Wenlan Hu Frost

    Chinese-born American artist Wenlan Hu Frost is the first artist to present the Chinese character as a symbolic abstract art form on a Western medium. She has developed an Abstract Symbolism painting style to execute her first major body of art works, which emphasizes a high visual impact to viewers while delivering a simple message with symbolic abstract images. Her representative works in her Chinese Calligraphy 2.0 – The Love Character Abstract Symbolism Series is a product of the artist's 32 years of life and cultural experiences in China and 17 years in the United States. The series blends Chinese and Western artistic characteristics, creating a unique and distinctive artistic representation of a hybrid of traditional Chinese and modern Western cultures.

    The series was conceived in December 2006 when Wenlan Hu Frost started to explore her own avant-garde artistic style. In studying world modern art history, she noticed that many Western master painters were inspired by Asian art. Then she realized that the Chinese character is itself a beautiful and ancient abstract art form that was not fully appreciated by the Western world. One of the reasons is that since the creation of Chinese characters from paintings or pictographs four thousand years ago, traditional Chinese calligraphy has largely been presented in a format of black ink on rice paper (or Xuan paper) over the last two thousand years. This format has its own unique beauty, but it is not a familiar medium for the Western world.

    Wenlan Hu Frost decided to become the first artist to present the Chinese character in a Western medium as a modern abstract art form. She believes that through a Western fine art medium presentation, the world could better appreciate the Chinese character's extraordinary abstract artistry and brilliance. The artist deeply believes that the Chinese character is not only a significant part of Chinese culture, but also a very important part of abstract art history for the entire world. Thus, it is extremely meaningful to present this special abstract art form to the Western world in the Western fine art medium.

    After systematic study, research, planning, and testing, Wenlan Hu Frost started to paint her first series in May 2007. She had completed initial 40 paintings for exhibition by December 2007. The series, which is entitled Chinese Calligraphy 2.0 – The Love Character Abstract Symbolism Series, presents the Chinese character as a modern abstract art form. The artist refers to the traditional ink on paper format of Chinese calligraphy as Chinese Calligraphy 1.0. To keep it simple and straightforward, the artist focused exclusively on the Chinese Love Character 愛 ai (which is pronounced like “eye” and means “Love” in Chinese) as her motif for the initial forty paintings of the series to show the ancient abstract artistry of Chinese character art in a modern Western fine art medium (acrylic on canvas).

    One reason that the artist initially focused on the word “Love” as the first character for her paintings is that she also believes love is a universal source of goodness. Mankind was created by a loving God. Everybody in the world loves someone or something, and they all share a desire to love and to be loved. Love is such a beautiful thing for human beings. Love is abstract yet concrete, complex yet simple, colorful yet plain, dynamic yet static, emotional yet peaceful, physical yet spiritual. Thus, painting 40 Chinese Love Characters in different color combination schemes and various symbolic background designs is never too much Love.

    In addition, the form of the Chinese Love Character is absolutely beautiful and stunning. The Chinese Love Character is a form of logical aggregates or associative compounds, which uses a combination of pictographs to symbolize its abstract concept. It is composed of three segments. The first segment on top is derived from the picture of a “Home” with people and a roof, symbolizing a family. The second segment in the middle is the Chinese character "Heart" derived from a heart pictograph. The third segment at the bottom is part of the Chinese character "Friend" derived from a pictograph of hands shaking or embracing. The Chinese Love Character symbolizes that Love is about family and friends who love one another with all their hearts.

    Wenlan Hu Frost studied various styles of Chinese calligraphy and major Chinese master calligraphers' works, trying to choose her niche style for the paintings. She concluded that Chinese regular script (kaishu) captured the original abstract elegance of the Chinese character very well, so it is relatively easy for Western viewers to understand and appreciate. Other styles such as cursive script (xingshu or caoshu) may be more artistic and painterly similar to Western Abstract Expressionism, but they have deviated too far away from the Chinese character's original beauty for Western viewers to appreciate. In addition, all beginners of Chinese calligraphy study and practice kaishu first. It is also one of the most widely used styles in China. Therefore, the artist decided to choose the traditional Chinese kaishu with a twist of her own design. Her character design shows bolder, thicker, rounder, grander, and more lively strokes than most traditional and contemporary kaishu styles, which makes her character image more powerful and majestic and masculine, yet graceful and elegant and feminine in the meantime.

    For the first twenty paintings, she chose a very simple color combination scheme to help viewers to focus mainly on the abstract beauty of the Chinese Love Character itself. This combination is a single foreground color and a single background color. Since everybody has his or her own favorite color(s), the artist employed a variety of color foreground/background combinations so as to appeal to the tastes of a broad spectrum of viewers. She designed three sets each of warm or cool colors with yellow, black or white combinations, as well as complementary color combinations. She also used a special gold and silver combination for one pair of paintings. She deliberately avoided the black character and white background design, because they are relatively close to the typical black ink on white paper imagery format of traditional Chinese calligraphy (Chinese Calligraphy 1.0).

    The next 10 paintings come in pairs; these are more sentimental, representing fragments of reflections of the artist's life and value system. The artist used symbolic images as backgrounds and put the Chinese Love Character's image either on top of it or immersed in it to convey messages. Some of the pairs have identical images with inverted colors. The final 10 paintings are the artist's expressions of certain broader interesting topics in her life.

    Wenlan Hu Frost also shaped a definition of her painting style as her work on the series progressed. After she completed the fortieth painting, the term Abstract Symbolism came to her mind as this seemed to accurately describe the style in this series. The symbolism takes three forms in her paintings. First, the Chinese character itself is a symbol of Love , which is the primary theme of the series. Secondly, her use of color is a second layer of symbolism, representing different moods. Thirdly, her use of shapes in the background in the second half of the series adds a final layer of symbolism, such as the two rectangles representing the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. This third layer attaches secondary themes such as family and humanitarianism. Both the use of the Chinese character and the use of shapes are abstract rather than representational. The primary theme of Love and some of the secondary themes of family, humanitarianism, etc. are representative of absolute and universal ideals. Some of the other secondary themes, such as the World Trade Center, express a personal rather than a universal theme as it was based on the direct personal experience of the terrorist attacks.

    Today it is quite natural to view the Chinese character as an abstract symbol. However, Chinese characters began as pictographs, which were to a degree representation in nature. Over time, most of these characters evolved so that their representational nature grew increasingly abstract. Today, only a few percent of Chinese characters retain a representational pictographic relationship with what they represent.

    In addition to showing the world the extraordinary abstract artistry and brilliance of the Chinese character, she also found a higher meaning for her series. By using the abstract and symbolic Chinese Love Character as her motif, combined with emphasis of the high visual impact to the viewers through brilliant colors and abstract background designs, she hopes that she could also deliver the world a simple Love message with these symbolic abstract Love images. It is the artist's hope that the Chinese Love Character could become the first Chinese character that will be recognized by many Western people.

    The artist presents Chinese calligraphy as a new version Chinese Calligraphy 2.0, in contrast to what she describes as Chinese Calligraphy 1.0, the traditional presentation of Chinese calligraphy in the format of ink on paper. Chinese Calligraphy 2.0 strips away the traditional color limitations (black on white), medium (ink on paper), and use of characters as part of a written message. Her work presents the Chinese character as a motif rather than as part of a written message; the goal is to show the abstract artistry of the character itself. (In particular, this distinction will be easier for Western viewers, most of whom do not recognize Chinese characters and thus cannot “read” them and for whom it will therefore be easier to focus on the artistic representation of the characters.) The paintings use a modern Western medium – acrylic on canvas – and they are presented in a large format with brilliant colors in a contemporary hard-edged American painting style.

    Chinese Calligraphy 2.0 is static in comparison with the dynamism of Chinese Calligraphy 1.0. Chinese Calligraphy 1.0 is dynamic in the sense that the writing is performed through a few rapid strokes of the brush; the dynamics of the calligrapher's movements are directly recorded in the form of his writing, which is similar to Western Abstract Expressionism. While this dynamism possesses an undeniable power and beauty, it also provides a set of constraints on the calligrapher and his work; this style does not permit revision or refinement or correction. Western viewers of these traditional works may sense a feeling of incompleteness or imperfection that may cause some sub-conscious anxiety. Also, whereas the dynamic variation in the character shape may represent a “style” to a Chinese viewer, it may be somewhat confusing to the Western viewer, who lacks familiarity with the basic unvaried form. Chinese Calligraphy 2.0 transcends this dynamic constraint, permitting a higher level of refinement or polish. The end result is a more static image, which does not evidence the dynamic movements of the artist in the shape of the character but only through the texture of the brush strokes. This more static approach results in a more refined and deliberate fine art product, which evokes a greater feeling of spiritual peace and tranquility in the viewer.

    Paintings 1 through 20 each feature a single foreground color and single background color; the variation is accomplished through the selection of different color combinations in order to deliver a strong visual impact. The interpretation of the colors is largely left to the viewer, as color associations can be highly personal and cultural.

    Paintings 1 – 6 feature the color yellow as both foreground and background juxtaposed against the three additive primary colors red, green, and blue. These three pairs are unique among the first twenty paintings in that they contain only colors that are the union of the standard additive and subtractive primary colors, sometimes referred to as the four primary colors or pure colors: yellow, red, green, and blue.

    Paintings 7 – 12 use pink, yellow, and aqua as backgrounds with a white foreground and as foregrounds on a black background. Unlike the first six, the colors are not inverted here to avoid the use of a white background or black foreground that is characteristic of traditional Chinese calligraphy (Chinese Calligraphy 1.0).

    Paintings 13 – 18 pair (nearly) complementary color pairs: green/purple, orange/aqua, and blue/magenta. These complementary pairs have a powerful effect on some viewers who perceive apparent throbbing motion when viewing them. The apparent motion combined with the bright, almost fluorescent colors, can deliver an “electric” or “neon” association for some viewers.

    Paintings 19 and 20 feature an isolated pair of gold and silver, the colors of precious metals, which are intended to symbolize the preciousness of Love.

    These paintings are inspired by the passage in Genesis 9:8–17, in which the rainbow is named as a symbol of God's love and His promise to mankind that there never be a flood to destroy the earth again. The artist immersed the Chinese Love Character in an abstract rainbow background to represent God's love. The purple color at the top along with the purple at the bottom form a triangular composition, which symbolizes the Holy Trinity. The Love of God No. 1 shows the colors arranged horizontally in the order consistent with the order found in a real rainbow. The Love of God No. 2 shows the colors arranged vertically in a different order. No matter how the rainbow changes, the viewers still can see the Chinese Love Character, showing that God's everlasting love will be always there.

    The artist expressed the love of the United States of America with the red, white, and blue colors of the American flag. The backgrounds are red and blue, split in one case horizontally and in the other case vertically, with a white Chinese Love Character. These paintings can be interpreted as symbolic flags in which the Chinese Love Character represents love of country and love of the ideals which characterize America, such as faith, freedom, justice, and opportunity.

    While the World Trade Center is loaded with associations on a national and international level, it has intensely personal associations for the artist herself:

    This pair of paintings expresses the deep sadness that the artist experienced on that day. In The Love of The World Trade Center No. 1, the black in the background represents the smoke that covered the sky, the two red columns represent the WTC Twin Towers on fire, and the broken Chinese Love Character symbolizes the artist's broken heart. In The Love of The World Trade Center No. 2, the red background represents the victims' blood, two black columns represent the death of the WTC Twin Towers, and the broken Chinese Love Character is still there. The terrorists destroyed the WTC Twin Towers, but they can never destroy my love toward the World Trade Center, even if it is broken.

    This pair symbolizes the love expressed through humanitarian action by medical professionals. Here the red represents blood and white represents the white uniforms of doctors and nurses, who are referred to as “angels in white” in China. The broken Chinese Love Character symbolizes the pains and sorrows associated with the emotionally and physically challenging work of saving lives.

    In these paintings the artist used different colors to represent different family members with different personalities. The familial love is shown as beaming sunshine that showers upon each individual member of the family. No matter how family members interact with one another, despite how different from one another they are, their mutual love is always present.

    This painting expresses the love of life using a simile: life is like traveling through a space tunnel in the vast dark universe. A human life starts like the morning red sun, full of promise. As life goes on, it experiences periods of growth (orange and yellow), maturity (green, aqua, and blue), then old age (purple). After its physical death (black), it embraces its spiritual eternity (white, which consists of all of the colors). Life is such a beautiful journey for mankind.

    This painting expresses the love for the planet that we humans all call our home. From the moon, our marvelous earth looks like a brilliant blue sphere against black space. The white Chinese Love Character evokes clouds surrounding the earth.

    The artist borrowed the traditional Chinese Yin and Yang symbol that describes the universal principles of the world in which we live. Yin and Yang are two major opposite but complementary elements in the universe. The harmony of Yin and Yang is essential to mankind's wellbeing. Yin and Yang symbolize two opposite yet correlated elements such as heaven and earth, day and night, East and West, good and evil, etc. One cannot exist without the other. Traditional Chinese Yin and Yang symbols are black and white, but the artist has replaced those colors here with aqua and magenta as opposite colors. Dark blue symbolizes the universe we live in. The neutral light yellow Chinese Love Character can unite the Yin and Yang harmoniously together, symbolizing the power of Love.

    This painting is inspired by Genesis 2:24 and Matthew 19:5 with a playful reference to the title of Dr. John Gray's best selling book Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus. God said that a man “shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh”. The artist symbolizes the interdependent relationship of men and women through this image. A red Mars and an orange Venus travel through the deep blue universe. At the moment they touch each other, they instantly become one planet with half red and half orange. Mars and Venus intertwine, and the Chinese Love Character becomes a strong binder to unite them together. That is the power of Love. That is how God designed us to be.

    These two paintings represent different views of love that men and women have. The artist chose opposing orientations of the heart shape and different permutations of the same colors to symbolize the different views of love. Although men and women have different views toward love, the heart shapes are the same, even though the perspectives are different.

    The background of this painting is the image of eight abstract eights consisting of 16 circles. The inspiration for the eight eights is the official Olympic Games' starting date and time 8:00 am Beijing time, August 8th, 2008. The artist added another four eights (including minutes, seconds, eciseconds and centiseconds, which are used in timing certain Olympic events) to attain eight eights, symbolizing the tremendous pride of the Chinese people, who have awaited this moment for many years. The number eight has for centuries been considered the luckiest number in China. Thus, eight eights are eight times lucky. The red and yellow eights are the colors of the Chinese flag, and the blue Chinese Love Character symbolizes the clear blue sky.

    This painting is inspired by the thousand-year-old Chinese puzzle called the “Tangram”, which consists of seven different pieces: five right isosceles triangles, one square, and one parallelogram. The goal of the puzzle is to use one's imagination to form various images, each by arranging all seven pieces without any overlap. The puzzle is itself a type of art form as it is used to create images. The Tangram in this painting symbolizes the numerous possibilities in life.

    These two paintings were inspired by the painting The Love of God 1.0, in which the colors are arranged in a leap-frog style where the background color of one section becomes the foreground color of the next section. The artist noticed a phenomenon in that painting, particularly in the aqua on blue section, in which the Chinese Love Character seemed to be immersed in water. The artist further explored this inter-color immersion illusion by breaking down the rainbow spectrum in two halves for these two paintings.

    As a result, the warm color scheme painting looks like a sunrise lovescape in the desert, while the cool color scheme painting looks like a moonrise lovescape over the ocean. The immersion illusion will be more evident if the viewer gazes at the paintings from a distance.

    These two paintings are in the collection of The Butler Institute of American Art and were gifts of the artist. Wenlan Hu Frost painted these two paintings to express her love for the state of Ohio.  Ohio is a very special state to the artist.  It is the state that her husband Daniel Allen Frost came from, the state where she was married, and the state where she had her first solo museum exhibition. The artist views the gift as a token to show her love for Ohio, as well as her deep appreciation of Dr. Louis Zona and his entire staff at the Butler Institute. 
 
    These two paintings are based on the triangular shape and the red, white, and blue colors of the Ohio flag. The background of each painting is red with a blue triangle; one is horizontal and the other vertical. A white Chinese Love Character replaces the white circle, stars, and stripes of the Ohio flag and represents the love of Ohio.

    These two paintings are painted to show the artist's love of Texas, where she currently resides. Texas is a very special state for the artist. It is the state that she first studied art and started her career as an artist, the state that taught her the essence of liberty and freedom, the state that gave her inspiration for her art with its vast natural beauty, the state whose spirit is rooted in The Alamo.
 
    The paintings are based on the Texas flag, one displayed horizontally and the other vertically with the red, white and blue colors and the Love Character in place of the Lone Star. These paintings may be interpreted as symbolic flags in which the Chinese Love Character represents the love of the state of Texas.  

    The background of this painting is the image of two abstract eights consisting of four circles. The number "eight" has for centuries been considered by the Chinese as the most auspicious among numbers.  Thus, double eights are twice as auspicious, similar to "double happiness" that has been associated with weddings for centuries in China.  The red and yellow eights are the colors of the Chinese flag, and the blue Chinese Love Character symbolizes the clear blue sky, which represents the good luck blessing.  These three primary colors are also the most widely used color combination in many Chinese media.  

    This painting is similar to No. 45, except the colors of the background and foreground of this painting uses the red, white, and blue colors of the American flag. The backgrounds are red and blue eights consisting four circles, with a white Chinese Love Character as foreground.  

    This pair of paintings were created in May 2008 to memorialize two extremely sad moments in Chinese history. The Love of Humanitarianism No. 3 recorded the sad moment of May 12, 2008, 2:28 pm, when the tragic Sichuan earthquake occurred.  The red cross symbolizes the bleeding earthquake victims, while the black background symbolizes the darkness enveloping heaven and earth. The fragmented black and red Chinese Love Character symbolizes more than one billion Chinese people's broken hearts.  The Love of Humanitarianism No. 4 recorded the Chinese national mourning moment of May 19, 2008, 2:28 pm. The black cross symbolizes the earthquake victims' perished lives, while the red background symbolizes candle light, shining on heaven and earth, from more than a billion Chinese people to pray for the lost souls. The fragmented red and black Chinese Love Character symbolizes more than a billion Chinese people's loving hearts and their deep condolences toward the Sichuan earthquake victims.


 

    This pair of paintings symbolize the love of the world. The black background symbolizes the vast dark unknown universe. The sphere symbolizes the earth orbiting in dark space. Eight colors symbolize people from different countries, races and cultural backgrounds sharing this one world - our beautiful earth. This pair of paintings presents mankind's interdependent relationship. We share one world. We interact with, influence, and depend on one another. Love is the most powerful force that makes us live harmoniously in this one world, and the Chinese Love Character symbolizes this strong binder to link us together.  The reason that the artist chose eight colors is because the number eight has for centuries been considered the most auspicious number in China. In these paintings, the use of eight colors also represent the artist's sincere hope for peace and friendship among nations and peoples. 
 
    The major difference between these two paintings is the difference in their color sequence arrangement. In The Love of The World No. 1, the color arrangement is more natural and harmonious, which pleases the eye; in The Love of The World No. 2, the warm and cool color juxtaposition arrangement makes the image full of challenges and vitality.

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