CONTROLLED METAMORPHOSES OF A CHINESE ARTIST IN THE WEST

When I, a specialist in 19 th -century French panting, was asked to write a presentation on the Metamorphoses exhibition by Yin Xin, for Chinese visitors, I was really quite astonished. If, at best, I could provide the Western art amateur with some kind of key to unlock the pictorial and imaginary universe of Yin Xin, what contribution could I make to assisting Chinese visitors in interpreting his work? In addition to an in-depth knowledge of Chinese history, both ancient and recent, I would also require an intimate understanding of the impact of events which have marked the life of the artist, from his birth in Kashgar in 1959 until his move to Paris in 1994 (where he has lived ever since), to explain the creative process at work in constructing his paintings and the origins of his chosen imagery.

Before embarking on a concrete analysis of the works featured in this exhibition we should first outline the assumptions upon which we base our understanding of oriental art in relation to occidental art. Western painting is devoted entirely to God and man, created in his image, whereas Chinese painting traditionally portrays nature and landscapes, where man is reduced to a spectator. In China , the individual is of no greater interest than the “large masses”, favoured by Mao Tse-tung, for us Westerners. “The romantic Chinaman does not yet exist. He always endeavours to seem reasonable,” wrote Henri Michaux in 1931 ( A Barbarian in Asia ). Indeed, the romantic ideas introduced to the West by modernity are inconceivable for the Chinese.

Western art embraces its successive periods. Paintings are dated, as are the accessories which accompany the main subject: clothes, furniture and objects whose forms belong to a fashion which dictated the general characteristics for a certain period. In the West, time is always on the move, closely pursued by Progress, on its way towards modernity and the avant-garde. Chinese painting, on the other hand, is timeless: in China , time simply does not exist. This, combined with the fact that the concepts of oriental philosophy do not include the notion of the individual, contributes to rendering Chinese art an imitational art, resolutely following a tradition, rather than requiring the mark of an individual, who seeks to stand out from the crowd.

Henri Michaux also wrote the following on the subject of Chinese art: “Above all, Chinese painting, theatre and writing demonstrate this extreme reserve, this interior hollowness, this absence of an “aura”. Chinese painting is principally landscape painting. The movements of objects are hinted at, not their depth, nor weight but their linearity, if you can call it that. The Chinese are capable of reducing a being to a symbol of itself…. ”

Coming back to the work of Yin Xin, is it now possible to define it, or at least describe the “figures” with which it unfurls before our eyes and captures our imagination?

Let us first outline the strictly material process at the origin of the paintings in the Metamorphoses exhibition. For the first time in the artist's career, instead of starting with a blank canvas upon which to compose his paintings Yin Xin has scoured flea markets and second-hand shops in Paris and beyond to purchase canvases that have already been painted. These are far from random choices, since they are almost exclusively 19 th -century paintings, serving as a curious reminder of the China Trade production at that time. The paintings are “subject” paintings by anonymous minor artists. Even for those few canvases which are actually signed, it is impossible to find out about the painters in the Bénézit dictionary or by any other means. There may be a simple explanation for this: Yin Xin could not afford the luxury of paying high prices for known or identified masters. Moreover, he would perhaps have had a few scruples about covering a major work of artistic heritage with his own painting, and thus effectively erasing it.

Although Yin Xin is attracted by certain subjects since they succeed, whether or not the painter is aware of it, in appealing to his imagination and submitting themselves to his transformation project (or metamorphosis ), there is no doubt that chance has played a role in the purchase of certain canvases. And where chance leads, destiny follows.

Having pinpointed a canvas, Yin Xin decides how to bind his own project to the work of the painter, with whom he has chosen to enter into an eternal partnership. The next step is the slow transformation of the canvas. During the entire process Yin never loses sight of the fact that he is walking in the footsteps of another: the technique, style and layout of featured elements do not belong to him. Thus, an active dialogue is established which will continue until the final brushstroke, when the painter arrives at the profound conviction that he has achieved his goal and that the new painting is henceforth “his own”. Only then is he entitled to sign it. Certain elements of the original composition will remain intact. Rather than simply painting over the areas which he chooses to alter, the artist scratches them out, as if the alterations made should blend seamlessly into the initial subject and not simply be added to the surface. Perhaps the artist also wishes, in doing so, to erase any trace, even invisible, of the “hi-jacking” for which he is responsible, even if this were merely for superstitious reasons, in order not to disturb the spirits of the past.

If readers are mistaken into thinking that Yin Xin is little more than a predator, let me assure them that this is far from the case. In accordance with the teachings of an ancient civilisation and through his involvement at various stages of the re-creation, he restores some of the integrity that he has stolen from his chosen object. The image thus acquires a meaning which is even more profound and powerful than that of the original object.

Firstly, the paintings unearthed are sometimes, or often, in a disastrous state of repair. With infinite care and accomplished technical skills, Yin Xin mends tears, fixes pictorial material and repaints damaged areas. Where certain signs of the canvas's deterioration are retained, these are deliberate elements of his personal creation. By re-appropriating the subject according to his will as a conscious and autonomous artist it becomes “his”. He has henceforth vested the canvas with his imagination, stamping his own mark of genius.

Although the end result of Yin Xin's efforts has a certain charm, this is certainly not an easy body of work. It is free of compromises and illusions. Yin Xin uses what appeals to him about occidental art, to which he only recently gained access, to interrogate with integrity and courage the deepest sources of his Chinese identity, unaffected by passing trends, which, although often artificial, are followed by many fellow artists who have remained in China or emigrated to western countries.

In Metamorphoses , Yin Xin's artwork is inspired by Chinese art of the transition period between the early 19 th century and Mao Tse-tung's arrival to power (approximately covering the China Trade era), but it is also marked by the past masters, with Velázquez, Georges de la Tour, David and Ingres ranking amongst his favourite artists. Although Yin Xin's artistic expression demonstrates the combined influence of the Chinese traditions of the last two centuries and occidental painting studied in our European museums, sometimes lending them a nostalgic air, his work also encompasses a broad spectrum of contemporary art approaches.

The world of advertising, for example, ever present in our daily lives, recently used the image of Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper with spectacular and eye-catching results. Created by an Italian advertiser to promote a brand belonging to French designers Marithé and François Girbaud, the advert showed women in place of Christ and the apostles in the famous fresco and created such a scandal that it had to be banned. Was Yin Xin aware of this? Whatever the answer, the discreet sophistication of his feminine version of the Last Supper ( The Supper ) (page - ) cannot be disputed, it nevertheless holds a message—which is certainly not without ambiguity—since the substitution of women for men in one of the most cherished works of Western heritage cannot fail to attract the attention of our contemporaries, familiar with gender study theories for the last few decades. It may be worth pointing out that Yin Xin has not tampered with the original da Vinci painting, nor even on an identical copy, he has used a mediocre or rather naive 19 th -century substitute.

In certain subjects chosen by Yin Xin, one cannot help seeing or imagining illusions to China 's recent past. In The Little Red Book (page - ) , the artist was originally dealing with a religious image belonging to the iconography of Saint Sulpice. A young man, seemingly ecstatic, holds a holy book ( L'Imitation de Jésus-Christ ?) and a crucifix, around which rosary beads are wound. A lily, symbol of purity and virtue, is placed on the table nearby. Yin transforms the subject by removing the catholic imagery and replacing them with the little red book, China 's new “bible”, inseparably linked to Chairman Mao, since it contains his entire teachings. On the left-hand side of the painting, Yin Xin has added a perpendicular inscription in Chinese characters identifying the real subject: servant of the people . This title would actually be appropriate to both versions, since the priest and the Red Guard both play a similar role as servant/guardian in each of the two “cultures”.

With French Lady in Front of a Window (page - ) we are introduced to a different atmosphere. In comparison to all the other paintings in the exhibition, this one is practically unique. Here, the woman's beautiful face has not been retouched by the painter, nor has the setting in which she is portrayed. Only her clothing has been altered, transporting us back to the oriental world. We find ourselves wondering whether this is a European lady who has lived in China and who, having returned to her country feels a certain nostalgia for happy times. Or, should we detect a cleverly veiled allusion to current practices, popular in Hong Kong in particular, where Asian women undergo eyelid surgery and use cosmetic products to whiten their skin. Thus, the features that characterise their race are smoothed away while their souls are given over to a “globalised” world, mirroring the image of westerners, who currently dictate dominant aesthetic norms.

With the exception of Engels (page - ) , an emblematic figure and a rarity in the artist's work, Yin Xin prefers his “portraits” to follow a general type. However, in certain titles which are intentionally vague, it is often possible to discern a figure from Chinese history, whether from the world of politics, religion or art. Thus, might Wise Man (page - ) not allude to the Jesuit Matteo Ricci (1552 – 1610)? Known by this name in China , he was one of the most important figures in establishing Catholicism in China . As for Top Hat (page - ) , the arrogance and haughty air of the model might remind us of one of the archetypal cases which abounded in 19 th -century Chinese history. The figure in this painting looks rather like Lord Palmerston, Queen Victoria 's Prime Minister, one of the patrons of British expansion and cosignatory of the unequal Treaty of Nanking which put an end to the Opium War in 1842. Are the features of L'Empereur (page - ) not reminiscent of China 's last emperor, Pu Yi (1905 – 1967), as portrayed in the mid-1930s at the point when he had become a puppet in the hands of the Japanese? Dealing with the world of art, Yin Xin's primary interest, Artist (page - ) makes a reference to Xu Beihong (1895 – 1953), the best-known Chinese painter of the first half of the 20 th century, who, having studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and Brussels, became the director of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Peking under Mao Tse-tung and gained a reputation for portrait painting and portrayals of horses.

Certain subjects dealt with by Yin Xin might conjure up events which have marked the history of China , or depict fictional scenes illustrating real incidents involving Chinese and Western people. Thus Nun Wounded (page - ) , featuring one of the Sisters of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, who is apparently in a perilous situation, may evoke the massacre of ten Sisters of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul carried out by a raging crowd in Tientsin in 1870. Also known as the Daughters of Charity, for their contribution to the Work of the Holy Childhood, the nuns devoted their lives to helping the sick and played a crucial role in Chinese hospitals. Was Yin Xin trying symbolically to repair the fate suffered by these elite souls, by ensuring that one of them was saved by a Zouave, one of Napoleon III's elite soldiers, who is coming to her rescue?

On another level, Lost Colonel (page - ) shows a French soldier in military dress that dates back to before the First World War. Could the artist be evoking the nationalist revolt of the Chinese Boxers here? In 1900, exasperated by the ever more insistent presence of Westerners, they massacred foreign missionaries and Chinese nationals who had converted to Christianity, with more or less official backing from the Empress Dowager. Having taken Peking, they besieged European legations in China and many Europeans were assassinated. A French brigade was established to quash the uprising and French troops remained in Peking for several years. Might this Colonel, who is “lost” in China , be one of them?

Mandarin with Mr Hennessy (page - ) is a simple depiction of a trading session between a Chinese man (“hong”?) with his assistant and a Westerner, a scene which could have taken place in Shanghai (prior to 1757) in Canton or Macao (post-1757). However, since Hennessy was established in Cognac in 1765 by the Irishman Richard Hennessy it is unlikely that the company would have been in a position to trade its cognac in China at the time. Yin Xin's choice of title may therefore either be a reference to the inventor of this prestigious drink or a sign of recognition for this company

The artist has also been inspired by several religious paintings. Portrayals of Marie (page - ) and a Hermit (page - ) have scarcely been retouched. Then there are the Three Monks (page - ) who have taken on the role of the Magi, come from the Orient to Bethlehem in adoration of the baby Jesus. The most surprising canvas in this series is clearly Mother and Children (page - ) . There is no doubt that this painting was originally a Mother and Child surrounded by adoring angels , one of the most hackneyed images of Christian iconography. By giving the young woman Chinese features and changing the blue colour of her veil to a bright red (the same shade as the “little book”), the painter secularises the initial portrayal, turning it into a mother, surrounded by her children. However, the very deliberate use of light and dark, absent from the original version and reminiscent of Georges de La Tour—a painter of which Yin Xin is particular fond—reverses the situation once again, taking us back to the religious universe in which the 17 th -century French painter was revelling. Yin Xin's fictional scenes invite us to abandon ourselves to reverie, for those who wish to do so, this feeling of coming and going, both enchanting and disturbing, could go on forever.

Although the content is very personal and the attitudes underlying his expression are contemporary, Yin Xin's work is profoundly rooted in the tradition of his country. In seeking out his canvases/subjects to remodel, the artist goes to the extent of choosing—for the portrait genre for example—effigies painted in France during the 19 th century which bear a strange resemblance to portraits of Europeans carried out by the China Trade painters (Lam Qua, Chow Kwa) in Canton in the first half of the 19 th century. The general style of Garden (page - ) is reminiscent of Youqua, while the large bouquet of flowers in the foreground of the same painting evokes Tingqua who belongs to a slightly earlier period. The use of motifs, recurring in Yin Xin's work, of drapery—generally red—to furnish the background of his paintings, is frequently used in Chinese glass painting of the late 18 th century and early 19 th century, while the spirit of the famous Spoilum, from the same period, can be found in paintings such as Voyages (page - ) .

In parallel to these influences, of which the painter may well be unaware, there are those of Western masters, discovered after the artist left his native China . When contemplating Héro i ne Chow (page - ) it is impossible not to be reminded of Delacroix's Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi and Liberty on the Barricades . Even the canvas entitled Paolo and Francesca (page - ) would seem to represent Heloise and Abelard, the ultimate “romantic” subject, while its composition is entirely influenced by the painting by Ingres of the same title in 1819. Who could fail to be reminded of the Mona Lisa when contemplating Madam Ambassador (page - ) ? And is Lettre d'amour (page - ) not simply a naive substitute for David's Portrait of Madame Récamier ?

It is fortunate that these canvases now belong in the portfolio of Yin Xin. Saved from abandon and infused with a breath of fresh air from the Far East , their enigmatic charm will no doubt work its magic on future generations, whether from the East or the West.

Louise d'Argencourt

Paris , June 2005

 Louise d'Argencourt, born in Canada , lives in France since 1978.

- Studied in Paris : Ph.D. in art history at the Sorbonne and diploma in museology at the École

du Louvre.

- Curator at the National Gallery of Canada , Ottawa , from 1971 to 1978.

- Curator of the exhibition Puvis de Chavannes , Paris (Grand Palais) and Ottawa , 1976-77.

- Curator of the exhibition William Bouguereau , Paris (Petit Palais), Montreal ( Canada ) and

Hartford ( USA ), 1984.

- Author of the catalogue European Paintings of the 19 th Century , The Cleveland Museum of

Art, 1999, (2 vol.).

- Author of the catalogue Heaven and Earth Unveiled , collection of 19 th century European

paintings and sculptures given by Joey and Toby Tanenbaum to the Art Gallery of Hamilton

( Canada ), 2005.