堉泉

堉泉近幾年活躍於義大利米蘭、佛羅倫斯、日本、韓國、紐約、中國上海等地辦展。

堉泉的創作備受國內外藏家矚目，英國時尚界教父Paul Smith爵士、國際巨星成龍、創新工坊李開復先生、世界銀行集團常務副行長及CFO夫人巴德爾夫人收藏，皆是堉泉作品的重要收藏家。因為家庭淵源，從小就在中國書畫裡薰習長大的堉泉敏銳地嗅出墨香裡的寫意精神，就學期間，他便開始不斷思考著:如何讓油與彩的關係，如同水與墨一般，可以暈染、可以流動、甚至可以潑灑。思考化為行動， 色彩的實驗反覆進行，他在亞麻油與松節油之間找尋讓色彩流動奔騰的獨家技法，成功地以油畫媒材營造出水墨般似有若無的空靈韻味，並以強烈的表現主義風格彰顯東方精神。堉泉從早期的神獸系列開始建立其個人獨特風格，藉著恣意流動的油彩技法，在畫面上捕捉了傳統建築紋飾裡的斑斕色彩。其後，堉泉大膽突破題材，花卉、動物、山水、花鳥、石頭等六、七個系列同時發展，大自 然的天光雲影、水流石痕、迸發的岩漿等等，都成為他表現色彩與肌理的靈感來源。有時，我們以為他逐漸消減了傳統的圖像與符號，但他又出其不意地回歸傳統，摹擬起鄭板橋、趙孟頫、八大山人等古代大師的圖像，以現代語言重新召喚古典藝術，有時當您以為他對傳統表達了太多的崇敬與癡迷，他又以出乎意料的油彩技法，自由地潑灑色彩，大膽地衝撞、破壞、消解畫面形象，彰顯出西方抽象表現主義式的創作衝動。於是我們看到堉泉畫筆下的動物們，若奔若飛，栩栩如生，彷彿聽得到獅吼鷹嘯、雀聲穿竹;連花卉作品也呈現了一種生命的動態，彷彿帶著空氣的顫動與呼吸的節奏。堉泉清楚的自我定位:「我的符號是什麼?不是某一類題材。我要用筆觸、色彩、技法、流動的方式為自己在藝術史裡留下足跡。」

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Born in 1982 in Taiwan. Yu Chuan is a contemporary artist who graduated from National Taiwan University of Arts. He once lived in Spain, Italy, Japan and other countries for inspirational artistic creation. Now residing in Shanghai, Yu Chuan combines Western materials with the Eastern culture and painting techniques. He also uses his own innovative skills to make his paintings come alive by creating and constructing a unique mix of the East and West.Color is an important element to Yu Chuan’s work. He uses both Chinese brush techniques and Western oil colors to express freedom and life on canvas. Chinese painting techniques create a high degree of freedom with splashing of ink and other brush strokes. Uses of oil colors are used to inspire a sense of happiness. His choices of natural colors are meant to embody life itself. Yu Chuan believes that “Every color in life can be applied to paining”. Chinese mythology, another important element in Yu Chuan’s artistry. A choice of subjects like the dragon or the phoenix is meant to draw the observer into an inner reality. Taking from Buddhist scripture, the artist believes, “a flower is a world, and a tree is the universe”, and seeks to express this truth through his paintings.Yu Chuan combines materials, methods and a deep life philosophy to create his own magic code of painting. Strokes are rough and powerful, seeking to represent the balance of distinctiveness and indistinctiveness we find in life. Yu Chuan seeks to have his creations breathe through his use of brush techniques and choices of color. In addition, his choices of scared animals are meant to draw out the mystery, freedom and vitality of life itself. His works have always been created with such a relationship between people and nature.

An artist’s creativity is driven by the spirit of freedom. Yu Chuan’s works represents a breakthrough in the limits of oil painting. He paints with a more rakish approach, inheriting the charm and ideas of Chinese painting. He combines the color of Western painting with the artistic state of Chinese art. Greatly praised by the art community, he creates an oil painting style belonging to the Orient.

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Artist Statement

I am interested in both the Eastern and Western art, but it all begins and ends with Chinese art as a criterion. This may explain why my paintings, regardless of the techniques or subject adopted, they convey a mood of Chinese literati painting.
I am fascinated by The Song Dynasty paintings; the ultimate appeal for painting was self-cultivation rather than honoring skills or for fame and fortune at the time. Liang Kai, a famous artist in Song Dynasty, was able to present a character to life with just a few strokes. What he painted was not merely a figure, but a detached sense of soul. And what I can do is to inherit and develop the ancients thinking, seeking a new visual language to render on canvas.

I like quiet places. I want to present the natural patterns of objects via colors. The texture of rocks, water streaming on stones, trees and flowers gives me infinite inspirations. Chinese mythical animals have always been one of my creative themes. They can be considered as the essence of Chinese culture, each animal represents unique meaning. Yet, they are fictional image after all; I use a more liberal approach to the animal sketch. As its appearance can’t be assured, I commenced from reading the literal description, and put typical Chinese painting colors on them gradually, these images continue to appear in front of me. Some of them are unconscious. I think, only when unconscious things appear, conscious and meaningful things exist.