▲ Order (Chinese painting) 47×74 cm 2010 Shao Dazhen
"When I was young, I always felt very good, I often had a proud heart, and I lived to this day to find that I didn't learn a lot of things and was still learning." This exhibition is also to report to everyone, I have painted a little painting for decades, written a little word, please give more advice. This is mr. Shao Dazhen's humble speech at the opening ceremony of the "National Art Museum of China Academic Invitation Series Exhibition: Wenxin Ink Rhyme - Shao Dazhen Art Exhibition" held recently.
In fact, as the first generation of art historians and artists trained by New China, Shao Dazhen made unique contributions to the development of Chinese art and was deeply respected. This exhibition focuses on a large number of precious documents from Shao Dazhen's artistic research achievements, as well as more than 100 works of Chinese painting and calligraphy created in recent years, comprehensively reviewing his artistic life.
Born in 1934 in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, Shao Dazhen graduated from the Leningrad Repin Academy of Fine Arts in the Soviet Union in 1960, and is a professor and doctoral supervisor of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Shao Dazhen devoted his life to the study of art history, and published works such as "A Brief Discussion of Modernist Art", "Traditional Art and Modernism", "History of Greco-Roman Art", "A Brief History of European Painting" (co-authored with his wife Xi Jingzhi) and other works.
Wu Weishan, member of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, director of the National Art Museum of China, and vice chairman of the China Artists Association, as the chief curator of this exhibition, distilled Shao Dazhen's academic and artistic achievements into 7 keywords, namely "teaching", "editing", "translating", "writing", "commenting", "painting" and "book", summarizing Shao Dazhen's achievements, not only because of his fruitful academic and artistic achievements, but also because his art history and art criticism directly promoted the healthy development of modern Chinese art. He is a thinker, scholar, professor and artist who can closely relate to the pulse of the development of new Chinese art and resonate with the times.
▲ Quotations from Shao Dazhen Painting (Calligraphy) 120×23 cm×6 2021 Shao Dazhen
Through academic combing, the exhibition exhibits more than 130 precious documents and physical objects reflecting Shao Dazhen's fruitful achievements in introducing Western art, studying traditional Chinese culture, constructing contemporary art criticism, and teaching and educating people from the beginning of his study abroad in the 1950s to his return to China. Among them are the original precious manuscripts of "Shao Dazhen's Lecture Notes on the History of Art in Greece, Rome, Egypt and Other Countries During Classes to Students of the Central Academy of Fine Arts" in the 1960s, as well as the manuscripts of important papers such as "On the Art of Picasso", "Impressionism: Aesthetic Concepts and Others", and "World Art", No. 1, 1979 (inaugural issue). The exhibition also exhibits the fruitful achievements of Xi Jingzhi, the wife of Shao Dazhen, who is also an art historian, in the research, education and theoretical construction of art history.
Regarding Shao Dazhen's achievements in art theory, Xu Lian, a student and vice president of the National Academy of Painting of China, said: "Mr. Shao Dazhen has written a large number of articles and monographs, including an introduction to Western modern art and art trends, as well as research on contemporary Chinese art issues, and his artistic views and artistic views have become representatives of the mainstream views of the art industry since the reform and opening up. With a truth-seeking and pragmatic attitude, he made a constructive response to the development of art, and had a profound impact on the artists who have grown up since the reform and opening up. ”
The paintings of Shao Dazhen exhibited in the exhibition are the results of his artistic creation practice. Most of Shao Dazhen's works are landscape works, based on ink painting, slightly pasteled, no matter how large or small, there is a sense of ease and calm writing, full of authentic "literati painting" style. The style of his calligraphy works is also extremely unique, simple and natural, implicit and restrained. Many of these works combine the art of calligraphy with their own profound artistic theories, presenting a unique artistic style.
"Mr. Shao Dazhen has a saying, 'vertical absorption, horizontal transplantation', which has been consistent in his theoretical writings and has been fully reflected in the process of his pen cultivation and ink rhyme." In the view of Feng Yuan, vice chairman of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, deputy director of the Central Research Museum of Literature and History, and honorary chairman of the China Artists Association, Shao Dazhen's achievements in both theory and practice are beneficial and complementary to each other. Between the dot paintings and the dot lines, he found that realm of pleasure and freedom. Mr. Shao's shift from theory to artistic practice plays a very important role in enriching his art theory, not only for theory, but also for art. Therefore, in his works, he expresses that kind of free heart, and combines Western painting, Impressionist painting, and traditional Chinese painting into one furnace. Therefore, we can see that he has a cheerful, completely heartfelt outpouring of emotions, and does not strictly pursue the direction of every stroke. Mr. Shao's ink rhyme embodies the characteristics of modern Chinese literati painting and deserves our serious study. Feng Yuan said.
Fan Di'an, chairman of the China Artists Association and president of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, commented: "Mr. Shao's academic contributions are regarded as a monograph, and his paintings are also an organic part of his artistic life. It is his 'two-pronged approach' that gives people a taste of his comprehensive education and artistic talent. In his place, 'painting' is a supplement to 'writing', and 'painting' is the embodiment of 'wen', and the 'ink field' he cultivates is another place where his 'literary heart' is stationed, in which the weather, charm, and breath are all in line with his spirit of governance, and they show their lofty feelings with the pen and ink language that expresses the chest. ”
Fan Di'an believes that Shao Dazhen's well-informed visual experience of Chinese and foreign art is the resource advantage of his brush painting, but he is more familiar with the principle of "winning the heart" of Chinese freehand painting, and as long as he moves his pen, he should express his unique feelings. His accumulated feelings and perceptions of visiting natural landscapes are also rich enough, but in the paintings, he expresses the cultural "heart dwelling" home.
Xu Jiang, vice chairman of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and president of the China Oil Painting Society, said that Shao Dazhen's paintings are literary and interesting. "Mr. Shao's paintings have a literary tone, full of beautiful words, idyllic and poetic. His paintings include thick ink, black clouds turning ink, the sky wind standing; there are sparse brushes, white rain jumping beads, and moss marks. Whether it is thick ink or thin pen, it contains a kind of simplicity and refinement. Mr. Shao's paintings are interesting in the brushwork. His pen is dark and thick on one side, and sparse and simple on the other side, but it is all circled and moved. Sometimes careless, as if the pen is playing, between willfulness and carelessness, is waiting for an opportunity to change. Once the intention is reached, a little spirit jumps out in the middle of the void. This is the joy of his white drawing and sketching. Wen Xin li paints the heart, and the ink rhymes with elegant rhymes. Mr. Shao's paintings, with simple brush and ink, bring us into the meaning of contemporary literati painting, from where we can recognize the power of spontaneous blooming, and share the spiritual return of art in the exchange of heaven and earth. Xu Jiang said.
December 12, 2021 China Culture Daily
Special reports were published on the 4th edition
"Shao Dazhen's Wenxin Ink Rhyme"
Editor-in-charge: Chen Xiaoyue