If painting is a mix of art and life, BEI Jiaxiang observed and depicted various aspects of life and people through the characters in Peking Operawith‘theeye of drama’. In Peking opera, actors wear facial masksto represent a certain role given, in real life aren’t we also wearing masks and beingwe are supposed to be. Living with different kinds of masks, life becomes drama and drama becomes life, this is what BEI Jiaxiang discovered when he projected his ‘eye of drama’ on life.
In Chinese calligraphy, the speed, acceleration and deceleration of the writer's moves and turns, and the stroke order give ‘spirit’ to the characters by influencing greatly their final shape, it is called ‘bone’ and the rest of the characteris called ‘flesh’. BEI Jiaxiang saw through things with the ‘eye of opera’, united the appearance, spirit ang soul, painted ‘bone’ instead of ‘flesh’ whiledeliberately combined Chinese and western techniques of art and emphasized on the atmosphere he wanted to transfer.
The characters in Peking opera are the source of inspiration for BEI Jiaxiang, however, we can barely see the characters and feel the dramatic atmospherein his artworksbecause nothing was deliberately created, instead, he tried to render ‘a taste’ through ‘the eye of drama’ with each character has something unique to represent himself, which is better than any gesturesor moves we can see.
