Mao Lizi | Beyond color

Textes
Gérard Xuriguera, art critic and historian
Mael Bellec, curator responsible for the Chinese and Korean collections at the Cernuschi Museum, Paris
Jessica Bargman, A&R Fleury

“I just want to paint a different and instinctively accessible feeling. It doesn’t seem real, and yet it is real.” In a few words, Mao Lizi thus transmits his personal approach to abstraction which was gradually established in his work before conquering it completely at the turn of the 2000s.

In a personal balance between mastery and spontaneity, the artist patiently seeks perfection in the uncertainty of abstract painting. The unpredictability of the fragments of pigments on contact with the canvas then becomes a new possibility for pictorial expression.

In constant evolution since its beginnings, Mao Lizi’s recent work can be foremost appreciated in its physical relationship to matter. The canvas imposes its rhythm between the nudity of the weft, left apparent, and the quick and powerful brushstrokes. The artist’s rhythmic and decisive gesture, the oil exploded on the canvas, then lead to a sensitive evocation of an original nature.