The year 2012 marked a turning point in Hsu Tung Lung’s creative work, transitioning from realistic landscapes and figures to abstract painting. This seems to be a reflection on the stages of life, returning to the truth. In his works, one can increasingly see Chinese ideology and the charm of Chinese painting. Chinese painting emphasizes lines and ink. In Hsu Tung Lung’s works from 2014 to 2016, one can see that he tried to lay the drawing board flat, relying on body movement to swing, and pull out straight lines on the canvas, quite in line with the calligraphy’s emphasis on “lift, press, pause, and twist”. From 2016 to 2019, Hsu Tung Lung’s abstract painting was influenced by the concrete school, and he tried a lot of “automatic writing” methods to paint. He created many exclusive abstract symbols by unconsciously splashing ink.
The works completed from 2020 to 2022 have become a new milestone in Hsu Tung Lung’s seventy-year painting career. The use of brushstrokes in the works creates composition and artistic conception. The ink and dragging strokes are as strong as stone carving, creating a rhythmic analysis. The sense of time and space is simultaneously presented on his canvas, just like the perspective of gods and Buddhas looking down on all beings. It is the scenery that Hsu Tung Lung has been pursuing in his painting from beginning to end, just like the manifestation of the holy light on the picture. A halo that radiates from top to bottom, from the center point, this is the scenery in his memory, and also the driving force of life.
|