People always think of Wu Zuoren, Lv Sibai and others when they mention Master Xu Beihong's high feet when he was teaching in the Art Department of Central University. Few people know that Xu Feng, who is the first graduate with them, is also a great painter who is proficient in Chinese and Western painting, but he died in Wuxi Luoshe Normal School because of his bad luck and difficult artistic career.
Xu Feng, whose name is Ren Zhai, whose word is Leshan, must have taken the meaning of Confucius' "benevolent Leshan", and his life can also be called "benevolent Leshan". 1900 was born in Changzhou, 19 18 and Qian Songnie founded the third normal school in Wuxi, Jiangsu. 1927 studied in the Art Department of Nanjing National Fourth Sun Yat-sen University (predecessor of Central University). It happened that Xu Beihong returned to China after studying in France for eight years and stayed in Shanghai temporarily. Forty-two art students admired this famous name and recommended Xu Feng and Ye to visit Shanghai to show their sincerity in welcoming the invitation. The next year, as expected, I was honored. When Xu Shi held a solo exhibition in France, he saw Xu Feng's oil painting "Self-portrait" before the exhibition, and felt that the color was harmonious and the momentum was generous. Xu Shi immediately decided to send this painting to the exhibition hall to be exhibited with his own works, which is a great honor. Later, Xu Feng was arranged by the school to take care of Xu Shi's studio and live in it, so she witnessed the teacher's creative process and sometimes acted as a model. In the large-scale oil painting "Tian Heng 500 Scholars", a look up and a look down at the top left is a sketch of Xu Feng's head.
During his stay in War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, Xu Feng drifted from place to place between Hunan, Guangxi, Jiangxi and Guizhou, looking at mountains and rivers and folk customs, taking it lightly and painting a lot. In the summer of 1943, a solo exhibition was held in Guiyang, and Xu Normal University was amazed. He wrote a poem "Sound is clear and strong", with a postscript: "Ren Zhai's younger brother has been painting landscapes recently, learning to be clear, using pen and ink, and his book is natural and enjoyable." The exhibition attracted more than 30,000 visitors in three days. The Central Daily once published a long commentary, praising "its structure and technique have been perfected". After 1946, Xu Fengdong returned to Wuxi Luoshe Normal School to teach. In the late 1950s, Qian Songnie strongly recommended him to join the Jiangsu Provincial Academy of Traditional Chinese Painting, but he failed for some reason. Since then, I have devoted myself to teaching, never forgetting to create, taking art as my life and working silently under difficult conditions.
Since 2000, Xu Feng's Centennial Birthday Exhibition and Xu Feng's Retrospective Exhibition of Painting and Calligraphy have been successfully held in Shanghai, Nanjing, Changzhou, Wuxi and other places, which once again attracted the attention of the art world and the vast number of painting and calligraphy lovers and had a wide influence. In 2008 and 20 10, Xu Feng's Painting Collection and Xu Feng's Painting and Calligraphy Collection were published by Jiangsu Fine Arts Publishing House and Shanghai People's Fine Arts Publishing House respectively. In 20 13, Xu Feng's family donated 53 representative works of Xu Feng in various periods to Wuxi Museum for free to build "Xu Feng Art Museum".
Looking at Mr. Xu Feng's works, it is on the basis of a deep understanding of traditional brushwork that Chinese paintings adhere to the principle of "learning from foreign teachers naturally and winning hearts from China" and create works with elegance, exquisite brushwork and far-reaching artistic conception. Their landscapes, flowers and birds, figure paintings, etc. You can sketch and dye at will, the brushwork is old and clever, the density is handled properly, the color and ink are depressed and full of layers. His superb skills and knowledge show that everything is not afraid of difficulties, and if he writes well, he will be angry. He was no stranger at first sight, but the more he looked at it, the more fascinated he became, and he got the mystery of Chinese painting. Teacher Xu Beihong, who draws horses, is a true biography, and his facial expression and dynamic posture have their own characteristics. Other fruits, vegetables and cabbages can be displayed incisively and vividly, either stained with ink or colored with double hooks.
Xu Feng's research on tradition can be described as continuous and profound. This batch of copying works is an excellent proof. Due to the limitation of economic conditions, the scale is not large, but we can see the great momentum in the middle school and convey the charm of the original work. For example, The Forest in the Song Dynasty, The Wind and Rain Return to the Boat and A Clear Tour in Xitang by Dai Jin in the Ming Dynasty, Xiqiao Ancient Wood and Jiangnan Spring by Wen Zhiming, Qiuci Goose Map by Tang Yin, Visiting Dai Tu on a Snowy Night by Zhou Wenjing, Landscape by Qing Dynasty, Endless Mountains by Xi Shi and Wang Shigu. Even in his eighties, he copied more than ten Liu Haisu's Sketches of Huangshan Mountain. On the other hand, he attached great importance to collecting wind and sketching in life and nature, leaving a large number of portraits of campus and countryside, as well as sketches of landscapes, flowers, birds and animals, all of which are lifelike. There are many pine trees, which are graceful and vigorous.
Xu Feng abides by Xu Shi's teaching that sketch is the foundation of plastic arts, and forged profound sketch attainments. Regardless of people, scenery and still life, the brushwork is concise and the modeling is vivid and vivid. During the period of 1943, Xu Feng sketched several "young girls" in the Miao area of Anshun, Guizhou, and sent them to Xu Shi for advice. The teacher immediately wrote back to praise "this work is excellent" and even said "I want to buy it". This can be said to be the highest reward. This painting has been included in the album of this book. In addition, the sketches of the same period, such as the young woman of the Zhong family rushing to the scene, the grandson of the worker and many scenery in Guizhou, and later sketches of still life, such as rain boots and rubber shoes, garlic clay pots, salted yellow croaker, Xuanwu Lake Liangzhou scenery, trackers and tree-lined bridges, are unforgettable. Its beauty lies in the integration of external form and internal spirit, and the light and shadow treatment is particularly unique. The sense of texture, volume and space of an object is vividly displayed in the simple relationship between black, white and gray and subtle level changes. Color sense is also Xu Feng's specialty. Its watercolor pen is smart and light, with soft and elegant colors, creating a fresh and natural artistic conception and interest in the change of light color. China's ink painting techniques can also be harmoniously applied to watercolor painting, adding oriental charm to the works. His early works, Night Crossing, Ancient Books, Pear Pot and Landscape Sketch, are pungent and novel. Mid-term works such as Bamboo Baskets and Peppers, Onion Oil Pan and Taihu Hotel are cautious and calm. Later works, such as Farmhouse, Celery and Carrot, are sophisticated and full of interest, and have the spirit of "doing whatever you want without overstepping the bounds". In particular, the simplicity of celery painting, the natural blank space and the use of root lines are amazing, which reminds people of his sketch "Salted Yellow Croaker" in 1973, which is a simple combination of black and white melody and lines. But both of them are sophisticated and seemingly careless, but they are the crystallization of lifelong artistic accomplishment.
Calligraphy and painting have the same origin and the same method, which is a unique artistic law in China. Xu Feng also has a deep foundation in calligraphy, especially cursive script. Most of the remaining calligraphy works are handwritten, sorted out from their handwriting, and not deliberately written. From these casual and practical notes, we can not only appreciate Xu Feng's simple and elegant calligraphy, but also see the hardships of his decades-long art education career. Except "An Introduction to China's Calligraphy and Painting" and "Selected Poems on Paintings", almost all of them are art textbooks-lectures on western painting, an outline of artistic anatomy, modern art trends and preliminary descriptions of characters. After reading these letters, Xu Feng's meticulous professionalism slowly faded from the natural and calm book style, and he was not emotional.
Ordinary and extraordinary Xu Feng has created a great deal of spiritual wealth in his 89-year life. His sketches are true sketches-not only the life of the object, but also the life of the subject, so his works are full of vitality.
Xu Feng's painting and calligraphy art is a kind of abandoned "silence". Xu Feng is a truly outstanding painter and art educator in the 20th century.
June 20 10 Shimenzhai, Jinling
Note: Ma Hongzeng, deputy director of the Theoretical Committee of China Artists Association, vice chairman of Jiangsu Literature Critics Association, researcher and former deputy curator of Jiangsu Art Museum.