Bai Enping
He is a member of the China Artists Association, the chairman of the Lanzhou Artists Association, a famous cultural artist in Lanzhou, the director of the Research Department of the Lanzhou Academy of Painting, a specially appointed painter of the National Academy of Ethnic Painting of China, a studio painter of the Lu Yushun Project Class of the National Academy of Painting of China, a painter employed by the Chinese Painting Academy of the Gansu Academy of Painting, the vice president of the Gansu Jincheng Academy of Painting, the deputy director of the Chinese Painting Art Committee of the Gansu Provincial Artists Association, and the master tutor of the art students of Northwest University for Nationalities. He has won the first prize of the Gansu Provincial Fine Arts Exhibition celebrating the 50th and 60th anniversaries of the founding of the People's Republic of China, and the third prize of chinese painting in the 3rd Western China Fine Arts Exhibition "Plateau plateau". His works have been selected for the "National Hundred Flowers" National Fine Arts Exhibition, the "Pilgrimage to Dunhuang" National Fine Arts Exhibition, the "Moyun Lingnan" National Chinese Painting Works Exhibition, the "Plugged Pearl" The Eighth National Fine Arts Exhibition of The Great Land Conditions of Western China, and the 12th National Art Exhibition. He was selected as the 2018 Chinese Calligraphy and Painting Innovation Annual Contributor by Chinese Netizens.
"Dream seeking incense" is Bai Enping's work selected for the national art exhibition known as the "Olympic Games" in the art world, this painting contains the most characteristic cultural symbols of Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes: grotto statues, flying sky, nine-colored deer, mule and horse caravan, grotto exterior, etc., which took more than two months to complete. Beichen, an art critic in our province, once said when commenting on this work: "When this painting is in the business position and picture layout, Bai Enping has achieved two combinations, one is the combination of historical time and space and real time and space, the two are superimposed, thousands of mountains and rivers, realistic and unrealistic, must be laid out in the same space; one is the combination of cultural landscape and natural landscape, the humanistic landscape should be integrated into the landscape, and it cannot affect the composition rules of the wholeness of landscape painting, and the expansion, grafting, and conversion of vision must be seamless and seamless. This is undoubtedly a great challenge and test for the overall quality of a painter. Therefore, "Dream seeking incense" is not only a major breakthrough in the form of expression in the field of landscape painting creation related to Dunhuang themes, but also a milestone work in the process of Bai Enping's creative practice. ”
Bai Enping was born in Wuwei, Gansu Province, and he was very interested in illustrations when he liked to read villain books since he was a child, which also made him like painting early, but it was very difficult to learn painting at that time, and he did not study painting under a famous painter in the province until high school. "After 3 years of systematic study, in 1984 Bai Enping was admitted to the art department of the then Northwest Institute for Nationalities, at first I liked oil painting, but after entering the university, I studied Chinese painting, and it took 4 years to study. After graduation, I worked as an art teacher at Lanzhou Children's Palace for 20 years, and this experience is a kind of accumulation for me. In the 20 years of the Children's Palace, I have taught many students, and by teaching children art, it is also a kind of paving for my painting creation path, and I have a new understanding of art creation. Su Dongpo said, "On painting in the form of a resemblance, see neighbors with children." Children's paintings are not disturbed by any external environment, and their creations are the most direct understanding of beauty, and the return of the true things of art is more in place. After understanding the children's understanding of painting, I think that the creation of adults should also maintain natural simplicity and truth, which is what painting must understand and recognize, because the painting language expresses the level of human spirit, so we must maintain a childlike heart and maintain a childlike interest when creating art, which is the pursuit of the highest realm, whether it is painting or in other artistic creations. Bai Enping told reporters.
In 2009, Lanzhou Academy of Painting recruited professional painters, Bai Enping successfully applied for employment and transferred to the academy in 2010, and began to engage in professional art creation so far. Bai Enping said: "It has been eleven or twelve years since I arrived at the Lanzhou Painting Academy, and I remember that when I first arrived at the Academy, although I studied Chinese painting, I still refined my profession a little, and my energy was focused on landscape painting, because Chinese landscape painting can better display people's thoughts and emotions through pen and ink and other tools." In addition, the mountains and rivers in our northwest are the best art and cultural resources, and the background of art culture is more passionate in terms of natural features and the conversion of pen and ink. In this way, I have been on the road of landscape painting exploration for more than ten years. Up to now, my understanding and understanding of landscape painting and the direction of pen and ink exploration in the future have become clearer. ”
He studied Chinese painting and fell in love with landscapes, but Bai Enping did not give up the study of oil painting. He told reporters: "Although oil painting did not persist, I still pay great attention to and like oil painting today, and have seen a large number of albums. In fact, in my paintings, I will also integrate some characteristics of oil painting, because oil painting and Chinese painting have mutual influence on the expression language, and we who study Chinese painting must pay attention to oil painting. Many people say that oil painting is realistic and Chinese painting is freehand, but is there no relationship between realism and freehand? In fact, their relationship is very close, and they are mutually infiltrative and mutually influential, so I have been paying attention to oil painting. ”
Bai Enping loves landscapes and has a strong affection for the homeland of Gansu, saying bluntly that "the homeland is the source of his creation". Speaking of his feelings for his homeland, Bai Enping said: "As a local painter, the creation is inseparable from the land we live in, and the work expresses the land under our feet, which is a responsibility and an obligation. Gansu has thick cultural resources and geographical resources, these resources are a fertile land for art creation, we have discussed the Yellow River Basin faience culture, grassland culture, Silk Road culture and so on. Therefore, in my opinion, in gansu, which has a special heritage, as the creation of landscape painting, it is necessary to absorb these extensive art resources. Many landscape painters are antique, but in fact, the ancients came to the northwest relatively few, left less landscape paintings, we can learn less, so this depends on those of us to sort out and excavate, but also need us to explore this field. Personally, it is to add the elemental symbols of Gansu to the work intentionally or unintentionally, and my focus in landscape paintings is the Loess Plateau and the desert Gobi in the northwest, that is, to reflect the magic and majesty of our northwest desert through the works, so that people can see the works and know that this is the beauty of the northwest. In fact, every year, the unit should organize our professional painters to go deep into various places to collect wind, such as the activity of 'Great River Soul', which is to collect wind in the upper reaches of the Yellow River from the source of the Three Rivers, and then the participating painters will create, which is to show the vast mountains and rivers in our northwest through our different artistic styles and ideological understandings. At present, this activity has been continued for 20 years, and two touring exhibitions are organized throughout the country every year, and people in other provinces in the touring exhibition can see the differences in the paintings and the obvious western characteristics as soon as they see these works. ”
"Yu loves landscapes and waters, knows that natural forms and forms have both natural beauty, and also because of people's perceptions (or is it the providence of heaven?). and has moral attributes. Heaven constitutes the source of man's moral conception. Human nature is connected by nature. Only when man does his best can he know his nature and the nature of nature. Therefore, we must have a frank heart, cultivate the nature of righteousness, follow the vein of nature, and follow the heart of the handwriting; take the mountain as the teacher, take the water as the friend, talk to the mountain, nourish the nature of the water, teach the heart of the ancients, and fear the mystery of nature. Mountain nature is my nature, water is my feeling, this is the highest state of 'the unity of heaven and man'. This realm may even be the life and death of Chinese landscape painting. This is Bai Enping's perception of his landscape painting creation, and he also admits that he has not yet formed his own style, and in his opinion, "it is very difficult to form his own painting language." He told reporters: "There are many things that can be explored in the art of painting, and the form of my creation is landscape, but the connotation involves a lot. What I want to do now is to summarize and sort out this piece of the Yellow River Basin, dig out this resource at a deeper level, and see if I can form a personal style in landscape painting, of course, this is more difficult. You know, every artist wants to form a personal appearance on the road of exploring painting, which is simple to say, but it is very difficult to do, because the formation of personal style can only be achieved after a long period of exploration. When I paint landscapes, I wonder if I can deeply embed my personal painting language in the thick cultural heritage of the northwest, and form new painting techniques and directions in the collation and inheritance of brush and ink, so that the works will be different from other people's works at a glance. So my exploration has been on the road, all the way to the road. ”
After becoming the chairman of the Lanzhou Artists Association, Bai Enping was not only thinking about his own painting path, but also leading more people to embark on this path. He told reporters: "As the capital city, the Provincial Artists Association and the Municipal Federation of Literature and Literature will arrange a lot of topics for everyone every year, this year we are thinking of using the platform of the Municipal Artists Association to carry out a 'ink golden city' activity, we live in the yellow river through the city of the provincial capital city of Lanzhou, here has a very beautiful urban landscape, we want to gather one or two dozen painters, the Yellow River style line, the construction of the north and south mountains into a long scroll, each painter is responsible for a section, with their own creation to show the changes on both sides of the Yellow River." Of course, this mode of cooperation is also what we want to promote, so that everyone no longer fights alone, form a joint force and then plan some activities through a platform such as the Municipal Artists Association, including public welfare activities. Through the platform of the Art Association, art lovers and artists in different positions are organized, and more people are involved through some activities, so that good talents are found to be better able to spread the cultural power of the western region with the help of this platform. ”
Lanzhou Daily all-media reporter Kong Desheng text/photo