The Crow Is Beautiful

Directors Frank Scheffer and Jia Zhao take a visual journey through the work of the Chinese artist He Duoling. Their portrait of this artist is a move towards an understanding of non-Western aesthetics and philosophy. Approaching He Duoling’s work without preconceptions, they take an open-minded view of the artist’s creative process, as he draws inspiration from Western classical music, the "mournfulness" of Russian literature and the simplicity of Japanese architecture. To He Duoling, oil painting is like the structure of symphonic music—he paints thinly layer by layer, so each layer remains visible and interacts with the others. He Duoling’s work is based on Taoism, in which a dialogue between people and nature is paramount. He's part of the generation of artists who were first able to express themselves after the Cultural Revolution; during this cultural revival among Chinese intellectuals, at last everyone dared to dream again. Nevertheless, he doesn't pursue a goal in his work, but paints what presents itself in nature. This approach thus becomes a source of inspiration for the directors' own creative process.