Xiao Han's works are based on Chinese tradition, with innovative techniques to open up a new way of ink painting with imagery and impression colors, he has accumulated colors with many drops of color, forming many cold and warm gray tones, producing natural interest, rich in natural and changing unique styles. Its creative philosophy is "exhausting the brilliance of color, integrating the spirit of pen and ink, and expressing the feelings of substitution". Xiao Han's color layers are rich, full and accurate, transparent and not turbid, and the hazy beauty and flowing beauty reverberate everywhere, showing the charm of Western Impressionism, making the viewer's eyes light up, and is known as "the kai faction of the accumulated colored ink painting".
Xiao Han: Born in 1945 in Wuhu, Anhui Province, Xiao Han is a famous Chinese painter in Germany. He graduated from the School of Arts of Anhui Normal University in 1968. He is currently the president of the Calligraphy and Painting Talents Professional Committee of the Chinese Talents Research Association of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of the People's Republic of China, the vice president of the China Friendship Painting Academy, the president of the Beijing HaihuaGui Painting Academy, the chairman of the China Association of Returned Chinese Artists, the member of the China Artists Association, and the visiting professor of the School of Art of Anhui University and Normal University.
Text/Shao Dazhen
Xiao Han was born in Wuhu, Anhui Province, graduated from the Painting Department of Anhui Normal University in 1968, needless to say, at that time he received a fusion of Chinese and Western art education, attached importance to sketching and modeling, and his understanding and mastery of traditional Chinese painting techniques were relatively weak.
From 1968 to 1974, he had the opportunity to contact ancient cultural relics, including calligraphy and painting, at the Anhui Museum, which greatly improved his vision, mind and understanding of Chinese painting. In the process of in-depth study of national traditions, he gradually realized the advantages and disadvantages of literati painting and tried to experiment with certain reforms.
He was inspired by the efforts of the masters of the twentieth century, the previous tradition of literati painting, the legacy of Chinese heavy color painting, and the achievements of Western painting in color provided a reference experience for his reforms. From the second half of the 1980s onwards, he had the opportunity to come into contact with the collection of Western paintings in European museums, especially the works of the Impressionists, which made him have a strong desire to reform the color of Chinese painting.
Some critics of literati ink painting often expressed doubts about the material rice paper used in Chinese painting, but Xiao Han did not. He has a deep affection for rice paper, not only because he was born in the hometown of rice paper, but also because he recognized the performance of rice paper in his artistic practice, and knew that it can show a unique and not inferior expression of oil paint on canvas in terms of color penetration and endurance. At the same time, he carefully preserved the creative achievements of the literati ink painting, strengthened the "color method" on the basis of paying attention to the brushwork and ink method, and established his own exploration direction of "pen feeling, ink interest, and color brilliance".
In the use of pigments, Xiao Han combines Western glue color with Chinese pigments, using various methods such as expansion, splashing, punching, accumulation, printing, Qin, asphalt, dyeing, covering, lifting, etc., through the filtering of the front and back sides of the rice paper and the color partition, as well as a variety of splashing and accumulation methods, so that the picture appears many composite colors, forming a variety of hues, thus presenting a vivid color, clear hue and thick and rich color effect.
From the perspective of traditional literati ink painting, this color experiment is, of course, a "side-door evil way" and not an "orthodoxy", but it must be known that all innovations often have a rebellious nature, and are often in the negation or partial negation of the experience of predecessors and the standard of behavior.
Judging from Xiao Han's creative achievements, his achievements are gratifying. His landscape paintings maintain the style of traditional Chinese painting, referencing and adopting the colors of Western paintings, and using many methods of "making paintings", but they did not lose writing, lost pen and ink. More importantly, he follows the traditional aesthetic principles, writes scenes in landscape paintings, and pursues artistic expression. It can be said that his paintings absorb Western colors rather than foreign tones, and can be appreciated by the public and are not bad, with the character of elegant and popular appreciation.
Xiao Han adheres to the color exploration of Chinese painting, and criticizes the prejudice of literati painting to ignore color from this perspective, but he also knows that the artistic road is infinitely broad, the development path of Chinese painting is also very broad, he respects the creation of others in the ink system, the road of ink painting is as long as the road of color, the exploration of predecessors and present people is far from exhaustive, and the future trend of Chinese painting will be ink and color, moving forward along their respective aesthetic goals. Of course, in the middle of the road of ink painting and the road of color, there is also a fairly wide area.