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!
Next Page >>
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.