Wild brush strokes, gorgeous colors, meticulous lines and vivid blocks… One after another exciting works tug at the heartstrings of people, bringing them to a world mixed with pleasure, fascination, sorrow and entanglement. Here, the beauty of life is in full blossom, the journey to aspiration is on the way, the soul is cleansed.

　　This is the impression of Wang Jingyuan’s three-realm abstract paintings leave for people. Although you might not understand his works at the first sight, it is for sure that such works will bring you to a world of reflections. So why would he create such works? What are they trying to represent to the people?

　　Kandinsky, the father of abstract painting wrote in his book Concerning the Spiritual in Art that spirit (soul) is the origin of the real world, while material is only a veil covering the real word. Only through the veil, can we see the sparking spirit of the real world. The spirit in art works is something that can really represent the present and predict the future. The whole world of art is like a pyramid in which the vulgar arts of Naturalism and Realism could only take up the ground base. While pure and elegant arts free from the burden of materials ascend upward and those stands at the top of the triangle are the prophets and sages among all arts. They are like Mose who stands above, watching mortal beings dancing around the "Golden Calf"(Taurus). During the century following the period Kandinsky, abstract painting was spread from Germany to the United States and then to the entire land of Europe. Despite its variety in forms, the abstract paintings during the period can be generally divided into such schools as color gamut abstractionism, symbol abstractionism, writing abstractionism, texture abstractionism, and form constructivism. However, from cold abstractionism to hot abstractionism, it is difficult to find a master who can establish a new art that is different from all others.

　　For cold abstract painting, there is Mondrian, for hot abstract painting, there is DeKooning. They are regarded the two representatives for conscious abstract painters. While Pollock splashes his unconscious abstract paintings with his “dripping technique”. After these three painters who currently live in America, no other abstract painters comparable to them emerges. China introduced abstract painting creation in the 80s of last century. Abstract paintings in China, mostly abstract paintings, can be mainly found in Shanghai and Beijing. Many art critics claim that abstract art is something which contains merely forms with no content.

　　Wang Jingyuan, an artist who stands on the cutting edge of the art around the world and in the depth of Chinese culture, established the three-realm themed abstract painting with his boldness stems from superb skills. This is something that can never be found in both China and around the world. In other words, he subverted the historical form of abstract art. More importantly, he integrated scientific fruits together with people’s religious aspiration. Thus, he turned the abstract art from a material form to a spiritual symbol and changed genetically the connection between spiritual space and cosmic space. On such basis, he used the cutting edge language of abstract art and presented visually with Chinese calligraphic lines. Thus, the subversive series of works is born.

　　As for the source of thoughts in these works, I believe they come from the following aspects.

　　Firstly, on the basis of the division of three realms by the Buddha, the space concept of his works symbolizes the heights of souls defined by the causal relationship caused by the interweaving between material and spirit. As is known to many people, the three realms stand for the realm of desire, the realm of form and the realm of formless, which equals to the commandment calmness wisdom proposed by Dharma. Secondly, he attached much importance to the three-story thought of Mater Hongyi. The three-story symbolizes the material life, the spiritual life and the soul life of people. The material life, spiritual life and soul life stands for subsistence, art and literature, and religion respectively. Thirdly, Austrian psychologist Freud holds that the psychic apparatus of each people can be divided into three parts, namely, the id, ego and superego. Freud depicted a vivid psychological structure of people from a spiritual perspective. The traditional “psychology” refers to something only on the surface, namely the conscious apparatus of the of people’s psychology. But deep inside people’s psychology, there is another psychic apparatus of sub-consciousness which is broader, more complicated, more inaccessible and more dynamic than consciousness. If we compare people’s psychological structure to an iceberg floating on the sea, then consciousness is only a small part of the iceberg which can be seen above the sea, while sub-consciousness is the larger part of the iceberg hidden beneath the sea.

　　Sub-consciousness can be further divided into unconsciousness and preconsciousness. Unconsciousness comprises of various depressed or forgotten emotions, desires and motivation which have lost connection with the normal communication system and language rules. Thus, unconsciousness can barely penetrate into people’s consciousness and rationality. Peconsciousness is an apparatus between consciousness and unconsciousness. The mental contents it contains can change from unconscious apparatus to conscious apparatus under certain circumstances. Fourthly, Wang Jingyuan showed great interest in Hawking’s theory of time and space. Special relativity is a theory on space and time proposed by Einstein on the basis of the fruits by Lorentz and Poincare. The special theory of relativity holds that time and space is closely connected with each other in a complicated manner. Therefore, we cannot talk about curvature of space while giving no consideration to time.

　　Thus, time has its own forms. Hawking holds that the most distinctive feature of space is that it is extending infinitely. With modern technology, we can see numerous galaxies in various forms and dimensions in space. Despite the fact that the universe in each spatial position seem to be identical, it change with time. Fifthly, Lao Tsu said in Tao Te Chingthat “Tao gives birth to one, one gives birth to two, two gives birth to three, and three gives birth to everything”. The “Tao” proposed by Lao Tsu belongs to the philosophical category. Tao is the origin of the universe, as well as the law which the development of the universe obeys. “Tao gives birth to one, one gives birth to two, two gives birth to three, and three gives birth to everything” means that the universe revolves into a chaotic state in line with the law of Tao. The universe then generates the two “Qi” of Yin and Yang. The intercourse between Yin and Yang gives birth to the Qi of harmony. Yin and Yang, together with the Qi of harmony, produce all other things.

　　Abstract paintings are always abstruse, so as the three-realm abstract art of Wang Jingyuan. As a matter of fact, the essence of abstract art lies in its “abstrusity”.

　　Firstly, abstruse abstract paintings brings unfamiliarity. The absence of concrete images on the paintings brings an unfamiliar visual experience which no equivalence can be found in daily life. Secondly, the jerky and elusive lines and color lumps fascinates people. People are always trying to gain knowledge on things proactively by grasping their meaning, getting familiar with them and understanding them. Even if you are unable to mentally accept the space constructed by the pictures, the tension of such spaces will surely leave you a deep impression. “Abnormalization has become a new approach to arouse people’s interests in the things around. It advocates people to experience the wonders and beauties of the world from a new perspective by getting rid of the usualness of their experience, going beyond practical purposes, and breaking the shackles of prejudice and sophisticated interpersonal relations. Thus, the things which seemed to be so common, insignificant and tedious before will take on a completely new look and turn into something unusual and distinctive which brings people back to the original essence of all things and the touching moment on their encounter.” Therefore, abnormalization helps people to get rid of their automated lifestyle and brings a new experience on art and life.

　　“Defamiliarization” is originally a well known literature theory proposed by Shklovsky, a Russian critic on formalism. It is a milestone in the development of western “defamiliarization” poetics and marks the maturity of western “defamiliarization” poetics. As the core concept of Russian formalism, “defamiliarization” is the largest concern of formalists. The theory lays its emphasis on the violation of common senses, common conventions and common occurrences in people’s life and the common realm of arts. A defamiliarized structure is composed with closely related factors which seem to contradict with each other on the surface. It is such contradiction that produces the impression of “defamiliarization”, and arouses sensory stimuli and emotional resonance in people.

　　The establishment of Wang Jingyuan’s three-realm abstract painting art is of great significance. It may exert far-reaching influences on modern art and Chinese traditional culture in the following aspects.

　　On one hand, Wang broke the conventions held by many art theorists by introducing a theme into abstract art.

　　Some believe that “abstractionism is of no thematic meaning, no artistic conception, no rationality and no political significance.” In terms of its visual manifestation, abstractionism belongs to visual science and visual psychology which deals with the soundest and most scientific existence of vision on a plane. Abstractionism can never be described by such terms as symbolism, thematic meaning, and artistic conception, nor can it be defined as something of political and social significance.” But the creation of the three-realm abstract paintings of Wang Jingyuan indicate that abstract art can also have a theme as its soul which penetrates into people’s thoughts and spiritual space. All ideologies such as political, religious and ethical ones can all be included into the think bank of abstract artists who then represent them with spiritual symbols in abstract art.

　　On the other hand, he realized unconsciousness with his subconsciousness.

　　Subconsciousness artists are always trying to shaking off the shackles of consciousness and travel freely in the boundless world of unconscious filled with unexpected inspirations. Therefore,they may try some extraordinary methods such as drinking and taking drugs to free themselves from conventions.

　　However, the three-realm abstract painting indicates that the abnormalism of unconscious abstract art can be achieved without such abusive and extraordinarily methods.

　　The sublimation from one realm to another is a journey from a finite space to a infinite space. With his distinctive artistic creation approaches, Wang’s subconsciousness yielded art works with radiant splendor.

　　As far as I am concerned, Wang’s ultimate pursuit is to conform humanity to the law of nature.

In Los Angeles

2013-3-22