I felt so familiar when I saw the paintings of Fengzhi Liu, Hai Zhao and Song Li again, from whose works we could experience and participant the changes of the world. Although many things happened in their lives during the years, they still stay at the left bank of Tonghui River, leading the indefatigable and independent lives. Their languages in art remain to be sharp and unique.

As the representatives of Left-bank, they themselves are already one part of history. Their pictures, each of which illustrates their personal understandings of art, are telling the stories.

Fengzhi Liu’s style is extravagant. The lines in his work, straight forward and diverse, have the same spirit as the Chinese painting master Bada in Ming Dynast. For instance, ‘Rain’ (1997) shows a conception of super-realism whilst ‘On the Grassland’(1998) reflects the ‘The picnic’ of Douard Manet. By and large, the art of Liu demonstrates a dream-like feeling to the viewers. He reorganizes the images of real objects in his mind and depicts the impressions of those things on the canvas. An example for this is ‘Square’ series (1999). ‘Square.1’ shows the impression of the scene in painters’ memory, using the narrative lines and colours. Through the art language of Liu, the impression is reorganized in expression, and then becomes dream-like. One thing cannot be ignored in his work is the black hue. This hue tinges a gloomy mood and idea into Liu’s arts, echo a retrospective feeling from the viewers.

The works of Hai Zhao, intuitively showing the topics, mainly relate to the trains. His brushwork is audacious as well as orderly. His pictures not only show the metal and mechanical aspects of the trains. The techniques of his work such as brushwork and texture are also inspired by his understanding of the history. “Silence” (2006) illustrates the side of a train. In spite of its name, the picture shows nothing about silence but the strong power of the train in people’s minds. The green light in the picture means “Pass”. The artist uses the word “Silence” contrastively to present this power of going forward. In Zhao’s work, although the metal trains are the main topic there is still another important factor— the light. The perspective of his pictures is realistic; the mood of his works is gloomy; the rust of the trains recalls the nostalgic motions. However, the most vital part of the pictures is the light that leading the minds of the viewers. There are always green or blue lights in his pictures, sometimes bring out a grotesque feeling, sometimes giving a hope. This is the art of Hai Zhao, full of power and thoughts.

The art of Song Li is flinty, objective, straight forward and inexorable, demonstrating the critical thinking through the artist’s passions. There are huge black areas in his pictures, oppressive and non-directive, such as “water and soldiers” (2008) and “Event. Brother”(2008). The topics of his pictures are mainly war and blood. In “water and soldiers”, the soldiers holding the machine guns march in the flooding water. The water, which is black, surrounds the soldiers. It looks as if the soldiers were swallowed by the backwater rather than they move forward in it. The red colour of the soldiers’ skin further illustrates the cruelty and horror of the war. Likewise, “Event. Brother” also gives the viewers a huge oppression. The picture depicts a horrible screen. The bloody clothes uncomfortably reek a bloody smell. There is another characteristic in Li’s works that in each picture there are some unrelated objects with which consist a meaningful sign. “Love” (2007) is one of this kind. With red and black as its main hue, the knives and forks in the picture are displayed as a cross. The cross, the red fabric, the megranate and the flowerpot altogether overthrow the common sense of love in a formless black, creating an atmosphere of the battle field. The cross, the red fabric and the title “Love”, putting a deep thought into the work, inspire the thinking of the viewers. The applying of red colour becomes a clue in Li’s recent works. Red, together with other factors always brings out a bloody and violent feeling.

As the ‘Three sword men’ on the left bank of Tonghui River, their personalities and art styles are distinctive, but the standards in their arts are the same high. In the modern arts, the languages of their works can be of avant-garde. We can sense the criticisms to the past and current life as well as the cognitions for the future. The left bank is no longer the previous one, yet its spirit has been handed down.

Tiejun Li

May 9. 2008