Shang Yang(b.1942) Landscape of Field E -3 oil on canvas executed in 1997 65×81 cm (25 5/8 x 31 7/8 in) LITERATURE p.182, Sigh with Deep Feeling for Great Landscape: Shang Yang, Sichuan Fine Arts Publishing House, 2007
In the early winter of 1991, as I looked back the disappearing snow-covered the Loess Plateau from the bus, my decade of travel notes had came to an end in scenery erased by the whiteness. I painted Great Landscape earelier, which is no longer the yellow land full of cultural memories before 1985. Since Great Landscape, I have been reflecting on the present state of the hybrid culture, the living condition of people and the trend of civilization in my own way. We, of course including our art, all survive in this great landscape. As an artist, I cannot stop such questioning and thinking. Apart from the spiritual context, I also explored genres and expressions with all my passion and equal effort. These two parts have been melted together in my creation process, even hard to distinguish or prioritize. As history has provided a rich cultural background which allows us to obtain inspirations, it also provided us a variety of possibilities of visual expression. As time goes by, various new visual experiences are produce, making the comprehensive style and free expression I have always advocated and put into practice contemporary Chinese landscape art. (Shang Yang, 1996)
In 1997, Shang Yang left Guangzhou to work in Beijing Capital Normal University. Compared to the business sense in Guangzhou, the cultural context in Beijing brought a peaceful state to Shang Yang. This was a new pinnacle in his life and art creation. At that time, his Great Scenery series comprises of natural landscapes in the post-modern era, depicting 20 works of Landscape of Field E.