Field of Fluidity
Ava Hsueh
薛保瑕
Production date
2014
Object Detail
Media
acrylic on canvas
Measurements
diptych 260 x 162 cm
Notes
In mid-twentieth century New York, in a famous conversation with writer Selden Rodman, Mark Rothko said that his paintings were intended to represent basic human emotions, ‘tragedy, ecstasy, doom and so on.’ This conversation between the critic and the painter took place in 1956, the year of Ava Hsueh’s birth. When she arrived in New York in the 1980s, she was often asked about the continuing relevance of abstraction, and the future of painting in a postmodern world. These questions became the central concern of her practice. From a cultural background in which shape, line and mark are invested with symbolic significance in both calligraphy and ink painting, the young Hsueh began to explore the creation of narrative references in works that at first appeared to be pure abstraction, investigating the tensions and contradictions between figuration and abstraction.
Hsueh is interested in theories of semantics and linguistics. She is fascinated by polysemy, the possibility that a sign or code (or word) may possess multiple meanings. Densely layered and calligraphic, with their interwoven and overlapping brush marks works such as the diptych Field of Fluidity (2014) reveal an artist in command of her abstract idiom. A field filled with furious energy, teeming with life, the painting recalls the skeins and whorls of paint applied by mid-century American abstract expressionist painters. Flicks of paint create a web of black, white and pale blue across a deeper blue surface. The work is lyrical, fluid and deeply personal, underpinned by Ava Hsueh’s knowledge of Chinese ink painting traditions, and the expressive yet highly controlled gestures of the calligrapher’s brush. In her undergraduate training at National Taiwan Normal University’s Department of Fine Arts, Hsueh studied western painting and art history, but simultaneously continued her study of ink painting; she immersed herself in the ‘bai miao’ technique of linear drawing with a fine supple Chinese brush, learning how to paint the ‘four noble ones’ – the plum blossom, bamboo, chrysanthemum and the orchid. Echoes of these ink traditions remain in Hsueh’s mature abstract works.
Hsueh is interested in theories of semantics and linguistics. She is fascinated by polysemy, the possibility that a sign or code (or word) may possess multiple meanings. Densely layered and calligraphic, with their interwoven and overlapping brush marks works such as the diptych Field of Fluidity (2014) reveal an artist in command of her abstract idiom. A field filled with furious energy, teeming with life, the painting recalls the skeins and whorls of paint applied by mid-century American abstract expressionist painters. Flicks of paint create a web of black, white and pale blue across a deeper blue surface. The work is lyrical, fluid and deeply personal, underpinned by Ava Hsueh’s knowledge of Chinese ink painting traditions, and the expressive yet highly controlled gestures of the calligrapher’s brush. In her undergraduate training at National Taiwan Normal University’s Department of Fine Arts, Hsueh studied western painting and art history, but simultaneously continued her study of ink painting; she immersed herself in the ‘bai miao’ technique of linear drawing with a fine supple Chinese brush, learning how to paint the ‘four noble ones’ – the plum blossom, bamboo, chrysanthemum and the orchid. Echoes of these ink traditions remain in Hsueh’s mature abstract works.
Accession number
2015.084