Pattern In Ink Painting

-The Concern of Femininity in Paintings of Zuo Zhengyao

Luo Yiping

The rational logic with a philosophic temperament is the essential feature of the works of Zuo Zhengyao. It has been reflected in the artistic style of this artist. As a member of the artist group in Hebei during the New Trend Period, Zuo dares to experiment and innovate. He has waded in philosophy, religion, mathematic, culture, life and all kinds of fields since 1950s. The media he has used includes ink, products, clay, and installation. Mr. Peng De once commented on Zuo's works as follows: "Zuo's works always make an impression. But at the same time they seem to leave some room for extracting. The extract has nothing to do with complicated manipulation in detail. It refers to a repeated extraction and purification in material, deep meditation in content and long-time measure for expression." But Zuo made a breakthrough by consciously applying a pattern of ink painting to unfold the questions of exploring the female issues in his works "Woman Grey No.1", "Woman Red No. 1" and "Woman Full Color" during 2009 and 2011. In these works the artist puts "the female" into a game playing between individual and community, social space and history space. Through the personalized stroke of philosophical thinking is unveiled. The pictures are breathtaking. The stroke is ingenious, the reveal of the female issue gains a depth, and the critique to the society and culture is full of skill.

The leading position of the symbolic pattern of "female" in the works could be seen as we watch Zuo's works from different periods: from the pragmatism of women in "Green Apple, Ripe Apple-Zuang Zi, Lao Zi, and Wife" in the early days, the stylization and symbolization in "An Image Expression of a Dual Unity", the female pattern in "Dig the Hole Deep", "The Road Leads to the City" and "1.3 Acres", to the neurotic depiction of the female in "The Spiritual Home of Simone de Beauvoir", the artist explains the living situation of the women in various social spaces step by step. His personal concerns to the female are so obvious. Every life that has discriminative property in species is constricted by a certain attribute definition. Since the ancient times the female have been treated as passive and weak, a different life form from the male. The orientation of the male definition. Since the ancient times the female have been treated as passive and weak, a different life form from the male. The orientation of the male led to a neglect to the personal experience and cultural existence of the female. They were considered as internal and sealed objects. If one definition for "the female" in the male-lead society is needed, then the major character is female. It is well known that such a definition comes only from the attribute of a life rather than from a society or culture. Zuo brings this issue to the present society with the traditional ink language and tries to find the essential equality between the male and female. 

What attracts me most from the series of ink paintings of "Women" of Zuo is the contradiction and repellency inside the pattern created by him. The existence of contradiction gives a comfortless tension in the picture. Such a tension tempts the audiences, making them impossible to move their sights away.But where does this contradiction come? This firstly links close to Zuo's manner of painting: he paints every picture separately but shows them all together. The artist intentionally avoids the visual habit of judging the female from the view of a male domination and paints the simple, real and natural female images with open and sincere strokes. In order to protrude the existence of the female, Zuo utilizes the massive pieces of ink colors and complicated lines to emphasize the figures, therefore the shapes stand out. But as for the overall artistic effect he combines the thick figures with a similar and emotionless image and lines various pictures together under a concentrated and color-unified environment. Now the personality and existence of the figures are dissolved and swallowed. The emotional expression of the ink marks and the overlay of the erect individuals have formed an overwhelming power that surrounds the viewers. The vivid depiction of every single female figure in Zuo's paintings tries to show a closed undifferentiated colony. Needless to say, such closure and indifference are given by the maleorientated society. Just as Simone de Beauvoir points out as she talks about the situation and features of the women: "from ancient Greece to modern times, there are so many common features for the women. Her status is changing professedly, and such a status decides the so-called 'feature': she indulges in the 'internality'. She is eccentric, political and mean. She lacks judgment to reality or accuracy. She gains no moral. She is a utilitarian. She is disingenuous, bathos and greedy and so on. All these are true in some way. But the only thing that needs to be clarified is that, none of the mentioned behaviors comes from the female hormone or nature of the women. They are created by a mold of the situation." In the society of men, the women are shaped, defined, ruled and controlled without a choice. The experience of the nomadic women tells us that after all this is a world of men. But in the works of Zuo, the female has occupied the world of ink. Nevertheless this world does not come from a free alliance of the female, but a forced repeat. The reason is the fact that they have a similar "definition".

The mood of the picture with red and black colors brings a sense of depression and solemnity. The rapid and dense lines, big chunks of ink colors and complicated depiction have created an abstract like ink painting for the audiences. The outline that is painted by thick color and the gradation of the colors have explicitly reflected the temperamental character of the female. The spirit of the traditional ink painting could be found through the manipulation of lines and the arrangement of the shade of ink. Zuo has fully expressed his concerns about the female, but at the same time he inevitably locks them in his prearranged world. The freedom of the women that he shows is abstract and vague. This is in accordance with his metaphysical and religion resembled mystique and vagueness. From this point of view we can see the specialty of the artist's logic. It is jumpy and yet tolerant. The deliberate arrangement of the picture balances the intention of the artist and the acceptance of viewers. On one hand Zuo clarifies his stand in works: jump out of the inertial thinking of male orientation, tell the people with paintings that the struggle for freedom and identity of the women comes from the self-aware individual and that they need to pass the rules of the society and the social ideology. Therefore an appeal for salvation and revolution can be found. On the other hand he applies an indifferent collectivity to present the truth. In his works we could clearly feel that: the women under an institutionalized society are neither special nor various. They become a definable and controllable object. Then they encounter a confusion of spiritual value and meaning of life.

The smartest part is that Zuo candidly or even consciously unveils the contradiction in the pictures and then makes a balance for both sides. When some problems could not be solved, the most effective way is an honest presentation. The artist realizes that the solution requires a long process. In the history of mankind, the matriarchal society comes before the patriarchy, but the patriarchy pushes the female into the bottom and fringe of a society. Base on the historic situation, the feminist made its voice to slam the patriarchy, hoping to overturn the men-lead order. Then the female lead world that has once lost its history and culture could return. They hoped to demolish the biological differences between the two sexes and led the world to a new era of the female. But such a private ideology makes no profit to the solution of the problem. The future of human history and culture needs both men and women. Just as I have said at the beginning, the series of "the female" from Zuo has detected the key to the problem. The story of the paintings does not stay at the surface but deep into the internal contradiction of feminist. His personalized pattern of ink painting helps the people to face the existence of such problems.

Feminism appears first in the words of some literature writers in the 19th century. Till 1960s it has become a hot topic and nowadays a lot of critics and artists still discuss and research it. In my opinion, both the feminist and works for feminism focus not just the superficial questions of the female. As the marginal population, the women are treated by the world as second-class. This has made all the problems surrounding them more distinct. In Zuo's works the reflection of the female issues is usually mingled with imperialism, colonialism, identity, right for speak and even urban culture and consumer culture that relate to social and cultural problems. Through this the irrationality of the inner structure of society is uncovered. And Zuo tries to find a legal way to improve the situation.

Luo Yiping

Director of Guangdong Museum of Art

Vice Chairman of Guangdong Artists Association

member of China Artists Association Theory Committee