Huang Yongyu once served as a porcelain factory worker, primary school teacher, middle school teacher, family education librarian, theater troupe trainee art team member, newspaper editor, film screenwriter, and tenured professor at Jishou University in Hunan Province, professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Vice Chairman of the Chinese Artists Association. He taught himself art and literature and became a "ghost genius" of his generation.
Huang Yongyu's real name is Huang Yongyu. In order to make it easier to write, he changed "Yu" to "Yu". He is a Tujia people from Fenghuang County in western Hunan. After just two years in junior high school, his dream of studying was shattered in the flames of the Anti-Japanese War. He had to drop out and travel around the society. He not only traveled to half of Fujian Province, but also to Jiangxi, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. During this period, he worked as a laborer in a porcelain factory, worked as a coolie on the dock, worked as a teacher in primary and secondary schools, worked as a stage artist in a theater troupe, worked as an editor in a newspaper, and also worked as a film screenwriter. It was during this period that, at the age of 17, he happened to meet Master Hongyi at Kaiyuan Temple in Quanzhou. This romantic relationship was later interpreted as him being a disciple of the Master and receiving the true inheritance. And his own version is: When he was picking magnolias from a tree, he was discovered by an old monk. He reluctantly came down and then came to the Zen room. At first, he did not know that this ordinary monk was actually the famous Hongyi. mage. Although he didn't really learn from his teacher, the brief interaction still brought him some enlightenment and quite a shock. Later, Master Hongyi left him a banner before his death, which read: "I do not seek happiness for all living beings, but I hope that people in the world can be freed from suffering."
Society is the biggest school, interest is the best teacher, and survival is the strongest motivation. Huang Yongyu was able to support himself by wood carving at the age of 16. His intelligence is only one aspect, but probably more due to his diligence in learning and the courage to practice. For the sake of art, he did not hesitate to travel over mountains and ridges, forgetting to eat and sleep. While sketching in Suzhou, he was attracted by the four ancient cypresses from the Han Dynasty in the Situ Temple, which were known as "exquisite and strange". He went early and late for three consecutive days to sketch for them. Later, when faced with the four ancient cypresses that had experienced the vicissitudes of the world, which he displayed on a piece of paper with accurate and smooth white lines, people were all amazed and amazed. In Florence, Italy, Huang Yongyu works more than ten hours a day. In midsummer, he carried his painting box on his back and sketched everywhere in the scorching sun. When he was hungry and thirsty, he would sit on the roadside and eat some bread he brought with him and drink a few sips of cold water. He was nearly seventy years old at the time.
It is precisely with this spirit that Huang Yongyu not only has profound attainments in printmaking, traditional Chinese painting, oil painting, comics, and sculpture, but is also a talented poet and writer. His published poetry collection has won many awards. The first prize of the annual creation of "Poetry Magazine". The prose and travel notes written are both poetic and beautiful, and full of wise philosophy. The autobiographical novel was serialized in Hunan's large-scale publication "Furong" while writing.
Huang Yongyu is a legendary person. Some people say that he was an art prodigy when he was a child, and he was self-taught in printmaking, oil painting, traditional Chinese painting, sculpture, etc. without any teacher; some people say that he was once one of the three disciples of Master Hong Yi, and he learned the true teachings of Master Hong Yi and developed spiritual calligraphy. But if you read his books carefully, appreciate his paintings with your heart, and have the opportunity to talk with him, after the magical color fades, people will realize more of his profound knowledge, outstanding talents, and upright and stubborn character. , wise and interesting conversation and diligent writing.
Ghost Genius
●Meet Huang Yongyu, the "Ghost Genius in the Painting Circle"
"The Spring and Autumn Annals of Zuo Zhuan" said: "A person's life expectancy is one hundred and twenty years, and his life span is a hundred years." , and his life expectancy is eighty years.” Therefore, turning eighty may not mean the loss of life value and creativity. For Huang Yongyu, who is regarded as a “genius in the painting world,” it may mean a new beginning. Recently, at the age of 80, he has been traveling between Guangdong, Beijing, Hong Kong and other places to prepare for his "Huang Yongyu 80 Years Art Exhibition" tour. Because "Huang Yongyu's Eighty Years Art Exhibition" is not only a stage summary of his life, but also a conclusion. Because he wants to finish writing his autobiographical novel next, which is mainly based on the changes he experienced in China in the 20th century.
As art critic Chen Lusheng said, "He has the stubborn and unruly personality of Xiangxi people, and also has a light, romantic and lyrical literati sentiment. At the same time, he always deliberately and mainstream Society maintains a certain aloof relationship. His experience and artistic style have a special 'complexity'." In the Chinese painting circle, Huang Yongyu is not only a "painting genius", but also a rare "all-rounder". He is proficient in traditional Chinese painting, oil painting, printmaking, comics, woodcuts and sculptures. His representative print works include "Qi Baishi Statue", "Ye Shengtao's Fairy Tale", "Forest Series" and "Ashima". Representative works of ink paintings include "Owl" and "Mountain Ghost". In addition, he also designed the first round of zodiac monkey tickets, alcoholic wine bottles, etc. He held dozens of art exhibitions and published dozens of collections of paintings throughout his life. In addition to his achievements in art, he is also obsessed with literary creation and is good at writing articles. Over the years, he has cultivated a large number of die-hard readers with his prose, novels, poems and essays, and created "Yongyu Six" Poems and essays such as "Memory", "These Melancholy Detritus", "Along the Seine to Florence", and his new work "The Old Man Older Than Me" also became a best-seller in 2003. It can be said that he exerted his physical strength and intelligence to the limit. Even his dead cousin Mr. Shen Congwen could not help but praise his talents in art and literature. For this, he was awarded the Order of the Supreme Commander by the President of Italy.
In 2003, he won the "Golden Color Award" for outstanding artists commended by the National Artists Association.
Every young person who yearns for great times and great achievements likes to find answers from the details of history. The distance between the 20th century and the 21st century, between people, and between eras, allows us to It was difficult to penetrate and penetrate the old man in front of him. The only clue we have to analyze him is to find evidence from his paintings, architecture and writings. Of course, fortunately he is still alive and healthy. Autobiography: "The Lobo on the Wuchou River"
As a painter, Huang Yongyu was more inclined to writing in his later years. In recent years, he has published essay collections "Landscape under the Sun" and "Phoenix in the Fire". ", "The Old Man Older than Me", the collection of poems "Singing All the Way Back to Hometown", etc., and the autobiographical novel "The Lobo of the Wuchou River" is also on the writing agenda.
However, since the beginning of 2009, reports that "the famous painter Huang Yongyu has been writing his autobiography for more than ten years and is still lingering at the age of four, and the completion of the work is far away" has once again triggered the outside world's concern about this now 86-year-old artist. painter's attention. Many people have raised questions. At this speed, when will Mr. Huang's autobiography be written from his childhood to his sixties? Before preparing for this interview, I learned that Mr. Huang's "The Lottery of Wuchou River" has finally been written from childhood to his sixtieth year. I wrote it from the age of four until I graduated from elementary school, but the number of words in the manuscript has reached 300,000 words. Mr. Huang said that he actually planned to write this book during the eighth year of the Anti-Japanese War. However, because he was on the run in the 1940s, he finally survived the liberation and went to the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Due to various social reasons, he "did not dare to write it." ”. Only now can I "have the opportunity to write about the interesting and lovely people around me."
Memory: "I squatted in the trench alone"
A few years ago, in order to commemorate his deceased old friend, Huang Yongyu compiled the articles he had written over the years and published a collection of essays " An old man older than me". The book records the stories of Qian Zhongshu, Zhang Leping, Li Keran, Shen Congwen and their good friends Huang Miaozi, Yu Feng and his wife, etc. They are either nostalgic, regretful, sad, or laughable, as if these people have not left, they are They are all still living in Huang Yongyu’s spiritual world.
Among them, Yu Feng is the only woman mentioned in the collection of essays. Speaking of her, Huang Lao said jokingly and helplessly: "I tell you, this person, if you want to be with her, you It’s so annoying, this person is so annoying.” But faced with the fact that many of his friends have left, Mr. Huang recalled to reporters a poem he wrote when he was young, “I seem to be hiding behind the heavy fire of a big war. In a sedimentary trench, everyone is gone, all my comrades are dead, I am squatting in the trench alone, I am the moon at eight or nine o'clock in the evening."
Art: To "make people happy and have no distance"
At the age of more than 80 years old, Mr. Huang no longer has to embarrass himself to cater to the trend. He told reporters straightforwardly that for the current trends that young people are passionate about, He is not interested in talent shows or pop music at all. He also has different likes and dislikes about Chinese contemporary art that is booming in the international market. As for the big topic of what is the vitality of art, his answer is a return to nature and thoroughness. He said , art is "art is "making people happy, making people have no distance, making people have no distance".
"My heart is only my heart"
Oh! I missed it all Young people often miss the elderly. The stories are like dried fruits hanging on the treetops in winter, which are too painful to lift.
——Huang Yongyu·"Older than Me". "Old Man" (Supplementary Edition)·February 2007
I draw pictures/make people happy/shoot and sing with poetry/bear the suffering with my shoulders/walk around the world with my feet/embrace my friends with my hands/use Eyes mocking and expressing love/Listening to the sounds of the world with two ears/My blood is type O/Who wants to take it/It is suitable for everyone/My heart/Only my heart/Dear hometown/It is yours .
——Huang Yongyu·"Singing All the Way Back to Hometown"·October 2006