Lily Ye: Inheritance, Advancement, Innovation, and Responsibility

 The renowned master artist Ting Shao-Kuang is one of the world leaders in contemporary art. For one of his projects, he constructed a giant colored glass installation art at the Shanghai Culture Square in China. Currently, he is building a spherical structure utilizing a variety of high-tech to bend his paintings in a curved space, materializing the lines in the painting with steel rods and other construction means. His concept is bold, pioneering, and unprecedented, which explains why his art is considered as a masterpiece among masterpieces. Asa master of contemporary art, he had a brilliant and in-depth definition of contemporary art. “Contemporary art must speak for the elites of the current times and reflect their thinking and views of the world”, said my teacher Ting Shao-Kuang.

I would like to present a little bit of my understanding and learning experience around this topic. First of all, what is art? When Duchamp put a urinal in an exhibition hall to break the ready-made art product, the boundary of art, and the definition and creation of contemporary art, it was like unleashing a horse running wild. The English word “art” and the Chinese word"Tao" are similar. “If Tao could be explained, it is not Tao,” said Laozi. Similarly, Confucius said, “I would die happily at night if I could learn the meaning of Taio in the morning.” Art, chased after by most of the artists, is the true meaning of the universe and the spirituality of our lives. Like all the truth seekers, its essence is to emancipate the mind, to respect nature, and to innovate. Innovation is not out of nothing, but to change better off the inheritance. Perfect repetition is not art nor is it contemporary art.

Contemporary art started in the 1970s and continued into the present times. This is to be distinguished from modern art, which refers to the time around 1850 to 1940. My respected teacher MasterDing once commented on this, remarking "You should not think that living in modern times automatically makes you a contemporary artist. A contemporary artist must-have contemporary vision, aesthetics, and techniques, and reflect the current elite philosophy, aesthetics, ideas, and culture." As the famous painter, Shi Tao from Qing Dynasty said, "Brush and ink must follow the current times." A contemporary artist should take responsibility to create art that recaptures the current whole human spirit and the glorious civilization. In today's world with the rapid advancement of new multimedia and cutting-edge technology, it is important for us artists to embrace new methods and new materials to express artistic feelings, individual aesthetic experiences, and public aesthetic and affection.

How does my own art creation process reflect its contemporary content? As Master Ting said, the traditional, color-rich Chinese realistic painting technique(a.k.a Gongbi) so-called coloring per type, from a chromatic perspective, was at an elementary stage. We need to learn from the Western artists and use rich colors to produce striking visual impact (cited from the CCTV4 “Journey of Civilization " – Ting Shao Kuang- Colorful life). According to Teacher Ting, the West has gone through four stages of color development. I gradually have completed the second and third stages of learning, that is, the proper use of cold and warm colors and the contrast formation between bright, original, and pure colors and gray tones. Now I am learning "colorful hallucinations: it appears flat but it feels like there is space", the fourth stage of color learning. My recent experimental ink artworks such as "New Landscape - EcologicalSeries ", was based on Zhang Daqian’s splashing color art style but was infused with my understanding of contemporary trends, integrating the impressionist's impasto method. This is my first effort to combine Chinese and western painting techniques to bridge ancient times with modern times.

Art Critique addendum: “Boldly broke the style of the traditional Chinese landscape layout and the conservative color application, while reserved of the soul and spirit of ink painting. The combination of Chinese ink with free-will and brilliant colors of Western impressionist art has raised the Chinese ink art to a new level.” - Rémy Aron, president of the French Artists Association,

What is the North America Art Style? The North America Art Style consists of a unique group of artists led by the Master Ting Shao Kuang. This school of artists reflects its unique international influence, smart use of advanced Western technology—such as multimedia art methods and other new forms of art—in alignment with the contemporary art trends, on their traditional ink and freehand brushwork. The growth and development of North America ArtStyle is a product of its unique time and location, which will play an important role in bridging the gap between China and the US, as well as with the rest of the world. It will also bridge the gap between traditional Chinese art and contemporary art. To have this platform is our artists’ good fortune.