Qianjiang Evening News Hour news trainee reporter Liu Yuhan
No one expected that more than thirty years ago, Chinese painting had a dialogue with Western postmodern art.
Dusty past
On March 23, 1985, there was a special gathering at the home of the postmodernist artist Joseph Boyce in Germany.
Boyce was so excited that he asked his son to wait at the intersection downstairs of the apartment to welcome the visitor.
The visitor was none other than Lu Kunfeng, a master of Chinese painting, who was invited to Boyce's house for dinner.
"You are the second Chinese I have ever met, and the first Chinese artist I have ever met!" Boyce said to Lu Kunfeng.
At the dinner table, the two artists, who did not speak the same language, had a pleasant conversation. The two watched the album that Lu Kunfeng gave to Boyce, and Boyce also gave Lu Kunfeng several albums of his own at different times.
The camera recorded the precious meeting.
Boyce viewed the photo album and the inscription in the album presented by Lu Kunfeng
We can see that Lu Kunfeng was wearing a Chinese red sweater that day, with a fashionable hairstyle from the 1980s, while Boyce was wearing the jacket vest and his signature felt hat. I don't know what the two were talking about.
At the end of 2021, Lu Kunfeng's son, Lu Yong, a professor at the China Academy of Art, chatted with his colleague Wang Li about his father Lu Kunfeng, and only then did he turn over these photos and open up the past of this dusty thirty-six years.
Shocking meeting
As soon as the photos were sent, the art world was shocked and said that these photos were too precious.
Wang Li sighed: "It's a bit cool for Zhang Tong to take a photo with Picasso!" ”
Why is this meeting so important?
For the development of modern chinese art, the encounter between Chinese artists and Beuys, the godfather of Western modern art, is very rare.
Moreover, it is likely to be the only collision between traditional Chinese artists and the godfather of Western modern art, because in January of the following year, just 10 months later, Boyce died.
Translation of the inscription in the album: "Gift to Mr. Lu Kunfeng Boyce on March 23, 1985"
Tang Kaizhi, a professor at the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, said that this past can complement the history of modern Chinese art in the last century. He sent the picture to Zhu Qingsheng, a professor at Peking University, for the study of modern Chinese art archives.
After receiving the pictures, the Center for Visual and Image Studies at Peking University posted an article commemorating Boyce, pointing out Beuys's influence on the development of modern and contemporary art in China.
"Because in the early days of reform and opening up, it was inspired and encouraged by Beuys to 'surpass' Beuys as a benchmark for the development of Chinese art, thus creating a situation of rapid progress in Chinese contemporary art in the 1980s and promoting the 5th revolution of modern art." Chinese contemporary art has become a special force in world art and has made unique contributions. ”
For art exchange, this meeting is also of far-reaching significance.
Tang Kaizhi said that these photos "witness the precious information of Chinese painting and internationalization, tradition and modernity, modern art in the Chinese Academy of Fine Arts, Chinese national culture and diplomacy, and the comparison of artists' conceptual styles in the last century."
One of boyce's albums
Artistic exchanges at the beginning of reform and opening up
Why did such a cross-border collision, which contains so much precious information, happen?
This is a step back to the 1980s.
It was the early days of reform and opening up, and there were frequent artistic exchanges between China and Germany, and Lu Kunfeng was invited to lecture in the Federal Republic of Germany many times and held many exhibitions.
In 1984, the German edition of "Five Paintings and Calligraphy on the Sea" ("Zhu Qizhan Wang Qijian, Lu Yushao, Tang Yun, Lu Kunfeng, Five Paintings") was published in Germany. According to Lu Yong, Lu Kunfeng was the youngest of the five exhibitors, but the Germans chose Lu Kunfeng's painting as a cover picture, believing that the sense of form was very strong and liked it very much.
Cover of "Five Paintings and Calligraphy on the Sea" (album of contemporary Chinese classical painting exhibition).
After the exhibition "Contemporary Chinese Classical Painting" ended in the Federal Republic of Germany, Thomas Heebler, chairman of the German-Chinese Friendship Association, also wrote a letter to Lu Kunfeng expressing his gratitude and admiration. It can be seen from his letter that Chinese painting, especially Lu Kunfeng's painting art, attracted many visitors in Germany.
In 1986, Lu Kunfeng wrote the preface to the German edition of the Mustard Garden Notation; in 1988, Lu Kunfeng exhibited his paintings, calligraphy and poetry works at the Felinavgler Studio...
In the 1980s, Xu Jiang, the current chairman of the Zhejiang Provincial Federation of Literature and Literature, was studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Hamburg, Germany. He later recalled that the Hamburg Academy of Fine Arts may have been the first to exchange professors and students between China and Europe.
"Mr. Lu was also invited to visit and give a lecture, and the poster read: 'Read Chinese bamboo, you must listen to this lecture', and call him 'the mother of Chinese bamboo'."
Preface to the German edition of The Mustard Garden
It is speculated that Lu Kunfeng and Boyce probably met during the Sino-German art exchange period, and appreciated each other and established a cross-border friendship.
Cross-border acquaintances
When the two masters met in 1985, Lu Yong was only 18 years old and was not present. His memories of this past only come from Lu Kunfeng's narration after his return to China.
He remembered that his father Lu Kunfeng said that Boyce was "a well-known person in Germany". He told Lu Yong: "He was injured during World War II, and it seems to be related to his later art. ”
The two men are very different in their artistic fields, but they feel sorry for each other.
Boyce once said to Lu Kunfeng: "In the exhibition hall, you know my works, I know that you understand my art!" ”
Lu Kunfeng also sighed to his son Lu Yong: "He can really understand our art, you see he has never been to China, but he can really understand!" Art really knows no borders! In the upper layers of art are connected! ”
The two men have a lot of common language and have reached a consensus on the understanding of art – only those who know the tradition best are qualified to be anti-traditional.
"You don't have to learn from us, your oriental art is already so great!"
During the banquet, Boyce sincerely expressed his respect for oriental art to Lu Kunfeng.
Just like in the 1950s, Picasso lamented after receiving The Yangliuqing woodcut Door Shennian painting and the woodblock watermark "Qi Baishi Painting Collection" sent by Zhang Tong, "Art is in your China."
The inscription of one of the albums left by Lu Kunfeng
After the meal, Boyce sent Lu Kunfeng out of the house, and the two officially said goodbye.
The signed albums given by Boyce, Lu Kunfeng brought back to China one by one, most of which were donated to the college library, leaving two copies for himself.
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