Does the power of art – not limited to the appeal or influence of a work of art, but covering the developing force of art itself – come from the deliberate self-contradiction of the artist himself? Great artists are compelled to restrain the advantages of their endowments out of their own power of perception and their hedonist nature. Ding Vi tries to deplete the potential concepts, methods, and forms in each particular stage. He may not be aware that it is by no means easy to reach this goal, for the beauty and charm of his natural gifts have too flashy a color. Ding Vi has to fight for himself. He launches an expedition against the
canvas, the linen, the Scottish checked cloth (tartan) and corrugated paper.

Like his Chinese counterparts, Ding Vi had a rapid process of maturity. Chinese and Western art critics tend to graciously exaggerate the hardships that artists experience in the process of their growth. In fact by the time that they get access to major international exhibitions many have already stopped painting for a long time. Moreover, they have not gone through the trials of distrust in the real sense of the word before they have had ample time to form any distinctive artistic character. Consequently, they are prone to changes in style, means and concepts that led to their loss of artistic deliberation and the continuity of creation. Fortunately, as the sole representative of contemporary Chinese abstract art participating in large scale exhibitions in the west, Ding Vi has always been cold shouldered by the critics -giving way to works of political spectrums, installations and conceptual works tinged with timely and sensational effects. In contrast, his work is almost free from outside pressure or interference. Indeed, his difficulty comes from himself. From the point where the fully mature mainstream of western abstract art ended he started marching into an infinite sphere at the border of an art that he believes exists. It will make very good sense to summarize his artistic career. What we discover may be none other than alteration, compatibility, and balance between the cold art of painting and the warm beauty or genius.

When Ding Vi started painting urban landscapes under the influence of Maurice Uitrillo in 1982, he did not know that the French painter whose eyes meditated on the works of Suzanne Valadon, woud arouse his interests in some special subjects. Such special things were in fact things all artists have been acquainted with when they were still learning: window frames, houses, and railings for gardens. Utrillo seemed very fond of painting shutter windows of southern European color. So does Ding Vi. However, he did not know why he would look for the same shutter windows while sketching. A funny thing is that he would put an iron fence around a house that actually did not have one. This aesthetitical behavior was an early indication that Ding Yi’s psychological tastes differed from that of Utrillo. Without his knowing he had already manifested a pursuit of such hollow barriers that mark and decorate distance. His primary concern then were things of a different nature, such as the beauty of abnormal perspective relations. After the “New Spirit of Painting” show, an exhibition of New German expressionist works in 1981, those small tricks would not mean anything anymore. Yet his attachment to the decorative and simple symbology already manifested his love for the abstract. While his intense temperaments may had been temporarily bewildered by the Guan Lang style of Chinese oil painting (to the extent that several years later he entered the fine arts academy of Shanghai University to study Chinese painting) he immediately combined his personal character and artistic orientation into a solid unity when he was touched by Zhao Wuji’s personal exhibition in Hangzhou. When Ding Yi started painting abstract paintings he obviously drew a lot of inspiration from light effects and American hard edge painting. Like all other abstract artists he acquired the most essential geometrical sensibilities from Mondrian. From the very start he hated to create misunderstandings.

Mondrians art of color block distribution and equilibrium provided him with long term technical support. Through self training and comparison to such abstract artists like Barnett Newman Ding Yi to discovered his impulses agreed with western artists of the 1980’s . This is clearly illustrated in his works. He solemnly Incorporates Into his work the art of decoration and design which acts to restore the aesthetic components that minimalism, with Its silence, brevity, and pretense to profundity might have otherwise depleted. His work Is endowed with the democratic spirit expressed by his equal treatment of materials and choice of
symbologv. His sense of equilibrium and his criss cross markings have accompanied him through his everyday explorations of color, lines and symbols. His work and some American works of arid and network structures. like those of Takenichy are of different orientation. Italian art critic Monica Dematté appropriately mentioned Leger in her article about Ding YI.

It is not hard to understand her judgment If we look at Ding Yi’s work (91-1). With ruler, adhesive tape, and a mechanical, repetitive painting style, plus the glossy and smooth industrial effects of acrylic, he succeeded in playing down the art for art’s sake effects of his work. At least before work (91-1) showed up, he was filled with respect for far more complicated works of the Nordic Swedish abstract school. Ding Yi’s works now carries an objective weight, probably because his works and style are objective. The tools and forms he uses serve to keep his personal feelings at bay. Consequently, his works, unlike those of abstract painters maintain a finite, well defined, regular space, and manage to effectively eradicate meaning. Perhaps we could go on to say that the meaning of his works are purified by his stubbornness and monotony, a spirit tainted with morality. Three of his works were exhibited in the Modern Chinese Art Exhibition held at The China Art Gallery in 1989, an exhibition that summarized the modern fine arts movement of the 1980’s. They presaged that Ding Yi was about to stay away from the cold face of the already frail morality.

In January 1993 the House of Cultures of the World in Berlin selected 16 contemporary Chinese artists from all parts of the world to exhibit Chinese vanguard art for the very first time in Europe. Ding Yi participated In this exhibition with two types of his representative works. One type, like (91-1) still involved the use of the ruler and adhesive tape (a clear indication of the changes to come) the other like (91-4) had already Indicated that Ding Yi had decided to let his paintings enter a more liberal state. A climax in his artistic creation came once his hands were free. Painting by hand endowed his works with a luxuriance similar to a field of crops in midsummer. By June 1993, the Venice Biennial exhibited three of his black and white works. During this period his works appropriately blended the passion and tension of the norms, the apathy, the new methods and the previous mechanical stage with a new powerful rotundity. They at once marked the advancing footsteps of his art and attracted public attention. A number of impeccable works on paper were done in the same period. A great number of his works were meant to solve some major problems that turned out to be nothing more than minor ones. The original objective in solving these problems metamorphosed into a promised landscape fulfilling every little change. Later his paintings became more and more beautiful, full of the so called art-for-art’s sake effect but only at the cost of artistic value. Ding YI had ambitions, courage and luck. He successfully replaced acrylic with charcoal and chalk by placing them in direct contact with the rough fibers of the linen. He got hold of a disheveled tableau full of more fortuity. He moved the tableau to a screen or the face of a fan, a phenomenon which can be attributed either to enlightenment of installation art or Chinese painting. His breakthrough in both directions seems to have been confirmed by good comments for better or worse. Ding Yi walked to the opposite of his formal self as we and even he himself would have expected.

Long after the expansion of the positive effects of painting, DingYi participated in the ‘Aura Aurea” exhibition in Reggio Emilia, Italy in 1995. He took care that he would produce a realistic influence only when handling the relationships between his works and the surrounding space, namely, the relationship between the workin space and the exhibiting space. The negative role of the pursuit of natural effects soon showed up. Ding Yi assumed that on selecting “exactness in liberty”, “liberty” would, as a “force of thought”, guide exactness. This way his work shall reflect the risk in the implications of exactness and hence cast off the creed of fairness in egalitarian art. Undoubtedly Ding YI has had his wish fulfilled. He made it at the very first attempt. His new works, in segments (brush strokes, scratches, and thickness) or in whole (including the new marginal treatment approach for each piece or work and the size and exhibiting framework of the work) are original, appropriate and touching. The increasing concern for his work in the domestic fine arts circle happened at this period of time. I believe that people are fascinated by the art-for-art’s sake effect of his work. Frankly speaking, this so called art-for-art’s sake effect marked by liberty of the soul and the naturalness of form is exactly what our fine art’s circle is seeking. Ding is open artistic ideas steered him to the original central artistic sphere which has by now metamorphosed into a region of mundane art – the very brink of non art. What couragel On the other hand, his principle is exactness and hard work rather than creation based on conception and inspiration. His work Inflicts a painful question: Why is this challenge won without costing anything ?Has the world become so radical? More surprisingly, his work has always stayed a rather high and stable level. Anyway, for an artist who must satisfy personal needs this is a perilous state requiring vigilance. Why is it that good and pleasant pleces of work are indications that artists are on their way to slapping their own faces? Because the wonder or the good is in effect an effective mesmerism. The mesmerizing effect may plunge the artist into a lasting sleep when spectators have already woken up.

Ding Yi’s determination lies in the fact that no fine sentimental details could bind him. Once he notices that his “colloquialism” may take him somewhere far away from pensive bondage and macroscopic expectation he would resolutely return to his smooth work. The sober instincts of a sober artist lie in the fact that he can comprehend that latent crisis in his maturity while enjoying the patents of an invention. You will be done once you become skilled to the point where you sense no unfamiliarity. His solution stays the same repetition: every deviated repetition yields something new. He once again walked to the opposite of his former self. Nonetheless, this time he was more shrewd. While using half of his energy in practicing his changed aesthetics on the changed material, he kept the other half to further explore his working method from the previous stage. By adopting the most minimalist approach he maximizes the size of the painting to a 2.6 x 3.2m plane of cheap and rough corrugated paper. Here he realizes the extension of the chalk, charcoal, and Intuition which is as commonplace, natural and ephemeral as the materials themselves. He seemed to be very willing to respect the practical use of corrugated paper, he would only violate the wall. He would use a network which is not so compact, not so tense, even loose and seemingly disintegrated to cover the walls as best he can. The success or failure of a painting no longer depends on whether or not It is good. A badly painted piece or pieces of work does not matter. It may even be a good thing, for they may stop the spontaneous flow of natural gifts, talent, and capabilities of raw artistic appeal and thereby slightly criticize the concepts of fine arts and its galleries.

Ding Yi’s other leg does not stride to nature as the regular one does. In other words it does not stride to a sloppy, rough and unworthy nature. He is actually regarded as a graphic designer in a textile mill by those outside the fine art’s circle who like his works. Then why would he not make direct use of the textile industry or cooperate with graphic designers in a textile mill?

He always liked to convert unconventional materials, to use things that run counter to traditional painting materials, products of manual labor and an early mechanical industry rather than products of ruthless modernity. His material recourse are theoretically infinite. At the “In Between Limits” exhibition at Sonje Museum Korea in July 97 he exhibited his new works painted completely on tartan. His new track made It possible for him to continue to work in bondage. To add his own symbols to the checked clothes he would have to respect the original color and patterns of the clothes themselves. If the original pattern of the checked clothes – Its network – provided him with an existing icy cold system, his mission is to obey that system. With the bright color of acrylic he draws his symbols in the fancy checks and in the eyes of the audience those symbols are a reincarnation of himself. If we watch from a greater distance Ding Yis obedience Is a downright Trojan horse, a conspiracy mixed with drawing techniques. He forces the original color and grid network to follow his new patterns composed of “crosses ” or “asteroids” like a cast shadow. Dld not Keith Haring make NY subways turn around his figurines? Can’t you make a tattoo of a cloud riding dragon out of our own skin? In the view of the relationship between the checked cloth and the human body the metaphor of the tattoo seems redundant. It may in his chopped logic imply the will of the artist and not so much the pure paltry spirit of painting. In contrast Ding Yi’s painting of acrylic on clothes is equivalent to a return to the stage where he painted on canvas with acrylic, using a ruler and tape. There is no longer any chance of directly pouring natural gifts on a tableau. Here the publicity of the works is highlighted and hence the space of the painting expanded.

In the development of contemporary abstract painting, artists like Christoph Rütimann makes full use of the shadows of the internal structure of the exhibition building to organize his lightly stroked canvas. These are works more reliant on imagination than on repetition. Ding Yi’s fate is one guided by his repetitive, consistent small symbols. Pieces of checked cloth seem to be surging out of nowhere and subsequently sewed back into an irregular, fearlessly growing block that extends repidly into exhibition halls and drawing rooms. On the reverse side you do not see the very same symbols and patterns. The reverse side is sill the
reverse side, and walking to the opposite side of oneself means just walking to the opposite. The developing force of modern art seldom comes from nature – nature in all senses including the psychological one.

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