Xia Yang and his paintings (2013)
One
Leaving Jinling young, avoiding the smoke of the East Kou, the long river is upside down, the homeland is empty; the danger of climbing treasure island, overseas waves, seventy years of career, is probably a strong swallowing of bitter fruit.
Twilight into Shencheng, looking for the aftershocks of the western tide, the two oceans, the beginning of the state; it is settled in Shanghai, Middle-earth is assured, the twelfth floor of the moon, but it is also considered to eat sugar cane. (Xia Yang in 2002)
The closer the sugarcane is to the root, the sweeter it is, and the sweeter it is eaten. Knowing that his old friend Xia Yang had a difficult life and drifted ups and downs when he was young, he gradually turned around after middle age, and after entering old age, he gradually smoothed out into a better state, he thought to himself: but he also ate sugar cane. Above is a couplet hanging on the door frame of Xia Yang's studio in Shanghai, but it is written about his minimalist experience of crossing the ocean and navigating the sea, wandering from east to west and from west to east.
Xia Yang was born in 1932, a native of Nanjing, whose real name is Xia Zuxiang. Adolescence was spent in war. This narrative poem provides insight into the hardships of life at that time:
Cizu pitied his life and suffered, and his white hair caressed less loneliness.
Cook rice and count the curd on the plate.
Old clothes are turned over and fake, and shoes are torn the most hesitant.
Looking up at the blue sky, the mourning reflects the old picture.
In 1949, xia Yang joined the army in Hankou to feed himself, and in 1949, he went to Taiwan with the army at the age of seventeen, studied painting under the predecessor painter Li Zhongsheng, and in 1955, he and Li Zhongsheng's eight protégés established the "Oriental Painting Society" to become the "Eight Great Ringing Horses", and was a representative figure of Taiwan's advocacy of modern art movement in the 1960s. In 1963, Xia Yang went to Paris to find his own artistic direction, during this period, Xia Yang painted a trembling and chaotic line to depict the human form, the whole body of the painting was blurred, as if there was nothing, floating like a ghost on the clean picture, so it was called "Mao Mao Man". In 1968, he moved to New York to feel the new trend of world art, forming his route of photorealism, he created his own shutter to shoot people on the street, capturing the sense of moment, the dynamic figure of the character in the photo echoed with the quiet background, which is a continuation of the previous series of paintings "Mao Mao". The first painting, Kitty, a model we all had, exhibited his painting at O.K. Harris in New York in 1974 and signed an agency contract. In 1992, after Xia Yang returned to Taiwan to settle down, he turned to the characters in the traditional myths and fables of the East, but still did not depart from the imagery and language of the "Mao Mao people". In 2002, he moved to Shanghai, combining folk paper-cutting and modern sculpture and learning from each other, so that the "Mao Mao Ren" series was transformed into metal sheet carving, even if the sculpture is a three-dimensional work, it is still a re-leaping extension of the painting "Mao Mao Ren", using a language that wanders between avant-garde and retro.
Xia Yang's "Prince Grandpa" (courtesy of Eslite Gallery)
In the winter of 2020, Xia Yang opened a solo exhibition at the Xiamen Tong Art Museum, and in Hi Art Magazine, Li Tianqi wrote a long article titled "'Absolute Foreigner' Xia Yang, an 88-year-old art child.". I appreciate a few of these unique points, and I think it is mainly similar to my situation at a certain point, and the excerpts are particularly touching.
"The 'Poor Soldier Brother' who founded the Oriental Painting Society": This group of old artists has experienced twists and turns in the modern and contemporary history of China, migrating east and west, and there is no shortage of people scattered overseas, and the Cold War has separated the connections and activities of the mainland and overseas, and in the context of the wide recognition of the academic circles in 1979, the "Star Art Exhibition" in 1979 is the beginning of Chinese contemporary art, and many people have disappeared from the perspective of mainland art history researchers and the public. Xia Yang, born in 1932, seems to belong to this list.
"Absolute foreigner": Xia Yang has been wandering in Paris and New York for more than 20 years, and he is regarded as an authentic "Chinese artist"; on his first trip home, the Nanjing native found himself a "Taiwanese painter"; when he exhibited in Guangzhou, he was a "New York painter"; in 1992, Xia Yang and his wife returned to Taipei from New York to settle down, and he was regarded as a "land guest" again. Looking back, the artist gave himself a seal - "absolute foreigner", everywhere is a foreigner. "Absolute foreigner" is not only the source of the artist's individual identity, the things of cultural identity are inappropriate, on the contrary, it is also the artist's suspension state of wandering personal identity in the process of the change of the times and the convergence of global cultures, and a kind of life consciousness that is frequently in a desperate situation.
After Xia Yang returned to China, he was still a "foreigner" and was not seen. After the twentieth century, our politics and economy were integrated into globalization, and our artistic language also entered it, and this big picture may really require us to broaden our horizons and pay attention to artists like Xia Yang. He sincerely puts modern aesthetic elements, traditional tastes, and life experiences into his works, so that the works have both the spirit of classical culture and a witty attitude that can interact with contemporary people.
Two
I've known Xia Yang for half a century. The so-called Road Remote Knows Horsepower, his "truth" from the character to the work has always been unchanging from the original intention, always living in the spiritual realm of "peace and poverty", painting in addition to the oil poetry to open up the frontier, free to travel in infinite fun and with the encounter. In the face of adversity and poverty, he is still willing to stick to his ambitions and ideals with perseverance and confidence, to adhere to the moral code of his faith, and to face everything calmly and calmly.
In the early 1970s, when he visited his studio in SoHo for the first time, the studio was like a thrift stall or more like a grocery store— pots and pans, jars, bottles, and bottles, and it was difficult to discern which were tools, which were materials, and which were unfinished works. One of the great features of his studio is that the walls are plastered with oil poems, old and new half new, colorful, horizontal and vertical, scribbled with brushes, brushes, pens, all written at will, I especially like his half-written and half-white oil poems, life, vivid and full of vitality. At that time, he was painting a photorealistic style, casting the photo image on the canvas, and then sitting on an old elevator that could move up and down left and right, drawing carefully one by one, the so-called slow work. Knowing that I was wandering and had not yet made up my mind to move to New York, I boasted: "If you move to New York, I promise to send you a painting!" ”
"Oh —really?!"
Xia Yang smiled cheekily.
The following year, I actually moved to New York. At that time, my shelter was in an old building on East 60th Street, and I climbed four dark and creaky stairs to reach my floor. Stepping on the door to enter the house, the old bathtub lies in the middle; the shower curtain is pulled up, and the room is considered a living room; when the bathtub is on the shelf board, it becomes a dining room; when there are guests, the futon on the board is the guest room. On the other side of the thin wood wall, a small bed can be placed, and Xia Yang wrote a big word "dance" with a canvas, and hung it on the thin wood wall for compartments and decorations, which became my bedroom. A year later, the "Jiang Qing Dance Studio" was established in SoHo, and the word "dance" has been hanging in the rehearsal room for more than thirty years (below). In 2008, I moved out of SoHo, my new home is an apartment, the big character "dance" has nowhere to hang, although reluctantly, it was still shipped to the New York "Chen Xuetong Dance Studio" that is also a friend of Xia Yang.
In 1974, the famous dancer Joyce Trasler choreographed a solo dance for me with Zhou Wenzhong's music of the same name, "The Nun's Monologue", Joyce wanted to have a symbolic set, at that time I was struggling to run the dance company, living expenses depended on me teaching dance at Hunter University, and the government subsidies applied for by the dance company were pitiful, so I had to ask the helpful Xia Yang to help. After watching the rehearsal and understanding the needs of the stage, he waved an extraordinary and thick black and white bodhisattva image within a few days, which was topical, concise and atmospheric, and the stage performance effect was very brilliant. This painting on canvas, which traveled with me to major cities in Europe, the United States, and Asia, donated it to the Lincoln Center Performing Arts Library along with other performance materials.
Jiang Qing is performing "The Nun's Monologue", and the set is drawn by Xia Yang. Photo by Ke Xijie
Three
Xia Yang helped others to enjoy the most dramatic this time, although decades have passed, I still remember it vividly, and I asked the consent of the party Xia Yang (except for Xia Yang who has already gone) to write it down.
Composer Lee Tae-hsiang, Taitung Amei, in the mid-1970s, was sponsored by the Asia Foundation in New York to observe and study in New York for a period of time, and his wife Xu Shoumei accompanied. Li Taixiang and Xu Shoumei were classmates at that time, bitterly in love with elopement and marriage, on the night of the wedding, the Xu family came to the door to snatch their daughter away, and the news was boiling in Taiwan. We know each other well, and we have many mutual friends and talks, so when they come to New York, everyone always gets together.
One day to call Xia Yang, the girl answered, so many years, but the first time a hostess came out, I thought that the typing was wrong and was about to hang, but the other party said: "Jiang Qing, are you looking for Xia Yang?" I am Xu Shoumei. ”
"What!? Didn't you and his wife leave? I'll see you off two days ago. ”
"You come over, we'll talk in person, it's a little complicated."
Xia Yang and I both lived in SoHo, and within ten minutes I was in Xia Yang Studio, and Xia Yang drank tea with a warm signature smile on his face and walked away with a look of wanting to stop talking. Sumi is a straight-talking person, with a brain and a mind to explain the ins and outs of the whole incident. It turned out that the amorous debt was the "trial" of Li Taixiang's life, and in New York, the old habits did not change, and when they returned to Taiwan at the airport, Shoumei found that there was an infatuated girlfriend who came to send Li Taixiang to the plane. Unable to bear it, Shoumi proposed to part ways, but for a moment she found herself cornered, and after thinking about it, she determined that only Xia Yang was a trustworthy person, so Shou Mei called Xia Yang at the airport, and the phone was brave, Shou Mei hung up the phone, dragged her luggage straight to Xia Yang's house.
"The same is the fallen man of the world"! Xia Yang's first marriage broke up and he also suffered from being deceived, so he especially pitied Shoumi's suffering. After that, Xia Yang no longer hung up orders, and friends were happy to see that Xia Yang had a "home" with a hot stove and warm words. Shoumei takes good care of Xia Yang's living life, and is also the best listener to Xia Yang, whatever Xia Yang says, Shou Mei listens with relish, watching, listening, and laughing intently. What impressed me the most was that everyone didn't find it funny, but Shoumi heard her giggling back and forth, and the sense of appreciation, happiness, and satisfaction was enviable. I remember that year Xia Yang raised a cat named "OK", of course followed up with the O.K Harris Gallery related, during the Spring Festival, Xia Yang made ten kinds of vegetarian ingredients put together in the hometown New Year dish - "ten coriander", brought to the Spring Festival party to ask for a good idea, I was happy for them in my heart, I wish them perfect and bittersweet. After a period of time, Xia Yang spat bitter water with me, revealed his thoughts, felt that Shoumei treated him too well, afraid that he could not bear this friendship and treated the other party badly, saying: "Hurting other people's hearts is the most lacking in morality." In Xia Yang's eyes, Shoumei is a good woman, but he can't rub the spark of love in this regard, life can be made up but feelings can't be made up, this is his principle, he can only treat Shoumi as a good friend... In the end, Shoumei, who had a strong sense of self-esteem, did not quit and said goodbye to me, and Xia Yang did not like to explain more, but just smiled with a bit of bitterness and warmth. I understand that emotional matters are the most difficult to explain in the world, unclear, impenetrable, and impossible to describe.
Fortunately, in 1977, under the guidance of the painter Xie Lifa, Xia Yang met Wu Shuangxi, a doctor of philosophy, although she came from a rich family in Taiwan, but there was no "big miss" style, very simple, shy, speaking slowly and softly, completely indifferent to material life, and admired Xia Yang's artistic temperament. At first we didn't know that her honorific name had always been called Dr. Her. Xia Yang told me that they had been dating many times, they had not even held hands, one day crossing the road, Xia Yang was afraid that the car would meet his girlfriend, and wanted to help Shuang Xi, but she came to a dance in the middle of the street and jumped in the air and hid. Xia Yang patted his chest with his hand and said in Nanjing, "'Obediently Boom' scared me a lot!" Then the demonstration came with a jump in the air, which made me laugh so hard that I couldn't stand up straight. At the end of the 1970s, when the new York blackout was black, the doctor happened to be a guest at Xia Yang Studio, and the result was that "people do not stay, the sky stays"! After the relationship was determined, they had rough tea and light rice together, tasted and tasted, and simply lived a quiet and quiet life. Xia Yang's two oil poems can glimpse the life interest of this middle-aged couple:
"Thinking of the Old Woman"
The wife did not see the heart panic,
Can't sit still and look out the window,
The sun is stupid and tasteless,
It's fun to hold hands with fools.
"New Drama"
(Sippi shake plate)
Old Xia Yang begged for a big one
Wife, her ass is like
Tarzan, all at once, sat on the big
On the chair, dwell in the house
Little devils are not ridiculous, long-term protection
Health and safety,
Work together to bring life to life
(White) Madame please
(White) Tao Gai please
The weather is sunny today
And I can't help but travel
Play it out
Up (Shangchabu Unsube) * Homophonous Subway
Although Xia Yang joined the famous gallery, he painted slowly, basically painting two or three cloth paintings at most in two years on average, so there were still economic problems of not making ends meet. Dr. Silently stalled in SoHo, in addition to handicrafts, also sells her own paintings, her paintings have a personal special style, combining the characteristics of medieval "icon painting" and Chinese folk religious art. This is a poem for Xia Yang's narrative:
"Stalls"
Take it straight all by crooked beating
The cargo man stall is set up obliquely in front of the door
The dumb house is silent
Good tourists take photos and hang up
Near dusk to collect money
Come under the lamp and count and scold
There is a god of wealth willing to help
Discipline Tao Zhu is also angry
"Afterword to the Stall"
It is under the official book of Xingtou
Collect the stalls and go home!
Xia Yang put the oil poem against a wall
Four
Writing Xia Yang had to remind me of another story about "poverty".
In 1982, Mr. and Mrs. Zhu Mu entrusted Chen Yifei, an artist who had just come from Shanghai to New York, to take care of me. Chen Yifei knew that I was an old friend of their film industry, and he put his situation and interrogation. It turned out that he was a Chinese public student and was assigned to study in Boston, but he only wanted to stay in New York to develop. There is no place to live, to learn English, and to work, and I immediately thought of Mr. Wang Jiqian, a collector of Chinese art, and I had forgotten my friendship. As a result, Mr. Wang Jiqian settled Chen Yifei in his apartment, where he could learn English at Hunter University in New York across the street, and arranged for him to go to the New York art auction house to repair Western oil paintings to make a living. Soon, I took Chen Yifei to visit SoHo, the artist's base camp, and arranged for him to meet with serious and interesting Chinese artists, saying to him: "When I get to SoHo, it would be a pity if I couldn't meet Xia Yang himself and visit his studio." "Xia Yang Studio is on the fourth floor of the old warehouse, there is no elevator, stepping on the precarious staircase, crawling in the light of the dark, and on the left side of the stairs, a pair of big red spring leagues and door gods appear, that is, the door of Xia Yang Studio. Entering to see the tall and narrow rectangular cabin, Xia Yang and his wife warmly received Chen Yifei with a pot of hot tea. When visiting the studio, Xia Yang said that the work itself is the most important point of view of the creator and provides a living and artistic experience in New York. The two old youzha you sent us to the door, and as soon as they left the door, Chen Yifei said to me: "Why is Xia Yang's life so poor?" Frankly tell you, if it is such a low quality of life, it is better to go back to China in New York, where life is much more comfortable..." I was speechless, and simply said: "Xia Yang is an artist who is poor and happy." "I immediately learned that they are two people who have extremely different pursuits of life and art.
In 1992, Xia Yang and his wife decided to "return to the nest" - to return to Taiwan to settle down, the opportunity to meet is less, and the opportunity to go to Taipei always tries to get together with old friends. I remember once I stayed at the home of my friend Zheng Shumin, from my mouth she knew that Xia Yang settled in Yangmingshan, Taipei, set up a family banquet to invite old friends, did not expect that Shuangxi was extremely unwell halfway, and rushed to the emergency room. Only to learn that Shuangxi had a serious heart attack, which was also an important reason for them to leave New York. Under the stability of his life and creative environment, Xia Yang began to search for roots and return, and the theme of his painting style and themes have changed, but he still does not take off his personal symbol of "Mao Mao Ren" and is active in the cross-strait art circles.
I don't know what the reason is, in 2002 Xia Yang and Wu Shuangxi moved to Shanghai. I once saw that there was a pair of couplets in his home, the right link: Guan Tian will sit in the well to stand in the patio to watch; the left link: the amount of the sea should be used to take the Big Dipper to measure. Can't help but make me speculate that maybe the air, sea and land on the other side are much wider, which is easier to stretch?
Every time I have the opportunity to go to Shanghai, I will visit Xia Yang and his wife, chat with them about homely relaxation, comfort, and the attitude of life of two people who have no quarrel with the world and are at ease with the encounter, in Shanghai, the prosperous world, a little different kind of unique style. Unfortunately, Shuangxi died of a heart attack in February 2014, and his friends were worried about Xia Yang's situation, but the whip was too long to help. I believe that time is everything...
In the autumn of the same year, he traveled to China with his mother and stopped in Shanghai. When Xia Yang heard that Aunt Jiang had arrived, he had to receive him. It so happens that he has an exhibition at the Shanghai Expo, mainly exhibiting his new works. Our mother and daughter have him to accompany, first go to see the exhibition - the huge bronze sculpture door god guarded the entrance of the gate, a unique alternative "hairy man", the mighty eight sides and clumsy, childlike simplicity, I shouted sticks, interesting!
Xia Yang told me: "This kind of work can only be done here, I am old, I can no longer move large materials, nor can I climb high and low, I have to have assistants and students to help." "He was widowed in old age, but he never mentioned it, and I couldn't bear to ask, but I was very interested in seeing him that day, and I was full of confidence that I had taken a big step beyond in artistic creation." After watching the exhibition, he had to invite our mother and daughter to dinner, and at the table he said: "Auntie, you picked expensive dishes, now it's not like in New York, I have money in my pocket!" Speaking so bluntly, with a thick and happy expression on his face, I was sad to hear it.
Xia Yang's "Door God" (courtesy of Eslite Gallery)
The last time I met Xia Yang was in the autumn of 2018, I heard in Shanghai that Wang Anyi's other half of his body was not in good health at home to recuperate, before going to visit, he said that I had an appointment not to have dinner together first, when I got up to say goodbye when it was getting late, the host wanted to know my destination to help me call a car, and when I checked the address, I inadvertently revealed that I was going to Xia Yang's house. Probably driven by the writer's curiosity: "Alas—why do many of my friends who come to Shanghai say in unison that they must go to see Xia Yang?" Who is He divine? "If you are interested, you can go with me, a very interesting good person, a good painter, you will like him..." Wang Anyi said: "The aunt at home just wrapped the wontons with cabbage, and we will take them when it is time to eat, how about it?" I am a person who will not be polite, and immediately interface: "Hold it, fresh cabbage can not be eaten abroad." "Actually, I want to eat my hometown flavor."
Xia Yang and Wang Anyi and Jiang Qing (from left to right)
When I arrived at Xia Yang's house, it was still the same way, since mrs. Shuangxi's death, it seemed that Xia Yang had returned to the bare stick life state when I met him in New York, and the home was not trim and cold pots and cold stoves.
After I introduced each other, Xia Yang pulled up a stool and invited the guests to sit down, saying: "I just opened a personal retrospective exhibition of "Guan You Fun" in Taipei, and only returned to Shanghai, and I have not recovered my 'vitality' for a while, and I have not painted recently. Wang Anyi volunteered to be a kitchen lady, found that the refrigerator was empty, can only put the ravioli in the soy sauce soup, I suggested that Xia Yang call a few cold cuts to eat when drinking, Xia Yang said: "There are wontons to eat enough, hey - you are still so wasteful? "Be criticized by the master, thinking that the old friend must be in a bad mood, according to his wishes."
After the wontons were eaten, he took the album of this exhibition for us to see, Xia Yang talked about painting and painting, his eyes were still flashing and shining, and suddenly he suddenly realized: "Hey - this friend you brought is a very famous writer?" "I nodded." Ah - sorry, a little old and confused lately, hurry up! "Say it and go looking for a gift to give to your guests—an exhibition album." When Wang Anyi flipped through the album, I took the opportunity to ask Xia Yang: "The doctor is gone, has it been difficult to survive these years?" Calmly replied: "You should know that the greatest benefit of the artist is that the emotion is sustenance, although it is sad and sad for people to leave, but the creation of artistic creation can dispel worries." You see I'm pretty good, just rest assured! A warm signature smile hung on his face. We cherished each other and embraced each other and said goodbye.
Xia Yang's "Exit" (courtesy of Eslite Gallery)
Writing here, I suddenly thought, what a coincidence, these days New York is hot "summer heat like fire", just I am writing About Xia Yang, a maomao person who is "poor and happy". Haruka wishes the old friend such a self-created oil poem in the future:
sky
Xingjian
Like galloping horses
Sweat shines
Bilong flies
Chase under the hooves of time and space
July 7, 2021 in New York
Author:Jiang Qing
Editors: Andy, Qian Yutong