Time has been changing, so has art, and man. Many have seen the “realities”: anxiety of the time, the desire of the society, and the distorted personalities in the figures painted by Tu Hongtao. Yes, these are all there, accurately captured by him. He is sharp-eyed; those postures at loose ends and with pain, the eyes with no focus, the unescapable oppression, and even the split heart itself, almost all are directly “represented” in the painting. The viewers have to find that everyone, including himself, is feeling more or less the pain, the depression, and the division, and realizing the freedom of departure in this moment of self-reflection.

At the same time, his works contain something at a different level: the subtle expression of the figures in the painting, the space where they stay, the color pallete, and faint glory shining through the canvas, all imply the miscellaneous sophistication of human. Any hint of “chemical reactions” can burst out the power of life itself. Even in the painting, these figures still have life. They are not the objects “judged” by the image and symbol of a painting; they are still being understood and cared—by the painter’s brush and sight.

For Tu Hongtao, at the present, all the most personal feelings, and all the most vivid persons he encounters, are only the starting point of his art, rather than the content. Everyone feels the present; he does not want to be just an artist who arouses resonation. He knows that contemporary art should not only “reflect” this era, but go beyond it, and thus is worthy of all the best things in the world, and is worthy of the halo of art itself. Therefore, he wants to penetrate the real life, casting down the glory of human from a small hole. This is the reason why the figures in the painting are being understood and cared.

When the understanding and care transforms into the art-making process and the form of works, it not only vents sentiments, but call for rational construction: a structure of observing, a channel of experiencing, and a pattern to know the human and the world. To this end, Tu Hongtao should discover a new place, and a new perspective; and for this end, he must temper a new self. Eventually, he needs a new world. Therefore, what he paints is not only a portrait; there is a way to observe, in other words, a world view. To “paint” those people, and to “recognize” a new world, both are completed together, and are also the part that this article focuses on.

How should the “human” be treated? Where are the “human” staying? Contemporary works often originate from the relativity of culture and aesthetics, and now, can it answer the question that needs to be affirmed? An anonymous man in the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty wrote a poem: “The human living between the sky and the earth, suddenly feels like a visitor travelling afar” ^{[ 1 ]}. If the Wei and Jin Dynasties is the dawn of a great civilization, then he/she is in the darkest period before dawn. He/she cannot believe in any cultural framework, any interpretation of identity, or any guide of truth, but finds the place where he/she exists. We cannot even tell for sure whether he/she is happy or sad, but he/she has become a silent starting point of a splendid era. Today, the cultures of the world have lost their ways again, and postmodernism does not bring the promised “infinite possibilities”, but turns old beliefs into pieces drifting into the word of concepts. Then, for today's artists, if they come here, how should they face the “human”?

Tu Hongtao is one of them. He feels these, and chooses to start from the existence between the heaven and the earth—the “human” only. Such an artist cannot paint himself, because he keeps putting down those rising from “inside himself”. He can only paint someone else, from whom he can reflect that “human” staying inside himself, the most real existence beyond his “ego”. In fact, it is also the same case when he paints plants. The plant for him is also “others”; it is the pant belonging to that “human”. That “human” is lonely; that “human” is staying inside Tu Hongtao, also in the truth between the heaven and the earth, far away from everything in real life—there is no sound around, and he cannot speak: “When all the truth have been revealed in front of me, what can I say?” ^{[ 2 ]} That “human” is not always there; sometimes he will disappear in the bustle of real life, and will disappear in every movement that life needs. Then, Tu Hongtao is caught in the “melancholy” that closely lives with art like a shadow; and then he struggles clumsily in the painting, until he finds “that human” again.

He painted a piece titled “Melancholy”. The man in the painting is called “Old Zhang”, who is also an artist. Old Zhang’s eyes in the painting are smaller than the actual ones; the eyes look at different places, not because they are thoughtful, but because they want to see nothing. This is exactly what his eyes are. The space behind Old Zhang is twisted with his hair, and his whole face is like the physical trajectories left by the painter’s eyes on the canvas, with the warmth of life, and the chill of the air. The lines on both sides of the cheek use different colors: the left is like Dai color (dark green and dark black), like the color of the distant mountains in the evening; the right is some kind of red, like the afterglow in the painting. Thus, they are in their own independent spaces, and are very far away from each other in fact, as far as the distance between Old Zhang and himself. It is hard to say that this is the real Old Zhang, or the Old Zhang in Tu Hongtao’s eyes. All in all, while these distances are gradually forming, the space of the whole picture starting from the cloth of Old Zhang begin to solidify from bottom to top. The picture has been endowed with a sense of time, turning into an existence that gets away from both of them simultaneously, something gazed by another pair of eyes. The eyes feature an omniscient silence. Then, when Tu Hongtao struggles between Old Zhang’s melancholy and his own melancholy, and ultimately feels difficult to distinguish between each other, this painting becomes Old Zhang observed by that “human”, and Old Zhang also enters the truth where that “human” stays.

In another piece named “Shanghai Scholar”, the scholar's eyes have been smeared, and only the expression in the eyes remains. He is sitting in a straight position, but his posture looks uncomfortable, and incompatible with real life. The space where his right arm stays is unfavorable, so it brings an uncomfortable feeling. The perspective which should be seen here becomes the vibration of lines and colors. The work “Mountains” is the same: he looks comfortable, but his left leg becomes a plane, or something hinted by the lines that, it is no more a leg, but like a hill stone in the ink painting. This leg instantly turns into a distant landscape, tearing apart the figure in the painting. His left hand is also changed, or disintegrated by lines. Along with “Shanghai Scholar”, he also has been distorted and fractured in the space he stays. This is not an image shaped by a one-off torture, but a repeating process as the observation is going on. They are trying to make themselves more comfortable, but stress the feeling of alienation. With the flashing space, their pain in real life and Tu Hongtao’s pain overlap again. It’s not sure when another sight becomes obvious, with a mysterious atmosphere this time; because comparing to their fragility and transience, the observation of that “human” is so quiet and warm. Instead, the desire to heal their pain seems aggressive...

What is described here is a process. Tu Hongtao as himself cannot determine where that “human” are, he can only observe them, understand them, torture them, console them, or synchronize all these actions. In this process, he gradually blends himself with the figures in the painting, and ultimately, he cannot tell whom he paints on earth. What makes the process go on is the existence of that “human”, who is in another kind of truth and can bridge and drive this process.

At the same time, that “human” is not there “originally”. In this process, that “human” must be felt and verified. Having been verified, that “human” becomes blurred immediately, because that “human” goes inside Tu Hongtao from “the truth between the heaven and the earth”. In fact, Tu Hongtao also is not there originally, he cannot understand himself, and he can only identify his own boundary by depicting others. When he confirms the boundary, the boundary becomes blurred immediately, because at the moment, he again cannot confirm whether he is himself, or that “human”.

The figures in the painting are also not there originally. They must also go through the foresaid process, and become existent when caught by the eyes of Tu Hongtao. When the figures in the painting exist, their own boundaries immediately become blurred again, because they cannot determine whether they are in the eyes of Tu Hongtao, or in the eyes of that “human”. In this way, Tu Hongtao, the figures in the painting, and that “human”, these three fulcrums constitute an endless cycle, until the work has been completed. When the work is completed, this process stops. If Tu Hongtao begins to miss that “human”, he has to start a new creation, until he finds a way to keep that “human” staying inside himself.

And other viewers in front of the works, are also possible to replace Tu Hongtao. They do not have to take up their brushes; their sight along with the painting structure established or found by the painter, enters this endless inner cycle. Of course, this movement is easy to stop and becomes a usual still observation. Or, this movement cannot start at all, unless that “human” is inside the viewers has been awakened.

That “human” comes from different world views. First of all, “he” was born between the heaven and the earth and has always been there, according to the human prototype defined by the belief and philosophy of ancient China. Just like Pangu, a protagonist in the genesis mythology, who separates the world and then turns himself into all things between the heaven and the earth. “The heaven and the earth” are not only a physical summary of the world, but also considered as the symbol of “natural principle” (truth). Therefore, the ways between the heaven and the earth embodies the idea that the human is facing all the realities and the truth. The truth is not knowledge-based, but intuitive; just as “the heaven and the earth” itself, is a kind of wholistic intuition about the world. Chinese people’s understanding of the relation between truth and self can be revealed from this myth. In Europe, Heidegger’s understanding of the “human” is very similar to this. In his theory, the “human” likewise can be understood as an intuitive existence. This existence is the sum of people’s perception of the world. This “sum” is both the “world” itself and the “human” itself. In this case, the human and the world can no longer be separated: the world only exists in the human perception, and the human also only exists in the perception of the world. It is again back to the relation between the human and the world concluded by the Philosophy of the Mind in the Song Dynasty: “The mind is the universe.” Wang Yangming, a philosopher of the Ming Dynasty explicates this sentence: If one recognizes his own heart in the action, he also recognizes the truth of the universe, and eccentrically they are “conscience”. Similar description also premises Heidegger’s “poetic dwelling”.

Thus, the appearance of that “human” is clear: that “human” is not an inductive concept or image, but a human who perceives the truth, breaks away from time and is between the heaven and the earth. At the same time, that “human” is the whole intuition of the world itself, that is, “truth” itself. The “human” and the “world” are one; the world can be only inside that “human”.

More specifically, each individual needs to perceive the truth of the world through action, while perceiving the essence of being “human”. These two similar world views emphasize the importance of “action”. Heidegger regards “perception” as a kind of action, while Wang Yangming regards action as an important factor distinguishing the Philosophy of the Xinxue from “Zen”. More importantly, both of them do not take the human and the world as the subject and the object dualism, but on the basis of the ternary logic turn the human, the world and the action taken by the human in the world into an interdependent circular relation. If lacking any one of them, the other two cannot continue to exist. Tu Hongtao's artistic practice precisely takes this circular relation as a model and puts is into practices, and only practice (action) can really enter this relation.

If one has to find a “meaning” for this practice (It should be noticed that the relation between “practice” and “meaning” is binary, and in these two world views, practice means the effort to get close to “truth”, so meaning is not necessary), undoubtedly it is to wake up that “human” in their hearts. This allows an individual to become a more complete human—although it can be still considered “meaningless” by nihilists and relativists. However, in the era where the importance and integrity of a “human” has begun to be suspected and ignored and all cultural and social phenomena incline to be homogeneous, there is no meaning for art more special than this. And only when the human becomes that “human”, can art be separated from the scope of cultural and social phenomena, from the position to be driven and set, and become art itself.

The process that Tu Hongtao practices this model in his artistic creation should be also considered and discussed as a whole action in the context of contemporary art itself. First of all, although in the field of cutting-edge technology, ternary logic has been widely practiced, but the context of contemporary art is still binary. “Ternary logic” has been practiced by countless sages at different times and in various countries, but it was firstly collated and summarized by C. S. Peirce as a structural prototype. It becomes the biggest opposite of structuralism. However, even after postmodern deconstructionism trends, in a wide range of cultural and artistic creation and criticism, ternary logic is still accepted as a theory rather than a practice model—what it emphasizes is practice. Perhaps in a field oriented by abstract thought, the emphasis on practice makes it difficult to be practiced. In this regard, the outstanding literati in ancient China have given a good example by means of “combining knowledge and practice”. It is well-known that the art criticism after World War II is still binary logic. Specifically, it is static, relying on an “established” “linguistic” structure. For example, the word “tree”, as a “signifier”, must be in the “established” Chinese structure, in order to have the “signified” meaning: tree. This “established” structure produces a combination of opposites: “signifier—signified”, “form—content”, “content—meaning”, “form—function”, “cause—result”, “good—bad”…In the art specifically, this “established” structure is also a variety of unique “interpretation” methods, such as the interpretation of form, the interpretation of style, historical, sociological, cultural, psychological, feminist, and so on. They put together the work or the artist’ lives and their characteristics on the side of the opposing combination, and then put its interpretation on the other side, to form a typical judging relation of “case—conclusion”.

Later, since these interpretive structures have powerful discourse power, various disciplinary or interdisciplinary frameworks have been imposed on art, and artists have to rely on these structures to create. That is, art becomes a slave of structure. These interpretive structures are self-justified, which makes them only “use” art in their own way, rather than “restore” art. Art is not respected by the basic logical facts and only falls into a dependent case of various interpretive structures. In this way, many artists find that, it is better to be driven by the structure of capital than by these structures. In fact, once the development of art, and of culture and ideology lags behind, their structure will become vulnerable to the structure of capital. This is also why, since the 21th century, capitalism almost unifies all kinds of ideological trends after the World War II, and only anti-capitalist ideological trends seem to remain—but it’s just not enough to form a wholesome thought by “anti-” alone. On the contrary, in the field of cutting-edge technology, its advanced internal logic makes science exist as a whole, which also forms a ternary cycle with the capital after “application” joins. However, it’s impossible for art to become “applicable”. Art can only go inward to find that “human”, so as to complete the “human” and to save the “human” from being drown in the labels like “identity”, “class”, “race”, “state”, “culture”, “position”, from becoming conceptual debris and the “object” that needs to be taken care of by science and power.

In fact, it is these living situations, too obvious to be forgotten, that stimulate Tu Hongtao to practice. Interpretable as they are, his works should be observed more carefully. Here, “observation” becomes action, pushing everyone to find themselves, that is, to find the truth of the world, and to find that we are actually living between the heaven and the earth. Tu Hongtao's previous exhibition is named “The Road Not Taken”, the Chinese title is derived from a poem written by Tao Yuanming in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, the dynasty Tu Hongtao most yearns for. It has been named so not because of his cultural nostalgia and imagination, nor of the scholarly demeanor or the aesthetic style of the time. Comparing to the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Wei and Jin Dynasties is an era when the cultural structure was broken and the new order had not yet been formed, and also an era when people began to rediscover the “human”. Everything was still in the sprouting state. Therefore, the most dazzling light of human also sparkled. It contains desires and struggles; they are the gifts that “truth” gives to the human, and also “truth” itself. And that kind of tenacity and gentleness after sufferings and struggles, are precisely the strength that can break the rigid structure of today. If the spirit of the Chinese literati is just derived from here, the real relation between Tu Hongtao’s works and the literati art can also be found. In his world view, his yearning for the Wei and Jin Dynasties points to the future, ponders over the present and returns to the faith in the truth.