Gulistan Art 古丽·斯坦

Let me invite you to my upcoming exhibition in Beijing. I hope you will join me for the opening reception. It will be a wonderful time to share my artwork with you and introduce you to the work of my friend Yorgos, a very special Greek artist living in Beijing.

Details

March 27th — April 8th, 2007

古丽·斯坦与帕友国
用绘画传递心灵的音符
2007年3月27–4月8日

Opening reception: Thursday, March 29th, 6:30 pm
开幕酒会：2007年3月29日6:30

Beijing Today Art Museum, 3rd floor
北京今日美术馆 三层

Address: No.32 Baiziwan Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing
Tel: 010-5876 9397
展览地点：北京市朝阳区百子湾路32号
联系电话：010-5876 9397

Organized by Beijing Today Art Museum.

Poster

Exhibition Concept

This is a meeting between two painters of disparate origins; one hailing from Greece in Mediterranean Europe, the other born in Xinjiang in the extreme West of China, both now sharing the reality of living and working in Beijing.

While their art has similarities that immediately strike the viewer, such as the palette of colours they use, their common interest in texture and patina, and a certain poetic quality, it also has many disparities. Gulistan seems to follow a more thematic approach in her latest work, constantly travelling between tradition and modernity. Yorgos, in his Beijing work, seems particularly influenced by the surroundings and notably the “cinematographic” character of the Chinese reality.

So what is the driving force behind their meeting and the common base for their exchange?

To answer this question, one has to look carefully beyond the disparities of representation in their paintings. One has to concentrate on the rhythm of their work and to “listen” to the music ever present below the surface of their paintings.

In fact, their common passion for music is an important driving force of their art. It makes their meeting not only possible, but also complementary and creates an intriguingly harmonious experience for the viewer.

展览主题

用绘画传递心灵的音符
这次是一次来自两个遥远国度的艺术家的相遇与对话，一个来自西方遥远的希腊，一个来自东方的中国，是艺术使这两位遥远国度的艺术家联系在了一起，虽然两位艺术家各有自己的风格，但看过他们作品的人会立即被他们对艺术的理解的惊人相似所震撼，譬如他们对色调的使用，对线条及光影的偏好，以及其作品所衬托的诗意。古丽斯坦的作品频繁游走于传统与现代之间，她用一种对生命的注视方式去接近，发现被内心体验到的纯意识世界最本质的所在。即有时间的接续，又有精神的蕴藏，经过了她内心的提炼。帕友国在北京的作品，似乎更多受到了周遭环境和著名的中国现实派“电影摄影艺术”中的字符的显著影响。

是什么驱动力促成了他们的相遇和共同的交流基础呢？

要回答这个问题，需要首先看到他们绘画差异的层面之外，而注重其作品的节奏韵律，并且“倾听”他们的绘画表象之下的音乐。

其实，他们对音乐所共有的激情才是他们艺术的内驱力， 或许就是这样，艺术只对能够在心弦上引起震颤的人传递出音符，时间和空间只为心灵而“存在”，“存在”也只因心灵产生意义。

Map to Today Art Museum

Appreciation of Gulistan’s Artwork

Li Jiang

1

 

Richard Tittle once said that there is a harmony between the innate part in humans and nature. While appreciating Gulistan’s artwork, one is struck with a unique feeling: In a dream, some images, vague and intangible, emerge at intervals in a dense mist and then vanish the moment one is awake,which makes one so melancholy and unable to help missing the dream.

Such feelings arose inside of me when I viewed the thousand-year old murals on the wall at the Kizil Thousand-Buddha Grottoes in Xinjiang, where I was investigating New Hole, the important passage to the Silk Road. On stepping into the cave, I felt a Buddha world before me, with time flashing backward. In a trance, my spirit flew away from my body. My foreordination made its presence before me. When leaving New Hole, I took a last glimpse of the Buddha, who looked so aloft in sedateness, with his eyelids always half drooping. The Buddha’s bearing is completely different from that of human beings. It was from her painting Millennium Wish that I got to know Gulistan’s inner world. One finds no arrogance or flaunt in her paintings. They stand there quiet, just like those murals, face to face with nature, worn out through the four seasons without any complaint. Such a tranquility is so charming to people but is rare in reality. I dare not discuss Gulistan’s predestined relationship with Buddhism. However, such a tranquility, which she reveals unconsciously in her works, reaches the part deep in one’s heart every now and then. Millennium Wish is her reflection of the vacant world. The color, composition and the artistic conception of the painting, all play a part in embodying the Guizi culture and the cultural context for the Kizil Thousand-Buddha Grottoes. It is natural to believe that Gulistan’s Memory Series is her insight and experience of culture and context.

2

 

“Our attitude towards subjects determines the open feature of symbol, with it starting and ending at the transfer between the public and art,” said Bill Mushell. Gulistan deconstructs and reconstructs the modeling of the paintings in her Oriental Wandering Series. The efforts make us focus on one point, longing to learn more. The paintings thus are endowed with a tensile force, with their potential expressed. One’s spirit becomes more sublime with such visual extension. Gulistan endeavors to seek a state and apply more precise words. With the palette of high purity and unique modeling, she attempts to seek a context, which is non-oriental, for a superb world which she is yearning for. Accordingly, the paintings gain vigor and the color becomes very pure and intense. Being more culture-oriented, her paintings illustrate her spiritual state, the rationalization of her inspiration. The attitude and the symbols that she adopts in her paintings start to make an impact on us.

3

 

Leonard Cohen remarks that in everything there must be a slot for light to make its way through. Gulistan possesses a sharp sense of art. Crossing the gap between modern and ancient times, she paints endlessly, exploring in the Western and Eastern worlds of art. She strips off the cover of the slot in her flying thought with her inspiration that every work, as a strand of sunlight, provides the audience brightness. The ambiance and the mysterious symbols are all at her fingertips, properly employed in her works. Her painted works, such as The Music in the Air, The Notes in the Air, Nuwa’s Dress and Contemplating the Middle Ages, are filled with a melodic beauty and elegance.

It is a natural phenomenon that sturgeons choose to lay eggs in the upper reaches of the Yangtse River despite the tiresome journey; antelopes in Kekexili in Qinghai would take any risk to whelp at their own birthplace. We cannot help wondering: What is the law behind this behavior? What is the magic force functioning in the cradle and initial stage for human art? What artistic skills does the artist employ to make her paintings that touching?

For thousands of years, Xinjiang, Gulistan’s birthplace as a bright pearl on the ancient Silk Road, has been the converging point for the Central Plains culture, the Persian culture, the Roman culture, the Islamic culture and the primitive native culture. Under the influence of early Buddhist culture, the brilliant Guizi and Dao Lang cultures were born. Music art, dance art and especially mural art are matchless here in history. The history of the murals at the Kizil Thousand-Buddha Grottoes is 200 years longer than that at Dunhuang. Xinjiang is also the important place of relay for the eastern spread of Buddhism, boasting a number of geniuses, such as the great Buddhist sutra translator Kumarajiva, the musician Mother Suzhi, and some art masters as well.

In this place worked and sauntered Gulistan, who exchanged her mind with those masters. A creative artist exposed to such cultures with a spirit of sublimation is doubtless to make her appearance in the world.

4

 

Poetry is art and vice versa. The two are not directly related artistically but have something in common considering their authors’ ways of thinking. “Time”, “space”, “symbol”, “tranquility”, and “wisdom”, such words are repeatedly used in Gulistan’s poems, which holds an explanation for the blank space or obscure images in her paintings. Such spaces allow people to stretch their imagination. Sangfu held that creation originated from the self. In Gulistan’s works, yellow is used extensively. When in the Gobi, walking through the desert, watching poplars or camel thorns and the bright moon, a person who has lived in the west for years would have the same feeling as others have when watching “the solitary smoke in the desert” or “the upended streams of the Yangtse River.” Isn’t this the manner of communication for humans and nature? Vivaciousness runs through her painting The Note of Ground. The Essence of Memory Series is abundant with sentiment with more regression and review of thought. The past was regained and the original dances are produced. All these are achieved through her painting with heart and soul. It seems that she is making prey for something through her paintings, where we find wishes of nature, soundless but still expecting. Gulistan expresses her inner world in these paintings—to search for enlightenment for some “true meaning” which is tightly tied up with my life.

—Translated by Guo Jian

李健

（一）

理查德•蒂特尔说，人身上自然的东西与自然有一种和谐。观赏Gulistan古丽斯坦的画往往给人一种很独特的感受。好象梦中的氤氲中，不时浮生出的景象若虚若幻，清醒时反观徒然产生怅然若失的强烈感觉，不由地使人回味逝去的梦境。

多年以前，我在丝绸之路的重要通道新疆阿克苏克孜尔千佛洞新一窟考察时，面对墙壁上的千年壁画就产生过这样的感觉，当一踏进洞口，仿佛时光倒流，走进了佛禅世界，恍惚间，人好象精神与躯体分离了，展现在眼前的仿佛就是自己的宿命。当迈出佛窟，不自觉地回神再望一下，佛一直半垂着眼帘，神态安详，超然无我，人与佛竟然两种神态。我是从Gulistan古丽斯坦那幅“千年•星语”的画中认识她内心世界的，Gulistan古丽斯坦的画无张狂，不声张，好象那些壁画，对望着自然，任凭风露雨雪，默默无语地摆在那里，呈现出在现实状态中少有的而人们不断神往的安详或者是恬静。我不敢说她的佛缘，但其作品这种自然的流露不时地就会触到人内心深处不露声色的那种心像。“千年•星语”是她对空灵世界的感悟，作品中无论颜色、造型和表现出的意境，都下意识地流露出了古老龟兹文化和克孜尔佛教石窟文化的语境。因此，她的记忆系列，可以说是对这一方面思考体验的不自觉的表现，那是再自然不过的了。

（二）

木歇尔•比尔说过：“我们对于物的认知态度决定着符号的公开化性格。起点和终点在公众与艺术之间转换。”Gulistan古丽斯坦的东方漫游系列，在画面的空间中，对造型进行了解构和重建，使我们的思维回到了一个焦点，从而产生认知的渴望，画面因此而产生了一种张力，表达出了内在的潜力，造成的视觉扩张使人的精神产生升华。她在寻找一种状态，在提炼一种更加精确的语言。在一种纯度很高的色彩语言里和独特的造型手段中，试图在探索一种非东方化的语境，给一种通往她所向往的精彩世界，她的作品开始变得活跃，色彩开始变得单纯而强烈，从画面中好象看出了她精神的表情，灵感的轨迹变得理性化，作品更有文化味，其态度和认知的那些符号开始影响着我们。

（三）

伦那德•科恩说，每个事物上面，都有一个一个缝隙，那是光明进入的地方”。Gulistan古丽斯坦的绘画触角很敏感，她不停地在古代和现代，西方和东方的艺术领域中游动着，她的灵感在飞扬的思维中扒开一个个这样的缝隙，每一幅作品都是照进观赏者内心的一缕缕阳光。作品中的那种氛围和灵动的符号，仿佛信手拈来，凡我需者皆入画。如：空气中的音乐、空气中的音符、女娲之服、向中世纪致敬等，弥漫着一种旋律美，继而产生一种高雅的画品。

世界上自然界的一种现象至今吸引着人们的兴趣，为什么长江里的鲟鱼不惜逆行千里到长江上游去产卵，青海可可西里的藏羚羊行走荒漠，历尽风险到出生地去产羔，这揭示了什么样的规律呢？在人类的艺术发祥地和初始阶段究竟蕴着什么神秘的力量，她是在怎样打动人心的呢？

Gulistan古丽斯坦的出生地是中国古代丝绸之路上的一颗明珠，几千年来，中原文化、波斯文化、罗马文化、伊斯兰文化以及原始本土文化在这里交汇，在早期佛教文化的背景下，曾产生过灿烂的龟兹文化和叨郎文化，其音乐艺术、舞蹈艺术，特别是壁画艺术更是千古一绝。克孜尔石窟壁画比敦煌早200多年，曾是佛教文化东传的重要接转地，这里历史上曾出现过我国古代四大佛经翻译家鸠摩罗什、音乐家苏祗婆，也不乏绘画大师。

Gulistan古丽斯坦曾在这里工作过、徜徉过，曾与这些大师们的精神对话过……这样的浸染升华难道不足以走出一个有创造力的艺术家吗，是因为这些光明总是跟着她走或者说格外的眷顾于她吗？

（四）

诗即是画，画即是诗，从画理说这些并无直接的关系，但从思维角度来看就看出其相通的地方了，在她的诗里，反复出现时间、空间、符号、宁静、智慧等词句，这也是为什么她的画里总是出现的那么多留白或朦胧意象的空间，给人以大量空间想象力的地方。桑福说，要原创，首先源于自身。她的作品，以黄色调为多，如果一个到西部生活多年的人面对戈壁、沙漠、胡杨、骆驼刺、明月，就会产生出大漠孤烟直，长河飞落九天的感觉，人与自然不就是这样交流的吗？她的《大地的音符》是这样暗合了神韵，在她的记忆的的性质系列，有那么多新的感悟，而更多的是思想在回归，重温，心灵在不停地抚摸着流失的时间，她在画布里用心进行着新的舞蹈。她在画里好象总是在祈祷着什么，画面上留给我们的就是那些千年无语，默默守侯的大自然的心语，实际在她的画里是她的内心——在寻找和我的生命息息相关的某种“真谛”性质的启迪。

Sun Xin

The first time I entered Gulistan’s studio, I was deeply moved by the paintings of all sizes on the wall. The paintings are simple, elegant, but full of vigor. Outside the window grows green vines, through which the sunlight slants into the room. The tranquility makes me feel that I am leaving the trivial world. One can feel an exquisite tinge from each painting, which is so bewitching that old memories are called on and I feel it hard for me to get out from under it. Gulistan, confident and mature, is standing steadfast. She is the queen of her art realm.

Neither tied to traditional oil painting skills, nor confined to popular themes, Gulistan seems to draw out of her own will without pursuing visual language symbols. A variety of images are created in her paintings, such as the sediment of ancient history, the piano with which melodic music is still played, the little bird winging over the trees, the stars and the moon shining in the sky, the scenery lapsing outside the window, the spacious room of a building and the vase and flower and wooden chair in a dark corner, and even a page thumbed occasionally. She decorates and refines them with her sentiment. With her sharp feelings, she draws her reflections on life into her works. These images are both concrete and intangible, presenting the moments of her life and leaving the trace of her great thought as well. While painting, she creates images to her satisfaction through insistent modification. They are the embodiment of her mind, pouring out her hopes and longings.

Gulistan’s insight into life can be found in her paintings. With herself being an element of the painting, her will crosses time, embodied by the subtle change in lines and colors. The change finally makes a space for an image. In the boundless space, she recalls her memory, piece by piece, attentively polishing them. These memories are silently whispering while she listens with all ears, echoing the sound in her soul. Thus she makes time a trace of memory, treasuring it up in her paintings. As fragile as it is, the trace is unyielding, sensitive and rich in meaning. Isn’t it fine and real?

She talks with the images in her memory, with the countless transient waves of rising and sediment, and with the mottled lines in her paintings. She is absorbed in them, led into a surreal world and walking into the painting, meanwhile into her own inner world, where time and space are interwoven—blank and vague, immense and delicate. They are not only the moment eternally occupying the space of a canvas but a nook for the changing universe. With them, Gulistan’s sentiment is sublimed. They are like pictures occasionally snapped, integral in meaning, for they make recordings of the vicissitudes of one’s life as well as emotional waves. In the two-dimensional world, matter and soul melt into one. The painting itself tells the process of the drawing, which is endless in return. The audience feel themselves following the ups and downs moving with the old days coming back to life.

Gulistan’s light-palette paintings are not large-sized, different from those with overwhelming visual effect. Her paintings, as if alive, are quietly lying in the studio and awaiting me to find them. However, the floating images would withdraw into the depth of the painting when I make an attempt to reach them. They waken some moments in my memory. Lasting and overlapping, these images present a full picture of life right at the present moment. I am listening to each painting, which is pouring out vivid stories and waiting for my response.

2006 in Beijing

—Translated by Guo Jian

孙欣

第一次走进古丽的画室，我被深深的触动了。画室四壁挂满了各种尺寸的画幅，素雅而又充满生机。日光透过窗外的青藤洒落室内，我象是从喧闹的世界走入了另一个时空。每幅画都散发出一种气息，幽雅而细腻，让我情不自禁沉迷其中，某种潜藏于记忆深处的情愫，慢慢的流溢而出，久久难以出离。而她小小的身影伫立其中，自信而饱满，是自己艺术王国的女王。

没有传统油画技法的束缚，没有流行题材的局限，亦没有视觉语言符号化的追求。她似乎是在一个无拘无束，完全自由的境界往来穿梭。这里，远古的历史的沉积…乐音依然悠扬的钢琴…树梢间飞掠而过的小鸟…晴朗夜空中闪烁的星月…车窗外一闪即逝的风景…建筑物庞大的空间…室内幽暗一角的瓶花和木椅…某年某月某一天翻开的书页，经她细腻而敏感的情感的梳理，承载着她对生命的体验和感悟，在记忆的尘埃中时隐时现。它们是具体的，可又飘忽不定。——它们呈现了她生活的某个瞬间，记录了她思想的某个闪烁。它们在被不断的塑造与消解的绘制过程中，逐渐接近着她的内心，诉说着她的希冀与渴望。它们是她心象的呈现。

古丽通过她的绘画完成着她对生命的体悟。她把自己融入画面，任由意念在流逝的时光中潆洄，沉积为肌理与色彩的微妙变化，这变化最终蕴集为一个意象的时空。在这无限的时空里她捡拾着记忆的碎片，悉心拂去岁月的尘埃，倾听那无言的诉说，在心灵的最深处与之回应。于是她把时光制成记忆的印签珍藏在画面里，纤弱却不乏顽强，敏感而蕴涵丰富，真实而美好。

她与记忆中的形象对话，与画面空间中无数个稍纵即逝的起伏与沉积对话，与画幅表层斑驳的肌理对话。她沉迷其中，被它们引领着，超然世外，向着画面深处走去，同时也走进自己的内心世界。那里时空交错，空蒙蕴集，宏大而微妙。它们既是画面上凝固的一瞬间，又是无限变化的鸿蒙太空中的一隅，同时亦是古丽情感的升华与结晶。它们象是不经意间拍下的快照，可又是完整的——蕴涵着前生今世无数的动荡与波澜，述说着情感之流每一个洄转与微漾。心与物交融于无限丰富的平面世界。画面既呈现着绘制的过程，又永远处在过程之中。它们亦引领着观者于这循环往复的过程之中辗转沉浮，感受那流逝的时光。

不同于具有强烈视觉冲击效果的画面构成风格，古丽的绘画尺幅不大，色彩淡雅，它们被赋予了生命一般，静静的停留在画室里，似乎在等待我去发现。而当我试图抓住那飘忽不定的形象时，它们又不断变幻着向画面深处退去。它们唤醒了我记忆中的某些瞬间，延续或交叠着，把生生不息的生命的历程在这一刻全部呈现出来。我倾听每一幅画的诉说，它在等待我的应答。

2006 年北京

Yang Tiansun

Graceful and gentle, a girl of water with a faint smile, such is the impression that people have of Gulistan’s appearance. However, one can find tenacity and persistence in her eyes. Contradicting beauties harmoniously exist in her while opposing talents are appeased with her elegance. She is full of passion towards life and art, which is revealed in the artist’s elegance of bearing. Such passion even overshadows her figure. The vagueness with profound depth in her paintings can also be found in Gulistan. She possesses a mysterious air. All are transparent when draws close to her and removes the gauze over her soul. Still the enigma is always there. Gulistan is a noble fairy, dancing and walking through her memory and time.

It is stunning how Gulistan imagines space time, makes aftertastes of her dreams and pursues freedom for her mind. Paintings, music, dance and words are the purest expression for her thought. She devotes all her passion in her career. Every observation, quest, struggle and pursuit are all made with fierce emotion. Gulistan’s waving emotion is like a drop of holy moonlight, snow white and motionless, running through the darkness, pouring down and finally reaching the soul silently. Gulistan reveals her deep feeling through painting. As simple as the lines, a profound artistic conception is sketched. As light as the elegant colors, lost thought gains strength. Behind the emotionless expression hides the longing to embrace all that she loves and yearns for. We are unconsciously gripped, attracted and infected by her ravishing paintings. The carefully guarded inner world starts to open until all the old memories are recalled. Familiar figures, past episodes, feelings, all rush out without suppression. With appearances, voices and whispers recalled and strength, essence and soul awakened, we are intoxicated in the boundless temporal space. When the light spirit is ushered to the crossing point of recalling and longing, one feels warm and moved. Such is the passion, pleasure and wisdom that Gulistan brings to us. A magic is pervasive in the misty air, softly floating.

Appreciating Gulistan’s paintings and words is like a meaningful journey in which we move back to the past, re-experiencing the vicissitudes of life, traversing the earthly reality—a spiritual journey to clear away the dirt and lead us to light.

2006 in Shanghai

—Translated by Guo Jian

杨天孙

温婉的气质、恬淡的笑容，像江南的水一般柔美的女子，眼神却透着无比的坚定与执著。这就是Gulistan古丽斯坦。所有相背的美感，都在她的身上得以融合；所有相对的锋芒，都在她的娴雅中得以平息。用这样的话来形容她，真是一点都不为过。一张张清丽的黑白影象中，古丽的神情与姿态是那样的高雅而出尘，从她的气息中，仿佛能望见所有对生命与艺术的挚爱。这股炽热的性情几乎让人淡忘了她的轮廓。一如她的画，朦胧中透着深意，空灵中闪着悠远。这些相悖而又水乳交融的一切，令古丽透着一股神秘。接近她，撩起心灵入口处的薄纱，而后发觉，一切清澈无比，却始终都是一个谜。她是一个高贵的精灵，旋舞于记忆之门，穿行于时光之河。

让人震撼的是古丽对时空的想象、对梦的抚摸以及对心灵自由的追寻。绘画、音乐、舞蹈和文字，都是她内心思索的最纯粹表达。先掏空自己，再纵身投入。所有的观察、探索、思考、挣扎、追随，都是猛烈的、澎湃的。而古丽的灵动心绪，却是那道穿过暗涌的神圣月光，皎洁而安宁，张扬地投射下来，再以静谧的姿态流淌进灵魂。古丽的画作就始终流露着这样一种深邃的情绪。看似闲淡的几笔，勾勒出的是深远的意境；看似素雅的色彩，渲染的是思索时的迷茫幻想；看似平静的表达，背后潜藏的是对所爱所想的拥抱姿态。如此引人入胜的所感所思，让我们的视线情不自禁地被抓取、被吸引、被感染、被锁住。内心刻意紧关的阀门就这样松了又松，直到记忆全然铺展在我们面前。一些身影、一些片段、一些感觉被肆无忌惮而又赤裸裸地拉到了我们的眼前。面容、嗓音、耳语，糊了又糊；力量、本质、灵魂，醒了又醒，我们陶醉于漫无边际的时空之中。当精神之光被引领到记忆与憧憬交叉的路口，感动就在心中温暖地摇晃起来。这是古丽带给我们的激情、愉悦和智慧，更多的温雅和神秘弥散在雾一样的空气里，轻柔地飘浮。

欣赏古丽的画和文字，是一段富有寓意的路途，是时光流转的路途，是记忆闪回的路途，是生命起伏的路途，是穿越人间世俗的路途，也是一条静默而深邃的精神路途。这路途，在庞杂繁芜的世界中，清除尘垢，最终趋向光。

2006年上海

My Impression of Gulistan

He Yan

A hand, a violin, an open book, a dim head portrait, an archaic gown—traces of memories, put against light-yellow dappled grounding, gradually become objects for her meditation.

Symbols and episodes flash in Gulistan’s mind. What, therefore, does she want to express with them? The fact is that all arts are to deliver the artists’ emotion. As for painting, it is probably the way for the artist to grip and prolong the moment when she is inspired and passionate.

An oil painter and poet, Gulistan desires to vividly show her inner world to the public through her various arts.

Gulistan is passionate about music. She has fallen in love with many masters of classical music, such as Haydn and Bach. The unruliness in Jazz is also fascinating to her. All these accord with her nature. Her paintings are tinged with classical elegance and modesty. However, she achieves this with inspirations at will. Lightness and simplicity are sensed in all of Gulistan’s paintings—in The Essence of Memory this is especially the case, in which a dreamy air and exotic feelings permeate.

Born in Xinjiang, a beautiful place at the foot of Tianshan Mountain where dance and music flourish, Gulistan was imbued with a forthright and uninhibited nature. The innate intelligence and beauty within her makes one feel that she is like a well-nourished flower favored by the Creator.

The talents of such an artist are inborn. Gulistan herself is the masterpiece of nature. Sensitive to inner and outer beauty, she is commissioned to express and release such beauty.

In reading her poems, one can feel Gulistan’s cherished dreams, a free soul and persistent pursuit of beauty; while appreciating her paintings, one feels calm. All are so peaceful that the soundless music in the artist’s heart can be heard.

The pursuit of art is endless. The noblest character of artists is but their sincerity to art. Gulistan believes that good art requires a long time, wisdom and passion. I believe that she will devote her whole life to search for the beauty of art and soul. Since style is temporal, the artist will be happy forever with creation.

2006 in Shanghai

—Translated by Guo Jian

何艳

一只手，一把琴，一本掀开的书，一个隐约的头像，一件古代的宽袍……记忆中的印象，落在斑驳的淡黄底色上，再逐渐下沉下沉，直至进入冥想的境界。

借助这些头脑中瞬间闪过的符号与片断，她究竟要表达些什么呢？所有艺术都是情感的外化，绘画就是为了抓住和延长那瞬时的灵感与激情吧！

古丽创作绘画作品，同时还写诗，渴望用不同的艺术形式来更丰满、更立体、更充分地表达自己内心的东西。

她酷爱音乐。既钟情于海顿、巴赫等古典音乐大师，同时又迷恋爵士乐的自由不羁。这些都符合她的天性。在她的画里，既有优雅、质朴的古典韵味，又富含即兴创作的灵感和随意。整体看来，古丽的绘画作品，尤其是”记忆的性质”一组，给人感觉是异常的轻盈、清淡，洋溢着朦胧的梦幻气息以及隐隐约约的异国情怀。

出生在天山脚下美丽的新疆，古丽生的血液里就流淌着少数民族自由奔放的因子。在那片孕育舞蹈音乐和壮美自然的土地上，古丽好比一朵备受造物主恩宠的鲜花，她女性天生的灵气与美感得以完好保存和尽情生长。

艺术家是天生的。古丽本身即是大自然艺术化的杰作。她自己敏感于这种外在与内在的美，因此天生的使命就是努力表达和释放这些美。

读古丽的诗，感受得到她内心的梦幻，灵魂的自由，及对美执著的追求；看她的画，心变得很静很静，静得仿佛能听见画家作画时流淌在她心底的音乐。

追求艺术永无止境，艺术家最可贵的品质就是内心的真诚。古丽说，好的艺术需要时间的沉淀，需要情智的积累。我相信，她将穷一生探索艺术与灵魂的美。风格并不重要，任何风格都是暂时的，能创作才永远快乐。

2006年上海

Yanxue

A fairy roaming in colors, an enchantress able to cast her spell with a painting brush, an artist loyal to her own soul, she is Gulistan. The moment you open her album of paintings, you will be infected by the art, immediately feeling unable to resist the force which is sending you to a magic land.

Unlike so many money-driven artists, Gulistan paints with the most primitive passion, which floats throughout all her works. One can feel a deep spring of life from her paintings, in which no taint of the superficialness of the age is to be found.

I always feel that it is far from enough to just stay at the surface of Gulistan’s paintings. These paintings are endowed with a drop of light, which leads you to the road to the wonderland of soul. But to reach the serene land, you must feel with your soul. Serenity is a feature of her paintings; so is animation. It seems that in her two series Haydn’s Piano and Guli’s Chair and About Time lives a powerful and unconstrained imp, who will take you past the boundary of time and space. With her, you gallop in space time, soaring in the realm of brilliant art, meanwhile feeling the air of freedom on the canvases.

Appreciating her paintings is like attending a rare banquet of life. Indulging in the purity, the elegance, the poetic land and dreamy air, you are in a surging mood, as is the artist. With her works, you can get a chance to talk with anyone and get to know the world from a new perspective.

The one that impressed me most deeply is her painting The Essence of Nature. After regarding the painting, I asked myself: What on earth is the essence of nature? Is it the sculpted time, or those sad or happy symbols in a solitary corner, or the fragmented coming and going of life? Right at this moment, looking at her paintings, I am picking up pieces of interweaving memories. The vestige of life is thus printed. Countless rivers of memories stream past the paintings. It is so moving that I feel myself embraced by an unspoken beauty, filled with marvelous hopes.

Finally, I want to say that such is Gulistan, an elegant but delicate, plain but brilliant artist.

2005 in Beijing

—Translated by Guo Jian