The Jin and Tang Dynasties were the peak period of China's figure painting, which was Xu Jianrong's evaluation of painting history and the reference direction of his figure painting creation. He is steadfast in his academic and artistic ideas. After three visits to Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, I often came into contact with the works of Gu Kaizhi, Yan, Natalie, and other famous artists in Jin and Tang Dynasties, among which Li and Chen Hongshou were directly in Jin and Tang Dynasties. I sincerely admire their ethereal and lively line drawings, gorgeous colors and magnificent tolerance, and learn their creative techniques with both form and spirit.
Artistic function
At the same time, they are deeply impressed by the truth that people in Jin and Tang Dynasties "help the world if they are rich, and be immune to poverty", and think that such a mental state has undeniable significance and value in the construction of social spiritual civilization. Although most of these masterpieces are made by "craftsmen", including some famous works, they also reflect the painting creation concept of "craftsmen". This point has been quite disdained by literati painters since the Ming and Qing Dynasties. However, Xu Jianrong doesn't think so. He believes that the concept of literati painting has contributed to the development and evolution of Chinese painting diversification, but it is not desirable to take it as the only concept of Chinese painting creation and to deny the concept of "craftsman" painting, nor does it meet the requirements of diversification. Scribbled calligraphy games and self-expression of self-esteem can only be one of the diversity of Chinese painting, not the whole. Under the current social situation of quick success and instant benefit, impetuous people and lack of morality, we need to advocate a serious and dedicated creative attitude and artistic function of serving the society.
One's job
For this reason, Xu Jianrong drew lessons from the paintings of painters in Jin, Tang and Song Dynasties (including "artisan" paintings and formal paintings of literati). He wants to inherit the elegance of truth, goodness and beauty in Jin and Tang dynasties with his own brush, so as to make clear what is the work of a painter in a universal sense and what is the basic function of art in a universal sense. His paintings of Taoism, Buddhism, nobles and ladies strive to create an elegant or diluted posture, which is not only a continuation of the figure painting techniques in Jin and Tang Dynasties, but also a critical recognition of the principle of establishing people in Jin and Tang Dynasties: society is greater than individuals, not individuals are greater than society; Individuals are required to obey and serve society, not society to obey and serve individuals. For example, the painting "Dan Tao Gaoyi" borrows the allusions of "I am a melon" and "Longxing Emperor is not a Yuntai, why use a gust of wind from Tongjiang" to make a new evaluation of Dan Tao; Shangguan Wenyuan reminded Shangguan Waner's contribution to the cultural construction of the Tang Dynasty, not only as an attitude towards the past history, but also with practical significance.
Wei Zhi's Aesthetic Artistic Conception
Xu Jianrong once divided the aesthetic conception of traditional landscape painting into three parts: the beauty of the physical environment of the object, the beauty of the artistic conception of the subject and the beauty of the noumenon. Landscape painting in Song Dynasty pays attention to the beauty of physical environment, and at the same time promotes the beauty of artistic conception and pen and ink under the unified control of the beauty of physical environment. Landscape painting in Yuan Dynasty paid attention to the beauty of artistic conception, but at the same time weakened the beauty of objects and images and strengthened the beauty of pen and ink. Landscape painting in Ming and Qing dynasties focused on the beauty of pen and ink, but also played down the beauty of image environment and artistic conception. Although the three peaks have their own advantages and are irreplaceable, their meanings are parallel but unequal. The most enviable thing is the works of landscape painting forest in Song Dynasty. He learned Song from Mr. Xie and Mr. Wang. He also participated in the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties and occasionally borrowed Wang Meng from the Yuan Dynasty. On landscape painting, there has always been a debate between Song and Yuan Dynasties, and there is a saying that "Song painting depicts, Yuan painting scatters". And Wang Meng, also known as "the first painting in Yuan Dynasty", in other words, he is the closest to the Song people in Yuan Dynasty. Therefore, Xu Jianrong studied Wang Meng in order to learn from the Song people.
"Nature from the outside, heart from the inside" is the only way for Song people to create landscape paintings. However, the dry rocks are endless, the mountains and rivers are deep and flat, and there are endless reflections. Seeing the big guest and the enemy of martial law is the specific attitude of Song people in landscape creation, which is "camp, penetrate, increase and moisten, once and for all, once and for all, every picture must be restored and then finished". The so-called "painting a water in ten days, painting a stone in five days", bleak management, a strike after nine years of decay and so on. , is a summary of this creative attitude.
Practice and attitude
Xu Jianrong, a good man, traveled to famous mountains all his life. The infection of real landscape made him succumb to the typical landscape of the Song Dynasty, and devoted himself to completing his aesthetic feeling from real landscape with the practice and attitude of the Song Dynasty. How to make the painting method of "depiction" with image building as the major premise and pen and ink expression as the minor premise not become rigid and rigid because of rigor is his unremitting efforts. He regarded this exploration as a kind of hard labor and slavery, from which he realized the true meaning of the joy of benevolence and wisdom. Although he was the first person to reverse Dong Qichang's conviction in the hundred years since the Reform Movement of 1898, he did not fully agree with Dong's idea of "taking painting as pleasure" instead of "taking painting as service". His landscape painting creation is both "taking painting as pleasure" and "taking painting as service". What "delights" is the result, and what "suits" is the process. Therefore, under the premise of firmly believing that "accumulated robbery may not succeed", he insisted on the efforts of "accumulated robbery will succeed".
(Wei Zhi) Flower-and-bird painting, like landscape painting, reached its peak in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, which is an evaluation of Xu Jianrong's painting history and a reference for his creation. But his earliest learning experience of flower-and-bird painting was from freehand brushwork to freehand brushwork. Therefore, seeing that his paintings are beautifully decorated, they are both physical, material and material, and they can grasp the spirit of nature and move. Looking back at his early works, he is careless and does not seek the shape, and there is a kind of depravity in existence. Few people will believe that this is caused by one hand.
The spirit of the Song people sketching flowers and birds, meticulous description techniques and fresh and elegant artistic conception attracted Xu Jianrong's attention. He not only copied a large number of famous paintings of the Song Dynasty, but also planted various flowers for painting. In today's world, likeness is placed above likeness, which is essentially used as an excuse to belittle likeness, subjectivity over objectivity, subjectivity over technology, and spirituality as an excuse to belittle technology, which has become a special landscape.
When it comes to flowers and birds in the Song Dynasty, most people often call them "meticulous brushwork". Xu Jianrong disagreed with this understanding and his practical experience. In fact, his creation of learning the style of painting in the Song Dynasty does not belong to the category of "meticulous brushwork", but is called "meticulous freehand brushwork". This painting method follows the principle of "overall grasp and gradual deepening" and has strict regularity, but the specific use of pens and colors is quite satisfactory. This understanding of Song people's painting methods made the freehand brushwork techniques he mastered in his early years seamlessly integrated into today's neat creation.
At the same time, when he learned freehand brushwork in his early years, because he knew that the exquisiteness of freehand brushwork lay not only in its superficial brushwork form, but also in the painter's profound "separation from painting" and "beauty", he devoted himself to the study of poetry, calligraphy and seal cutting for a long time. The "three musts" and "four musts" of poems, books, paintings and seals were originally the patents of literati's freehand brushwork, but they have been missing in modern freehand brushwork, but they have been continued in Xu Jianrong's meticulous brushwork. Therefore, his flower-and-bird creation is different from freehand brushwork and meticulous painting. In his own words: "Painting is based on the system of many works in Tang and Song Dynasties, and poetry is based on the style of poets in Tang and Song Dynasties. Although it is not good, it can preserve the original method of poetry and painting. " Therefore, it is different from the original method of "painting with the pen of Ming and Qing literati and poetry with the words of Ming and Qing painters"
(Wei Zhi) In China, it has always been said that painting and calligraphy are of the same origin, so that "painting is calligraphy", "calligraphy is the most important foundation of Chinese painting" and "an excellent painter is an excellent calligrapher first" have become common sense about traditional painting and calligraphy. However, Xu Jianrong is not.
Understand "painting and calligraphy are homologous" in this way. He thinks that books and paintings can be the same or different in technique, but only in principle. It was on this premise that he understood the relationship between calligraphy and painting, and based on the "painting-based method", he borrowed the skills of calligraphy.
There are two kinds of calligraphy: rubbings, just as painting is freehand and neat. Modern calligraphy is still about monuments, just as painting is still about freehand brushwork. However, Xu Jianrong's works focus on the study of calligraphy, especially on Chu Suiliang, Ni Yunlin and Dong Qichang. He is good at writing small regular script and small running script. Because whether it's inscriptions on his paintings or self-made poems, small letters and small running scripts are the most suitable styles. From this, we can get a glimpse of the style characteristics of Chu, Ni and Dong, which makes them look elegant and bookish.
He began to write cursive script in Chinese characters and big characters, but Xie and Xie got a glimpse of Dong Huating from their calligraphy style, and at the same time he devoted himself to freehand brushwork, calligraphy and composition. As for the cultivation of traditional culture, it is unexpectedly reflected in his calligraphy creation, which is his unique style, which is different from ordinary calligraphers who only win by pen and ink skills. This shows that Xu Jianrong's emphasis on painting, including calligraphy, is not to deny cultural accomplishment other than painting and calligraphy. He just denied that painters and calligraphers without cultural accomplishment used the important "life" of "off-book kung fu" and "off-painting kung fu" as an excuse to deny and replace basic skills. This is a bit like Jin Yong's "the legendary swordsman", in which "the disciple of Qi Sect is high in fencing and the disciple of Jian Sect is high in qigong". In fact, he has rich traditional culture. Although the teacher stays in Confucianism, he is also called a wizard. This accomplishment is not only reflected in his paintings, including meticulous brushwork and freehand brushwork, but also in his calligraphy.