Liang Shunian, a professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, is a late bloomer who follows this creative law. In his creative career of more than 60 years, he has been working quietly, regardless of fame and fortune, and obsessed with his painting ideals. He was open-minded, and every little makes a mickle, and finally reached the peak of his career in his later years, becoming a master of contemporary Chinese painting. His success once again proves that artistic innovation should learn from the ancients, tradition and nature, and change the old into the new. It also proves that art is the sublimation of the artist's life spirit.
19 1 1 year, Liang Shunian was born in a merchant family in Liulitun, the eastern suburb of Beijing. However, Liang Shunian, who was smart, studious and enterprising since childhood, took a completely different road from his parents.
Liang Jia has been in business for several generations and has a rich collection, especially the original paintings and calligraphy of Si Wang and Shi Tao. Grandfather often appreciates them and encourages Liang Shunian to write them. As time went on, Liang Shunian became interested in calligraphy and painting. At the age of 6, Liang Shunian entered the private school in the village to receive the enlightenment education of traditional culture. From then on, he loved China's traditional calligraphy and painting more, which can represent the spirit of China's traditional culture. Later, I took the old gentleman in the village as my teacher and began to take the road of painting. 18 years old, went to town to study landscape painting. A few years later (1936), Liang Shunian started his own business and named it NO. Dou Cun established Dou Cun Painting Society and held his first personal exhibition in Zhongshan Park. Since then, there have been exhibitions in spring and autumn every year, and their fame is getting bigger and bigger. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Zhang Daqian went north to meet Liang Shunian in Beijing. Previously, Zhang Daqian had purchased and collected two works by Liang Shunian Doucun Painting Society. He admired Liang Shunian's paintings, and Liang Shunian also admired Mr. Zhang Daqian, thinking that he had a deep foundation, a wide painting path and was innovative. Introduced by a friend, Liang Shunian officially accepted Zhang Daqian as his teacher and became a formal disciple of Dafeng Hall. Recalling this period of history, Liang Shunian said: "I worshipped Mr. Daqian as a teacher, mainly to broaden my horizons. I also learned the teacher's technique, but I never learned it. In the end, I am still the same. Learn to draw, draw, be independent and have personality ... "Liang Shunian is a spirit of self-reliance. Liang Shunian made greater efforts to study the ancients and traditions. He studied landscape painting, starting from the Ming and Qing Dynasties and catching up with the last Yuan Dynasty. Every time I meet a masterpiece, I don't let it go. I copied it by hand until I understood it. Liang Shunian also made great efforts in calligraphy. Mr. Huang said that calligraphy and painting are in the same strain, and they all come from books with pens. Painting depends entirely on the pen, which can penetrate the paper. So calligraphy is the foundation of Chinese painting. Liang Shunian studied calligraphy first, then the Soviet Union and Europe, and then Wei Bei. After several changes, it gradually formed its own style. Mr. Wang paints with books, takes pens as lines, and has a full backbone. With solid foundation and profound knowledge, Liang Shunian has the reputation of "poetry and painting calligraphy". Therefore, Mr. Li Keran said, "Mr. Liang Shunian's paintings are very deep in pen and ink, showing the momentum of nature with a pen. People without pen and ink skills can't write. "
From Mr. Liang's early works, we can see the origin of his painting skills. Guan Pu Xue Tu is a small picture of green landscape, which is similar to Dong Qichang's brushwork, and its color setting and brushwork are quite accurate. "Watching Spring" is elegant, elegant in color, decorated with pens, and clear in brushwork. Among the landscape masters of past dynasties, Mr. Liang especially favored Wang Meng and Shi Tao and was deeply influenced by them. The opening of 13 painted by Liang Lao in 1950s is all ink and wash landscapes. Wang Meng and Shi Tao are often used, and their pens are light and moist, which is deeply loved by experts. Mr Huang Runhua stood in front of the painting for a long time, amazed. This album is collected by China Art Museum.
Rich traditional culture has laid a solid foundation for innovation. The real artistic innovation is the creation of learning from nature, facing life directly and keeping close to the pulse of the times.
As early as 1960s, Liang Shunian basically got rid of the early creative mode and began to face life, from learning from the ancients to learning from nature. His change is due to the background of the times. The wave of realism, which began in 1930s, reached its peak in 1950s and 1960s and became the mainstream of China painting at that time. Facing life directly, learning from nature and sketching landscapes have become the common practice of landscape painters. Old painters also changed their ideas and turned to nature. But Liang Shunian's transformation is his consciousness after nearly 30 years of artistic practice. He realized that "learning from the ancients is not as good as learning from nature" and "hating waking up late". Especially during this period, Liang Shunian successively transferred to Beijing Academy of Fine Arts and Central Academy of Fine Arts to teach, which provided the necessary practical conditions for him to go deep into life and learn from nature to realize his own creative transformation.
The change of the concept of "learning from the ancients and learning from nature" means that Liang Shunian's landscape painting creation has entered an important turning point. However, the change of concept can not replace the change of creative face, which requires a process and a process of hard exploration. As Liang Shunian himself said: "Although I am eager to change my course, I can't get rid of snail armor, and I feel that my ancestors are the first."
In the early 1970s, Liang Shunian was transferred back to Beijing from the cadre school to paint for the general office of the State Council. At that time, he was over 60 years old and determined to travel to Beijing and embark on a new journey of artistic change. 1972, Liang Shunian boarded Huangshan Mountain for the first time and realized his dream of Huangshan Mountain for many years. Then he went to Taihang, Three Gorges and Lijiang River, and traveled all over the country. Zhuang toured the mountains and rivers of the motherland and enjoyed the beautiful scenery of China. His mood fluctuated and his masterpiece turned over.
Most of Liang Shunian's works after 1970s are based on real landscapes. The landscapes of Yanshan Mountain, Taihang Mountain, Huangshan Mountain, Yangtze River and Lijiang River all come from the painter's real feelings about nature. For example, People on the River (1983), Starting with a Peng Feng (198 1), Black Tiger Pine in Huangshan Mountain (1983) and Dongshan Yacht (1986). It is the melting and casting of the painter's emotion and life, and even the nature depicted by the painter at this time is not the real nature, but the nature in the heart-the second nature full of humanistic ideals and the spirit of the times.
It can be seen that Liang Shunian's artistic creation is different from the popular "sketching-creating" method for a period of time, and it is more based on and close to the traditional artistic creation spirit. He inherited the creative method of traditional landscape painting "full view tour" His concept of sketch is quite different from that of many people. He seldom sketched when he went to nature, and even painting was simple. Instead, we mainly observe, feel and understand the situation of mountains and rivers, the weather of the four seasons, the turn of yin and yang, the distance and reality ... to discover the beauty of nature, to observe the charm of mountains and rivers and trees, and to stimulate creative inspiration. "When sketching, write the soul, and the soul wins the truth. Things are opposite to me, and the text has its own god. " "People call Huangshansong God, but I call Huang Shanyun the soul. Huangshan is my teacher and friend. Is pen and ink a photo? " These two poems by Liang Shunian are highly vivid summaries of his experience of "sketching". The so-called "writing the soul" is to capture the beauty of life and nature contained in everything. Only this kind of beauty of life and nature can make people feel moved, create artistic conception and create impulse, so as to forget things and write. So "writing the soul" captures the essence of "sketching-creating". Liang Shunian wrote in Postscript of the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River (1988): "Ten years ago, I traveled to and from the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, and the ship was too fast to see anything. I was in the scene and didn't see the whole picture. So, I stopped several times when I went back to the shore, so I can still remember one thing. When I came back, I didn't know how to remember. I only made a first draft, so I put pen to paper, but I never forgot this wish. 1January, 988, Ding Mao was in the twelfth lunar month, and under the quiet fasting in Xiaozhuang's new residence, he picked up manuscripts and filled them in the morning and evening. A three-day manuscript is even more fabricated. The appearance of this book is completely unrecognizable. Why do you want to call it the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, deceiving yourself? " The humorous postscript vividly depicts the whole process of the painter's full enjoyment of recumbent swimming, and also points out the characteristics of the painter's artistic creation: he does not treat life with a naturalistic attitude, but learns from the spirit, perceives life, and then expresses his feelings with landscape language symbols. It is very enlightening to read.
Mr. Li Keran said in a conversation with a landscape painting research class on 1980: "Some people paint very well, but they never sketch. This is possible, and sometimes things will end in the same way. Maybe he observed something and studied tradition. " Liang Shunian was a great man. He reached the same goal through various channels. Different from fashion, he learned from nature not by sketching, but by sticking to the traditional way of "seeing enough before traveling". For a long time, people have paid too much attention to pen and ink skills in learning and inheriting traditions, but lacked spiritual understanding. They didn't study the traditional methods of observation and creation enough, and some even once dismissed them as unscientific.
At the beginning of this century, the introduction of western realism and the implementation of realistic methods undoubtedly brought vigorous vitality to the declining China painting circle, which was positive on the whole. However, due to the limitation and narrow understanding of this theory, it also has a negative impact on the development of Chinese painting. Reviewing Liang Shunian's creative process, summarizing his observation, creative methods and successful creative experience once again proves the strong vitality of China's painting tradition, and proves that only by standing on the tradition, going deep into it and being close to it in spirit can we create great works with both national characteristics and the spirit of the times.
Liang Shunian has a deep traditional foundation. He not only combines poetry, calligraphy and painting, but also has very high attainments in painting theory. With his extensive cultivation and high understanding, as soon as he returned to nature, he showed great creative enthusiasm and created a large number of works with strong background of the times. His intention of painting mountains is not in mountains, water, and sloppy painting, but in the lyricism of objects, he uses scenery to express a broad spirit of advocating nature, despising secularism, striving for life and progress. Liang Shunian loved painting mountain pines all his life.
At the age of 85, Mr. Liang Shunian wrote a poem entitled "Self-discipline", in which he wrote: "Children are too lazy to daub, but want to jump over it. It is not easy to know after learning, but it is impossible to sigh for ten years. The horse is long and old, eager for advice, and the water is exhausted. With sincerity, there is no future. In case of confusion, don't give up easily, but turn a deaf ear. With fangs like stars, I attack with stones. Pen and ink poured down one after another, poetic and picturesque, and tolerant. Mountains and hills, the clouds have peaked. " In plain language, this word tells the painter's hard course of studying and pursuing art all his life, and expresses his spirit of forging ahead for thousands of miles and his ideal and pursuit of managing people's art. It is exciting to read.