‘Reading Abstract Art’ of Li Xiangyang(李向阳)

LEE Janguk

Art without themes that newly emerged in the early 20th century was an overly revolutionary concept. No recognizable figures or objects appeared in the artwork. The viewers could not find the allegory in the work even if they wanted to. Only organic or geometric shapes, or large colored surfaces or vertical and horizontal lines, filled the canvas.

The first decade of the 20th century was a time when fauvism and expressionism artists completely overturned the relationship between color and nature that they used to portray the existing nature. Cubism broke down the conventional sense of space by decomposing objects into several sides, while futurism challenged the concept of time. Many avant-garde artists pioneered new fields of art in various styles, and eventually art unfolded so rapidly that the public could not follow the contents.

Prior to 1910, most artists dealt with themes, which were relatively easy for viewers to recognize, in other words, reality. Even Picasso and Braque dealt with figurative images again in the final stage of cubism, which is comprehensive cubism. The theme has always stood firm in the painting.

After this period, a great leap in art takes place. The artists began to remove the immediately recognizable subjects from the canvas. For those who thought the foundation of art was to recreate the world they saw, this was tremendous. The key word to summarize this 20th century art would be ‘Abstract’. Abstract art was the two-face of modernism and its artistic goal. Abstract art has become a huge trend around the world.

At this time, neighboring Asian artists produced works featuring styles of Unstructured Expressionism with passionate colors and brush touches influenced by European informel and American action painting, and this trend is known as the "Korean Informel". From the mid-1970s to the 1980s, Minimalism paintings of monochrome, later known as "Dansaekhwa", were developed, expressing the flatness and homogeneity of modernism painting canvas, while focusing on the immateriality and mentality of white.

The abstract paintings of Li Xiangyang were developed in various ways, along with the introduction of postmodernism in the 20th century and other artistic trends. During his study abroad in Italy from 1981 to his return to Beijing in 2005, he was influenced by various abstract works in Europe through his studies and creative activities for a long time, melting this into his own work by producing various abstract works.

Li Xiangyang(李向阳) Abstract Art, reading the hidden context
In abstract art, or all types art, its not just what you see. Everything in sight is intertwined with invisible personal, social, or inter-artistic contexts. What ‘Reading Abstract Art’ of Li Xiangyang(李向阳) aims at is to reveal the very invisible things. This is not just to 'view’ but is a process that is possible through specific and intensive 'reading'. More precisely, this is possible by reading 'what is seen'. His work, shown through this exhibition, visualizes the Li Xiangyang-style abstract expression that only he can show, which combines oriental aesthetic expressions using black and white ink and monochromatic color, and Western style using abstraction. The materials and symbols used in the work are sufficient to fascinate Western perspectives and us of the present-day. As Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) said, "To create a work of art is to create the world." Unfortunately, he is not here at the moment, but I'd like to take some time to understand his artistic world together today.