THE cross is a dominant symbol in Ding Yi’s works. He’s been painting them for decades. Most of his works feature numerous crosses, so many and so close together that they sometimes resemble textile patterns.

A retrospective of Ding’s works opens on Sunday and runs until July 26 at Long Museum. Ten newly created pieces, each 5 meters high, will be unveiled to the public for the first time. Created on wood plate, the pieces fuse wood-carving and painting.

Despite using only crosses in his art, Ding’s works are far from prosaic. He overlays them, switches colors and patterns, creating textures within his grids.

Although now a big name in the country’s contemporary art scene, Ding is still moving forward.

“I won’t be retiring soon,” he says. “I don’t think I’ve hit my peak yet. When I create I’m filled with anticipation for the outcome.”

Born in Shanghai in 1962, Ding is a graduate of both Shanghai Arts and Crafts Institute and Shanghai University.

He recalls starting to use the cross as a motif in 1988. “I wanted to break away from traditional Chinese art, to paint without meaning between the lines,” he says. “I wanted to make art that was not art-like.”

As a child during the “cultural revolution” (1966-76), Ding lived in a muted Shanghai stripped of expression. Garish propaganda displays of Chairman Mao Zedong and workers were splashed on building facades.

“I remember watching the artists paint at a cinema just opposite my home, seeing how they went about their work. The end products attracted
me a lot,” he recalls.

Widely regarded as a pioneer in abstract art in China, Ding spent his teenage years learning traditional Chinese ink-wash painting at Shanghai University before a professor exposed him to Western modernism.

After experimenting with different styles and studying the works of French painters such as Paul Cezanne and Henri Matisse, he settled on the cross as his trademark style.

Q: What inspired you to choose the cross in your paintings? Is there any hidden meaning?

A: At that time, I used the cross simply to shy away from meaning. When I started my creation in 1988, China was an ideological country. Thus I hoped to use this meaningless symbol to go against the strong ideological background in society.

Q: In your early “Cross” series, the paintings appeared orderly and mechanized, but they looked more free and wayward in later works. Why?

A: When I began the “Cross” series, I was less than 30 years old. For me, my works, at that time, seemed more like a manifestation to prove that I have a target. But such manifestation also means that my experience was quite simple. But today, nearly two decades have passed and I interpret art, society and humanity more in my creations. Thus I fuse more emotions into my works.

Q: Can you talk about the importance of the material and colors in your works? You have chosen Scotch plaid and some other existing fabrics in your works, the colors also vary from black and white to fluorescent colors. Why the switch?

A: The works dating back to the 1980s and 1990s were more experimental. During that period I tried to use various materials in my creations including Scotch plaid and corrugated paper and the wood plate. I think an artist is continuously looking for the perfect materials and colors to reflect ideas. For example, I worked on a series that was fluorescent-themed for 12 years. Dluorescent colors, in my eyes, excite one’s eyes, and I wanted to mirror the social phenomenon of China’s urbanization process. They are not natural colors, but they are part of reality. These fluorescent colors depicted the city’s energy and majesty as it transformed. In my new paintings, the colors you see at the surface actually are composed of different layers of colors below. When I used a scraper on it, the colors that appear in front of your eyes are quite accidental.

Q: Your “Cross” series has a strong sense of design. You have also said you want to combine art and design. Why?

A: Generally speaking, my abstract painting is very sensible and such sensibility demands the support of the tableau. For me, controlling the structure on the tableau is the design part. Although I never draw sketches, even when creating a big work, each one still has a designed structure. At the beginning of the “Cross” series, I wanted to combine art and design to break the integrity of the traditional painting language.

Q: You once proposed the concept, “Delete the meaning in painting.” Do you still agree with it?

A: I feel that I have changed. In the past, what we encountered was a quite ideological society, so I pursued purity in forms. But now we are living in a dimensional society, I feel that it is hard to only use formalism in painting. Painting today, in my eyes, is more complicated and comprehensive.

Q: You majored in traditional ink-wash painting, why did you give it up?

A: I knew nothing about traditional ink-wash painting before I entered university. I hoped that I would gain a profound understanding of traditional Chinese culture after four years of study. But I didn’t want to be an ink-wash painter. I learned design and ink-wash painting, which all influenced my later creations, but that doesn’t mean my work is about design and ink-wash painting.

Q: When did you become interested in art? Is there any artist who influenced you a lot?

A: I could say that my only target when I was a little kid was to become an artist. At that time, the idea to be an artist was quite blurred with no example. When I first learned painting, the whole society advocated socialism and I was immersed in this, too. But I was fortunate enough to experience China’s opening up policy when I was young. I soon became enamored with Western contemporary art and many Western contemporary artists influenced me strongly.

Q: Dose Zen or Taoism influence you?

A: Frankly speaking, when I decided to be an artist, I wanted to be an international artist rather than a Chinese artist. Perhaps sometimes my work reveal some elements of Chinese philosophy thought like Buddhism, but I didn’t do it on purpose. I respect the art critics who use Zen or Taoism to interpret my artwork, and there must be certain reasons behind it.