The Palace of Dreams

ENGLISH VERSION

JIA Juanli

THE PALACE OF DREAMS

Gérard Xuriguera

It is helpful for artists to remember that there is a foot at the end of the leg, or in other words, that there have been others before them, over the centuries, or more recently, in phase or not with reality or their imagination. When JIA Juanli moved to Paris about twenty years ago, after obtaining her diploma from the National School of Fine Arts in Peking, she chose to use anamnesis, to free herself from the images of an over-pervasive past. Hence her visual and affective grammar is based on the embodiment of certain cultural and sociological myths, rooted in collective Chinese memory, thoroughly transformed by her palette, and her capacity for metaphor.

Her semantics seem to erase reality, imbuing it with another, more introspective dimension, explored through the vestiges of an ancient world, recreated in an infinitely nuanced parietal language, similar to fresco painting. And this patiently exhumed and recreated universe that always conveys an unexpected twist, seen from our contemporary viewpoint, is the world of the imperial courts and great Chinese dynasties. The splendour JIA Juanli revives reverberates in a muted atmosphere, tinted with exquisite charm, a combination of nostalgia and wisdom. Gilding, screens, wall hangings, curtains, mysterious corridors, small tree-filled gardens, elevated plants, bouquets, country decors, scattered vegetation, playful children, occasional chairs surrounding a side table, female characters seeking themselves in a smothered light… everything evokes a subdued universe, the silence, and security of a hushed life.

In these cloistered confines, the society explored is far from the common world of noise, promiscuity and artificial intoxication, instead it is a civilisation of tact, refined manners and sheltered existences. So, we find silhouettes of sylphlike, almost furtive women, who reveal nothing of their physical form beyond the curve of their back, a hint of their profile, and the studied brilliance of their finery, but with no overt erotic appeal.

In this gallery of figures straddling enigmatic worlds, it is the feminine universe that motivates the artist, drawing us into a dream world consistent with the historical context, the heart of vast palaces, harems, birds and flowers, trees and gardens. But as Juanli reveals, using the same controlled elegance, she also likes to create frontal portraits of women. A lady leans nonchalantly against a table, a contained smile marking her smooth face, a little bird perches on the finger of a lady in a carefully arranged pose, further away, another wanders through a bed of flowers, beside her companion who chases butterflies, a woman seems lost in an aquatic mist, not far from a group by a lake and a young girl flanked by dragon fly wings, while a hot summer sun surrounds a few women on a walk, enjoying the delights of nature…

However, beyond the calm, something serious emerges from this iconography evocative of a past, revealing the spirit of an era. Of course, the subject is far from mundane, as it is the axis around which the signs of the artist’s perception are organized. But while the referent draws from a bygone age, the technique that brings together these velvety tones, the shades of grey or their subtle gradients, is based on oil painting and is, in fact, highly contemporary. We see this in the distribution of shadow and light, the perfect rhythm of the empty spaces and the organization of a range of complex shaded textures that, as Elie Faure said, recall that the spirit of a painting lies in its texture. It does not seek to create an emotion, which emerges at the appropriate moment ‘the shock is instantaneous, often unexpected’, to use Bonnard words.

Here, the gesture is precise, effusive but not excessive, restrained and contrasted, moving freely between withdrawal and connection. The carefully mastered application is and smooth and rigorous, well balanced in the amalgam of the layers with the lower layers of the background, and she even takes certain liberties in the use of the knife and the proportion of the pigment. Contrasting stabilising lines and her skill for a synthesis of forms, she creates a world of suggestion rather than a narrative.

After her early very expressive work, JIA Juanli chose to shift to restrained synthesis and follow a path that draws her inwards, towards her imaginary theatre. A subtle colourist, master of a repertoire of highly personal images, she belongs to no school. Her rare and delicate work has rhythm and presence.

Art Historian and Critic