Lacquerware is an outstanding representative of Yangzhou Arts and Crafts, and its brilliant brilliance and unique style have made many collectors fall for it and be impressed by it. In 2006, Yangzhou lacquerware decoration technique was listed as a national intangible cultural heritage. Approaching the intangible cultural heritage, inheriting culture, today (November 16), let's enjoy the charm of Yangzhou lacquerware.
Intangible Cultural Heritage Figures:
Zhang Yu Is a representative inheritor of the national intangible cultural heritage - Yangzhou lacquerware decoration skills
Zhang Yu, 76, is working with students to make a large-scale red carved lacquer work. Zhang Yu introduced that this work is divided into five pieces of a set of screens, called "Daizong Lansheng". For this "Daizong Zhansheng", Zhang Yu spent nearly half a year carefully designing and drawing the drawings. The reason why Taishan was chosen as the theme is because Zhang Yu believes that Taishan is a symbol of the Chinese nation, standing in the east of the world, and the paintings integrate the main attractions on Mount Tai.
Zhongtianmen, Yunbu Bridge, South Tianmen, Jade Emperor's Peak... Zhang Yu's paintings condense the essence of the scenery of Mount Taishan, like a meticulous and elegant landscape painting. The red carved lacquer work made from the drawing, although it has not yet been completed, has begun to show the unique majesty of Taishan. Zhang Yu introduced that the Yangzhou lacquerware decoration technique has appeared in the Warring States period, and then flourished in the Han and Tang Dynasties, and flourished in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Zhang Yu said that "髹" is a verb, which means to paint, and when it is processed and decorated on a secondary basis, it becomes "髹 ornament".
Under the continuous research and innovation of successive generations of skilled craftsmen, Yangzhou lacquerware decoration technology has become more and more mature and exquisite, and today there are ten major types of crafts such as carving lacquer, carved lacquer inlaid jade, painted painting, bone stone inlay, flat grinding screw and so on.
After more than two thousand years of development, Yangzhou lacquerware has formed its own craft characteristics, both the north and the south, including all kinds of screens, hanging screens, cabinets, tables and chairs, benches, four treasures of the study room and other product types, with ornamental and artistic, but also has a high practical value. For Zhang Yu, who was a rare young man, lacquerware is like a close friend with deep feelings. In 1958, at the age of 15, Zhang Yu entered the Yangzhou Lacquerware and Jade Craft Factory as an apprentice and began to learn painting and the production skills of various types of lacquerware. In the 1980s, Zhang Yu went to the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts for further study, improving the level of art theory and painting design ability. For more than 60 years, Zhang Yu has mainly engaged in the creation and design of lacquerware. Zhang Yu said that after the manuscript came out, he would go into the workshop to track the completion of the entire work, no matter which step he had to check by himself.
Zhang Yu believes that to do a good job in the design of lacquer works, in addition to profound painting skills, but also to have a variety of comprehensive literacy, to be familiar with, master the whole process of lacquer decoration, because Yangzhou lacquer factory has ten varieties, the design requirements of each variety are different, for example, the carving paint is mainly based on lines, mosaic is different, mosaic will be divided piece by piece, when painting, you must understand the material, choose the appropriate process.
Zhang Yu believes that the kung fu of design is outside the painting, and it is necessary to have the accumulation of knowledge in literature, history, geography, military and other aspects to provide inspiration for design, and at the same time to constantly innovate. In the 1980s, Zhang Yu was given the task of designing a flat-ground screw lacquerware work to compete in. The so-called flat-ground screw tungsten reflects the clever use of shellfish materials in lacquerware. On a snowy night, Zhang Yu pondered in his yard. Suddenly seeing the child hanging a paper lantern on a tree, looking at the scene with a little dreamy feeling in front of him, Zhang Yu suddenly thought of the Yue opera movie "Liu Yi Chuanshu" that he had seen. He felt that in the "Biography of Liu Yi", the fantasy feeling of the undersea Dragon Palace was the same as the scene in front of him, and this theme just fit the technical characteristics of the flat grinding screw. Zhang Yu introduced that "point snail" is to grind the shellfish material very thin, as thin as a cicada wing, and then cut into a silk as thin as a hair, and he uses this technique in his works. In the end, with the joint efforts of Zhang Yu and his partners, the first Yangzhou lacquerware product "Liu Yi Chuanshu" screen, which skillfully combined the flat grinding screw and the point snail process, was completed, and won the first prize in the first National Hundred Flowers Award, and also won the Excellent Creation Design Award.
Over the years, Zhang Yu has created and designed many lacquerware masterpieces: the red carved lacquer "Jiang Tian List" won the first prize of the China Arts and Crafts Hundred Flowers Award for Excellent New Products, known as "the best in China"; the large-scale lacquer art mural "Huaxia Soul" is a lacquer art masterpiece specially created for the return of Hong Kong, "Shibi Xishui", "Yunyuan Songfeng" and many other carved lacquer masterpieces, and has won the special prize and gold medal of the China Arts and Crafts Master Works and Arts and Crafts Exposition. He also led the restoration of the nearly 30-year-old conch inlay process and the painted hook knife gold process. The so-called "treasure snail inlay" is to polish the color and reproduce the natural color; and the painting hook knife gold process is to use the knife to outline the pattern, and then paint and gold.
As a titan in yangzhou lacquerware industry, Zhang Yu regards the inheritance of lacquerware as his most important task at present. Zhang Yu said that in his lifetime, he will try to make more good products, train more students, and pass on the skills.
The so-called "lacquer into a tool", Yangzhou lacquerware also decorated Zhang Yu's wonderful life. It is precisely with the perseverance of lacquer artists like him that Yangzhou lacquerware has been able to leave an immortal chapter in the long river of history and pass it on from generation to generation.
Source丨Yangzhou Radio and Television "Yangfan" mobile phone channel
Edited by Wang Jiannan and Zhu Jianghui