Part 01: Romantic Color Masters

——The Artistic Life of Liu Youju, Founder of Illusionist Painting

（1） Lingnan Another Family

After more than thirty years of development, Chinese modern art has made certain achievements, but it can also be said that it has been struggling and has almost reached a state of "mountains and rivers are poor and there is no way out". Fortunately, in Lingnan Guangzhou, which is known for its pioneering spirit, Liu Youju's illusory paintings have brought another spring to the art world.

Liu Youju is a Lingnan painter, and his illusion paintings inevitably have the form and shadow of Lingnan culture. The cultural and inclusive characteristics of Lingnan. It is a good combination of Western culture and Chinese culture. Liu Youju's illusionist painting is not only an artistic achievement that combines Western painting with Chinese civilization, but also transcends the ocean. Therefore, his illusionary painting has an aura of overlooking China and the West, integrating China and the West with ancient and modern times, and surpassing China and the West with ancient and modern times.

The Lingnan Painting School has established a century old monument in the history of Chinese painting and has had a significant impact. At that time, Gao Jianfu, Gao Qifeng, and Chen Shuren, the "Lingnan Three Families", faced an era of cultural exchange between the East and the West, and the impact of the West on China. These three masters were not hidden by the world's customs, stood at the forefront, and studied in Japan. While adhering to Chinese humanistic sentiments, they indirectly absorbed Western elements from Japanese painting, compromised between the East and the West, and formed an independent painting style. Because all three of them lived in the Lingnan region, and later had many followers, in order to facilitate academic research, their art was called the "Lingnan Painting School". Although the "Lingnan Painting School" absorbed a lot of nutrients from Japanese and Western paintings back then, its artistic conception and brushwork are still Chinese. Compared with the works of other painters who later absorbed Western painting to create 'Chinese painting', the paintings of 'two high and one Chen' are still very 'traditional'.

Liu Youju's illusion painting can also be said to be the inheritance and development of the Lingnan School of Painting. In Liu Youju's works, we can easily see the painter's extraordinary creative energy and the broad mindedness of poets, scholars, and artists.

Jewish philosopher Bergson, who once proposed the theory of "creation," believed that "the origin of the world is creation, and all art is an intuitive activity of life. Mr. Liu Guosong, a famous painter, once said about his innovation: At that time, we followed the footsteps of Western masters step by step, from Impressionism to Expressionism, then to Fauvism, and now to Symbolism and Abstractionism. In the late 1950s, abstract expressionism became popular worldwide. How should we go down? Westerners have not changed, can China change? At that time, in Taiwan, we had never seen the original works of Western masters, and they imitated Western masters through printed materials such as picture albums and magazines Works. What printed matter can learn is only composition, and the colors are definitely not accurate. Even if a large painting is reduced to a small one, the strokes cannot be seen. I found that taking such a path is also wrong. I can't compare myself to others, so I think we should combine Chinese and Western cultures. Chinese tradition cannot be discarded, nor can Western modernity be abandoned. We should learn from each other's strengths and find a way to combine Chinese tradition with Western modernity

Liu Guosong's pursuit of modern Chinese painting was a long and arduous journey, but in retrospect, it was an unforgettable experience. His wisdom lies in facing tradition and the West, knowing how to choose between them. After years of exploration, he resolutely returned to the Eastern painting department, engaged in innovation in ink painting, and proposed the slogan "imitating the new cannot replace imitating the old; copying the Western cannot replace copying the Chinese". Objectively speaking, this slogan still has a warning significance today.

Liu Guosong then abandoned the center's lines and texturing techniques, but retained ink and cotton paper, exploring new expressive techniques with originality. He used rough fibers and other tools to create textures that are difficult to express with a pen. Its natural whitening and haloing give people a brand new visual enjoyment, which is refreshing. He also borrowed methods such as cutting and pasting and water painting, greatly enriching the creative techniques of Chinese painting.

Wang Guowei, with a noble attitude of abandoning the mundane world, wrote in his book "On the Duty of Philosophers and Artists": "Philosophy and art are the truth. The truth is the truth of the world, not the truth of the moment." The life of an artist requires the existence of spiritual aspirations. The genes of Chinese cultural and artistic life are inherited through demonstration of cultural thought and spiritual personality, and it is necessary to deeply understand human values, life, freedom, rights Personality, worry, contemplation, and repentance are the only things that embody the independence and depth of the artist's spirit. They are the spiritual resources that artists absorb the nutrients of human civilization, the indispensable soul of art, and an important factor in the noble life philosophy of human survival value. Only through independent thinking can there be free thinking. Since the Renaissance, the rise and maturity of humanism and liberal ideas have led artists and art historians with a deep humanistic spirit to realize that the "spirit of independence and free thinking" is a survival state that permeates behind artists and art thinkers, depending on one's aesthetic attitude and cultural stance. The broad road is full of thorns, and the courage to discuss things is full of drive. Only artists and art thinkers who adhere to academic character can truly and independently start thinking about the future development of Chinese culture and art, break free from the limitations of narrow thinking, and in the context of the great transformation of society, with their freedom and vitality of ideological exploration, stand alone in the vast splendor, construct a personalized artistic language system of typical character, and create the significance and value of art in the era.

（2） Fantasy Colorful Divine Brush

Liu Youju has extensive knowledge and practical experience, is strict in academic pursuits and quick in thinking. His illusionist painting works use intelligence to control artistic freedom, and use knowledge to cultivate his painting personality, forming his distinctive artistic style. He skillfully controls his unique brushstroke language in grand visuals. He draws inspiration from the West, breaks away from it, and subverts tradition. His paintings have no fixed language, no program, and traditional Chinese painting materials and artistic conception, providing infinite possibilities for the excavation, organization, and development of Eastern painting.

When admiring Liu Youju's illusory paintings, viewers are often blindfolded by the overwhelming force that comes upon them, and then quickly drawn to look closer, step back, and then sit on the sofa in the center of the exhibition hall to stare. The overall style of vivid ink color, resembling reality and illusion, and specious, further dispels the concrete characteristics of the image, and is purely composed of hook dyed block surfaces and stacked together. The image of the picture completely dissolves the spatial relationship, relying solely on visual visual cues. The main body of the picture wanders between abstraction and concrete, leisurely between poetry and painting, and imagines between human form and mountain terrain, which is completely different from the traditional experience of viewing mountains and rivers. As Mr. Zhang Fulin, Academic Director of the Third Studio of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, once said, "His creative mood is an independent, self fulfilling world. Immersed in this world, his writing has different images, emotions, and artistic conception that is different from ancient times and others.”

The new works such as the "Youlian" series, "Purple Clouds", "Free Flying", and "A Trail in the Wilderness" are all groundbreaking changes made by Liu Youju recently. His paintings combine Western formal concepts with Eastern spiritual temperament, gradually forming an inclusive visual symbol of Chinese culture. In his new works, he also strengthens the use of lines, presenting the most distinctive visual language with Chinese characteristics, such as long and vigorous calligraphy lines, calm and pure colors, and rich and subtle baking effects.

Liu Youju's works often incorporate local concrete images into abstract illusions, and the visuals are highly dynamic and aesthetically pleasing. There are grand narratives, poetic whispers, and the tranquil beauty of Zen; There are waves splashing on the rocks, unleashing an unstoppable force, as well as the rusty vicissitudes after the lead has faded away; There is a gentle breeze like a song on the beach, accompanied by the tranquil sound of chanting under the clear breeze and bright moon. The shape, emotions, imagery, abstract balance, and mastery of the work are perfectly integrated, resulting in the sublimation of his realistic experience and the sublimation of his realistic experience.

Liu Youju's recent work "Lotus Pond" series is even more impressive. The silent lotus exudes a sense of mystery. The concise composition processing compresses the spatiotemporal sense of the image. The hazy and illusory moonlight of the lotus pond in the picture, with the stretching of ink colors and lines full of tension and poetry, forms surreal images like dreams. Here, the painter seems to have found a moment of peace, getting rid of and forgetting the hustle and bustle of the real world, and roaming freely in the dreamy world. This faith like dream may be the source of his thoughts, creations, and emotions. The ancients painted the lotus with its graceful and solitary posture, exuding the purity of silt without staining it. Liu Youju went against the trend, painting a lotus pond with a dense atmosphere and a vast realm. It can be described as depicting lotus flowers as mountains and rivers. The chaotic lotus pond, combined with its whimsical layout and colors, brings extraordinary beauty to the audience.

The painter's unique expression completely breaks away from the previous physical visual concepts, but instead highlights the mental representation of Eastern charm through a mythological world of spiritual time and space, an illusion; Another example is' Deep Autumn ', which is completely different from the naturalistic view of reproduction, but rather a dreamlike and musically rich expression of charm. These paintings all embody the life and expressions of nature, and are echoes of the creative subject's call to nature. They are a symphony of the soul and the sound of the world, and also a call to the concept of Eastern aesthetics.

I believe that 'illusion painting' is a painter's sincere fantasy. Sincerity and fantasy are the basic characteristics of art, a special artistic means used to reflect spiritual life, the soul of artistic imagination, and a special form of creative imagination. Sincere fantasy reflects people's beautiful ideal realm, which is often the precursor of human thinking and behavior. Artistic fantasy is a creative technique in which artists create images based on their own needs, rather than being satisfied with the original form of reality. It is rooted in life and often involves exaggerated narratives and depictions of life to achieve a sublimation. As a result, things in fantasy are more active, colorful, and poetic than those in reality. Painters use fantasy techniques to reflect refraction and express their emotions and ideals, expressing their aesthetic evaluations of truth, falsehood, good, evil, beauty, and ugliness. So, without sincerity and fantasy, there can be no art.

The development of contemporary art is based on the search for traditional theories and artistic practices, while the other is the construction of a new painting language and contextual system to obtain a new, higher, and more typical artistic conception in expression, in order to reflect the aesthetic value that is in line with the artist's own spiritual temperament and aesthetic character of the times. From a deeper and cultural conscious sense, it requires painters to have a deeper understanding of their outlook on life, art, and To find a foothold in one's own history and reality through the comprehensive personality, spirit, and artistic cultivation of aesthetics and values. Thus, Liu Youju can clearly express his rich cultural personality style and artistic character of truth, goodness, and beauty from a modern perspective. Liu Youju's thoughts, exploration, and strength, both of which seem to be based more on the latter. So his works can achieve neither the superficiality of modern painters nor the conservatism of traditional painters; So he can value both form and emotion; So he can form and build his own "meaningful" spiritual home based on the needs of vision and soul; So, he is always able to constantly change his expression techniques and pursue different feelings and impressions; So his works have historical value in art.

In addition, Liu Youju's illusion painting emphasizes the creative expression of individuality between resemblance and non resemblance. Based on new aesthetic concepts and principles of composition, he systematically combines elements such as points, lines, shapes, and colors to discover their conceptual forms of expression, expanding the ideological and artistic capacity of his works. Zen Buddhism says, "The flag remains unmoved, and the wind remains unmoved, but the heart is moved." This is precisely the state in artistic creation that arises from the heart, where the heart changes and everything changes. In reality, there are also abstract structures, and in the void, although the ink color is fluctuating and seemingly unpredictable, in reality, it also emphasizes the painter's subconscious affirmation. Between reality and emptiness, one understands and creates a new world in this realm of creation. At the same time, it embodies the painter's pursuit of the best artistic effect. Through the pursuit of styling elements, a sensory understanding of the principles of composition, and the experience of visual language, aesthetic concepts, material texture, and techniques, it promotes the growth of human imagination, creativity, form, and aesthetics. In painting, there is no numerical calculation or predetermined turmoil. All of this is under the control of intuition, what is seen by the eyes and what is seen by the heart. Although its shape is painted on the outside, it captures its essence within. Its charm may seem occasional, but it is actually an off screen skill. It is necessary to pay attention to the accumulation of artistic qualities, understanding of things, and understanding of life in order to accumulate artistic cultivation. Zhang Xuguan, Lady Gongsun, wielded a sword and understood the speed, elasticity, and cadence of the brush in calligraphy creation. At the same time, it provided viewers with a broader realm of imagination, satisfying people's pursuit and enjoyment of beauty. Therefore, it can be said that the process of creation is the wonderful process of conveying emotions between resemblance and non resemblance. Without this process, there would be no creation of Chinese painting.

（3） Colorful Ink Collection between China and the West

A successful painter must include a significant breakthrough in artistic style, language, techniques, or schema, as well as the value and significance of the breakthrough. A great painter should be very thoughtful, and this kind of thinking must first have foresight. Liu Youju has always been an artist contemplating how Chinese painting can move forward. He is a thinker, and the famous French thinker Pascal once said, "Man is nothing more than a reed, the most fragile thing in nature. But he is a reed that can think... All our dignity lies in thought." Freedom of thought is not a patent of Western capitalist society, but the key to human progress and the universal value of all humanity. Human society has evolved from a barbaric society to a civilized society and should develop towards a more civilized society. The history of human progress is the history of ideological liberation, and the cultural choices faced by human society are inevitably diverse and complex. The improvement of human self thinking and understanding determines the future fate of humanity. This is the hope of humanity and also the needs of human evolution. The misfortune of a nation, the decline of a civilization, is ultimately due to the loss of the driving force of thought. At present, concepts in various fields of society are being updated, and history has repeatedly proven that every major progress of humanity is based on the premise of liberating the mind. The great liberation of the mind leads to great progress in society; Minor ideological liberation and minor social progress;Without ideological liberation, society will not progress. A nation without freedom of thought, huddled within an outdated thinking system, can only cross the river by feeling stones in the long night.

Liu Youju's illusion painting is a modern abstract art and a painting with Chinese humanistic characteristics that currently appears in China. It largely integrates the humanistic temperament and aesthetic sentiment of the Chinese nation, and is an organic combination of traditional Chinese art aesthetic spirit and Western painting. It is an extension of the vitality of Chinese art spirit. His fantasy painting is fundamentally different from Western painting, with characteristics such as freehand brushwork, symbolism, lyricism, and abstraction.

From the material perspective, Liu You Bureau uses rice paper, traditional Chinese painting pigments, brushes, acrylic pigments, etc. In terms of techniques, through color and ink aggregation, and even collision, fusion, and other forms and means; Make it concise, precise, and immersive, and overall, grand, and grand; At the same time, in multiple experiments, he discovered collisions of different materials, resulting in unexpected and unexpected decomposition and aggregation, which is itself a wonderful abstract form and the movement and beauty of abstract form, complementing, infiltrating, and interacting with each other, resulting in a momentum of dynamic and static comparison, an emptiness with or without contrast, and an implicitness of virtual and real comparison: this modality is more distinct, prominent, and strong in expression, The impression it gives is more metaphysical in nature. Zhao has emotional and spiritual characteristics.

Liu Youju uses his own life experience, life perception, and temperament to face the spirit of human art and cultural trends, actively placing himself in the overall consciousness and trend of humanity. Through the rich and complex cultural integration, exchange, interweaving, collision, and radiation, he constantly selects, filters, eliminates, generates He integrated and completed the self-discipline process of artistic creation: he directly directed artistic creation and ideal pursuit towards the pursuit of the realm of great beauty, and achieved fruitful artistic achievements, establishing and improving his own style language and expression form.

Looking at Liu Youju's illusionist painting works, it is difficult to tell which school or school he comes from. His ink and lines are all abstract aesthetic symbols that have been subjectively transformed by the creative subject, but these formal symbols also contain strong emotions. His paintings are not like those of professional painters, but more like the abstract illusions and aesthetic expressions of ordinary people towards real objects from their hearts. So, he actually achieved the unity of internal truth and external formal beauty, as well as the unity of subject and object. He abandoned the elements of technology, skill, programming, and even inheritance. He refused to repeat and refused to use repeated ink to express different paintings. In his opinion, using repetitive pen and ink to express new materials produces garbage.

Mr. Liu Youju's works first bring readers a pure and innocent romance and piety, with beautiful colors shining with their own spiritual light. This spiritual light transcends various rational and logical judgments that are good at art, breaking the norms of previous classic works. The essence of this highly emotional and intuitive artistic personality - creativity and imagination, because the essence of art not only dissolves understanding, but also promotes emotional tension and free will, Give people spiritual insights. Mr. Liu Youju's seemingly casual gestures showcase his true state of life. His pursuit of painting, his artistic ideals, and the bits and pieces of his life are all integrated into the painting. Inside and outside the painting, it is an integrated whole, with both the expression of truth and the essence of life. His flower of art quietly blooms in spring. When we are intoxicated by his colorful art works, we have to admit that Mr. Liu Youju is a master of romantic colors.

Liu Youju's illusion painting focuses on creating a "secret realm" with "different colors". This color transforms into five colors for ink; This scene is generated from the state of mind, with thoughts connected for thousands of years and a focus on the eight poles. Therefore, it is a cultural nostalgia with romantic feelings. The exploration and creation of artistic 'artistic conception' is the core proposition and origin of its artistic exploration. The illusion painting he created is not only a 'realm with me', but also a 'realm without me'. Between existence and nothingness, the image arises from the heart. Born from the heart, it must be connected to God. His paintings are not only a form of music, but also a poetic language, and also a cultural restoration and spiritual rejuvenation that arises from nothing.

In modern art creation, there should be works that truly aspire to the ideal life, as well as works that are moving and have artistic appeal. However, painters should not only be photographers of landscapes, but also recorders. They should also bear the responsibility that George Sandayana mentioned in his book "Reason in Art": art must be based on the social life on this shore, and must bear some kind of first obligation - only in this way, art is a part of rational life.

From the need for labor in "carving pictures and recording events" to "conveying the spirit", "sleeping", "expressing emotions", and then to the formation of the "carrying the Tao" theory, traditional Chinese painting, from fulfilling its mission to advocating nature, to "writing about the ease of life in the chest", every development proves the enduring imagination and profound contemplation of the world in Chinese art.

In the current era of literature, photography, sculpture, and confrontation with Western painting, Chinese painting focuses on carefully depicting the world and empathizing with the true emotions that actually exist in life. However, we still hope that new forms of art are not limited to what we can see with the naked eye, but can also be insightful, allowing us to see deeper levels of sadness, joy, and miracles - that should be the sum of philosophical, aesthetic, and artistic brilliance.

The voice of art composed by Lin Fengmian, Zhu Dequn, Zhao Wuji, Wu Guanzhong, Xi Dejin and others with their lives immersed in ink is still lingering. Chinese artists such as Liu Guosong, Gu Wenda, and Liu Youju, who shuttle on the international art stage, continue to write the most recognizable and cutting-edge advanced Chinese art models in the diverse world art landscape with their imaginative and persistent artistic imagination.

（4） Kaizong Reformist School

We live in a world filled with realistic and consumer images. Modernism has abandoned the narrative and plot functions of visual art, and we are almost no longer keeping up with the historical hidden behind images. Intuitive experience of images has replaced visual reading of images, and Liu Youju's works seem to be striving to restore our visual function of "reading" painting ability.

On the surface, Liu Youju's works appear to be a synthesis of surrealism, abstractionism, expressionism, Chagall style fantasy, lyricism, and simplicity. However, if we read deeper, we will find that his interest has always been in creating an Eastern style pantheistic atmosphere for the painting. His works are based on optimism and romanticism, and they are always filled with a folk joy, But in order to make this joy flow into pure sensory stimulation, he always carefully controls it in a poetic and historical background to inject rich Eastern elements into his works.

All along, with the globalization and integration of the economy, the Western art trend has been impacting the minds of Chinese people, so art creation has begun to imitate the West. "Why should we imitate the West? There are so many essence in Chinese tradition. As long as we choose one of them to explore, it will be an unstoppable masterpiece!" French Matthew's creation was inspired by oriental calligraphy; The post impressionist Gauguin drew nourishment from Eastern painting and created a decorative style.

Artists should not simply graft traditional symbols, but rather express their concern for the world from the ultimate level. The traditions and cultures that we often refer to do not actually have an inherent scope - our contemporary era and traditions are not divided by a single line of time. For example, the reality we live in today is largely our current "tradition", and the world we live in today is also the tradition of the near future. Tradition often needs to be reflected individually by individual individuals and self actualized in individual forms in order to better present itself, and artists are the mirror that presents the spirit of these times. How to combine the traditional thinking of the relationship between pen and ink with contemporary art concepts, and how to gain a new understanding of rice paper and pen and ink and explore their contemporary spiritual meanings, are the issues that contemporary Chinese painting creation needs to consider.

Some people in the field of traditional Chinese painting say that color is westernized and lacks ethnic characteristics, as if color is a patent of the West, as if Chinese art is truly unrelated to color! This is a misreading of our art history. In fact, China's color system is its own, known as the Five Color System. Ink is also a branch of this color system. Therefore, there is also a saying that "ink is divided into five colors". If "in painting, ink and wash are the most superior. They embody the nature and contribute to the creation and transformation" (according to Wang Wei's "Shanshui Jue") is about the relationship between ink and wash and the Heavenly Way, then, When it comes to painting, there are five different colors: in the east, it is called green, in the south, it is red, in the west, it is white, and in the north, it is black. The sky is called Xuan, and the earth is called Yellow... In the four seasons, the position of the five colors is based on chapter, which is called cleverness. "(Zhou Li, Winter Official) also discusses the corresponding relationship between color and the universe of heaven and earth. It can be seen that the Chinese color system, including ink and wash, is not only a visual color system of natural senses, but also a complex cultural system of cultural symbols. However, our research and application of this Eastern color system is still very insufficient. And of course, this can in turn leave us with huge room for development.

In addition, it is the abstract nature of Liu Youju's illusion painting that there is currently a critical view: "Abstract painting as an effective means of expression has come to an end," which is undoubtedly a revelation and a challenge. Liu Youju believes that: The change in artistic concepts stems from the overall flow and transformation of social and cultural conditions, and also depends on the general improvement of material and spiritual levels. As Western art moves from being on the shelf to being off the shelf, from meaningful forms to conveying ideas, it seems that Western pluralistic art has also entered a confusing thinking process. The circulation, resurgence, and further forward trends are all natural and reasonable - human culture is a holistic concept From this perspective, there is no new or old, no ancient or present, no east or west, and no tradition or modernity. Regardless of the meaningful form or conceptual expression, and regardless of the differences in media carriers, the connotation is essentially the same. Therefore, 'diversity' is actually 'monism'

Without artistic ideas and independent innovation spirit, the artistic value of a work is equal to zero. Nowadays, some mediocre painters rely on eating the "old roots" created by their ancestors, repeatedly copying and making, and running in front of the ancients is no longer able to stand up. They lack their own artistic innovation spirit, and even show off under the banner of inheriting tradition.

In this era of material encirclement and suppression spirit. Art cannot be as fastpaced and efficient as science, nor can it simply demand correctness and precision. Art is not ordinary truth, but crazy truth. Art needs to return to some extent, reject secular and temptation, and exist purely in a material society. The great richness of modern material life, as well as the prevalence of money worship and enjoyment, have varying degrees of influence on art. ‘The situation of artists is getting better and better, which is a bad phenomenon for art. Artists are increasingly lacking in real, painful, and profound traces of struggle.’(Liu Ming's "Art and Survival")

In this society that values efficiency, artists find it difficult to break free from utilitarianism. The rush to create style, the rush to innovate, and ultimately the rush to fame and fortune. The sensationalism or impetuous shouting of painting art hides frivolity and weakness in a thriving school of painting. The inability of artists to resist the material siege of the spirit is precisely the mental illness of the crisis in painting art.

Liu Youju, a master of Eastern abstract painting who upholds humanism and humanitarianism (in American scholar language), advocates for spirit, seeking ideas, and insightful understanding. He not only adheres to the academic height he should have, but also does not give up his historical responsibility and avoid debates on artistic concepts, He proposed: "The historical inertia of cultural conservatism and the arrogant fashion of national essence are the spiritual obstacles to artistic innovation and cultural development. The Chinese culture created by adhering to the essence of heaven and earth should dare to coexist with the western civilization at the commanding height today, stir up thousands of waves with human will and meaning of life, breed the most fresh blood for the entire era, and provide the vast vitality beyond historical imagination for the sustainable development of Chinese culture. We cannot use China and the West as gullies or barriers, but should embrace all rivers and actively practice the integration of ancient and modern Chinese and Western cultures. The spirit of new humanism in the 21st century advocates the complementarity of diverse cultures, which is the cultural confidence and basic pattern that a civilized country should possess, as well as the significant changes, leaps, and atmospheres that should be presented. This is also the reflection of the broad nationalism of the Chinese nation. Along the path of the Holy Spirit lies the hanging of art, and the Holy Spirit is enlightened by art. Only these elite groups, who burn their aesthetic passion with life and expand their artistic existence and humanistic significance with fearless exploration will, can truly open the curtain of the era of Chinese cultural and artistic masters and shine on the sky of history! Aspiring Chinese artists: The human heart needs to be burned by the fire of faith in order to overcome the darkness of nihility and the paralysis of material desires. All sacrificial beings with rich spiritual connotations, the true, the good, and the beautiful, will be engraved with shining monuments by historical lightning. An era of creation and belonging to Chinese cultural and artistic masters has arrived. Have you heard the call of fate

Art is a proposition bestowed by God on humanity with freedom and rules, and it is an aesthetic experience of freedom and pleasure in the most active and rich state of human soul experience. The "freedom" of art is the bottom line of why art is art, free in rules and joyful in freedom. In order to achieve true artistic freedom and pleasure, artists first need to search for the rules of art. The growth process of an individual artist is a transformation process of several "able to enter" and "able to exit" that is free from "rules" and "freedom". 'Being able to enter' refers to drawing on the artistic experience of predecessors, while 'being able to leave' refers to finding one's own spiritual home. The threshold of "accessibility" has turned more art enthusiasts away from the door of the art hall. The threshold of 'being able to come out' also traps some timid artists who are willing to acknowledge the greatness of their predecessors and their own insignificance. The worship of traditional humility is obviously not conducive to their own development. The "nostalgia complex" of traditional infatuation inevitably exposes the pallor of the inner spirit of traditional Chinese painting in contemporary times.

The crisis of traditional Chinese painting has emerged with the arrival of the new century. This crisis is not the crisis of traditional Chinese painting falling into the "end of the road", but essentially comes from the spiritual crisis of the painter subject in the urban trap of material desires and rootless state. Looking back at the history of art, it has indeed been overshadowed for too long by doctrine, politics, commodities, and play. In the artistic speculation of the new century, we seem to see the dawn of the art era, but in solving practical problems, we face more problems. When we advocate for the intrinsic value of art, we find that more artists are trapped in various "encirclements". Reality tells us that avoiding reality and only focusing on distant sages and teachers cannot solve the problem. Lack of close attention to reality, lack of self-awareness, and courage to surpass oneself are fatal root causes.

Liu Youju is an outstanding artist with passion and creative ability. In recent years, his illusionist paintings have been exhibited in the United States and Beijing, attracting widespread attention and praise from scholars both domestically and internationally. Liu Guo believes that Liu Youju has successfully absorbed the principles of color contrast and complementarity from the West, using techniques such as flat painting, erasing, and rendering to make the picture rich and colorful, harmonious and unified. We have created an artistic landscape with strong subjective colors, strong decorative significance, and strong personal characteristics, creating a new trend and pushing the use of colors in Chinese painting to a new peak.

Anyone who established a school of thought has a unique talent and exceptional courage. Genius is innate, let alone here, courage is acquired through accumulation. Mr. Li Keran once said, "The soul of what is needed, and the courage of what is precious." The success of Liu Youju is logical and inevitable upon reflection. Because he can cut off the constraints of the secular world, he dares to break through and stand up. His courage and insight are based on a high level of philosophical wisdom. I once said, "Mr. Liu is a wise man and will definitely lead the development of Chinese painting. Until now, I have become more and more convinced.