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The Demeanor of a Real Literatus: Guo Guan’s Artistic Spirit

The Doctor of Aesthetics Dong, Zhi Qiang

Artist Guo Guan is famous for his fantastic, spiritual landscape paintings executed in fine brushwork. Through a unique aesthetic apprehension, he uses unexpected Chinese painting skills to carry out his artistic expression and concepts. This is indeed the model of exploration in the 21st century. His works go beyond the traditional skills and symbols; with rich and diverse techniques, he develops a fantastic realm of landscape painting which is based on the wisdom of Zen. Guo places great emphasis on traditional Chinese culture. He believes that if a work of art goes outside its traditional philosophical framework, it will lack spiritual strength and fall into a void of nothingness, bereft of purpose and meaning. This is also, according to Guo, the core problem of much contemporary art. Guo interprets everything in this world through the perspective of Zen meditation. Even though his works may cover a variety of motifs (such as mountains, rivers, flowers, people, animals, heaven, hell, etc.), all these subjects are presented via a constant and coherent style. This means that he has entered into a creative realm characterized as “great style”. While engaging in artistic creation, he has found his own realm where he can freely develop his spiritual ideas without being restricted by subjects and techniques; this provides a superior level to embody his artistic, spiritual, expressive and conceptual style. Guo keeps creating artworks which are fantastic, spiritual, and rich in modern romance. Each piece of work contains an independent concept; along with his poems, each artwork is just like an independent Bodhi tree in his mind, full of vigorous life and poetic sentiment. Also, each artwork is a complete story with profound meaning derived from Zen. A poem he wrote for one of his recent works, “Star Ocean” (Xing Hai), suggests that all landscapes are nothing but a mendicant’s alms when one gets purified and enlightened through the realization of Zen. When looking up at the vast universe and overseeing all creatures through the perspective of Zen, everything is just an illusion. This is not merely an abstruse linguistic concept when conveyed in Guo’s works, but also represents Guo’s attitude toward life and his peaceful soul. In his works, there is no confusion of secular affairs or political criticism, and also no earthly affection or desire. His works carry a kind of thought that transcends time and space, so we can feel the eternal beauty in a flash; it seems that the past, present and future all coexist within the same time dimension. The fantastic structure of his works also implies that everything in the world is like a dream, a bubble or a shadow. Guo uses the “existence” of his works to interpret “emptiness”. According to Zen, the world we live in is an impermanent illusion; there are no real entities. The thorough realization of this is the ultimate state of Nirvana, a holy land of tranquility, the attainment of which is the purpose of the practice of Buddhism. Guo uses his paintings to interpret the profound meaning of Zen. He draws fantastic and variable objects in his paintings to explain Zen’s “illusion and impermanence”, and creates beauteous, tranquil and peaceful images to symbolize Zen’s “nirvana and tranquility”. When a piece of work contains spirit, then it will surely touch one’s heart. With a detached mind, Guo sees through the illusions with vision which incorporates the aesthetic and the metaphysical. He transforms his thoughts into motivation and creates many artworks that touch our hearts. He uses a drawing pen to depict the place that people dream of, the holy land everyone wants to reach.

During his many years of painting, Guo has developed his own conceptions regarding painting and has always been engaged in research on painting theories. Among the battles of Chinese brush and ink paintings, Guo clearly realizes that brush and ink are not the be all and end all of Chinese painting. The summit of brush and ink had already been scaled by ancient people, so the development of Chinese painting needs to go beyond brush and ink. As brush and ink are still the center of Chinese landscape paintings, Guo has already begun to innovate via such unique esthetic considerations as color, composition and painting subject matter innovations. When considered from the aspect of art historical development, this is very auspicious for future perspectives. Guo focuses on looking into the future. He observes many different kinds of painting styles and absorbs the strong points in order to enhance his painting. However, he does place great emphasis on traditional techniques. Over the years, he has kept studying the paintings of the Sung and Yuan Dynasties, and his classical landscape paintings reveal his traditional techniques and solid foundation. Guo often instructs his students that “tradition requires a very broad definition. As a painter, studying artistic traditions only covers part of the job. Painting is art, and much more than some simple techniques. The source of art is one’s thoughts, so a painter should enhance his or her thoughts and further explore traditional Chinese philosophy in order to be a “literati-painter”. Otherwise, the painter would only be considered as an artisan-painter. Nowadays, literati-painters are generally insufficient since traditional literati-paintings do not place emphasis on exquisite techniques; they only focus on the meaning to be found beyond the picture depicted in the painting. Contemporary painters not only need to pay attention to technique, but also to focus on studying literati-painting skills.” Guo’s ideas can be considered meta-traditional; he transcends tradition while, and by, remaining true to the traditional. He is also one who always behaves under high and strict standards. People might think that impressionistic ink paintings seem to belong only to the category of literati-paintings. However, as painter Jiang Kun said, Guo Guan’s works contain “meticulous brushwork and strong colors”. They are products resulting from the combination of meticulous brushwork painting and humanistic spirit; they are more professional than the traditional literati-paintings and are more academic than popular painting. As for the pursuit of art, Guo often says: “actually we should not persist in how high we can reach and how much we can learn. We should not care about how many achievements we have done either. Even though a person may be very knowledgeable, renowned and well-off, everything is only an illusion since no one can take anything with them after death. So we should be flexible and be contented.”

Guo adores “painting” and also enjoys playing music. He always indulges himself in playing the ancient Chinese zither. He is so crazy about the instrument that he would rather eat less than live without it. Even though he has talent in playing the ancient Chinese zither, he seldom plays it in front of people. According to the ancients, there are five conditions in which one should not play a zither: when incense is not burnt; when it is windy and rainy; when a player does not sit properly; when a player does not dress properly, and when a player encounters rude people. However, a player should make a performance anytime and anywhere in front of confidants. Guo always says: “Though I adore the ancient melodies, no one plays them any more”. His barely audible music and simple style are totally incompatible with the bustling and flourishing modern society. Traditionally, the ancient Chinese zither is not only a musical instrument, but also a device used to enhance oneself. Since this aspect of the art has almost disappeared nowadays, it is no wonder that Guo feels lonely. I have had the honor to hear his performance. It was such a beautiful experience that it purified my soul. While he was playing the zither, I could also feel his artistic expression as with his painting. Through the smoke of burning incense, the serene sound of the zither generated a tranquil ambiance and directly touched my heart. I was totally immersed in it. The limpid and pure melody was like raindrops falling into a still lake, creating a quiet and secluded feeling. Guo loves to play the melody of “Plum Blossom Guider.” The three sections of repeated overtones convey plum blossoms’ perseverance and fortitude in confronting the deep chill. The soft melody signifies plum blossoms’ elegance and purity, and the long and short tones seem to depict plum blossoms’ swinging in the breeze. The elegant, pure and simple tunes made me feel as if I stood alone on a mountain trail under the moonlight, enjoying the fragrance of flowers and the shapes of branches. I don’t think I would need anything else if I could locate myself in such an environment all day long. Over the long term, Guo has engaged in the study of the Chinese zither. He would discuss ancient fingering with master zither players and compare various kinds of music scores. Besides playing, he also composes songs and has a unique understanding of the aesthetics of the ancient Chinese zither based on Taoist philosophy. From a Taoist aesthetic orientation to music, such as Lao Zi’s “the great note has no sound,” to Zhuang Zi’s philosophy of innocence, Guo induces the aesthetic styles of the ancient Chinese zither for the past dynasties and interprets their origin and development. He also attempts to interpret the aesthetic evolution of the ancient Chinese zither from the perspectives of Confucianism and Buddhism and generalizes all kinds of ancient Chinese zither aesthetics. Recently, Guo has tried to make a comparison of the aesthetics of both the ancient Chinese zither and Chinese painting. This is a supplement to the study of traditional Chinese aesthetic history, and is also a brand-new examination of ancient Chinese zither aesthetics for modern people.

Guo studies very hard every day and devoutly practices Buddhism. In addition to playing the ancient Chinese zither, he also practices martial arts and writes poetry, while living a simple and free life. As society gets noisier, an artist with a tranquil mind is exactly what is needed at this moment to explore the essence of spiritual purity. The artist will cultivate the seeds of hope which will yield a holy, pure and graceful harvest and bring people peace and adoration!

Traveling with the Flow of Time, Constructing Paradise-On the Painting Techniques of Guo Guan

Director of Chinese Ancient Zither Association
Lee Bo-Yu

I first met Guo Guan more than ten years ago in a gathering of the zither club. As I recall, he hardly ever spoke, but only listened carefully to the harangue of other club members, as if his only interest was in listening and playing, not in making any remarks himself. Occasionally, he would courteously exchange questions with other club members concerning zither playing, such as “How should the art of zither be adapted into modern society”? After all the debates eventually came to a termination, he would utter his own viewpoints with both placidity and utmost constructiveness: “The development of zither art should be combined with the elements of modern, western light music”. The impression he left me with is of a zither player with elegantly antique disposition. His long hair conceals half of his face; he speaks at a speed neither fast nor slow, in a low volume that exudes delicate refinement.

In listening, I could not but adore the profound connotations revealed by his zither playing. It was on one occasion when I was invited to visit him that I discovered with great surprise that he is a prominent painter. It is a great pleasure to sit by his antique furniture and listen to his playing. Hanging on his wall is a landscape painting in fine brushwork around 4 meters in total length, and close to completion. The artistic style and achievement resembles those in the Sung and Yuan Dynasty, depicting spectacular and imposing natural scenery, such as Mt. Tai Hang. Adapting the perspective of distance, the basic color tone is a brassy yellow. The composition of the painting is rather structurally loaded, with a spring flowing into the stream in the lower part. A gigantic round mountain is located at the center; on top of which is a flat highland with cliffs surrounding the entire area.

At the top part of the painting there are mountains located in remoteness, punctuated by several pine trees in the distance erected with an upstanding posture. The entire art piece is equipped with a magnificent bearing that is stately and majestic. Even one stone or tree branch is captured with such detail, that the front branches can be distinguished from the rear ones on a small bush, several millimeters in scale. With careful scrutiny, the tree branches seems to resemble the style of Kuo Hsi, while the branch top is endowed with the roundness and forcefulness of Li Cheng, its tree trunk bears the majesty and vigor of Fan Kuan, while the tree roots project the strokes of Huang Chiu Yuan. The technical source of the wrinkled textures produced on the surface of the rock can hardly be traced to any painters, with slight mottles and randomly dispersed spots and lines, and remote sketching that is barely discernible, vividly portraying the image of mountain rocks. The light and darkness are well- plotted, and the texture, impressive. This piece of artwork skillfully integrates antique painting techniques, descending from the genuine creative spirit of Sung and Yuan landscape painting, yet transcending restrictive conventions. The overall artistic prospective is remarkably elevated and classical, while simultaneously incorporating the aesthetic elements of modern landscape paintings. Accordingly, we are able to perceive Guo Guan’s profound artistic attainment and his unique artistic conceptions.
During our conversation, Guo Guan commented with relative detachment: “Modern art lacks works which reflect the style of the Sung and Yuan Dynasties, the aesthetic achievement of which reached the summit in Chinese art history. I would judge that the quintessence of the majority of Sung and Yuan paintings consist of ‘majesty ’and ‘Chinese style ’. I would venture to interpret the profundity of Sung and Yuan landscape with 21st century language.” The artistic work seems to require a tremendous amount of effort, which cannot be accomplished within one or two months; yet his tone of description sounds so effortless and irrelevant. Relishing his painting from within the flow of his music, I could increasingly sense his artistic ambition. His seemingly gentle disposition is inherently combined with such magnificent self-esteem, to which I cannot but pay my reverence. Our communication on that day was quite limited to tea-drinking and zither-playing. Guo Guan appeared to me a graceful and quiet person; yet he is simultaneously quite hospitable; leading a lifestyle and exhibiting a temperament very similar to those of a traditional Chinese scholar.
Through several gatherings, we gradually became close friends. On a rainy evening, I was invited to his place for tea. Upon entering, I discovered that the painting on the wall was no longer the one I had seen the last time, but rather a colorful landscape painting with a dreamy and illusionary atmosphere. The disposition is extremely modern. Ceaseless concentration on the painting would draw one into a paradisiacal realm. All the basic elements, including: mountain, rock, cloud, water, grass, tree, and residences are highly symbolic, yet aesthetically conveyed with elusive lights and a romantically bizarre prospect. I was startled to ask: “Who produced such extraordinary work?” Guo Guan answered with his distinctive nonchalance: “This is my colorful landscape painting in fine brushwork”. He poured tea for me, set up the zither, and burned incense, proposing playing an instrumental ensemble of zither and vertical bamboo flute with me. However, I was by then no longer concerned about music or tea; I was determined to have a thorough conversation with him on painting, which I gave up in the 90s to turn to business for my occupation. Yet deep down, I still have an inseparable link to painting.

While I made clear how I was occupationally engaged in painting, Guo Guan was delightfully surprised to find such a close spiritual friend. After a few cups of tea, with western light music flowing from the speaker: Banradi, Secret Garden, Kevin Kem, etc, Guo Guan pointed at the paintings on the wall, indicating, “This is the series of work in the mainstream of my creation, the so-called ‘colorful landscape painting in fine brushwork.’” I used to study at an art college for a few years, so that I was well-acquainted with the fact that colorful landscape painting went directly into a drastic downfall after its birth and blossoming. After Tang and Sung, each dynasty produced relatively few colorful landscape painters. After the work of Wang Hsi Meng, very little impression is left me about colorful landscape painting. I hardly expected to be able to sit right in front of a colorful landscape painter in the 21st century.

Guo Guan explained: “Colorful landscape has never quite elicited popular demand; yet it has tremendous potential. Traditional Chinese painting is geographically restricted to our culture. In other countries, only very few people are capable of appreciating traditional landscape painting. Yet one cannot help wondering why oil painting can be well-accepted universally. The answer is undoubtedly ‘color’, which is the global aesthetic language. Color would be the major breakthrough in bringing Chinese paintings to the international stage to open up new prospects. But even with the employment of color, there are some fundamental differences between traditional landscape painting and oil painting. ”
During our uninterrupted conversation, Guo Guan’s eyes glistened as his intonation undulated. His hands waved in the air incessantly as he came up with various gestures with different tones; his excitement was revealed in his unbroken speech as he was transformed to a totally different person to whom I was almost foreign. His passion is so fervent that his eloquence is utterly demonstrated in answering professional questions regarding painting; we can thus tell that he has developed his own system of aesthetic theory. Our conversation ranged from freehand brushwork painting to colorful landscape painting, from the colors in Chinese painting to the colors in oil painting. We also talked about composition and the connection between color and ink in both Chinese and Oil painting. We dwelled on the dispute between painting instrument and painting formality, on Chinese artistic mechanisms, on artistic creation concepts; we even digressed to discuss other forms of art such as: music, chess, poetry, seal cutting, Zen, and Taoism, etc. His thrill was apparently manifested in his torrent of eloquence. Time flew and it was soon 2 am in the morning. I took my leave as I felt I might disturb his time for rest.

Guo Guan, however, tried to appease my uneasiness: “this is exactly the best time for me to work; I usually work late at night.” But as I was indeed half full with the tea, I bid him goodbye, holding the painting album that he had given me. As I unfolded the album under the lamp, one frame after another of sheer marvel fully engrossed me: an unprecedented painting approach and a manifestation of techniques portraying a paradisiacal domain. The work is permeated with an unexpected flow of clouds, lush trees decorated with glistening gems, and golden earth dispersed with yellow flowers; occasionally, the theme would be transferred to verdant landscape or exquisite buildings; the transformation of colors constructs one image after another which only occurs to us in a dream. Guo Guan mentioned the integration of traditional skills involving oil painting, and block painting; the use of color is simple, clear, and unified, with depth, yet in a presumptuous delicacy. Guo Guan has reached a high level of perfection in the use of each category of ‘supernatural’ colors.

The composition of the painting is meticulously plotted, with a quasi-geometrical theme arrangement: sparseness intermingled with density, openness mixed with occasional closure, blending realism with surrealism into a single entity, producing eccentric and extraordinary structural tension, constituting a peculiar transformation of time and space, fantastically imaginative. In a single work, a spectator can find subjects ranging from southern China, Northwest China, to outer space; from Earth to the Buddhist Pure Land. Some of the works have even transcended the boundary of painting, combining landscape with flowers and birds, with people and animals, or even with modern sculptures, situating the spectators in an illusionary and beautiful realm, conveying an aesthetic atmosphere of serenity, remoteness, seclusion, purity, and mystery. With the merging of reality and illusion, the landscape is thus an idealized form of psychological projection, corresponding with the aesthetic pursuit of modern people, and particularly suited to modern visual aestheticism. All his paintings are depicted with a poem inscribed. The poem addresses the reclusive trend of TaoYuan Ming, in association with the romantic imagination of Li Bai. The appreciation of the painting should be inevitably combined with that of the poem, thereby attaining an inseparable fusion of these two art forms, and indulging spectators in endless aesthetic pleasure.
In an age when the prospects of painting featured nothing but disorder, Guo Guan exercised his sharp artistic instincts to delve into antiquity with his profound traditional attainment, while simultaneously exploring new territory with modern concepts. Traversing through historical time, Guo Guan created a brand new aesthetic prospect. It wouldn’t be an overstatement to assert that he opens up entirely new ground for Chinese Painting.

Deciphering Guo Guan’s Chinese Landscape Painting

Lu Tau
Researcher
Fine Arts Institute, Academia Sinica

Chinese painting arose to prominence during the 21st century after the revolution of various fine arts thinking modes. Through the funnel of time, the stylish patterns of Chinese paintings are becoming clearer. During the late Qing Dynasty and the Era of the Republic of China, Chinese paintings came to the bottom of a decline in which a static formula confined Chinese paintings to dead ends, resulting from sole emulation of the old tradition. Rise always follows big decline. Hsu Pei-hung, Liu Hai Su, and their counterparts recognized that new stimulus should be brought into Chinese paintings in order to bring reforms to Chinese paintings. As pioneers of new fine arts reform, they may not have acquired successful experiments, but had lightened up the torch for the later Chinese painting reform. After many decades of revolutions, Chinese painting is currently divided into three domains—the traditional type of Chinese painting, the integrated Eastern-and-Western Chinese paintings, and the avant-garde Chinese painting. Different aesthetics standards and evaluation criteria are applied to three kinds of Chinese paintings. While traditional evaluation standard is applied to assess the integrated Eastern-and-Western Chinese painting, one can find no element of Chinese painting but conservative essence. While blindly following predecessors’ footsteps, one realizes the lack of individual artistic expression. There is its own standard while examining water-ink painting, employing new concepts on creation in order to express the intriguing changes of modern psychology. In light of scholarly view, they share the common ground in humanistic spirit and humanistic value.

Deciphering Guo Guan’s works with the grand realm of Chinese painting, one will soon discover the difficulty to classify Guo’s works into any type. Of most interest, his works transcend the three phases of contemporary world, well blending the important essences of each into a unified entity.

Guo’s works are of traditional kind. His series of “Tradition Embedded in Mountains and Waters” display very traditional flair. The initial reading of Guo’s works suggests that the yellow aura, reminding us of Song-Yuan landscape painting in the brochure of painting books. Layers of mountains in the mist resemble dragon or lightening in a landscape composition, highlighting the vastness of mountains and waters filling up the whole painting. The focal point of the structure lies in strong light of mountain rock with forceful impressive power. His grand painting housed at Ziguangge of Zhongnaihai, located in West Bank, China reiterates that Guo absorbs the skills and spirits of landscape masters of Song Dynasty, Fan Kuan, Guo Xi, and Li Cheng. All kinds of stroke skills are applied to unify techniques and brushing. Put differently, obtaining the massive Mt. Dahong from the West of China as the theme and blending in with other famous landscapes, along with the panoply of Yellow River flowing under the bottom of the frame, forms a representative Chinese landscape, precisely centering on the theme of “the spirit of the Chinese” in the limbo of likeliness and unlikliness. The Song-Yuan landscape is the sublime of Chinese landscape painting. The Song Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty are the eras of Chinese traditional culture. The Song-Yuan aura is the most representative of Chinese beauty. Yellow symbolizes Chinese descendents, and the yellow skinned Chinese born on this yellow land denote the solitude of time as well as cultural and historical filtered accumulation in traditional coloring and splendid glory in gold, integrating landscape with quality of Chinese spirit. The solitary vastness and fabulous glory genuinely reflect the 5000-year cultural spirit. The representative painting of Guo’s recent works identifies his in-depth traditional complex and humanistic essence in every aspect. In the Chinese painting realm of modern traditional types, each advocates emulation of old style, promoting learning from the ancestors. However, their works reveal lack of velocity. Yet there is less discussion about the sublime of the Chinese painting during the Song and Yuan Dynasty. Many people talk about the Song-Yuan spirit but their works suggest the surface or only empty outlook. This phenomenon highly relates to the change of the contemporary environment, in which everyone tends to be restless, and material greed is prevalent. Consequently, it disenables artists to pay any attention on the exquisite and delicate academic painting of the Song-Yuan Era. Nevertheless, Guo Guan creates vast landscape paintings with flair of the Song-Yuan style. Consequently, his tentative spirit is very impressive.

ance of Shi Qingquan,” in which his hard strokes express the gigantic rock mountains of the remote corners of the earth. The outstanding and firm force induces respectful mind, expressing the rock mountain’s everlasting, carefree, and changeable rambling quality. In the eyes of ordinary people, rocks are very plain but Guo renders them with poetic romantic flair and heroic unconstrained manner. In the history of Chinese fine arts, landscape paintings using axe-cut strokes are rare, and Guo is courageous enough to employ traditional skills to present modern imagery, suggesting an in-depth tradition embedded in the outlook. The traditional strokes are adequately employed in his works. All kinds of traditional strokes can appear in one painting or none can exist. In the traditional painting, every kind of painting skill has its expressive limitations. For instance, hemp-fiber strokes, raindrop strokes, and brushwork are apt for landscape of Jiangnan, or the South of River, whereas texture strokes, axe-cut strokes, horse tooth strokes, and scraping iron strokes are good for landscape of the North. Yet Guo refutes this convention of knowledge. Instead, he relies on artistic skills to blend sky cosmos, mountainous hills in the West, as well as bridges and rivers of Jiangnan into one painting, forming a magic composition. Hence, it allows us to be immersed in a different time zone while appreciating his art works. While enjoying the beauty of the whole universe, Guo provides us with the impossible aesthetics of the reality. This type of works is not easily formed. The impossible imagery of the ordinary people is holistic and unified as revealed in Guo’s works. The large patched composition and the traveling coloring of darkness to lightness are rich and unified. In the midst of Guo’s works, the visual magic is beautifully realized. The traditional skills also debunk the border of function sector. The original incompatible landscape skills strategically resolve in one painting. Accordingly, Guo’s works are imbued with traditional skills embedded in the modern demonstration.

Guo’s Chinese paintings capture the interplay of the East and the West. In terms of painting theories, either country or ethnicity can embrace new elements of other ethnicities. For instance, Dunhuang Grotto Art in China is indeed not pure Han arts, but fused with many characteristics of West Regions of China, and greatly influenced by Indian culture and Arab culture. Chinese Buddhism comes from India and is acculturated to Chinese culture after thousand years of revolution and turns itself to Buddhism with Chinese characteristics. Just as air circulates in the world, arts are borderless. You may not know when you inhale Western air. Likewise, we cannot say we only inhale Chinese air. It is totally wrong to refute all traditions, nor correct to refute all Westernization. Of most importance, it is better to well blend Western arts concepts into ethnic elements and consequently develop new aspect with ethnic characteristics. The field of arts comes in diversified forms. The normal pattern for arts development is also the concept of diversity, resulting in different types of paintings. Similarly, Guo’s arts concept is multi-cultural as revealed in his rich diversified painting languages. In light of arts domain, Guo’s consciousness is liberated and borderless. Everything centers on expression with the unlimited style, i.e. the realm of free law.

His fusion of the East and the West is perpetuated in the application of color, composition, visual perception, and light. In terms of color, Guo inherits the thinking pattern of Chinese traditional painting, which originates from heavy color as the primary expression. After the scholar’s painting takes precedence over color, Chinese heavy color painting is no exception. After Wang Ximeng’s renowned painting “A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains,” heavy color declines and no experts in the heavy color landscape emerge, which is a regretful void in the history of Chinese landscape painting. Nevertheless, in the contemporary era, color adapts more to the demands of the public aesthetic standard, as the common aesthetic language of painting for all the human beings. Accordingly, Guo’s choice of heavy color fits well with the contemporary demands. Owing to the lack of color expression skills in the Chinese paintings, Guo turns to the West for better enrichment. I discover that Guo seeks for rich and unified color perspective, which the essence of the color theory from the Western oil painting. In the midst of Western classical oil painting, Mona Lisa, for instance, illustrates rich colors on her face with multiple colors blending to highlight richness, unification, and harmony. There’s no hint to distinguish and analyze different kinds of colors, a master representation of high quality skills. In his paintings, Guo applies many modern colors, such as red, green, blue, purple, greenish-purple, bluish-red, etc., which are viewed as taboo colors in the traditional landscape paintings. However, Guo is bold to apply them and successfully yield modern romantic conception and beauty of fantasy. After carefully examining the details of Guo’s works, one can easily find that the unified color platter is imbued with multiple colors, in which colors of red, yellow, blue, and purple are often found in the sea of green. In the dyeing techniques, Guo employs skills, such as partial dyeing, unified dyeing, selected dyeing, and layer dyeing, unweariedly blushing among different kinds of colors. Chinese painting melts with water and accordingly generates distinctive Eastern style flowing on the painting. Guo’s works often capture the Chinese ink changes in the transparent color aura, with the upper layer of fine grinded mineral golden powder and mica particles. This kind of work provides not only the visual stimulus for the vision, but also partial readability. While others are still immersed in the black-and-white colors of ink and water, Guo has discovered himself in the rich colors. Guo’s early works reveal that his color application leans toward traditional aesthetics of Chinese painting with very reserved, melancholic coloring whereas his contemporary color moves toward brighter and passionate choice. In terms of color application, Guo closely follows the traditional method, advocating the concept of “method of color is method of ink and method of ink is method of color.” Colors contain various degrees in dryness, wetness, darkness, and lightness, which is lacking in the West. Influenced by the old Chinese proverb, “Color doesn’t interfere with ink and vice versa,” Guo believes that color and ink should not oppose each other. Color black isn’t found among Western colors. Hence, there is an advantage for Chinese painting. Consequently, color and ink should be well integrated. This is the dialectical combination of arts pattern. Guan can always analyze in between tradition and modernity, absorbing and modifying via a more rational method. In the interplay of the Western and Eastern arts, Guo quickly discovers his own language. Guo acquires the aesthetic elements from Japanese Yamato-e, comic painting, illustration, computer games, and modern graphic design for the composition and captures the most representative landscape from the nature. After synthesis, many specific symbols are formed and then parallel, changing and decomposing concepts are generated to form pictures via big opening or big unification. In light of visual impressions, Guo produces simple and rich style, consciously using all kinds of algebra diagrams for comparisons. For instance, Guo often uses the small circle of moon to contrast with the big circle of sky, oval shape of lake verses rectangle form of massive rock, or descending remoteness verses descending closeness. In addition, Guo is good at using symbols of beam of light and water rhythm to create tempo and rhythm. Based on the painting theory, beauty of arts comes from beauty of contrast, or beauty of rhythm. Guo is aware of this concept, via which he debunks traditional aesthetic circumstance of traditional Chinese painting and expands the aesthetic approach of traditional painting. Chinese philosophy centers on the “Way” and ignores skills. This is why development of Chinese technology falls behind the West. The field of arts is no exception. Many Western elements should and must be absorbed by the East to cope with the unavoidable trend of big cultural and environmental revolution. Only through open and free arts thinking pattern can the superb arts be created.

Guo’s works are avant-garde, denoting pioneer concept. Discovery deals with exploration and adventure. Similarly, arts itself is a continuous illustration of the unknown world. Arts itself should echo similar adventurous element. While viewing Guo’s works, many spectators often comment, “He is bold.” I identify with them as well. Other audiences may not be aware of this characteristic whereas those who are familiar with painting theories and skills will soon discover that Guo demonstrates full adventurous spirit in his works, in which there are many creation tracks incompatible to Chinese paintings. In terms of his skills, Guo is quite avant-garde, including many contemporary painting techniques, such as flushing, washing, grinding, tossing, brushing, salting, aluming, oiling, folding, cutting, and other fashionable skills, well applied to his creation. For many old fashioned painters, this kind of creation methods deviate from the tradition. Nevertheless, Guo remarks, “Any skill and technique can serve for certain purpose. In order to accomplish the ultimate goal, anything can be applied.” Owing to Guo’s free and flexible creative thinking, he is always searching for better fitting painting skill and language, which helps him produce the amazing fantasy for us. In light of painting phenomenon expression, his works represent avant-garde aura, via which thinking and painting concept transcend the existing aesthetic circumstance of Chinese painting. Instead, a magic, splendid, elegant, solemn, and peaceful painting style leads us to appreciate the beauty of the spiritual world. It advocates a surreal, magic, and Zen-like painting style, difficult to be described with precise language. It seems to render Western surrealism painting style and simultaneously yield Zen, Taoism, and Confucianism theories of the East, illustrating non-absurd, non-peculiar Eastern philosophical thinking. Guo’s works lie in plot and logic of paintings, in which each of his paintings conveys a complete story or an in-depth philosophy. For example, his portrayal of tree of birth flying toward the Buddhist paradise, and the cherry tree rising abruptly from the ground with the falling mud describes a complete story, highlighting his fantasy about heaven and the beauty of leaving the darkness. Guo paints how Zen master endows religious blessing to withered trees, and he paints Zhuangzi’s Free and Easy Wandering. Based on the themes of his paintings, Guo embodies different kinds of stories and plots, expanding aesthetic essence and aesthetic depth. These kinds of strange concepts are rarely seen in any category of paintings but Guo is so much indulged in his creation. Owing to his continuous inspiration, this kind of avant-garde thinking helps advance his creation into more in-depth humanistic essence and spiritual support. Unlike other avant-garde works suggesting emptiness, restlessness, criticism, pornography, violence, satire, and foolishness, Guo’s paintings render peace, tranquility, surrealism, magic, and beauty. Guo doesn’t use evil against evil, nor violence against violence. Instead, he employs Zen’s unlimited purity of mind to influence audience, to purify all the worries and despairs in the world, to transcend the worldly changes via the renunciation mind, to help regain confidence in life, and to picture the beautiful fantasy of the spiritual world.

The universal standard of arts is the humanistic spirit and humanistic value. After becoming a devout Buddhist, Guo Guan has given humanistic thinking and arts value a different perspective. He believes that artists should acquire Buddha’s Grand Blessing, via which the blessing power of arts can lead audiences toward beauty and goodness. Providing total dedication of Zen’s power and spirits of arts to the public can fully help each other to cultivate arts of Bodhidharma together. Put differently, he fuses the cultivation venue of arts with that of Buddhism, via which he implements with sympathy mind to accumulate rich and in-depth learning while exploring many fields of arts subjects. In addition, he dedicates himself to old lute research and investigates the correlation between traditional philosophy and old lute aesthetics while performing. Accordingly, he has published many significant articles on lute theory. Simply put, music has profoundly inspired him in painting. Ever since the childhood, Guo has launched lyric song composition, accumulating thousands and thousands of traditional poems and contemporary poems, embodying traditional flair, poetic sentences, regulated poems, regulated verses, songs, lute lyrics, and modern poetry. Voluminous, magnificent, prolific, and enchanting, Guo’s scholarship in painting and poetry is rarely found among the contemporary painters, fitting the ultimate pursuit of fusion of poetry and paintings. In the journey of arts, Guo continues to indulge in oil painting, calligraphy, seal carving, and martial arts. Guo often notes, “I belong to the scholarly sector of sweetness. Why? People often remark of the scholarly sector of bitterness. However, I don’t think arts learning is hardship, but find endless joy. In the journey of arts, regardless of the distance traveled, as long as one can dedicate himself to it and persist with rigorous and diligent style, I believe he will finally reach the destination with his rich inner spiritual strength.