In March 2018, the talented Chinese illustrator and winner of the Best Child’s Book of Taiwan Open book Award, Xiong Liang has held his first speech in academy of fine arts of Brera in Milan,  sharing his reflections from the 40-year career with students and teachers from all over the world.

In resent years the artist has drawn a lot of public attention with his unique illustration works. This time, however, he came here only to talk about his practices and insights about Chinese traditional art.

Starting to create Chinese paintings from childhood, Xiong Liang has been painting for more than 40 years, Despite of the long career he has, he claimed at the beginning of the speech that he has learned even more during his Kung Fu training in the latest two years than all that he had in the practice of painting. The “empty” mentioned in the field of Kung Fu, is a status with the forgotten self, in art, that means to forget about what I want and what I think, but to concentrate on the perception of surroundings, entering into the synesthesia.

ARTBAIGUAN: How do you deal with the contradiction between the huge frame of Chinese traditional painting formed long history and the extremely individualized expression of contemporary art?

Xiong Liang: In Chinese traditional art, the regular has always been emphasized, the artists needed to evaluate their works in a given standard. I think it profit us to stay in the contradiction. because we must try to overcome it, and then we can see where it comes from and what its nature is. For example, we can understand that the gap between Chinese traditional art and Chinese contemporary art is a result of many historical problems, when we observe it from different point of views we will be able to find our way to continue, that is to say that we actually find our motivation to go forward. What’s more, many think that Chinese traditional art has a calm, elegant feature, like my work about round solar terms, for example. But I want to break the stereotype, so I made some really crazy and emotional paintings to abandon the solidified artistic language, in the meantime insert in my own characters. I strongly agree on the opinion that one should decisively abandon all that you don’t agree, the rest is the only thing that touches you.

ARTBAIGUAN: Could this be considered as your personal distinctness found in the situation of contradiction?

Xiong Liang: I think so. And I think that there’s always the possibility of new idea, it’s just that Chinese artists sometimes tends to be trapped by predecessors. So there’s no pointing in thinking about being creative, what we need is to escape from the existent regular and soon you will find a wild world. For example in my study of Chinese painting, when I could open my heart, remaining opened and relaxed, I was able to receive any sensation, much more than that gained from the ivory tower of the tradition.

ARTBAIGUAN: In your experience of studying Chinese painting, how do you choose from remaining and abandoning?

Xiong Liang: To abandon doesn’t mean to refuse traditional sentiments and techniques. For example, I admire poems from Tang and Song Dynasty very much, but it doesn’t seem to me the most sophisticated form of art, because they show personal ambitions of those poets in certain eras, without having a vast vision. However, the Pre-Qin period culture is totally different: when people talked about music, they were talking about the art of music itself, without using metaphors toward their ambitions and political career, the latter ones concerned only their own staff and were eventually limited by their dynasty and era. In other words, the Chinese art need to find its own way.

ARTBAIGUAN: Then what do you think is the essential point that remans?

Xiong Liang: The essential point are, no doubt, the line drawing and stylized expression of shade and texture.

ARTBAIGUAN: What is your personal opinion toward the education of Fine Arts in China?

Xiong Liang: The primary education of Fine Arts in China still needs some improvements, for example, its direction and destination is not yet clear. I gave lectures in the China Central Academy of Fine Arts and other academies where I met students majored in Chinese traditional painting that should study western painting basics in the first years. Testing students’ skills of sketch and color has been considered to be an innovative way to improve their general abilities in painting in the early years, but we need to realize that this teaching method is extremely far away from Chinese traditional painting. What I want to say is that every art has its special system, one can never mix with another. I am trying to find a new way of teaching, working with my students.

ARTBAIGUAN: How did you start your work of illustration for children?

Xiong Liang: There are two main reasons. One is that about 15 years ago there was little picture books in the Chinese market, and those combined with oriental features were even less. I was brought up in a Christian family so at the beginning my works were full of western figures, but since I learned Chinese traditional painting from childhood, I decided to interprete Chinese fables and legends using illustrations. Another reason is that I found a brand new way of expressing myself which always brings me inspiration and delight, its something that I called illustrated poems and from it I can see the changes of my way of thinking.

ARTBAIGUAN：What’s the different characteristics of illustration compared with making art works?

Xiong Liang: Making illustration can hardly fulfill my desire of painting, certainly. You can easily understand it looking at my artworks with totally different styles. So I pay more attention on the storytelling when making illustration, taking myself temporarily out of the status of an artist.

ARTBAIGUAN: What’s your opinion of the exploration of Chinese art’s contemporary characteristics and expressions?

Xiong Liang: There are many Chinese artists working on this topic, but each has his own point of view. To talk about myself, I don’t belong to any given identity: contemporary art or illustration, what I really care about is the future of Chinese culture, how it will become and how it influences our life. Because my artworks have strong Chinese style, this question is indispensable for me. Before talking about cultural identity, it needs to find its unique form of expression in contemporary art, commerce and mass culture like cinema, theatre, picture book and novels, making it possibile to communicate to the outside world. Those can be communicated are culture, those not become traditions, the latter ones can be a bridge in learning and communicating with other cultures, but its not our destination.