Opera Figures 1978

Ding Yanyong's ‘Opera Figures’ is a playful scene made using ink and colour on paper. The loose, free-flowing lines and the way the colors seep into the paper give you the feeling that the artist didn’t want to restrain himself. Look at the figure on the left, the lines used to describe the contours of his body are sparse and imperfect, but they capture the sense of movement. See the smudges of red ink around his face, are they cuts, scars, or rouge? The figure on the right, a blue-skinned character, stands rigid, clutching a rooster in one arm. The way the blue pigment bleeds and pools gives his skin an almost bruised quality. This work reminds me of Picasso's blue period, both artists using colour to evoke emotion and distort reality. Ding Yanyong’s 'Opera Figures’ invites us to appreciate the beauty in imperfection and the power of art to capture a fleeting moment of imagination.