She Yiming
He Ancheng, born in 1939 in Shuangfeng, Hunan, is a self-taught artist, a member of the China Artists Association, good at oil painting and watercolor, and in recent years, he has mainly focused on watercolor freehand landscape painting. He has worked as a worker, a farmer, an art editor of a party newspaper, a member of the Siqing task force, an art specialist of the Qunyi Museum, a member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a vice chairman of the Municipal Artists Association, and a general manager of an art gallery, and settled in Beijing after 2000. In 1996, he held the "He Ancheng Sketch Exhibition" at the Hunan Chinese Painting Museum, in 1997 in Bangkok, Thailand, he held the "Li Li and He Ancheng Works Joint Exhibition", in 2000 in Malaysia, in 2004 in South Africa held the "Joint Exhibition of Works of Famous Chinese Contemporary Oil Painters", in 2010 in Shaoshan Comrade Mao Zedong Memorial Hall held "Shaoshan Love - He Ancheng Works Exhibition", in 2011 in Changsha held "Xiong Qingquan, He Ancheng Calligraphy and Painting Hunan Outstanding Party History Figures Exhibition", In 2016, he held the "Zhangjiajie Ten Days - He Ancheng Watercolor Figure Painting Exhibition" in Beijing.
Although He Ancheng, a well-known painter from Hunan Province, is old, he is not old, constantly innovates, and strives to make breakthroughs in art. His watercolor landscape paintings pursue the direction of freehand, the works are both shape and spirit, the atmosphere is flexible, the expression pays attention to metaphors and symbols, the technique is full of tension and elasticity, and the exquisite combination of picture elements sublimates the theme. To paraphrase his own metaphor, he achieves an artistic effect of "one plus one is greater than two".
When He Ancheng was young, he did not have the opportunity to attend art school due to his family origin, and entered the society early. But in addition to struggling to make a living, he insisted on self-study with his own ingenuity and hard work, and finally achieved amazing artistic achievements. Zhang Juyi, vice president of the China Watercolor Painters Association and president of the Hunan Watercolor Research Association, praised him as a "geek" in the painting world; Pan Shixun, a famous oil painter and professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, commented that his watercolor paintings were "well-defined with ease, and the brushes and colors are freely washed"; Zhu Hui, the former dean and professor of the Academy of Fine Arts of Hunan Normal University, believes that although he is not from a science class, his innate artistic talent is impressive.
Let the spirit of Huxiang culture return poetically
Any artist's creation is inseparable from the influence of the environment. French aesthetician Danner proposed in the Philosophy of Art that for artists, the growth environment, social environment, and humanistic environment will always affect their artistic creation. From the perspective of subject matter and content, many of He Ancheng's watercolor paintings are painted in Hunan. The spirit of home and nostalgia contained in it are mainly manifested in two aspects, one is in the sense of natural geography, and the other is at the spiritual level of the soul. The former reflects his love for the land of Huxiang, where he was born and raised in Si, and the latter reflects his unique understanding and grasp of the roots of art. The high degree of fit between the two is in line with the majestic and profound Huxiang cultural spirit, and has become the cornerstone of the value and significance of his works.
The cultural spirit of Huxiang is the "metaphysical" thing that runs through He Ancheng's freehand landscape paintings. The most famous motto of Huxiang culture in modern times is "practical application through the ages", which has become the mainstream consciousness of Hunan society. But there is another side to Huxiang culture, that is, romantic feelings, which can be seen in the poetry of Qu Yuan to Mao Zedong; From Huai Su to Qi Baishi's calligraphy and paintings, this inheritance can be seen. The Xiangjiang River is a poetic river of culture, and its influence on Hunan people is very deep. It is the combination of this perseverance and pragmatic spirit and romantic feelings in Huxiang culture that has become the breast milk that gave birth to He Ancheng's artistic pursuit. This is reflected in He Ancheng's early "Xincheng Group Song" series to the later "Furong Guoli" series of works.
In the era of industrialization and urbanization, many natural and beautiful things are gradually disappearing, and the destruction of the natural environment and the phenomenon of spiritual secularization and dwarfing brought about by money have caused people to be uneasy. He Ancheng's works can trigger the nostalgic consciousness of contemporary Huxiang people, evoke people's nostalgia complex, prompt them to understand the beauty of nostalgia that has disappeared or is disappearing, and let the cultural spirit of Damei Huxiang return poetically again. He Ancheng's watercolor paintings, the scenery is virtual and real, the characters have unique charm, the style is self-contained, full of poetry and spirituality, which is the result of long-term influence and immersion in the spirit of Huxiang culture.
The traditional Chinese concept of freehand writing runs throughout
He Ancheng's freehand watercolor landscape paintings oppose the photogenic imitation of reality in terms of aesthetic taste, and pursue a condensed and freehand and eclectic direction. He combines "meaning" and "image" with pure fire, and each painting combines the expression of the object, containing multiple metaphors and symbols, achieving the so-called "one plus one is greater than two" effect.
For freehand, He Ancheng's artistic perception is more derived from traditional Chinese art, especially the artistic practice and concept of Qi Baishi in modern times. He applied Qi Baishi's theory of "between the like and the unlike" to his own watercolor landscape paintings. In "Chairman Mao's Former Residence", the former residence is in the distance, which seems to be indistinguishable from the past houses in Hunan, and the dense dots in front of the former residence are the crowds of visitors, and the close-up view is a faint lotus pond, surrounded by a green, representing a dense forest. The whole work shows that the former residence has faded the brilliance of the previous infinite deification, and harmoniously integrates with the scenery of mountains and rivers, becoming part of the real landscape, implying the progress of the times. This is a typical work of perfect combination of "meaning" and "image". "Intention" is expressed in the hazy "image", reflecting the painter's unique thinking about society, and the painting is far beyond the level of ordinary landscape painting.
He Ancheng believes that the way of observing things Chinese is very different from that of Westerners, who will give subjective emotions, interests and feelings to everything, and seeing the lotuses, bamboo, weeds, and stones in nature will combine personal experience to produce specific feelings. When he himself is creating, he always deeply processes the objects he sees, and the imaginary picture effect appears in his mind, and then strives to convey and present it on the picture. It is precisely because his freehand landscape paintings turn the thinking of social life into metaphors and symbols in the imagery, so that the viewer feels that the painting has infinite meaning and can withstand repeated thinking.
He Ancheng believes that the art of painting can not only stay on the pleasure of the visual senses, but should enlighten people's minds, because in today's high-tech development, artists can only survive and develop if they work the artistic language (not the technical language).
He Ancheng's "New Town Group Song No. 5 Bridge" created in 1988 can be called the classic work that best represents his artistic achievements. His works were collected by the National Art Museum of China in the 1980s, and later selected for the "Report to the Motherland - 60 Years of New Chinese Art Exhibition". The work combines an ancient sailing ship and a bridge under construction in the same picture, where classical and modern elements are cleverly and surprisingly combined, and the whole picture is shrouded in a symbolic brownish-red tone, warm and warm, producing a very strong sense of modern beauty. He Ancheng's brushstrokes open and close, breaking the mold of traditional watercolor painting. As he said to himself: "If you paint a blue sky and white clouds, and paint it delicately and realistically, the artistic meaning will disappear." ”
Ancient Chinese traditional painting is inseparable from the two ways of freehand and realism. But freehand is obviously more representative of the essence of traditional Chinese culture. Although Western painting has long been based on realism in history, the artistic practice in modern times has directly or indirectly drawn nutrients from the concept of ancient Chinese painting. The Italian aesthetician Croce said in the "Outline of Aesthetics" that "art is fantasy or intuition" and that "imagery is the expression of artistic creation through the form of metaphor". It can be seen that He Ancheng's artistic pursuit is supported by a deep theoretical background. In "Shaoshan Mao Family Ancestral Hall", the orange-red on the screen is not available on the scene, completely from the painter's mind, belonging to the painter's bold "flower transfer", but it is just the right expression of the theme. Because the Mao Family Ancestral Hall is not an ordinary ancestral hall, but the headquarters of Mao Zedong's leadership of the peasant movement in his youth, the rolling clouds in the sky, the protruding corners of the house like the "serf halberd" and other details can instantly bring people's thoughts to that turbulent era. It should be known that there are countless painters who have painted the Mao Family Ancestral Hall in Shaoshan, but the vast majority of their works are stuck at the level of realistic sketching, and they have not fully displayed its connotation like He Ancheng.
Realize the combination of "Chinese heart" and "Western eye"
When it comes to his artistic pursuits, He Ancheng summed it up in six words: "Chinese Heart" and "Western Eye". These six words seem simple, but they cover his life's artistic exploration.
The so-called "Chinese heart", He Ancheng said, first, in the selection of materials and themes, artists should strive to synchronize with China's current era, and to a certain extent speak for the times. Works without the spirit of the times can only reflect the skills of craftsmen. The second is to infiltrate China's traditional culture and painting spirit and skills into their own artistic creations, so that they can use the pen concisely and take one as ten. His works such as "Fish Flying in the Water and The Sky" and "Qunfeng Jingxiu" choose the most ordinary landscape themes, but reflect the painter's thinking and understanding of nature, and then reflect the big theme of the times. In "Fish Flying in the Water", a small boat, a woman in red, and several ospreys resting, these all seem ordinary, but the amazing thing is the number of swimming fish in the water. It should be known that fish cannot fly, but in He Ancheng's pen, the sky and white clouds reflect the surface of the water, and the fish will change into birds, able to escape the pursuit of the osprey by breaking through the air. In "The Peaks of the Show", the peaks that are vaguely like girls are juxtaposed together, which expresses the most important theme of ecological environmental protection in contemporary times.
The so-called "Western eyes", He Ancheng said, because watercolor painting is after all an imported product of the West, so as a watercolor painter, you must have a solid sketching, sketching skills and a strong ability to perceive color and tone and space. Western painting pays attention to realism and similarity, emphasizing the use of perspective and the relationship between light and shade and color to express objects. If the oil painting in it is likened to a symphony, then the watercolor painting is equivalent to light music. He also believes that many people who study Western painting think that freehand is to draw figurative things in general and handle them incompletely, and this concept is actually very one-sided. If there is no certain poetry, no special mood, then such a painting is not freehand.
He Ancheng's artistic achievements come from the perfect combination of "Chinese heart" and "Western eyes". In his New Town Suite No. 2, a green train pulls out of the background of the gray-black car that looks a bit like the front of a steam locomotive, and the green train represents the end of the era of the steam engine and the beginning of the era of the internal combustion engine, which was a major progress at that time. Heavy background is the tradition of Western painting, He Ancheng chose a gray-black background, adding a unique treatment, and using the traditional Chinese freehand painting technique. He Ancheng said: "Qi Baishi has what I say about winning more people with a little, and I also yearn for it. "He often uses a concise brushwork similar to Chinese painting and lightly scribbles to achieve a complex and rich expressive effect." The painting "Mountain Village Elementary School" depicts meadows full of flowers, high-flying mountain eagles, and tall tree trunks, alluding to the fact that remote mountain villages will also cultivate the materials of the pillars. This looks like an ordinary landscape painting, but a bright national flag in the center of the picture has become the "finishing touch" in the painting.
Nowadays, He Ancheng's watercolor paintings are well-known throughout the country, whether it is the watercolor landscape series "Furong Guoli" and "Xincheng Group Song", which can be called important works that can represent the achievements of Chinese watercolor painting. But he was very indifferent to this. He said that although he is over 80 years old, he is still full of courage and looks forward to making more and greater breakthroughs on the road of art.
(The author is a member of the China Literary and Art Critics Association and a senior media person)