WANG GUANGLE

(B.1976)

160116

Footnotes

Provenance
Pace Gallery, London
Private Collection
Sale: Hong Kong, Christie's, Post-Millennium Evening Sale, 28 May 2023, Lot 26
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Exhibited
London, Pace Gallery, Wang Guangle: Yellow, 18 March – 16 April 2016

王光樂
160116
壓克力 畫布
2016年作

簽名："160116" 布上丙烯 280x180 cm 王光乐 2016 (背面）

來源
倫敦，佩斯畫廊
私人收藏
拍賣：香港，佳士得，「千禧後晚間拍賣」，2023年5月28日，拍品編號26
現藏家得自上述來源

展覽
「王光樂:黃色」，佩斯畫廊，倫敦，2016年3月18日-4月16日

"There was a work from 2004 titled One Litre of Nippon Paint at my solo exhibition "Waves". At the time, I bought a can of Nippon Paint from a building materials market and then painted it layer by layer onto a canvas, with each layer slightly receding from the last, stacking to form a pyramidal structure. While I was making it, I didn't know what I was doing; it was a period of confusion in my painting. My landlord asked me what I was doing, and the answer I gave an expert who asked was the same: I don't know. I was painting, yet I wasn't just painting-I was simply doing it driven by unconsciousness. After finishing it and hanging it up, my eyes would always linger on it. It was only a long time later that I realized I was actually using painting to ask myself: What's the meaning of you doing this? There was no answer, yet it made me aware of this ultimate question of "meaninglessness." The loneliness, existence, time, death, and other concepts involved in this are all contained within it. This work subsequently developed into the later Untitled series."
— Wang Guangle

Wang Guangle graduated from the First Studio of the Oil Painting Department at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, renowned for its rigorous training in classical realist painting. He benefited from the teachings of Chao Ge, whose doctrine of "driving technique with aesthetics" emphasized that technical skill should not be an end in itself, but rather a preparation for the subsequent interpretation of one's own "knowledge and action." Consequently, we can observe in his work a scrupulous yet unadorned and direct emotional expression. Whether it is the reproduction of "terrazzo" on canvas—refining and transposing an ordinary material to provide the viewer with distance and space for contemplation; or the "Coffin Paint" series, where each flatly applied layer is slightly smaller than the last, forming an understanding of "reduction" or death itself; or even the Sisyphean, repetitive labor evident in the Untitled series, Wang Guangle's paintings possess a highly refined, Zen-like beauty that allows viewers to linger in pure emotion and philosophical thought.

160116 is dominated by a large-format, vibrant yellow hue. Through uniform, flat colouring and colour gradations, the composition transitions from blurred white edges, gradually converging towards the most brilliant yellow at the very centre of the canvas. Layer upon layer, continuous and unbroken, this process ultimately draws the visual focus to the heart of the painting, creating a dreamlike, profound, and boundless space for meditation. The Untitled series originates from the artist's "unconscious" acts within his painting practice. Through the repetitive actions of applying, covering, and layering paint, he completes the very act of "painting" itself. For a professional artist, "painting" constitutes their daily "labour." It is within this day-after-day "labour" that the artist gradually comes to understand his own mind and nature; simultaneously, the painting itself manifests this same principle. In this cyclical process, not only is abstract time made visible through the emergent image, but the artist also achieves a transcendence of his own state of being, thereby endowing the act of painting itself with a new language.

160116 is radiant and brilliantly luminous. Yellow is a remarkably rare colour in Wang Guangle's whole works, yet the colour itself carries numerous connotations specific to Chinese culture: it symbolizes optimism and positive energy; it is a colour associated with imperial power; and it holds the literal, literally meaning of the erotic. This work was previously exhibited in Wang Guangle's 2016 solo exhibition at Pace Gallery, London, an exhibition named "Yellow." Also, it was the artist's first solo exhibition in Europe, so this work is one of the most important works of the artist.

In the Untitled series, Wang Guangle progressively builds countless layers of pigment from the edges of the canvas towards the centre. Through subtle colour transitions, he ultimately forms a visual space in the picture like a "black hole." Within this practice, the artist divests himself of any subjective, emotional intervention, retaining only the fundamental labour attribute of painting-the act of flat application-and the physical nature of his medium, the paint itself. This process dissolves the conventional significance of "creation" and customary "painterliness." Yet, through the artist's presentation of "material" and "objecthood," a new kind of "painterliness" is conceived and born. This brings to mind the wisdom of the Tao Te Ching: "Thus Being and non-being produce each other; Difficult and easy complete each other; Long and short contrast each other; High and low distinguish each other; Sound and tone harmonize each other; Front and back follow each other." From this, the work generates a mysterious and sublime sense of divinity and a powerful, eternal beauty.

「在我「波浪」這個個展上有一件2004年的作品，名字叫做《一升立邦漆》。當時我在建材市場買了一罐立邦漆，然後就在畫布上一層一層地塗，一層比一層縮進，層疊成金字塔結構，我做的時候我不知道自己在幹嘛，那是我的繪畫的迷茫期。我的房東問我這是在幹嘛和一個專家問我得到的答案是一樣的：我不知道。我在畫畫，我又不是在畫畫那個狀態，我是只憑著無意識那麼做。做完了掛起來，眼睛總會在上面停留，過了很長時間以後，我才意識到，其實我是在用畫畫在問自己：你這麼做有什麼意義？答案並沒有，卻讓我意識到「無意義」這個終極問題。這個東西涉及到的孤獨，存在，時間，死亡等，就都在裡頭了。這件作品也就發展出後來的「無題」系列。」
— 王光樂

王光樂畢業於以嚴謹的古典寫實繪畫訓練而著稱的中央美術學院油畫系第一工作室，得益於朝戈老師的教義—以審美帶動技術，不將技術看作目的，而是為之後演繹自己的「知與行」做準備。因此，我們可以在他的作品中看到一種一絲不苟的，同時質樸、直接的情感抒發，無論是在畫布上再現「水磨石」，將尋常之物提煉轉移，提供給觀者觀看的距離和空間，或是「壽漆」中每次平塗地面積比前一次缺少一點，從而形成對「減少」，亦或是「死亡」本身的理解，又或是「無題」系列中，如西西弗斯般的不斷勞作，王光樂的繪畫都有一種高度提煉性的禪意之美，讓觀者不斷在純粹的情感和哲學思考中流連忘返。

《160116》以大尺幅的明亮的黃色為主色調，以均勻的平塗與色彩疊加逐漸使畫面由邊緣模糊的白色，逐漸向畫面中央最為明豔的黃色靠近收攏，層層疊疊、連綿不絕，最終使視覺焦點會於畫面中心，形成了一個如夢似幻、深邃無垠的冥想空間。「無題」系列源於藝術家在繪畫實踐中的「無意識」行爲，通過不斷的塗抹，覆蓋與疊加，完成「畫畫」本身這個動作，而「畫畫」本身即為一位職業藝術家每日的「勞作」，而在日復一日「勞作」之中，藝術家逐漸明心見性，同時畫面亦是此理，如此循環往復之中，不僅抽象的時間通過呼之欲出的畫面而顯現，藝術家自身亦完成了自我境界的超越，也為繪畫本身賦予了新的語言。

《160116》色彩明豔，光芒萬丈。黃色是王光樂的創作中非常罕見的色彩，但黃色本身卻承載了許多中國特色的含義，如象徵樂觀積極的情緒、象徵王權的色彩，以及字面意思所指代的情色意味等，本作曾經在王光樂2016年於倫敦佩斯的個展中展出，展覽亦是以「黃色」為題，作為藝術家首次歐洲的個展，本作重要性也不言而喻。

「無題」系列中，王光樂將無數個顏料層由畫布邊界不斷推進至畫面中心，通過色彩過渡，最終在畫面上形成一個如圖「黑洞」一般的視覺空間。在這個實踐當中，藝術家拋棄掉了自己的一切感性介入，僅保留繪畫本身的勞動屬性，即平塗這種繪畫模式，以及勞動的工具媒介，即顏料的物理性質，消解了尋常「創作」和常規的「繪畫性」的意義。但隨著藝術家對於「材料」與「物性」的呈現，一種新的「繪畫性」也孕育-誕生了，一如《道德經》中的智慧：「故有無相生，難易相成，長短相形，高下相傾，音聲相和，前後相隨。」，作品也由此生發出一種神秘崇高的神性與強烈的永恆之美。