2020 YANG Mian: Let More Ordinary Viewers Truly Connect with Art work

YANG Mian: Let More Ordinary Viewers Truly Connect with Art work
Talk：Yangmian and artron.net
How to describe the work of the artist YANG Mian?

The word “ascetic monk” may fit him. On the one hand, he must spend much time and energy creating works, and on the other hand, he aims to let more ordinary viewers connect with art through his works.
Over the past decade, the most well-known artworks of YANG Mian are the CMYK “dots” paintings he initiated in 2009. He made these works by deconstructing a classic Western painting into tens of thousands of four-color dots. The four colors are Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Blank, “CMYK” for short.
In the CMYK paintings, YANG Mian proposed a great significant academic concept, i.e. “visual democracy”. In his view, the emphasis of his work is to invite the viewers to be involved in the creation of the vision and concept, instead of just enjoying the work. Therefore, he does not set a given result for his works but asks the viewers to complete the process of producing the final result of the works.
When look at the “CMYK” works from a distance, the non-adhesive color dots in the painting are fused through retinal mapping, thus forming different color gamut and patterning in the eyes of different viewers.
In addition to the creation of a “virtual art history image”, YANG Mian also integrated the features of the typography and digital image communication into his works, so as to highlight the “visual democracy” he proposed and dissolve the “one-dimensionality” of traditional paintings, making the works become more open and have a dialog with the current times.

The CMYK works are mainly the images from Chinese handed-down literati paintings and murals as well as classic Western paintings. As of 2015, YANG Mian developed the “CMYK Paintings of Western Art History”. To create the works of the “2.6 Million Dots and Western Art History”, in addition to the continuation of his basic CMYK working methods of dissociation, extraction, and combination, YANG Mian also used the image stitching method of layer stacking, thus creating a viewing experience of different perspectives and dimensions. It is no exaggeration to say that these works can be deemed as an amalgamation of exploration of painting space and time, fusion of historical shadows and individual experience.

Opening Ceremony of “YANG Mian’s Solo Exhibition: 2.6 Million Dots and Western Art History”

On Dec. 19, 2020, the latest exhibition of YANG Mian “2.6 Million Dots and Western Art History” was launched by Luxe Lakes – A4 Art Museum. This exhibition was curated by LI Jie and is the first time that YANG Mian held an exhibition at a local art museum in Chengdu after his overseas tour, and the first time that his “CMYK Paintings of Western Art History” have been presented in its entirety.
With his unique CMYK working method and visual language, YANG Mian brought to the public 13 oversized paintings, involving 45 classic works of Western art history of the Early Renaissance, Renaissance, Baroque, Neo-Classical, Romanticism, Realism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Expressionism, Surrealism, and Pop Art.

In this exhibition, the viewers may determine the final result of the works by themselves. The results of the four colors in his “CMYK” works are completely different for each viewer after conveyed to their retinas, and the other colors mapped out by CMYK are also completely different, so the works seen by the viewers are completely different.
Dialogue between Artron.Net and Art Express and Artist YANG Mian

“I always create works with the focus on the impact of media on the society”

Artron.Net: This exhibition presents all your paintings over the past five years since 2015, what has this new series of works reflected on your thinking about painting over the years?

YANG Mian: The focus of my works is always the impact of media on the society. For instance, the series of Come to China: The Revolution in Culture made early is based on the image of world mass culture that we know through the media. Specifically, our cognition of world cultural celebrities such as Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley is accomplished through various media.
From the very beginning of my work, I have raised the issue of the impact of media on the society. Such impact is most pronounced in China.

As we all know, in Chinese education, we learn most of the time through the media, and in fact our knowledge we acquired is processed, so I think Chinese people lack self-thinking, and there is no way to make up for it in a short period of time.

Works interpretation:
“CMYK-Painting of Early Renaissance” is made of four classic works in the early Renaissance (early 14c to mid-15c) overlapped on top of each other, including “The Mourning of Christ” by Giotto di Bondone, known as the “Father of Western Painting”, “The Tribute Money”, a fresco by Masaccio, the founder of scenography, “The Resurrection of Christ” by Giovanni Bellini, and The Birth of Venus, one of the most famous works of Sandro Botticelli.
Most of us understand some of the classics of Western art history, but the vast majority of us have never actually seen the original works. And for our understanding of Chinese art history, as well, many people do not actually go into art galleries or museums to view these works.
Of course, there are many reasons for this, but the most important of which is that the development of our museum system is still insufficient, and the ways for the public to come into contact with and recognize art are still relatively few.

Works interpretation:
“CMYK-Painting of Renaissance” is made of three representative works in the height of the Renaissance (late 15c to mid-16c) overlapped on top of each other, including the well-known “The Last Supper” by Leonardo da Vinci, the best-known chapter “The Creation of Adam” in the famous narrative ceiling fresco “Genesis” by Michelangelo, and “The Triumph of Galatea” by Raphael.

In the last few years, I have been thinking about a question. In fact, it is more ideal to promote the cultural rethinking of people or the enjoyment of human civilization through the perception of art or painting. The truth of the matter, however, is basically the opposite. The current situation is that we precisely recognize artworks through the media. “Compared with the feeling brought by the works of art history, what do I know may be only 1%.”
Therefore, I have been thinking about how to make the public connect with the content of my artworks through something, and then they will achieve the kind of result I want through my works and open their world through paintings. In the recent “CMYK” series, I clearly put forward this academic idea, that is, “visual democracy”. I no longer give the works a result or produce a meaning, and all the results are obtained by the viewers through their own participation.
That is, what the viewers see is determined by themselves. The results of the four colors in “CMYK” works are completely different for each viewer after conveyed to their retinas, so the works seen by the viewers are completely different.
“CMYK Paintings of Western Art History” were made through overlapping.

Artron.Net: Is there any changes in the paintings presented in this exhibition compared with previous works?

YANG Mian: The biggest change in these works is that I used the overlapping method to make these paintings for the first time. Previously, all my works were a single painting, which was completed by combining the 4 colors “CMYK”. But this time, I overlapped multiple images on top of each other. In total, I used about 45 famous works in the history of Western art, and overlapped 3~4 or more works of a certain class, style and trend classified in the history of art, and then a very unexpected effect was created.
Works interpretation:

“CMYK-Painting of Romanticism” is made of three representative works of romanticism (late 18c to early 19c) overlapped on top of each other, including “The Third of May 1808” by Francisco Goya, “The Raft of the Medusa” by Théodore Géricault, the pioneer of the paintings of romanticism, and “The Liberty Leading the People”, the famous representative work of Eugène Delacroix.

It's a new attempt which makes us visually more chaotic, but the more chaotic view actually reflects that the image itself is meaningless. For the viewers, I think it is an essential participation, not a game.

What is this effect? When the viewers see the work, they feel that these things are both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. Then they will look for it, but will not be able to find the answer, because the image itself in the paintings is not so important anymore. At this point, the image itself is meaningless, but it is most important for the viewers to have a relationship with the work. This is what I have been doing for 5 years.
Artron.Net: Based on this exhibition, could you briefly describe your understanding of “painting as a medium to be opened”?

YANG Mian: This statement mainly refers to the fact that we basically learn the history of art through the medium. But actually, we usually only know the 1% of the artworks through the medium. This leads to an awkward situation: we seem to know everything, but we really don’t know anything.

In response to this situation, I proposed a correct method being worthy of reference: to see paintings, experience them, and then get something from them, therefore broadening our world.
“My perception of tradition is ‘cultural pop’”

Artron.Net: What are the influences of Chinese and Western traditional art in your creations? How are these influences reflected in your paintings?

YANG Mian: Andy Warhol once made a very famous statement, “I’m not famous, but the people in my works are.” Because if you want to communicate with the public, it is important that viewers know the content or image in the painting. If they don’t know anything, this kind of communication is completely impossible. In this sense, I am actually utilizing what we know about classics, it is a pop concept.
Artron.Net: From your first paintings of “images of advertising figures”, to the subsequent paintings of “images of world popular culture affecting China”, to the ongoing series of “CMYK” paintings, what is the intrinsic connection between them? What kind of progress has been made in the creation of paintings?

YANG Mian: Up to now, the three series of works, “Beauty Standards”, “Come to China: The Revolution in Culture” and “CMYK works”, have one thing in common. They are all about medium and power and the impact of medium on the society.
When I painted the series of “Beauty Standards”, I was actually discussing the issue of power. For example, who decides the most beautiful woman in China this year and who gave them this power? In fact, it became a question of what are the standards.
The sculptures in the series of “Come to China: The Revolution in Culture” were made on the basis of a photo I found on the internet. One side of the sculptures is the same as that photo, but the other side is a haphazard fabrication. In response to this series, I once said, “They never came to China, but they influenced several generations of Chinese people.” Then this brings us to the discussion of the reasons behind the creation of this phenomenon.

The “CMYK works” are even more obvious. It is the production mechanism of the image, rather than the image itself that we are concerned about.

These three series of my works are actually completely connected, as well as the fourth series of works. The fourth series also focuses on the exploration by the clues, but its more salient point is that we discuss the problems from the perspective of the larger or more important visual democracy.
Artron.Net: What are your next creation and exhibition plans?

YANG Mian: I plan to focus on the immovable paintings among China’s great cultural heritage. I would use my method and the contemporary language to make them more advanced presentation as an artist’s creation and contemporary artwork, so that they become a part of our today’s contemporary cultural life, such as Dunhuang frescoes, temple murals throughout the ages scattered everywhere. And I hope that through the exhibition, I can help Chinese society to move from classical thinking to contemporary cultural development.

In addition, I am also actively working on a new series of works based on “visual democracy” and “meaninglessness of images”, and involving the discussion of our visual production mechanism. I believe that I will meet viewers soon.