The modern painter Liu Haisu is a controversial painter, some people call him a master of painting, others call him an "art hooligan".
Some people may say that the reason why Liu Haisu is called a master of painting is because of his profound painting achievements; some people may say that the reason why Liu Haisu is called an art hooligan.
That's because his painting techniques are bland, and he uses art to elevate himself, that's because his artwork is flawed, impure and noble, simply put, there is no "virtue and art double xin".
Of course, no matter how people evaluate Liu Haisu and Liu Haisu, his reputation exists, and his oil paintings also exist.
It is worth noting that when evaluating a painter's work, whether good or bad, we must remember not to have the so-called "literati are light" or "people are not popular" ideas or attitudes.
Because if this is the case, we cannot objectively appreciate and evaluate the work of the painter, and in the end we will only "follow the clouds".
Personally, I have always admired and evaluated the work of a painter, and I will take the "contrast method" approach.
After all, in the history of the development of oil painting art in the past six or seven hundred years, good works abound.
A very important factor that affects whether a painter can create a commendable and good work is the artistic atmosphere of the painter's era.
In the era of strong artistic atmosphere, there are more good works born, on the contrary, the era of "mixed fish and dragons" in the artistic atmosphere,
There are very few good works that are born; in addition, other factors such as the artist's own temperament, teacher inheritance, and talent will affect the quality of the work.
Therefore, objectively speaking, the modern painter Liu Haisu, whose oil painting achievements, can be called "master-level" in the domestic painting world.
Liu Haisu oil painting
Liu Haisu's oil paintings are very rich in themes, including landscapes, still lifes, and human portraits.
If you want to specify which style Liu Haisu's oil painting belongs to, this should be aimed at specific subjects, for example, paintings with still life themes are abstract styles similar to "modernism".
The reason why it is described this way is because the objects in the painting are not completely abstract, not to mention that when Liu Haisu was created in the early days, it was the period of western oil painting "modernism".
It is inevitable to be influenced by this painting style, and the original oil painting art originated in the Western world.
Liu Haisu is also the first generation of Chinese oil painting painters, learning Western style is also very normal, as for how similar, it is another matter,
Liu Haisu's landscape theme oil painting is "Impressionism" or "Post-Impressionism" style, if strictly speaking, it is the "Post-Impressionism" style,
After all, in his oil painting picture, the color has been condensed into a "color block", the traditional perspective effect almost does not exist, the so-called "color block" is the color is divided into pieces of shape, the light and shadow in the whole picture is also minimal,
To put it simply, "post-impressionism" oil painting is to combine multiple color blocks into a painting, and directly shape it with color.
There is no need to rely on perspective to reflect the light and shadow effects of the picture, but the "post-impressionism" style does not completely abandon the traditional perspective method, if it is completely abandoned, it is absolute abstraction.
If we look closely at the still life and landscape paintings written by Liu Haisu, we can find that they are very similar to the painting styles of French painters Gauguin, Cézanne and Monet.
But overall it is more like the style of Gauguin and Cézanne, which shows that Liu Haisu is also a master of imitation, in fact, liu Haisu also copied the realistic oil painting "Pearl Girl" written by the 19th century French painter Corot.
It's just that Liu Haisu used a very dim tone to modify the whole picture, causing the woman in the painting to look sad and worried, this kind of "eating face" is very ugly,
Perhaps this also reflects some uneasiness and helplessness in Liu Haisu's inner thoughts, so why does Liu Haisu feel uneasy and helpless?
Mainly because, after the introduction of Western oil paintings in China at that time, Liu Haisu was the first to adopt a real mannequin.
The painter who depicted the naked human body oil painting, and his behavior made the extremely conservative Chinese people at that time feel indignant, and they all thought that Liu Haisu was an "art hooligan".
But no matter how Liu Haisu explained it, it could not change the accusations of those people against him.
Even fellow painters have criticized Liu Haisu for satisfying his personal desires in the name of art, and all kinds of accusations and even spit sounds.
Liu Haisu feels sad, ridiculous and helpless, so he can only release his extremely complex and contradictory emotions in the work;
Even if Liu Haisu knows that body art is sacred and inviolable, he also understands that "people are fearful of words".
So he created a different way of human body oil painting, this "different way" under the human body oil painting, the main woman is realistic style,
Other background details are abstract styles, and the purpose of this is to avoid the erotic atmosphere of the whole picture, otherwise it will be said to be an erotic painting, not an art painting.
Some people may not understand, is it true that the abstract background and the realistic subject are combined into a picture, and there is really no erotic atmosphere?
To explain this doubt in detail, it is a long story, I can only explain "the background foils the subject",
Abstract background foil realistic subject, the whole picture will have more abstract elements, then the human body oil painting with abstract elements, compared with the fully realistic elements of the human body oil painting,
There is no doubt that the former is not as realistic as the latter, at this time we understand that the overall image of the human body oil painting, its erotic atmosphere is very light, even negligible.
But no matter how to modify and process the picture, people at that time always thought that Liu Haisu's human body oil painting was an erotic painting, and only a very few people would say that it was "half art, half erotic".
Looking more closely, you can find the human body oil painting under Liu Haisu's pen, the in the painting, the whole shape is very plump, and the expression is full of the breath of the wind and dust woman.
This may explain the humble identity of the mannequins that Liu Haisu was looking for at that time, such as social flowers and prostitutes.
Because at that time, only women with such an identity were open in their thoughts and behaviors, and they were willing to act as mannequins.
We stand in the painter's point of view, in a sense, Liu Haisu's purpose of creating human body oil painting is to "erase" people's conservative and ignorant ideas, as a painter's creative concept of body art, there should be no ignorant attitude.
Only open and inclusive thinking can appreciate the beauty of body art, and at the same time let people put aside their prejudices against women and recognize the important value of equality between men and women.
We have to admit that because of women, there is a beautiful body art, which shows that the role of women in art is immeasurable, in other words, because of art, women's dignity and status have also been improved.