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Lot Essay
“IN THE END, MY WORK IS ABOUT THE FIGURATIVE, SPACE, AND THE SPACE IN PAINTING, OR IT EXPRESSES SOMETHING ELSE THROUGH PAINTING, LIKE CREATING A KIND OF SOUND THROUGH PAINTING. THERE IS MULTIPLICITY IN PAINTING, OR PAINTING ALWAYS EXTENDS BEYOND ITSELF. I WANT TO EXPAND VISION AND FEELINGS IN PAINTING.”
Xie created Untitled (Wall) in 2000, a year after he rose to fame at the Venice Biennale in 1999. In the same year, the painter left his hometown of Chongqing, and moved to Beijing in search of new inspiration. The documentary approach and human figures that frequently appear in Xie’s works from the preceding years are no longer present in this work. With the Untitled Series, Xie shifted his focus to creating a series of 2-metre-tall and 3-metre-wide paintings. The images in the series, ranging from a section of corridor, a wall corner, the blue flame on a gas stove, or an oil stain, all evoke a mysterious aura that are evocative of transitions in a film. After deciding on the theme and setting of a painting, Xie would use an automatic camera to photograph the compositions and angles that came closest to the imagery he had in mind. The repetitive experiment allowed him to capture images that echoed those that otherwise only existed in the depths of his memory. Afterwards, he would spend a few months working on the painting, as he transposed and enlarged the grains, impressions and objects in the photos onto the canvas with meticulous detail.
Through the cropping of the photographic angles, and the pondering and re-creation that underlie the transposition of imagery onto the canvas, existent scenes and objects become images that are interwoven with the artist’s memories and feelings. The blend of the figurative into transposition of imagery is akin to American female painter Ellen Altfest’s highly realistic depiction of the texture of flannel. What is portrayed is the process of the artist’s observation and the representation of painting. The theme of the wall carries particular intrigue; when the painting is hung against the wall, the composition becomes an extension of a space, creating an atmosphere of ambiguity and displacement.
As a small photo is enlarged into a painting that is about the actual size of the object depicted, the object is preserved and turned into eternity. This approach to painting from photos, which captures the spirit of the object, bears resemblance to Richter’s classic painting Candle. In Richter’s brushwork, the candle is awash in gentle light, while the candle flame shimmers between hints of serenity and romance. The way in which the light sources complement each other reveals Richter’s nuanced pursuit of atmosphere in painting. In a similar vein, Xie preserves in Untitled (Wall) the faint light from the fluorescent tube at the wall corner, and accentuates it with the large area of exposure of the wall. It shows a firm grasp on the interweaving of light and shadow and the sense of imagery in the composition, which captivates the viewer’s attention in unexpected ways. “My work is a hoax. Doesn’t everyone have some kind of bias towards painting? People say, “Look, it’s always the same thing. Every artist only repeats themselves.” So you see, every work from this series of mine does the same thing: imitation, imitation and imitation. I’ve consciously adopted this approach to defy this kind of bias, before it becomes a widely popular notion and makes people forget what painting is. The reason I borrow from Monet’s method is that I want to see if the audience can still appreciate painting in the age of photography today, even if this painting will make the viewer think of the photographic process.” By “Monet’s method”, Xie is referring to the use of stylised painting and the impressionist methods to present the grains, the smooth texture of lime, and the figurative imagery in the photo, while leaving the outlines blurry and out-of-focus. In the artist’s rendering, the commonplace image feels familiar, yet it rings with a sense of coldness and distance. The wall in the painting appears faraway and out of reach, what he reveals in the painting is his memory and his feelings of space. Amidst the sentiments that proclaim “painting is dead”, Xie quietly shows in his art his profound understanding of the nature of painting.
Xie created Untitled (Wall) in 2000, a year after he rose to fame at the Venice Biennale in 1999. In the same year, the painter left his hometown of Chongqing, and moved to Beijing in search of new inspiration. The documentary approach and human figures that frequently appear in Xie’s works from the preceding years are no longer present in this work. With the Untitled Series, Xie shifted his focus to creating a series of 2-metre-tall and 3-metre-wide paintings. The images in the series, ranging from a section of corridor, a wall corner, the blue flame on a gas stove, or an oil stain, all evoke a mysterious aura that are evocative of transitions in a film. After deciding on the theme and setting of a painting, Xie would use an automatic camera to photograph the compositions and angles that came closest to the imagery he had in mind. The repetitive experiment allowed him to capture images that echoed those that otherwise only existed in the depths of his memory. Afterwards, he would spend a few months working on the painting, as he transposed and enlarged the grains, impressions and objects in the photos onto the canvas with meticulous detail.
Through the cropping of the photographic angles, and the pondering and re-creation that underlie the transposition of imagery onto the canvas, existent scenes and objects become images that are interwoven with the artist’s memories and feelings. The blend of the figurative into transposition of imagery is akin to American female painter Ellen Altfest’s highly realistic depiction of the texture of flannel. What is portrayed is the process of the artist’s observation and the representation of painting. The theme of the wall carries particular intrigue; when the painting is hung against the wall, the composition becomes an extension of a space, creating an atmosphere of ambiguity and displacement.
As a small photo is enlarged into a painting that is about the actual size of the object depicted, the object is preserved and turned into eternity. This approach to painting from photos, which captures the spirit of the object, bears resemblance to Richter’s classic painting Candle. In Richter’s brushwork, the candle is awash in gentle light, while the candle flame shimmers between hints of serenity and romance. The way in which the light sources complement each other reveals Richter’s nuanced pursuit of atmosphere in painting. In a similar vein, Xie preserves in Untitled (Wall) the faint light from the fluorescent tube at the wall corner, and accentuates it with the large area of exposure of the wall. It shows a firm grasp on the interweaving of light and shadow and the sense of imagery in the composition, which captivates the viewer’s attention in unexpected ways. “My work is a hoax. Doesn’t everyone have some kind of bias towards painting? People say, “Look, it’s always the same thing. Every artist only repeats themselves.” So you see, every work from this series of mine does the same thing: imitation, imitation and imitation. I’ve consciously adopted this approach to defy this kind of bias, before it becomes a widely popular notion and makes people forget what painting is. The reason I borrow from Monet’s method is that I want to see if the audience can still appreciate painting in the age of photography today, even if this painting will make the viewer think of the photographic process.” By “Monet’s method”, Xie is referring to the use of stylised painting and the impressionist methods to present the grains, the smooth texture of lime, and the figurative imagery in the photo, while leaving the outlines blurry and out-of-focus. In the artist’s rendering, the commonplace image feels familiar, yet it rings with a sense of coldness and distance. The wall in the painting appears faraway and out of reach, what he reveals in the painting is his memory and his feelings of space. Amidst the sentiments that proclaim “painting is dead”, Xie quietly shows in his art his profound understanding of the nature of painting.