[Evanesence and Rebirth] is a piece of Tsong's Ma Yuan at a Corner Series.
This art series is titled after its eponymous piece [Ma Yuan at a Corner], an artistic incarnation of Tsong Pu’s observation and insight about Southern Song landscape paintings.
Given the ethos of that time, the viewer may presume this work has a style as reductionist as understated; only to find that the artist manifested his seal-imprint technique in the intricate mosaics that fill the composition to the brim. Looking from a distance, you’ll see a texture with unique vein lines and joints, but you’ll find a fascinating kaleidoscope of checks when you take a close look. This work shows great creativity, even though it was created simply with shades of black, gray and white.
Contemporary imprints and the corner encountered through a millennium in the artist’s experiment, wherefrom they resonate with endless possibilities for interpretation.
In [Evanescence and Rebirth], the multi-colored imprints and black-and-white ones respectively occupy a half of the canvas’ surface. The two different chromatic systems stand in marked contrast to each other, just as the relation between contemporaneity and tradition. According to Tsong Pu, such a contrast is little more than mirror images. He deliberately used similar layouts and structures in the two parts, rendering them seemingly contradictory but meanwhile symbiotic.
Tsong Pu’s career as an artist has spanned nearly 40 years since he returned from Spain in 1981, bringing him an iconic status in the Taiwanese contemporary art scene. More specific, he is not only a minimalist artist in the spotlight, but also a bellwether for material and ideational innovation in the pluralistic genealogy of Taiwanese contemporary art. His achievements and reputation rest as much upon his long-term forward-looking horizons for creation, as upon his brilliant, sui generis philosophy of art evolved from his prolific career over the past four decades.
