After the founding of New China, in order to consolidate the nascent political power and out of the needs of specific propaganda and education, paintings with major historical themes came into being. Or artists take the initiative to create, or the government comes forward to organize the creation, many works have become classics representing an era and have been recorded in history. The creation of major historical themes has become an important phenomenon in the field of contemporary Chinese painting.
Since the founding of New China, the creation of major historical themes has been valued by all sides and has been raised to the height of "an important work on the ideological and cultural front"; not only has the state invested a lot of manpower and material resources to organize the creation of paintings on major historical themes, but also under the new art production system, a large number of artists have been quickly concentrated and thrown into the creation of major historical themes, thus cultivating a large number of art creation talents, such as Dong Xiwen, Zhan Jianjun, Jin Shangyi, and a number of outstanding artists. It has also produced a considerable number of outstanding works on major historical themes. It can be seen that the creation of major theme art has had an important impact on the development process of Contemporary Chinese art. There is no doubt that the creation of major historical themes after the founding of the People's Republic of China has the political and ethical function of reconstructing the national historical memory and justifying the legitimacy of the regime, and it needs a "grand narrative" and a "heroic hymn", which has been typically reflected in the revolutionary historical theme art creation in the 1950s and 1960s. However, it is undeniable that the artistic creation of historical themes is based on objective historical facts, and does not stop at the record of "objective" historical facts, which contains the knowledge, understanding and judgment of the artist's history. For major historical themes, what angles to choose to express and how to express them are all tests and challenges to the artist's intellect.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, along with the vigorous rise of the creation of major historical themes, an atmosphere of attaching importance to the creation of major themes and studying the creation of major themes of art has been formed in the art circles, and people regard the creation of major historical themes as an important symbol of testing the creative level and artistic achievements of artists, and have established a value standard in the entire art circle, that is, engaging in the creation of major historical themes is an important way for painters to achieve personal artistic achievements and realize personal value. In particular, many young and middle-aged painters can only emerge in the painting world through the creation of such major historical themes. Zhan Jianjun is no exception.
Zhan Jianjun is a new generation of oil painters trained by New China, during his graduate studies, the Ministry of Culture hired Soviet expert Maximov to come to China to hold oil painting training classes, and the trainees were selected from the young teachers of various art academies, and Zhan Jianjun was one of them. In 1957, Zhan Jianjun graduated from Maximov's oil painting training class, and the work he created after graduation was "Starting Home". Strictly speaking, the work "Starting Home" can only be regarded as a thematic creation, and it is not difficult to create as a major historical theme, but this work laid the foundation for Zhan Jianjun to engage in the creation of major historical themes in the future, so it is also listed here as one of Zhan Jianjun's major historical theme creations.
"Starting a Family" depicts a group of young people who are in full swing responding to the call of the state to develop and reclaim the land in the arduous frontier. The picture shows that the young people have just arrived at the frontier, and the youth have begun to camp and camp, and the sky is not beautiful, the clouds are thick, the wind is fierce, and the tent that has just been erected will be blown away by the wind. On the picture, a huge white canvas is flying in the fierce wind, the reclamation youth is fighting the fierce wind, and the large dark clouds swimming in the sky and the fluttering white tent form a strong contrast, reflecting the harsh natural conditions, and the vigorous pioneers are not afraid of difficulties and pursue the enthusiasm and optimism of ideals. "Starting Home" depicts the desolate environment with extensive brushstrokes, setting off the youthful heroism of the reclamation youth, and the banner wide-screen composition shows a magnificent sense of scene.
"Starting a Family", Zhan Jianjun, oil painting, 1957
In the minds of the young people at that time, going to the distant frontier to open up the wilderness was a great cause with romantic colors and the construction of an ideal new life. After Zhan Jianjun saw the report on the reclamation of the northern wilderness in the newspapers and periodicals, he was touched by the enthusiasm of young people to meet the challenges of life, and was determined to take the reclamation youth as the theme of his painting creation. In order to gain an in-depth understanding of the situation, he participated in the Mobilization Oath Ceremony of Beijing and Tianjin Youth to Open up the Wilderness, studied the materials, and then went to the Northern Wilderness with Wang Chengyi, a student of the oil painting training class and a painter from Zhejiang Province, to experience life and collect painting materials. The focus of the work "Starting Home" is not to show the image of the reclamation team members, nor is it mainly based on the natural scenery of the Northern Wilderness, but focuses on the contrast between people and natural forces. Compared with works of similar themes in the same era, "The Beginning" focuses on lyricism, rather than intending to narrate, and the concept is not conventional. Ai Zhongxin believes that this painting is a representative work of Chinese oil painting at that time, "the theme of the work is to use touching images and beautiful art forms to impress people's hearts, rather than using boring preaching to force into the audience's mind." [1]
"The Beginning" is theologically accurate to the pulse of the times, in line with the mainstream ideology of the time, and in terms of content and form, the author's treatment is also quite perfect, obviously well thought out. At that time, the young Zhan Jianjun was already able to grasp well the combination of his artistic expression and the theme of the times, which was very difficult. Regarding "Starting Home", Ai Zhongxin's evaluation is more pertinent: ""Starting Home" is a large-scale oil painting by Zhan Jianjun who first revealed his talent, this one of his graduation creations in the oil painting training class, compared with many of his later works, although it is not technically sophisticated enough, the shaping of the character image is still not profound, but in the 1950s, it undoubtedly marked the author's artistic level, which has a certain representation in China and has a certain influence in the world. ”[2]
This work has both thematic and episodic nature, and also integrates the author's own thoughts and feelings, which has shown Mr. Zhan's tendency in artistic taste. However, judging from the existing materials, this work did not receive special attention at that time, because in the era when "ideological" was the standard, this work was obviously too "neutral" and not "left" enough, and at that time, works that were not advanced and positive enough were not good works. But what is unexpected is that "Starting Home" participated in the art exhibition of the "World Youth Festival" and won the bronze medal of the "World Youth Festival International Art Competition", which received a huge response at that time.
Due to his systematic oil painting training, Zhan Jianjun had the privilege of catching up with the upsurge of major historical themes after the founding of the People's Republic of China in the 1950s and 1960s and engaged in the creation of revolutionary historical themes. Therefore, objectively speaking, "Starting a Family" has become a prelude to Zhan Jianjun's creation of major historical themes.
Ai Zhongxin, Exploring and Advancing According to the Laws of Art: On Zhan Jianjun's Oil Painting Creation, Literary and Art Studies, No. 5, 1981, p. 98 ↑