Four Seasons
Spring Paper-Summer Linen-Autumn Ceramic-Winter Wood
Art of Tang Chenghua
Curator: Tony Chang

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Tang Chenghua, who teaches at the China Central Academy of Fine Art (CAFA), has a rich international academic background as far as academics go. Having floated about between East and West for a decade, Tang Chenghua's work emphasizes the serendipity of the creation process, and shimmers with the passion of abstract expressionism and movement art. His abstract art, which straddles the divide between materials and mediums, has traces of a magnificent personal style, but Eastern culture dominates his artistic world.

Calligraphy and Ink: Thick, bold ink strokes are the backbone of Tang Chenghua's artwork, forming the foundation for a freewheeling clash between color and space. The image structure is marked by Chinese Kuangcao calligraphy, with its bizarre combinations of cursive Chinese script and empty space. The finely textured strokes sweep across the space, adding vivid and lively tones to the overall image. Vast swaths of blackness hint at an empty void, giving the picture pure power. On the other hand, the famous western abstract expressionist Willem De Kooning uses blackness as a supplement, merely a supporting role in the image.

Material Aesthetic: China has an ancient concept of the five elements, where "all things are made of earth, metal, wood, water or fire" (Guoyu - Zhengyu). The ancient Chinese concept that "all things are made of matter" reflects the simple relationship between man and nature. Artist Tang Chenghua has a keen feel for materials. His artistic language is mostly comprised of the vocabulary of printmaking; through the use of mixed canvas media, prints on handmade paper, ceramic painting and wood installations, he is attempting to reignite the spiritual properties locked inside these materials: ink brings out the shy and gentle attributes of cotton paper; wood is a mark of solidity; smooth marks on ceramic are used to express the hardness of the material; the colorful glaze is cool like the skin of a woman in water under the moonlight; the smooth fibers of linen sooth the heart, verdant fields of grain that intoxicate the eye...To Tang Chenghua, materials are an important carrier of the spiritual power and rich aesthetic in any artwork, giving subtle expression to his passion for the abstract. He has thrust open for us the gates to the world of perception.

Colors: Tang Chenghua has a preference for mineral colors. These colors made from crushed minerals have a special textural dimension that calls to mind the massive blue and green Chinese landscape paintings. Those green and blue landscapes emerged after the Warring States Period, first coming into their own in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, becoming established during the North and South Dynasties, and flourishing under the Tang. Blue-green landscape artists (such as Tang Dynasty artist Li Sixun) used mineral blues and greens to recreate verdant forests. The deep blues, bright pinks and emerald greens in Tang Chenghua's paintings are heavy and refined, like the colors of cooling magma.

Abstraction and Conception: Compared to the subtle and vigorous abstraction of Zhao Wu-Ki, Tang Chenghua's works have hints of conceptual imagery, like looking out across the vast expanse of mountains, rivers and towering gorges, where time stands still, the landscape rolls out endlessly, and the power of nature shocks the soul. Meanwhile, his massive figurative landscapes often conceal intimate depictions of the natural world: the withering of massive lotus leaves can only be truly appreciated by taking a boat deep into the lotus pond; randomly scattered massive tree trunks are encompassed by the gentle embrace of wisteria¡­ Tang Chenghua's art preserves the intricate interplay of real and unreal from Chinese ink-splash expression within the structure and spatial depth of abstract expressionism.

The Texture of Space-Time: Tang Chenghua's art is tightly linked to seasons and regions. In a decade of academic wanderings through Britain, New York, Japan and Germany, amidst diverse cultures and the changes of the seasons, he has captured the timelessness and rapidity of the ages; one's life changes and interacts with the natural passage of the seasons, and Tang Chenghua's paintings bear the perpetual marks of time, tainted with pain of impermanence - a tangle of bitter and sweet.

Ancient Chinese emperors such as Emperor Hanwu loved to erect bronze dew collectors on the roof of their palaces. Bronze figures held the dew collectors over their head, catching the morning dew, which would be mixed into food along with fine grains of jade to promote longevity. Yesterday's dew has been dried up by the splendor of today's sun, and through the seasons and the changing of the times, the lonely bronze men await condensation to descend from the heavens. The Book of Changes states, "the movements of the heavens are powerful; the noble man must persevere". Tang Chenghua's powerful and inspired abstract works show us the magnificence of nature, and allow us to feel the primal and fertile beauty of paper, ceramic and wood. In his seasonally changing mindscape, the clamor of the floating life is followed by the tranquility of timelessness. In the words of German poet Friedrich Holderlin, "man dwells poetically on the land".