Tong Yanrunan
Forms of Time
- Edited by Flaminio Gualdoni
- Binding Paperback with flaps
- Size 23 x 28 cm
- Pages 96
- Illustrations 50
- Language Italian, English
- Year 2017
- ISBN 9788836637225
- Price € 25,00 € 23,75
Abstract
Tong Yanrunan considers the artistic act as an adventure towards the discovery of the true essence of its subject. The Chinese artist is empowered by a constant desire for getting in touch with the human soul and with nature, giving life to a portrait that is distant from the form but one that (like Giorgio Morandi’s still-life paintings) creates a sort of constantly gratifying relationship borne from apparent simplicity.
The subject dwells within the canvas in the essence of non-distinction; every face is vivid and irreplaceable; every image is a new and opulent universe. The painter is not interested in the true story of his characters. By estranging himself from their past, he manages to create a bridge between the soul of the artist and that of the subject – real, bare communication.
To observe Tong’s portraits means letting oneself go to a calm magnetism, abandoning oneself to the vision of subjects immobilized by the painter’s dynamic brushstrokes, on canvases slightly smaller than the real bust of a person and creating unalterable Forms of Time.
Bologna, Galleria d’Arte Maggiore G.A.M, June - September 2017