The Strength to Innovate
Painting exhibition of Mio Pang Fei and Un Chi Iam in Guangzhou
As Macau’s art scene grows, featuring more and more local activities, it is also naturally reaching out to other territories for support and places to expand. In fact, co-operative artistic events between the Mainland and our city have been increasingly frequent in recent years. A link for exchange seems to have developed: the depth of traditional Chinese culture is endowing us with a sense of our cultural roots, while Macau’s strategic position provides China with a gateway to Western culture.
The concept of Macau as a link between East and West is perhaps obvious to many of us. Nevertheless, the reality of Macau’s mixed style, blending Western and Eastern traditions, is very seldom seen incarnated as a practice in art. Rare examples of this style are made even more precious by the strength and sincerity with which they are practised. Through the pioneering works of Mr. Mio Pang Fei, a 72-year-old Shanghai-born painter living in Macau, we see that a powerful will to combine East and West has effectively become the innovation of a distinctive identity.
A series of Macau art exhibitions taking place until May at the Museum of the Guangzhou Fine Art Academy in Guangdong Province was inaugurated on March 28th with a grand duo exhibition by Mr. Mio Pang Fei and his wife, Mrs. Un Chi Iam. The titles of their exhibitions are sentences from a poem by Sikong Tu (837-908) describing the work of husband and wife, respectively, as a state that “is transported out of physical phenomena” and “conceives the aureole of immanent truth”. The two artists have dedicated all their lives to the pursuit of art, and their complementary relationship has indeed surpassed the formal aspect of everyday life to permeate the art of their paintings.
Before his arrival in Macau in 1982 at the age of 46, Mio Pang Fei lived through the Cultural Revolution of the 50s and 60s as a “Counter-revolutionary”, owing to his love and practice of Western art. He was repeatedly subjected to criticism and struggled for many months. His long-time friend Jian De Fu (a painter and theorist) recalled in Mr. Mio’s latest publication about his life’s work that the artist was “in isolated confinement, living in terror and intimidated by the ‘special investigation group’. Even though the circumstances were severe, Mr. Mio did not lose his courage.” His friend further recollects about this period, “Once he and I met by mere coincidence. As he passed by my shoulder he whispered, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll be OK weathering the storm!’”
Mr. Mio himself told Macau CLOSER that during this time, access to Western culture was strictly prohibited. There was very little information in local libraries, yet day after day, Mr. Mio would scan the stacks of publications looking for traces of art works by Western masters. Once, in an architectural magazine, he came across a picture of a European villa in which, through the window, he could see a modernist painting hanging on the wall, as small as a postage stamp. He immediately sketched it down in his notebook, and a few days later, he was delighted to find out from another source that the tiny painting was in fact by Paul Klee. It was in this way that Mr. Mio managed to gather a large amount of
information and accumulate a collection of sketches about Western art during the isolated period of the Cultural Revolution.
As a student in an art school, Mr. Mio underwent very rigourous training in painting skills. Beginning with a foundation of representational work, Mr. Mio soon discovered a limitation in realistic painting. “There is often repetition and a fear that people might not understand. In realistic painting, artists use hints and suggestion to convey their feelings through the concrete reality.” An innovator at heart, Mr. Mio was not content with these limitations and sought for liberation through abstract painting. “I then learnt about Impressionism and was very touched by the way these artists were using colours. Light was the essence of Impressionism, and I was amazed to see how they captured the constantly changing light on their canvases.” Later the artist viewed the way Picasso broke up natural shapes into planes and surfaces, and that eventually led Mr. Mio to the pure abstraction of Kandinsky. He says the reason why he likes the Modernists so much is “simply because they are so different!”
After learning from all these great artists and their works, Mr. Mio arrived at yet another limitation. “As a Chinese painter, I realised it was meaningless for me to imitate Western art blindly. I do not have the same cultural background as these artists and would never be able to achieve what they had done… unless I took my own culture into consideration, as well. I needed to understand Chinese culture thoroughly in order to break out from it.” During the ten years of the Cultural Revolution, Mr. Mio followed the renowned Chinese painter Lui Hai Su and studied Chinese painting and calligraphy. “I wanted to know what was so great about Chinese traditional art.” If we take a look at Mr. Mio’s recent works, which combine Western abstract painting and the Chinese art of calligraphy, we perceive the answer loud and clear. “In Chinese we call it Kung Fu. It’s like martial arts exactly.” Mr. Mio explains that water, as a “soft element”, has great strength, nonetheless. “Look, when drops of water slide down the surface of a wall over a long period of time, a trace slowly appears. That strength is what we call Kung Fu, and in my work concerning calligraphy I try to attain this.”
Mr. Mio understands Chinese calligraphy in this way, but he was not content to use the traditional Chinese ink and rice paper for his practice. Instead, he uses various materials such as cements or oily wax, applying them to canvas, wood or even rocks. The result is astonishing. Liu Xiao Chun (Doctor, Researcher at the School of the China Art Academy) coined the term “Post-Calligraphy” to describe Mr. Mio’s incorporation of new media into the art of Chinese calligraphy. In his essay on Mr. Mio’s latest works, he described Post-Calligraphy as “a kind of abstract painting that makes calligraphy the object of deconstruction.”
While Mr. Mio Pang Fei shows his strength by breaking free from physical and concrete forms, his wife, Mrs. Un Chi Iam, occupies the scene with a different kind of sensitivity. Mrs. Un’s paintings often draw inspiration from traditional Chinese tales and stories. She uses narrative elements such as words and traditional Chinese figures to convey subtle feelings of lyricism and sensuality. Her paintings are delicate and colourful. Her world is often filled with female characters such as heroines, concubines, goddesses or simply ordinary women. Coupled with Mr. Mio Pang Fei’s innovative strength, Mrs. Un Chi Iam uses elements of traditional Chinese painting to create new means of expression. She might use dyes as colouring agents and a traditional name seal as a visual component to create a pervasive diffused atmosphere. Her paintings are situated between the concrete and the abstract, the narrative and the indescribable.
Aged 72 and 70, respectively, Mr. Mio Pang Fei and Mrs. Un Chi Iam are teachers to many. Particularly in the last three decades of Macau’s history, this pair of artists are respected as pioneers, dedicated to creating an artistic path when there was not much happening on the scene. Though their work is based on traditional methods and values, both Western and Eastern, the essence of their art does not rely solely on the formal success of their paintings.
Mrs. Un Chi Iam says sometimes her students would complain that she did not teach them how to make paintings just like hers, which they adored so much. She would answer, “It is not my paintings that you should learn. Art shows the feelings of an artist, and I can’t teach you how I feel!”
The essence should be found within the spirit, one of true innovation. During a time when Macau’s identity is being shaken up by the rapid introduction of foreign economic powers and lifestyles, Mr. Mio Pang Fei and Mrs. Un Chi Iam’s lessons are worth learning. Even under difficult circumstances, these two artists never gave up their aspirations to “become”, based in actuality on the thorough understanding of who they really are – and where they stand.
