Text/Yin (Master of Comparative Studies in Sino-Tibetan Fine Arts, Tibet University)
Mr. Li Zhibao and I can be said to have forgotten the past year. We had the privilege of working with Mr. Li for some time and were deeply influenced by his true qualities as an artist. I really want to have the opportunity to interpret Mr. Li Zhibao's artistic world from my perspective and angle, especially his ink and wash love.
Li Zhibao's life experience is legendary. The painter who has been rooted in Tibet's frontier for 30 years is a story in itself. His full name is Li Zhibao, a Yao nationality, not the name of the Yao nationality. Li Zhibao is his official name. People used to call him Li Zhibao, but when he returned to his hometown, the villagers affectionately called him Ji Bu.
Buhe Li Zhibao's hometown is in Dayaoshan District, Jianghua, Hunan Province. He grew up in that picturesque place and developed a hard-working, simple and close to nature character. From 65438 to 0976, he graduated with honors from the Academy of Fine Arts of Hunan Normal University. He has the opportunity to stay and teach. However, his pro-mountain and pro-water personality and passionate young people resolutely responded to the call of the country and volunteered to go to the most difficult places. This move has taken root in the frontier so far. He first worked as a middle school teacher in Tibet for nine years, and then worked as an editor and reporter in Lhasa Evening News Agency in Tibet for nine years. During this period, he always immersed himself in the art world with his tenacious personality until he entered the Lhasa Federation of Literary and Art Circles and became a professional painter. This is the life stage when his career takes off. His works have frequently won awards in exhibitions at home and abroad, and have been continuously collected by various art institutions, such as the large-scale historical painting Chronicle of Grassland, 199 1 participated in the Tibet Art Exhibition and won the gold medal. In the same year, he won the bronze medal in the national art exhibition of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Party. Prior to this, Li Zhibao's ink painting "Jewelry is Beautiful" participated in the 6th National Art Exhibition, and his works were selected for the 8th and 9th National Art Exhibition and other national large-scale art exhibitions. There are many works collected by art groups and private collections at home and abroad, so it is impossible to list them one by one. In the early days of his career, he was frequently selected as a meticulous painter, which established his image as a representative figure painter in Tibetan painting.
During his decades of living and writing in Tibet, Li Zhibao has traveled all over the mountains and rivers in the western part of the motherland, especially in the snowy plateau. He has been to Shigatse alone 100 times. In his devotion and appreciation of the essence of Tibetan culture, his artistic concept and painting style are also changing quietly, from meticulous painting to freehand brushwork. This change should benefit from his early college education. Apart from his ambiguous love affair with Yaoshan Yao since childhood, it is also based on the traditional Chinese ink painting education he received in Hunan Normal University, and later received careful guidance and enthusiastic encouragement from Mr. Lu Chen and Mr. Zhou Sicong many times. It can be said that he was born in an authentic and decent class. Admirable, the early field of meticulous painting has become familiar with it, and then it turned to the exploration of ink painting, which also confirmed the spiritual realm of "never too old to learn" advocated by him. It is expected that he will always maintain the mentality of young people, devote himself to studying the language of ink painting for many years with vigorous energy, go deep into Tibetan national life, and gradually form a unique style of ink painting.
Mr. Li Zhibao often said that Chinese paintings are characterized by yin, softness, quietness, emptiness and nothingness, while Tibetans give people a visual feeling of yang, rigidity, movement, reality and existence. The success or failure of grasping and expressing the theme of Tibetan painting in the form of Chinese painting ink and wash lies in grasping the "degree" and integrating it with emotion and rhyme, which finally shows the lyricism and fluency of the work. Looking for the meeting point of the times from the thick and ancient Tibetan traditional culture and modern life. In the relationship between "expression" and "expression" in artistic treatment, we appreciate the unique modeling language of Chinese painting, and pay special attention to the symbolic significance of ink painting in modeling, as well as the artist's subjective grasp and artistic realm in the creative state.
From the picture of Mr. Li Zhibao's work "Ink takes the pen as the skeleton and the pen takes the ink as the essence", people feel the strength of using the pen and realize the strength of the pen, such as weeping, melancholy or elegant. The closeness of pen and ink is a natural artistic conception. In addition to the pursuit of aesthetics, feeling the display of individual strength and using pure ink and wash language, the Tibetan people are pregnant with heavy national temperament and deep national feelings in the ethereal silk. The elegance is permeated with the tenacity of the stone, and the deep verve is condensed in the decadent ethereal color of dry, wet, black and white, and the light and dark ink color, which shows the principle of ink painting that "ink is used for rhyme and color is used without trace". The picture is not rubbed much, but it is very heavy, revealing the aesthetic artistic conception of "the clearer the gas, the stronger it is".
Li Zhibao's research on Tibetan traditional art for many years is reflected in the space and color setting of the picture, that is, the use of limited space and decorative colors. In the layout of the picture, he deliberately leveled the front and back space, which is what he praised as the "two-and-a-half" spatial effect. The purpose is to pursue the decoration of the picture and the setting of color, which coincides with the thinking of the original art of ancient nations.
At present, there are many painters who paint Tibetan themes in the painting world, but few people are willing to spend more than 30 years of their lives to appreciate the souls of Tibetans. In addition to the deep integration of emotions, it is also reflected in the humorous side of the works, including the deep love for the Tibetan people, the animism in the oriental aesthetic thought and the life realm of childlike innocence. Under the simple and honest behavior of Tibetan girls, it is difficult to hide the cleverness in their eyes, and the straightforwardness of Kangba men reveals humor and wit. In the reasonable relationship between man and nature, there are strong humanistic feelings and universal requirements of human beings, which are close to life, nature and reality.
In recent years, Li Zhibao is not only active in the field of ink painting, but also has impressive achievements in the field of heavy color painting. Heavy color painting he followed the mural techniques left by ancient Tibet, painted very thick, covered with various metal foils and natural mineral materials, and made colorful works. In this way, he is good at combining the techniques of Japanese rock painting tools with the ancient mural art in Tibet, creating fantastic original poems, showing the inherent and ancient communication between man and the world. The picture "Flying Lucky" published on the cover of Art magazine in 2004 is a wonderful work of Li Zhibao. His extensive exploration is to "arm" and "strengthen" at a higher level. Based on the old adage that "Murphy's cultivation is invalid, pen is not for life", he attaches great importance to the relationship between formal factors and the painter's self-cultivation, and adopts the principle of learning from others and focusing on learning from others. With vigorous energy and wise thinking, he went deep into life and loved the west, and wrote a splendid life with ink and wash.
Mysterious and vulgar, self-contained and well-structured
-Li Zhibao and his ink paintings
Text/Han Xiang
In everyone's mind, there is a "super mineral deposit" buried under the rule of the sleeping goddess of wisdom. The most important thing is to have the courage to develop it to the maximum, which is the most essential development in the development of human potential quality.
Li Zhibao is a painter who is good at developing his own potential.
Li Zhibao, who graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts of Hunan Normal University, has lived in Tibet for more than 30 years. He started from ink painting and entered the field of meticulous painting. He also tried to use all kinds of material techniques and tirelessly examined the forms of painting. Finally, he found a long-awaited consciousness in the study of Tibetan Buddhist painting. In his later creative practice, he gradually formed a painting method that transcended the limitations of painting types and materials, and gradually refined and improved it. Li Zhibao's painting has finally moved towards a modern painting level that is open, free and pluralistic. In recent years, he has published monographs such as Analysis of Contemporary Famous Artists' Techniques-Li Zhibao's Colored Figures, Oriental Rock Painting-Li Zhibao, Colorful Tibet-Li Zhibao, and Oriental Rock Painting Workshop-Li Zhibao. His rock paintings have been exhibited in China Art Museum, Shanghai Art Museum, Guangdong Art Museum, Guan Shanyue Art Museum, Hongkong, Taiwan Province and Australia.
But he is good at developing "super mineral deposits", not only collecting and making many natural mineral pigments to paint his rock paintings, but also trying to develop his spiritual potential. The orthodox art education received in the Academy of Fine Arts of Hunan Normal University in his early years undoubtedly buried a mineral deposit of traditional ink painting in Li Zhibao's heart. In the interval between Li Zhibao's time-consuming and laborious production of exquisite rock paintings, he never forgets to spread paper and splash ink from time to time, express his inner feelings in the blending of ink and wash, and apply the freehand brushwork spirit realized in the practice of ink and wash painting to his own rock paintings. In this way, cold comes and summer goes. Zhibao's rock color paintings have a strong sense of freehand brushwork, while creating rock color paintings, Li Zhibao's ink painting art is becoming more and more mature, which strengthens his personal understanding of the painting foundation.
In the process of learning and understanding, human beings are often numb because they know too much. If they are numb, they will have no interest, no interest, and their enthusiasm will fade, thus falling into the bottleneck of painting. However, Li Zhibao has lived in Tibet for more than 30 years, and the study of Tibetans always excites him. He believes that although the Tibetan people live in a relatively harsh cold and oxygen-deficient climate, they are optimistic and confident. In the past, many artists imagined Tibet to be too bitter based on their personal feelings. At the same time, they also imagine Tibetans as Cang Sang who lives in heavy suffering all day, with helpless eyes, chapped lips and dark skin, which makes people feel heavier and heavier. Li Zhibao's paintings, in his long-term contact with Tibetans, deeply realized the Tibetan people's ability to live and work in peace and contentment. They live happily on the plateau. Therefore, Li Zhibao firmly believes that artistic means and forms of expression are not the most important, but what we want to convey to the audience through art, whether in rock painting or ink painting creation. He appreciates the art of giving human beings a belief in survival or a good feeling.
Most of Li Zhibao's ink paintings are about Tibetan women and shepherds. These characters walk with yaks on the grassland, leisurely and carefree, and sometimes write some words on the painting:
"The east wind warms the grass, and the people are clear, but spring scenery is hard to find. Tao is a shepherdess who plays the flute and sings new words with her voice. The sheep in front of the mountain and the cow behind the ridge seem to be laughing at me. The road is lonely. Hong flew by and clouds were everywhere. What's the news
When I was young, I was drunk and conceited, and my love poems were scribbled. I went to the deep alley several times to explore flowers, and the scenery was the most charming. Have you ever thought of missing a beautiful woman? Count on the willows and return to the day. The frontier is far away, and when you wake up from your dream, you will never know each other again. "
These words are literary works created by Li Zhibao in his spare time. They are freely engraved on the paintings, which makes Li Zhibao's paintings taste like literati paintings, invisibly expressing his survival choice, expressing Li Zhibao's yearning for transcending the secular spiritual realm and revealing a deep post-traditional literati complex. This complex is closely related to the ancient literati complex, which is a contextual relationship, but it is different. It continues the spirit of literati, but feels modern civilization. Therefore, the concern and curiosity about modern culture is also a truth that the post-literati spirit cannot get rid of. This concentrated expression of post-literati emotion is called "New literati paintings".
Because of geographical reasons, Tibet is separated from Qian Shan in Chinese mainland, and because of national cultural differences, China ink painting has not yet become the mainstream of Tibetan painting. Except for Han Shuli, Yu, Li Zhibao and a few other painters who came to Tibet from the mainland, it is difficult for local painters to find a master who specializes in ink painting. Although some of them have been trained in traditional ink painting in Central Academy of Fine Arts, Central University for Nationalities and other institutions of higher learning, and some of them have been selected for national art exhibitions, almost all of them have given up the creation of traditional ink painting after returning to Tibet. Even though some painters are still painting with ink and wash as the medium, they are no longer the real ink and wash paintings in China. Even Li Zhibao himself once abandoned rice paper and painted ink paintings on cotton cloth. His works often combine splash-ink with meticulous brushwork to create a novel language. However, for Li Zhi Bao, who has received traditional education and has a good grasp of tradition, even if this "innovative" work reaches a high level, he still cannot completely give up his attachment to the indescribable and wonderful feeling conveyed by the running and blending of pen and ink on rice paper. He believes that the reason why Chinese painting has been enduring for thousands of years is touching because it is becoming more and more popular now. It is precisely because of the special charm of its pen and ink language that the ink color is changeable and there is no lack of escape. Ink lines often naturally penetrate into the thick, solidified and vivid, and the color ink is too natural. In contrast, it is inadvertently seen, echoing ingenuity, and a large area of ink color and dense lines form a strong sense of rhythm in a relaxed tone, which can be described as ancient.
Therefore, Li Zhibao is reluctant to part with the practice of Chinese painting pen and ink in an oxygen-deficient and dry environment. He inherited the temperament of China's traditional literati painting and paid attention to the practice of calligraphy. His characters and yaks are more freehand, refined and close to vivid charm. Moreover, he is changeable and vivid, embodying tradition in his own mind and highlighting his own style. In the concept of "form", he got rid of the concrete "image" and entered the kingdom of freedom of creation from strict rules. For example, the shepherdess in his works is not dressed in jewels, satin shirts and rough Tibetan robes, but in a relaxed and leisurely manner, which is in line with the old saying "naked, determined to win" (in the language of Wang Xuehao in Qing Dynasty).
As far as Chinese painting is concerned, this focus is far higher than the beauty of the graphic "Tibetan customs map". Pursuing the beauty of this painting is a kind of "elephant" beauty that tends to be hand-painted, and it is not limited to the skeleton. Starting from this origin, Li Zhibao's painting style is fundamentally divorced from people who are confined to appearances, so his paintings are atmospheric and meaningful, and his exquisite calligraphy and seals cooperate with each other to form a good structure.
Some people think that the value of an artist lies in conveying the author's sincere touch from life, which is formed through the arrangement of the characteristics and forms of the media and given the most moderate and infinite presentation through the personal efforts of the creator. Because of this, the artist will become a real person who can sneak into life and perceive life with his heart, and try to abandon his infatuation, understand himself and express all his feelings about life through modeling and pen and ink. Therefore, artists must "be able to enter and exit" in their life and "be able to enter and exit" in their artistic creation. This balance of humanistic activities is precisely an "artistic" effort. Li Zhibao is adept at the artistic road of meticulous and colorful ink painting. In addition to sticking to his post in the snowy plateau for 30 years and perceiving life with his heart, he is good at exploring his own potential advantages. He is willing to put this ever-increasing energy into promoting the spread and evolution of ink painting art in the snowy plateau, so as to obtain eternal life value, creative achievements and vitality in a bitter but sacred place. Until that day, China ink and wash, a wonderful flower, can blossom everywhere in Tibet like Gesang flowers. It is not difficult to imagine how gratified our ancestors of the Chinese nation should be. Li Zhibao's hard work today will bear sweet fruits.