Consultant of China Women Painters Association, director of Chinese Painting Association, painter
Gulistan’s works have been highly appraised by Mr. Huang Du, a well-known international curator and contemporary art critic, who thinks that she is a contemporary artist with unique aesthetic taste who draws inspiration and energy from the classics and returns to elegance in a post-modern way. This is completely different from the general comment of “superb skill, gladden the heart and please the eye”.
Contemplating the Middle Ages I
In recent years, Gulistan’s paintings have further expanded and dived further, requiring a more complete layout and more individuality. A more powerful expression, the most representative of which should be this “Memory of the portrait-Self-gaze”. This is developed from a small painting of two people playing a game many years ago. Completed in 2019. The works are still elegant and gentle, but the air is very strong; the techniques are still simple and simple, but the careful examination is richer and more refined. In the center of the picture are two busts. They are similar but different. The lower part of the painting is like a mountain, like water, like clouds and mist, like a sensible natural dream, and like the original prehistoric universe? They are not the existence of reality, but the existence of people and nature structured by the author with montage technique, expressing that “You have me and I have you”, “Dao that can be daoed(dao in Chinese that has one meaning means express)is not the true Dao” philosophical thinking, virtual intertwined close relationship. The chaotic and sacred atmosphere created by the whole picture tells us that their gazes are both projected to each other and inwardly watching. Only such feedback and thinking involve deeper propositions.
Gulistan is not just immersed in it with the audience, think about human beings themselves, the relationship between people, and the relationship between people and nature. Wings are also given to the protagonists to symbolize the freedom and hope that reflective human beings may have. Just like herself, she advocates the free and uninhibited flying of the mind, and is always in touch with the blood of her family and country. And when the epidemic is raging all over the world.. This creation undoubtedly more profoundly interprets the essence of the work originating from great love!
Tribute to the classics VI
In fact, no matter which series of Gulistan’s works, the common theme is love. Without love, how can beauty pass and forever? Without thought, how can there be deep power? When these two are combined, and touch our heartstrings with both classical and modern artistic language, we will be deeply moved; we will realize that because of love, gentleness can also be very powerful!
Gulistan’s paintings are very unique and highly recognizable in the painting circle with serious homogenization and bright surface. This insistence on painting concepts and individual language requires strong inner motivation. Must also have comprehensive artistic literacy. Her works are poetic and musical, spanning time and space, but leaving room for the viewer’s imagination. As a result, more and more people read and fell in love with her works.
This painting is relatively large and has strong appeal. It is suitable for collection in art museums or for decoration in living room clubs with large space. I believe that the audience will stop and stare at the work before the painting, echo Gulistan’s love and thinking together, and look back at their hearts together, hoping that both themselves and the world will become better! This is the value of excellent contemporary works!
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Gulistan’s paintings are like the little owl she drew, taking off from the Gobi Desert in Central Asia, flying east across the Pacific Ocean and west to the Mediterranean Sea, which is the journey of most of the earth. She keeps going back and forth, scanning the earth and the ocean with elvish eyes, looking through the ancient times and the future.
When I face Gulistan’s paintings, it seems that I have been brought into her subconscious visual scene. The remains of those ancient civilizations do not seem to be buried by flying sands, but being vacantly hanged in a foot away, smiling at their own past. I see a young girl who seems to be standing by the edge of the wall two thousand years ago,staring at me with her sharp eyes. Can I go back to her?Maybe there is a sea that seeps into the long-dried Gobi, and a white cloud is steaming in the most central part of the Asian continent. The cloud falls on the girl’s chest and becomes the lace that sets off her noble head. Maybe the girl goes to farther southern Europe, and a pair of wings growing out of her hairline. These wings are a gathering of mountains, forests, rivers, flowers, birds, and beasts, and become an oasis that could take a rest during the long migration of life.
Gulistan is a magician of time and space. The memory fragments of any place can be incorporated into the picture by her hands, therefore her paintings reflect the meaning of traveling through time and space. This ability can’t be obtained by training in the academy, it is the courage from her deep inner heart. No wonder that Gulistan is able to easily throw the paintings out at her willingness. Gulistan’s owls should have been hovering over the ancient Silk Road for many centuries, and numerous of passing lives should appear as the portraits at a certain moment.
What a mysterious world!
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The most touching thing about Gulistan’s paintings is the pure sense of tranquility and harmony that is far away from the chaos of the world. It contains the aesthetics of European music in the 17th century, and the balanced and harmonious counterpoint of the Renaissance church music master Palestrina seems to be on paper. The vivid works of this different series are a modern person’s memory and nostalgia for that glorious era. The mind seems to transcend the barriers of time and space, cruising in a higher dimension. Gulistan’s paintings have the breath of musical syntax, accentuated pauses, and more blank spaces like large rests. The connection and transition of music and sound, shuttle between the light and shadow of color, showing a driving force of inner growth. It seems to be a frozen picture, as if it is a flowing music, silently evolving in the midst of history. In silence, it slowly settles into a unique portrait of Shen Yun. Did you notice that look? What this gaze contains is the simplicity and cleanliness of human nature inherited from Giotto and Raphael; it is the pursuit of a free spirit that transcends the instinct of Beethoven and Delacroix; it is Mozart’s pursuit of the world. sympathy and nostalgia; the whimsy and vigor of Schumann and ETA Hoffmann. Everything is contained in the harmonious and beautiful picture, which is fascinating.
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Researcher, Institute of foreign literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
Posture-Pine Tree
Gulistan’s paintings have both the overall idea of super realism and the presentation of realistic details. Just like the Magic Movies in Hollywood, they give people a wonderful feeling of reality and fantasy. Painters are good at putting different kinds of things existing in different time and space in the same picture. For example, they put the horse of Lang shining on the classical furniture, and juxtapose the flowers and birds of the Song Dynasty with the ancient Greek statues, so as to create the artistic tension effect of “twisting irrelevant things together” similar to the metaphor in the English metaphysical poetry. Another characteristic of her paintings is the quiet atmosphere and elegant color, which may be related to the theme of still life antiques, but perhaps more revealed is the painter’s character and interest.
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Gulistan’s inspiration comes from not only eastern tradition but also from many other cultures. As a free spirited creative artist, she creates her artworks with pure artistic focus and an elegance which suggests warm light shining from afar. Gulistan creates an unusual body of work that is contemporary but is also timeles. She is not restricted by traditional styles and skills nor by populist contemporary topics or a reductive visual symbolism. Her works are beyond boundaries, created with deep conviction, they encapsulate her understanding of life and are a metaphor for the self. Travelling through time Gulistan insinuates both herself and her individual colour palette into her works thus creating very special moments in time. These moments in are delicate yet tenacious, true and refined, charged with energy, waiting quietly to be discovered.
Painting is Gulistan’s way of communicating; her artistic talent and exotic heritage renders her gaze and her taste uniquely beautiful. She is a genuine combination of intellect and aesthetic the result of education and experience – her paintings are like herself, profound and spare. The colours and patterns have universal appeal and the artworks evince a delicate and spiritual feeling drawing the viewer through a journey of realisation, they present the world from a unique perspective. I frequently feel that one cannot fully comprehend Gulistan’s paintings merely using one’s eyes, but rather, one should look at them one’s heart in order to finally understand the stillness at their core.
Her work is both tranquil and moving. In the series Hayden’s Piano and Guli’s Chair , The Tales ofTime, and The essence of Time, one can feel the artist’s untrammelled spirit radiating from the surface as though an angel guides the viewer through time to witness the beauty of art from on high. Viewing her work reminds us of our past and the imprints this leaves, the paintings stir and overwhelm you, then wrap you in warmth. One can see the traces of Giotto, Francesca, and Holbein, Gulistan paints as a pious follower, with whole heartedness and devotion, yet she still leaves space in her paintings so they can breathe. Her works are floating, dynamic and throughout one can see the motif of ‘human spirituality’.
Art can only move those who allow themselves to be moved. According to a report by Taiwanese media on Gulistan’s solo exhibition in Taipei: Gulistan uses her visual poetry to save heedless souls. In this world so filled with electronics, it is rare to find a rest place for the sight and the soul, yet Gulistan captures the viewer with her passion. Her influential works such as The Tales of Time, Memory of the portrait, and Wandering in Europe, etc, all express this inner calm which gives repose to the viewer.
Famous curator Hui Shang comments that Gulistan “differs from most artists who are fond of depicting reality by focusing on portraying the past with nostalgia. She is not trying to describe a certain image or event in the past, but rather try to depict their warmth and distance. What she really wants to portray is the passage of time, Gulistan’s work is all about fading colors and the past that is not retraceable. For the artist, even the most profound thoughts and wise opinions cannot be compared with the colour tones which bring her so much excitement. Gulistan’s work is not about what she paints, but rather the nostalgic and warm feelings which the past evokes in us.”
Celebrated art critic Yongbai Tao once said about Gulistan’s paintings that : “her works have a soul of their own. Everything fades with time, but their spirits remain immortal. That piety and purity reflected from her works are immortal. Her works transcend daily objects and become spiritual. even god-like. Einstein once said that the most important thing is to see whether a scientist, an artist, has the divinity of life. Only with that divinity can the artist become truly brilliant. “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited; imagination encircles the world.”
The respected painter Yang Shang comments on Gulistan’s paintings saying that:” many of her work are blurred when viewed from afar but very clear when examined closely. Her works, even though they have very few colors, very few lines, affect you and have great impact.”
Gulistan’s process of creation incorporates many of her own discourses about life and art. Other than painting, traveling, and watching movies, music and poetry is integral to her life. She believes that painting is the aftermath of thought and music and poetry are more free spirited and more direct. Therefore, she acquires much inspiration and nourishment from music and poetry in order to reach the balance between senses and feelings. Gulistan wrote a poem named The Imprint of Heart in which she writes: “I try to describe with my paintings, but I can’t. I need more music and poetry to give my soul to my work. I search, I wander in my own life and amongst the arts, and I am looking for my motivations in this journey of soul. People see art as the visualisation of the soul and Gulistan portrays several aspects of her soul in her work.
Gulistan has explored the theme of memory in many of her artworks. When talking about creativity, she says, “I use art to bring people together. They connect us to remembrance and to realization. I always focus on three aspects: time, memory and space because I feel like that time and space is just like the latitude and longitude- we can always find the point using them. We cannot escape the lines as human beings, but our souls can. And I am looking for my escape through art.” As time fades, memory becomes another form of following. In Gulistan’s works, times and spaces come together, crossing each other constantly and are presented in her series of works The Essence of Time.
Gulistan paints everything that deserves to be remembered, whether it is a reflection of her own youth or the once prosperous ancient civilizations. Her works depict ideas that far exceed her own life experience. Unlike many modern artists who seek post modernism, Gulistan tries to avoid digitalized pictures and so, to recall the past, her drawings refer back to the classical period. Her paintings not only incorporate elements from medieval European architecture and mosaic, but also encompass skills used in early Renaissance’s frescos. Without memory, life and history are forgotten, without any nostalgia or appreciation so Gulistan aims to evoke among viewers a respect for the past. Her paintings are always profoundly emotional, a monologue, with many human qualities: freedom, meditation and free spiritedness.
Gulistan says that “music is a very important element in my life, apart from art. Music is more difficult to understand than art. Dance is transient, painting can leave physical results, only music is untouchable and yet can move human beings to tears. Jazz is Gulistan’s muse. Bach’s music brings her devotion, Ravel’s piano brings her waves of emotion, and she combines all these responses when creating her paintings. Therefore her work gathers all these elements into one single moment, which then becomes eternal.
Art is not to show things we can see, but rather to depict things we cannot see. It enables viewers to become more introspective. Art is always at change, between times and spaces, looking for the enlightened traces, and looking for our souls.Art does not exist to show things we can see, but rather to depict things we cannot see. It enables viewers to become more introspective. Art is always about interchange, between times and spaces, looking for the traces of enlightenment and looking for our souls.
Architecture is music made flesh, a three dimensional poem
We see many works of architectures in Gulistan’s Wandering in Europe series. The artist believes that architecture is musicmade flesh, a three dimensional poem. She believes that architectures houses poems, and poems house souls. Great architecture creates a poetic environment, essential to the creation of civilization and culture. Gulistan wanders between paintings and music, portraying her endlessly searching nature. Music soothes her heart and spreads warmth in her soul, which she tries to describe in her work.
In Gulistan’s world, art is her way of communication. Music and poems engage her emotions, movies and architecture broaden her horizons and traveling is her process of introspection. All these elements are essential for her in becoming an artist.
风格往往自然地将作品中试图表达的语言，引向“他处”，即引向作品之外，引向作者、读者和鉴赏者的心灵内部，然后又把他们的心灵引向一个不可预知的可能的世界。正如罗兰·巴特所说：“作为一种自然，语言是在不给予任何形式的情况下彻头彻尾地贯穿于作家的话语之中。…因此，语言是在文学之外”(La langue est comme une Nature qui passeentièrement à travers la parole de l’écrivain, sans pourtant lui donner aucuneforme. … Lalangue est donc en déςà de la littérature)。但是，与此相反，一旦文学性文字显现出纯粹的形式的时候，面对这种虚空形式而引起的恐惧不安，又在不知不觉的情况下，引导文字本身设法寻求一种类似于自然秩序的新秩序；然而，这种由作家本人无意识地表现的新秩序，恰恰又具有社会和历史的性质。这就是所谓的‘风格’或‘文风'(Mais au contraire, à partir du moment oùl’écriture littéraire s’est manisfesté comme forme pure, l’effroi devant levide de cette Forme la conduit à constituer un nouvel ordre, qui est analogue àcelui de la nature, alors qu’il est pourtant entièrement social et historique,c’est le style)。
因此，文风是什么？罗兰·巴特又说：“文风几乎是在文学之外；它是一堆图像、一种语言口才和谈吐风格，一种词汇累积；它们源自作家的身体及其过往历史，并逐渐地演变成作家的具有自动化性质的个人技艺。因此，采取文风的形式，文风乃是一种自给自足的语言，它深深地隐含在作家的个人神话之中”(Le style est presque au-delà de lalittérature : des images, un débit, un lexique naissent du corps et du passé del’écrivain, et deviennent peu à peu les automatisme mêmes de son art. Ainsi, sous le nom destyle, se forme un langage autarcique, qui ne plonge que dans la mythologiepersonnelle de l’auteur)。文风向语言秩序导入一种历史动力，因为它在公共语言的文化平面上导入一直自然的深度(Le style introduit une dynamiquehistorique dans l’ordre de la langue parce qu’il introduit une profondeurnaturelle dans l’horizontalité culturelle de la langue commune)。
Gulistan is an artist speaking out with “Silence”. Her works are filled with the artistic conception of Ci poetry of the Song dynasty, combing the charm of European classical culture, having abundant feelings of life, showing the musicality and poeticity.
I am looking for the thinking on time and life in painting creation, looking for the mysterious distant place, telling about the legend of time, the nature of memory, the portrait in memory in the wilderness of mind. Time and memory are like a ray of light which become bright and clear. Time and space are constantly confluence in the picture. In the ethereal implications, colors convey a kind of thing that is remembered or memorized.
Before I met Gulistan, it is hard to imagine that as a painter, it’s not entirely paintings in her world. Painting is just her way of expression. Music and poems are the sources of her emotion while the basis of all her emotions and feelings is the thinking on time and space.
Under the thinking of Philosophy, she combines all sorts of art categories such as the poems, music, movies with painting and presents the art creations with more complete freedom.
![[Gulistan's signature]](/images/gulistan_signature_small.jpg)
