Thoughts on reading Xiong Qixiong's long scroll of Chinese painting "China Hakka Village Residential Map"
( 1)
When it comes to the creation of contemporary China landscape painting, it can be summed up by the words "mixed happiness and sorrow". People who are so-called "happy" should admit that since the founding of New China for more than half a century, there has been an unprecedented free and relaxed environment for contemporary China landscape painting creation. The older generation of landscape painters are young, while the younger generation of landscape painters are full of vigor and vitality in artistic creation, constantly producing some excellent works that leave a good impression on people; The so-called "worrying about the sky" means that there is a kind of "popular landscape painting" similar to the "popular calligraphy" in the calligraphy field in China. For example, restoring the popular landscape painting style of "Four Kings" is cloned from Huang's "popular landscape painting style". Some landscape paintings flaunt "innovation", saying that pen and ink skills are lacking, the pictures are dry, there is no sense of life, artistic beauty and cultural taste. Appreciating those works is disgusting! Some landscape painters don't really understand the tradition, so they can't get in as advocated by Mr. Li Keran, and of course the more they can't get out, the better. Some landscape painters changed "learning from nature" into the works of predecessors and today's landscape painters as a model for imitation and plagiarism. What's more, over the years, perhaps it's because Chinese painting is "priced by foot". Whether it is flowers and birds, figures or landscape paintings, whether the theme is needed or not, it is getting bigger and bigger, but it is too big. Under the impetuous background of contemporary China art world, I think it is of great practical significance to read and evaluate Xiong Qixiong, a famous landscape painter, and his long scroll of Chinese painting "Hakka Village in China".
(2)
A few days ago, Xiong Qixiong called from Meizhou and said that he retired in 2002. It took him nearly ten years and traveled tens of thousands of miles to and from Hakka mountain villages in western Fujian, southern Jiangxi and eastern Guangdong several times. On the basis of in-depth investigation and study of sketching, I carefully studied the long scrolls of ancient and modern Chinese paintings such as Wan Li on the Yangtze River, Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival and Fuchun Shan Jutu. I hope to write a short article and publish a picture album for him. Xiong Qixiong sent relevant graphic materials by express delivery. After reading Xiong Qixiong's "China Hakka Village Dwellings Map", I feel refreshed. The Hakka villages in real life are very beautiful. The Hakka villages in Xiong Qixiong's paintings are even more beautiful than those in real life, and they are integrated with natural landscapes and complement each other. Xiong Qixiong, like the ancients commenting on landscape painting, carefully sublimated the natural beauty of Hakka villages in real life into the artistic beauty of "seeing, traveling and living". The whole picture presents the Lingnan landscape style with spring-like seasons, lush Shan Ye and moist air. The picturesque rural scenery of Hakka mountain village and the natural and humanistic beauty of harmony between man and nature have been transformed into the beauty of artistic image by Xiong Qixiong with his profound artistic skill, amazing perseverance and energy after several years of hard work, solidified in a giant picture scroll of more than 300 meters.
(3)
Hakka is a Han nationality who migrated from the ancient "Central Plains" area to avoid the war disaster, and gradually settled in southern Jiangxi, western Fujian, eastern Guangdong and other places, forming a Han nationality with similar language, customs and human history handed down by ancestors. Most Hakkas live in remote mountainous areas and relatively poor and backward areas. Therefore, there is a saying that "every mountain must have a guest, and no guest does not live in the mountain". In the process of migration, Hakkas formed admiration and worship for clans and ancestors; Formed awe and worship of mountains and rivers; Formed a livable environment that deliberately pursues the creation of nature. Hakka people attach great importance to the choice and protection of natural geographical environment when building their homes, and metropolises choose places with good geomantic omen as their residence sites. Hakka ancestral hall, with huge columns on the eaves, is solemn and solemn, and ancient trees will be widely planted around it to provide shade for future generations; In eastern Guangdong, a "Longwei" combining ancestral houses and ancestral halls has gradually formed, with a large scale, a cylindrical interior and a symmetrical central axis. The descendants of the family have lived for hundreds of years! Therefore, I cherish and respect the environment around my ancestral home, and cherish ancient trees, huge rocks, springs and intersections, old wells and rivers, all of which are revered as "Bo Gong" gods worshipped in the four seasons ... so many ancient villages with beautiful environment and pleasant life have been passed down from generation to generation. These ancient dwellings bear the humanistic codes of ancient Han ancestors handed down by Hakkas in the Central Plains, from which many famous revolutionaries, militarists, scientists, writers, artists, overseas Chinese industrialists, businessmen and rural sages have emerged who have written the history of modern civilization.
Judging from the relationship between architecture and nature, Hakka dwellings in China, including Tuwei Building, Square Building and Dragon House, are one of the five characteristic dwellings in China. Xiong Qixiong's "China Hakka Village Dwellings Map" is a landscape masterpiece, which focuses on the houses and environment where Hakka people live in the mountainous areas of Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi. In order to create this long scroll of landscape painting, Xiong Qixiong traveled to and from the mountainous areas of western Fujian, southern Jiangxi and eastern Guangdong for many times to inspect sketches and collect creative materials. Through in-depth investigation, he was surprised to find that these areas were the central Soviet areas where President Mao Zedong and Commander-in-Chief Zhu De led the Red Army to fight bloody battles. From Gutian in western Fujian to Jinggangshan in Jiangxi, from Ruijin to Meixian, Xingning and Tai Po, the Red Army has left its footprints everywhere. Many Hakka houses and ancestral temples have been used as the headquarters of the Red Army leaders and command organs! It also left great men such as Chairman Mao's admiration for Hakka dwellings! It can be seen that these Hakka ancient dwellings with historical and cultural value are qualified as revolutionary cultural relics and ancient buildings with historical protection value! And this also adds a sense of responsibility and creative motivation to Xiong Qixiong!
(4)
Xiong Qixiong made great efforts in art and created a map of Hakka villages in China. Experts in the industry know that China's landscape paintings, especially those with huge scrolls, will encounter a problem of "reality is easy but virtual is difficult" when dealing with the artistic effect of the pictures. The imaginary place is by no means a blank that ordinary people think will be finished. Xiong Qixiong is bold and original in dealing with the "blank connection" of long scrolls! The "cloud separation method" is the most widely used, and the best treatment method is "wet dyeing method to draw boneless clouds". The method of one thick and one thin boneless is skillfully used to draw clouds at a time until all the colors and moisture contained in the pen are used up, so that the clouds are dyed in one go, and the drawn clouds are heavy, light and dynamic, and the shapes are ever-changing. On the screen of the Hakka village in China, which is more than 300 meters long, each transition paragraph has specific modeling content. Secondly, the "scene fading method" is used to blur, that is, the smoke between the mountain color and the scene is skillfully used to cover the partition. These parts must emphasize space with the realism and density of close-range view. Make the transition part of the scene change naturally and comfortably.
Secondly, the division and connection method of shrub plants is adopted, which is a "real but empty" treatment method used in the creation of long scrolls of landscape painting. In order to skillfully handle the composition of long scrolls of landscape paintings, it is often necessary to use a group of beautifully assembled trees to balance the connection of scenes and move the scenery behind them. In order to make the composition of the long scroll of China Hakka Villages and Dwellings vivid and diverse, Xiong Qixiong carefully designed the artistic effect of each scene when composing the long scroll, and painted many trees with strong sense of life, natural and flexible shapes and beautiful shapes with gorgeous pen and ink when drawing details! When people appreciate these trees in Xiong Qixiong's long scrolls, they can be seen that they are drawn by artists from life and processed according to the needs of composition. For example, in the section of the former residence of Lin Fengmian in Baijia County, the author arranges the ancient litchi trees on both sides of the Baijiahe River in front of the former residence into the picture, and depicts them through the combination of trees, revealing an atmosphere of blaming others, which will add some associative factors to the audience when they see Lin Fengmian's former residence (according to local elders, this tree can only grow here, but it will not grow if it is moved elsewhere! )。 This group of trees is sketched! There are bamboo, citrus pomelo forest, pine tree and big banyan tree, which are almost symbols of Hakka villages. They are consciously and skillfully organized into the picture by Xiong Qixiong, which not only relieves people's visual fatigue of the straight line of houses in sight, but also increases the flexible and vivid contrast changes in the picture.
In traditional landscape painting, trees are an extremely important part of the picture. Ancient landscape painters made great efforts to describe trees. While appreciating and marveling at the magical beauty of the images of trees they saw in nature, ancient painters also drew their sketches in tens of thousands! With the help of the growth characteristics of trees, give full play to pen and ink skills. In Xiong Qixiong's landscape paintings, he fully demonstrated his skillful pen and ink skills and solid tree painting skills! He paints trees so easily. The trees in Xiong Qixiong's "China Hakka Village Dwellings Map" have different shapes, graceful posture, vitality and interest. Tracing back to the source, we can see that when studying in the Landscape Department of Chinese Painting Department of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in the 1960s, the second generation of Lingnan Painting School "caught up with the Song and Yuan Dynasties" in the study to teach Xiong Qixiong's "Lee Tree Method". Mr Li Xiongcai draws trees. Xiong Qixiong drew a tree, and got the true biography of the elder Li. It is a "tree in the chest", and he took it without hesitation! Passion is full of paper and spirit is flying! The trees in the long scroll of "China Hakka Village Dwellings" are the places where Xiong Qixiong shows his pen and ink and skills. In addition, Xiong Qixiong paid great attention to collecting image data of trees around the house when he went to various places for field trips. Xiong Qixiong has a soft spot for trees!
When Xiong Qixiong created a long scroll, he adopted the method of translating and changing the scene interval, so that he could easily combine scenes from miles, dozens or even hundreds of miles away in the long scroll, which was very natural and vivid. Enhance the coherence of the content of the picture, and let the whole picture of China Hakka Villages and Dwellings give people a magnificent feeling of standing to the end! In the picture processing, we attach great importance to taking advantage of the situation from a distance, taking quality from a close look, meticulous work in reality and meticulous work in vain, so as to make it have intriguing artistic effects. Let the viewer reluctantly stop before each paragraph of text and seriously appreciate and read the artistic effect of the picture.
In terms of expression techniques, Xiong Qixiong adopts the technique of sketching and realism, seeking techniques and effects in realism! Insist on using ink in Chinese painting and endow it with appropriate colors to achieve a unified effect. Strive to make the picture of China Hakka Village Dwellings show a simple, true, natural, vivid, graceful and elegant artistic effect, which not only pays attention to the lyricism of traditional pen and ink, but also emphasizes that it is a brand-new modern landscape painting!
In modeling, we strive to make farmhouses, miscellaneous trees and jungles, Shan Ye streams and floating clouds appear in the picture, all of which reveal the beauty in reality!
(5)
After Xiong Qixiong's "China Hakka Village Dwellings Map" was completed, it appeared in Meizhou, his hometown, and was exhibited in Shenzhen Special Economic Zone. Later, it was exhibited in Jinan, Shandong Province this autumn, which aroused widespread concern in society and was widely praised by the art world. Lin Yong, former vice chairman of China Artists Association and chairman of Guangdong Artists Association, said: "Xiong Qixiong was a late bloomer, and the good Xiong Qixiong painted such a great thing with the spirit of' grinding a sword for ten years'.
Yin Dingbang, a master of China design, a famous oil painter, former vice president of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts and dean of the School of Design, said: "Xiong Qixiong, who was simple and low-key when he was a student, really painted the Hakka village in China very well, making people feel that the Hakka village in reality is beautiful, while the picture of the Hakka village in China painted by Xiong Qixiong is more beautiful!"
When Qiu Jin was exhibited in Jinan, it received rave reviews and caused repercussions in the local art world. As Mr. Wu Zehao, the former vice chairman of Shandong Artists Association and a famous painter, said, Mr. Xiong Qixiong's long scroll "Residential Map of Hakka Villages in China", which is drawn with fervent mind, broad mind and clever pen, will surely become a masterpiece of Hakka painting and a glorious chapter in the history of Hakka culture.
Professor Lin Lan, a famous young painter and director of the scientific research department of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, blurted out: "Unique in the world! Some painters as old as Xiong Shu have this ability, but they can't have the energy to paint like Xiong Shu. And we young people have energy, but we have no ability to draw. Uncle Xiong did it, it was absolutely wonderful! " When the creator's artistic skills and strength are well combined with the author's perseverance and energy, it is possible to condense a brilliant artistic miracle! What's more, in the history of China painting, many classic works handed down from generation to generation are works created by painters in their later years. Only by accumulating their artistic skills and knowledge literacy to a certain extent can traditional painters in China reach the so-called "perfect state", gather their life feelings in artistic creation with a more peaceful mind and present their pictures incisively and vividly! Qian Haiyuan
(The writer of this article is Qian Haiyuan, a famous art critic and sculptor. He is currently a member of the theoretical committee of China Artists Association and the former vice chairman of Hunan Artists Association. )