Qinghai Steppe (Stone Plate)
Tibetan Girl (Part 2) (Stone Edition)
Highland Ranch (Part 2) (Stone Plate)
Bayankara Shepherd (Copper Plate)
Gava (stone version)
Young Jamba (watercolor)
□ Hao Bin
Introduction: On December 24, 2021, the "Summons of the Plateau: 38 Years of Qinghai Sketching - Wu Changjiang Printmaking and SketchEs Exhibition" jointly sponsored by the China Artists Association, the Propaganda Department of the Qinghai Provincial Party Committee of the Communist Party of China, the Central Academy of Fine Arts, and the Qinghai Provincial Federation of Literature and Literature was grandly opened at the Qinghai Art Museum. The exhibition exhibits 116 outstanding works selected by Mr. Wu Changjiang in Qinghai in the past 38 years. From the first time in 1983 to Qinghai sketching so far, Wu Changjiang has insisted on going to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau almost every year to sketch and create, from the lithographs that made him famous throughout the country in his early years to the Tibetan character sketches that later emphasized "on-site creation", he adhered to his original intention and persistently carried out the creation of Tibetan character themes, and achieved outstanding artistic achievements. He interpreted the aesthetic height of Qinghai with artistic creation, and made outstanding contributions to publicizing the image of Qinghai at home and abroad and enhancing the popularity and reputation of Qinghai.
Profile: Wu Changjiang, former secretary of the party group and executive vice chairman of the China Artists Association, professor of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, executive director of the China Tibet Cultural Protection and Development Association, is currently an advisor to the China Artists Association, and enjoys special government allowances from the State Council.
Hao Bin: From the first time you came to Qinghai sketching in 1983, your original intention has not changed for 38 years, and you have been consistent, taking the Qinghai pastoral area as your living base to visit again and again, returning with a full load of harvest again and again, forming a rich artistic accumulation and reflecting a deep artistic pursuit. Why did you spend so long painting the Qinghai pastoral area?
Wu Changjiang: As a multi-ethnic country, there is an interesting phenomenon in the development of Chinese art, that is, most of the famous works of famous artists come from the creation of ethnic themes. Since the 1934s, especially since the founding of New China, the theme of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has always been an important source for artists, and the representative works of generations of artists, including many influential artists, have also been produced on the plateau. For example, Mr. Dong Xiwen painted Tibet and achieved the artistic peak of his life; Mr. Zhu Naizheng painted a number of classic works such as "Qinghai Changyun", and so on. Qinghai is a multi-ethnic settlement, integrated and formed a unique cultural heritage and vitality, Qinghai pastoral area of the mountains and rivers, especially the simple and strong Image of Tibetan herders continue to attract me. This year, it has been 38 years since I first went to Qinghai to sketch, and for decades I have been going to Qinghai Pastoral Area almost every year to sketch and paint, and I have come to Qinghai Pastoral Area more than 30 times in total. At the beginning of this year, I came to Golmud in Qinghai to sketch; in May this year, we set off from Golmud, drove through Coco Xili to the Tuotuo River, the source of the Yangtze River, and then went deep into Tibet, driving more than 800 kilometers; after the opening activities of this exhibition, I set off to Golmud to sketch again, and every time I went, I had new experiences, new insights, and new harvests. Some painter friends think that there is no need to go all the time, but I think that creation should have a deeper understanding. I now feel more and more that what is done on the spot, the depth felt on the spot, is incomparable in the studio.
Hao Bin: You have come to Qinghai Pastoral Area almost uninterruptedly for 38 years to sketch and create, and in the past 38 years, Qinghai Pastoral Area has also undergone earth-shaking changes, and your works can be described as witnessing the changes of the times. In the great changes of history, how do you grasp the artistic pursuit of painting?
Wu Changjiang: In the past few decades, the development and changes in Qinghai have been very amazing, the transportation is more convenient, the life and clothing of the plateau people have also changed, and the plateau has become a popular tourist destination. In the past, when we went to pastoral areas to paint herders, we may have carried prejudices against poor areas, etc., but now this has changed greatly. Today's Qinghai pastoral area still has many things worth exploring for artists, such as the character image of the plateau and their culture, art, clothing, architecture, lifestyle, etc. are very good creative themes, which reflect the profound historical and cultural accumulation of the plateau people. As artists, we learn and feel with a sense of awe, not only to make artistic creation targeted, but also to let the public feel the infinite charm of culture and spiritual level through art.
I was 29 when I first came to Qinghai in 1983, and I am 67 this year. For me, the most important thing in painting is to express people, to express people's emotions, people's spirit, this is good art. I especially like to paint the image of the shepherds of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, showing their spiritual qualities such as simplicity, toughness, and heroism. I think there's a power in that, and that's the most precious thing about art. Many times, when the ideal performance object appears in front of me, I always have the emotion and passion to try my best to express it. Over the years, my greatest feeling is from the appearance to the inner pursuit, from the initial expression of the image of the Tibetan herdsmen in Qinghai as an outsider, to the current internalization of painting their own brothers, with as rich, flexible and attractive works as possible to reflect the spiritual outlook of the plateau herders who both fight against nature and live in harmony with them. These 38 years also happened to have experienced the great changes in China's history and the changes and development of Qinghai, and then recorded the development of the whole Qinghai and the unity and progress of the nation from the perspective of painting. At the moment, as long as I can move around, I want to use all kinds of means to leave these things as much as possible.
Hao Bin: The exhibition hall exhibits more than ten lithographs of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau that you depicted in the 1980s and 1990s, which reflect a concise and distinctive artistic style, many of which have become classics in the history of contemporary Chinese printmaking. How did you develop your mature artistic style from the moment you graduated?
Wu Changjiang: The creation of these works in the exhibition originated from my undergraduate graduation work from the Printmaking Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts that I completed in 1982. This set of graduation works depicts Maqu County, Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, when it was snowing heavily. After the snow, I saw that the environment, people, cattle, horses, etc. had changed, and I tried to find something simple and rich. In fact, monochromatic lithographs are very easy to draw into photos, so painting creation must learn to do subtraction, subtract a lot of things, and highlight what you want to highlight. This is how this set of works is done. In 1983, I went to Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai Province and had a new understanding and feeling. In the 1980s, my lithographs were based on sketches from both regions. After the mid-1980s, I have painted more works on the spot and painted more deeply. This not only refers to the method of painting, but also my life experience, my views on life, etc., something that should be deep rather than superficial. Later I created a lot of watercolors and sketches live sketches. My experience in printmaking has also had an impact on these live sketching methods.
Hao Bin: "On-site creation" is an artistic creation method that you have gradually explored in your sketching exploration, and this creative method has been widely used by you later, such as a large number of sketches exhibited in this exhibition. Why did you take this unique approach?
Wu Changjiang: In 1978, I was admitted to the Printmaking Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts as an undergraduate, and in the second year of the rural creation class, Teacher Song Yuanwen took us to Gannan to sketch, which was my first time to go to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. In 1983, I went to Yushu, Qinghai for the first time to sketch, which was the nomadic plateau area along the Yellow River. Going down is to draw sketches and sketches, which is not the same as printmaking. In Gahai Township, Luqu County, I felt very shocked, I had never seen such a figure, and the people in the pastoral area were tall and strong like a mountain. When sketching, you can't follow the classroom method to draw, because the herder may only sit for a minute or twenty and leave, so you can only grasp the key points, learn to subtract, and subtract a lot of things to highlight what you want, otherwise it is difficult to complete the molded work on the spot. The method of on-site sketching is also gradually explored by myself in the practice of sketching, first of all, the dynamics of the head and body are fixed as a whole, and then refer to the rich picture details such as their clothing and the color of the skin. In short, a variety of methods are used to ensure the integrity of the scene creation picture. This creative method is very challenging, and it is also a test and challenge for me. Because of the cold and cold plateau and lack of oxygen, it is very difficult to paint on the spot. In doing so, I hope to be able to express the emotions and emotions of the painter as fully as possible. These watercolor paintings that I painted later actually mainly used this unique way of painting, which was neither completely color nor entirely sketching, but actually a combination. I wanted to pursue that particularly thick, connotative feeling, and I wanted to paint the images of really traditional, simple herders.
Hao Bin: In the works on display, we found that after completing "The Shepherd of the Snowy Mountains of Bayankara" in 1998, you did not do printmaking for a long time, mainly drawing drawings and watercolors, and in recent years after your retirement, you have begun to make prints. What kind of artistic thinking does this reflect?
Wu Changjiang: Why do I paint watercolors for a long time? This is also related to the characteristics of watercolor painting. My watercolor sketches are a combination of color and sketching, because in the plateau, the on-site sketching time is very precious, the watercolor dried quickly, and after drying, you can continue to paint, which is very convenient. In recent years, I have begun to do copperplate engravings, in fact, for the same reason, the copper plate can be engraved for a period of time and then engraved, and the stone plate is greatly affected by the season, climate, temperature, humidity, etc., and cannot be put for too long. If you make lithography, you can only work in the lithograph studio for a long time. However, I think the most important thing for me now is to take advantage of the fact that I can still walk around, and go to the pastoral site to collect materials and sketch and create. By running the plateau repeatedly and continuously, I felt that my spirit, thinking, and artistic expression were changing. My current idea is that I don't stick to a specific way of creation, and I take what creative way to express it as interestingly as I want. Over the years, I have tried to keep myself in an enterprising state, accumulating something every year, and being able to have something weighty. Then, in due course, I also began to try to do some more printmaking, which is a summary.
Hao Bin: For 38 years, you have insisted on going to qinghai pastoral areas to sketch almost uninterruptedly, and this "sketching behavior" itself has a special significance and elevates your creation to a new realm of "behavior creation". What do you think of this perspective?
Wu Changjiang: For me, painting Tibetan compatriots is both a depiction of them and a projection and participation of the self. More often, to paint them is to paint myself. This allows my creation to go beyond the scope of obtaining a sense of liveness on the spot, and then closely binds my body, life, life and the hot land of the plateau, and becomes an organic part of the "work". From the initial time I went to the pastoral area to collect materials and feel the plateau, to today's large-scale on-site creation, I prefer to see it as a kind of "creative behavior" or "behavior creation" of my own. Therefore, "time", "body" and "life" have become the core concepts in my artistic creation, and I pursue to integrate the "form" and "behavior" of sketching into my creation. I painted the development process of the Tibetan people in these decades, studied the human history, religious culture, folk customs and customs of this region, and grasped the cultural connotation of the Tibetan people from the common point of view. I want to do a kind of accumulation, not only the accumulation of materials, but also the accumulation of experience. I strive to integrate my love for the plateau, the unremitting pursuit of art, and the persistent ideal of life into my works, for me: sketching is creation, and sketching is life.
Hao Bin: In recent years, the art world has begun to revisit sketching, emphasizing "taking root in the people and taking root in life". What do you think is the significance of sketching for contemporary art creation? And how to create good works through sketching?
Wu Changjiang: I think that good art creation should be from the heart, which is the most basic; and then pay attention to the unique way of artistic expression. Current art creation pays too much attention to "image" and "production", so that the result is that the painting looks good, but there are few things that impress you. Therefore, we must pay attention to sketching, and if you want to keep the artistic expression vivid and vivid, then you must experience it yourself, and you must continue to go. This is not a matter of technical proficiency, what is important is to be able to constantly draw new emotions on the spiritual level, and your paintings are valuable. Therefore, it is very important to go to the art scene to sketch, and through sketching, realize the interaction of the mind. In the past, many people painted the theme of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau because they felt that it was more "eye-catching", and I liked the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau from the heart. Painting is from the heart, without the heart, painting has no soul. Now when I go to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to sketch, at least for 20 days, I hope to go to pure pastoral areas, go to the farthest places, live in the homes of herders, and experience their lives. Because painting has a process of gradual familiarity and search for feelings. For example, when I paint dozens of watercolor figures with relatively large scales, they are generally painted by a figure for a day, and they are directly created on the spot. This way of creating is also related to the special rhythm of life in the highlands and cold. In the plateau, people in the county and town usually began to come out at 11 o'clock, and at 16 o'clock and 17 o'clock, people went home one after another. If the painting is not finished at this time, the "unfinished" part appears.
Hao Bin: What do you expect from Qinghai artists, especially young artists?
Wu Changjiang: Thank you very much for the invitation of the Qinghai Provincial Art Museum, which gave me the opportunity to summarize the sketching and travel to Qinghai over the past 38 years, and thank the friends who have helped me in Qinghai, which makes me feel a strong feeling. These emotions have also remained in my work and in my memory. For 38 years, Qinghai has been crucial to my artistic growth and can be described as my spiritual hometown. For Qinghai artists, especially young artists, my personal creative experience is that, first of all, to paint a lot, continue to paint, and constantly improve the level of artistic skills and creation, sometimes good works are also pushed out by the accumulation of the amount of creation; secondly, I hope that everyone can do some thematic creative research, such as specializing in the study of painters, painting heads, etc., to pay attention to details, sometimes we emphasize too much style and ignore the details, and sometimes the key factor that determines the success or failure of artistic creation lies in the details of the slightest, So that our creations are always deep and vivid. In the past, there were not many exchanges with the vast number of Qinghai artists, especially young artists, and I hope that in the future, we will strive to strengthen exchanges, discussions, and mutual learning between each other, and jointly contribute to promoting the development of the art cause in Qinghai Province and promoting the development of the theme of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
Qinghai Daily (December 31, 2021, 7th Edition: Society)