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 Examining Dao Zi¡¯s ¡°Devotional Ink Paintings¡± we discover new possibilities for Chinese contemporary ink painting. His unequivocal ¡°Saintly¡± depictions have opened a new kind of atmosphere. How have they become so ¡°Saintly¡±? They are derived from a concentrated, mysterious power, they are a rewriting of the most lofty divine substances and symbols. To achieve this requires a long period of waiting, strict discipline, and results in a new kind of timelessness.

    In Chinese contemporary art, Dao Zi believes that Lin Fengmian¡¯s later paintings are beginning to resemble this ¡°Saintly¡± style, he asks us to take note of Lin Fengmian¡¯s art after 1989, and several early paintings that also express the bitterness of human life. Such devotion in this so-called post-modernist, post-religion era, is the ¡°rewriting¡± of sacred history and events, this ¡°rewriting¡± is not imitating, nor is it a ¡°reappearance,¡± nor appropriation¨C¨Cthis is a creative rewriting, it follows the examples of holy predecessors.

    Devotional ink painting is a kind of painting from the soul, it allows Chinese traditional painting to be transformed into a spiritual form of ink painting. Saintism is more the acceptance of a passive unfamiliar power, it is s submission, and has a reverence for sacred objects. As for Dao Zi¡¯s brand of mysticism, his complete body of works should be integrated for contemplation and discussion. 

    How can ink painting reflect the faint traces of water in the paintings¡¯ form, and accept the influence of Zen? How, in the context of Christian culture, can the ink medium, brushwork, and other essential concepts be essentially transformed? The language of ink painting was perfected through these means, and consequently is comprehensive.

    For Dao Zi, Christianity is his life¡¯s faith; as an intellectual with a Chinese background, a poet with many years of experience, and an art critic with broad experience in and understanding Western art, Dao Zi is able to penetrate even deeper into the Bible¡¯s events. This is the spirit of a transplanted material! He endows an already dead material with prominent life. Despite the fact that ink paintings since the 1990s have made full use of mixed media, rubbings, pasting, smearing, puncturing, dyes, etc., and although such means have added to the textural element of the paintings, they appear too artificial. They are unable to penetrate into the material abyss that is the inner spirit of ink painting. Consequently, there has been an urgent need for water and ink to reflect a new spirit.  But where will this ¡°spirit¡± come from? Our own culture has been in distress already for so long, that the medium can only turn to a spirit from a different source, such is the gift of Christianity¨C¨Cthe life element it provides with spiritual teachings.

    Only such a ¡°spirit¡± could allow ink painting to hold such promise, such sagacity, could turn stagnant water into a fresh, running stream and allow still ink become nimble. For Dao Zi, the ¡°body, blood, spirit¡± become his ¡°xuan paper, water, ink¡± they need a spirit to link them together; without it they are merely a hollow shape, without their spiritual substance, they are merely worthless and unfeeling objects, like a corpse.

    Of course, Dao Zi also uses multimedia methods such as wax, salt, and burning to alter his works, but these are not merely techniques, they have spiritual implications, they are all to bring about a lustrous nature¨C¨Cto allow the ink to shine, or to be permeated with a sense of pain. It is all quite different from traditional and current ink painting methods.

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    These paintings present the language of pen and ink and its power. Traditional Chinese things are organized by their manner and tone, especially with the texture of brushstrokes and subtle transformations from wet to dry, dense and sparse. But contemporary ink paintings only use texture, its successors then make a big fuss over universal consciousness, or they draw lessons from the formal language of Western modernism, but this is either a particular cultural symbol, or a Western-style collage or union. From the composition or colors of the work, the use of ¡°ink-color¡±, Dao Zi¡¯s works preserve the ¡°five-color feeling¡± of these works, they have a certain gravity, contrast of light and shadow and a particular style of brushwork. This is a development of the essential Christian symbols as well, especially the form of angels and the cross.

    While painting these devotional ink works, it is also necessary for the principal inner heart to maintain a state of prayer: as a spiritual artist, Dao Zi always creates in a state of prayer and inner contemplation, he is waiting, waiting for the day that his time in prayer far exceeds his time painting. Its true, he¡¯s already waited thirty years!

    Dao Zi allows for every portion of his works¨C¨Ceven his signature¨C¨Cto reflect his spiritual meaning, the seal that he carved himself even reflects this marvelous fact: he carved the ¡°zi¡± character into the form of a cross, making his very name into the embodiment of his faith. The cross is omnipresent in his works, turning each one into territory for personal sacrifice.

    Dao Zi¡¯s works have opened up a spiritual world, this is a true event in history of Chinese art: in these ink works the ¡°spirit has befallen the corporeal body¡±¨C¨Con the delicate paper, the spirit becomes ink and takes its new incarnation as painting, ¡°water, soul, ink¨C¨Cbecome a novel kind of trinity, Dao Zi has depicted Chinese culture¡¯s ¡°Book of Revelations,¡± we await for his painting to open new spiritual possibilities. Beholding of these paintings is a truly fortunate thing![ text: Xia Kejun ]