Page 28 - Contenporary Ink Chinese Painting Nov 27 2017 Hong Kong

The intricate landscape by Li Huayi resembles the monumental
Northern Song painting in spirit, yet the method with which the
artist experiments is fundamentally a mix of the old and the new.
Born in Shanghai, Li studied traditional Chinese paintings as a
child with Wang Jimei, the son of artist Wang Zhen. At the age of
sixteen, he became acquainted with Western art through the artist
Zhang Chongren, who studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts
in Brussels. During the 1970s, Li worked as a propaganda artist;
the experience inspired him to seek a new visual language in his
artistic production. Since then, he has travelled to scenic, historic
and cultural sites of China, from Mount Huang to Dunhuang, the
sights of which have remained a lasting inspiration.
With the literati tradition as a point of departure, Misty Mountains
is a magnificent example of Li Huayi’s works from the mid-2000s.
The landscape with delicate details is set against an expressive
splashed-ink background, with arduously added photo-realistic
details with gongbi technique to depict the pine trees and jagged
rocks rising from the abyss. For the artist explains that he is “most
attracted to the serenity and purity in Northern Song dynasty
landscape – it is a purity of the heart that touches beyond the
technique of the brush. The power of the ink manifests itself as
pure expression.”
李華弌筆下山水傳承北宋山水畫中崇山峻嶺巍峨之氣，磅礴而雄
偉壯美。他自幼鍾情中國書畫，六歲時在上海隨著名藝術家王震
之子王季眉習畫；十六歲時，亦師從曾就讀布魯塞爾皇家美術學
院的畫家張充仁，學習西方藝術及理論，因而得以從一位中國藝
術家的角度體會西方藝術之美。自小受中西方藝術影響的李華弌
在 1970 年代成為了一名政治宣傳工作者，這經歷亦使他決定尋求
一種新的藝術語言。他的足跡踏遍名山幽川、文化古跡，從黃山
至敦煌，飽覽奇觀異景並致力研究佛教理念，創作深受二者影響。
秉承文人傳統，在《重嶺氤氳》中李華弌以工筆筆法描繪疊起的
奇石和飽經風霜的古松，運筆精緻細膩，極有攝影般的寫實感，
是其 2000 年代中期的傑作。李華弌作品中往往羣山雲煙籠罩，
光線效果與明暗對比富有戲劇性。而此幀中的懸崖峭壁則以淺淺
淡化的顏色勾勒出，突顯極為寫實的石與松。李華弌曾道，北宋
山水畫最吸引他的是“畫面呈現的意境、安靜，山水寄情，北宋
人對山水的純淨，到心田的純淨，是最感動人的地方，不只是學
習筆意技法，更應體會墨韻的力量，客觀純淨的表現出來。”

26