‘Universal Dimensions’ At Walsh Art Gallery

FAIRFIELD — Aspects of traditional Chinese calligraphy combined with western abstraction are the hallmarks of Wang Ming’s latest exhibit, “Universal Dimensions – Scrolls and Screens,” on view at Fairfield University’s Thomas J. Walsh Art Gallery from September 14 through December 17. An opening day reception is planned for Thursday, September 14, from 6 to 8 pm, which will include a lecture at 6:30 by Jeffrey Wechsler, the exhibit’s curator.

Born and raised in a small village near Beijing, China, Mr Ming immigrated to the United States in 1951 at age 29, settling in the Washington, D.C. area. In China, he studied calligraphy and the classical painting of his native land.

After his arrival in this country, Mr Ming began to learn about western art by visiting museums and galleries and reading in the Library of Congress. He has emerged as an artist whose style is his own, developed by the visual and technical assimilation of two cultures in a unique blend of East and West.

To understand Wang Ming’s work it is necessary to bear in mind the concept of Chinese calligraphy which is the art of expressing the artist’s interpretation of the character by using formalized brush stokes. In China, calligraphy and painting are considered branches of the same art. On the other hand, as a western artist, Mr Ming’s brush strokes attempt to transform the world by his inner vision.

When western art moved from the altar screen and triptych to the framed picture, it lost its mobility and became a kind of artificial window. People in portraits are traditionally looking out a window and landscapes are viewed through the constraint of window. By contrast, Chinese art took the form of a scroll or album, a continuous picture, which has no single, but multiple, viewing points.

Although Mr Ming has made many paintings in western format, in recent years he has returned to the scroll and album formats of China. These enable him to give his paintings continuity and fluidity with the multiplicity of vision that one has from a boat moving on a river. The viewer can begin anywhere and progress in either direction.

Mr Ming’s work is a painterly vision, not a literary one. “My work goes beyond the word,” he once wrote.

Wang Ming’s work can be viewed in the Walsh Gallery at Fairfield University’s Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts Tuesday through Saturday from 11 am to 5 pm, and Sunday from noon to 4 pm. For more information call 203/254-4000, extension 2969.