ILLUSTRATED:
HUANG Gang Solo Exhibition, Modern Art Gallery, Taichung, 2008, color illustrated, pp. 36-37 & p. 39
This painting is to be sold with a certificate of authenticity issued by Modern Art Gallery.
Catalogue Note:
In this work, entitled “Sutra form Snow Land”, the artist approaches the picture holistically. The picture is steeped in nostalgia and even contains a certain classical ambience. Huang Gang did not significantly alter the primary artifact of the Buddhist engravings, retaining its visual effects and elemental power. He regarded these time-tested cultural relics as self-sufficient and autonomous bodies. To drive the point home, these forms by themselves are sufficient to speak of their own history and cultural contents. The “Snow Sutra” establishes a living connection between the popular cultures of different eras through a historical narrative. At the same time, his respect for traditional culture is expressed by the artist himself putting into practice what he preaches. Just as Huang Gang himself has noted countless times, traditional culture does not only exist for ridicule. The rich and profound Eastern cultural tradition is not only deserving of respect, but will in fact become the fountainhead and impetus of future cultural development. On the basis of venerating traditional cultural sources, Huang Gang renders traditional visual images in a contemporary fashion in his strive for the modernization of the traditional. The artist only needs to make minor adjustments but these revisions are essential – not due to any ‘aesthetic’ obligation – but, rather as an expression of the artist’s position on traditional culture. Included among these, they simultaneously embody the cultural foundation that is vital to self-growth while displaying his efforts to transform the works through a modern visual style.