Composition 15-1
Feng Lianghong
冯良鸿
Production date
2015
Object Detail
Media
oil on canvas
Measurements
200 x 250 cm
Notes
‘I firmly believe that painting will not meet its end if you love it from the heart’, said Feng Lianghong, who has never paused since he completed his first abstract painting to celebrate his twentieth birthday. Feng belonged to the group of Shanghai artists in the late 1980s who were fascinated by the spontaneity and free expression of abstract art. After moving to Brooklyn in New York in 1990, he drew inspiration from mottled murals and graffiti which were ubiquitous on abandoned buildings and factories nearby his studio, and also from western artists such as John Cage, Brice Marden, etc, whose works cleverly reference traditional Chinese art and philosophy. Cage’s 4’33” was profoundly influential for Feng’s practices. Referencing ‘mindfulness’ in Zen Buddhism, Cage’s work invites audiences to notice and focus on one’s inner sense and their individual connections with the exterior world. This Zen approach and the thought of ‘Emptiness’ have become Feng’s fundamental principle while he paints. His work is not about any concept but an unpredictable dialogue between his inner heart, hands and the canvas. Feng wrote, ‘I don’t want to purposefully pursue a certain pattern, and would rather present each detail in painting, real, natural and meaningless, just like the inherent appearance presented by the object.’ He applies blocks of thick impasto pigment punctured by all manner of marks to his large canvases, in which calligraphic brushstrokes, sgraffito, paint splashes, drips and stains are juxtaposed on a strong textured surface.
Accession number
2015.167