ILLUSTRATED:
China Paintings Moving Into A New Century, The Suang Lan Art Center; Zhejiang Painting Academy, 1999, color illustred, cover & p. 11

During the last few years of the 1980s, Xu Jiang studied abroad in Germany on a state sponsored scholarship. After he returned, he concentrated on painting and devoted himself to searching for the art language by extracting and integrating the essence from Eastern and Western art. Xu Jiang used to describe himself as “a returning traveler” which implied the dual transitions he experienced—from early painting to putting the installation art with new medium into practice and back to painting; from the mindset of Western art back to that of Eastern classical poetic drawing.

Xu Jiang’s works resound with a grand narrative power. City and landscape scenes are two of the most prominent themes in his work. This particular piece, “Water Village Golden Autumn”, is a masterpiece that incorporates elements from both landscape and city scenes. In the painting, the artist adopts golden yellow as the main tone to set up the foundation of the image and create a magnificent, dazzling “impression of golden autumn”. The characteristic black roof tiles and white walls in the Jiangnan water towns in China are simplified to black and white blotches made of uneven dots, adding a sense of dimension to the composition, while white dye seemingly laid down by a casual brush on the top and bottom of the piece creates blank space reminiscent of traditional Chinese paintings, as if a floating cloud and flowing water encircle the residents of the water town. The artist’s brushstrokes reveal a refreshing lack of restraint, leaving behind a poetic and artistic sentiment in a semi-abstract milieu.