Kaikodo Journal XIV November 1999

In Concert: Landscapes by Li Huayi and Zhang Hong

Corresponding to the exhibition held between November 6 and November 30, 1999. 11 paintings by the San Francisco-based painter Li Huayi and 11 paintings by the New York-based painter Zhang Hong (22 color plates with additional color details). Preface by Howard Rogers. 93 pages.

Includes the essays:
Julia F. Andrews and Kuiyi Shen:
    “The Shock of the New: Li Huayi, Zhang Hong,
    and the Reordered Landscape”
Kung Chi Shing:
    “Culture as a Physical Memory”
Vivian Chang:
    “Pioneering for a Musically-educated
    America”
Sarah Cahill:
    “Playing to Win”

Dr. Julia F. Andrews, 
Professor of Art-history at Ohio State 
University, and Kuiyi Shen, Assistant Professor 
at the University of Ohio, survey in their essay in this journal the evolution of 
guohua traditional literati painting during the 
modern age. Their essay also provides the ideal context 
for understanding the particular approaches Li 
Huayi and Zhang Hong have chosen for 
themselves, while the account in the essay of the training 
and career of each artist suggests the various 
factors that contributed to those extremely salutary choices.

The following three essays were written by professional musicians—a composer-performer and two pianists. While these might seem at first thought to have nothing to do with the exhibition at hand, the arts of calligraphy, painting, poetry, and music in China can be shown to have many features in common.  One issue of concern to some contemporary painters is the degree to which their work can or should reflect their ethnic or national identity.  Is “Chineseness” a desirable quality, one to be pursued before all else, or is one’s personal artistic identity of greater importance? A moving perspective on this is offered by Kung Chi Shing, whose life and career as a musician and composer took him from Hong Kong to the U.S., where he first consciously experienced his Chinese identity.

Various solutions to the problem of funding classical music are explored in the essay by Vivian Chang, a pianist trained at Juilliard while Sarah Cahill, described in The Village Voice as a pianist specializing in “odd but fertile corners of the American musical psyche,” discusses possible ways for an artist to gain public notice, touching on the problems of finding a platform where one might be heard or seen, an angle by which to please critics and audiences, and at the same time staying all the while true to ones own creative soul.