Liang Weizhou
Didier Hirsch, an American businessman, is now a leading collector of Chinese contemporary art. In recent years, he has turned a hobby into a passion, studying Chinese art and meeting with leading artists. Below is an interview Mr. Hirsch did in July 2008 for ArtZineChina.com with the Chinese artist Liang Weizhou.
1. Life and the beginning of art:
Didier: Can you talk about your life, your mindset, and how they impacted your art?
Liang: I was born in 1962 in Shanghai. After I dropped out of high school during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), I worked as a farmer for one year, a welder for five years and an art college teacher for 19 years. I have a ten-year-old child from my first marriage. I remarried with Mao Xi in 2006. She teaches design in a university. My art is very closely related to my life. My work always comes out in accordance with my life. I am basically a “natural actor.”
Didier: How did you become an artist?
Liang: I liked painting when I was a child. My father, who was my first tutor, was an amateur artists who more or less exerted influence on me. Another influence was a teacher I met named Mr. Wang, who graduated from painting department of China Academy of Fine Art in 1950s and trained me professionally. It was not easy for me to meet Mr. Wang at that time. I began learning to sketch with Mr. Wang when I was fourteen-year-old. I studied Chinese painting at the age of 20. I didn`t learn oil painting until very late, maybe in1987. Fortunately, I entered East China Normal University when I was 23 years old. Getting into universities was as hard during the 1970s to 1980s in China. I took the entrance examination many times. I was so happy when I finally enrolled at the school. I would still be an art amateur if I did not go to university. Now I feel everyone is a natural artist, but few realized it, and I am one of the few.
Didier: What impact, if any, have the political and social contexts had on your art? Have you ever wanted to take a political stand?
Liang: : It seems that the political context has no impact on my art. I am not sensitive to politics. But the impact of social contexts is evident. In my work, “Facing the Reflection” series, the main character is not compatible with the social reality, which implies that independent intellectuals are solitary and confused in China. Thus they will achieve nothing. The life experience of an artist is always the main source for its work.
Didier: I never saw any sarcasm or cynicism in your paintings, nor concrete issues about your environment and background. Did I miss it? Or, were individual factors playing a solo role, versus the social and political environments? Do your works tell a story? Are you a story-teller?
Liang: My art is completely personal. I only care about myself and surroundings. The figures in my work are always isolated from society. My works are delusions, reflections as well as stories.
Didier: Would you say you are a fierce individualist, an anti-conformist and if so, in which way?
Liang: You are absolutely right. However, I am not against politics but just insensitive to them. My work is a mirror reflecting every aspect of my life. My style changes when my life changes.
Didier: Your art seems very personal. Do your works echo events in your life?
Liang: Yes, they are the playback of my life and family, especially the works created after 2007, which come directly from daily life while symbols gradually weaken.
Didier: What about friendship? I believe many of your friends are represented in your paintings.
Liang: Really close friends are always difficult to find. I keep good relationship with my friends. Nowadays, Chinese artists are more liberal than the past. They are open when faced with different ideas and values. As the Chinese proverb says: “Gentleman get along with differences.”
Didier: I believe you are a professor in an art university. Did you ever consider becoming an independent artist; if not, why not? If yes, why did you not do it?
Liang: I always dreamed of being a professional artist. In the past, “ professional artist” in China means a jobless person without steady income or identity. There are no art foundations in China, even today. So it means the artists cannot make a living when they cannot sell their works. Thus they will please the market and finally do art just for a living.
2. Works:
Didier: Do you agree that there are three main periods (from 1980 to 1991, 1991 to 2001, 2001 to now) in your art style? Can you comment on your art styles for each period? How did the various series come to be? There is clear continuity, but also disruptive changes. What triggered the changes?
Liang: I basically agree. The period before 1991 is my initial stage. The 1980s is important for China opening to the outside and learning from the West. When I was at university in 1985 and 1986, the New Wave art movement in China began, and I had plenty of chances to learn art from the West, including reading big art books and attending lectures given by Western scholars. Starting from 1991, when I began to work on “Facing the reflection” series until 2001, I focused on my own life and express my feelings strongly in my work (starting from 1995). After 1997, I become more individual and isolated. As matter of fact, works done during this period are more pure and profound. From 2001 to 2008, I have begun to care about daily life and emphasis on painting itself. From 2006, I came to draw real things and people, pieces that belong to expressionism. As to how the three periods are in clear continuity, it is because my personality and the influence of ancient Chinese landscapes have had on me. The influence is always in my works of different periods.
Didier: The early paintings, packed with expressionism, emotional angst, and unmistakably Chinese, blended Eastern and Western influences. You distorted reality for an emotional effect. You used a mirror, both symbolically and as a tool. Can you talk about your state of mind as you painted those works, and what you wanted to convey?
Liang: My works during the early and middle 1990s are very personal visually. They are connected with the social conditions as well as myself. First, China began to change dramatically since 1990s. Old ways of living and values collapsed. It is the time of the commercial age and there are distant relationships between people, which make everyone depressed. Mirror, as a good tool and symbol of oneself, can reflect what are the ideas and insecurities of the figures are in my work.
I have talked about my recent new paintings. Here I will talk about my photography. It is my hobby, and I use pictures as materials for my paintings. But since 1999, photography became my new art activity and is different from my painting. What is similar is that all them can be seen in a usual way.
1. Life and the beginning of art:
Didier: Can you talk about your life, your mindset, and how they impacted your art?
Liang: I was born in 1962 in Shanghai. After I dropped out of high school during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), I worked as a farmer for one year, a welder for five years and an art college teacher for 19 years. I have a ten-year-old child from my first marriage. I remarried with Mao Xi in 2006. She teaches design in a university. My art is very closely related to my life. My work always comes out in accordance with my life. I am basically a “natural actor.”
Didier: How did you become an artist?
Liang: I liked painting when I was a child. My father, who was my first tutor, was an amateur artists who more or less exerted influence on me. Another influence was a teacher I met named Mr. Wang, who graduated from painting department of China Academy of Fine Art in 1950s and trained me professionally. It was not easy for me to meet Mr. Wang at that time. I began learning to sketch with Mr. Wang when I was fourteen-year-old. I studied Chinese painting at the age of 20. I didn`t learn oil painting until very late, maybe in1987. Fortunately, I entered East China Normal University when I was 23 years old. Getting into universities was as hard during the 1970s to 1980s in China. I took the entrance examination many times. I was so happy when I finally enrolled at the school. I would still be an art amateur if I did not go to university. Now I feel everyone is a natural artist, but few realized it, and I am one of the few.
Didier: What impact, if any, have the political and social contexts had on your art? Have you ever wanted to take a political stand?
Liang: : It seems that the political context has no impact on my art. I am not sensitive to politics. But the impact of social contexts is evident. In my work, “Facing the Reflection” series, the main character is not compatible with the social reality, which implies that independent intellectuals are solitary and confused in China. Thus they will achieve nothing. The life experience of an artist is always the main source for its work.
Didier: I never saw any sarcasm or cynicism in your paintings, nor concrete issues about your environment and background. Did I miss it? Or, were individual factors playing a solo role, versus the social and political environments? Do your works tell a story? Are you a story-teller?
Liang: My art is completely personal. I only care about myself and surroundings. The figures in my work are always isolated from society. My works are delusions, reflections as well as stories.
Didier: Would you say you are a fierce individualist, an anti-conformist and if so, in which way?
Liang: You are absolutely right. However, I am not against politics but just insensitive to them. My work is a mirror reflecting every aspect of my life. My style changes when my life changes.
Didier: Your art seems very personal. Do your works echo events in your life?
Liang: Yes, they are the playback of my life and family, especially the works created after 2007, which come directly from daily life while symbols gradually weaken.
Didier: What about friendship? I believe many of your friends are represented in your paintings.
Liang: Really close friends are always difficult to find. I keep good relationship with my friends. Nowadays, Chinese artists are more liberal than the past. They are open when faced with different ideas and values. As the Chinese proverb says: “Gentleman get along with differences.”
Didier: I believe you are a professor in an art university. Did you ever consider becoming an independent artist; if not, why not? If yes, why did you not do it?
Liang: I always dreamed of being a professional artist. In the past, “ professional artist” in China means a jobless person without steady income or identity. There are no art foundations in China, even today. So it means the artists cannot make a living when they cannot sell their works. Thus they will please the market and finally do art just for a living.
2. Works:
Didier: Do you agree that there are three main periods (from 1980 to 1991, 1991 to 2001, 2001 to now) in your art style? Can you comment on your art styles for each period? How did the various series come to be? There is clear continuity, but also disruptive changes. What triggered the changes?
Liang: I basically agree. The period before 1991 is my initial stage. The 1980s is important for China opening to the outside and learning from the West. When I was at university in 1985 and 1986, the New Wave art movement in China began, and I had plenty of chances to learn art from the West, including reading big art books and attending lectures given by Western scholars. Starting from 1991, when I began to work on “Facing the reflection” series until 2001, I focused on my own life and express my feelings strongly in my work (starting from 1995). After 1997, I become more individual and isolated. As matter of fact, works done during this period are more pure and profound. From 2001 to 2008, I have begun to care about daily life and emphasis on painting itself. From 2006, I came to draw real things and people, pieces that belong to expressionism. As to how the three periods are in clear continuity, it is because my personality and the influence of ancient Chinese landscapes have had on me. The influence is always in my works of different periods.
Didier: The early paintings, packed with expressionism, emotional angst, and unmistakably Chinese, blended Eastern and Western influences. You distorted reality for an emotional effect. You used a mirror, both symbolically and as a tool. Can you talk about your state of mind as you painted those works, and what you wanted to convey?
Liang: My works during the early and middle 1990s are very personal visually. They are connected with the social conditions as well as myself. First, China began to change dramatically since 1990s. Old ways of living and values collapsed. It is the time of the commercial age and there are distant relationships between people, which make everyone depressed. Mirror, as a good tool and symbol of oneself, can reflect what are the ideas and insecurities of the figures are in my work.
I have talked about my recent new paintings. Here I will talk about my photography. It is my hobby, and I use pictures as materials for my paintings. But since 1999, photography became my new art activity and is different from my painting. What is similar is that all them can be seen in a usual way.
