A painter with the bearing of a master, one can almost
hear birdsong sounding through the mountains/ As he rises aloft to the
Milky Way, he looks back on the innumerable peaks below . . . (Chao Shao-Ang)
Thirty years ago Au Ho-Nine, mentor Chao Shao-Ang, whose
paintings of flora and fauna had raised the Lingnan school of painting
to new heights of achievement, penned this verse in praise of his brilliant
disciple. At that time, Au had just settled in Taiwan at the invitation
of Chang Chi-yun, the founder of Chinese Culture University. Au didn't
let his mentor down, producing innumerable paintings and gaining international
renown in the following three decades, carrying forward the development
of the Lingnan school and helping it to achieve the status of one of the
major schools of painting in the history of Chinese art.
Heroic and stately spirit
In
recent years there has been a drive for innovation within the field of
ink-wash painting, with artists fusing ideas from East and West and subverting
tradition, all in pursuit of a creative breakthrough. But in the process,
the traditional three-fold character of Chinese ink-wash, the scholar-artist's
combination of poetry, calligraphy and painting, has been lost. Looking
at the work of Au Ho-Nien, however, one is instantly captivated by his
vivid landscapes, lifelike fauna and distinctively individual human figures,
along with the verse inscriptions added in his forceful calligraphy, and
the way that the painted and blank areas of his pictures are so perfectly
set off against one another. Through the artist's piercing eye, Nature,
in all her endlessly changing variety, is depicted in a way that not only
tells of Nature's essential beauty, but also fully reflects the feelings
and thoughts of the painter. Au's work can truly be said to embody the
essence of the Lingnan school, elevating the traditional art of Chinese
ink-wash painting to new heights. Little wonder that one Japanese collector
had the structure of his hall altered to accommodate one of Au's larger
works. Japanese art critic Uemura Taka Ink-Wash Master Au Ho-Nien
chiho has written of Au: "While expressing a contemporary
feel, his work also gives people a sense of the heroic and stately spirit
of the Chinese."
As many people know, besides hailing from the Lingnan School
of painters, Au also has a solid grounding in the classics of Chinese
literature. In fact painting was not something that he studied much of
as a boy. But his father had many literary and artistic friends, and a
large collection of paintings and calligraphy, and young Au was always
interested in literature and art, and gradually his tastes became more
and more refined. Both gifted and hard-working, Au says: "You make your
own luck in this world. Who gets anywhere relying on 'nurture' alone?"
However, even the most gifted of people need the guidance
of a good teacher at some point. Au and his family were lucky to move
to Hong Kong before the Communist takeover on the mainland, and in 1952,
when Au was 17, he began studying under Chao Shao-Ang, the leading light
of the Lingnan school. The vibrant spirit of the Lingnan school suited
him perfectly. He threw himself into his painting and was soon producing
work of real quality. In his early twenties his name began to be known
in art circles, and he exhibited in a show that toured the Southeast Asia
region. By the time he moved to Taiwan, in his early thirties, he was
already famous.
No room for complacency
Au,
who has a generous, outgoing nature and is friendly and unassuming in
person, does not consider himself a "genius." He simply acknowledges that
he has an intense thirst for knowledge and a love of learning, and that
he is devoted to the art of painting. To this day he still paints continuously,
and says that his biggest worry is that he'll start painting with such
facility that he becomes complacent, and stops making progress. Every
year he sets off on several painting expeditions, and keeps his implements
to hand so that he is ready to stop and paint whenever he wants to. When
he visits somewhere like Mt. Huangshan in mainland China, he likes to
seek out stirring scenery and paint it in detail. But sometimes he may
be taken by a momentary sight, such as a glimpse of the Arctic through
the window of an airplane, and make a quick sketch which may or may not
be elaborated on later. As Au turns the pages of his self-made portfolio-type
sketch book, vivid images of scenic places such as Huangshan, Guilin and
Jiuzhaigou pass before one's eyes, every one a testament to Au's masterly
facility with the brush.
With regard to brush technique, coloring and composition,
Au says that a painter has to master these in his youth. "Nurture a flexible
brush style when young, and from your middle years onwards develop countless
variations in that style, variations that are inseparable from the thinking
of the artist. Then, when older, simply follow your inclinations, free
of restrictions." But how does a painter reach such a realm? You have
to refine and improve yourself as time goes by. A little story that Au
mentions in passing shows how much of himself he puts into his art.
During the eight years when he was courting his future
bride Chu Mu-lan, who was another of Chao Shao-ang's pupils, he made frequent
visits to the home of the Chu family, where he did a lot of painting.
One large picture that he completed at the home of the Chus, about two
meters square, is entitled "Pair of Lions." Au's wife chuckles: "It shows
two lions at the edge of a precipice, which were the two of us he said.
But the lioness is in front with the male lion hiding behind her-needing
my protection!" Au and his wife share the same path in life, and they
have held more than a dozen joint exhibitions of their work. Their conjugal
affection and ability to learn from each other is surely one of the factors
that have enabled Au to enjoy such a flourishing artistic career.
Chinese and Western influences
Au may not be the most senior of the third generation Lingnan
school artists, but with his artistic accomplishments, his years of teaching
at Chinese Culture University, and his wide body of personally trained
pupils, he has helped the Lingnan school to attain special prominence
in Taiwan and become internationally renowned.
The Lingnan school was founded in the late Qing dynasty
by painters Gao Jianfu, Gao Qifeng and Chen Shuren. Chao Shao-ang was
Gao Qifeng's protege, and seeing an exhibition of Chao's had a profound
impact on Au when he was a youth. Though now a leading painter in his
own right, Au has remained true to the artistic course charted by his
predecessors in the Lingnan school, combining vivid realism with free
expression. Whether rendering the depth of field and play of light in
a landscape painting, or depicting the sinews, physique and bearing of
an animal, the Lingnan painters bring their subjects to life in a very
effective way. The Lingnan school has thus risen in prominence to occupy
a prime position in the recent history of Chinese painting, following
on from the late-Qing dynasty Haishang school of painting.
To
properly understand Au's work it is necessary to know something about
the unique style of the Lingnan school. The catchphrase of the school's
painters was: "Drawing on influences from China and the outside world,
merging elements from ancient and modern times," and the method they used
to achieve this was: "Taking Nature as one's master, and emphasizing the
art of painting from life." The school's three co-founders all started
out with a solid grounding in ink-wash painting, spent time studying in
Japan, and mastered the Western art techniques of sketching, life painting,
shading, palette and perspective. Gao Jianfu stressed: "You have to be
faithful to Nature when seeking subjects to paint from life, but that
doesn't mean blindly obeying Nature. You need your own ideas, and a vision
that has been refined through your own soul, so as to determine the aesthetic
of a picture and strengthen the overall effect."
One characteristic of the Lingnan school is the flexible
application of different brush techniques, allowing for variety in the
depiction of mountains, trees and rocks for example. This gives paintings
from the Lingnan school a feeling of great immediacy, with vividly rendered
landscapes featuring precipitous, imposing mountain scenes. The essence
of the Lingnan style is captured in Au's paintings of Huangshan and the
Yellow River.
Another feature of Lingnan paintings is their brightness
and density of color, which reflects the influence of Impressionism on
the school. The emphasis on shading is another aspect in which the Lingnan
painters brought something new to the art of traditional Chinese painting.
Empty background
A particular forte of the Lingnan school is the liubai
technique, in which large areas of the picture are left blank. It's an
approach that reflects the influence of Taoist thought, with its notions
of substance and nothingness and the interplay of yin and yang. The use
of liubai can be traced back through the Lingnan school co-founders Gao
Jianfu and Gao Qifeng to the Ju brothers, under whom they studied, and
who themselves were fans of the work of the early Qing dynasty painter
Yun Nantian. Yun emphasized that painters should "concentrate on the empty
spaces." To appreciate the work of Au Ho-nien it is important to note
how he uses blank space, perfectly set off with poetic inscriptions.
Of course, the basis of the Lingnan school lies in a demonstrable
ability to depict nature at first hand, and includes not only landscapes
but, naturally, animals as well. The great masters of the Lingnan school
all love animal themes. Chao Shao-ang, a master Au has admired all his
life, created marvelous works featuring birds, flowers, plants, and insects.
Xu Beihong once expressed his admiration for these in verse: "There is
a worthy heir to the southern tradition/ Gentleman Chao captures the very
spirit of birds and flowers."
Au's animal paintings are also first-rate. In works like
a bird of prey sighting its victim, a tiger taking a backward glance as
it walks away from the viewer, or a lazing lion, every aspect-the feathers,
skin, or fur, the expressions in the eyes, the postures-conveys the essence
and vitality of the subject. When Au was first doing animal paintings,
he would go to the zoo and sit in the same place all day, or even go several
days in a row to capture all the moods and postural nuances of, say, a
tiger. His ability has been cultivated in this manner, brush stroke by
brush stroke. Recently, despite the overall cooling of the art market,
an Au painting of a tiger fetched more than NT$200,000 at auction, proving
that his reputation is well deserved.
Au's interest is really engaged when the subject is painting
from nature. For him, taking a large sketch book, brush, and ink on boats,
in cars, or on foot across rivers and into the mountains is not "work,"
but fun. Like breathing, it is an integral part of his life. He is very
laid-back about these journeys, which reflect his own personality. He
goes when he feels like it, and, like his paintings, imposes no frames
or borders, but simply lets them evolve as they may.
Transcontinental exhibitions
In February, a 50-year retrospective of Au's work opened
at the Pacific Heritage Museum in San Francisco. The exhibition will run
for a year. Meanwhile, a two-week show at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall
in Taipei in early July features works completed between 1990 and 2000.
As Au likes to say, an artist is like a maker of fine wines. He has no
need to constantly do something new just for the novelty, but simply has
to keep observing, thinking, reading, and creating, and his work will
continually improve.
Au's upcoming exhibition is a great opportunity to experience
Au's personal style as well as to see the theories of the Lingnan school
in practice. Be sure not to miss it!
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Among
the masters of traditional Chinese painting in Taiwan, the name of Au
Ho-Nien, from the Lingnan school of painting, ranks only behind those
of the greats such as Chang Ta-chien, Huang Chun-pi and Pu Hsin-yu.