In the white world of ice and snow, skiers dressed in "Chinese red" leap into the sky, showing the Olympic spirit of hard work. This Winter Olympics theme of the brush painting "Leap" is from the hand of Cui Jingzhe, a young painter after the 80s. On January 11, IOC Vice President Yu Zaiqing presented the Coubertin Prize to Cui Jingzhe in Beijing on behalf of IOC President Bach, who also became the youngest artist to receive this honor.
Cui Jingzhe introduced Chinese red brush painting to IOC President Bach and Vice President Mr. Yu Zaiqing
From the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and sports painting to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, when he was awarded the "Coubertin Prize", the painter Cui Jingzhe and Beijing formed a double Olympic relationship. "In 2008, I was invited to participate in the "Olympic Beijing China Red" series of works exhibition, the exhibited works depicted the image of the generations of ladies dressed in Chinese red. At that time, the exhibition was loved by international friends who came to participate in the Olympic Games, and the poster album alone received nearly 150,000 copies. ”
During the preparations for the Beijing Winter Olympics, cui Jingzhe, as one of the artists in the "Cheer for the Olympics" project, continued to promote the Olympic spirit through painting and show the world China's understanding of Olympic and ice and snow culture. In 2018, when Cui Jingzhe's works were exhibited in Europe, an audience member approached him with a poster album from "Olympic Beijing China Red" 10 years ago, which deeply touched him. "This shows that foreign audiences also like the subtle and restrained oriental beauty of classical Chinese ladies, and I have also begun to think about how to use the Olympic Games as an opportunity to better display China's unique traditional culture."
The flame of each Olympic Games is collected and lit by Greek priestesses in ancient Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympic Movement, the Peloponnese Peninsula in Greece. Cui Jingzhe took this as inspiration and spent nearly half a year creating a large-scale mural group picture "Olympic Flame Collection Ceremony" for the International Olympic Committee. He depicted the image of the priestess collecting fire in the form of a traditional Chinese female painting, remembering this sacred moment. The work was exhibited at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 2019, and the "Chinese Red" series of gong strokes once again shines on the world stage.
In recent years, Cui Jingzhe has also created a number of works on sports and Olympic themes, including many ice and snow sports with great visual impact, such as the work "Leap". "Traditional gongbi paintings often show static pictures, in order to show the potential energy of ice and snow sports, I refer to a lot of video materials, use Chinese painting language to refine, and use traditional Chinese line drawing double hooks to depict sports scenes." In addition, he also used paintings to restore the keju movement of ancient ladies, and in order to examine the historical details such as the rules of keju movement, he specially went to the birthplace of keju, now Zibo, Shandong Province.
In Cui Jingzhe's pen, both ancient ladies and new era women are given the red color that represents China. The red color he mixed is 808 in the international color card, which is also named "Choi Kyung Cheol Hong". In his creation, the face of the character adds the perspective relationship of Western realism, which is more suitable for the aesthetics of the younger generation, but he still follows the brush and ink technique of traditional brush strokes. In his opinion, it is precisely this seemingly ancient brush painting technique that can stand out and impress the world audience.
After winning the "Coubertin Award", Cui Jingzhe expressed his hope to continue to use his own brush to promote traditional Chinese culture, while using Chinese painting to express the Olympic connotation, spread the Olympic spirit, and make Chinese and Western cultures more mutual understanding and communication. "I hope that our athletes can achieve excellent results at the Beijing Winter Olympics, and I also wish that the motherland can continue to 'leap forward' and become more prosperous and strong."