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M+, Hong Kong, © Li Huasheng
Li Huasheng 李華生
0606
2006
In the 1980s, Li Huasheng was a successful neo-literati painter renowned for his expressive brushwork. But by 1998 he had abandoned representational forms for an innovative practice of repetitive mark making and freehand lines. The resulting ‘grids’ record the passage of time and Li’s movements in space, and up close they reveal his focused attention and the minute fluctuations of his energy. This notion—that the artist’s spirit can be transferred via brush and ink to the paper—is fundamental to traditional literati painting.
This monumental, five-panelled painting is one of four similarly scaled works Li completed in 2006. The second-largest painting he ever produced, it recalls his earlier practice through its use of brush marks approaching figuration and the repetition of drawing lines and grids. The woven network of opaque lines has a topographic quality, although it lacks an image. The thick, highly contrasting lines seem to demonstrate a release of energy in their evocation of a landscape. The work’s base layer of cast-off paper from discarded compositions evidences Li’s practice of compressing failed works into bricks and suggests an accumulation of the artist’s time, as well as an element of self-judgment.
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