by Shanghai Radio Editor Wu Yan ("Talk Box fm")
From the beginning of literature, to the glory of film, when he was famous, he resolutely decided to engage in new types of artistic creation, for which he and his wife used up all their savings, even mortgaged the property, experienced countless failures and difficulties... Today, Xiaobian will talk about the artistic career of this character, Chinese director and Liuli artist Zhang Yi, and take you to yunshang to see "The Best Forward - Zhang Yi's Creation Retrospective Exhibition".
The "Retrospective Exhibition of Zhang Yi's Creation" will be held at the Shanghai Liuli Art Museum (No. 25 Taikang Road) from now on. This is the first time on the first anniversary of Mr. Zhang Yi's death that Mrs. Yang Huishan commemorated her husband as a curator. Many people have heard of Zhang Yi and Yang Huishan, or because of their achievements in liuli art, but they do not know that they were once the absolute top of the film and television circle.
Zhang Yi's youth photo
Zhang Yi, who published novels at the age of 19, won the Golden Horse Award and the Best Director at the Asia Pacific Film Festival in the 1980s. Before Yang Huishan devoted herself to liuli art, she had starred in more than 100 movies in 11 years, portrayed various types of roles, and her starring films "Yu Qing Sister-in-law", "Little Fugitive", and "I Lived My Life Like This" made her win the Golden Horse Award and the Asia-Pacific Film Festival. Three film queen laurels in three years, the only two consecutive crowns of the Golden Horse Shadow Queen. Later, she collaborated with Zhang Yi on their third film "My Love", according to the needs of the plot, the crew borrowed a lot of works by international artists, and one of them was Liu Li. For the first time, they were amazed by the glittering glass artworks; but what surprised them even more was that none of them came from China. Culture is a dignity. In 1987, at the peak of their film careers, Zhang Yi and Yang Huishan chose to retire from the show business together, turned around and threw themselves into the Liuli art that they had in mind, and established the "Liuli Workshop".
Stills from "YuQing Sister-in-law"
In China, glass art can be said to be both ancient and young.
It is said to be ancient because the earliest appearance of Chinese glass can be traced back to the Western Zhou Dynasty more than 3,000 years ago, generally referring to the glass made of lead and barium. In the poet's pen, there are more famous poems describing Liu Li - Li He's "Liu Li Bell, Amber Thick, Small Trough Wine Dripping Pearl Red"; Su Dongbo's "When the Night Wind is Quiet, There Is Only a River bright moon and blue glass"; and more familiar Bai Juyi's "Most of the good things are not firm, and the clouds are easy to scatter The glass is brittle." ”
Zhang Yi liuli works
To say that it is young is that Chinese glass ushered in a long period of silence after the ming and qing dynasties experienced glory, and the traditional skills were almost lost.
Let's not talk about skill, but let's say this - "interlaced like a mountain". For two artists who use words and images as tools for thinking, learning the art of handicrafts— the decision — meant that they had to start with the most basic carving knife. There is no experience, only continuous learning, constant exploration. In the meantime, it is natural to go through detours and suffer hardships. Brewing, creativity, design, carving, firing, carving... The advent of a glass work has to go through dozens of steps to create. Moreover, the glass production cycle is long, the process is linked one link at a time, and no errors are allowed in each link. The grasp of the heat is also the key: each glass pigment is different, and the firing temperature will also change, such as green needs about 880 ° C, yellow needs about 980 ° C, and peacock blue needs about 1000 ° C... Producers also often work for dozens of hours in high-temperature calcined studios...
There was also a test, at first, they chose the traditional blowing method, but the artistic value was limited, and the art world reacted generally. Later, they turned to the dewaxing casting method and studied the revival of the lost Han Dynasty glass firing technique, but they could not break through the technical bottleneck for a long time. In the most difficult times, they not only spent all their savings, but even lost a large debt. However, while groping, they kept visiting and learning the scriptures, and went abroad for further study many times. After experiencing repeated tortures of human, material and mental strength, the two finally worked hard and successfully developed the glass dewaxing casting technology.
With her profound oriental heritage, mature artistic thinking and unique aesthetic creativity, in 1993, Yang Huishan's works were collected by the Palace Museum in Beijing, which was the first time that the Palace Museum in Beijing had collected contemporary glass artworks. In 2016, the Paris Museum of Decorations, a century-old museum in Paris, collected the glass works of Zhang Yi and Yang Huishan, which was the first time that the museum had collected Chinese glass art since its establishment. Their works are also in the permanent collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum in the United Kingdom and the Corning Museum of Glass in the United States. In 2010, the China Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo permanently collected their glass works "Thousand Hands, Thousand Eyes, Thousand Sorrows" and "Thousands of Freedom". During this time, in 2006, the Liuli Art Museum, founded and designed by the two, opened in Shanghai.
Before Zhang and Yang, there has never been a Chinese name in the history of world glass. Yes, you read that right, I am talking about "the history of world glass, not the history of world glass", because the word "liuli" is still the name used by Zhang Yi and Yang Huishan to define the material they created, not in French, not in English, but in Chinese "Liuli" and "liuli" in Hanyu Pinyin. This name contains their self-precipitation of history and culture, but also a spirit and a mission. I have excerpted a passage written by Mr. Zhang Yi: "When we looked up from the growth of loneliness and hard work, we were deeply surprised to find that the vast thousand-year-old dirt underground around China was actually exhaled with the light buried with shimmering glass. After that, we learned a spiritual concept: respect and inheritance. ”
Zhang Yi's "Taihu Stone" Series
Zhang Yi's "Fireworks Zen Heart" Series
Zhang Yi's "A Touch of Red" Series
Compared with his wife, Mr. Zhang Yi's creative style is more casual and informal. He let the glass flow freely in the tempering of fireworks, exerting greater freedom, a momentary solidification, and full of emotion. This time, the works on "Moving Forward to the Best - Zhang Yi's Creation Retrospective Exhibition", including the "Taihu Stone" that pays tribute to the beauty of nature, the "Freedom" of life after overcoming setbacks, the "Fireworks Zen Heart" that amazes the French Century Museum, and the "A Touch of Red" with the meaning of Oriental ink are the portrayal of the artist's personality, and also his literary and Oriental Zen and philosophy of life, casting into each of his works. This exhibition also has the essence of Zhang Yi's lifelong creation from literature and film to glass art, including working documents, film manuscripts, posters, animations, etc., so that people can understand his achievements in different fields.
Zhang Yi's writings illustrate the text card
It is worth mentioning that on the exhibition wall, there are also a series of explanatory notes, which are more than 10,000 explanatory texts written by Zhang Yi for each work of Liuli Workshop for more than 30 years, using poetic and beautiful texts to tell the story behind the works. Ms. Yang Huishan wrote in the curator's introduction:
"When the explanatory texts were displayed in front of me one by one, I couldn't help but cry like rain... For thirty-three years, more than 10,000 days, Zhang Yi has never stopped writing down the thoughts and emotions of each work word by word. He hopes to convey the ethical values of traditional culture through glass works. ”
Yang Zhigang, director of the Shanghai Museum, wrote in the preface to the exhibition: "Throughout Mr. Zhang Yi's life, the roles are wonderful and changeable, from literature, film, to glass art, each experience is a leader, and there are countless awards. Past events, such as in the present. The most unforgettable thing is that he is carrying the self-examination of the inheritance of Chinese culture, and at the time when the Liuli technique was lost, although tens of millions of people were looking forward to it, they bravely raised the banner of advancing forward. "
The exhibition will run until March 2022.