书写的石墙 2020

Wang Xinfu made this painting, "Writing Stone Wall," with thick strokes of oil paint, maybe even right from the tube. The color palette is so earthy, browns, yellows, greys, all churned together so that you can’t quite pull them apart. The surface is so built up, it’s almost sculptural. You can practically see the artist’s hand moving across the canvas, pushing and pulling the paint, creating a landscape that’s both abstract and intensely physical. Look at the upper left corner where there's this ridge of dark brown paint, like a geological formation that has been sliced right through. The thickness and the direction of the brushstrokes there give it such a sense of weight and direction. For me, this piece speaks to the sheer physicality of making art, the way we use our bodies to translate what we see and feel into something tangible. It’s almost like a conversation between the artist and the paint, each influencing the other in this ongoing process. It makes me think of Anselm Kiefer, who also builds up surfaces with impasto, but with Wang Xinfu, it feels more intimate, more about the pure act of painting itself.