I met Liu Chaohui in Songzhuang that day, which is a Hunan restaurant called "Orange Island". The atmosphere in the farmhouse is warm, but he is not the protagonist. Guo Chunguang worships the calligrapher Long Tianle as his teacher, and he is a master of coffee, poets, painters, famous calligraphers, business elites and working brothers. He drove from Beijing's east, west, north and south to the painter's village and enjoyed a master's banquet.
Before the food was served and the wine was poured, he came, wearing a cap and casual clothes, lazy and casual, like a big boy doing manual labor. Chen Jianchu, Chairman of the "Songzhuang Nighttalk" Art Forum, got up and introduced it. There were so many people at that time that I didn't catch the name clearly. I only know that he is a painter who sticks to Songzhuang.
He sat opposite me drinking, full of vulgar local accent, which was quite funny and made a table full of people happy. They said, Liu Chaohui is really an interesting guy. After a few cups of hot wine, he took off his hat and showed his bald head. His head and back are covered with tattoos. I said, Liu Chaohui, your hairstyle is so cool! He smiled cunningly: "The thief thought I was his big brother and never dared to offend me." This guy, look at his crazy urchin, unlike his eldest brother, is a real "second brother"!
I heard that Liu Chaohui used to be a dancer in a troupe. He was good at singing and reading. The brothers suggested going to his studio and letting him continue to show his unique skills. Squeezing into the farmhouse rented by Liu Chaohui, he picked up the elephant's foot drum in the corner and sang "Eight Hundred Li Dong Ting Picturesque" while playing, with rough long tunes and strong drums, which synthesized a vicissitudes of rock style. Then, another Hunan Flower Drum Opera, with a loud voice, was sold out. I didn't pay attention to what he was singing, a kind of sad joy, stored in his brow, very infectious.
Cross-border, we must have strength.
At that time, I wondered what this man's painting was like.
After some jokes and laughter, we walked into his studio. There are many large and small paintings along the wall. I just saw his first painting, and I couldn't help but gasp. These paintings don't match this Liu Chaohui! People are stocky, even a little round-headed, and laugh happily, but the picture is pure and quiet, the theme of pastoral scenery is single, the brushwork is delicate and the perspective is unique. In particular, an oil painter only uses black and white, and there is a poetic hidden pain in the cool color, which simply does not follow common sense. Judging from my years of reading experience, this man's painting style is very strange.
Appreciating his works carefully, I was a little cold and even more shocked. His paintings are different, very different from the current painting world. They are completely different from people who make a living by selling paintings in society. Buyers can draw whatever they like. He only paints what he likes. His paintings don't cater to readers, and there is even a natural incompatibility. Nor is it an innovation like professors and painters in the Academy of Fine Arts, nor is it a failed combination of young "cutting-edge painters".
He used black and white to describe the nature in his eyes. Every species has life. Trees, flowers, mountains and fields all have their own languages, telling the best things in nature. The rocks and plants in his works are re-artistically based on ordinary sketches. They are motionless with a unique posture and have a particularly strong atmosphere, revealing a familiar strangeness. His artistic conception is the fusion of western painting and Chinese painting, black and white, and there is a chill behind the hazy brushwork, even in his bones, which makes people shudder. His painting style is based on aura, with no craftsmanship, which is not the style of any disciple at all. After reading it, I feel that he is a rare alien in the chaotic and noisy art circle of this era. His calm, lonely and pure style is unique, unique and self-contained.
I have been paying attention to the picture of "deciduous sunflower" for a long time. Crowded sunflowers are like a group of confused and melancholy teenagers, silently meditating with their heads down. They are sharp, straightforward, simple and childish, but they are immature and shy. Such contradictions, such as faded black and white ink painting, are the internal reproduction of pure color after peeling off the hard shell. I think Liu Chaohui painted landscapes, but he talked about lonely life.
People in China like to be lively. There should be no market for paintings like Liu Chaohui, but there must be many admirers who appreciate each other, such as me. Although I am a fellow countryman, I have only met once and talked in a few words, which is almost strange. After many days, my thoughts stayed in his black and white world for a long time.
After the return of Songzhuang, in order to further understand the artistic life of freelance painters, I Baidu visited "Liu Chaohui". A national name, there are too many people with the same name, and his personal information is very little. All I know is that his books are unbalanced? "Meditation" was selected for the double exhibition of tartaglia Gallery in Rome, Italy, but it is impossible to know what kind of fireworks this artistic seeker with Hunan descent experienced.
In the field of life and art, this is a paradox. An artist shows enthusiasm, simplicity, sociability and happiness in his life after China's entry into WTO. Once he entered the creation, he condensed his depression and struggle into painting language, either strong or gentle, showing his lonely heart and the deep return of the spirit after transformation.
Just like his black-and-white picture, opposites are unified.