Olivia Pang, ‘Where are we going I & II’
ESSAY:
‘The intersection of Chinese and Western styles referencing paintings by Olivia Pang’
China and Britain have a long history of mutual cultural exchange which began with the merchant trade of Chinese goods during the eighteenth century encompassing materials such as silk, porcelainware and Chinese wallpapers featuring depictions of traditional subjects. Across the western world they were present in royal palaces and grand houses principally between 1750 and 1850 as part of the Chinoiserie style. Examples of Chinese painted wallpapers can be seen at Nostrell Priory in west Yorkshire, the State Bedroom of Erdigg in Wrexham and Blickling Hall in Norfolk. It is important to note, however, this was the European interpretation and imitation of Chinese and other Sinosphere artistic traditions.
The impression the west has of Chinese art still often finds itself relying on these traditional, rather than contemporary, depictions leaving a gap in our understanding of Chinese art’s evolution. As a modern example I will discuss the works Where Are We Going? I & II by Olivia Pang, who utilises the traditional techniques of Chinese brushwork but depicts modern subjects.
She was first introduced to western art at the age of thirteen, receiving formal training in drawing and colour at fifteen, while also studying Chinese painting around the same time. It was through this constant interchange and merging of Eastern and Western artistic traditions that her visual observations and personal style began to take shape.
Her works have been compared by peers to the German artist Egon Schiele as can be seen when comparing her style with Schiele’s portrait of his wife, Adele Herms, in Seated Woman with Legs Drawn Up. His mentor, Gustav Klimt, was himself inspired by Eastern art, most notable in his final portrait Lady with a Fan, demonstrating this interplay of eastern and western art influencing each other over time. Tim Craven, commenting on her work, said he “saw the echoes of Freud’s early works in Where Are We Going.”
Olivia’s contemporary Chinese gongbi paintings do not rely primarily on light and shadow to shape volume as Western aesthetics often favours. Western traditions utilise illumination and shadow to build form through highlighting areas via specular and diffused reflection in contrast to areas of shade to create depth. Instead, her works employ line work to bring focus to the outline of facial features and figures using colour to enhance the sense of volume.
In Where Are We Going I we notice how the man’s earlobe and chin evoke a soft, tactile sensation, whereas his fingers convey a strong, rigid feeling. These contrasting impressions are all created through the use of confident brushstroke line work in Chinese painting. Furthermore, the man’s rosy cheekbones and nasal bridge possess a remarkably real sense of three-dimensionality, yet this is achieved entirely without the use of light and shadow. Olivia uses colour to construct the structure of the features themselves.
Throughout the painting, one cannot find a trace of shadow – not under the nose, along the sides of the cheeks, on the chin and neck, or even in the subtle depressions where the hand presses against the body. Nevertheless, this absence of shadow does not diminish the painting’s ability to evoke a sense of realism, when compared to traditional Chinese art forms, or stir an emotional response in the viewer.
In Where Are We Going II we see many similar aspects and yet contrasts. To accentuate the feminine, she uses more curved and flowing, rather than rigid, line work and a more subtle colour palette for the skin. The features and posture of the woman are also more demure and less brazen compared to the bare chested man in the complementary piece.
The balance of yin and yang is an often repeated element in Olivia’s works. In Chinese philosophy, the feminine yin, or the negative principle, is characterized by concepts such as darkness and passivity as represented by the dark clothed woman. This contrasts the bare chested man representing yang symbolising the masculine or positive principle corresponding to light, warmth, dryness and activity. The large leaves used in each piece’s background offer an immediate contrast to each figure, by adhering to the opposing principle, and the pieces juxtapose yet compliment each other.
The contrasting of yin and yang should be seen as complementary and interconnected. Thus while yin and yang oppose they also create and control each other as equal qualities. Whenever one reaches its peak, it will naturally begin to transform into the opposing value.
A fundamental aesthetic concept in Chinese art is liú bái (留白) or ‘to leave blank space’. This is not merely the absence of content but an intentional, active, element that creates a balance between fullness and emptiness. It fosters a symbolic sense of harmony and tranquillity reflecting the philosophical ideals derived from Daoism and Zen Buddhism. This use of negative space simultaneously allows the viewer’s imagination to fill in the gaps, making the artwork feel more expansive and open-ended yet able to focus purely on the key subject matter the artist has chosen to actively depict. A major example of this would be the landscapes by Shitao (Zhu Ruoji) at the turn of the eighteenth century.
Unlike Western art, which often fills the canvas completely, Chinese artists embrace blank space as a vital part of the composition, enhancing the overall depth and meaning of the piece. Considering Moulin Rouge: La Goulue by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec we see it shares elements similar to Chinese pigment work, by building dimension through layered ink work, yet still clearly conforms to western aesthetics. This is made most evident by the lines denoting floorboards beneath the dancer’s feet filling the potential empty space of the composition.
Western ink based artwork, in contrast, has primarily focused on densely detailed printworks. Most notably during the French etching revival and development of lithography which concentrated on building form through cross hatching and line weight to create a contrast of light and varying depths of shadow. Examples of this can be seen in the works of Gustave Doré, Edgar Degas and Eugène Delacroix.
Another concept utilised by Olivia is “疏可跑马，密不透风” (shū kě pǎo mǎ, mì bù tòu fēng) roughly translated as “loose enough for a horse to gallop through, but dense enough that not even the wind can pass through.”. This highlights the importance of a balanced composition, emphasising the requirement for areas which are airy and open, allowing movement and flow contrasting areas of tightly packed detail to create contrast and depth. This reflects the Chinese understanding of harmonious arrangement in art, where both open space and dense detail work together to create visual and emotional impact. We see this evident in the backgrounds where richly detailed leaves contrast the blank, though textured, remaining space.
From a western perspective Olivia challenges traditional expectations of couples portraiture. She defies them by making the Asian female figure, a self portrait, the more active figure by holding a tool of her trade, the ink brush, while the most notable item on the Caucasian male figure is the ring on his hand held to his chest in a defensive manner denoting his passiveness. Thus each individual piece features the interplay of yin and yang energies being represented yet transformative and paired we see the traditional expectations of gendered portraiture subverted.
Western art has greatly influenced Chinese artists beginning with their figure painting during the Ming Dynasty. However, it did not become mainstream but rather developed into an independent branch. It reached its peak with the Qing Dynasty painter Lang Shining, otherwise known as Giuseppe Castiglione, an Italian Jesuit brother and missionary in China, who served as an imperial court artist of the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong emperors. This led to a more observational, rather than symbolic, depiction of the subject developing in Chinese art through his influential fusion of the styles.
Olivia pursues an innovative artistic practice in the fusing western and eastern watercolour traditions, having been mentored by He Jiaying, with the resulting works being of delicate yet high quality with a unique style of her own. While many artists have already investigated such possibilities in the past her hybridisation of styles offers a fresh perspective in advancing art.
She demonstrates the classical gongbi brush style, with it’s carefully realised realist flowing fine line work and rich yet subtle use of pigmentation, which we recognise from the iconic Chinese ‘ancestor portraits’ tradition. While retaining this distinctly Chinese form they also include contemporary western elements in the strong colour palette choices and distinct, bold, outlines seen in the artworks of western artists such as Roy Lichtenstein and Julian Opie, amongst many others, during the more experimental forms of twentieth century western art.
Olivia Pang’s works, with their modern take on traditional techniques and composition, form a bridge between these two distinct cultural artistic traditions producing contemporary works belonging to our shared global culture of the twenty-first century.
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