ECHOING THE PAST, TRANSFORMING TO THE PRESENT The Art of Deena Gu
|
Deena with Dr. Alfonz Lengyel |
The art of Deena Gu reflects a deep root in Chinese discipline combined with her inner
force of individual creative power, which was masterly coordinated with her inner and
outer resources. The most important outer resources were the basic training in Shanghai by
her master Cheng Shi-fa and close observation of the paintings in the art museum. In the
United States, at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Deena Gu got her experience
remained dominant, but the employment of colors through her art studies in the United
States became modified. Presently, as the result of her American training, she is using
more accentuated strong colors. However, her inner resource and her own psyche do not
allow her to push over her self-limit in the subject matters, composition and execution of
her art works concerned. Her early works strongly reflected the watercolors of her teacher in Shanghai. Later on, her own inner resources, her talent and self inspiration let herself be liberated from the strong influence of her master. It is important to mention one early work of Deena Gu, a watercolor on rice paper, "A Sitting Hen and Cock" It was a work which Deena Gu copied from the watercolor of her master Cheng Shi-fa. The bamboo branches and the calligraphy, n which Cheng described the painting as a joint work, were added by her master. The date, indicated by Cheng in the traditional Chinese way, was 1979. In that year, Deena Gu was seventeen years old. A similar relationship was developed between Gauguin and his young disciple Paul Serusier, who, with other disciples of Gauguin, later founded the art movement of NABIS. Before he left for Tahiti, Gauguin together with Serusier painted a small image on a cigarbox, which they called "Talizman." iPerhaps, Cheng Shi-fa had the same feelings when he made the Spiritual meetings between master and disciple, such as between Gauguin and Serusier, or between Cheng Shi-fa and Deena Gu occur infrequently. This might be the reason why Deena Gu for so long kept the style of her master's before setting out on her own. |
||
|
In her new works, for inspiration she went back to the Song Dynasty, which was divided into Northern Song (960-1127) and Southern Song (1127-1276). The Northern Song painters realistically copied nature, while the Southern Song artists developed a kind of composition, in which the main figures were painted with extreme minute details but the background was sketchlike. The main goal was to create a decorative effect. The effect of such a composition was explored by Deena Gu in her paintings of flowers and birds and insects, especially the execution of lotus flowers were done by her sensitivity for meticulous details. Her paintings of "Flowers and Birds" scho the model set by Northern Song Emperor Hui Zong (r. 1100-1125) for his painting academy. At that time, it was enforced by the Emperor himself, an accomplished artist. The Song artists, in general, paid not much attention to color, although the "Five Colored Parakeets" of silk painting done by Emperor Hui Zong had influenced both the works of silk-painters and porcelain-decorators. The overall color effect on these Northern Song paintings were rather dull than bright. Deena Gu used formal elements of these dull colored paintings for her inspiration, but furnished them with stronger colonization. Instead of giving her "Flowers and Birds" a soft landscape background, as some of the Song artists did, she used sometimes huge empty negative space created by the natural color of silk. More often, she employed for the backdrop of the scene a texturized golden painted background. In her often created images of large overgrowing lotus leaves and flowers, the former flatness disappeared. Deena Gu, through her thorough and constant experimentation, has well achieved the three dimensional sensation. In her training both in China and in the United States, she received a great degree of draughtmanship.Curiously enough, she did not use the linear perspective to create a sensation of a third-dimension. Instead, by masterly use of light, shade, and overlaping color-intensity differences, she achieved the feeling of depth. In Western paintings, this technique during the Piero Della Francesca. It was transplanted by the Jesuit painters to China during the Ming Period. In addition to the use of this technique of expression of depth, Deena Gu either colors the shade or highlights the lighted areas. In using the color effects, she indicates the wet or dry areas on the vegetation. In spite of minute details, the highlighted golden lines of the veins of the lotus leaves create the sensation of cloisonn? This effect gives an added value to her large composition of lotuses. Perhaps, it is also worth mentioning that her optimism in life does not allow her to show decay in lotuses and flowers, although in reality it is part of their natural cycle. Certainly, some Chinese critics would fine her work less Chinese, and American ones less American. However, the most important thing is that in her images the representation of the inner spirit of Deena Gu is found. Actually, this is what art is about.
|
|||
