Written by | Qiu Shuwan
Source | Interface art
Since ancient times, China has had the feeling of home and the world, home is the smallest country, and the country is tens of millions. Ding Xiaofang, a well-known Shanghai artist in Shanghai, and Ding Yang, a doctoral painter of the academic school, are an enviable father and son. One is good at figure ink painting, the other specializes in traditional brush painting, and in addition to having representative works in their respective fields, the father and son have also joined hands to create some well-known realist works across borders. Father and Son, Country and Family, this pair of painters who insist on "art for the people", on the occasion of celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, once again joined forces to create a work called "Red Sacred Land", which is currently on display at the Shanghai Art Museum in the Future City Park of Yunbao, Songjiang, Shanghai.
The work "Red Sacred Land" is being exhibited at the "Struggle" exhibition of the Shanghai Art Badai Art Museum
The whole work uniquely and innovatively selects two images of Shanghai Shikumen and Jiaxing Red Boat as a combination, implying the great spirit of party building and the inheritance of the red spirit. Ding Yang realistically depicted the full picture of the address of a major meeting of the Communist Party of China a hundred years ago, and the embellishment of details such as No. 105 Wangzhi Road and the rickshaw outside the door seemed to tell a thrilling scene that had happened. And Ding Xiaofang used freehand brush and ink to render the difficulty of the beginning of the founding of our party, and used the main tone of red vision to echo with Shikumen, implying the inheritance of the light of revolutionary hope. It is reported that this work was specially made for the first exhibition of the art museum, "Struggle - Echoes of the New Chinese Years", and it is also another innovation of the Ding father and son in the theme creation, in order to express the tribute to the early years of that struggle. Struggle is the key word mentioned by General Secretary Xi Jinping in many important speeches, the strivers are the most beautiful characters in each era, and the spirit of struggle has become its never fading background.
Interior view of the exhibition hall of "Struggle - Echoes of the New Chinese Years"
The red art theme exhibition "Struggle - Echoes of the New Chinese Years" takes the history of the century-old struggle jointly created by the Communist Party of China and the people as the starting point, selects 100 pieces from the collection of works, takes the spiritual core of the strivers as the curatorial perspective, and divides the entire exhibition into four chapters: "Struggle Difficulty", "Struggle Song", "Beauty of Struggle" and "Courage of Struggle". The first chapter of the exhibition, "The Hardship of Struggle," tells the story of the first batch of Chinese Communists who came out of the site of the First Congress of the Communist Party of China on Xingye Road in Shanghai and the red boat in the South Lake of Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, a hundred years ago. For the Ding father and son, Shanghai is their common birthplace, and Zhejiang is the place of ancestral home, so the theme of this theme creation has extraordinary significance for Ding Xiaofang and Ding Yang. In order to show the novelty of major themes, the father and son changed their drafts several times, repeatedly discussed and discussed, and finally chose a creative plan that not only retained their respective creative characteristics but also reflected the spiritual inheritance, so that the two works complemented each other and could each shine, and the final work was praised by the guests in the exhibition.
Ding Xiaofang (third from right), Ding Yang (first from left) and guests from the opening ceremony pose for a group photo in front of the work "Red Sacred Land"
The inheritance of art is inseparable from the words and deeds of his father Ding Xiaofang. In Ding Yang's eyes, his father has always been a beacon on the road to growth, rigorous and diligent in art, although he has not experienced the systematic training of the academy, but a large number of daily studies and the accumulation of life practice, so that his father's pen and ink kung fu and character modeling ability can fully control major classic themes, which makes him admire him all the way to the academic path. Ding Xiaofang had farm life experience in the 1970s, painted a lot of sketches and comic strips, and also met He Youzhi, a comic artist who experienced life on the farm, and received guidance and enlightenment. He returned to the city and entered the publishing house, where he was exposed to more comic strip creations, and later worked as a painter at the Shanghai China Painting Academy.
Ding Xiaofang is good at using pen and ink to express characters, and has won numerous awards in major exhibitions, and the published "Ding Xiaofang Ink Art", "Ding Xiaofang Painting World Speaks New Language", "Ding Xiaofang Painting Water Margin 108 Figures" has been widely praised by the industry. Because he has participated in major art creation projects in Shanghai for many times, his works have been widely collected by Chinese and foreign art institutions and private institutions such as the National Art Museum of China, the China Artists Association, the Shanghai Artists Association, the China Art Palace, and the Shanghai Chinese Painting Academy. At the "Struggle" exhibition, visitors can also enjoy the new work "Lei Feng" created by Ding Xiaofang, who is good at character painting in recent years, he innovated the image of Lei Feng, completed a very rare full-body portrait, and intuitively and vividly displayed the image of a selfless dedication, optimistic and firm youth in front of the audience, which is worth appreciating and noting.
Ding Xiaofang's work "Lei Feng" is being exhibited at the "Struggle" exhibition of the Shanghai Art Badai Art Museum
In daily creation, in addition to often communicating creative ideas between father and son, they will also exchange artistic expression methods of realistic themes. To a certain extent, this affected Ding Yang's choice of creative materials. In Ding Yang's view, his painting of Shikumen has a lot to do with his father, and he once said in an interview: "The Shikumen series of works is an exploration of specific themes in the process of his own creation. Growing up in the alley of Shikumen in Shanghai, the overall characteristics of its architecture, design and structure, the structure of each window and door, and the shape of each brick are also engraved in my mind, I think the breath emitted by Shikumen architecture contains the spirit of Haipai culture, and the spirit of Haipai represents the product of the combination of Chinese and Western cultures since the modernization and transformation of China in the 20th century. For Ding Yang, who grew up in Shikumen, although he has been studying in the north since then, he has a deep memory of Shikumen, which has also become the theme of his creation at this stage. In this "Struggle" exhibition, there is another work by Ding Yang, "New Journey", which reflects the urban life and memory of Shanghai by depicting the scene of a family in front of Shiku Gate sending their son to join the army.
Ding Yang's work "New Departure" is being exhibited at the "Struggle" exhibition of the Shanghai Art Badai Art Museum
Father and son have always adhered to the principle of "art comes from life" and created for the people, which is the unchangeable family style of this art family. Ding Xiaofang believes: "No matter what subject matter and what style of work you paint, it is very important to paint the charm of contemporary painters. A hundred years later, let future generations know at a glance which era the work is. In fact, this requires the artist to sublimate the original state of life through his own thinking, which is a comprehensive test of the artist's outlook on life, aesthetics and expression ability. Influenced by his father, Ding Yang tried to use new language to depict the current era on the basis of inheriting the realist creative method. "The expression of the picture must be triggering, so that the audience has a sense of substitution, and finding this touching point is the most difficult thing." Ding Yang thinks.
"Forward, Forward, Forward" 219x210cm Chinese Painting 2021 Ding Xiaofang
"Fire Magic", 191x88cm Chinese painting, 2021 Ding Yang
"Forward, Forward, Forward" and "Fire Magic" are exactly an innovation of the Ding father and son on the theme of reality. Two works are being exhibited at the "Struggle" exhibition of the Shanghai Art Baerdai Art Museum.
As a small family in the country, the father and son duo use pen and ink to inherit the culture, and for the country, it is the relay struggle of each family that casts the country. Since the 18th Party Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping has repeatedly mentioned the importance of family style construction. As the saying goes, a family is benevolent, a country is prosperous; a family is let go, a country is prosperous. "Self-cultivation, family unity, governance, peace in the world", from the individual to the country, to the world, home is the most important link. The family style and tutoring that parents infiltrate in their daily lives are the spiritual nourishment that can be most integrated into the blood of their children, and leave a deep mark in the process of growth. Ding's father and son work hard in their respective artistic fields, always pay attention to life, learn from tradition, innovate reality, do not forget the original intention of creation, and do not lose themselves. The moving scene behind this "Red Holy Land" work in the "Struggle" exhibition is not only the struggle of the whole country, but also the struggle road of the "little family" artistic inheritance.
Ding Xiaofang, Ding Yang and his father and son were invited to attend the opening ceremony of the "Struggle" exhibition
About the Artist:
Ding Xiaofang: Originally from Shaoxing, Zhejiang, Ding Xiaofang was born in Shanghai in 1957. The character Xiaofang, zhai name Zhuyou Tang, Ziyi Yang Xuan, Tianyuan place. Graduated from the Chinese Painting Graduate Class of the Academy of Fine Arts of Shanghai University, he is a national first-class artist, a painter of the Shanghai Academy of Chinese Painting, the vice president of the Shanghai Juequn Academy of Calligraphy and Painting, a librarian of the Shanghai Research Museum of Culture and History, a member of the China Artists Association, a director of the Shanghai Artists Association, a visiting professor of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, and a distinguished professor of the Zhonghua Guo College of Beijing Normal University.
Ding Yang: Born in Shanghai in 1987. He graduated from the School of Chinese Painting of the Central Academy of Fine Arts with a bachelor's degree in 2010, from the School of Chinese Painting of the Central Academy of Fine Arts with a master's degree in 2013, from the China Academy of Art with a doctorate degree in 2018, and entered the postdoctoral mobile workstation of the National Academy of Painting of China in 2018. He is currently the deputy director of Chinese painting at the School of Fine Arts of East China Normal University, a master tutor, a postdoctoral fellow in art at the National Academy of Painting of China, a member of the China Artists Association, and a member of the Shanghai Artists Association.
Exhibition time: September 12, 2021 - March 31, 2022, 10:00-18:00 (closed on Mondays)
Venue: Shanghai Art PATH Art Museum
Exhibition Address: Shanghai Songjiang District Wangjiapu Road 885 Lane Yunbao Future City Art and Creative Park