vigorous and magnificent spiritual language-reading Wu Jingshan's Chinese painting
"What is the purpose of a gentleman who loves his husband's mountains and rivers?" ("Lin Quan Gao Zhi") tells the story of Lin Quan, a scholar-bureaucrat who lamented nature and expressed his love for mountains and rivers. Landscape painting, after a long historical change, why does it still have an important position in the spiritual life of contemporary Chinese people? The reason has its profound cultural background. China's culture is deeply influenced by Taoism, and it has a tradition of cultivating temperament in the mountains and rivers, expressing one's aspirations through the mountains and rivers, and expressing one's ideals and ambitions; The traditional landscape painting embodies the realm of "harmony between man and nature" and profound feelings of fraternity, which has eternal spiritual value and is always yearned for by future generations. At the same time, complex social contradictions often make people want to escape from reality, live in seclusion in the mountains, in order to be quiet, or comfort their mood with landscapes. In modern society, the deterioration of the natural environment, the pollution of the climate, the noise of city life, the fast pace of life and the pressure of survival make people need an art form with a soothing rhythm to bid farewell to secular disputes and gain inner peace. It is natural that all these landscape paintings with symbolic meaning and inner spirit have become an important means of soothing modern people's hearts.
mountains and rivers are big things. Wu Jingshan, an outstanding painter, gave us the most direct impression that he was "big". Great landscape, great momentum and great realm. The viewer can temporarily forget where he is, and wander among them, hoping, feasible, habitable and swimming, like bathing in the breeze. His master of landscape painting is Lu Yanshao, catching up with "the Four Monks of Qing Dynasty" and "Yuan Sijia", and drawing on the strengths of various schools. It combines the diluted elegance of the Yuan people with the free and easy perversity of the four monks, which is deep and quiet, magnificent and magnificent. While learning from the ancients, Wu Jingshan did not forget to learn from nature. Read thousands of books and take Wan Li Road. For decades, he visited famous mountains and rivers all over the world to collect creative materials and cultivate inspiration. In 1978 and 1979, he successively created 3-meter-long scrolls "Wan Li on the Yangtze River" and "Huangshan Grand View". These long scrolls are not only large in scale, but also amazed by their solid and profound traditional foundation and distinctive flavor of the times. Among them, The Map of the Yangtze River in Wan Li was written by Li Keran, Lu Yanshao, Qian Songyan, Xie Yaliu, Huang Zhou, Lin Sanzhi and others, and it was a beautiful talk for a while. The scenic spots and historical sites in Huangshan Grand View were also included in his pocket, and the majestic, strange, beautiful and secluded Huangshan Mountain was vividly portrayed. Mr. Lai Shaoqi wrote the inscription "Huangshan Grand View" as the frontispiece, and Mr. Huang Zhou and Deng Bai wrote poems and postscript for it.
Taihang Mountain, which spans Hebei, Henan and Shanxi, has a vast territory, with thousands of peaks and swords standing upright, the situation is like running, the trees are abundant, the springs and rocks are strange, the clouds and clouds are moving, and the weather is dazzling. In recent years, Wu Jingshan has been hiking and wading for many times to observe and experience deeply. As Liu Xie said, climbing mountains is full of emotion, while watching the sea is full of meaning. My talent will go hand in hand with the wind and cloud. With full passion, Wu Jingshan has successively created three volumes of Wei Tai Hang, which is about 12 meters wide and 5 centimeters high. He also created two huge volumes, Yuntai Mountain and Wangwu Mountain in Taihang Mountain, describing the majestic, boundless and magical Taihang Mountains. The composition, composition and brushwork of these long scrolls all have new exploration results, which are subtle in the bold and broad, and rigorous in the bold and unrestrained. The author's creative passion and artistic skill are amazing.
Chinese painting has been perfected through constant innovation since its birth. Only by innovation can art maintain its vigorous vitality. Since the May 4th Movement, with the introduction of western art, Xu Beihong, Lin Fengmian, Gao Jianfu and others who have been studying abroad have advocated the combination of the creative concept of western painting and the imagery of China's painting, reforming and innovating Chinese painting, injecting fresh blood into it and glowing with vitality. Gao Jianfu and other Lingnan painters put forward a compromise between China and foreign countries, integrated the ancient and modern, boldly absorbed the realistic modeling and strong colors of western paintings in freehand brushwork ink, and developed a set of new techniques such as water collision, color collision and boneless method. As a native of Lingnan, Wu Jingshan did not directly learn from Lingnan School of Painting. He preferred the tradition of ancient literati painting, took the advantages of the North and South Schools of Painting, and innovated on the basis of paying attention to pen and ink, but his spirit of exploration and creation was consistent with Lingnan School of Painting. In the process of his creation, he constantly pondered over how to express the beauty of nature and express his true feelings in Chinese painting language, and how to give the picture a flavor of the times, free from the shackles of ancient laws and unconventional. Because of this, when he made his mark in the painting world in the 196s and 197s, he was valued by Pan Tianshou, Lu Yanshao, Li Kuchan, Xu Bangda and other senior masters and wrote letters to encourage and praise him. Pan Tianshou praised him for his "extraordinary talent and bold brushwork" and said that his works "look interesting and are all deified." (August 15th, 1967). Wu Jingshan does not bear heavy expectations, strives for progress, leans back on tradition, faces nature and explores new paths. For example, his "Sunrise in the Grand Canyon of America" combines Chinese and Western techniques, and uses gold powder to express light and clouds. It is magnificent and colorful, and the picture lacks the cold and secluded atmosphere of traditional landscape painting, and has more magnificent style. China literati painting has always taken ink and wash as the top grade, and ink and wash often expresses the spiritual demands of literati. It is really rare for Wu Jingshan's landscape paintings to reflect the aesthetic feelings and tastes of ordinary people without losing their elegant character.
Wu Jingshan has a correct understanding of the traditional China painter's theory of nature, instead of simply equating nature with sketching. He attaches great importance to the observation and experience of natural landscapes, supplemented by appropriate means of sketching. He is good at refining and sublimating the materials accumulated from sketching. His works are both vivid from real landscapes and subjective and creative, which not only avoids the defects that direct sketching is easy to cause too close to nature and too real, but also overcomes the conceptual problems caused by behind closed doors.
Wu Jingshan is not only good at landscapes, but also at flowers and birds. Freehand brushwork of flowers and birds emphasizes the interest of pen and ink. Influenced by Xu Wei, Ba Da, Pan Tianshou and others, his flower-and-bird paintings trace back to Lin Liang, Zhao Ji, Cui Bai and other realistic techniques, but use vigorous calligraphy to paint with a pen, which is bold and ancient. Through the cadence of lines, dry and wet shades, the rhythm is formed in the interlacing. Clever layout, clever lines, spilt ink color and light crimson tint complement each other and are full of interest, showing profound calligraphy skills. The works such as Singing Late, Red-crowned Crane, Rain Over Lotus Fragrance are all written with great momentum, and it seems that you can hear the rustling of brush and rice paper between strokes. In the subtleties, there are exquisite depictions, and the moist and elegant atmosphere of the south is found in the grandeur.
Looking at Wu Jingshan's works, whether they are landscapes, flowers and birds, giant or sketches, we can see that he attaches great importance to the cultivation of poetry and calligraphy. China literati art has always emphasized the trinity of poetry, calligraphy and painting, among which the relationship between calligraphy and painting is closer. The so-called "painting and calligraphy are of the same origin" and "painting and calligraphy use the same method" is almost a conclusion since ancient times. Wu Jingshan graduated from Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts. The teaching of Zhejiang Beauty has always paid attention to the study of calligraphy, and there are also many calligraphy teachers with profound skills. He studied Jin Donnan's calligraphy, as well as Han Wei North Monument. He studied seal, official script, line, model and grass deeply, laying a solid foundation for calligraphy. In his paintings, Wu Jingshan integrates literary accomplishment into calligraphy and painting, and he has a unique understanding of brushwork, ink, structure and composition, and is good at flexible use. In his place, the boldness of cursive writing and its freehand brushwork are essentially the same. With the development of society and the arrival of the information age, today's Chinese painting expression language also shows a variety of trends, and various new explorations emerge one after another, injecting new vitality into ancient Chinese painting. The theories of calligraphy in painting and pen in center are often questioned by people now, causing heated debates. In this case, Wu Jingshan still "goes his own way", follows the principle of learning from the ancients and learning from nature, and gives full play to his individual creativity in the endless changes of pen and ink. He is convinced that the idea of harmony between man and nature respected in Chinese painting and poetic expression have permanent artistic charm.
Wu Jingshan is working hard to create and contribute to the prosperity of Chinese painting.
(Shao dazhen, famous art critic and art educator)