As Feng Dazhong said: "I study the works of these masters not to make my own works like them, but mainly to transform from tradition." I started from life, not simply copying their works, but reading more about their works. Unlike the antiques of many Chinese painters, my main creative means is to excavate themes from life. Regarding the relationship between tradition and pen and ink, Feng Dazhong believes that the understanding of tradition is that after the painter has a perceptual understanding of reality, he then creates those excellent forms of expression and expression. The picture will not be unmodern because it uses traditional techniques or the language of pen and ink. In the same way, works are not modern because they do not use traditional elements, tradition is to enable us to inherit and use the excellent culture left by our predecessors and history. Tradition is an objective existence, we should let tradition serve our creation, we should study how to use our own works to coordinate tradition and life.
West Peak/ 29.5×21 cm / Pen on paper, ink / 1983
Take Feng Dazhong's "West Peak of Huashan Mountain" as an example, this is a live sketch, in order to explore a way of pen and ink that can be used to express the stone structure of Mount Hua, he expressed the abstraction method abstracted from the geographical landform of Mount Hua through serious sketching. In his paintings, the pen and ink method and the large structure are interesting to the Song people, but the specific methods are different. It is somewhat similar to Fan Kuan's method, which is the so-called raindrop and watercress. However, the ultimate goal of Feng Dazhong is not to use pen and ink, but to achieve the expression of spiritual state and life perception through sketching. In the large number of sketches preserved by Feng Dazhong, we can see his persistent sketching and sketching over the years. In the face of an ordinary tree, he can draw several times from different angles, repeatedly outline it with lines, and carefully portray its structural characteristics, including subtle changes in the branches of different trees. As Fan Kuan said: "The Fa of the predecessors did not try to get close to all things, and I and those who teach others are not like teachers of all things." I and those who are not teachers of things are like the hearts of teachers. "Fan Kuan's works are all from sketching, from life, and Feng Dazhong returns to the same creative perception of the ancients through the method of sketching, summarizes the specific brushwork from nature, and personally practices Fan Kuan's sketching ideal."
"One awakening" (cooperation) / 173× 144 cm / color on paper / 1984 / Collection of the National Art Museum of China
Awakening II/96×96 cm/Color on paper/1984
"Awakening Iii" / 190× 486 cm / Color on paper / 1986 old work / 2008 revision
Taking Feng Dazhong's 2008 re-painting of the landscape "Awakening" as an example, the brush and ink in the painting are still traditional, but his brush and ink are also subordinated to the objective scenery and his performance subjects. Therefore, Feng Dazhong's landscape paintings, whether they are "writing" or "working", pay special attention to the expression of the atmosphere emitted by the real scene. The "ancient pines" and "Merlin" he depicts both pay attention to the processing of space and the expression of structure, focusing on the interspersed pitching of tree trunks to present structural spatial organization and physical layout. On the whole, it shows the vigorous momentum of nature, and expresses a rich texture in the part, making people feel "immersive" and very intimate. In the painting "New Rain and Qinglan", Feng Dazhong vividly shows the silent and vibrant bamboo forest next to the mountain stream, especially those stretching out, which are fresh forms that have not appeared in the paintings of previous generations, Gu Pansheng poses, let us think of Dongshan Kuiyi's emotional creative confession: "There is a nameless stream in the shade of the mountain, a silent world." I stared silently at the unobtrusive corner of nature and felt a deep voice from it."
"Frost Forest Autumn Water" / 210× 620 cm / color on paper / 2008
In large-scale landscape paintings such as "Frost Stained Autumn Forest", Feng Dazhong made a creative exploration of the expression of mountain streams. He carefully studied the methods of expressing water in his predecessors. The ancients painted water mostly as a freehand mode, mainly based on hook lines, and different combinations of lines showed a symbolic form similar to water. When Feng Dazhong expresses water, he pays more attention to the texture of water and the momentum in motion, as well as the sense of rhythm and infiltration produced by the ever-changing nature of water, so that we can smell it and bathe our souls in the clear flow of sunshine. On the basis of tradition, Feng Dazhong integrates his feelings and understanding of objective scenes, and then recreates a suitable technique. This technique is to intertwine modern ideas with traditional pen and ink, such as the pen and ink forms of dots and lines; the interspersing of objects and images; and the interpenetration of color and ink, rather than using a pre-existing technique and schema to paint. The same line, Feng Dazhong's painting of "water" can be very abstract or very concrete.
"Forest Springs" / 192×500 cm / Color on paper / 2019
"Spring Drawing" / 58.5× 50.4 cm / Color on paper / 2012
In Feng Dazhong's view, if you paint a painting, it is not to express the life that the painter really feels, or it is a pure pen and ink game, and what he wants to express is not just the exquisite ink and ink, but the real life and his own feelings through pen and ink. The relationship between man and nature is the ultimate goal of Chinese art, the painter builds a dialogue channel between the mind and the creation of nature, and Feng Dazhong's landscape paintings do not pursue too prominent forms, but hide them in the creation. The purpose and generation process of landscape painting should be in line with nature, and at the same time reflect the human heart when expressing imagery, which is the so-called "unity of heaven and man" realm, which is the core of traditional Chinese culture.
"Seven Nine Rivers Open" / 187× 122 cm / Color on paper / 2013
"Moon Bend" / 70× 53.5 cm / Color on paper / 2011
Pursuing the innovation of Chinese painting to express the state of mind of modern people and the understanding of nature, Feng Dazhong's decades of efforts have crossed the boundaries of landscapes, flowers and birds in Chinese painting, and combined them in many pictures. At the same time, his refinement and innovation on the basis of sketching also enable him to be eclectic and free to use spatial composition and color expression, so that his works can not lose the elegant charm of traditional Chinese painting, but also obtain the true feelings of modern people. For the performance of the sense of light and volume in Chinese painting, some people think that it deviates from the tradition of Chinese painting and calligraphy, while Feng Dazhong believes that it is a kind of broadening. He believes that all the ways he expresses himself are in line with the scenes and themes he wants to express. When he chooses a method in his creation, he does not consider whether it is flat or spatial, nor is it limited by which culture it originates from in the East and the West. What he pursues is the most appropriate point of convergence between the form of the language of painting and the representation of objects. He believes that as long as he can enrich the picture and achieve the artistic conception he wants to pursue, he can do everything. Thus, on the basis of tradition, Feng Dazhong synthesized and broadened the art form and integrated it. Feng Dazhong's artistic journey once again affirms the broad mind of Chinese painting in the development process of the 20th century, which integrates Chinese and Western cultures, and the solid road of innovation on the basis of traditional research and sketching. (Yin Shuangxi, famous art critic, executive editor of Fine Arts Research)
Painter Profile
Feng Dazhong, born in 1949 in Liaoning, is the owner of Fuhu Caotang. He is a deputy to the 10th, 11th and 12th National People's Congress, the former president of the China Gongbi Painting Society, the deputy director of the Chinese Painting Art Committee of the China Artists Association, the vice president of the Chinese Painting Society, the director of the China Artists Association, the vice chairman of the Liaoning Provincial Artists Association, the national first-class artist, and an expert enjoying special allowances from the State Council.
Feng Dazhong's works "Awakening" and "Mother and Son" were selected into the "Complete Collection of Chinese Art"; his works "Awakening" and "Frightening Dream" were selected into the "China Centennial Painting Exhibition" and "China Centennial Painting Collection"; 18 works were collected by the National Art Museum of China, and dozens of works were collected by important art museums, professional institutions and collectors at home and abroad.