Escape from convention

One of Chinese artist Bai Ming's ink paintings that are on display at the Musee Cernuschi in Paris.

A solo exhibition is meant to showcase one's artistic achievements. Chinese artist Bai Ming, however, views his individual show now on display in Paris as a channel to share with the viewers his confusion throughout his career. The 49-year-old's debut at the Musee Cernuschi (or the Museum of the Asian Arts of Paris), with a display of 41 works, is dedicated to his three-decade explorations in three mediums: oil paint, ceramics and ink.

"I work with different artistic forms to escape and relax. When I get stuck with one art, I turn to the other for salvation," says Bai, an associate professor of ceramic design with Beijing-based Tsinghua University.

When he finds painting too limited in space, he tries to extend the sense of space by burning small holes on the paper, which led to the birth of his Cultural Worm Hole series. He reshapes traditional ceramic vessels to enrich the possibilities of space, for example, he is inspired by the sculpting of Taihu rock in ceramic-making.

"I paint ink-and-wash works because I don't want to be too conventional. I paint oil paintings because I don't want to be too Western. I create ceramic works because I don't want to be too technical."

Only four other Chinese artists have held solo exhibitions at the Musee Cernuschi, including Zao Wou-ki (1920-2013), Zhang Daqian (1899-1983), Lin Fengmian (1900-91) and the latest, Wu Guanzhong (1919-2010) whose show was staged 21 years ago.

Born in the 1960s, Bai says his generation grew up amid more confusion than others. The older generations, he says, do not receive as much information as they do, which means precedent artists are "simple and loyal to certain styles", and they are "not easily seduced by varieties of choice".

Meanwhile, Bai says, his generation is unlike younger artists who take full advantage of the global information explosion. "What we have been experiencing are violent clashes between the introduction of Western modern and contemporary art and Chinese traditional culture, and we try to find a way out."

The exhibition displays Bai's four oil paintings in the 1990s, when he studied at the Central Academy of Arts & Design (now Tsinghua University's Academy of Art & Design). A student of ceramics, he was obsessed with oil painting, which was considered "the tip of the art pyramid" by young artists then.

His passion burned for years until he graduated and became a teacher at the academy. But soon he hit a bottleneck－he couldn't find more novel ways to express himself. It was also when his engagement with ceramics brought him closer to the study of Chinese philosophy, and opened a window for him.

He creates many ceramic works in the shapes of traditional vessels such as pen washers and scrolls, and he favors the presentations of under-glazed blue (qinghua) and under-glazed red (you li hong). But artistically, he has gone further to use clays and pigments not for decoration, but as sculpting materials.

Ten years ago Bai started to work with ink, which he finds "quite integrated" with under-glazed blue art in expression. He boldly applies pigments that do not belong to the common color scheme of Chinese painting. A tea lover, he leaves tea stains on the xuan paper before he paints or mixes ink with tea, bringing to his paintings a special visual effect－the weight of time.

"Bai stands out with his powerful and expressive abstract paintings," says Mael Bellec, a painting specialist at the Musee Cernuschi.

"Over the past three decades when Chinese artists departed the highly-stylized Red classic art, Bai has been pondering over how to extend the territory of abstract art, as well as the identity and status of painting."

Bai Ming's exhibition runs until Aug 10.