Gulistan and the beauty of her creations in my eyes
Catherine Yin
Founder of Sunlay, Former General Manager of China Yintai Group Technical Service Center, General Manager of Beijing Yintai Center, Vice President of Metro land corporation LTD, Vice President of Yintai Land Group
My dream is a garden III
I’m not a professional art collector, and the artwork I like has my own very personal thoughts.
Gulistan and I have known each other many years ago, we are basically contemporaries, just like a fellow traveler in one direction, she and her work are there, and even though we don’t see each other often, it feels like she’s always on the same frequency as me… In retrospect, I like Gulistan’s work for three main reasons:
First of all, Gulistan’s work is very much in line with my aesthetic preference. Because every artist has a very specific intention and her own way of expression when creating, but often the viewer may not know the story behind it at first glance, so I collect it because I really like it, have a fate,
able to be impressed. There are no works that I resonate with or dislike, no matter how good others say it, how to enter the market, appreciate, etc., I will not collect it. The biggest difference between art and commodities is that we have different values for it;
The second is that the work should seem to be related to me, something that resonates with me in my past memory or that I would be comfortable with in my space. It’s wonderful, this artwork will be integrated into my life and become a part of my life… Collections are not necessarily famous, expensive, or to show how artistic the collector is… Collections are often related to your subconscious love, perhaps childhood memories, perhaps a book you liked during your school days, or a trip to leave a good memory… When we are old, we will forget, but as the saying goes, seeing things and remembering people, collections can evoke our memories; And when the collection is a beautiful and story art piece, the traces of our lives will naturally continue in the lives of the next generation. This is one of the meanings of inheritance.
Memory of the portrait － Self-gaze
Third, anything that can be called art, I think the most important thing is that it is intriguing and can stand the precipitation of time, like a good wine. I pay more attention to whether an artist spends whole life in creating, in the long river of time, has always pursued art with wholehearted love, and as time goes by, this love is getting deeper and stronger!
Gulistan herself and her work are such a presence.
Gulistan herself and her work reflect our generation’s family background in urban education, basic understanding of truth, goodness and beauty in ancient and modern China and abroad. This kind of beauty has historical inheritance, traces of human civilization, and we have seen it in reading or traveling, This kind of beauty has historical inheritance, traces of human civilization, and we have seen it in reading or traveling, so Gulistan’s works for us have a kind of beauty that seems to have known each other, and a nostalgia for our old friends in other places… This kind of memory that has deeply touched you, faded but lingering, seems to embrace you through Gulistan’s work and through time and space.
In fact, it is difficult to express this kind of emotion through painting, because it is too complicated and very strong, and it is not clear. It may be easier to express it through music… But Gulistan’s work does it! She has found a special painting language that belongs to her. It is very unique. It seems simple, hazy and light, but it is fully and thickly expressed. There is a feeling of light weight, which can directly hit the depths of your memory and soul…
Her paintings are like wine, simple in appearance, yet mellow and aftertaste in the mouth… Looking at her paintings, you feel warm at first, then you will stop to watch and talk to it, and you will even cry silently over time…
Memory of the portrait- Blue II
Many people like to categorize artists, perhaps for easier systematic memory for later learners. I have been canceling a lot of trips due to COVID-19 some time ago, and there are Chagall and Gaetano Pechet exhibitions in two art galleries near where I work, and these happens to be the time period for Gulistan’s exhibition “Temperature of Time” in 2022, these three Chinese and foreign, young and old artists are all I find difficult to categorize! Romanticism, Impressionism, Abstraction, Surrealism… They are related to many definitions but are not consistent, instead, it has a stronger personal style and unique artistic charm. I hope that Gulistan will continue to move forward with her painting language and communicate with the world. One day she will become one of the most influential Chinese artists in the world.
I spent my college days in the Department of Architecture of Tsinghua University, and later I also engaged in the design industry for many years. Architectural design is a subject between rationality and sensibility, technology and art. I use my own creative experience to feel Gulistan’s paintings, I think the most attractive thing about art compared with technology is that every audience sees and understands the same painting differently, unlike mathematics, which has formulas and conclusions… Different people have different interpretations of the same painting by Gulistan, and are broken down in front of different paintings… This is exactly how Gulistan likes to communicate, she likes to listen to each audience’s feedback and their interpretation, and consciously amplify the peculiar effect of this communication again, so there are many interesting people from different industries, different nationalities, different genders, and different circles gathered around her, which is also one of the unique charms of her work.
At the same time, because the image is the artist’s own memory, understanding and perception of life, the painting itself can be called a self-portrait of the author in disguise. Gulistan herself is quiet and introverted, beautiful and kind, gentle and delicate, rich in experience, and has a solid artistic foundation, her paintings are just like her! When we see Gulistan’s painting, even if only briefly hurried past it, when we see Gulistan’s paintings, even briefly passing by the images, there will be Just a quick glance but it left a deep impression, a glance like a thousand years.
From her paintings, we can feel awe, sadness and sympathy, wishes, gaze, nostalgia, longing for hometown, family affection… Her paintings are subtle and gentle like songs, and she loves the exquisite remains in human history, Her paintings are subtle and gentle like songs, she loves the exquisite relics in human history, capturing the unforgettable beauty in memory and the emotion and spirit behind them, Gulistan has nurtured her unique painting language through years of dedicated and professional thinking and practice… So she often said that every painting is like one of her children! Maybe it’s easier for me as a woman to understand the meaning of this sentence…
Memory of portrait- The Age of Innocence I
I am very fortunate to be able to collect one of Gulistan’s important works in the “Color of Time” exhibition at the National Art Museum of China “Memory of portrait- The Age of Innocence I”, I don’t know why but it reminds me of pictures of me and my younger brother when we were young, of our parents who loved us, we used to live in a poor and happy intellectual family full of love, the joy and tranquility of childhood are full of sunshine and details like the colors in the picture…
Thanks Gulistan! Thanks for the company of this painting in the future! The memory of love will live with us…