By XIAO XIN

Painting is a relatively mature medium among China’s contemporary arts. This is apparent in the recreation of Western realism into a language of imagery that emanates from the emotions engendered by life’s realities. This mode of visual expression compares with classical Chinese poetry, whose images are framed in real emotion. Song Yonghong’s paintings exemplify this mode of imagery language.

Song Yonghong’s bathing series starkly simplifies the impression of bodies and water, his message communicated through the portrayed relationship between them. Several of the paintings in this series describe images of water splashing on the head, back, shoulders and feet. They stimulate the viewer’s cognizance of life’s basic and sensuous pleasures – seeing, bathing, and sex. The characters in Song’s paintings are individually personalized, in the manner of rigid but manipulable puppets. This quality derives from Song’s experience as an engraver. As he never works with models or photos, there is no excessive anatomical detail in the depiction of his subjects. He paints as he feels, in simple colors against a neutral background that serves as a foil for his figures. Different characters are portrayed, but they have a similar air. In this way Song maintains a feeling of consistency.

Song Yonghong’s paintings express his feelings as a modern human being enjoying the fundamental pleasures of existence.