Chunsheng Yang, Travel Beijing Brothers 2, Oil on canvas, 35 2/5 × 47 1/5 × 1 1/5 in
When considering Chunsheng Yang’s three oil paintings depicting Tiananmen Square, the viewer may be struck by a number of aspects that culminate in a mix of feelings, somewhere between austerity and curiosity, landing in what can only be described as yearning to connect. Touching on socio-political elements, there is a physical distance between countrymen that also serves as a metaphor for space between the state and its citizenry. Let us also not forget the physical wall between those on the outside and what is to be revered on the inside.
Chunsheng Yang, Travel Beijing Brothers, Oil on canvas, 35 2/5 × 47 1/5 × 1 1/5 in
In Travel Beijing Brothers 2, a passerby eyes two gentleman dressed in military uniforms conversing as they casually patrol the length of the Mutianyu Great Wall. The roll of onlooker is reversed in the Travel Beijing Brothers where it is the soldier who is looking at a throng of locals amidst piles of snow, possibly melting to suggest the end of a long winter between people bound by culture but separated by their respective rolls. Yang introduces the color red in Beijing 3 Uniforms. It is a striking departure from the monochromatic winter scenes portrayed in all three paintings and one is left to wonder on the choice. From the title, we know that all three men are in uniforms and can tell there is variation in no less than two. This is also the only scene where there is an opening to the other side. With the watchful portrait of Mao Zedong over the archway that leads to Tiananmen Tower (Gate of Heavenly Peace), it is difficult to say why Yang chose to highlight this man walking with purpose, but it is none the less striking and is perhaps more so with the mystery.
Individually, these three paintings work as well executed snapshots and can easily stand on their own. But there is an added strength in the triptych, each informing the other and building on a narrative of overcoming the distance created by suspicion and the re-discovery of kinship.
Chunsheng Yang, Beijing 3 Uniforms, .2015, Oil on canvas, 38 1/5 × 51 1/5 × 1 1/5 in
Transposition at the Highpoint, Landmark Arts and Cultural Exchange Company Collection
