The work of Chen Ruo Bing has an enormous impact. Whether in large or small format, we immediately recognize an idiosyncratic, poetic imagery, great mastery of painting and an original contribution to the universal development of painting. In order to interpret his work and introduce it to a wider audience, a brief characterization of development, image production and content of Chen Ruo Bing’s work is given here. First, his development as an artist is discussed after which his work is briefly placed against the tradition of American colorfield painters, European monochrome painters and an understanding of essential elements of China’s rich visual culture that still influences Chen’s work. This contributes to a possible interpretation of the meaning of Chen Ruo Bing’s work, which is given at the end. But let one thing be clear: the works of Chen Ruo Bing speak for themselves and to everyone in a different, personal way.
Consistent development
Chen Ruo Bing came to Düsseldorf in the 1990s to study at the academy with Gotthard Graubner, among others. Trained in Hangzhou and a gifted painter with extensive experience in ink painting and calligraphy, he looked for more challenges in Europe so that he could further develop his work. The story may be assumed familiar by now. If the black and white work from the Han dynasty was initially an important source of inspiration, under the influence of his stay in Düsseldorf, Chen began to work more and more with color. Doing so he gradually emersed into the realm of abstract art. The slow transition to abstract painting Chen characterized in 2007 as “ Different artists find different ways to achieve the transformation from substance to spirit. The working of the material, the paint itself, transcends materiality to become spiritual. I do this by establishing and elongating something real to become something abstract. From this perspective, abstract art is actually realistic art”. Chen words recall to memory an artist like Piet Mondriaan who reached abstraction in a similar way.
In his work of the early 00s, there were three traces of development in his work:
– Small shapes repeating across the surface taking up a place within a dominant color plane (add illustration 1 and 2)
– Grid structures that blend into a color plane. Here is a recurring theme in his work where form dissolves, as it were, into color. (add illustration 3)
– A dominant, almost monumental form standing in the color plane. (add illustration 4).
In his current work, starting from 2012 to the present, traces of all three can be found. The form that dissolves, as it were, the concentration in the image on a singular pattern or form within the frame of the painting and the emptiness of the painting with the endless dimension of color within which the form provides access, as it were, to another space.
But from 2012, one can also see that Chen Ruo Bing increasingly chooses a singular form, often a rounded square shape or a convex, stone-like shape in a bright, distinctive color that is, as it were, the gatekeeper to another space created by color. That shape can either be clearly delineated in relation to the space in which it is located or looming and dissolving in a sea of light and color that surrounds it. The origin of the form is always three dimensional. This is where perhaps the influence of Graubner can be found. In the cloudy surface of color where far and near are hard to read. Where the body of the shape dissolves in space and color. Whether painted in a large format or an intimate small format, the effect is tremendous. It evokes associations with Turner’s paintings of boats in the fog, the romantic feeling of the “sublime” where man is void in comparison to the grandeur of nature.
But there are also in his work the distinct forms. Sometimes they seek the edges of the painting and almost force them outward, the form enlarges the frame and thus the space of the painting itself, sometimes the form frames a new space within the painting. There the idea of the abstract gatekeeper giving us a glimpse of a new, endless space is strongest.
The use of color, the intensity of color, the concentration on balance between color, form, size and space, immediately evoke associations with the rich tradition of Western artists who have focused on color. There are the European founders of modernism, such as Piet Mondriaan, Josef Albers, Kazimir Malevich and post-war artists like Daniel Buren, Niele Toroni , for who serial repetition of simple forms of bright color is exemplary and the afore mentioned Graubner, with his more spiritual use of color and “the body” of the painting. But also American colorfield painters like Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman and Ad Reinhard or Brice Marden. Both traditions sought mutually incomparable content in their work. The poetic, deeply spiritual of the American artists, the spiritual of Turner but also the search for a new visual vocabulary that connects with the modern era of the European artists, all come together in the work of Chen Ruo Bing.
Chinese Cultural Identity
If we want to get a grip on what Chen’s work is about in order to appreciate him, some understanding of the rich Chinese cultural tradition – if such a rough generalization is possible at all – is important. Involuntarily, then, we revert to the body of thought attributed to the philosopher Lao Zi, believed to have worked in the 6th century BC. He was one of the founders of Taoism with his Dao De Jing. In it he describes the essence of things in a number of simple insights. Change is inherent in existence. Good and evil are inseparable. The ‘sage’ will therefore never strive for anything, but accept what life brings. It is in the water, which fills space without distinguishing between good or bad, that we recognize harmony. Harmony between the infinite, (heaven, universe) and the earth (nature, society) and man himself, is what we must open ourselves to and what ‘the sage’ attain. In these insights we can recognize much of typical Western systems of thought. The elusiveness of the ideal (Plato); the presence of the perfect in the germ of earthly manifestations (Aristotle), the dialectical symbiosis of opposing quantities (Hegel). However, the extent to which Lao Zi’s thinking is anchored in the appreciation of nature, rain, wind, spring and autumn reveals a poetry that the West lacks. A good example might be the sign for “life” which is at once also a sign in which “the taste of water on your tongue” can be recognized. A richness in thinking and associating that we should take with us in looking at Chen’s work.
Colors, viewed from a Chinese perspective, sometimes refer to different meanings or feelings than from a Western perspective. In Chen’s work we see a lot of use of yellow and orange. Often the red with which he reinforces his yellow in small splashes is still present. Yellow can be associated with earth, happiness or movement/change. Red refers to prosperity and joy. The purple and lilac Chen uses could refer to immortality or love and romance. Green, a color Chen often uses in the base is associated with cleanness, immaculateness. That wealth of sensory perception and associations swirls around us when we stand in front of a painting by Chen. Impalpable and intangible, they contribute to the kaleidoscopic understanding and experience of space, our existence and time. We must also literally take the time to experience this.
Significance
Chen is not concerned with the proclamation of a single truth or insight. He wants us to experience the world in all its beauty and horror. But then on an abstract, elevated, that is to say, lifted above the anecdotal, level. Then we recognize in the development of his work a consistent, very sincere, search for an ever richer expression of universal facts. We can recognize this in the titles he gives his exhibitions. For instance “Into The Light”, “What We Cannot Speak About”and “The Silence Of Light”.
In an interview Chen is explicit on his views on the use of abstraction and form: “The images in the painting are certainly emblematic of the spiritual and the material world. Geometric drawings, apart from having “form” also have “character”. “Forms” with ‘character’ can breathe, have the power of life. They are gentle and calm symbols of positive energy. On the flat surface of the canvas, ‘forms’ with ‘character’ represent the abstraction of the material world. At the same time it is a concretization, it is emblematic of the spiritual world.”
In addition, his search for an accomplished painting is also an essential aspect of his development. In his studio, as a reminder and a source of inspiration, there is still a ink-drawing which he made, inspired by the paintings from the Han dynasty. (add illustration 6)
Chen Ruo Bing paints in a controlled, concentrated – almost meditative – state. He uses expensive materials but in a restrained manner. His work is rich in spirit but poor in matter. Often sparsely applied on canvases stretched on thin stretcher bars. A color plane is applied to the often unprocessed canvas, after which he gradually builds up the work with large and small brushes. The artist’s handwriting remains inconspicuous but unmistakably present. The large forms are clearly hand-painted and may be whimsical. Sometimes the splashes of paint on the canvas are still present. The making itself, the moment of creating and perfecting is a permanently visible part of the painting. No matter how refined, simple and effective a painting may seem. A very nice example is “Untitled (1230)” (illustration 5) which he painted between 2012 and 2020. It is a large painting measuring 180 cm x 180 cm. The representation is simple, but the effect, the impact on the viewer is great. Although he worked on this for 8 years, there is nothing of that labor in the painting, which is clear, beautiful in its simplicity and self-evidence. It raises the question of when the painting is actually finished. Chen remarked on this that it is the painting itself that decides to leave the artist and go its own way when it is finished.
This typifies a distance that exists between the person of the artist and his craft mastery and the higher level of existence that the artwork itself has reached upon leaving the studio as it has built the bridge for us between infinity and our time-bound earthly existence.