20th century commenced the era of abstractism as a demonstrator of art forms. It integrates reality with spirituality, art with life, internal world with physical ambience, therefore depicts the new cognition of the nature in an astonishing manner.
As an artist, who studied and worked domestically and settled down later in America, Ming Ren is gifted with talents in painting. His works display an all-new horizon: interwoven vigor and power with crystality, thus imposing a feeling of gravity brought about by the transformation of times; or the internal conflicts in such transformation. The works extract and reveal the vivid nature of life hidden behind the superficial appearance.
No all artists can set their footing in this field in this way, but the overall spirit of art is integrated: the tone, the proportion, the dimension, the shape, the lines and the composition are carriers of the nature and the spiritual world of humans. The distribution of black or red looks a simple artistic way of handling colors, but it is actually a staging of passion or emptiness; chaos or perception, all based on cumulative mood and spirit of the artist. Moreover it needs the expertise of the artist in the grasp of momentary harmony that will lead to conflict, and in the arrangement of regional features which breeds both a natural development and an unexpected creativity. Such creation definitely needs commitment, determination and some luck.
Therefore the mental world of the artist, expressed with ease and verve, is made perceptible.
My first impression of Ming Ren’s paintings is that of typical western abstract genre. In review of which, however, I find myself carried away by the mysterious yet magnificent Chinese appeal. Admittedly his paintings are rooted in Chinese soil, of which he should be soberly aware himself. You need to understand traditional Chinese spirit and aesthetics to enjoy the distinctive abstract language uttered by and the profound ambience embodied in his paintings.
Ming Ren’s works is a composite of language, images and the metal world. His adherence to tradition is not reflected just by ways of painting, reversly breakthroughs in traditional visual effect don’t mean discarding. To elucidate such a manner is quite difficult, far more difficult to do so. However the artist in question made it, moreover he combines the eastern and western styles, which features his paintings, exactly why he is recognized by the western schools of art. The bottom line is that the artists are bred in their own soil, yet art itself goes beyond boundaries. The expressions are presented from different sources, yet the artistic value is the common treasure enjoyed by human community as a whole.
I’m touched by Ming Ren’s works and I’m delightful by his accomplishments.
Wei Ershen
President, Luxun Academy of Fine Arts, China
November 2009