/kloc-Cicero, a French master of art in the 0/9th century, said: "New paintings always strongly infected us with the beauty and diversity of their colors at first, but what attracted our attention was those old and rough paintings." The painter Zhang Zhijian (Lao Hai) left me a similar impression, but I prefer to express it as-under the gorgeous and vivid pen and ink, there is a surge of primitive and deep wildness. As the saying goes, the painter Zhang Zhijian was named "Old Sea". Hearing its name and seeing its paintings reminds me of the Ocean by Argentine writer Hao Lu borges: "Who is the ocean/who is that violent old guy/it erodes the pillar of the landing site/it is one of many oceans/it is an abyss/brilliance/accident/breeze." I think the description of the painter Zhang Zhijian (Lao Hai) is perfect! There is no doubt that the geographical environment affects the living conditions of human beings. The definition of Hetao area in history is based on the Yellow River, which can be traced back to the Qin Dynasty. The famous "Henan War" regained "Henan", that is, Hetao. The word "Hetao" was first used in geography in Ming Dynasty. "There is a big river in the north, which flows from Wei Dongbei in Ningxia, crosses the west of the old Fengzhou in the west, turns east, and enters the Pinglu Wei territory in Shanxi in the east. The land can be two thousand miles, and the river is surrounded on three sides. The so-called Hetao is also. " In grassland culture, Hetao culture is both a source and a stream. As the source, it is an intensive inheritance of the essence of grassland culture; As a stream, it also absorbs and embraces rich and colorful multiculturalism.
Hetao culture, which originated in the late Paleolithic period, originated from the prosperity of ancient ethnic minorities and continued in the military settlement system in Qin, Han, Ming and Qing Dynasties. Along the way, I have always been influenced by different cultures and challenged by different historical situations, and this is still the case today. "Chilechuan, under the shady mountain, the sky is like the sky, the cage covers four fields, the sky is gray, the wild is vast, and the wind blows the grass and the cattle and sheep are low." The north and south of Yinshan Mountain is the core area of Hetao culture, and it is also the watershed between the northern grassland and the Central Plains mainland. Known as "Alakazam" where Huns lived together in history, it was later occupied and encircled by many ethnic groups, where the blood of many ethnic groups blended for a long time and multi-cultures collided with each other.
Bayannur means "rich lake" in Mongolian, which highlights the meaning of big river. The flow path of the Yellow River, the treasure of Yinshan Mountain and the Urad grassland have established Bayannaoer's unique position in Hetao area. There are more than 100 sites of ancient culture, ethnic culture and religious culture, such as Yinshan rock paintings, Gaoque plug, Gill plug, the Great Wall of Han Dynasty, Wuyuan ancient county, Shuofang ancient county and Tibetan Buddhist temples, which constitute a rich and unique and meaningful world.
History, in this unique land, has never stopped exploring and communicating, even tearing and wrestling. "Heaven and earth are merciless, and everything is straw dogs", which ruthlessly destroys all glitz and red tape, and even tolerates elegance and exquisiteness. What is left is wild and meaningful, gloomy and brilliant, open and affectionate. They refuse to be sorted out and accumulated, but they are full of great cultural tension. In "Primitive Art", henry moore thinks that all art is rooted in primitiveness, otherwise it will decline. Bergson pointed out in the Theory of Creative Evolution: "Evolution takes place along different routes. It is at the end of these two routes that we find the pure form of intellectuality and instinct. ..。 The so-called instinct refers to the sense of * * *. " "Intellectuality revolves around life activities, and at the same time tries to set many external rules for life, not going deep into life but leading to itself. Only intuition leads us to the depths of life. " Painter Zhang Zhijian's paintings are rooted in Bayannaoer and nourished by Hetao culture, and "intuitive form" or "formal intuition" is fully reflected in his paintings. For example, using the elements of Yinshan rock painting in painting breaks some stylized meanings of traditional ink painting, and shows the simplicity, enthusiasm and mystery of primitive poetic thinking of ancestors in a colorful way, which is full of the charm of faith and imagination. The "Wind Trace" art series fully embodies the intuitive acquisition and construction of Hetao culture. The meaning of art is to integrate individuals into this world. Just like Confucius' "The Analects of Confucius Zi Han IX": "Viscount, meaningless, unnecessary, solid, and egoless." Field. The painter Zhang Zhijian (Lao Hai)' s painting is not only for the complex memory and exclamation of the past culture. Instead, we use the gorgeous and wild Hetao culture as a reference and strength to illuminate our living experience under modern civilization, which contains joy, persistence, intoxication and hope, as well as confusion, thinking and questioning. For example, in the painting "Song of Immortality", the images are selected from clouds flowing in the sky, rocks in the mountains, smart prayer flags and the piety of monks; The brushwork style is light and strong, bright and simple. The whole painting presents a profound shock-why is this world called "longevity"? Heaven or earth? Is every soul floating around in this world, and every prayer is implying? Or the belief that we have been sticking to in this world?
Levi Brewer once said: For primitive thinking, it never deliberately distinguishes itself from the world. Cliffs, because of their location and shape, frighten the imagination of primitive people; Rivers, clouds and winds are mysterious because of their endless changes. Nature and human beings share common interests and thoughts, and have a direct dialogue on the meaning of life. Painter Zhang Zhijian (Lao Hai)' s paintings show us the full individual and the original feeling of the space world. His spatial expression is full of metaphors and symbols of oriental philosophy, that is, he pursues "nothingness"-that is, he abandons "all things are illusory", which is a collection of "looking at the past and present in an instant and caressing the whole world in an instant", and is the construction of the cloud "real and nowhere, but also beautiful" in Zhuangzi Gengsang Chu. Mr. Zong Baihua emphasized that the cultivation of aesthetic feeling lies in being able to be "empty", producing the alienation of "isolation" and integrating the external "isolation" with the inner "emptiness" of the mind. Only when we can separate and break can we have a complete boundary. Painter Zhang Zhijian's paintings vividly present the universe with a sense of life in Hetao culture with "emptiness" and enter a kind of "spiritual space" (Zongbaihua language). Whether it is the blending of heaven and earth in Ancient Songs or the combination of grassland and rocks depicted in "A Covenant on Grassland", the lines are vigorous and vast, and Gu Zhuo's pen and ink are rich and colorful.
Don Dai Yan: "The nature of pen and ink conforms to the nature of heaven and earth" (Don Dai Yan: "Painting is simple and natural"). Zhang Zhijian (Laohai) did not stick to the ancient times, but used the colors of "white, green, black, red and yellow" symbolizing the five elements of "Jin Mu's fire, water and earth", and boldly applied the old ones. In the series Traces of Light, Long Tune, Ancient Songs and Hometown of Wild Goose depict the sky with a large area of yellow, and the earth with red and black overlapping. The reason why we talk about color is not for the decorative and aesthetic interest of the picture, but for Hyunri and witchcraft in ancient grassland culture and Central Plains culture, which is very mysterious. As the Taiping Jing said, "Heaven and earth have their own treasures, and if we know that they have gods, we must walk in five elements." Like Gauguin's aversion to civilization and longing for primitive life, Zhang Zhijian's color concept expresses "the sorrow of the times" with strong colors, and the colors in his paintings are permeated with the invisible power of symbols, instead of simply giving colors to the Hetao landscape.
The unique decorative technique in Yinshan art is to combine various figures and animal gestures on the grassland to form a vivid sense of rhythm. The painter Zhang Zhijian (Lao Hai) inherited his style and took the natural scenery as the background. This composition is simple and rough, but it doesn't break the rules. He never drags his feet, his expression is unrestrained, free and lively. For example, lines of different shapes are dyed on the screen, thick brushstrokes and heavy pen and ink outline the ups and downs of the grassland, and the strange birds and animals in rock paintings are outlined by bone method, just like gossamer, and like a grass coming out of water. Symbolic abstract symbols are added to the sky, rocks and other spatial backgrounds, and the beautiful twists and turns of "lines" are used to make the whole picture full of vitality, as if life is jumping, and intriguing fun and mystery are intertwined.
As early as more than 7000 years ago, the survival awakening of the ancient Hetao people was recorded and conveyed in the form of stone carvings. For thousands of years, countless men and women in the north and south of Yinshan Mountain have forged a strong, wild and splendid Hetao culture. Painter Zhang Zhijian (Lao Hai)' s paintings are nourished by soil and water, inherited by context, and reflected and called by the weakness and pallor of this era. Jia Dejiang
I have never been to the Inner Mongolia prairie. It is the hoarse and magnetic voice of Mongolian singer Tengger Singh.
Holding my soul, I am full of yearning for the "vast grassland"; It is the rich and beautiful melody of mezzo-soprano Dedema's Beautiful Prairie My Home that stirs my soul and makes me deeply infatuated with the Inner Mongolia Prairie where the wind blows green grass and flowers are everywhere.
Therefore. When I saw a series of works by Zhang Zhijian, I couldn't help liking them. He described the vastness, ups and downs, light and shade of the grassland and the mountains and rivers on the grassland with rich colors and endless charm, much like Tengger Singh's low and soothing voice, praising the "father's grassland, mother's river" that gave birth to him; He used vivid, steady and clear colors to render the sunshine, white clouds, blue sky, green land and red soil of the grassland. He preferred Dedema's clean and beautiful voice and sincerely praised her "beautiful hometown and lovely home" after bathing.
Indeed, Zhang Zhijian's "Lucky Grassland Series" is full of musical sense. The melody composed of lines, the rhythm composed of black and white, and the symphony with changing colors are like a singer riding slowly on the grassland, singing quietly in Ma Touqin's chords, recalling the habitat of a great nation and praising the thick and fertile grassland and endless northwest mountains and rivers he loves. Zhang Zhijian was born in Inner Mongolia, and he is familiar with grasslands. He was infatuated with the grassland, where he also received art education from Inner Mongolia universities. Because he studied in the Fine Arts Department of Normal University, his painting foundation is more extensive, with both the modeling and color foundation of western realism and the lack of understanding of traditional oriental pen and ink.
When he decided to focus on China's landscape painting, he felt that he needed to make up lessons, so he tried to attack the "tradition". At this point, he began to study the traditional pen and ink, interpret the works of past dynasties, and studied in the advanced research class of Chinese painting plastic arts creation of Beijing Central Academy of Fine Arts, the highest art institution in China, for two whole years. Since graduating from college, Zhang Zhijian has gone through more than 30 years of artistic journey. In the hard questioning, searching and learning, he not only laid a deep foundation, but also fundamentally changed his painting concept.
He no longer paints conceptual landscapes picked from the map of China art history, nor does he join the excitement of "Li Keran fever" and "Yellow fever", nor does he do abstract ink painting experiments in the landscape of stream of consciousness. Instead, we should follow the old adage that "learning from the ancients is not as natural as learning from the ancients", return to the grassland we are familiar with, and explore new forms and languages with a strong sense of creation. Shi Tao had a great influence on him in the traditional abstract of Hook Shen. In his view, Shi Tao's slogans of "keeping pen and ink advancing with the times", "concentrating on extraordinary peaks and making manuscripts for our use" are the turning points of Chinese painting, but Shi Tao did not deny the ancient method, but because "the beard of the ancients could not be born on my face, and the heart of the ancients could not fix my lungs and intestines."
Even if I can visit a family sometimes, it's just me, not me. "However, to achieve this state, Zhijian believes that it mainly lies in the painter's cultivation, and cultivation mainly lies in two aspects: cultivation and life. As Shi Tao said: "Murphy has not been well influenced, and his pen has not been made into life." It is ink without a pen, which can be nourished by the spirit and does not understand the god of life. Being nurtured by the God of Life is a pen without ink. "It was Shi Tao's incisive remarks that triggered Zhang Zhijian's unique desire and ambition, so his landscape painting creation with grassland as the motif came into being.
Choosing grassland is a complex that Zhang Zhijian can't give up, and it is also his unique advantage. What needs to be cultivated here is learning and thinking, the birth of Huigen's spirituality, the vastness of theoretical philosophy, and the ability to stand alone and stand on its own feet in ancient and modern times. For him, the "life" here is a rough sketch of grassland scenery and an independent grasp of all forms of grassland. A close reading of Zhang Zhijian's series of landscape paintings named after auspicious grasslands shows that his brushwork has been nourished, and his brushwork has been living well. Starting from the tradition of China's art and being baptized by modern artistic thoughts, the grassland in his works can no longer return to the "an old man fishing in a cold Jiang Xue" of the ancient sages in China, but has joined the new ideas and concepts of Chinese painting.
Although he is deeply attached to the tradition of Chinese painting, he has a strong spirit of innovation in his bones, including the absorption of the research results of modern western art on structure and color. As early as the beginning of the 20th century, Lin Fengmian wrote the article "New Ways of Eastern and Western Art", sensitively pointing out that artists must start with form if they want to express their feelings that echo the atmosphere of the times. Undoubtedly, the innovative consciousness presented by Zhang Zhijian's "Lucky Grassland Series" starts from the form, that is, it conveys the spirit of mountains and rivers different from those of the ancients and predecessors in the form of individual artistic expression, thus highlighting Zhang Zhijian's modern perception of contemporary natural landscape in the profound and powerful tradition of Chinese painting. His works clearly show the change from grassland and reflection on life to the study of modernity of pen and ink language in Chinese painting, and then choose different brushwork, ink method and color method according to different regional characteristics.
He does not pursue a fixed schema, but establishes writing and creation, reproduction and expression by combining light pen and ink, lyrical lines and eastern and western colors, which not only has the regional characteristics of Inner Mongolia grassland, but also has the profound traditional cultivation of China ink and wash, and also integrates the personal style of western countries. Zhang Zhijian's "Lucky Grassland Series" has gone beyond the standard of traditional landscape painting. He started with the flat lines of Chinese paintings, used the composition methods of western landscape oil paintings and prints for reference, and adopted square and banner compositions. On the basis of sketching the grassland landscape, he created the environment with his heart and looked for a more visual structure.
Painters often immerse themselves in nature and listen to the sounds of nature. According to his intuitive feelings and life experience, he refined grassland scenery and hillside gullies into a reasonable organization of horizontal lines and diagonal lines. Sometimes he saw the brushwork like calligraphy and the line drawing, and sometimes he saw that painting and stippling were very random, and more of them were full of pen and ink. As Shi Tao said in "Painting Quotations": "Take shape and use potential, sketch intentionally, express feelings and write scenery, and reveal hidden meanings. People can't see the achievements of their paintings, so they can turn their backs. " In such a multi-level brush strokes, dotted lines and symphonies, Zhang Zhijian gradually strengthened the trend of adapting to the future, that is, the overall momentum and strength of the picture conducive to emotional expression. The space is rich, implicit and transparent, showing the rich and heroic humanistic temperament in grassland areas. In this process, Zhang Zhijian blended one or two colors as the keynote of Yamagata water potential, which set off the artistic atmosphere with simplicity, and released the contrast of color warmth, depth and hue according to the expression of personal mood and picture emotion. In every simple plane, he noticed the visual richness of color blocks, and used various techniques to increase the levels and changes of color, thus highlighting the aesthetic characteristics of color in thick pen and ink and conveying strong and calm emotions.
Here, we can see that Zhang Zhijian, as a contemporary landscape painter, boldly surpassed the symbolization and stylization of traditional landscape paintings in China on the basis of realistic landscape paintings formed in 1950s. In terms of formal characteristics, it is quite similar to the rise of impressionism after the peak of western realism. However, this is only a superficial similarity. Through the reorganization and re-creation of Zhang Zhijian's brushwork, ink method, calligraphy method and color method, what we see is a new language synthesis and a pursuit of greater freedom in expressing the mind. This is a new understanding and practice of the oriental freehand brushwork spirit. I think that Zhang Zhijian's "Auspicious Grassland Series" has grasped the law of the mutual development of pen and ink after years of practice and repeated exploration, and reached the realm of containing ink in the pen and seeing the pen in the ink, which also makes the conflicting eastern and western painting concepts "moistened in the west" integrated and brought into play in his works.
His "Lucky Grassland Series" further verified the openness of Chinese painting tradition and the vastness of development space, and strengthened our confidence in the development of Chinese painting, that is, the cultural significance of Chinese painting to all mankind in the new century. Here, Zhang Zhijian's persistent and dedicated artistic attitude and unremitting practice are still the only way to deepen the art of Chinese painting. Here, with the broad tradition of Chinese painting as the resource and the continuous deepening and innovation of artistic language as the driving force, we should be inspired by Zhang Zhijian's "Lucky Grassland Series" to find the cultural breakthrough point and unique expression of contemporary humanistic spirit. At the same time, he also set an unconventional and successful example to promote the development of China landscape painting.