BRIGHTON - “Oh, East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet,” Rudyard Kipling, “The Ballad of East and West.”
As if painting ancient landscapes with the colors of a solar flare, Cao Jun has fused the allusive beauty of traditional Chinese art with the expressive freedom of Western abstraction.
In “Hymns to Nature,” his first solo exhibition in the U.S., Cao is showing 64 striking works that seek to merge - and then transcend - stylistic conventions of his native China with modern Western art. (Cao is the artist’s family name and typically given first.)
Hosted by the McMullen Museum of Art at Boston College, this exhibit features Cao’s sumptuous paintings, calligraphy, porcelain and mixed media and carries viewers on a visual journey through the history of Chinese art via the varied works of a singular artist.
Organized by professor of philosophy John Sallis, “Hymns to Nature” is a multifaceted triumph that remains accessible while exploring complex ideas through works of stunning beauty.
Since meeting Cao in Wuxi, China, in 2012, Sallis said he has become “increasingly convinced that he is among the most highly original and creative artists of our times.”
“Cao’s art blends exquisitely the theme of classical Chinese tradition with modern artistic features similar to those of Western art,” he said.” From his early depictions of wild animals to his recent, more abstract paintings of the most elemental forces of nature and the cosmos, his work brings to light profound visions that, without his art, would remain unseen.”
Sallis said he was “immediately struck” by the way Cao merged traditional Chinese landscape painting with contemporary approaches to create a new kind of art that enhanced rather than diluted its contrasting elements
Visiting with a friend, Sarah Lyall said she was “overwhelmed by the brilliant colors” of Cao’s flowers and mountain vistas
“When I toured the Yellow Mountains with a group many years ago, I saw landscapes like these,” said the retired teacher. “I feel like I’m seeing them again in Technicolor.”
Born in 1966 in Jiangsu province in southern China, Cao was fascinated by the rivers and lakes of his childhood home that have inspired many works in this show.
He spent 18 years working near mount Tai Shan, considered China’s most sacred peak. Since studying painting at the Central Academy of Art in Beijing, he has traveled throughout Europe, New Zealand, the U.S. and Alaska and the North and South Polar regions, destinations that inspired his work.
Sallis has organized the exhibit “thematically,” beginning with Cao’s earlier, largely realistic paintings of lions and tigers on rice paper before progressing to increasingly abstract images of mountains, flowers and water that utilize his signature ink- and color-splashing techniques.
He stressed Cao spent years mastering ink- and color-splashing with large goat and horse tail brushes, several which are displayed in the exhibit.
“It’s not a matter of chance,” said Sallis. “Cao’s splashing techniques are very controlled and done with great precision.”
The exhibit’s eight sections, “The Spirit of Animality,” “The Poetics of Water,” “The Look of Landscape,” “Botanicals,” “Reflections of Autumn,” “Dreams of Space,” “Calligraphy,” “Porcelain” and “Songs of the Earth” are displayed in the spacious Daley Family and Monan galleries on the second and third floors.
Visitor Gary Andrick was struck by Cao’s use of “brilliant flowing” colors particularly in his paintings of water and flowers.
“It makes Chinese landscape painting more interesting and true to me because the landscapes aren’t static but seem alive,” said the medical researcher from Boston.
Museum director and professor of art history Nancy Netzer said “Hymns to Nature” reflects the McMullen’s faculty research mission “not only in introducing an important artist to the American audience for the first time” but also in bringing together distinguished international philosophers, led by Sallis, to write about and discuss the aesthetic and philosophic foundations of Cao’s work.
Preparing to lead a tour of the exhibit, Sallis said Cao’s style has evolved from a figurative representation of the natural world to an increasing abstraction that still retains some realistic elements.
Pausing by the gorgeous “Endless Rivers and Mountains,” Sallis said the 42-by-30-inch watercolor and ink scene features several of Cao’s signature adaptions of traditional landscape painting known as “shan-shui,” literally “mountains and waters.”
Instead of seeking strict realism, ancient artists infused their landscapes with a moral or poetic sense of man’s place within nature’s harmonious equilibrium. While including familiar elements such as a “master” mountain that dominates the scene, he said Cao “splashed” a rich blue irregular form flowing like water in the foreground to suggest his own personal response to the scene.
Visiting the museum for the first time, Anne Shumway described “Hymns to Nature” as “incredible.”
“I enjoyed the entire exhibit. People should certainly see it,” said the semi-retired social worker from Cambridge. “I felt (Cao’s) use of calligraphy on his paintings and porcelains conveyed Chinese traditions in his own way."
Noting she had grown up on the California seacoast, Shumway said she was struck by Cao’s use of “splashing” to express the ever-shifting forms of water.
“I was really impressed by how the painter incorporated traditional Chinese methods with a modern flavor,” she said.
Even Rudyard Kipling would agree.