Page 40 - Arts Management Magazine Future Issue

AMM: Why painting? What makes you choose painting to be self-analysis and is a form that artists only use for themselves.
your vehicle? Hence, I believe it is important to focus on self-portrait in order
Qiheng Liu: I have been enthusiastic about painting since I to understand self-expression.
was little. My parents always supported me and tried their best
to create study opportunities for me. I met my first influential AMM: Do you think it’s important for someone who wants to
teacher when I was 16, in high school. He graduated from the be an artist to have a grasp of technical skills?
Central Academy of Fine Art, which is the top-level art college QL: It really depends on what type art you are interested in.
in China. He believed that I am a talented person and helped For me, it’s important to grasp technical skills because of their
me a lot in terms of establishing the foundation of painting. supportive function to my work. In addition, I am big fan of
He introduced me to a series of old masters: Rembrandt, Hans technique from old masters. I place a lot of importance on the
Holbein, Anthony van Dyck, etc. I never imagined painting process of making a painting, because I hope to achieve a certain
could be so powerful until I saw their work. I knew then that I quality in it.
would like to be an artist.
AMM: What do you think the connection is between art works
After I entered my art college, I tried different mediums, but I and their audiences?
realized that painting has always been the most available vehicle QL: I think artists offer opportunities to think and feel rather
for me. Some people were often anxious about the convention than provide answers to the audience.
of painting history. They believed that, as painting has existed
for thousands of years, it has been explored and created by
generations and generations; thus, you will not get rid of the
convention or history behind it no matter what techniques you
use or what painting language you choose. In my point of view,
I think all existing conventions, concepts, and technical skills
are valuable. I hope I could embrace them, grasp them, and
attempt to use them in my compositions.
AMM: What is painting to you?
QL: Today, it’s difficult to define any form of art, including
painting – trying to push the boundary and expand the definition
of each art form became one of the major jobs of artists. For
me, painting is more than a tool of expression. It is independent.

AMM: Throughout these years, you’ve been to many places.
You are from Inner Mongolia, you did your education in Qiheng Liu and Michael Reiss
Glasgow and London, now you are living in Portland. How do Qiheng Liu is an artist from a small town in the north of China. Born in
these experiences relate to your work? 1990 and his parents’ only child, Mr. Liu described his childhood as “happy
QL: To be able to travel around is a big bonus for my career, and healthy,” with parents who “didn’t spoil him” but did their best to
because I could always have new experiences while I am trav- create a positive environment for him to live and study in. His proficiency in
eling. My works, in a way, depend on unfamiliar experiences, painting and drawing earned Mr. Liu admission into the best high school in
including the beginning of my artistic creation. Those expe- his home area, where he enrolled as an art student. Mr. Liu characterized
riences forced me to put my attention on myself, gradually, I his high school days as a transformative, if challenging time for him, as
realized the existence of “self.” The concept of “self ” became he had to reconcile his intensive art studies with an academic system that
the foundation of my work since then. judged students exclusively by their scores in standardized testing. Undaunted,
he forged ahead and “tried his best to improve himself.”
AMM: Tell me about your self-portraiture.
QL: Self-portrait has always been a crucial subject of my work, Mr. Liu considers himself a “person who really cannot become used to
because it is the most available subject to me, especially when I a new environment very quickly,” but still left China to live in Glasgow,
entered a new environment. Self-portrait is a media that could Scotland in 2009. He said that everything in Glasgow was “completely
express the unique existence of artists and is an appropriate strange to him, even the sunlight” and that he was “absolutely lost.” Through
vehicle that could carry their personal style and subjective this experience, he started to become aware of “the existence of self” and “fo-
spiritual elements. The special quality of self-portrait led to cused on it gradually.” Since then, he said, “everything around him became fas-
it not relating to any person except the artist, and guaranteed cinating” and it represented “a brand-new start of artistic creation for him.”
its extremely pure character. In other words, self-portrait in a
way is the most direct and efficient method to express the self If interested in Qiheng Liu artwork please contact:
and to reach the self. The nature of self-portrait is a process of Reiss@ArtsManagementMagazine.com

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