Mr. Du’s painting aesthetics and his skill system belong to the School of the Soviet Union in the 1950s and 1960s. The doctrine or limitation of the oil painting with the Soviet style lies in the so-called socialist realism, but its strength and its charm lie in the strong reflection from the impressionism. When sketching from nature, it advocates to grasp substances decisively and to catch light and shadow, especially to catch the cold-warm change of color. It also lays emphasis on the unexpected but well-commanded flickering effect that is gained before the colors are mixed evenly. When the later generations review this kind of paintings, they easily neglect that this sketch was on the advanced guard in China in the 1950s.

　　In large number of his works, his colors and brushstrokes are active, sharp, fierce and thick. His brushwork, including knifework, runs closely after the light on and shadows of the substances. The uplink, pile and abstraction of each form or each color are done unthinking, which is like a forcible wind sweeping over the grass, delightful, enthusiastic, full of life.

　　An inborn observer and expresser, he did not know in those years how to paint the so-called revolutionary works so that he had impossibly gained some achievement in the official space. Being in the southwestern part, the depths of the country, he had to endure more frustration and more cold reception that the outsiders were hard to imagine. Only because of this, painting became the last miraculous light for him to struggle for life.

　　In his paintings, I particularly enjoy his quiver, jumpy, fragile but tenacious. Like many artists who without luck are not famous in their life, he has not left in his works any impression of his misfortune, even not left any hint of it.

　　In the depths of the country, as I know, the similar characters and similar painting styles emerge and perish of themselves. What I have said is also a deep sigh for the long unfairness in the art world.

 

19 April 2009

速写

速写