Guan Jianxin and Guan Jianlin oil painting "People's Livelihood Construction - Warm Hearts for Thousands of Homes" part.
Sun Tao's Chinese painting "Happiness".
Zhao Tong's Chinese painting "Ingenuity and Inheritance".
Zhou Le's Chinese painting "Warmth as Ever".
Filial piety and respect for the elderly are the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation. In recent years, the cause of aging has developed rapidly, the social security system, the old-age service system, and the health support system have been continuously improved, and more and more elderly people have been able to share the fruits of reform and opening up and enjoy a happy old age. In the major theme art creation project and major art exhibitions, a group of art workers depict the elderly and the elderly life with brushes full of emotional power, and the beautiful picture of the old people being supported, the old having medicine, the old doing something, the old learning, and the old having fun slowly unfold...
Show the picture of the old and the old
Deeply promote the combination of medical and nursing care, expand the coverage of endowment insurance, and create a barrier-free environment suitable for the life of the elderly... A series of measures have continuously improved the sense of gain, happiness and security of the majority of the elderly. In the process of going deep into the life of the elderly and communicating with the elderly, the art workers turn the ordinary people in daily life into a kind and simple artistic image, and appeal to the new changes and new feelings around them one by one, so that the works are more attractive, infectious and impressive.
Some artists present the new vitality of an aging society in a panoramic way. In the large-scale creations "People's Livelihood Construction - Warm Hearts for Thousands of Homes" and "Happy New Era", the creators use traditional scattered perspective compositions to express the new era and new atmosphere from multiple angles, among which the portrayal of the elderly's later life is particularly wonderful. In the picture, it not only shows the young medical staff measuring blood pressure for the elderly, explaining the new agricultural cooperation policy, but also showing the colorful cultural and sports activities of the elderly - playing tai chi, writing calligraphy, fitness, dancing square dance, playing musical instruments... There are many characters and rich plots, and the artists comprehensively use a variety of artistic techniques to integrate narrative, typical depiction and specific image shaping derived from life, and skillfully intersperse and integrate different scenes, so that the whole painting is full of harmony and happiness, and also provides a reference for large-scale art creation.
Some artists capture beautiful moments in their lives and transform them into artistic scenes. Like Li Qinghai's Chinese painting "Good Day", the image of an elderly couple in rural daily life is depicted in the language of gongbi. In the work, the red blessing characters on the wall of the inner hall, the red lantern hanging from the eaves of the door, the red pepper dried on the door frame, etc., add to the joyful atmosphere; the furnishings inside and outside the house are neat and orderly, the two old people are smiling and dressed simply and cleanly, the children's school bags next to them mean that the old man is full of children and grandchildren, and the bicycle and birdcage reflect his relatively leisurely daily life. The pursuit of later life in traditional Chinese culture is more realistic in the contemporary interpretation of the painter. The creators try to use an idealized, typical visual picture to guide the viewer to think about how to enjoy the old age. The atmosphere of the work is harmonious and warm, moving with emotion, and conveying the positive energy of goodness and beauty.
The picture of a happy, relaxed and pleasant old age life written by art workers not only reflects the care and love of the whole society for the elderly, but also reflects the creative orientation of art workers to go deep into life and take root in the people.
Portray a rich spiritual world
"Mo Dao Sang Yu evening, for xia still full of heaven." Nowadays, more and more elderly people are actively pursuing "old age to do something", "old age to learn" and "old age to have fun" on the basis of "old age", and "old age has fun", and spiritual and cultural life is becoming more and more abundant. Participate in the university for the elderly, participate in community governance, join the literary and artistic groups for the elderly... The social participation of the elderly continues to increase, the supply of educational resources for the elderly continues to expand, the quality of cultural and sports services for the elderly is steadily improved, and many elderly people continue to play a role and are more comfortable in body and mind.
Many of the works depict the cultural life of the elderly through group portraits, showing their positive spiritual pursuits. Like Sun Tao's Chinese painting "Happiness", the object of expression is "self-music class". In this team, there are both retired veterans, retired teachers, and retired workers. They are either concentrating on playing the piano or listening carefully to music. The overall tone of the picture is warm and calm, which is in line with the temperament of the elderly and highlights the silver hair style. On the left side of the picture, the creator deliberately leaves a blank space, which contrasts with the rich group portraits on the right side, leaving room for the work to "breathe" and leaving room for the reader's imagination. In the plain depiction of daily life, the work conveys the comfort of the cultural life of the elderly and the harmony of neighborhood relations. Ni Chao's Chinese painting "Early Spring Song Society" also uses group portraits to portray the vivid scene of the elderly singing happily. The painter's creative inspiration comes from his real experience in life, and the movements and expressions of the characters in the paintings are different, but they are immersed in the joyful atmosphere of the song party. Therefore, the "early spring" in the work not only points to the season, but also points to the new life of the elderly. Similar works include Liu Xingjian's oil painting "Happy in It" and Lü Xiaohong's Chinese painting "Dreaming of Water Town", all of which show the colorful life and positive aging concept of the elderly group from different angles.
On the basis of inheriting the tradition of Chinese painting, some works portray typical images in an artistic language full of modern beauty and construct the artistic conception of the picture. For example, Zhou Le's Chinese painting "Warm as Ever" and Hao Qun's Chinese painting "Reader" both show an old man sitting on a chair reading books and periodicals, but the interpretation of the two is not the same. The former uses warm colors to create a warm atmosphere in the winter study, leading the audience from the old man's focused look into his spiritual world; the latter shows the scene of the old man reading under a tree. Both of them refine and summarize the real character images, and the different ways of expression jointly reflect the painter's concern and thinking about the spiritual life of the elderly, and the care and warmth for the elderly flow between the pen and ink.
Looking at the fine art works that express the theme of old age life in recent years, it is not difficult to find that many of them are from the hands of young artists. These young people shoulder the responsibility of creating art works with "bones, morality and temperature", turn the real feelings in life into creative inspiration, absorb nutrition from traditional figure paintings, transform innovation, and make the works full of rich humanistic care and a new style of the times.
Promote the virtues of filial piety and respect for the elderly
Fine arts is an important carrier for carrying out social aesthetic education. A group of art workers inherit and carry forward the Chinese art tradition, take the initiative to "sink their hearts, feelings, and thoughts into the people", obtain vivid visual and emotional experiences, express the respect and care of the whole society for the elderly with brushes, play a cultural construction and aesthetic guidance role in the creation of art on the theme of the elderly, carry forward the traditional virtues of filial piety and respect for the elderly, and guide the society to widely establish a sense of respect for the elderly.
"There is an old family, such as a treasure." Many art workers focus on the family life of the elderly, and show the inheritance of filial piety and respect for the elderly from different angles. For example, the Chinese painting "Children's Love" co-created by Chen Zhi and Wu Xin shows the scene of children working outside the home to visit their parents. In the picture, the three generations of grandchildren are happy and harmonious, the daughter is trying on new clothes for the mother, the mother is still stained with the flour left by the rolled noodles, and the delicate plot portrayal makes the warm family atmosphere come to the face. Zhao Shengchen's Chinese painting "Chunhui" depicts a lively party. In the middle of the picture, 3 elderly people sit side by side, smiling; the juniors stand around the old man, some holding young children in their hands; at the feet of the old man, a few hens, chicks and napping puppies are very interesting. The whole work outlines a happy picture of the orderly growth and the young, respect for the elderly and love for the young, and the peaceful picture is full of life interest.
Some art workers have long paid attention to the creation of art on the theme of the elderly, constantly innovating the artistic language, and showing the deep feelings between grandchildren, between wives, and between mothers-in-law and daughter-in-law. For example, the painter Li Fax went deep into the countryside where he lived in his childhood, ate and lived with his fellow villagers, experienced their joys and sorrows with his heart, and created a series of Chinese paintings: "On the Way to School" depicts the scene of the grandfather picking up his granddaughter from school; "The Wife" freezes the moment when the wife cuts her husband's hair; "Mother-in-law" shows the picture of the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law answering the phone of the son who is a migrant worker in the city from afar... The characters of these works are simple and real, conveying a heavy family affection.
In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of works of art that express the lives of the elderly and the elderly, which not only inherit the spirit of traditional culture, but also embody contemporary values and aesthetic concepts, and show the picture of a happy old age. How to meet the spiritual and cultural needs of the elderly with more excellent art works? How to release the creative vitality of the elderly and make them participate in the creation of art? It is expected that more artists will pay attention to "sunset red" and show the new expectations of hundreds of millions of elderly people for a better life.
(The author is a researcher at the China Academy of Arts)
Typography: Cai Huawei
People's Daily ( 2022-01-16 08 edition)