Contemporary Chinese paintings remain to make new contribution. Paintings can not be separated from basic colors and forms. Upon the entrance of modernity, started from Cezanne, the internal shaping property of colors as almost replaced the “form” and becomes the most important factor in painting. If an artist could not only synthesize with color, namely, synthesized complementary colors of post-impressionism of Cezanne with color composition of abstract painting, especially facing the serious consequence of painting finality caused by afterwards black and white monochrome, but have brought Chinese color sensation into paintings, he had made new contribution for certain. It means that we clear all kinds of existing color systems. On one hand, from the so-called western classical proper color, complementary color of impressionism, till abstract color or monochrome which is mainly photochromic, shadow change and color tension; on the other hand, five-color analogy system, blue green coloring or painting system and ink black and white system which is mainly breath sensation and naturalized poetry. What is the core of a new synthesis, if it exists? If a possible contribution of “Chinese color” exists, it shall be provided with the core of ink painting black and white in Chinese culture, in combination with western color sensation, instead of only black and white, and it shall take “black and white” as a principle, as black and white are dark black and transparent colors, or namely, combine light sensation with breath sensation. Thus, new color may contain such factors and generate new pattern.

　　According to Cai Xiaohua’s works, abstract infra-color rightly responds to issues above mentioned. His works, with abstract monochrome as basic image reawaken Chinese traditional color sensation such as blue green and yellow by meaning with black and white metaphysics meangings. Monochrome has become a festival of color: facing monochrome crisis, Cai Xiaohua has brought again the glory and breath of color and made us feel the brilliance in so-called ordinary again.

　　一

　　Thinking painting as well as its color is also facing an essential problem: what is the value of painting in such a network image age? In such a technological age, everything becomes “visible”. It seems all is possible to become image and consumption target. An honest painter should face this challenge. Facing painting is facing “the mystery of visibility”. This is the charm of painting: we have a face to face painting plane and we are so close but so isolated from each other. Especially when the painting moves towards monochromatic painting, we are rejected to watch. Such painting plane is an interlayer between us and that invisible world (actually it is not existing, but is an imagined surface remaining to be opened relying on materials). Paintings always try to open, cover or even protect a mysterious world and to keep this surface between visible and invisible, to reopen and immaterialize this surface, to make it full of charming breath, and to provide the surface with simple, intuitive but ineffable richness. This is the start of painting to achieve its legitimacy again.

　　Art and art criticism are not aiming at understanding that “mystery of invisibility” thoroughly, but at entering the mystery of this surface. Everything is on the surface but everything is like mystery with charming breath. Between puzzling and charming, the painter showed us how painting opens itself. When I saw Cai Xiaohua’s series of works named “Breathing” since 2008, I also perceived the recovery of painting plane by a painter. Such a charming surface, an immaterialized and seemingly transparent surface with inherent touch sensation endows abyss with transparency, which can hardly be imagined in western abstractionism.

　　If Mondrian’s geometrical abstraction uncovered pure two-dimensional surface and counteracted cubism stiacciato, and Marcel Duchamp in the 1910s had been thinking about how four-dimension reached to two- dimension, then American abstract painting represented by Pollock and Newman opened the possibility of timeliness four-dimension directly reaching to one-dimension plane and thoroughly replaced three-dimensional focus perspective illusion. Then, how can the painting plane get opened again?

　　Painting is to reopen the plane. A new painting always tries to reopen this plane, but to open the plane “between/entre” visibility and invisibility, a corrugation or interlayer in the world, a “between/ entre” zone that hardly exists, artists cruise or even hesitate and wander through this “between/entre”. To open such interlayer which hardly exists, the inherent tension of painting surface extends the fictitious interlayer. Instead of deliberately specializing in it, Xiaohua immaterializes it, which is so difficult and wonderful. According to ancient Buddhism wisdom theory, there is just a little difference between the world of Buddha and the one of ours. This difference is a piece of canvas for paintings. It is just a little work that makes the canvas like a wall or wall space or a subjective, which must be passed through and made not a direct hypostatic surface but to admit its materiality (canvas, paper, etc.). However, it should be immaterialized by means of color form. The plane or wall seems unchanged and also seems stiff and unavailable to be passed through, but is immaterialized by color. Therefore, color is not constant paint, but is immaterialized color sense and the breath of color sense, which seems to generate a piece of ventilated thin film and ventilated skin that a piece of water vapor can pass through. Painting is to regenerate a piece of thin film and a piece of new, beautiful and fresh skin. Xiaohua brought us a kind of new painting skin through his metaphysical thought on breath.

　　Through Cai Xiaohua’s paintings, we can see the opened “between” world which is so superficial but so magnificent and so immaterialized but so self-sufficient. His paintings rebuilt classical system of western classical proper color and Chinese mineral substance toner, also blended in the permeability of Chinese ink painting, reserved the particle texture of oil painting and presented a infra-color world.

　　The color itself became non-color, just as subject became specter in modernism, and applying style is the syntax of “X without X” formed thereby. The color and form are not themselves, but this does not refer to the color and form themselves. What’s shown is the infra-color difference and trace, and this is only a hint according to Laozi’s words “the way that can be told is not the usual way”. The color itself is not the usual one too. The infra-color of a world is not certain color but the generation of chromatic halo in the complete integration and the emergence of the world itself: “color” only displays a splendid festival of our world.

　　二

　　Xiaohua’s works belong to abstract genre which faces difficulty brought by invisibility. Abstraction ensures invisibility, so modernistic painting began with abstract one, from Cezanne extracting cylinder to cubism extracting cube, from point-line -plane of Kandinsky to peripatetic line of Klee and from geometric color grid of Mondrian to color gamut painting of American abstract expressionism. Greenberg, a commenter, warned American artists in the end of 1940s that we should return to pure abstract form instead of imitating the literariness of European surrealism and to the planarity of painting plane instead of remanufacturing depth illusion. Besides, American painting should rebuild a world with emotion depth by means of its won independence spirit. With the recognition of the 3 issues above, American art became independent, in which New York school of painting formed action painting represented by Pollock and color gamut represented by Rothko. Greenberg faced up to painting itself. Under modernistic presentation crisis, namely, after no longer re-presenting the world, how does invisibility come together with depth? Painting returns to itself and only needs to face its condition of occurrence, which is the start of “meta-painting”. Painting faces picture frame (why there must be frame restriction?), plane (why there must be the plane), technique (why must be touch canvas instead of dripping or sprinkling?), color and shape (what about getting rid of color or shape?) as well as its own view (is visibility target necessary? What about remaining invisibility?). These meta-questions, as well as the life emotion of the subject (when confronting with the deep tragedy of life, is painting shocked or blandness?) must be solved for painting, otherwise, painting will not restart. If there is Chinese painting, answers should also be provided.

　　New and unique answers have been provided by Cai Xiaohua’s works: to allow painting re-arrive in a new way, new methods for opening the interlayer between visibility and invisibility must be tried. First, you should return to pure plane. Before finishing “Breathing” series, he tried to draw “Curtain” series, especially “Shadow series”. Curtain and shadow, in fact, referred to uncovering a piece of world curtain or possible obstacle, reopening the surface and reopening a plane on another plane. However, how does the experience for the surface always remain superficial together with depth? He started to give breath feeling to the plane and finished plenty of black works, which was also confronting with painting finality crisis caused by black paintings of Rothko and Francis. If black paintings led to color and form, which resulted from effacement of painting plane and depth at the same time, then how were the remaining paintings possible? How could paintings still have temperature? Shadow series, yellow channel and green channel series were seeking a channel to get out of black paintings, but came across problems and even entered into “aphasia” state. How could the painting plane be activated again instead of getting into deathly stillness? Pessimism and nothingness devour everything, but also bring vigorous life. Then, where does the condition of restart come from? How is it possible to re-express world itself after “aphasia”?

　　Works such as “Two Poles” and “Micro Particle” around 2008 opened new portal. I believe Cai Xiaohua must have solved problems on two poles: on one hand, to get out of the crisis of abstract painting moving towards black, on the other hand, to keep the purity and absoluteness of monochrome and also activate the expressive force of color itself; on one hand, to face with the crisis of western painting moving towards finality, to rouse the potential of Chinese art and solve the predicament of abstract in theory, on the other hand, whether some thinking modeof Chinese art and philosophy remain to be activated? On one hand, oil painting encountered limit. From Tempera to oil painting to propylene, how to realize further attenuation of aqueous increase and painting difficulty and thickness at the same time? Whether Chinese ink painting property could provide a certain resource? After thinking about these basic questions, Cai Xiaohua achieved substantive breakthrough around 2009. In addition, “Breathing” series opened up new situation of painting.

　　Mixed paint was cast on the picture for dozens of or even hundreds of times and the plane was still smooth. Keeping on making one plane to another, but the immaterialized thickness of the plane still remained. The paint was so thick but looked so empty and so smooth. Painting returns to pure plane, instead of formal language, only with pure color, red or blue, especially blue green or ochre, basic colors of Chinese mineral substance powder and Chinese tinted painting, which complemented color system of painting and blended in the color sensation of Chinese ink painting, namely tiny change of “five states of ink”. If there was Sinicism painting, it could be possible to combine western proper color system and chromatic aberration comparison opened by later impressionism and to blend in tinting system of Chinese culture and color sensation of ink painting. Such synthesis displayed the breadth and absorption of Chinese art, which was proven by Cai Xiaohua’s works. To hold the plane, painters must confront with some difficulties: to be sensitive to micro-particles of mineral substance powder, to control the scattered quantity and weight on the plane, to keep the texture and absorption for particles and to make microcosmic or dark matter world absorb the plane mutually and intimately. Besides, extreme silence appearing in unlimited shock is a hug absorbing everything in ordinary instead of the sublime of western sacrifice. The tension of two poles and complementation of Yin and Yang were perfectly reflected on Cai Xiaohua’s works.

　　Therefore, every painting looks just in one color, but such color opens an unbounded and solemn world that is so charming, eye-catching yet unavailable to be expressed. What exactly is this principle of art?

　　三

　　How did Xihua take such an amazing step? His pictures look simple and empty but provide us with amazing power. It seems that countless dark matters gather in the picture that micro-particles are breathing and bringing hazy power, which depicts the hazy moment of the world. Painting is just capturing the moment of world in which clues and hazy dawn are hidden, so it is infra-empty but gorgeous! To keep the painting in the “between” and inexistent world or the plane like a wall, to open the unlimited richness of such “between” interlayer, Xiaohua used unique breathing principle in Chinese culture, namely nihility and absorption of ink painting. He used the breathability of skin similar to thin films, because for Wang Wei, the Chinese ancient painter and poet, ink painting failed to use prosperous colors in flourishing period of Tang Dynasty but aimed to realize Buddhist tenet of “Form is emptiness and emptiness is form” on painting. Therefore, ink is dark black. To minimize color, water is colorless, tasteless but provides with reflection, so the meeting of water and ink realizes the relation of “form and emptiness”, and expresses the richness of natural landscape, which means the difference between form and emptiness is not one-off but provides with unlimited richness; otherwise it becomes monochrome or black painting, like a simple one-off Zen action, just like later paintings of Rothko and picture ripping behavior of Fontana. However, how to do such dense ink painting with oil paint? In addition, oil painting is different from ink painting. It is necessary to do exactly the opposite again, to rotate and change it with ink painting principle (one dark black after another), not empty color but nihility revealed in full color. How many painters are capable of this? How many times do they need to suffer?

　　Xiaohua didn’t give up until he found the way to dilute paint, namely polycapronmide. He also quieted down mineral particles, reached absoluteness on picture, namely absolute pure and clarity, provided paint with the principle and absorption of ink and weakened the viscosity and weight of paint. Paint doesn’t have such inherent quietness. Where does the quiet power come from? This is a positive answer to invisibility. Invisibility is kept to be emptiness instead of being activated. Such emptiness is not traditional space but reached by means of filling up, not western retreat and decrease but reaching to richness, evolving residual to surplus and strengthening inherent tension of color particles. In microcosmic metaphysics, on the surface, it looks empty, but in fact, it is thick and solid. This reversed tension is real modernistic reconstitution, like micro-world view after the metaphysics according to Lyotard and Adorno. Tiny tremble enteredinto micro field has resonance and sympathy with our breath. Our mind would be baptized by hazy and under meaning.

　　Painting returns to its planarity with noble colors. Besides, particles on pictures gather time-based gloss after oil paint joining, which makes the picture more touchable with more ancient conception, yet is solemn and dense and declines our touch and stare. We could even deem that colors on Xiaohua’s works are “gloss colors”, new light bluish green! A painter from ancient Chang’an revived noble temperament of Tang Dynasty, revealed wealth in indifference and provided particle density and porcelain rigidity. The painting looks abstract on surface, but is provided with secret fragrance of shadow and moonlight, as well as inherent swarming of air and clouds, which means abstract returning to neutrality, like color sensation returning to breathing sensation. Through this, Xiaohua found the way to defuse the lofty tragedy sense of Newman and Rothko in American abstractionism. This “gloss color” gathers timeliness inside. No matter the repeatedly overlapped particle thickness during painting process, or the gathering of inherent integration and energy in micro-world, or certainly the joining of individual spirit strength are all real breakthroughs to monochrome minimalism painting!

　　Xiaohua’s “Breathing Series” were also displayed by means of Chinese traditional scroll in juxtaposition, as if it went back to the form of screen painting in ancient China, which was particularly amiable. Breath protects life. The colors are so bright and so restrained and implicit. The interlayer of that world, that charming “between” and that immaterialized world are realized. This is a “chora-topia” world. In the monochrome painting looking pure, there are countless finely-divided particles which are dense but swarming without cease, like Buddhist cosmology in which countless images are firstly generated.

　　We saw the dignity of Chinese paintings through Cai Xiaohua’s works, because the plane immaterializing of his art could also pacify the wounded souls of contemporary culture. Confronting with monochrome painting crisis, he restarted painting, made heart feeling enter into the tremble of fine particles, opened a microcosmic metaphysics world, comforted our heart, brought breath to painting again, brought breath to our life again, provided us with a chance to take a new lease of life from hazy power in the universe and created a splendid festival in our daily life, because the colors of painting create a festival of the world.