The third room suddenly opens and brightens, bringing a new energy; it erupts with color and passion, unleashing “the spirit of painting.”
In Mountain in Heat, layer upon layer of aphrodisiac mushrooms cumulate into a mountain that bursts forth with desire. The artist strives to achieve a sense of richness and depth on the canvas, straining between the thinness and simplicity of contemporary art and the profundity and harmony of classical painting, seeking to convey a new aesthetic.
Last Carnival developed from Cai’s study of the Prado’s collection of Rubens, specifically his ability to capture the dynamic movements of man and beast. At the same time, it resonates with Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights. Different species of animals have succumbed to interbreeding, drawing forth an environmental theme in which living beings continue to frolic even when only one pool of water remains on the planet.
Black Poppy features nine canvases; on each succeeding canvas, Cai decreases the amount of black color gunpowder until the coolly elegant black is lifted to reveal the scarlet repressed beneath. The work captures the passage of changing time. “Painting needs to express energy; here, the energy expresses itself,” Cai explains.
The Spirit of Painting was the artist’s grand finale in the Salón de Reinos. Following more than two years spent studying painting and immersing himself in the spirit of painting found in the Prado’s collection, Cai completes the exhibition with a fearless and cathartic liberation through this work. “I imagined the spirituality bestowed upon me by Titian, El Greco, Velázquez, Rubens, and Goya — through this, I imagined a daytime fireworks event for each of them, and together they constitute five chapters,” Cai says. “I envisioned the fireworks effects for each master, and my goal is to capture the grandeur and immense power of outdoor explosions within the 18m-long canvas. I look to unleash my imaginations of the masters’ spirit of painting through fierce interflowing of abstract colors; employing their iconic symbols and upturning them in one grand explosion…
With Alchemist, Cai returns to fundamentals. With “the green lion consuming the sun” — a hallmark symbol in Western alchemy — as its theme, the work echoes the transformations of form and energy found in gunpowder, and is an homage to the alchemist-like, miraculous feats of the Old Masters.
