Coming and Going in the Northern Mountains

By N. Garrigou

Li Zhi's journey through the mountains opens a void world. He is a traveler who observes and meditates, one who comes and goes among his own peaks. Three hundred li of layered ridges and ravines wind like the abstract lines of a master's brush. Facing the Taihang range, like Cézanne pacing his twenty-kilometer domain, he knows neither inside nor outside, yet stumbles upon abstract lines, shifting planes, and facades. Mist distorts and blurs nature's details; graceful fissures appear in full from every angle. Nature opens a silent Buddha; apparitions arrive, gaze fixed, every detail revealed. Paul Klee said: "Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible." Translated by Luo Yongjin.

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I See Mountains and Water

Yan Changjiang (WeChat: Qiuguan, 17 June 2018)

Note: This dialogue was arranged by Mr. Zhang Yanqin; Ms. Huang Liting asked the questions and edited the transcript. With thanks. Art Weekly: Some say that landscape painting is the spiritual home of the Chinese—what do you think? Yan Changjiang: For me it is a home, though I am not sure it is one for everyone. Most painters and calligraphers today may not have truly returned to it; much remains surface display. The mainstream is still rather familiar and conventional. After a whole gathering, cleverness shows on the page while commercial intent hits you in the face. The artist may not feel it, but I, an outsider, can see it clearly.

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