Abstract: Large freehand paintings are painted in cursive script, which embodies the Chinese people’s unique view of shape and realm. Freehand painting is both a highly self-conscious art and a highly selfless art. Being self-conscious and self-forgetting may seem contradictory, but they are actually unified. Only by consciously pursuing the unique realm of freehand painting can we truly carry forward this majestic art of undressing.
Keywords: freehand painting; self; no-self
The freehand painting uses cursive script to paint, which embodies the Chinese people's unique view of shape and realm. Freehand painting is both a highly egoistic art and a highly selfless art. Being self-conscious and self-forgetting may seem contradictory, but they are actually unified. Only by consciously pursuing the unique realm of freehand painting can we truly carry forward this majestic art of undressing. Freehand painting; self; no self. In essence, Chinese paintings are freehand. The so-called meaning refers to the spirit and image of external objects felt in the subject's heart. Zong Bing's so-called "smoothing the spirit", Wang Wei's so-called "indulgence", and Zhang Hong's so-called "getting the heart" all emphasize that painting should express images containing emotions in the heart. "Freehand brushwork" as the aesthetic core of Chinese painting was directly put forward in the Northern Song Dynasty. For example, Ouyang Xiu proposed that "the meaning of painting is not the shape", and Su Shi proposed that "when discussing painting, it is similar to the shape, and it is related to children." The thoughts of these giants in the art world profoundly influenced The development direction of later paintings. Painters of the Yuan Dynasty theoretically put forward the concept of writing. For example, Tang Gao's "Hua Quan" said: "Paint plums to write plum blossoms, paint bamboos to write bamboos, and paint orchids to write orchids. Why? Cover flowers. The most important thing is that the painting should be based on the intention, not the shape of the ear." After the Ming Dynasty, this freehand aesthetic idea has gradually developed and matured into the great freehand painting school that has been passed down from generation to generation in the history of painting.
Freehand painting is divided into small freehand painting and large freehand painting. Large freehand painting highlights a big character, which does not refer to large pens and large paper. Greatness in talent is always relative, but lies in the spiritual realm. The pen and ink are bold. Only if you can write large-scale landscapes or flowers and birds in small paintings can you show the characteristics of freehand brushwork. Freehand painting is a "reduced stroke painting", which is closely integrated with the cursive script in calligraphy, and some even use wild cursive writing in the painting. Li Kuchan once said: "The highest art should be cursive calligraphy." Qi Baishi once humbly recalled: "The regret in my life is that I have not reached the point of painting in cursive calligraphy." "Cursive cursive" is the most difficult to master in Chinese calligraphy. This kind of calligraphy is also the most difficult to achieve a state of freedom and majesty. Chinese freehand painting is also a superb painting style and an extraordinary painting realm. The essence of Chinese calligraphy and painting art lasts forever and has eternal charm. The fundamental spirit of freehand painting shows the crystallization of the artistic wisdom of the Chinese nation.
As early as the Song Dynasty, Liang Kai had a wild and bohemian nature. He boldly changed the style with broad brushstrokes, thick and light ink, and a concise and bold stroke reduction style, creating a new style of freehand painting. Among the painters of the past dynasties, Xu Wei is the representative figure who can give full play to the spirit of freehand brushwork. Because of his ups and downs in life and his extraordinary talent, he has a unique artistic temperament. In the increasingly mature freehand language and aesthetic system of the middle and late Ming Dynasties, Xu Wei raised the expressive ability of pen and ink to an unprecedented level. He uses calligraphy to paint, especially using wild cursive brushwork. He moves the brush like flying and freely, using large pieces of ink and lines to combine it. The splash of ink is smooth and ever-changing, making the picture seamless and reaching a state where the traces are simple and the meaning is far-reaching, and the transcendental realm is achieved. Xu Wei is passionate and unrestrained. Although he is crazy and rational, he can control it freely and give full play to the spirit of freehand brushwork. One of his poems goes like this: "After half a lifetime, I have become an old man, and my independent study whistles in the evening breeze. There is nowhere to sell the pearls in my pen, and I throw them into the wild vines." This poem profoundly reflects the ups and downs of the painter's personal destiny. Emotional bruises. Although large-scale and freehand paintings can be carried away with one's own form, it is impossible to be completely carried away by one's self. "Independent study", "Pearl under the pen" and "Idle and idle" vividly reflect Xu Wei's self-image in real life. The image of grapes dripping with ink is almost the embodiment of a conceited, cynical, crazy and helpless painter. .
Qi Baishi, the master of modern freehand painting, uses highly concise pen and ink to write the spirit of flowers and express life for all things, including poems, calligraphy, paintings and seals. He combined the unrestrainedness of literati paintings and the meticulousness of Song Dynasty paintings to create a simple and rich art world, forming another peak of freehand painting.
Freehand painting focuses on the expression of spiritual enlightenment and does not focus on the true reproduction of physical appearance. Freehand painting emphasizes spirit. This spirit is not only the painter's personal personality, but also the great freedom and liberation in communication with the spirit of heaven and earth.
Therefore, while freehand painting emphasizes the expression of the artist's true feelings, it must also emphasize wandering around all things and grasping the ever-changing rhythm of the objective world as a whole, without being bound by physical phenomena such as time and space, appearance, light and color, and perspective. It is the extremely high state of unity between man and nature that Chinese culture pursues. The unity of nature and man is both a state of self and a state of no-self. The unity of self and non-self is the realm of freehand painting. The essence of freehand painting is to dare to transcend the objective world of objects and express the human spirit and the feelings of the universe. It is a kind of consciousness of life.
As early as the Tang Dynasty, the landscape painter Zhang Hong put forward the idea that "the external teacher creates nature, and the inner source is the source of the heart." The word "heart source" refers to the inner cultivation of the painter; it is derived from the "heart source". The "mental image" produced is the modeling concept of freehand painting. The art of calligraphy and painting contains the essence, energy, and spirit of heaven, earth, and people, and includes multi-layered meanings of humanity, imagery, and personality. The so-called "hibiscus emerges from clear water, and natural carvings are removed", this is such a high artistic realm!
Summarizing long-term artistic experience, I believe that freehand painters must do three things well:
1. Cultivation of the mind: Art is the crystallization of spiritual understanding between people and the world. The level, elegance, change, form, etc. of the artistic works are all reflections of the painter's spirit and mentality. "Painting is a painting from the heart." Freehand painting is an art of self-expression for the painter. As soon as the painter puts pen to paper, his self is in it. What kind of paintings you have will be what you have, so it is crucial to cleanse your soul and strengthen your self-cultivation. Generally speaking, an artist should have an independent and bright personality and a certain degree of super-utilitarian and free mentality in order to create extraordinary works of art.
2. Study: Painters must have profound cultural accomplishment. The so-called traveling thousands of miles is not difficult today, but it requires reading thousands of books, which is something contemporary painters lack. Browsing various ancient and modern Chinese and foreign documents and inheriting traditions are ways to improve cultural accomplishment and are also compulsory subjects for cultivating spiritual realm. To a certain extent, it can be said that it was his comprehensive and rich academic training that made Xu Wei an outstanding painter and a model scholar-artist in the middle and late Ming Dynasty. Zhang Dai, a great scholar in the Song Dynasty, once said, "Establish a mind for the heaven and earth, establish a destiny for the people, inherit the unique knowledge for the saints, and create peace for all generations." This is not only the spiritual realm that Chinese intellectuals should cultivate, but also the broad mind that freehand painters should have.
3. Cultivation: Painters must practice skillful and exquisite techniques. Without a certain level of skill, the work will not reach the level it should be. This is a very common truth. The basic skills of Chinese freehand painting include many contents, among which the skill of calligraphy is the most important. Chinese freehand painting requires a concise summary of the relationship between points, lines, and surfaces, and the answer can be found in calligraphy brushes. The lines of calligraphy are not simple lines. There are many changes in strokes such as center strokes, side strokes, round strokes, square strokes, folding strokes, and turning strokes. Freehand painting pays attention to the power of the brush, the gesture of the brush and the charm of the brush and ink. The painter's emotions are vividly expressed through the varied pen and ink reflections. Calligraphy is the lifeline of freehand painting, so the creative process of freehand painting is not called "painting" but "writing".
Today, there are many painters who can really "make", but there are fewer and fewer painters who can "write". The times are advancing, but the writing brush is deteriorating. "Biography and brushwork" are indifferent to contemporary painters, who instead emphasize graphical decoration and the effect of texture production, which have become the mainstream phenomenon of today's Chinese painting. There are only a handful of freehand painters in the true sense. The Chinese nation has a strong and abundant spirit. It is difficult to find traces of Qi in today's traditional Chinese paintings.
The importance of calligraphy in Chinese freehand paintings must be promoted. Chinese characters are the most general and abstract paintings, and they have important guiding significance for the selection and refining of objects in freehand paintings. The development history of Chinese freehand painting also fully proves this point. Wu Changshuo spent decades writing stone drum inscriptions and incorporated the round, solemn and majestic lines of seal script into his paintings, which reversed the weak trend of flower-and-bird painting in the late Qing Dynasty. In his later years, Huang Binhong lost sight of the brush and transformed all the shapes into calligraphy lines. He completely forgot about things and himself, and became a state of being, which gave guidance to the development trend of freehand painting.
There are two different viewpoints in the creation of contemporary freehand paintings: one is the idea of ????"tradition creates newness"; the other is the idea of ????"integration of Chinese and Western". I think these two lines of thought are objective realities and there is no need to integrate or confront them. It is no longer advisable to stick to tradition. For example, on busy and intersecting overpasses, there is no way out for sticking to the backward walking method of pulling a rickshaw.
The art of painting in the new era is a colorful era. Just imagine that classical Chinese has moved towards vernacular, poetry has also moved from rhythm to free verse, and opera has combined Chinese and Western elements into pop rock. Chinese painting must also face similar challenges of the times.
The new era of diversity is a symbol of China's transformation from traditional farming culture to modern industrial information civilization. Therefore, it is impossible for Chinese freehand paintings not to have new changes. China is an ancient civilization with deep roots and a long history. Chinese culture has an extremely tolerant stomach to digest the immersion of Western culture. As long as we remember the uprightness and irreplaceability of the Chinese nation, no matter whether we hold the idea of ??"tradition creates newness" or the idea of ??"integration of Chinese and Western things", every idea is our way out. The fundamental spirit of Chinese freehand painting is : Use simple modeling language and changeable relationship between pen and ink to express one's true feelings and express one's feelings of wandering between heaven and earth.
Brush and ink are crucial in freehand painting, but it is by no means an unspeakable secret skill, nor is it a mysterious and lonely soul of national culture. It should become a skill that can be accepted by people all over the world. The value of pen and ink is not reduced to zero by those who worship foreigners. It has an extremely important position in the soul of the Chinese nation. The relationship between pen and ink and artistic conception seems to be an inseparable organic relationship between body and soul, similar to the overall dialectical relationship of traditional Chinese medicine, rather than the partial anatomy of Western medicine. Western philosophy often analyzes content and form, spirit and body, purpose and method in dual terms. This way of thinking has greatly influenced Chinese artists and critics in recent decades, causing endless disputes in the painting community. If the Chinese way of talking about Zen and Taoism is in vain, then the Western way of talking about things is easy to stick to the surface. The spiritual core of Chinese culture is compromise and harmony to avoid paranoia.
When I paint freehand brushwork, the first thing I consider is my beautiful imagination of many things in nature, and my pure emotional and spiritual feelings. I naturally value the importance of pen and ink in freehand brushwork, so I actively absorb nutrients from seal, official, running and cursive calligraphy. But I think skills and tools are not the most important. My friend Mr. Wu is a Chinese dictionary compiler. He can recognize more than 10,000 Chinese characters, but he has not written a letter home well. Although the Gao Yubao we know only knows 500 words, he can write "The Rooster Crows in the Midnight". Therefore, artistic feeling comes first, and spiritual freehand brushwork is more important than formal freehand brushwork. Secondly, once I enter the process of using pen and ink, I will gradually forget myself, turn a deaf ear to the general technical rules, and be helpless. I will use everything whether it is traditional or modern, folk or Western. Only by integrating everything can there be endless changes. This is the broad road of freehand painting.
Tianjin People's Fine Arts Publishing House published a collection of my paintings. I asked Professor Yang Jinsong from the China Academy of Art to correct me. He said: "Your paintings are very personal and passionate, but personality cannot represent academics and passion." It can't enter the market." He pondered for a moment, closed his eyes and said, "Of course personality and passion are the best things." In short, freehand painting is both a highly self-conscious art and a highly selfless art.