{"id":283432,"date":"2025-11-14T22:21:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T22:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/283432\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T22:21:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T22:21:12","slug":"layers-upon-layers-root-in-history-in-li-songsongs-impasto-paintings-colossal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/283432\/","title":{"rendered":"Layers Upon Layers Root in History in Li Songsong’s Impasto Paintings \u2014 Colossal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Li Songsong<\/a> (previously<\/a>) has long centered his practice around translating archival imagery, whether it be a portrait printed in a newspaper or still from a film. The Chinese artist is broadly interested in the ways that memories morph over time and how, when we\u2019re reflecting on a moment well in the past, our clarity over the particulars can be hazy.<\/p>\n

His new body of work, History Painting, takes a similar technical approach, although rather than interpret a specific scene, Li ventures into the abstract. Wide, impasto layers of oil paint cloak the large-scale canvas, creating a cacophony of color and texture that seems to swell upward while simultaneously pulling downward. As a filmed studio visit<\/a> shows, the artist works from top down, adding one thick mark atop another in a sort of grid. <\/p>\n

\"an\u201cHistory VII: Snake Year\u201d (2025), oil on canvas, 120 x 120 centimeters<\/p>\n

Pace Gallery<\/a>, which represents Li, shares that History Painting reflects more on his relationship to the medium than any specific visual source, although, given his past work, it\u2019s difficult not to try to find definition within the composition. The clustered ridges of paint, for example, might evoke bodies huddled together in mass, their backs to the viewer as they move toward an unknown destination. For Li, these brushstrokes, while abstract, do retain a sense of action and autonomy, and he describes them as \u201cagentive and idiosyncratic\u201d even as they\u2019re covered again and again.<\/p>\n

History Painting is on view through December 20 in New York.<\/p>\n

\"an\u201cRevolution\u201d (2025), oil on canvas, 210 x 210 centimeters<\/p>\n

\"anInstallation view of \u2018Li Songson: History Painting\u2019 (2025)<\/p>\n

\"an\u201cHistory IX: Mercy\u201d (2025), oil on canvas, 120 x 120 centimeters<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cHistory IV: Sacrifice\u201d (2025), oil on canvas, 120 x 120 centimeters<\/p>\n

\"anInstallation view of \u2018Li Songson: History Painting\u2019 (2025)<\/p>\n

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