Text/Mai An
I don't know if you have ever thought about reading landscape paintings, of course, large landscape paintings in a transparent container filled with clear water. If the works of the famous marine landscape painter Zhu Min can make you feel this way, I'm afraid you can't help being shocked and moved! As a viewer, the author is very sorry that we can only read Zhu Min's works in the exhibition hall that is not spacious, although we can still intuitively feel his pure pen and ink like black gold, the mystery and inner power behind the picture. However, the ultimate combination of nature and the power of pen and ink can only be realized through imagination.
Of course, Zhu Min's landscape charm is a long and stubborn process. Like many artists, he likes painting since he was a child, even obsessed with it. Parents like to cultivate their children's interest in art, but some things in life have to pay attention to talent and fate. When he was very young, Zhu Min's only hobby was to sit by the Suzhou River and draw small bridges and boats, and he never stopped drawing. In junior high school, he successfully entered the city's third girls' middle school. At that time, he was called the third middle school. Selected by the school art group, he began to study sketch, landscape sketch and oil painting with Guo Dajing. He made a small oil painting box himself and went to the park to sketch every Sunday. The study at this stage is the enlightenment of Zhu Min's study of fine arts. 1973, Zhu Min was promoted to the woodcarving major of Shanghai Arts and Crafts School. The basic courses in arts and crafts schools have a wide range of contents, including sketches, figures, landscapes, flowers and birds, sketches and so on. And Zhu Min received systematic art training. Fortunately, the school attaches great importance to experiencing life, and often takes students to sketch in shipyards, wrong places, mountainous areas, forest farms and other places, and develops the habit of learning from others. At the same time, Zhu Min is deeply infatuated with landscape painting and immersed in the charm of pen and ink. 1976, Zhu Min stayed in the Arts and Crafts School to teach and continue to create while teaching.
Later, he tried to take the college entrance examination, but he was not admitted because of his poor English. He hides a lot of depression in his heart and only seeks comfort in landscape paintings. 198 1 year, Zhu Min was sent to Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts for further study. During his two years in Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts, his tutor, Mr. Tong, especially praised him. Under his personal guidance, Zhu Min copied a large number of classic landscape works, paying special attention to the landscape in the Song and Yuan Dynasties. Mr. Tong Lao often demonstrates himself and teaches him to use pen and ink. At the same time, Zhu Min was fortunate to be personally guided by Mr. Lu, and had the opportunity to watch Mr. Lu's creation and feel the demeanor of a master. Lu Lao's emphasis on calligraphy, pen and ink, and off-painting kung fu gave Zhu Min great enlightenment. In Lu Lao's long book list, there are not only the theory of painting history, but also classical works, such as Xu Xiake's Travels and Meng Qian Bitan, which seem to have nothing to do with landscape painting, but actually improve the artist's creative skills. Zhu Min will study every book carefully, and his learning attitude has benefited him a lot. The tradition of Huang Jimo in Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts has become a direct example of Zhu Min's creation. He inherited Huang's pen and ink momentum and the combination of nature and landscape painting, and gradually formed a black gold landscape connected with Huang's black gold landscape. In addition, Zhu Min meticulously practiced the tradition of Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts to attach importance to the essence of teachers-from 198 1 to 1988. He almost traveled all over China and insisted on sketching and creating. Because Zhu Min has such solid academic learning experience and his thorough understanding of landscape, he gradually entered the landscape.
The "85 New Wave" has brought great impact to every painter in China, and Zhu Min is no exception. During his further study in Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts, his old classmate Gu Wenda was a graduate student in Chinese painting, and they often went to see Lu Lao's creation together. Gu Wenda's abstract ink painting also influenced Zhu Min's landscape creation. It is not difficult to see that Zhu Min's landscape not only embodies the charm of traditional pen and ink, but also expresses a state of mind. He was deeply influenced by Dali, a master of surrealism, and this influence was not superficial color, but internalized into creative ideas. The invisible tension and mystery we feel from the pictures of Zhu Min's works is largely due to its ingenious combination of surrealism and traditional landscape spirit. At present, many artists' contemporariness is based on visual impact such as schema and color, but their inner artistic expression needs are few. The contemporariness of Zhu Min's landscape painting is the inherent requirement of his artistic development.
200 1, Zhu Min was selected as the first advanced seminar of Shanghai China Painting Academy. This is very precious in Zhu Min's artistic course. There are many famous artists and the best artists in the Academy. Their artistic traditions give Zhu Min, who just joined the Academy, a good creative opportunity. The college organizes painters to experience life and create large-scale works in combination with major events. One of his masterpieces, Once in the Sea, won the "Excellent Works" award in the exhibition of the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Party in Shanghai. To celebrate the 60th anniversary of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression's victory, artists from the Academy of Painting went deep into Taihang Mountain area in Gansu Province and experienced life for two months. After returning to Shanghai, Zhu Min spent four months creating a 360cm*240cm scale "Past Events Like Smoke". Zhu Min's landscape is abstract, but it does not lose the traditional landscape spirit. In the exploration of form, he pays attention to the transparency and purity of ink color, and the superposition beauty and richness of schema; Ideologically, he pays attention to the expression of inner feelings. This kind of emotion includes anxiety about the future when I failed in the college entrance examination when I was young, sadness and pain when I was lovelorn, and even the feeling of facing an increasingly prosperous and impetuous world. "There are a thousand Hamlets for a thousand readers". I believe that different people will have different feelings when reading Zhu Min's black and gold landscapes with different emotions! Although we didn't have the opportunity to fully appreciate Zhu Min's works, we were fortunate enough to see the light of the landscape charm since Huang. So from this perspective, Zhu Min's artistic exploration is not so much a nugget as a spectator's mind.