When Shawn Eichman, curator of Asian art at the Honolulu Museum of Art, would talk to his board and benefactors about his plans to bring the work of painter Li Huayi here, he would often get comments and questions like: What is his art like? Can you tell us about it?
His response: “Just look at it.”
That is by far the best advice to follow when entering the exhibition, “Contemporary Landscapes: Li Huayi,” which opened this weekend. No matter one’s taste in art, it is certain to be one of the most gratifying and exhilarating experiences one can get from the simple act of looking at paintings.
The exhibition comprises 33 works, dating from 1993 to 2017, by Li, a Chinese-born painter now based in San Francisco and Beijing who has been called a “towering genius” of contemporary art. “That’s not just Chinese art, just a towering genius of the art world,” Eichman said.
The exhibition took Eichman eight years to organize, with works coming from private collectors in Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and several U.S. mainland cities. The Honolulu museum also has one Li work, a landscape portraying a murmuring river flowing through a shadowy canyon. Otherwise, “a lot of this has never been seen in public before,” Eichman said.
Most of the paintings are mysterious, somewhat brooding landscapes, reminiscent of traditional Chinese landscape painting but in other ways fantastical and otherworldly, as if they were scenes from a Gothic “Dungeons & Dragons” movie. A few others are still lifes of gnarled pine trees, bamboo and rock, providing a more intimate look at Li’s work.
The images amaze and startle on many levels. From a technical standpoint, the brushwork, akin to the finely controlled strokes derived from Chinese calligraphy, combined with broad washes, splatters and pours in the style of Jackson Pollock, seems incredibly detailed and painstakingly labor-intensive. Eichman said Li often takes a year to create a work.
The size and impact of his paintings are similarly impressive, of such majestic scale that Eichman decided to display them individually, one per wall, to avoid visual clutter. One piece, “Fuchun Mountain,” an homage to a famous Chinese landscape painting, stretches nearly 24 feet in length.
Many observers consider Li’s work to be a fusion of Eastern and Western styles, as seen in his use of Chinese brush painting, yet with a creative use of shadow and light to create a sense of perspective unusual in Asian painting but commonplace in Western painting.
As is common in traditional Chinese brush painting, Li will also leave some of the canvas unpainted, leaving white space to depict water or sky, but with remarkable effect. Eichman said an acquaintance of his, upon seeing Li’s “Sound of Waterfalls,” commented: “This is the first painting where I’ve actually heard the water.”
“There is something very musical about (Li’s paintings),” Eichman said. “When he paints he actually listens to classical music, particularly romantic music like Beethoven and Schubert.”
Li’s life story reflects the melding and mashing of cultures revealed in his art. Born into a well-to-do family in Shanghai in 1948, just before the Communist takeover of China, he was trained in traditional Chinese culture as a youth, which included painting. With Shanghai being the most cosmopolitan city in China, he was exposed to Western art and culture as well.
As his talent emerged and the politics of China became more and more ideological, Li was chosen to serve as a propaganda artist, painting images extolling the Communist Party during China’s Cultural Revolution. At the same time, his privileges as an artist enabled him to sequester himself away in libraries full of foreign books, ostensibly to learn about the dangers of “decadent” Western art and culture.
Instead, from reading works like “The Catcher in the Rye” and “On the Road,” Li learned about freedom and independent thought, which would have been taboo for the proletariat masses of China.
“He had this self-taught exposure that was all very dangerous and had to be kept very private and very quiet, and throughout this entire time he was trying to develop his own voice as an artist,” Eichman said.
Li emigrated to the West with his wife’s family in 1981 and studied abstract expressionism at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Amid a bevy of Chinese artists trying to take advantage of China’s opening to the West and cater to Western tastes, he initially struggled to make a name for himself.
“When he first came to the United States he was working as a stock boy in a grocery store doing paintings in the middle of the night,” Eichman said. “One of the things that makes him so remarkable is that he had such a powerful vision for what he was doing that he didn’t bend to market influences at a time when everyone that was coming out of China was very much targeting the kind of art that would sell in the auctions and galleries in New York.”
Li’s first solo exhibition was in Southern California in 1984, and since then he’s been exhibited around the world. A 2007 exhibition in London heralded his arrival as a major artistic figure when New York Times art critic Souren Melikian described him as a “towering genius of 21st century art” and called the show “one of those miracles one hopes for without really believing that they can happen.”
Eichman feared that as Li grew in acclaim, the possibility of bringing his work to Honolulu was becoming more and more remote. Fortunately, Li was familiar with the museum’s Chinese art catalogue and lent his support to the exhibition, which opened this weekend and runs through Jan. 5.
Eichman sees the show as a continuation of the Honolulu museum’s tradition of showcasing Asian art, but added that Li’s work is so uniquely his own that it transcends the notion of representing a particular culture or historical perspective.
“We were looking for a style of contemporary art that could not just come out of a vacuum but could speak to our traditional strengths,” Eichman said. “At the same time it provided a new perspective on those strengths that would lead us into contemporary art.”
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‘CONTEMPORARY LANDSCAPES: LI HUAYI’
On view at Honolulu Museum of Art through Jan. 5; 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m Tuesdays to Sundays. Admission $10-$20.
Related programs
>> A Conversation with Li Huayi: The artist joins Michael Knight, Asian Art Museum Foundation curator emeritus and organizer of Li Huayi’s first major exhibition in the U.S., and Shawn Eichman, HoMA curator of Asian Art. Doris Duke Theatre, 1 p.m. today. Free with RSVP; myhoma.org/LiHuayi_talk
>> Atmosphere in Sound: Music for Li Huayi: Teaching artists Ava Fedorov and Kosta Kulundzic lead in-gallery drawing sessions while a musician performs pieces inspired by Li Huayi’s work. 10:30 a.m.-noon, first Sunday of the month, through Jan. 5, Atsuhiko & Ina Goodwin Tateuchi Thematic Gallery. Free with admission. RSVP required; myhoma.org/LiHuayi_sound
>> Hokusai’s Mount Fuji and Beyond — Innovations in Asian Landscape Art: Stephen Salel, curator of Japanese Art at the Robert F. Lange Foundation, shares prints from Hokusai’s “36 Views of Mount Fuji” to illustrate how Li Huayi honors and challenges Asian traditions of landscape art. Education Lecture Hall, 10:30 a.m.-noon, Oct. 17. Free with RSVP. Register at myhoma.org/LiHuayi_mtfuji
>> Mystic Photography WorkshopSpalding House: Under the guidance of photographer and educator Minny Lee, create “mystic” photographs inspired by the work of Li Huayi. This two-day intensive workshop is ideal for digital or film photography enthusiasts who seek an alternative approach to creating ethereal images. Bring your own gear. 8 a.m.-noon, Oct. 27 and Nov. 3. $75 members, $85 nonmembers. Register at myhoma.org/LiHuayi_mystic
>> Digital sketching in the gallery: Use templates and a range of digital brushes and paints to express yourself and share with others. Atsuhiko & Ina Goodwin Tateuchi Thematic Gallery. Free with admission
