Nong Yin Daji Zhang Haiping
He has been friends with Brother Haiping for more than ten years, taking the opportunity of the spread of calligraphy and painting, and has always regarded his brother as an expert in the promotion of calligraphy and painting. Recently, Brother Haiping visited me in the ugly fast, drunk out of dozens of frames, browsing, my eyes lit up, suddenly felt drunk and sober for the most part. It seems that although Brother Haiping is well known for his promotion, he actually exerts more effort in creation, and has today's achievements, not a day's work. Feeling the excitement of Haiping Brother's masterpieces, and also feeling the feelings of the creation of flower and bird paintings, pulling miscellaneous words, sending today's thoughts to those who come, he sees this article every day, and he should not laugh at the stupidity, persistence, and foolishness of Haiping Brother and me today.
Tiger Tiger Shengwei Zhang Haiping
spread
At present, China's flower and bird painting, due to the popularity of freehand techniques, from children's tutoring classes to the university for the elderly, it seems that everyone can smear a few strokes, unconsciously creating an illusion, thinking that the techniques of flower and bird painting are very simple, and everyone can create flower and bird paintings. In fact, popularization cannot lead to the improvement of the creative realm, because popularization is only the dissemination of techniques, not the improvement of ideas. It can even be considered that it is only an extension of popularity, rather than a qualitative improvement, and such popularization will cause irreversible damage to the future of flower and bird painting.
The barriers of art, first of all technology, popularization has dismantled the barriers of technique, and the gap between professional creators and enthusiasts is less obvious, but where is the real gap between professional creators and enthusiasts? —— In the paradox of non-professionalism - the biggest feature of the professionalism of flower and bird painting is that he constantly pursues non-professionalism. The pursuit of enthusiasts is the opposite of this requirement, the more professional creators are more pursuing the spirit of non-professionalism - game, appreciation, painting - the real gap between professional creators and ordinary enthusiasts is here.
Brother Haiping likes to study traditional culture on weekdays, especially for some of the unpopular and partial knowledge. In addition, he studied graphic design as an undergraduate, and his oscillation between the seemingly contradictory two, his creative mentality is neither the traditional literati's ticket-playing touch, nor the confusion of children's tutoring classes to the university for the elderly, but an effective response to the modernity of the traditional cultural elite. In Chinese culture, there are a large number of idiots and clumsy people like Hai Ping Brother, and Fang has shown some taste for posterity to taste in this world surrounded by fame and profit.
"New Shoots", ink on paper, Zhang Haiping, 180×96cm
Function, purpose and performance
Of course, if there are no high requirements for the use of brushes, the techniques of Chinese painting have no secrets to speak of, and there is no need for a high threshold, but it is precisely because there is no restriction on the difficulty of the technique that Chinese painting has produced a higher pursuit beyond the technique - social pursuit, cognitive pursuit, spiritual pursuit.
Contemporary Chinese painting, especially flower and bird painting, is more of a social requirement, and exhibition, and exhibition or display inevitably reflects social care, which is only the level of "enlightenment and helping people". This level, of course, has its important value in the classical era, or in the feudal era, when human subjectivity has not awakened. But the classical, feudal way of thinking will eventually leave us.
"Five Blessings" Ink on Paper Zhang Haiping 68×68cm
Non-feudal, epistemological, introspective thinking requires flower and bird painting to be "in parallel with the four hours, and the six books are the same." "Through flowers and birds to understand the world around them, dissolve the alienation of people and nature in the industrial era, and re-establish the connection between people and nature." As Qi Baishi said: "Grass peeping", the "I" of the subject, the secret of the "thing" of the object in the grass and between the flowers - to know the world, to perceive the unknown, and to feel the infinity from the microscopic world.
In addition to the social and cognitive functions, flower and bird painting also attaches importance to the pursuit of the heart, which is a higher spiritual pursuit than the understanding of the world, borrowing the words of the ancients, that is, "sending affection for things" or "borrowing things lyrically". The exploration of the author's heart, rather than the depiction or retelling of the objective world, is the true meaning of flower and bird painting. Politicians use this metaphor – not forgetting Wei Que; those who hide in the rivers and lakes use this mingzhi – worry about the king and the people; people outside the party practice this way – either for Zen pleasure or for the sake of the tao; the drunkards use this to cover themselves up – or to poetry or wine or to the grass and trees. The pursuit of this aspect, with the help of the uncertainty of the object and the infinite possibilities of the pen and ink material, presents the infinite possibilities of the author's inner world, and the flowers and birds have become the mirror image of the author, the mirror image of the heart - to illuminate the author, to see the invisible visible; the pen and ink material has become an infinite abyss of possibilities, drowning the author and drowning the infinite.
"Rich and Strong", ink on paper, Zhang Haiping, 136×68cm
technology
The pursuit of various levels is inseparable from the support of technology, and no matter how it develops, the three elements of flower and bird painting technology are still physics, material conditions and physical states.
Hai Ping brother has undergone rigorous sketching training, so he is comfortable with physical expression. It's just that Haiping tends to express large lines, and when he chooses objects, he also chooses objects based on line sense to express them. In this way, his works can start from sketching to reach the expression of brushwork, and even the catharsis of brushwork (cursive, lishu). Here, it is not difficult for us to find that the effectiveness of hiding the language of sketching and the language of graphic design behind the brushwork has improved lyricism, and the "rationale" of objects, the biological structure, has been flattened and calligraphed.
Regarding the material situation, HaiPing Brother pays more attention to the emotional exploration of the object itself, and also appropriately gives the object a certain personality tendency, which is also one of the traditions of classical Chinese flower and bird painting. He did not blindly pour out his emotions, but appropriately infiltrated his emotions between the allegory and the extended meaning of the object, so that the connotation of the object was richer and deeper. Haiping was originally good at dodging and moving, but in the painting and calligraphy, it is like a changed person, more obsessive, deeper, and therefore more of the authentic "Haiping", in the process of giving affection to the object, Haiping found himself, is peony, is wisteria, is bitter bamboo and other themes he likes.
"National Color Tianxiang Map", ink on paper, Zhang Haiping, 136×68cm
Haiping brother's pride lies in his expression of the state of matter, he pays attention to the different postures of the object due to different moods such as wind, sun, rain, snow, etc. Haiping does not express the old and spicy state of the material state like an ordinary painter, but according to the characteristics of the object plus his own experience, he chooses to express the moment when the object should be expressed in depth. He is especially good at using water, the nib is very full of moisture, and the color is more delicate. He is also good at using a large area of color to empty out many inexplicable light spots and color spots, so that the picture has a sense of alienation under the sun, and he has a kind of trance-like melancholy when he looks at his works for a long time. He better explored the spiritual connotation of the object, which is a valuable experience.
Blue Peony, Ink on Paper, Zhang Haiping, 136×68cm
childhood
Haiping Brother's hometown is the famous black pottery town of Qihe, on the vast plains on the north bank of the Yellow River. He grew up between clay and pottery kilns, and the villagers burn pottery for their livelihood. He was admitted to the university from his hometown, although he did not become a practitioner of black pottery, but the experience of making billets and burning pottery in his childhood was a lingering mark on his creation of flower and bird painting.
Compared with other art forms, the production of pottery pays more attention to the treatment of the void, and it can even be said that emptiness is the life of black pottery, without valuable emptiness, black pottery will have no life, why is the creation of flower and bird painting not so? Valuable emptiness, this concept, others may take a long time to establish, but here in Haiping is a childhood imprint, is a kind of psychological self-consciousness, whether it is the carrier of flower and bird painting or the carrier of black pottery, his self-consciousness has not changed. Therefore, his paintings of flowers and birds have more of the beauty of virtual reality, to be precise, the beauty of fiction.
Another feature of black pottery is "black", black is the real charm of black pottery, without black, black pottery has no personality. Similarly, an important content of Chinese painting is also the admiration and expression of black, "black into the too overcast", "the sea of ink to turn over the waves" are all praise for the aesthetic imagery of "black". Haiping's flower and bird paintings are like black pottery creations, black is not only a feature, but also a language, and is the pursuit of the aesthetic imagery of "black". It's a kind of mental realization. His flower and bird paintings have a strong sense of wholeness, dissolving many of the tones of traditional literati paintings, largely due to the fact that he skillfully intersperses and coordinates with black on the picture.
"Years of Cold" black pottery creation Zhang Haiping 136×35cm
Redundant
We appreciate an artist not only for his genius, but also for his ignorance, ridiculousness and childishness, because every artist is not perfect, genius often coexists with ignorance, profundity is often accompanied by ridiculousness, and childishness is often hidden behind mature techniques. Brother Haiping is no exception, and not every work is a masterpiece. His works, either temporarily not understood, or even if understood are distorted after the original meaning, the admirer mirrors the remnants of self-mirroring, which cannot negate his intoxication and exploration. As long as Haiping is still intoxicated and exploring, these imperfections are question marks one by one—open and full of infinite possibilities—asking questions of both Haiping and everyone.
Old friend Shang Zhenchi
December 30, 2021
Big hill down
"Purple Qi Coming East", Ink on Paper, Zhang Haiping, 136×68cm
Painter Zhang Haiping
Zhang Haiping, a native of Qihe, Shandong. Pingshan Hall, Otoyama Hall, Xuanshui Mountain People, Wuniu Dao people, Yuanlong Hall, and DaGao. Member of the Chinese Democratic League. Practitioner of freehand flower and bird painting. Graduated from the School of Fine Arts of Shandong Normal University. He is currently the dean of Shandong Radio and Television All-Media Calligraphy and Painting Institute, the vice chairman of Jinan Literary and Art Volunteer Association, the assistant teacher of Zhang Xijie Studio of the Art College of Chinese University, and a member of the presidium of Jinan Young Artists Association. Good at flower and bird painting, seal carving, painting porcelain, carving pottery.