Most of Jia's paintings feature a single figure whose calm expression and silent surroundings make for a very peaceful, contemplative image. These paintings introduce two characters, both in the act of creation.
The conflagration in Creation suggests the creative impulse has a destructive aspect as well: the new often sweeps away the old, and Jia's childhood during the Cultural Revolution burned that impression into her imagination. The artist's respect for traditional forms of representation and her academic commitment to beauty hint at her ambivalence to indiscriminate innovation. Yet there is something mesmerizing about the flames, even if the two figures creating it seem oblivious to their heat and fury. It is a stylized inferno, but on the point of becoming real, and this apparent miracle is taken for granted by the women holding their brushes.
In Harmony, the flames of creation are domesticated, contained and turned into a screen of candles that Jia first saw in Berlin. The models are now in the act of turning themselves into a work of art, a theme that Jia has revisited many times. The artist sees her own progress as a continuous process of self-realization and self-refinement, and one should look for true beauty not in the canvas, or on the skin, but in the person and attainments of its creator.
Estoy maravillada por tanta belleza pictórica.
Saluda con admiración desde Argentina Liliana.
Posted by: Liliana Lucki | August 10, 2009 at 03:31 PM