From the ningfang not the circle to the square is the square circle is the circle
---- revisit the CAFA sketches of the 1980s and 1990s
Text / Yang Dawei
During the Renaissance, there was a qualitative change in prime depiction. The sketches of this period have a wide range of basic drawing themes as painting, architecture, machinery, etc., thus forming a scientific sketching law and gradually constructing a training system for classical realistic painting. At that time, as a method to help painters analyze and express the structure of objects and images, they constructed a scientific basic theory of painting on the basis of practice, including in-depth research on perspective, anatomy, space, light and shade, and character personality. During this period, the sketch teaching system of the Academy of Fine Arts was initially formed, and became the basic quality requirement for cultivating artistic talents. In the late 19th century, due to the impetus of Impressionist painting, the perceptual intuition in sketch painting became the first element, which seemed to subvert the basis of sketching and was not completely realistic, and the painter's emotions in the face of nature and keen sensitivity and expression were the soul of the work.
Sketching classes in Chinese art academies began in the early 1950s, basically from France and the former Soviet Union, as well as the origin of the Chinese painting tradition itself, and the Chischakov teaching system gradually became the implicit program of drawing teaching in the second half of the 20th century. At that time, sketching as a basic modeling education, basically emphasized in terms of proportion, shape, space, tone and other aspects, because the objectivity of the all-factor sketch is easier to be evaluated, so it has become the basic condition for evaluating the quality of students' performance, resulting in the appearance of sketching a thousand faces. After the 1980s, the academy's art education ideas were liberated, and there were also sketches belonging to that era.
At that time, the Central Academy of Fine Arts also made higher requirements for each course. For example, the emphasis on sketching work tries to seek breakthroughs according to their own understanding, and the sketching class itself also integrates students' abilities in many aspects (comprehension, sensitivity, observation, and expression). Still emphasizing the importance of classroom sketching, it seems that there was an unwritten rule at that time, that is, during the study of the Academy of Fine Arts, 1 or 2 works should be completed that are important in the development of students' future paintings, and many years of teaching practice have proved that some works have become masterpieces and become model paintings in teaching. Therefore, I chose the classroom character sketches of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in the 1980s, including the works of Xia Xiaowan, Wang Yidong, Liu Xiaodong, Zhang Lujiang, and Mao Yan in the Oil Painting Department; wushu of the Chinese Painting Department; Tan Ping and Wang Huaxiang of the Printmaking Department. At the same time, it is particularly necessary to emphasize the "Central Academy of Fine Arts Young Teachers Sketch Exhibition" held at the National Art Museum of China in the winter of 1988, the original intention of the advocates of the exhibition is based on the macro understanding of drawings and the thinking of the current situation and future development of art, after the exhibition, let many people in the industry realize that the significance of this exhibition lies in its academic nature, and even plays a certain role in the development of art.
Wang Yidong's "Man Body" sketch was completed in the 80s of the last century, has tried to get rid of the influence of "Ning Fang Do Not Circle" and Su Pai's sketch consciousness, after which his sketches basically rely on specific forms to speak; Xia Xiaowan's "Man Body" sketch and Wang Yidong completed in the same period, emphasizing the performance of volume, distance, light and shadow, etc., and later his sketches focused on more self-consciousness; Tan Ping's "Portrait of Young Women" was completed in 1981, basically su Pai's training method, The contrast between this passive depiction and his later more attention to the spiritual formation of the form has a subversive taste; Wang Huaxiang's "Young Woman's Human Body" is a junior homework in 1987, the work has shown the initiative and creativity of his sketch language, the expression of the work is obviously influenced by Mr. Wu Zuoren, although the handling of the hand is slightly inferior, but it does not affect the relaxation of the whole picture; Liu Xiaodong's "Portrait of the Old Man" is a sophomore homework, compared to the three predecessors he almost completely got rid of the Su style, The characteristics of the character image and the charm details of the appearance are particularly important in his view, so that the current state of Liu Xiaodong's artistic creation is related; the martial arts of "Portrait of the Old Man" is a sketch of the third year, when some people mistakenly thought that it was a middle-aged painter, compared to the white painting has been used as a pastel ink manuscript of Chinese painting, you can glimpse the inspiration of the sketch to him, which can make his later artistic expression more sensitive and extreme; Zhang Lujiang's "Portrait of the Old Man" completed in 1985 basically returned to the expression of the art body, just like Liu Xiaodong, basically returned to the expression of the art body. But the difference is that he has a more acute feeling for the details of the sketch object, and the expression is more sincere, especially the treatment of the skin of the elderly should be regarded as an outlier of the sketch at that time; Mao Yan's "Man Body" sketch has reached the early 90s of the last century, through which he can see the changes in the basic teaching of CENTRAL American in the past ten years, he has always maintained vigilance against overexpression, completely without the shackles of the concept of Ning Fang BeiYuan, and there is no overemphasis on the deliberateness of virtual reality, and every part of the human body has the expression consciousness of connecting skin and flesh. Objectively speaking, if there were no pioneering attempts in drawing education from the early 1980s to the early 1990s, there would be no new possibilities for art education after that.
In today's case, what is a sketch? Why learn to sketch? What do you learn to sketch for? It seems that such a question is rarely heard. The reason for recalling the drawing teaching of CENTRAL America in the last century is not only a historical review of that era, but also a reflection on the fact that sketch education is no longer a hot debate between existence and waste. Because sketching still has its unique role in training thinking, exercising ability, enlightening consciousness, and cultivating quality, especially in terms of visual research methods and creative practice paths, it is still a good basic starting point. It is undeniable that the virtualization of reality caused by the development of science and technology has exacerbated the trend of overemphasizing the concept of form in artistic creation. Drawing also loses its former place in art teaching, leaving us increasingly alienated from the natural world and the realities of life. Fundamentally speaking, the value of humanistic education is to make people human, and one of the tasks of painting art is to bridge or even resist the alienation between people and reality, while sketching requires feeling and observing objects, and sketching requires observing and feeling the nature and life in which we live, which not only helps to solve the patternization in conceptual creation, but also bridges the metaphysical significance of separating virtual and real to return to the objective world.
It is hoped that through a brief analysis of the typical cases of drawing education and teaching in a specific period of CAAM, people will be triggered to think deeply about the diverse perspectives of drawing education. Because sketch teaching does undertake the cultivation function of students' way of viewing, technical language, and way of thinking, in this way, the value of sketching still has its significance at present.
December 16, 2021
Note: The picture is from the network
Man Body 109×59cm Pencil on Paper, 1980 Wang Yidong (second year)
Man Body 148×72cm Pencil on Paper 1980 Xia Xiaowan (sophomore)
Portrait of a Young Woman 78.5×53cm Pencil on Paper, 1981 Tan Ping (First Year)
Young Woman Human Body 79×54cm Pencil on Paper, 1987 Wang Huaxiang (Third Year)
Young Woman Human Body (Partial) Pencil on Paper 1987 Wang Huaxiang (Third Year of University)
Old Man Portrait Pencil on Paper 1985 Liu Xiaodong (second year of university)
Portrait of the Old Man (Partial) Pencil on Paper 1985 Liu Xiaodong (Second Year of University)
Portrait of the Old Man 136cm×68cm Ink on Paper, 1988 Martial Arts (Third Year)
Portrait of the Old Man (Partial) Ink on Paper 1988 Martial Arts (Third Year of University)
Old Man Portrait 89×67cm Pencil on Paper, 1985 Zhang Lujiang (second year of university)
Old Man Portrait (Partial) 89×67cm Pencil on Paper, 1985 Zhang Lujiang (Second Year)
Man's Body 117×88cm Pencil on Paper, 1990 Mao Flame (Third Year)
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