HONG KONG — Fong Chung-Ray, a pioneering member of the avant-garde Taiwanese art association Fifth Moon Group, opens a retrospective of his career at Galerie du Monde on May 7.At a time when the age-old doctrine of copying naturalistic landscapes from the masters dominated the artistic mainstream in the world of Chinese ink, Fong and his compatriots — notably Liu Guosong, who first invited Fong to join the Fifth Moon Group in 1961 — began making their first, furtive forays towards abstraction, a shift that would exert a decisive impact on the evolution of Chinese ink painting practice and discourse.“Fong Chung-Ray – A Retrospective” will showcase a selection of 33 important works dating from 1965 up until the present. BLOUIN ARTINFO caught up with Fong as he was preparing for this important show to ask him to reflect on the artistic climate of the era, and his sense of contemporaneity with the Abstract Expressionist movement in the United States.What was the general artistic environment around you like in the 1950s, when art associations like Four Seas Artists Association and Fifth Moon Group started to gain momentum and influence? Were there any political factors that either helped or hinder the development of an avant-garde artistic discourse?At the time, young people were very enthusiastic about the development of abstraction, whereas the older generation had their reservations about it. A sense of opposition dominated the cultural atmosphere of the period. At certain stages, this ambience did have a negative impact on us, the artists. However, after each incident, the pessimism quickly dissipated.At one exhibition held by the Modern Art Group, the artist Qin Song was accused of painting the Chinese character “Chiang” upside down. An artist from the old guard was quick to report this to the authorities, as the painting was interpreted as an offence against the martial and political leader of Taiwan, Chiang Kai-shek. It was only under the guarantee of a politically powerful compatriot that Qin Song avoided persecution. Starting in the mid-1960s, you turned away from figurative landscapes and representations of the natural world, and made a rather dramatic shift towards non-figurative abstraction. Did you feel a sense of contemporaneity with the Abstract Expressionists in America, with Art Informel in France, or Gutai in Japan?I was inspired by Abstract Expressionism directly, rather than by movements born out if it. At the time, I did not have much awareness of or exposure to the French and Japanese movements of the time, so I cannot say that I share a sense of contemporaneity with Art Informel in France, or Gutai in Japan.Many well-known Chinese modernist painters ended up building strong connections and affinities with foreign art scenes — Zao Wou-Ki and T’ang Haywen in Paris, for instance. For your own part, you emigrated to the US in 1975. Did you feel an affinity with the dominant art discourse in America at the time?Although I moved to America, my friends, aside from my manager, are mostly Chinese. I witnessed some of my contemporaries trying to assimilate the American style into their painting, but found the process to be futile. To me, painting is a boundless personal pursuit. Without the ego, nationalism has no ground to breed. I have never considered myself part of the mainstream American art circle.Your compatriot and fellow Fifth Moon Group member, Liu Guosong, was honored last year at the Asia Society Hong Kong Center for his contributions to contemporary art in Asia, alongside Bharti Kher, Zhang Xiaogang, and Takashi Murakami. What are your thoughts on the ongoing reassessment of non-Western modernisms in the field of art?With the rise of China on the international stage, the accomplishments of Chinese artists have been recognized alongside those of their Western counterparts. At this point, I cannot predict the future landscape of the Chinese painting scene, and would not be able to comment on this “ongoing reassessment.” Perhaps Chinese artists have already achieved more than their Western counterparts — it’s just that we need time to understand and learn about their works.“Fong Chung-Ray – A Retrospective” runs May 7 through June 10, 2015 at Galerie du Monde, Hong Kong.Follow @ARTINFOHongKong
↧