Sincere Expression is a High Level of Art –

Robert Huang’s Art of Oil Paintings

 By MA SHULIN (VICE CURATOR OF NATIONAL ART MUSEUM OF CHINA) 2011

This is an era focuses on the techniques of art, the brilliance of technique and the mannerist expression has become a fashion, but they have prohibited the sincere expression of the essence of art. Therefore, an artist’s sincere voice expressed through his art is most valuable today.

Among the contemporary oil painters, Mr. Robert Huang is a unique one. He is independent from any artistic change of movements, and he does not presume any concept for his creativity. All of his artworks are created from his sincere and intuitive nature, as well as his true feelings and aesthetic ideal has represented his spiritual world through art. 

For Robert, painting is a way to explore the relationship between self and art. He separates the dimension of artworks from life, and entered into the dimension of being: where the purity of life and sincerity of art is kept.

Throughout these years of his creativity, Robert has chosen Rose as his eternal theme, and he enjoyed staying in his ‘Rose Garden’ – his spiritual home, where he can concentrate on the pursuit of purity and elegance and forgets about the views of the daily world. ‘Rose’ in his paintings is a symbol, which represents a persistent essence of his artistic life. Rose as a symbol also reflects his mind, mood, and views. ‘Rose image’ has displayed Robert’s spiritual quality and his unique way to experience life, and the viewers can touch a level of life which is persistent, charming and full of aesthetic attractions. 

In the oil paintings, the rose image and the artistic realm have both represented a vivid and sensitive being. The lines, colours and structure that he employed are heavy but flowing, honest and lyrical, simple and yet rich, poetic and calm, romantic and quiet. Such unhurried nature has brought up a sense of elegance and purity, and a unique culture of his own. 

In fact, these are the artistic representation of Robert’s views, feelings and thoughts. Robert has found a way to express his being, that is through his eternal theme rose! 

Robert painted rose repeatedly throughout his artistic life and kept the real passion. He continues his honest expressions and that is very difficult in the creative life. All of the roses painted by Robert are repeated but not the same, they are rich, full, abundant, tranquil, lonely…, but always full of the quality of surreal as well as surpasses the materialist world. There is an interesting and infecting power which brought up the feelings of grace and poetry. This is due to Robert uses his strokes and colours with poetry and feelings, which includes humanity and logic, and full of inner dynamics. So the viewers respond to his works sympathetically. Robert’s rose artworks have profound quality beyond words.

All of Robert’s artworks are about roses in different circumstances. And the poetic images of roses in his paintings are full of elegant feelings, such feeling has led his lyrical and passionate expression to keep the harmonic sensitivity. In this sense, Robert’s emotion, in the contemporary terms, is in the way of classical reminiscent: the emotion is rich and intense, and yet the expression is calm. There is a sense of emotional rationality.

The nature of being and the artistic nature are not separatable. It is a quality that one cannot change and others cannot copy.

All of Robert’s rose artworks have vividly displayed a quality: elegance. Perhaps such quality is not what Robert meant to show, but this is a natural representation of his thoughts, feelings, aesthetic tendency, as well as his language logics. This is a representation of all of his life experiences.

If there is no true understanding of self nor respect to self nature, it will be very difficult to create such vivid characteristics as well as such variety of styles. The true attraction of art stems from the profound search of inner being, to view artworks are in fact to understand life, to understand the spiritual world of human beings. And hence, we are moved and inspired.

When I encounter Robert’s works and the roses in his works, I was deeply touched by his sincere nature. That is the quality not easy to be reached by other artists. I would, of course, like to believe that in the lonely path of art journey, Robert is walking towards another level. 

ZHU LIANGZHI

(PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY AT PEKING UNIVERSITY, DIRECTOR OF THE CENTER FOR AESTHETIC RESEARCH)

Huang’s paintings pursue a certain spiritual consciousness. He displays the fullness of life in quietness, nobility, brightness, and depth. Within his romantic yet lonely realm, Huang searches for the way home.

GAO JIANPING

(CHAIRMAN OF THE INTERNATIONAL AESTHETIC ASSOCIATION OF CHINA, RESEARCH FELLOW AT THE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES)

Huang’s soul firmly stands by the rose that belongs solely to the universe of his life. This particular rose is the origin of his life aspirations and deepest love, serving as the founding basis for his artistic world.

XIAO YING

(CRITIC, PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY AT TSINGHUA UNIVERSITY, BEIJING)

Robert Huang elevated art to be the supreme expression of love once again. Surpassing all technicalities and genres, Robert Huang’s roses take art beyond all technicalities and schools, and return it to its pristine essence—his genuine overarching theme.

XU ENCUN

(FORMER EDITOR IN CHIEF OF CHINA ART, PROFESSOR OF TSINGHUA UNIVERSITY, BEIJING)

Rose to many, may just be a literary symbol, but in Huang’s art, we witness the timeless poetry of humanity, rendered through our heart’s untiring pursuit for truth, virtue, and beauty. 

SHUI TIAN ZHONG

(CRITIC, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF CHINA OIL PAINTING SOCIETY)

Roses of different emotional nuances have always prevailed throughout the history of fine arts and poetry, and Huang’s roses are those of vibrancy and passion: They are vivid, redolent, and incandescent. In the dark, in the hall, they bloom in exuberance that kindles the dim of night sky. Huang captures rose’s fervent juvenescence with his passionate brush. Only with an artist like Huang, roses are never lonely.

ASIAWEEK

There are many different ways for one to bloom in life, and Huang can always bloom on the trail of his dream throughout the different stages of his career, while connecting the new millennium’s culture of living quality through the love and ideal of rose. In lieu of simply representing roses, perhaps Huang is himself that precious rose of The Little Prince.

MA SHULIN

(VICE CURATOR OF NATIONAL ART MUSEUM OF CHINA)

In terms of his art, Huang is skillful in crafting images of roses and his own spiritual realm. By presenting vivid and emotional forms rich with life, Huang’s lines, colors and compositions carries dignity and fluidity. His works are simple yet full, lyrical yet poetic, naturalistic yet romantic. In his pace, which is neither too fast nor too slow, Huang’s art shows unique elegance and purity, as well as a rare cultural charm.