Face-to-face -- Having a relationship with art

Author: Compiled by the 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 preface or afterword, the compilers' thoughtful effort is evident. Especially the carefully arranged candid dialogues between figures from different art fields have greatly benefited the readers. In "Picking Up the Scythe, Seeing the Wheat Field" (Wang Anyi vs. Chen Danqing), it guides us to contemplate the relationship between individuals and the times, as well as between 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 view: "Originally, culture and art were merely games of the heart, enjoyable; but once in a commercial society, they changed, becoming profit-driven, calculating everything, leaving the enjoyable 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 enchanting art form, which can only be understood and not expressed in words. Naturally, these dialogues recorded in text are not as logically rigorous or structurally polished as formal articles, but it is precisely these unadorned records that fully reveal the process of thinking itself. Moving from one topic to another without a clear transition, no need for meticulous word selection, sometimes discussing matters, sometimes reasoning, 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 margins is enough to spark a new conversation.