Visit to Yang Jiechang's workshop
Thanks to the initiative of our president, Robert Lavayssière, a group of Friends were able to visit the studio of Yang Jiechang, who welcomed us along with his wife, Martina Köppel-Yang. During the visit, the couple warmly shared insights into the artist's career. Indeed, the unique feature of this large studio is that Yang Jiechang has kept works illustrating his entire artistic journey.
Born in 1956 in Guangdong province, the artist was introduced to calligraphy by his grandfather at the age of three. After studying under a master and a stint with the Red Guards, he entered the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts between 1978 and 1982 to study calligraphy and traditional Chinese painting. Always higher shows the artist's work at that time, in the style of positive socialist realism.
The repeated rejection of his works in competitions did not prevent him from being hired as a teacher at the School of Fine Arts. Yang Jiechang presents us with the first two rejected triptychs, including Massacre (1982) which features grimacing and disturbing heads, highly expressive, thus conveying the devastation of the Cultural Revolution. He also shows us a large copy of a temple painting executed on paper dating from the 1980s. From these formative years, Yang Jiechang learned that one should not paint for others but for oneself.
 Yang Jiechang. Ever Higher. Ink and colors on silk. 1982. |
 Yang Jiechang in front of a copy of a temple painting. Ink and colors on paper. Mid-1980s. |
 Yang Jiechang. Massacre. Triptych. Ink on paper. 1982. |
His life changed in 1989 thanks to Jean-Hubert Martin (born in 1944), curator of the major exhibition "Magiciens de la Terre" at the Centre Pompidou. Unable to export his paintings due to the Chinese government's inability to do so, he arrived in Heidelberg, Germany, with only his brushes and set out to present a collection of works under the title One hundred layers of ink which he continued to develop throughout the 1990s. To achieve this, he used multiple superimposed layers of ink to create thickness and play with both gloss and relief on the matte background. It's worth noting that his preparatory work was done on printer paper using soy sauce due to the high cost of ink. Following the exhibition, he remained in Europe, eventually settling permanently in Paris.
 Yang Jiechang. Project for One Hundred Layers of Ink. Soy sauce on paper. 1989. |
 Yang Jiechang. One Hundred Layers of Ink. Ink on paper. Mid-1990s. |
 Yang Jiechang. Country in movement (detail). Ink on paper. 2018. |
Although his painting has evolved towards figurative art, he continues to explore calligraphy and explains that he always works on the floor, writing backwards and standing at the top of the artwork. He shows us a project of Country in motion where he recorded all the political movements of the People’s Republic of China in the style of the dazibaos of the Cultural Revolution and a finished work, dating from 2018, inspired by the style used for the stelae.
In a realistic style I still have a suitcase in BerlinThe work, executed on silk, demonstrates the artist's ability to master traditional Chinese techniques for a contemporary subject. Similarly, the series Tale of the eleventh dayrd day)Inspired by Boccaccio's Decameron (1313-1375), begun in 2009, this work depicts an idyllic landscape in the style of the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368), where animals and humans discover and mate, as in a paradise where religious, ethnic, ideological, or political divisions are erased. These works are created using a meticulous painting technique. gongbiapplying layer by layer washes of ink and color on silk. The series also benefited from the expertise of the Sèvres factory, which produced eleven porcelain vases using a forgotten and rediscovered method (paste on paste to obtain relief) based on the artist's drawings.
In series that began in 2013 These are still landscapes et This is still flowersYang Jiechang uses the traditional and meticulous technique of the Chinese brush to copy, magnify and reinterpret, works that Adolf Hitler painted in 1914, at the age of 25.
 Yang Jiechang. I still have a suitcase in Berlin. Ink and colors on silk. 2000s. |
 Yang Jiechang. Tale of the eleventh day (detail). Ink and colors on silk. 2018. |
In 2005, Yan Jiechang also designed a flag for the Pearl River Delta region, on which is written in Chinese characters and Latin letters " We are good at everything, except for speaking Mandarin PRD "(We're good at everything except speaking Pearl River Delta Mandarin). Behind this Cantonese humor lies the reality of the "Mandarinization" of the region."
Yang Jiechang. We are good at everything, except for speaking Mandarin PRD. Ink and acrylic on silk. ©Hanart TZ Gallery.
It is worth recalling that Yang Jiechang has participated in numerous exhibitions around the world, including "Ink in Motion" at the Cernuschi Museum in 2023. His works are exhibited in museums in China, Europe, and the United States.
As a Taoist, Yang believed, however, that only the study of evil allows one to understand virtue, and that the examination of ugliness allows one to find beauty: "What interests me is transforming difficult events or catastrophes into beauty. The spiritual aspect of the paintbrush allows one to metamorphose reality.",
This visit provided an opportunity to appreciate the work of an internationally renowned artist living in perfect harmony between Asian and Western cultures. We thank him and his wife for their presentation and for their warm welcome.
