▲ The scene of the 2018 Xu Qinsong Creation Award National General Selection Award Ceremony
An excellent teacher can bring a good class of children; and an excellent lesson plan that is immersed in the blood of local culture is a cultural inheritance text that can be copied and referenced, and has greater value.
◎ Southern Magazine reporter/shadow
▲ Chunshan Yunyi 68×136cm Xu Qinsong 2020
Xu Qinsong, a representative figure of Contemporary Chinese landscape painters, is deeply nourished by the infiltration of Lingnan culture. After stepping down from his post in the Art Association and the Academy of Painting, he came from the "perspective of God" and had more time to go into the countryside, into the fields, and towards the proposition of the times of rural cultural revitalization, and his artistic creation also turned more to the attention and thinking about social development and human destiny.
Recently, Xu Qinsong, consultant of the China Artists Association, researcher of the China Academy of Arts, doctoral supervisor and honorary chairman of the Guangdong Artists Association, was interviewed by the reporter of Southern Magazine in his studio. Unexpectedly, "the people" and "public welfare" became the key words in his conversation.
Cold, hot, frost... Growing up in the countryside of Chaoshan Province, Xu Qinsong's feet sensed the temperature of the land. When he talked to the reporter of "South" magazine about the memory of his hometown, he especially talked about a green field he passed by when he went to school. It was the countryside scenery in the depths of his memory, and when the sun set, the beauty and vastness of the sunset enchanted him. When the sun shines on the surface of the Han River, his heart will have an inexplicable touch.
"I am a child who grew up in the countryside, came out of the masses of the people, and was born close to the people." Xu Qinsong sighed that in his 20s, he began to study in a foreign country, leaving his hometown, Han Jiang and Lotus Mountain, and often appeared in his dreams. In Xu Qinsong's view, this feeling for his hometown and the countryside is deeply rooted in his heart, flowing in his blood, and existing in his bones.
▲ Xu Qinsong
"My generation has a deep understanding of our home country and has almost become a part of our lives. If I have achieved some achievements, this is by no means achieved by individual struggle alone, but the prosperity of the country and the spirit of the nation have pushed me to go. In the final analysis, every key node of a person is inseparable from the cultivation of the organization. As a veteran party member, I am very grateful. Xu Qinsong said.
Born in 1952, he grew up with New China. Today, this teenager who grew up under the nourishment of the countryside of eastern Guangdong has become a painter with excellent skills. A series of works represented by the landscape painting "Spring Dawn in Southern Guangdong", which integrates the agility of the south with the majesty of the north, overlooking from a high altitude, "easy pen as a knife", is unique in the Lingnan art circle, pioneering a generation of customs.
▲ Nanyue Chunxiao, Xu Qinsong, Chinese painting, 500x250cm, 2008
From culture and art to the feelings of home and country, Xu Qinsong's attention to society has a long history.
In 2007, seeing a letter of help from orphans and disabled children in WuhuaShan District to the Guangdong Provincial Department of Civil Affairs, Xu Qinsong initiated the establishment of the Guangdong Orphan and Disabled Children Rescue Foundation to donate works for auction; in the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, when he was the chairman of the Guangdong Provincial Artists Association, he proposed that the Guangdong art community raise funds for the disaster area, 140 painters responded, and the proceeds from the charity sale of art works were more than 7 million yuan for disaster relief; under his initiative, the 108-person team of the Guangdong Provincial Artists Association used 18 days and nights to create a 56-meter-long, The 1.6-meter-high oil painting "Mourning and Rebirth" reflecting the earthquake relief was edited and published in 5 days, becoming one of the earliest artistic forces in the country to support the disaster areas...
In 2017, Xu Qinsong initiated the establishment of the Guangdong Xu Qinsong Art Foundation. Since its inception, the Foundation has been committed to helping more artists grow through "art + public welfare" and supporting various social service activities.
"The foundation was established to promote the power of public welfare, not simply to give money." Xu Qinsong said his feelings with a peaceful mind.
▲ Rural Art Teacher Training Program Chenghai Special Session
In fact, as early as 2009, in order to encourage the development of graduates of his alma mater, the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, and to encourage young artists to persist in creation, Xu Qinsong established the Xu Qinsong Creation Award at his own expense. Since 2019, the Xu Qinsong Creation Award has been officially landed in the eight major art academies across the country. The professional jury team makes it a professional award with a very high degree of recognition for young artists. Today, the Xu Qinsong Creation Award has been successfully held for 13 sessions.
Xiao Wu, a winner from Jiangxi, made Xu Qinsong remember deeply. After several consecutive activities, Xu Qinsong felt that a young man was following him. Later, at the event, he found an opportunity to ask the young man, "Do you have something to say to me?" The young man finally put aside his timidity: "Teacher Xu, I have followed you for a few activities, and I want to say thank you to you." I'm from the countryside of Jiangxi, and this one is definitely important to me! ”
▲ 2021 Xu Qinsong Creation Award National General Selection Award Ceremony
In this era of rapid change, for many young artists who have not yet entered the society, this bonus has become a spiritual encouragement for many people to insist on artistic creation.
In 2021, the Xu Qinsong Creation Award received a total of 12,638 submissions from 12 target universities and all over the country, of which 200 works were shortlisted, which lasted for 102 days, and finally a total of 9 gold and silver awards, 119 bronze awards in the online competition area and target universities, as well as the most concerned awards of art institutions, the most media attention awards, and the most popular online awards were finally born.
▲ 2019 Xu Qinsong Creation Award National General Selection Award Ceremony
The Foundation is also working to build bridges between these young painters and art institutions. For example, the establishment of media attention awards, art attention awards, etc. For young painters, we have the 'Green Pine Project'; for old artists, we are working hard to plan the 'Pine Plan' to carry out rescue combing and academic research on the works of some old artists. Many si, vice chairman of the Guangdong Xu Qinsong Art Foundation, told the Reporter of Southern Magazine.
The reporter learned in the interview that the current projects of the Xu Qinsong Art Foundation in Guangdong Province involve a wide range of fields and are highly professional. For the development of the foundation, many thinkers believe that whether it is the "Green Pine Project" for young artists or the "Pine Plan" for the older generation of artists, it must be based on the professional standards of the foundation and invite a first-class team of experts from all walks of life to judge. "This requires the output of professional services, which is another way for us to do public welfare." What we are doing is actually culture and art to serve more fields and let more people see art. He said.
▲2021 Xu Qinsong Creation Award National General Selection Of Winning Works Exhibition
(Guangzhou Library)
If you search for "Xu Qinsong" on the Internet, the content of "Rural Art Teacher Training Program" will appear. This is a public welfare project promoted by the Xu Qinsong Art Foundation of Guangdong Province in recent years. The "Rural Art Teacher Cultivation Program" is implemented in the county as a unit, and the local education authorities are united to open a five-day five-door course for rural art teachers.
"The word 'rural' carries a lot of undeserved prejudices. Many young people do not like to be born in the rural mountain villages of Sisi, and some are even ashamed to mention their hometowns, and they are reluctant to go back after reading books. Xu Qinsong is not without concern about this phenomenon. In the context of rural revitalization, this literary and art worker began to think about the problem of rural cultural self-confidence and cultural revitalization.
"The key to rural aesthetic education is in the rural art teacher." Many thinkers told the reporters of Southern magazine about their views. During these years of work, he and his team found that many of the outside faculty would leave after a year when they came to the rural campus. In the face of such a dilemma, the foundation strives to explore how to train local teachers and cultivate rural aesthetic education talents from the root. "They are people who really understand the local culture and will stay here longer." However, sometimes teachers can't realize the beauty around them, and they can't find the materials suitable for aesthetic education around them at the first time. Our team will bring them together to discover the beauty around them, and gradually cultivate their confidence in the countryside and local culture, so as to love their hometown more. ”
▲ Rural Art Teacher Training Program Qingyuan Special Session
"I used to lead art classes and music classes part-time, and I know the importance of this emphasis on art teachers." Xu Qinsong told reporters with a smile. In the description of the foundation staff, no matter how far away, Xu Qinsong insisted on going to the local area to personally teach the "first lesson". What is the positioning of the rural art teacher, how beautiful is his hometown, and what raw materials are used to make special art works in his hometown... From the first class, under the inspiration of the art masters, the art teachers gradually found professional self-confidence and established cultural self-confidence.
Inspired, after returning to their hometown, the teachers used local materials to make more local teaching plans. For example, in the townships near the sea, some teachers use shells as raw materials to make works that children love. More and more lesson plans with local concepts flow through the campus, bringing nourishment to the hearts of children.
▲ "Painting with Love" - Qingyuan Damai Mountain Art Summer Camp
"For excellent lesson plans, we will evaluate and commend them every year." Many thoughts introduced. Commending a lesson plan without honoring a teacher is also a careful consideration. In Xu Qinsong's view, an excellent teacher can only bring a class of children; and an excellent lesson plan that is immersed in the blood of local culture is a cultural inheritance text that can be copied and referenced, and has greater value.
On May 16, 2021, more than 90 selected outstanding teaching plan works were exhibited at the Guangdong Provincial Cultural Center, which was the scene of the award ceremony and achievement exhibition of the 2020 "Xu Qinsong Rural Art Education Award". The theme of this time is "All Things Are Born", and the aim is to develop art courses that are adapted to local conditions and have a local cultural atmosphere.
▲ 2020 "Xu Qinsong Rural Art Education Award" Achievement Exhibition
(Guangdong Provincial Culture Center)
"After a period of operation, the foundation is currently supported by more and more artists. They have effectively become a pool of experts, and when the Foundation has a new initiative or activity, everyone responds positively. The Foundation hopes to continue to incubate locally in the model of 'nurturing + rewarding'. "In the eyes of many people, after 3 years of growth, the school's aesthetic education work has made gratifying progress. He gave an example of how, in response to the issue of the dissemination and transformation of intangible cultural heritage, the team of the Foundation has ingeniously packaged intangible cultural heritage into interesting content and developed an edutainment intangible cultural heritage curriculum.
Many thinkers say that in this line of thinking, research is not to blindly go to iconic buildings to punch cards, but to learn interesting local intangible cultural heritage content.
"We have a lot of projects going on at the same time, and we expect more social forces to participate together." Many si told the reporter of "South" magazine, "We must dig out more rural 'cultural treasures'!" ”