DRIPPING WITH INK : Contemporary Brush Paintings by Chua Ek Kay
By Teo Han Wue | Art Critic & Executive Director of Art Retreat, Singapore, 2005
Ink painting is a unique art form found only in traditions originating from Chinese culture. Perhaps because of this uniqueness, how ink painters should address the question of modernity and express its spirit has for the better part of the last century become a perennial hotly debated aesthetic issue. It has always centred around how Chinese painting should respond, transform and Innovate under the impact of foreign cultural influences. Singapore society has had a close and deep relationship with Chinese culture and therefore the art of ink painting in Singapore has naturally been an inseparable part of her visual arts development.Though the practice here could not have been spared the fallout of controversy, the geography of the region and its position as an international hub, not to mention her British colonial past and multi-ethnic and multicultural characteristics, have determined a very different development and direction of the art in the island state.
As early as the 1920s and 1930s, many of those artists from China visiting and exhibiting in Singapore were ink painters. A group of artists who were alumni of Shanghai Academy of Art, Xinhua Academy of Art and Shanghai Art University came together and founded the Singapore Chinese Art Association (forerunner of Chong Hwa Art Association). The association organised annual exhibitions featuring ink paintings by artists such as Chen Chong Swee, Wu Tsai Yen, Shih Hiang-to, Huang Pao-fang , Liu Hsien De, Chang Tan Nung and Lim HakTai in 1935. The Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, established in 1938 also offered courses in Chinese painting, which were popular with students then. Just before the Second World War, artists Xu Beihong and Liu Haisu from China held solo exhibitions in Singapore. After the War, the academy was much strengthened with Cheong Soo Pieng, Chen Wen Hsi, Georgette Chen and Fan Chang Tien joining the staff. Early pioneers such as these who had allreceived training from art academies in China and were well-versed in Western as well as Chinese art paved the way for the development of a distinct style of Nanyang art.
With such artistic links between Singapore and Shanghai, it is of great historical significance for both the artist himself and the Singapore art scene that Ek Kay, an heir to the Singapore ink tradition, is bringing his art to Shanghai Art Museum for the first time, in a solo exhibition. It signifies that the art of ink painting, having developed in the Singapore conditions and undergone various transformations, now shows itself in the place of its origin so that it can be compared and contrasted with contemporary ink art in Shanghai. It is hoped this will initiate meaningful exchanges between Singapore and Shanghai so that ink artists from both cities will profit from each other.
Born in Chenghai, Guangdong, China in 1947, Ek Kay came to Singapore at the age of six. Since young he started learning to write with a brush. While a student at the Catholic High School, he was exposed to Western music and arts. In 1970 he studied painting and calligraphy under Singapore's first-generation painter of Shanghai School Fan Chang Tien, and classical Chinese poetry by renowned scholars Ma Zongxiang and Huang Xuwu. In the late 1980s he graduated from LaSalle College of the Arts, after which he went to Australia to further his studies in art. Having acquired his art training both through traditional apprenticeship and the strict methodology of western art academy, Ek Kay honed his art of ink painting with foundations staunchly built on contemporary Chinese and Western art.
These 20 highly experimental paintings were mainly new works completed in 2004 and they represent a very important mature stage of the artist's creative career. If one could suggest that the 15 of the larger pieces of works have been painted with his blood and tears, one would not be guilty of exaggeration - because it is true. During the half year when he was working on them, he felt it was as though he had fought a battle each time he completed a painting. After he was done he fell seriously ill and had to undergo therapy. Completely exhausted physically and spiritually, he looked back on those months feeling as though it was a bad dream, amazed how he had been able to endure the pressure and agony. Apparently the artist had finally paid for a breakthrough and excellence with physical pain and mental torment.
Indeed, in painting the "Water Village Series" Ek Kay applied broad multi-layered xieyi (literally "writing idea") brush strokes to deal with the tricky problem of perspective in contemporary ink landscape just in case "the scattered vanishing points (sandian toushi) would lead me back to the old ways of traditional painting while the use of Western perspective would make me lose sight of traditional brush strokes". Besides, he also earnestly seeks the concise yet casual, awkward yet natural qualities in the literati painting. While he felt sufficiently in control of his brush technique that he had honed for the past 20 years, he found it necessary to deal with the vague and unspecific sense of space as an issue arising from rendering ink and brush in contemporary painting and arrive at the same ultimate unity and harmony as in a traditional painting through contrasting void against mass, the principal against the subsidiary, so that they interface and form a tension. In the entire process the artist would have undergone a series of complex, agonising struggles and reflections. The "Water Village Series" consists of works depicting old streets and houses in ancient towns in the Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui region. At first glance they appear similar or mere extended repetitions of previous Singaporean street scenes he painted in the 1980s and 2001. However on closer examination, one would discern the great differences between them. The previous melancholic nostalgia that readily appeals with images of old streets that are at once hazy yet intensely sentimental, is now replaced by a sense of alienating, profound and rational analytical reflection that is even more deeply moving. In his creative pursuit of contemporary ink painting, Ek Kay has achieved considerable success in terms of his ink and brush technique, as well as the articulation of his subject matter. Through actual practice and application, he has reaffirmed and reinforced the value of the great ink painting tradition. Besides, he has also found for himself a viable strategy and solution in meeting the challenge of modernity through the ancient art ink and brush. In August 2004 when Ek Kay was about to start on his therapy, he was lucid, calm and composed, completely at peace in the face of adversity and ready to accept or even embrace whatever was to befall.This sense of fortitude and equanimity is eloquently conveyed with a rhythmic lyricism in Reflection: Reeds by the Water. In contrast, Reflection: Lptus Pond in the Rain infects the viewer with the sense of unease,restlessness, anxiety and despair felt by the artist when he was experiencing the effects of therapy, that seem to pierce through the paper. With such a command of his ink and brush articulating these deeply felt sentiments so poignantly, one would be moved to call his art “淋漓尽致” (thoroughly incisive and vivid) or "thoroughly expressed and accomplished".
Now that Ek Kay has fully recovered, we would have great expectations of these paintings, that are milestones in his life as well as for his many creations in the future.
水墨画是中华文化传统独有的表现形式。就因为它有极独特的个性，水墨画家面对如何表达现代性与现代精神的问题上，是近百年来争论不休的美学课题，议论的核心离不了中国画在外来文化冲击下,该如何回应、改造与创新。新加坡社会跟中华文化有一段深厚的渊源，水墨画自然也成为其美术发展过程中不可分割的重要部分。虽然也受到有关争论的影响，但岛国作为东南亚区域与国际要冲的地理位置，及其英殖民地历史和多元种族文化的特色，这些因素决定了本土艺术的形成与发展独特的历程和方向。
早在1920－30年代，许多从中国南来展览的画家主要都是以彩墨、水墨来创作的。一批由上海艺专、新华艺专及上海艺术大学三学府校友于1935年联合创立新加坡华人艺术研究会(中华美术研究会前身)后，每年举行画展呈献水墨画家如陈宗瑞、吴再炎、李太白、施香沱、黄葆芳、刘先德、张丹农、林学大的作品。1938年成立的南洋美术专科学校开设的中国画课程，修读的学生非常踊跃。二战前夕，徐悲鸿与刘海粟也曾来新举行个展。战后，南洋美专的教学阵容有了钟泗宾、陈文希、张荔英、范昌乾等加入而逐渐壮大。这些先辈们都有中国艺专的训练，并兼通中西绘画，为新加坡水墨画艺术开辟出自有鲜明面貌的南洋风格。
以新沪如此历史渊源，如今继承新加坡水墨传统的蔡逸溪首次携画到上海美术馆展出，确实深具特殊历史意义的。无论对他个人还是新加坡的艺坛来说，它代表水墨艺术在新加坡的环境里，经过了各种的变化与发展后，回归到源头，与那儿的当代水墨的面貌与气象，来个对比和观摩，希望双方都能因此获益良多。
逸溪1947年出生于中国广东澄海，六岁来新加坡，自小学习书法，学生时代在公教中学接触西洋音乐与艺术，1970年代追随新加坡第一代海派画家范昌乾习书画,并从著名文人马宗芗、黄勖吾学中国诗词，80年代末于新加坡拉萨艺术学院毕业后，赴澳大利亚深造。他通过传统师承的传习与正规西方学院系统的严格训练,将水墨艺术的创作扎实地建立在现代中西艺术的基础上。
这20幅富有现代试验性的水墨大多是逸溪于2004年完成的最新近作品，代表他在创作历程中一个极其重要、成熟的阶段。如果有人称他那15幅八尺宣山水为他呕心沥血之作，那绝非夸大之辞而是有一定的道理的，因为他半年内的创作期间，每完成一幅犹如经历过一场博斗，画完了最后一幅就大病了一场，当时他已心力交瘁，回头再看,却惊叹那段如梦境般的日子里，自己怎么会有那般大的能耐，承受那种压力和挣扎。艺术家因为致力寻求突破与超越自己,付出了伤痕累累、血泪斑驳的奉献。
原来,逸溪在处理《水乡系列》用多层次大写意的方式来解决现代水墨山水画里棘手的透视问题，深怕“用散点透视会使画转回传统的旧路，若用西洋透视又会失去了笔墨”。此外，他还极力追求文人画所要求的简洁而率意，拙重而自然，觉得自己以20年来磨练成的笔墨技巧，虽能驾驭自如,但对水墨在当代艺术里所引起那种不明确的空间感，利用传统山水固有的虚实、宾主之间的对比，使之互相抵触而产生强烈的张力，最终达至旧时画中那种和谐统一，整个过程还是经一番错综复杂的挣扎与思考的。
《水乡系列》以中国江、浙、安徽一带古镇的旧街和老房子为题材，表面上看似画家80年代与2001年所作新加坡旧街景的重复、延伸，但细察之下，两者之间的差别是相当巨大的。以前那股唤起对老街既依稀又浓郁、引人投入其中而深受感染的感性忆旧的沧桑情怀，如今换成疏离、凝重、理性的分析与反思而产生更深沉的震撼。在现代水墨创作的艺术上，逸溪笔墨技巧的运用与题材
的探讨和表达都有可观的成绩。这可说是画家通过实践发扬水墨传统的价值，并且为自己面对现代性的挑战，发现可行的策略,开辟了一条道路。
2004年8月逸溪在开始医疗的前夕，心境清澄通透，犹如一切豁然开朗，坦荡的胸怀在《蒹葭》里流露无遗，对即将降临的以平常心迎接，甚至拥抱;另一幅《雨荷》表现出治疗期间情绪变化的不安、急躁、沮丧、焦虑等，力透纸面。画家驾驭笔墨以表达内心思绪而至如此境界，可谓淋漓尽致。
如今，逸溪已康复，我们对这些成为他生命里程碑的创作，以及他将来创作的方向，都寄以莫大的期待与厚望。
