Introduction

　　Liu Yonggang’s painting creation started at the end of 1970s, and has so far already had 30 years of history. Liu Yonggang adopts the plural styles, such as realistical, expressive, the abstract and conceptual. Roughly speaking, his early creation gave priority to the college's realistic language, at the same time effectively absorbing expressive vocabulary from the western modern paintings, initially formed their own style. At the beginning of 1990s, Liu Yonggang completely abandoned the convention of the academic creation, taking a different course in the tradition of the German expressionism with the attempt to discover a new development path between abstraction and performance. Since 2006, new changes emerged in the Liu Yonggang’s paintings. The emotional detachment attributed to the change of style benefited from the artist’s change of the creative concept. On one hand, he resolutely distanced himself away from the frame of reference of the western modern art, especially trying to rise above the existing western systems for form expression and to pull away from them; On the other hand, he stressed the inner ideas and underlying cultural appeal of the works, trying to integrate the works from the characters into local context of development of the Chinese art history. Although in LiuYongGan’s painting course, a short break also appeared, his painting art remains in the clear context. In order to further study his painting thoroughly, we need to review and comb Liu Yonggang’s creation course.

　　Ⅰ

　　In 1964, Liu Yonggang was born at the Zuoqigen River of Ergun of Hulunboir League, Inner Mongolia. Later, Ergun and Genhe became two independent cities. Ergun is situated in the north of Hulunboir grassland, the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, the northwest foothill of the Greater Hinggan Mountains, belonging to one of the cities in high latitude. Because the art education in Ergun lagged behind at that time, lacking the corresponding hardware facilities, together with the remoteness in geographical position, information block, and his earlier personal learning life proved abnormally hard. However, the pain and setbacks suffered by him did not reduce his passion for the art, instead shaped his personality of persistence and courageousness. In 1982, his long-cherished wish came true; Liu Yonggang went to the Central Academy of Fine Arts by excellent grades, which means that his art career had a new starting point.

　　Liu Yonggang was enrolled in the first studio of oil painting department. In 1959, the central academy of fine arts established studio system, at the start there were three studios, the first studio administered by Wu Zuoren and Ai Zhongxin, the second and third studio by Luo Gongliu and Dong Xiwen respectively. In 1985, the fourth studio was created with Lin Gang and Ge Peng as the leader. At that time, the first studio attended by Liu Yonggang was led by Jin Shangyi. Different from the teaching aims of other several studios, the first studio focused on inheriting classical realism since the European Renaissance, emphasizing the modelling, pursuing the detailed and in-depth depiction; At the same time, basing on strengthening the traditional college basis, It actively explored development road of the oil painting nationalization. In the first and the second year, Liu Yonggang accepted systematic, standardized college training with solving the problems of the modelling and color as the main task. Until the third year, real changes emerged in Liu Yonggang‘s creation idea, with a sense of urgency for looking for personal style. Mr. Wei Qimei was responsible for creation teaching for the grade three and grade four, which greatly inspired Liu Yonggang, who ever talked about Mr. Wei’s influence to himself:

　　I think his teaching is very “sunny”. The most critical thinking he gives me is: Sometimes directly involving in the problems in current society may not be the best solution, instead expressing in a very sunny color, very simple modeling can touch our heart effectively. I think it’s rare that Mr Wei’s art outlook is very striking and strong among the old generation artists. [1]

　　It’s extremely important for Liu Yonggang to recognize the importance of art form and ontology language in the creation, because this laid the theoretical foundation for his consciously integrating the vocabulary of western modernist school into painting. However, the main motive for his thinking about the problem of personal style and language conversion also came from his own learning experiences. At this time, he had been tired of the academic teaching mode because of its lack of vigor, considering too many rules suppressing the free expression of personal emotions. He talked about:

　　"Sometimes I don't like to go into my own studio, thinking everyone is procrastinating there, this may be relevant to my character, preferring readily and evolving things."[2]

　　Liu Yonggang hoped to blend expressive factors in his work, which is a desire come from his heart, also the result of the motivation of the culture of that era. After all, the discussion of the formal beauty originated in the end of 1970s, and the controversies around "self-expression" in 1982, both can provide this phase of the creation with the frame of reference in the art history. On the one hand, the advocacy to express the beauty of art urged the art regression to ontology, thus providing a theoretical basis for art to disengage from the bondage of politics, literature and religion; On the other hand, the upholding of "self-expression” liberated the artist's creativity, making personalized style construction possible. In fact, the two kinds of art trends are correction to the fine arts paradigm during the Cultural Revolution before, and the essence of the artistic freedom is the realization of people’s liberation in thought and culture. But, for the artists in the mid 1980s, there was not an existing style of art directly resorting to the performance, therefore they needed to learn from the western modern art paintings, and transform the modern Chinese art with the conversion of the western modern language.

　　It is in this context that Liu Yonggang took the initiative exploration in language and style, drawing a batch of works in modern styles. As he said:"There were a lot of other people's shadows, I found a group of painters turned to expressionism after post-impressionism in Germany, and I began to get rid of the object appearance in the nature, their pictures were all from the heart, and coloring corresponds with their own feelings, for example, drawing one piece of cloud in the heart, even if it was green, it can also become red, the expression method was very bold.” [3]

　　Although Liu Yonggang was inclined for the road of subjective -expressionism, when he was just a college student in Grade three, he had to make a compromise in face of the strong college tradition. Liu Yonggang had two pieces of works with different styles, one is Flying Apsaras, and the other is Ela Mountain in June. Flying Apsaras is the artist’s restructuring of Flying Apsaras in the Buddhist wall paintings in the subject matter, however, what the artist want to convey was still human feelings, namely Flying Apsaras purpose, emphasizing the dual liberation of the body and soul. Different from the combination of realistic language and surreal technique Ela Mountain in June is a pure expressive works. In this works, subjective colour, pithy modeling, the large area segmentation of black, white and grey, make the picture produce a strong visual tension. Our problem is that, why can the two pieces of works form such large contrast in the style? Liu Yonggang explained so:

　　"At the time, my idea was very simple. Considering I belonged to the first studio, my graduation creation should also be realistic, classical one, just what the teacher and school required, so I created the Flying Apsaras. But my real thought that I also want to tell everybody was like Ela Mountainin in June.[4]

　　In 1986, Liu Yonggang graduated smoothly, returned to his hometown and became an art teacher at Inner Mongolia Normal University. Since then his creation basically followed up on the idea of Ela Mountain in June, based on Tibet. In 1987, in the first China oil painting exhibition held in Shanghai, Shepherdess of Northern Sala created by Liu Yonggang won excellence award. This works made Liu Yonggang quickly gain a reputation. Some critics assumed it was "a painting of overthrowing the conventions comprehensively, a picture of a unique thought.”

　　It was still what Tibet impressed me: very pure, strong colors, the blue sky, the white clouds seeming to follow me at the pull , that kind of reddish brown on Tibetan’s face is just like the color of the works of Egyptian art......appropriate to depict the Mongols. [5]

　　In 1989, on the seventh National Fine Arts Exhibition, the White Moon in Northern Sala won the bronze award and the New Works by Green Hand by the China Artists Association. At that time Liu Yonggang was a rising "nova” in the painting world, attracting the attention of the world of fine arts. As for Liu Yonggang, winning awards is important, but more important, winning award also means the affirmation of his creating direction, which also made him more confident and courageous in exploring the expression of the modern style later.

　　In fact, whether earlier Ela Mountain in June or later Shepherdess of Northern Sala, the White Moon in Northern Sala, Liu Yonggang‘s works didn’t disaffiliated from the art development situation in the 1980 s, namely, all associated with rural paintings and minority themes, In the early 1980s, Luo Zhongli’s Father and Chen Danqing’s Tibet Paintings marked the rise of local painting. Soon after that, local painting and literature interwove, developing into a powerful trend of art in the early 1980s. However, hidden behind the local paintings is the more internal historical motivation, in addition to departure from the cultural revolution mode, its in-depth cultural appeal not only derived from the humanitarian's call, but also from the reflection in local culture’s modernity. On one hand, the artist’s attention to the real life contains the simple humanitarian concern and the praise for working people. This is a new kind of modern culture consciousness, which is a correction of the complimentary, false, boasting depiction of rural society and rural life before the end of the Cultural Revolution. Meanwhile this simple humanitarian concern, the desire for truth, goodness and beauty are exactly a backwash of the cultural pattern of the Cultural Revolution, or a kind of subversion, namely return to humanism, and defend the value of individual existence. On the other hand, for the modernization at the beginning of the 1980s, the modern features represented by the local culture are also very important when the Chinese culture seek the modern transformation at that time. For a traditional agricultural country like China, the modernity of local culture identifies the beginning of China's modernization progress in the early 1980s, not least to the importance. In other words, the modernity of Chinese folk culture is the prophet in the new period of the culture in the modernization process of modernity, and the rise of local painting just reflects an advanced, modern and characteristic spirit of culture in the progress of Chinese development in the 1980s from the countryside modernization to the industry modernization.

　　However, in "the sixth national fine arts exhibition” held in 1984, the creation taking rural areas as the subject matter has come into fashion, gradually moving to the stylized direction. However, in the process of decay of local painting, subject matter started to diverge. One kind is to poeticize, romanticize and beautify the minority theme, until the mid 1980s, this kind of work had lost its own cultural objective, finally transforming into a " local manners painting"; the other is still the artists pursue construction of a modern socialist style by means of the subject of ethnic minorities, at the time the representative works consisted of Zhang Xiaogang’s The Clouds of Heaven (1982), Shang Yang’s Grandpa's River (1984), Ye Yongqing’s Guishan Series (1985), etc. Obviously, the criticism to the former based on that the artist's emotional expression is false, is looking down upon the rural and minority nationalities’ culture, an observation of advancedness against witness, its culture motivation and art creation are preconceived, novelty-seeking from the urban cultural position In contrast, the meaning of the latter is very clear, because for artists, the theme of locality and minority is only a carrier, it’s important to realize the modern transition of form and language.

　　It is not difficult to find that, Liu Yonggang’s creation in the mid- to late 1980s fits with the latter creation context. Although The White Moon in Northern Sala series of works, the previous “Tibet topics ”as been replaced by “Inner Mongolia”, but the theme didn’t go beyond the big category of "minority topics" Liu Yonggang then caused great concern, because in the field of art his work didn’t fall into the "graffiti’s mire, Instead, the active exploration in the of the language expression, namely introduce the vocabulary of modern painting , thus infuse the picture with dynamic while also enriching the cultural connotation of the works. And, of course, different from the artists attributed to the development vein, Liu Yonggang himself was a artist who had lived in ethnic minority areas. It is also from this kind of unique life experience and living memory, that in the works such as Shepherdess of Northern Sala, the White Moon in Northern Sala and so on, we can easily recognizes the artist’s reflection and missing of Ergun River hometown, and the love and praise for persistent and romantic life of grassland nomads.

　　However, from the Angle of modern art language experiment, even if there is a clear modern tendency in this batch of works, Liu Yonggang think this is far from enough, and it is still a long way off from his objectives in his mind. In his view:

　　"A strong manifesting desire is a prime mover, this is a little fire in an artist‘s life, and should not be allowed to let it extinguished, along with the migration of years , the red fire will purify to pure blue flames with high temperature and pure color, which will be our results.”[6]

　　It was this dedication to the arts that made him go abnormally firmly in the way of modern art exploration in the 1990s.

　　Ⅱ

　　In 1985, after Liu Yonggang had watched a German expressionist exhibition in the Cultural Palace of Nationalities in Beijing, he was secretly resolved to go to Germany in the future, in order to study why the country could create so many good artists. In 1990, Liu Yonggang got a German Visa; his dreams became a reality with the help of my friends. First coming to Germany, Liu Yonggang needed to solve the problem of language. After two years’ study in the Goethe language institute in Dusseldorf, Liu Yonggang got the qualification for application for the Nuremberg Academy of Fine Arts postgraduate in 1992.

　　In the years studying as a graduate in Germany, Liu Yonggang faced a brand new art education system. For him, the challenge at the time was, once he accepted the teaching here, he would have to give up the previous creative ideas. It also means that he will need to fully abandon his creation method from Ela Mountain in June to the Shepherdess of Northern Sala of ideas, and start from scratch. Finally, Liu Yonggang chose to follow a teacher with expressionism style. In the study of five years (originally 4 years, applied for an extension of 1 year), Liu Yonggang continuously followed him. The teacher was good at inspiring students, encouraging students to learn from masters, create boldly, and at the same time not be confined by frame, try to break through the limits of the media. Soon, Liu Yonggang had his own thinking experience toward the teaching method:

　　"What I learn from the teacher is not his painting method, but his spirit. His method of teaching seems worth promoting. For example, he will take along many things, and let the students choose their favorite modeling, and then first use the white picture to model, because the shapes everyone chose are different, so just white papers are distinctive enough; then paint color, but requires not more than three colors, because he thinks coloring needs to be limited, too much color equals no color. As a result, the faces of the classmates differ completely. But this is not enough, and it’s necessary to use his choice of modeling chosen outside in the classroom, practicing in the same way again. Not all of the students can keep up with this kind of open-ended and strict training, and next year the two students were dismissed. He is not destined to be the great painter, because of age of expressionism has past, but he is a very good educator, training a lot of great students. ” [7]

　　The phased study results reflected in the series of the works Learning from Masters (1992-1995). This batch of work has two distinct features: one is to put the constructivist method and the expressionist color together. From the source of expression forms, Liu Yonggang uses the cubism method for reference, emphasizing the interlock and contact of form and shape, but also Analysizing the internal structure of the image meticulously. But different from the analysis of cubism, the shape drawn by Liu Yonggang does not seek the three-dimensional stereoscopic effect; instead, they are unfolded in the flattened manner. From the style of color expressing, Liu Yonggang strengthened the subjective expression of the color, but unlike the method of German expressionism, the colors didn’t load the direction of the culture, they are just as the existence of the vision. Another characteristic is the misappropriation of the image. Although this batch of works possessed the characteristic of abstract- expressionism, at the same time they can be identified, because the clear images all appear in these works. Through careful interpreting, these images have their own source, all originated from the works of western masters, such as the "Virgin” described by Rafael, "Olympia” by Manet, etc. Liu Yonggang restructured these misappropriate images, break the original structure, or achieve the localized tamper with the images. At that time Liu Yonggang aimed to solve the problem of color performance and individual style, therefore, this idea of image expression derived from the misappropriation didn’t continue to evolve, and thus bypassed the image of the postmodern painting. Over the same period, Liu Yonggang also created the series of New Flowers (1992-1993). This batch of works didn’t misappropriate images, the artists just explored if the works can bring in new possibilities in the forms of expression with flowers. And by comparison with the “Learning from Master "series, they were clearly influenced by the influence of cubism.

　　Although the two series of works took on the form of modernism, Liu Yonggang didn’t form his own personal style. At this time, the artist was also facing a new challenge, which was how to blend the form expression and the individual's internal emotion together organically. Liu Yonggang began to study the traditional German art, especially took strong interest in the German expressionism. From the combination of works forms and cultural spirit, Germany's modern painting no doubt produced the potential impact on Liu Yonggang’s creation afterwards. To date back, the philosopher Kant in the late eighteenth century first endowed art form with the spiritual value. The “no utilitarianism” and “form of purpose” theory he advocated became common ideal behind theorists and artists. The German philosopher and aesthete Herbart and Zimmermann along the direction of Kant's philosophy, tried to use the research methods such as experience analysis, modern psychology to seek the inner motivation of form impulse, and the “art science” put forward by Fiedler theoretically summarized the practice of seeking form independence by the artist Hans von Marees, the sculptor Hildebrand in artistic creation. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Worringer had a huge impact on the art world through the discussion of “abstraction and empathy” hidden behind the form.. It is evident in the works by the artists from “Bridge Club” and “Green Knight". In fact, the essential reason the German art values the form expression is, the form carries the cultural spirit and national character of the German nationality. Although artistic styles and forms in every period are distinct, but the German art always contains German culture spirit of low moans type and full of tragic consciousness from the early gothic construction, the Renaissance paintings since the 15th century, up till the German expressionism at the beginning of 20 centuries and Neo-expressionism in the 1980s.From the Middle Ages, if the art represented by Italy made delicate, rational and aesthetic pleasure perfection in the area, the German art advocated direct, mysterious, irrational and high aesthetic expression. In short, the German art at least brought Liu Yonggang the following inspiration, the form expression of works of art is not just visual, and should be spiritual and cultural; 2, The appearance of any kind of forms should have their own cultural soil, therefore, the form should have the end-result of the culture; 3, In addition to their own life, it needs to associate with the artists’ own emotional experience.

　　The changes in the art concepts ultimately resulted in Liu Yonggang‘s The Cross series (1997). The Cross consists of 60 pieces of works, which is his graduation creation, also the exhibited works of the important awards in Germany, Dana award exhibition. Under Liu Yonggang's pen, The Cross is not only a simple modeling symbol, but also the symbol of western culture.

　　“In my eyes, the cross is very sunny. The death of Christ, of course, is very painful, but he originally taught men that to be good is happy, his pursuit for his beliefs and business is also very happy. The modeling of the Cross expands east, west, north and south and radiates, completely different from the tolerance and spinning of our Yin and Yang concept. From Chinese perspective, I hope to include all fineness and sorrow inside, and with color and modeling reflecting these now. But soon I find these things more suitable for words to express; the painting should look for a thing that can be understood by the perspective "[8]

　　By comparison with his previous works, the Cross series is between the abstraction and performance with some new characteristics. As for the drawing technique, Liu Yonggang pays attention to the expression of irrationality, combining the linear performance of the east with mass structure of the west organically; At the same time, the artists append their own understanding of the subject, successfully letting picture build a kind of full-bodied tragic atmosphere. In the Dana prize that year, the Cross won the highest title of “student master”, in which the concepts and techniques were considered “non-German expressionism, nor that the art history once had, but completely Liu Yonggang’s type ". [9] The Cross’s winning award drew a satisfactory full stop for Liu Yonggang’s studying in Germany.

　　Ⅲ

　　An advice from others may help one's defects.

　　Liu Yonggang didn’t follow the style of German expressionism, but without the nourishing of German modern art, his later creation is hard to surpass. Liu Yonggang once talked about:

　　“When I watched their works, I was always very excited before, but later, especially now, the sense become more and more weak. Because having worked through them, I think whether making, image expression, or pen writing and color are all too simplistic. ” [10]

　　These words show that the reason Liu Yonggang made progress is , he had a more clear view of the artistic creation. But, why does Germany modern art enable Liu Yonggang make so high achievement? On one hand, it mainly embodied in his mastery of the language of modernism. As an “other", when Liu Yonggang entered into a foreign art context, what he first needs to study and learn carefully their art. Only basing on accumulating research, Liu Yonggang can really surpass them. For example, in the paintings Fish (1993-1995), this attempt to combine Chinese and western expression ways has positive significance. On the other hand, along with deepening of the research of the German modern art, Liu Yonggang found what achieve the German art was not the style as phenomenon, but the German cultural spirit hidden behind the form. Although according to the understanding of the modern socialist aesthetic principle, a piece of art work first should be expression of the individualization with the personal style with originality, but, if this individual style needs to reveal its universal significance, it will need to be held with the cultural spirit of the times together.

　　In addition, having lived in Germany for a long time, facing a completely strange cultural frame of reference, Liu Yonggang started strongly to feel the “Chinese experience” in his own blood flow. Deep and systematic understanding of the German modern art confirmed his confidence to follow his own artistic road. At this time, he has realized that, only integrating his own “China experience” into his works can make the expression form not fall into the mold of western modern art. Obviously, it was the German modern art that changed Liu Yonggang’s creation idea. But, the issue perplexing Liu Yonggang is, how to find a connection in the graftage of forms of expression and cultural appeals? When “where to find” becomes a tough problem, the cross-cultural observation just expanded the Liu Yonggang’s creation vision, “Find from the root, find from traditional culture of China, try to return ".

　　Because I have always been interested in the characters, and practiced calligraphy since childhood, this return started from the characters. In 1995, modeling on Chinese, Mongolian and Phags-pa script, Liu Yonggang tried to extract a form from the structure of the characters. In 1996, Liu Yonggang created another written works Mother and Son. Different from previous creative method, Liu Yonggang tried to use the form and structure of “mother” and “son” and make it produce stereo feeling in 3 D space, allowing them to “stand up", with the consideration of the form and the cultural spirit behind the form. The “characters” in Liu Yonggang’s works began to be endowed with double meanings: one kind is the character as form; the other is as the symbol of Chinese culture:

　　“For centuries characters have always been flat and lying, I want to let it stand up to reach out to the world, publicizing the quintessence that other countries don’t have widely. Although it's hard to do, if I want to do, I will do the unprecedented images in the history, a kind of pure, visual modeling. ” [11]

　　If retrospective of Liu Yonggang’s creating process, as early as in 1984, he used the characters as a factor of form in the creation. In Memory of the Rock, Liu Yonggang wrote some characters similar to oracle, inscriptions on the Bronze Objects on the rock full of green liver mosses, which are not easily recognizable. Because the shape of the green liver mosses is a map of the world, Liu Yonggang’s initial creation concept is to make Chinese characters enter into the world". In fact, with the rise of “Trendy Art", some of the avant-garde artists engaged in creation with characters as the carrier , for example, Gu Wenda’s The Characters with Front and Back Side, Xu Bing’s Abstruse Writing, Wu Shanzhuan’s the Red Humor and so on. But different from Liu Yonggang’s basing on the meaning of construction in nature; this group of artists used the characters to realize the criticism of the traditional culture, thus endowing the works with a unique cultural concept. During the wave of anti-traditional and cultural enlightenment, their works targeted not so much the Chinese characters itself, as the questioning and negation of the cultural tradition basing on the Chinese language system.

　　Whether Memory of the Rock in the 1980s, or “character series” in the mid 1990's, Liu Yonggang used the characters not beginning with the perspective of criticism and subversion, on the contrary, through the characters he tried to present the return of the traditional culture, and to resort to the use of a kind of identity of cultural status, and the effect of creating concept is achieved just in the intercultural view. As Liu Yonggang said:

　　“The characters invented by the ancestors have special vitality, especially the oracle, almost every word is a picture, the invention of every character is an artistic creation, and I began to study the Chinese characters in every historical period, research the evolution of the characters, the combination of characters, including the traditional “dragon-phoenix” combinations, including Chinese and Mongolian combination as well as the form changes of the characters. [12] For example, after a series of exploring I found, out of the appeals to content, the form itself makes up a kind of independent beauty, I grabbed the beauty, recreated it again, made its sublimation, so to speak, the recreated beauty reflects both the inheritance of traditional culture, and the innovation of original foundation ". [12]

　　Since 1999, Liu Yonggang created a great number of paintings related to words. Most of which were paper, the subject matter was also multivariate: the combination of words and landscape, the juxtaposition of characters and the scenery. At that time, in addition to the hope to use the characters to form a kind of individual style, Liu Yonggang also discussed the interdependent relationship between characters and text, characters and images. From the form expression, the artists hope to enable a breakthrough in the viewing habits of the traditional scroll painting. The way he adopted was to change the internal structure of characters and images. In order to highlight their own aesthetic feeling of the characters, Liu Yonggang’s creation mainly based on cursive script and seal script; At the same time, in order to change people's reading habits of image, he inverted the landscapes, thus enhancing the strangeness brought by the image.

　　Although this batch of works possesses the characteristics of localization in the form expression and cultural ideas carried by the forms, they cannot deviate from the viewing habits of scroll paintings. The problem is, if you can't get rid of the limit of scroll painting forms, this experiment not only lacked originality, but also restrained the free expression of individual artists’ emotion. How to surpass and enter into a free creative state? So, Liu Yonggang adjusted the previous creative ways, he began to abandon the form and appearance of the scroll painting, and replaced with a single character. The shift seemed extremely simple in essence, he took a critical step.

　　Starting from a single character, Liu Yonggang opened up two new creating paths: one is Standing Characters series of sculpture created in 1999. His representative work was Embrace of Love series. The critic Shui Tianzhong spoke highly of this batch of works: “sourced from character, standing tall on the vast earth, Liu Yonggang’s group of stone carvings will greatly complement the cultural component and the form strength lacked by the sculptures in modern China”, the other is his abstract paintings, embodying mainly in his works since 2006.

　　Beginning with the Reexposure series (2006), Liu Yonggang‘s painting formed their own personal style. Through the form of surface, this batch of works is between abstraction and performance, not only absorbs color processing method of German expressionism and American abstract expressionism, but also has the mass structure highly valued since cubism. At the same time, the artists also attempted to combine the linear expression derived from it and writing characteristics organically. So to speak, since 2006, the creative form continued very smoothly. But, we also should see, though, Liu Yonggang effectively learnt from the form vocabulary of the western modern painting, this batch of works followed the art history development logic completely different from the western abstract art form.

　　In terms of the form change in the modern western art in the field, there are roughly two developmental contexts: one is back to the abstraction of self-discipline of the 2D plane according to Mr. Greenberg. The abstraction originates from form expression, reflecting in modern aesthetics of Roger Fletcher’s “form” and Clive Bell's “meaningful form". Another clue is structure abstraction, emphasizing the rational geometrization form of the works. Tracing the two traditions, the former is developed in the pursuit of the independence of artistic language purification and ontology since the middle of the nineteenth century. Especially after absorbing the form factors from the primitive art in Africa and America and the structure characteristics from the oriental images, reached its climax in the creation of Kandinsky and Pollock; The latter also originated from the western modern stage, but based on rationalism associated with western modern industrial civilization, with “rational, geometry” as its features, endowing the combination of the dot, line and face with the aesthetic quality, this is evident in Malevich, Mondrian and American minimalist works in the 1960s.

　　The reason Liu Yonggangs’ works follow the art history development logic different from the western abstract paintings is that the form expression in his works neither comes from the summary nor from the induction of the real image world, namely, just as Fletcher and Bell said, create a “significant form", nor different from the western geometry and structural abstraction, namely, the form is only the product of rational thinking, Instead, Liu Yonggang’s work is embedded in the characters, they are not as much abstract painting as conceptional painting. At the same time, here also involve two basic problems: one is in the creation of the artists, the characters can be turned into a “significant form"; the other is, this kind of forms still carries the local Chinese cultural experience and the confirmation of its cultural status by the artists.

　　With regards of the form expression, Liu Yonggang‘s wisdom lies in ingenious use of the characteristics of Chinese characters: for example, the features of the structure of their own Chinese characters, and the construction of significance and appearance make it become unmatched by any alphabet characters, a writing symbol suitable for expressing knowledge, feelings and meaning. At the same time, the proposal of the important propositions and categories make the character writing eventually become a senior art form, such as corresponding of things, setting your mind at flight, manifesting Tao, joyful expression and charm and easy case in the traditional Chinese aesthetics. So, the writing of the Chinese language has the form and the aesthetic dimension, it can reflect the structure of the abstract beauty itself, can also carry the self-expression spirit of the main body of the artists. More important, the writing of Chinese characters is one of the main carriers by which Chinese culture is interlinked, inherited and developed. At the same time, because of the clear expressive function of Chinese characters, the writing of character also can be seen as a cultural symbol of main body’s existence. Just from this point, Liu Yonggang’s painting is facing not a natural representation world, but a culture or the conceptual world, and the form brought by the characters is just the characterization of derivatives of a cultural belief.

　　Since 2008, Liu Yonggang’s painting creation entered a peak period, realizing the diversity of media and style, including both the oil paintings with black and white as main tone and some ink painting works; linear performance and block construction for body. Although they still take character as motif, the artists tried to compromise the personal inspiration of culture, the passion for the life, the understanding of the art as much as possible, highlighting its individual expression. Overall, the creation in the stage still stuck to the following concept : on the one hand, Liu Yonggang resolutely distanced himself away from the frame of reference of western modern art, trying to transcend the western existing system for forms expression and to pull away from it; on the other hand, the artists emphasize the intrinsic cultural concept and deep cultural appeal of the works, hoping to integrate this batch of works sourced from the characters with the art history development logic in local Chinese.

　　Along this way of thinking, a new change emerged in Liu Yonggang’s works in 2009. Although the picture is not out of the theme “character", its modeling and form expression were completely out of the function of the text symbols. Because they can't be read, these symbols thus lost the direction of the sense; because meaning interference do not exist, the expression form of the works enter into a pure and state-for-itself. By comparison with the previous works, almost abandoning the mass structure of the western structural abstraction, the new batch of works strengthen orientalized linear expression, namely combining the linear abstraction and writing effectively. If the creative method is integrated into the culture and aesthetic category, that is, in rice paper or canvas the artist can manage heaven and earth, exchange with literature lovers, reflected all things in the mind, understanding and wondering. .Just as Wang Wei said, “Trace the body of the universe with a pipe.” Shi Tao said: “the ancient antique didn’t have the principle, the origin didn’t disappear. As soon as the origin disappears, the principle would be established. Where does the principle begin? Begin with one stroke. [13] And in the performance of the writing of “one” and “one stroke”. It can not only reveal the abstract beauty of the natural beauty of the heart, the main body, also reveals the psychological harmonious beauty from the oriental cultural ideal. We should say, Liu Yonggang’s painting is both abstract inheritance of the traditional Chinese calligraphy and the transcendence of form and language.

　　Of course, as a typical case, Liu Yonggang’s creation can also reflect a creative common-in of the artists come back from abroad from a side ——describing the cultural experience unique to local Chinese with the modern vocabulary. The famous critic Yan Shuangxi argued:

　　,

　　“For me, Liu Yonggang’s return is an exciting phenomenon in the Chinese contemporary art in 2006. He delivered a kind of new information, namely, a group of artists researching and learning abroad for a long term got a cultural vision quite different from domestic artists, and find their preliminary way in the expression of art language. Different from following the western biennial art mode since 1980s, and also different from the style eager to succeed operated in the gallery business, in particular, this is the really valuable Chinese contemporary art combining the west and east, mixing Chinese and foreign. Although it is still not very mature but it possesses deep cultural heritage, it can be the path of sustainable development. ” [14]

　　It is not hard to find, if without a cross-cultural perspective, without a sense of identity originated from cultural status, Liu Yonggang’s painting will lack of his own culture base points. Germany's modern art becomes Liu Yonggang’s creation “advice from others ", and the derivation of its cultural concept, or cultural consciousness become really writing motivation of the artists’ choice of words It was also in the process of actively and effectively conversing the forms, Liu Yonggang surpassed the western established abstract art pedigree and formed their own relatively perfect painting style, and brought new possibilities for the development of the contemporary painting.

　　Notes:

　　[1] Liu Yonggan•Sculpture, compiled by Guo Xiaochuan, China National Photography Art Press, 2008, page. 25

　　[2] Ditto, page 26

　　[3] Ditto, page 26

　　[4] Ditto, page 28

　　[5] Ditto, page 31

　　[6] Notes of Creation by Liu Yonggang, unpublished.

　　[7]Liu Yonggang•Sculpture, compiled by Guo Xiaochuan, China National Photography Art Press, 2008), page 34

　　[8] Ditto, page 37

　　[9] Ditto

　　[10] Ditto, page 38

　　[11] Ditto, page 39

　　[12] Ditto, page 86

　　[13] Shi Tao’s “one stroke theory” can contain mountains, rivers, characters, birds, animals, plants, pools, pavilions, gazebos...... and can sketch figuring out meanings, draw the landscapes, uncover and imply people, but he extremely emphasized the abstract will of main body, and pointed out that: “the artists draw from his inner heart. Mountains and rivers are wonderful and magnificent，full of the intricate and complex characters. Animals such as birds and insects, plants and trees all have temperament, pool pavilions, gazebos all have the rigorous rules are scale. If you can’t understand in-depth the natural phenomenon of life above, can’t gain some insight into its essential rules, distinguish conditions of society in a roundabout way, ultimately you won’t get the grand scale and scope that a picture required. No matter how far the journey is and how high the climbing is, all starts at the heart. With this rule in mind, you can include all in the images, no matter how much you spilt over the ink, these creation all begin with this heart and terminate in the heart. It only depends on our own grasp and choices.

　　Li Wancai: Shi Tao, Changchun: Jilin Art Publishing House, 1996, the first edition, pp. 213) you can see the two most typical art forms, calligraphy and painting, require the perfect unification between subject and ontology of painting.

　　[14] Liu Yonggang•Sculpture, compiled by Guo Xiaochuan, China National Photography Art Press, 2008), page.108.

　　He Guiyan, Doctor of Fine Arts; Associate professor of the department of fine arts of Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, academic member of China's critics annual meeting, member of Chinese sculpture association.

　　He was born in Shehong County in Sichuan province in 1976. He entered the drawing major in the arts education department in Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts. He got a bachelor's degree in 2000 and was admitted to the department of fine arts in Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts. He got a master's degree in 2003 and taught in the university. In the year 2006, he was admitted to the Central Academy of Fine Arts, pursuing a doctor's degree in the western modern art direction, and in June, 2009, he won a doctor's degree in fine arts.