Liu Guo expresses tranquility in paper
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
People say paintings helps ones release stress and tension. Try to see landscape paintings from Chinese artist Liu Guo which are on display at the Crowne Plaza hotel on Jl. Gatot Subroto, Central Jakarta, from May 20 to May 29.
Unlike modern people's lifestyles which are colored with hustle and bustle, noise, pollution, smog, distractions, mental burn-outs, Liu portrays a perfect resting place which mixes all coveted qualities into a single landscape.
Tranquility. Serenity. Beauty. Vitality. All are recorded and mixed through Liu's poetic brushwork in his paintings creating a perfect portrait of the natural vista.
Instead of oil and canvas, Liu uses Chinese ink and paper in his works displayed at the Spirit Art of China exhibition organized by Vanessa art house.
In Zhangbai Forest, Liu depicts a panorama of green pine forest divided by a river with clear and thawing water. From a distance, a waterfall is seen amid the beauty of snowy mountains. Two small deer, almost unseen, are drinking from the river.
Liu appears to be fond of using foggy scenery to highlight the poetic tone in his paintings, like in his Trees in the Rain and Dazzling Spring Light.
The strongest impression recorded in his paintings maybe an unpretentious expression of simplicity which belongs to a little child who is fascinated by a simple and nice view.
"My paintings reflect all memories dated back since my childhood while enjoying nice scenery at the valley of Zhangbaishan mountains," Liu said.
His obsession with natural scenery can be seen in most of his paintings which take nature as its muse. Mountains, forests, waterfalls, valleys and lakes are depicted in a style that immerses any viewer in the power of nature.
The obsession even prompts him to create a remarkable masterpiece of a 60-meter long scroll painting which portrays his hometown. The painting, titled The Majesty of Zhangbaishan, took him 10 years to complete!
Liu Guo alias Peng Seng was born in 1956 in Fuyi, Jilin Province in China. He began painting at just six years of age. At 10, he obtained a permit to paint several portraits of Mao Ze Dong.
He studied at the Department of Fine Arts at the Northeastern University in 1980 and continued his study at the Art Academy of China.
Besides producing more than 2,000 paintings, Liu has also written books and articles on art, including New Techniques in Chinese Landscape Painting.
However, attending Liu's solo painting exhibition will disappoint those who want to see prints and traces stemming from the richness of Chinese contemporary paintings.
Different from his contemporary Chinese painters, many of whom experiment with a wide-range of images -- like Lu Lin of Beijing who experimented with grinning mouths and eyes without any single face in his Universal Great Joy or Yue Minjun of Beijing who depicts laughing people flying in his Floating Clouds -- Liu prefers nature as his inspiration.
"Nature is inseparable from our life. But now, nature grows distant as it has been destroyed by human's reckless hands. That really concerns me," he said.
"It is my mission to share the memory of eternal beauty of nature with other people as memory cannot be robbed by anybody."
The father of two said the major difference in the style of Chinese and Indonesian landscape paintings was the colors used.
"Indonesian landscape paintings tend to be colorful. It results mainly from the country's tropical climate which brings into life a wide-ranging variety of flora and fauna than China's," Liu asserted.
He planned to spend some time in Indonesia to record the scenery of Indonesian tropical nature.
"Perhaps, I can find new techniques in landscape painting here," Liu said.
Spirit Art of China; Crowne Plaza hotel; Jl. Gatot Subroto Kav. 2-3; Central Jakarta; Phone: 5268833; May 20 - May 29