Face-to-face and having a relationship with art

Author: Compiled by: Editorial Department of "Art World"
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-01-01
Features: "Face-to-Face: Engaging with Art" is a collection of column texts from over a dozen issues of the "Art World" magazine. Although there are no foreword or afterword, the compilers' thoughtful effort is evident. Especially the carefully arranged candid dialogues between figures from different art fields offer readers great insights. In "Picking Up the Scythe, Seeing the Wheat Fields" (Wang Anyi vs. Chen Danqing), it guides us to contemplate the relationship between individuals and the era, reality and art. In "Ming-style Furniture, Pigeons, and the Concerto of Crickets" (Wang Shixiang vs. Huang Miaozi), we are compelled to agree with the following viewpoint: "Originally, both culture and art were games of the heart, fun to play. But once in a commercial society, they changed, becoming profit-driven, calculating everything, leaving the fun aside, making it no longer fun." In "Connecting with Kunqu Opera" (Bai Xianyong vs. Cai Zhengren), we can appreciate and realize the subtle essence of Kunqu Opera, a declining yet captivating art form, that can only be understood and not expressed in words. Naturally, these texts recorded in the form of dialogues are not as logically rigorous or structurally polished as formal articles, but it is precisely these unadorned records that fully display the process of thinking itself. Moving from one topic to another without a clear transition, without meticulous word selection, sometimes discussing events, sometimes delving into theories, interwoven freely. Even the unexplored, unrefined ideas often hold the most interest, serving as another path to the ultimate goal of thought. Even after the dialogue concludes, the space left by the blank spaces is enough to spark a new dialogue.