Is Art nuts?

-        Understanding subconsciousness in Mr Zhou Huiming’s paintings

 

 

Two years ago, I saw an oil painting by chance at the studio of my friend Sun Shu from Fudan University. I was so impressed by its novelty, and asked immediately whose work it was. Then I knew it came from Mr Zhou Huiming – an art genius from Shanghai.

 

I was introduced to Mr Zhou and surprised to see his harsh living conditions. It is an old three bedroom flat of around 40 ㎡. Zhou lives with his father, brother and brother’s family. His father suffers from a cerebral palsy. Zhou’s bedroom is very small. There is a single bed in his room, leaving only a little space for the painting tools. Later it often occurs to me how come nearly a hundred immortal artworks that would add colour to modern Chinese art are produced in such a hard environment. It is, nevertheless, a fact.

 

Zhou joined the army in 1971. After returning to Shanghai, he worked as a mechanic in a factory. At that time, he developed his interest in art. He began teaching himself painting in 1979 and never gave it up. He did not follow suit while other oil painters were addicted to imitating Russian realistic paintings. His very first painting described his feeling about life. It was so unbelievable even crazy for a mechanic to have this kind of painting style as starting point. Afterwards, he created some paintings for decoration and others with the textural effect. With the development of his art appreciation, he focused on the oil painting and the subconsciousness in content. In Zhou’s view, subconsciousness is the highest of arts. There is no need to imitate nature in the subconscious expression of paintings, while it completely comes from the bottom of the artist’s heart instead. It is the real artistic creation. A Shanghai artist once says that there is a reflection of British painter Francis Bacon in Zhou’s artwork. But Zhou says firmly, I am myself; nobody’s artworks are similar to mine in the world.

 

Indeed, all of Zhou’s artistic languages and symbols are exclusive. His works are unbound in ideas and extensive in content. They exactly reflect what he thinks about the past, future, and reality. In a special way, he always looks at the ordinaries that are often ignored by people. There are no limitations in his artwork from techniques to forms. All are the reflections of his feelings and subconsciousness. There are no rules to follow for the framework since ideas are flowing in the painter’s head and painting itself is a totally natural creation. Thus, there is nowhere to see an identical figure in any other pictures. It is very difficult to find any other artworks of painters around the world to match up with Zhou’s artworks.

 

In order to continue his dreams, which might be “crazy” in people’s eyes, Zhou had to give up so much in his life. His two wives left him. In October 1998, Zhou had schizophrenia and received treatment at hospital for a few months. Afterwards, he stayed at home and lived on the government unemployment benefit. He told me that he no longer had any women since his divorce with his wife in 1992. I asked him, “Do you still like women?” , “Very much!” he answered. It is probably because of the long-term sexual oppression that Zhou’s artwork is full of zest and has strong expressive force. Every line and stroke presents a dynamic vitality. In another word, any symbol in his artwork is condensed from painstaking efforts. He earns a very high reputation among the frontier artists in Shanghai, and is even regarded as Van Gogh in current times. It is because of his faith and perseverance in art and the spiritual and financial support from a number of Shanghai artists that he is able to carry on without hesitation.

 

Zhou looks after his father every day as well as drawing pictures. He bases all his hopes on paintings. His behaviours and works deeply move me. As American painter Willem de Kooning says, “And then there is that one-man movement, Marcel Duchamp – for me a truly modern movement because it implies that each artist can do what he thinks ought to – a movement for each person and open for everybody.” Marcel Duchamp passed away in 1968. However, do Mr Zhou’s subconscious paintings also imply a movement for each person and open for everybody? Then we will see.

      

Zhang Tianzhi

Art Director

Shanghai University Press