Cover news reporter Yang Fan
On January 13, Ye Maozhong, a well-known Chinese marketing planner and brand management expert, died of cancer in Shanghai at the age of 54. Many people know that Ye Maozhong is an advertising master, but in fact, he has another secret identity - a painter. On May 28, 2021, the "Ye Mao Chinese Painting Exhibition" curated by Mr. Liu Yiqian, the founder of the Long Museum, was held at the Long Museum (Chongqing Pavilion), where more than 100 paintings of Ye Maozhong were exhibited, from watercolor and sketching to Chinese painting and calligraphy, and his artistic talent amazed the viewers. Recently, Ms. Wang Yu, director of interpretation at the Long Museum (Chongqing Pavilion), was interviewed by the cover reporter and comprehensively analyzed Ye Mao's extraordinary artistic path.
The artistic dream of "fishermen's son" began in childhood
"This year's New Year does not receive gifts, only brain platinum", "everyone on the earth knows", "visit Heilan Home twice a year" and other well-known advertising slogans are from Ye Maozhong's hand. In addition to building his own "advertising empire", the business wizard is addicted to paintings and famous painting collections, which are also derived from his childhood experiences. Ye Maozhong once wrote in his self-report article "Grateful Painting": "When I was four years old, my father drew me a boat on the back of the cigarette shell, just a few lines, the boat appeared, raising the sails, floating on the water, I think it is very magical. My father didn't know how to paint, but our ancestors were all on the water to make a living, and the boat was too familiar to my father, but he didn't expect him to paint like this, but it affected my whole life. I also took a pen and painted, and I couldn't stop painting, and I painted for decades. ”
Ye Maozhong is a native of Taizhou, Jiangsu Province, the son of a fisherman, and his artistic ideals are like a boat, sailing from the place where dreams began to the end of life. When the exhibition was held in Chongqing, Ye Maozhong, who was seriously ill, could not come to the scene, but the guests who came to the art museum to see the exhibition accounted for almost half of the Chinese contemporary art circle. Wang Yu introduced that the exhibition is divided into four parts: "Grateful for Painting", "Sailing", "Meeting the Teacher's Sages", and "Master's Law Creation", which presents the whole picture of Ye Maozhong's creation on a certain timeline, and outlines the painter's learning and creation trajectory in various types of paintings such as Western painting, shigu, and sketching.
During chemotherapy he used his paintbrush to fight the disease
Wang Yu said: "Mr. Liu Yiqian, one of the founders of the Long Museum, is a good friend of Ye Maozhong, and he wanted to tell the world that Ye Maozhong still has such a talented side, not only commercial success, so he planned this exhibition." In October 2020, ye Maozhong's painting exhibition was held at the Long Art Museum (West Bund) in Shanghai, and the exhibition in Chongqing is a continuation of the last one. Ye Maozhong also brought a new work of his own to the Chongqing audience, "Sky", which he created last spring. In the blue sky of the painting, stubborn dead branches stand proudly, which is very beautiful and reveals a faint sadness. In fact, many people do not know that Ye Maozhong was undergoing chemotherapy when he created this painting, and he intends to use the brush to give the final blow to the disease.
An important highlight of the Ye Mao Chinese Painting Exhibition in Chongqing is the "Sails Off" section, Wang Yu introduced, this part presents Ye Maozhong's original artistic intention, he began to save money to buy comic strips after attending primary school, copy comic strips, and when he was in middle school, he could already help the school art teacher to color landscape paintings, flowers and birds. After graduating from middle school, Ye Maozhong was admitted to the local cultural center in Taizhou, where he studied under Fu Baoshi's student Wu Junsheng, and at the age of 18, he was admitted to the stage art major of Jiangsu Provincial Drama School, and studied under Fu Baoshi's student Tai Qiyou.
From this section, the audience can also see a series of paintings created by Ye Maozhong with oil painting sticks. Because the oil painting stick is very suitable for sketching, he carries the oil painting stick with him when he travels around the country, and when he has time, he will sketch the great rivers and mountains of the motherland, and his depiction of the surface of the lake is very beautiful, with a French Impressionist style. Wang Yu said.
Break out of your own creative path from the "Teacher's Ancestors"
In addition to painting, Ye Maozhong is also the top collector in the circle. His collection is dominated by Modern and Contemporary Chinese masters such as Fu Baoshi, Xu Beihong, Huang Binhong, Wu Guanzhong, and Zao Wou-Ki, and his collection of modern and contemporary calligraphy and paintings is so rich that Liu Yiqian said that "few people in China can compare at present." Wang Yu said that Ye Maozhong's collection also influenced his artistic creation, and in the two sections of "Huishi Xianxian" and "Master Fa Creation", he paid tribute to the masters in the history of Chinese art with paintings. "Some of the works on display this time are paintings by Ye Maozhong copying Wang Meng, Bada Shanren and Shi Tao, but it can be seen from the paintings that Ye Maozhong's compositions have many innovations, and there are also unique features for the integration of various traditional painting techniques."
Wang Yu also pointed out that the Chinese painting master Fu Baoshi had a great influence on Ye Maozhong's artistic creation. "The first famous painting in his collection was Mr. Fu Baoshi's, and later he successively collected a lot of Fu Baoshi's works, and Ye Maozhong also liked to use 'bouldering' when creating landscape paintings, and his proficiency in the use of bouldering could be confusing. Coupled with the fact that his teacher was one of Fu Baoshi's three disciples, it was also a coincidence. ”
If "Mad Men" put more energy into artistic creation, would they be able to achieve more? In this regard, Wang Yu said: "Although he is not a painting major, Ye Maozhong has been trained in fine arts since he was a child, and later he did stage design at the taizhou local cultural center and also worked related to fine arts. Perhaps because the Chinese marketing and advertising market in that era had just started, he had made a lot of noise in this area after his transformation, so painting was temporarily stranded. In fact, what we admire most is his spirit of pursuing art, which is the love of his life, if there is no illness, he should be able to create more wonderful paintings. ”
Famous artists commented on Ye Maozhong's paintings
Pan Gongkai
(Famous Chinese artist, art educator, art theorist, architecture and urban design expert, has served as president of China Academy of Art and Central Academy of Fine Arts, etc.)
I have a lot of admiration for the many successful entrepreneurs who have gone into the art world, collecting on the one hand, and trying to learn or discuss art on the other hand. I think this attitude toward life, that is, the attitude toward the future, is an attitude that our future life, the future Chinese, especially the intellectuals should pursue and practice in life.
Yin Guanghua
(Painter, expert in the appraisal of ancient calligraphy and painting, proficient in the appraisal and examination of ancient calligraphy and painting)
Ye Maozhong not only learned Fu Baoshi, but also could trace its origins, and this kind of learning method with the spirit of exploration was really very different from those who only learned from Fu Baoshi's family. Ye Maozhong likes to paint landscapes with smoke clouds, and some Western paintings shimmer with brilliant sunlight like Monet.
Fang Yan
(Painter, founder of Senju Academy)
Lao Ye has been engaged in marketing and engaged in social activities for many years, and it is quite rare that he can still paint such clean works. Engaged in art, the most difficult is not the technique, now the art schools teach the technique, ordinary people can learn in two or three months, the most rare is the talent and quality of the painter himself. When we look at the biographies of chinese and foreign painters in ancient and modern times, most of them say that these people are naïve and innocent. The same is true of Lao Ye, he is simple and sincere, and his paintings are also innocent, which is the highest level of art.
Zhou Chun buds
(Artist, one of the artists in the field of Chinese contemporary art who has the best grasp of color)
In the past two years, I have watched him walk a lot of places, and I have seen a lot of landscapes, and I feel that his state of mind when painting is very calm, and I think many artists, including us, should learn from his devotion and simple love of art. From an artist's point of view, I feel very important to a sincere love for nature, for people.
Lacquer
(Artist, Ph.D. in Fine Arts, former Associate Editor of Art Contemporary Magazine)
Such a person later gave up painting and changed from other industries, and after achieving great success, he still remembered painting, which is indeed something that ordinary people can't do... He has a number of works painted in 2016 that are very attractive, temperament and skills allow good hands, as a person who is so deeply involved in society, the pen and ink are so calm, which shows the multi-faceted nature of his talents, and of course, he is also a person with very strong self-control.
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