The Practice Between “Zero” and “One Hundred”
by Lu Yinghua
People often hold some impractical illusion and misunderstanding of art, so the fact that art is a demanding work that requires tenacity and longstanding, laborious brainwork seems to be unacceptable. Art is a work that is rational, planned, imposed by the artists themselves and in most cases not rewarding instantly or even in the long term. Artists even cannot make ends meet, and only can they make it clear why they choose such a job that is thankless and more disappointing than joyous, whose receipts and disbursements cannot be measured in quantity, and more often than not being evaluated and chosen.
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Actually, these works really don’t need too much illumination. They are simply one of the approaches for the artist to taste and perceive the world and himself, to have a connection with the world and to deepen his understanding and reflection of things. They also inform us of the miscellaneous, polynary information and influences that are imposed on the artist’s creation, which is similar in the world we are living in.
After that, we joyfully find that the artist continues to perform his analytical ability in creation, and exploit and cognize things constantly and deeply, especially reflecting on the media for painting. It is a good inspiration and method for any creation to be continuously refined and thoroughly discussed on one issue from different aspects.
If art criticism means both sensibly tasting and sharing the artist’s creation with the readers and also providing rational interpretation and analysis, I prefer the former when I’m writing and discussing about Lu Zhengyuan’s creation. I am not inclined to conclude and summarize the creation and reflection of the artist. When I was reading the descriptions and concepts Lu wrote for his works, I could sense the strong desire of the artist to constantly adjust and attempt to cognize the essence of art and things in the process of creation. This might be activated and cultivated in the 100-day continuous creation, and we should not underestimate its durability and penetration. The thinking approach has exceeded the forms and boundary of art and it can even become a key to cognizing things.