暖之二（电脑绘） 2004

Xu Hongming made this computer painting, 暖之二, with software instead of pigment, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t sensual. I mean, look at that warm palette of pinks and reds! You can feel the heat radiating from this digital grid, right? It's fascinating to think about how Xu uses the cold precision of the computer to explore such warm and emotive colour relationships. Each square pulsates with a slightly different shade, like a conversation between tones, a chorus of reds. I can imagine Xu hunched over a screen, carefully selecting each hue, nudging the values up and down. It's a totally different process from mixing paint, but there's a similar kind of intimacy involved. There is a sense of exchange with other artists here too. Agnes Martin comes to mind, of course. We’re all just ping-ponging off each other, trying to figure out how to communicate what it feels like to be alive. And maybe, just maybe, Xu is onto something here.