing but symbols of Primitivism and a substitute for one’s religious faith in Nature. For example, in “March in a Mountain Village”, one of the paintings in the “Gui Mountain Series”, there is no narrative between the people; mountains and clouds; or goats and horses. The artist has no intention of telling a literary story, or did he intend to depict real-life scenery. What the artist is trying to show is the harmony of natural objects in the spiritual sphere. This harmony is metaphysical and abstract, which can’t be explained by the logic of reality. Here one can see the fundamental difference between the “Gui Mountain Series of Paintings” and the “Rural Realism” paintings popular during the early 1980s in southwest Sichuan. Mao’s style has transcended “Rural Realism” because the latter emphasises the country atmosphere and its social meanings, while Mao’s “Gui Mountain” and “Red Earth” series stress a harmony of the countryside which is free of style and the metaphysical. In this sense, Mao’s “Gui Mountain” focuses on form rather than content. Only when form achieves a harmonious state can the meaning of symbolism and abstraction be established.

The “Gui Mountain” series does not emphasise the changes of people or natural scenery in every painting. On the contrary, hills, trees, goats, and people are repeatedly used, with only minor changes. In addition, themes such as red hills and green trees are found in every painting. It is just as Mao says: “depending on how red the red earth is, the grass will be of a matching green color.” He is treating the red earth as the mother and all myriad beings as her sons. It shows a natural and harmonious structure. The true existence of Nature transcends sensibility and no comparisons exist. The artist who finds its structure, has found its true essence. 

During the time he was creating the “Gui Mountain” series, Mao was trying to criticise and transcend the genre of “country painting”. However, a paradox emerged because Mao and his partners, Zhang Xiaogang and Ye Yongqing, still used the countryside and natural scenery as their major themes when voicing their criticism. It disturbed them deeply and they worried that their criticism would not be an all-embracing criticism. In the middle of the 1980s, Mao began to doubt his major theme in the “Gui Mountain” series. He had no doubt about the “Gui Mountain” series itself, but was uncertain about the psychological associations evoked by his countryside theme. In a letter Mao wrote to me in 1986 he said: “Maybe we are desperately seeking an escape in the atmosphere created by the songs of the Yunnan herdsmen. We strolled on the hills with the shepherds, in the company of green leaves, red earth, and sun. We slept in the generous embrace of Nature, dreaming silver dreams, enjoying Nature’s comfort. We also devoted ourselves to producing large numbers of beautiful paintings of the land, female cowherds, white horses, and trees. Until this day, these things still fascinate us deeply. However, our restless hearts and our existence as members of society make it impossible for us to become a white horse, a female cowherd, or a tree. Our hearts are split. The conflict between reality and ideals; id and super-ego, has engulfed us. The sunlight on the plateau comforts us, but can’t save us. We have to face life itself; face everything that we are not willing to face.” 2 

Mao and his partners therefore elevated the real-life hills and natural scenery in Gui Mountain into a higher level question of natural consciousness. At the same time, Mao Xuhui, Ye Yongqing, and Zhang Xiaogang also wrote articles discussing natural consciousness. An article written by Ye Yongqing, The Natural Consciousness of the Southwest Art Group, brilliantly described how the Southwest Group has transcended “Rural Realism” in a modern sense. To them, art should not be limited to merely depicting natural scenes, in the manner of the school of “Rural Realism”, popular at the end of the 1970s and the early 1980s. Nor should art avoid real-life natural objects like the school of “Rational Painting”, popular among the coastal groups during the 1985 Movement. “Rational Painting” describes nothing but the mystery of the universe, and people like Ye Yongqing regard it as a denial of traditional country living; and their hope for the modern. It lacks an intimate feeling toward nature and direct contact with the experience of existence. 3 The artists in the Southwest Group devoted themselves to establishing a third kind of natural consciousness, which is to regard Nature as a spiritual symbol and give it a supreme awareness. This is to recognise the consciousness of life. Therefore, Ye Yongqing feels that the works of Mao Xuhui, Zhang Xiaogang, and himself “repeatedly use symbolic meanings appropriate to the paradoxes found in society, history, life, and human nature”; yet “do not emphasise a static harmony, but pursue a higher goal through contradictory expression.” 4 Therefore, in all their works is found a profusion of those elements that express primitive and wild feelings, such as beasts and distorted human organs. However, these themes “co-exist in harmony” with stupid and conservative lifestyles, as well as natural scenery. Such a style reveals to what degree the Southwest Art Groups denies the negative natural consciousness, and expresses their longing for the modern. 

In other words, this modern trait is the feeling, contemplation and criticism of the rational relationship between Man and Nature. The usual “existence” we talk about is not simply man’s observation of Nature and his acceptance of what he has seen, nor is it the distant universe which has nothing to do with Man. Existence is some kind of relationship. It can’t separate itself from the constant presence of an individual (I), which is to say he exists at that very moment. Existence is abstract, but “I” is concrete. Using the concrete “I” to express the abstract idea of existence is the art concept Mao and other artists in the Southwest Group employ in their version of symbolism. 

(2007)

1 Mao Xuhui: Letters to Gao Minglu, March 19, 1986, unpublished manuscript. 

2 Mao Xuhui: a letter to Gao Minglu, September 9th, 1986.

3 Ye Yongqing: The Natural Consciousness of the Southwest Art Group, 1985, unpublished manuscript. 

4 I discussed this topic in detail in the First Section: “Life Itself, Natural Consciousness, and Religious Faith” in Chapter Four: “The Flow of Life”, Chinese Modern Art History, 1985 – 1986, published by Gao Minglu and other co-authors. See Chinese Modern Art History, 1985 – 1986, Shanghai People’s Publishing House, p.229 to p.241, 1991.