Five Poisonous Tiger Shoes Zhang Youlan Collection of the National Art Museum of China
Kite "Tiger Baby Dedication" Xu Li Collection of the National Art Museum of China
Yang Jiabu's New Year Painting "Fierce Tiger in the Mountains and Forests" Collected by the National Museum of China
Shanxi Tiger Pillow Toy Collection of the National Museum of China
Tiger chrysanthemum satin children's hat Collection of the National Art Museum of China
Shandong Gaomi paper-cut zodiac tiger Collection of the National Museum of China
Modern folk painting "Tiger Baby Really Mighty" Dong Fenzhen
The image of the tiger is very common in folk art and is closely related to people's lives. Folk customs and daily necessities related to tigers abound. Married daughters in Guanzhong, Shaanxi Province, they need to distribute noodle tigers; children wear tiger hats and tiger head shoes when they are young; after the Tujia family calls themselves white tigers, every household worships the white tiger all year round. The tiger in these folk arts is not only the inheritance and development of ancient culture, but also the symbol and sustenance of folk expression of auspicious meaning.
"Tiger" is rich in the form of folk art, including embroidery, printmaking, paper-cutting, clay sculpture, etc., which are used in daily necessities such as toys, clothing, furniture, etc., and appear in daily life scenes such as daily life, customs of the year, and life etiquette. Why is "tiger" so popular in the folk? Probably stemming from the totem worship left over from ancient times and the auspicious concepts that have been rooted in the hearts of the people for generations: warding off evil spirits, town houses, and blessings. The tiger totem in ancient times is to put the "tiger" image in a sacred position and pursue "the tiger god bless me", while the "tiger" image in folk art is used by me, and it is the aesthetic mentality of "serving me" that is materialized, reflecting the people's praise of life, the pursuit of happiness and the yearning for a better life.
Adapting to different scenes and special meanings, the "tiger" image shows different faces in different fields. It is sometimes majestic, sometimes cute, sometimes exaggerated, sometimes naughty, such as the tiger in the folk paper-cutting is mostly naughty and lively, flexible and vivid, showing auspiciousness and closeness to people; in woodblock prints, the image of the tiger is biased towards fierceness and might, indicating its majesty and inviolability to shock the four directions; and in more practical daily necessities such as clothing, such as tiger head hats, tiger head shoes, tiger belly pockets, tiger pillows and other children's products with the tiger as the image, it is a set of functional, aesthetic and cultural in one, directly serving life. For example, the tiger head hat in Shibu Village, Nanqiao Town, Lanling County, Shandong Province, is very interesting in design, opening a round hole of moderate size on the top of the head, the local people call it "open trick", which means that the child is quick thinking, smart and clever, and because the child loves to run and jump easily sweats, immediately after sweating, the hat is afraid of cold, so the tiger head hat of "open trick" can also play a role in heat dissipation in function.
Although these "tiger" images are presented in different forms and carriers, their shapes are full of positive and exuberant themes. This is inseparable from the creative life wisdom and philosophical speculation of folk artists, as well as the spiritual sustenance of being externalized into material forms by folk artists.
Talking about the tiger in the Year of the Tiger, it just so happens that "Going to the Folk - Pan Lusheng Folk Art Exhibition" is being exhibited at the National Museum of China. The more than 500 works (sets) on display not only include the folk art collection with tigers as the theme donated by Pan Lusheng to the National Expo, but also the contemporary art works created by Pan Lusheng with tigers as elements, which intuitively shows how folk art provides rich nourishment for contemporary art creation and how to inject vitality and vitality into the prosperity and development of socialist culture.
"Fierce Tiger in the Mountains and Forests" is a typical theme of Yangjiabu in Shandong Province to ward off evil spirits and Nafu Year paintings. The work is a realistic model for the mother and child flower spotted tiger. The tigress is a descending tiger, with white eyebrows and long beards, a strong posture, and a momentum like a rainbow. In the lower left corner is a small tiger, creeping on the ground, looking up at the tigress. In order to highlight the mighty momentum of the tiger, the mountain forest background was reduced to a few bushes of grass and trees. Chinese conception, tigers can not only drive away ghosts, but also protect wealth. As the saying goes, "The town house god tiger is more pure, when the dynasty is a pint of the beast king, do not stand deep mountains and pine forests, and hold the gold and silver cornucopia." ”
The Shanxi auspicious tiger pillow (which can also be used as a toy) is an image of a fierce tiger. Its styling elements are the same as the folk tiger head shoes and tiger head hat styles. The tiger has a standing posture and a wormwood leaf shape in its nose shape. In the folk concept, the tiger is the king of the hundred beasts, people often use wormwood to make the shape of a tiger to drive away diseases, and wormwood itself can also cure all diseases, equivalent to the king of hundreds of grasses. Tiger's eye, tiger's tooth, tiger ear and tiger tail are all composed of assembled components, and there are flower-shaped hairs on the body, forming an auspicious and festive decorative style, which is more clumsy and cute than the tiger of the New Year painting. Buhuduo is made by mothers for their children, reflecting the ingenuity and ingenuity of Chinese women. Stitching, stitching, all blended with love.
High-density paper-cut zodiac tiger, cut by folk artists at will, simple and frank shape, with the same type of tiger cat. The tiger's facial shape is a detail that the paper-cut artist deliberately portrays. The face is mostly round, and the clear word "King" in the middle of the forehead sets off the incomparably brave and majestic momentum. The spiral patterns on the body transform into flowers such as peonies, adding more auspicious and joyful atmosphere.
The modeling form of folk art is a product of spiritual domination. The external form of any carrier is nothing more than the combination of form, color and quality, and the spiritual pursuit outside these materializing factors is the highest form of expression of the "tiger" image. The tiger in folk art does not refer to a specific genus of creatures, but to the reconstructed image of consciousness beyond the transcendent object that transcends the image of the tiger. Also take the tiger head hat as an example, the shape of the tiger is creatively added, such as: the carp, pomegranate, lotus, peach, melon fruit, dragonfly, magpie, rooster, etc. added to the tiger, and is not bound by the objective object, which shows that the common people's use of the tiger image is very flexible. The image of the tiger has thus become a "cornucopia of auspicious symbols" with visual impact.
Folk art is created by ordinary people and folk artists for generations, with a strong original ecology and earthiness. Scholar Zhang Daoyi said: "Folk art is a kind of maternal art and the root of national culture." This sentence is very profound, it points to a possibility of constantly giving birth to new art, which is the charm of folk art. It can be said that this kind of "nurturing" from folk art has not stopped for a moment. Based on the local cultural context, contemporary artists integrate modern art expression methods to achieve the creative transformation and innovative development of traditional culture, which is the inheritance from the mother of "folk art". It may be said that the so-called "contemporary art" can still be understood as "folk art", but it is just a kind of folk art that "pen and ink are contemporary".
In Chinese culture, the tiger is a symbol of bravery and strength. The Year of the Tiger is approaching, and with the "tiger" in folk art, we wish every reader a tiger to add wings and tigers! Let's go to the people together and stimulate the passion of the officers to start a business.
(The author is a professor and doctoral supervisor of Shandong Academy of Arts and Crafts)