The China Project

79 Three Decades: The Contemporary Chinese Collection DING Fang Ding Fang is best known for his ‘human’ landscapes. Since the early 1980s, he has painted stirring works that focus on subjects of north-west China’s Loess Plateau. Although his paintings often contain deserted villages, sterile earth and ruined cities, he uses this subject matter to reflect on the continuing grandeur of this landscape, shaped by centuries of human toil. Born in 1956 in Shanxi Province, Ding Fang was a prominent member of the second generation of post-Cultural Revolution artists known as ’85 New Wave. Influenced by Western art and thought, the ’85 New Wave artists sought new artistic forms through which to express the contemporary Chinese cultural environment, applying humanist ideals, and ideas of spiritual transformation to their representations of the harsh realities of Chinese life. Drawing on his studies of both Western and Chinese religion, Ding Fang responds to the cultural history of north China, where he was born, with symbolic paintings of local people and folk customs as well as the imaginary ruins of ancient cities. Imbued with a sense of tragedy, martyrdom and transcendence, the paintings employ a heroic style of Western classical art. The draped cloths worn by local figures become lines articulating features of the landscape, just as abandoned ancient ruins are haunted by the people whose lives helped to shape them. In Ding Fang’s ‘City’ series paintings, impressive architectural structures and their ruins inhabit the richly figured landscapes of the Yellow River valley in Shanxi Province. The choice of the Yellow River valley landscape is crucial, as the river’s basin is the birthplace not only of the artist but also of northern Chinese civilisation. In this series, ancient ruins of a once prosperous civilisation possess a reverential, quasi-religious spirit, inspiring a sense of optimism. An attempt to revitalise a positive sense of history about this area is particularly apt, as periodic and destructive flooding of the lower regions of the Yellow River resulted in it being known as ‘China’s sorrow’. Harsh working conditions in the local coal-mining industry have also had a devastating impact on residents of this area. In Ding Fang’s painting ( Great Wall in top register ) (from ‘City’ series) c.1984–85, the motif of the Great Wall of China, which forms most of the northern border of Shanxi, symbolises the grandeur of Chinese civilisation within an otherwise forbidding landscape. This impressive architectural structure recalls a history of ambitious modernisation and the maintenance of Chinese culture against invaders. In this way, Ding Fang’s painting hints at a sense of transcendence and possibility. The interplay of history, allegory and acts of the imagination are foremost in these paintings. Ding Fang recognises the ancient landscape of the Yellow River as a site of contemporary suffering as well as a symbol of potential new beginnings. Rather than reject the area’s rich history, Ding Fang attempts a deeper understanding of the role of the past in any sense of cultural revitalisation. For him, it is the role of art to express and stimulate this possibility. What I am striving for is an unsophisticated, realistic style which aims to express the spirit of the north by a simple and solid artistic language. These realist techniques are forceful even if regarded as outdated. But I still insist that the silent greatness inherent in the northern lands is the foundation for this art to enter into the future culture of mankind.’ 1 (Inside the fortress) (from ‘City’ series) c.1984–85 / Oil on linen / 48 x 66cm (framed) / Collection: Nicholas Jose and Claire Roberts / Proposed for the Queensland Art Gallery Collection ( Great Wall in top register ) (from ‘City’ series) c.1984–85 Oil on linen / 48 x 66cm (framed) / Collection: Nicholas Jose and Claire Roberts / Proposed for the Queensland Art Gallery Collection endnote 1 Ding Fang, ‘Cheng-Wenhua de fansi [Castle: Reflections on culture]’, Zhongguo Meishubao , 28 December, 1985 in Gao Minglu et al, The Wall: Reshaping Contemporary Chinese Art [exhibition catalogue], Albright-Knox Art Gallery, University at Buffalo Art Galleries, New York; and Millennium Art Museum, Beijing, 2005, p.99.