Li Huayi (
Chinese: 李華弌; born 1948) is a contemporary ink artist whose admiration for the monumental landscapes of the
Northern Song dynasty with his training in both traditional Chinese ink and Western art, inspired him to create his own style of ink painting.[1]
Li has established a distinct connection between contemporary and traditional, and nature and humanity, by integrating his contemporary perspective with the eternal values of
traditional literati painting.[2]
Li Huayi was born in 1948 in
Shanghai, China. At the age of six, he learned the art of traditional ink painting under the tutelage of Wang Jimei in private. When he was sixteen, Li began his studies of Western art with
Zhang Chongren, who had studied at the Belgian Royal Academy and who was known for his realistic watercolors.[3] During the
Cultural Revolution (1966 - 1976), Li was exempt from being sent to the countryside and allowed to remain in Shanghai to paint Soviet-style propaganda murals as a result of his dexterity with brush and ink, and his training in Western art.[2]
In the late 1970s, after the Cultural Revolution, Li Huayi traveled throughout China's significant scenic, historic and cultural sites including the monumental peaks of
Huangshan in Anhui Province, which are often depicted in many of his paintings. In Gansu Province, Li studied the Buddhist cave temples at
Dunhuang, teaching himself the early history of Chinese painting and gaining an understanding of religious painting. In 1978, Li traveled to
Beijing where he saw his first Northern Song landscape painting and first major exhibition of modern Western art; both of which left him with deep and lasting impressions.[2]
Move to the United States
In 1982, Li Huayi and his wife immigrated to San Francisco. There, he enrolled at the Academy of Art, San Francisco, to study Western art and he completed his master's degree in 1984. In the same year, Li held his first one-man exhibition in America at the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena, featuring a combination of his Dunhuang-style paintings and his '
Abstract Expressionist' works. His abstract paintings received critical acclaim from the art historian and scholar of Chinese painting,
Michael Sullivan.[2]
Artistic development
Inspiration and early works
In the 1980s, Li experimented with abstract forms of splash-ink, combining some elements of collage.[3] During this period, he discovered his artistic calling to create something new in the most important traditional Chinese painting theme:
landscape.[4]
The Northern Song School tradition kept looming over Li Huayi. The first Northern Song painting he saw was
Fan Kuan's Scene Under Snow, in 1978 at the
Beijing Palace Museum. In 1989, Li visited the
National Palace Museum in Taipei, where
Guo Xi's Early Spring left lasting impressions.[3]
Monumental landscape
Li’s works of the 1990s evoke the landscape imagery of
Li Cheng (919-967),
Fan Kuan (active 990-1030), and
Guo Xi (after 1000-ca. 1090).[4] The faceted cliffs and gnarled pines in his compositions remind many of Huangshan's mountain peaks in Anhui Province. However, instead of the traditional mountain landscape paintings depicted at a distance, Li provides close-up details and places his viewers intimately within the landscape. By pulling the cliffs and pines in the center of the composition close to the viewer, he or she directly feels the monumentality of nature.[4]
Multiple screens installation
Since ancient times, painting on screens has been common practice in the East, providing a bridge for the artistry of two-dimensional surfaces to three-dimensional works in physical space.[5] Having considered the viewing experience of his audience, Li aimed to produce greater visual impact through the format of a screen. Since 2006, by placing a landscape hanging scroll in front of a backdrop of large, ink-and-brush filled panels, Li creates works of three-dimensional space in the form of installation art. This combination of traditional brush-and-ink painting with a contemporary presentation, suggests Li’s innovative approach and opened up the potential of physical space in his art.[4]
Ink on gilded screens
In the mid-2000s, Li Huayi has experimented with painting landscapes on gold leaf. He has accepted the challenge of applying ink and pigments to the smooth polished surface of gold leaf, which is vastly different from the surfaces of absorbent paper and silk on which he previously worked. Li has even purchased unpainted antique Japanese gilded screens in order to explore how earlier Japanese artists used their pigments and ink on such a surface. After experimenting for years, he created his first ink on gilded screen in 2008. Up to 2018, he has finished 4 works on golden paper and 26 works of ink on antique Japanese gilded screens.[6]
Ink on gold or silver leaf
Since 2018, Li challenged himself in expanding the boundaries of his gilded series. Instead of applying ink to a gilded background, he first draws his composition on silk fabric and then lays gold leaf on top. Released from the limitations of a gilded background, the artist may alternate between solid and impressionistic ink strokes on silk as much as he wishes. The light of the painting no longer comes from its background, but rather it reflects the light shone upon it. At the same time, the artist begins to incorporate silver leaf, which produces a luminescence akin to moonshine in his paintings.[7]
Recent developments
Since the 1990s, Li Huayi has participated in solo and group exhibitions on an international scale at Stanford University, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the National Art Museum of China, and was part of
China 5000 Years Exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 1999.[8]
In September 2017, his 3-month solo exhibition Fantasies on Paper and Enchantment in Gold was exhibited at the Suzhou Museum in China. The exhibition presented 18 paintings from different periods of Li's artistic endeavor, covering representative works selected from the "Monumental Landscapes series", the "Water Scenes series", the "Multiple Screens Installation series" and the “Gilded Screen Series”, offering audiences a comprehensive understanding of Li’s artistic developments over the prior 15 years.[9]
In May 2018, international publisher Rizzoli and Kwai Fung Art Publishing in Hong Kong published a
monograph on Li Huayi. The comprehensive publication includes more than 160 works representing each major period from 1993 – 2017, together with insightful art analysis, and provided bird’s eye views as well as microscopic details of the artist’s work.[10]
In August 2019, the
Honolulu Museum of Art in Hawaii hosted a 4-month retrospective exhibition Contemporary Landscapes: Li Huayi for Li Huayi. This exhibition traced the artist’s career over three decades, including works never before seen by the public, as well as highlights from various stages of his artistic growth, in formats from hanging scrolls and gold screens to installations.[11]
In November 2021, Kwai Fung Hin Art Gallery organised Infinities Between Ink and Gold - Recent Works of Li Huayi at F Hall, Tai Kwun, Hong Kong, presenting 12 pieces of Li's recent works from 2018-2021, showing his mastery in integrating gold foil with sophisticated ink and brushstrokes on silk.
Infinities Between Ink and Gold - Catalogue Raisonné of the Gilded Works by Li Huayi 2008-2021, Hong Kong, Kwai Fung Art Publishing House: 2022. ISBN 978-988-15623-0-2
KWAI Catherine and FUNG Edward, Li Huayi: Landscapes from a Master’s Heart, Monograph, Milan, Italy: Rizzoli International Publications Inc., First Edition: June 2018 and Hong Kong: Kwai Fung Art Publishing, 2017.
ISBN978-88-918163-7-5.[10]
FUNG Edward, Exotica: Latest Works of LI Huayi, Publication, Hong Kong, Kwai Fung Art Publishing House: March 2016.
ISBN978-988-15623-7-1.[29]
Waterfalls, Rocks and Bamboo by Li Huayi, Exhibition Catalogue, London, UK: Eskenazi, 2014.
ISBN978-1873609361.[17]
Li Huayi, Exhibition Catalogue for “Associated Exhibition of Contemporary Ink Painting by Li Huayi and Li Jin”, Taipei, Taiwan: Gallery 100, September 2012.[30]
Li Huayi, Exhibition Catalogue, Hong Kong, Beijing Center for the Arts Publishing House: 2011.
ISBN978-988-18150-6-4.[19]
LI Huayi, The Twelve Animals of the Zodiac, London, UK, Eskenazi: 1 November 2011.
ISBN9781873609347.[20]
MAUDSLEY Catherine, Li Huayi at 60: Paintings in the Yiqingzhai Collection, Exhibition Catalogue, Hong Kong: The Ink Society, 2008.[22]
Mountain Landscapes by Li Huayi, Exhibition Catalogue, London, UK: Eskenazi, 2007.
ISBN1-873609-23X.[3]
KNIGHT Dr. Michael J., and LI Huayi, The Monumental Landscapes of Li Huayi, Exhibition Catalogue, San Francisco, USA: Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 2004.
ISBN978-0939117260.[2]
In Concert: Landscapes by Li Huayi and Zhang Hong, Exhibition Catalogue, Hong Kong: Kaikodo, 1999.
ISBN962-7956-22-8.[31]
The Landscapes of Li Huayi, Exhibition Catalogue, Hong Kong, Kaikodo: 1997.
ISBN962-7956-07-4.[24]
Suzhou Museum, Fantasies on Paper and Enchantments in Gold, Exhibition Catalogue, China: Jiangsu, 2017.[5]
SMITH Thomas E., Li Huayi Landscape Paintings (1993-95), Anthology, Hong Kong, Wu’s Studio, Artlink: 1996.
ISBN962-7287-30-X,
OCLC62142782.
^
abcdefLi, Huayi, 1948- (2004). The monumental landscapes of Li Huayi. Knight, Michael, 1953-, Tsuruta, Kazuhiro., Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. San Francisco: Asian Art Museum--Chong-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art and Culture.
ISBN0939117266.
OCLC57209588.{{
cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (
link)
^Infinities Between Ink and Gold - Catalogue Raisonné of the Gilded Works by Li Huayi 2008-2021. Kwai Fung Art Publishing House. 2022. p. 19.
ISBN978-988-15623-0-2.
^
abLi, Hua-i.; 李華弌, 1948- (1997). The landscapes of Li Huayi = Li Hua-i shan shui tso pʹin chan : exhibition and sale, May 19-June 7, 1997. Kaikodo (Gallery : New York, N.Y.). New York, N.Y.: Kaikodo.
ISBN9627956074.
OCLC39463802.{{
cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (
link)