People are always thinking, how to represent this era? Words or music? Xin Dongwang uses the appearance of sentient beings to show the image of the era of change.
In October 2021, datong Art Museum held an opening blockbuster exhibition with the theme of "Portrait of the Times - Xin Dongwang Art Exhibition".
What is a "Portrait of the Times"? It is very difficult to get a perfect definition, and Xin Dongwang uses oil paintings to vividly and vividly depict the people at the bottom who actively pursue life. Xin Dongwang has spent his life and unremittingly pursued the highest realm of art, jumping on the paper and showing it vividly in his portraits, which is worth learning and emulating for future generations.
I. Reflections on "The Bound Denim" after breaking through the shackles of class
In 1963, Xin Dongwang was born in a relatively wealthy peasant family in Xinjiafang Village, but he was most afraid of filling out the "ingredient" column in the form, because the identity of "landlord" and "rich peasant" made Xin Dongwang feel inferior at that time.
At this time, painting was like an oil lamp, bringing self-confidence to Xin Dongwang, including the "Practical Manual of Rural Art" bought by his father, the window flower of his mother's socialist revolution theme, the dry watercolor of Grandpa Feng, and the enlightenment of art teacher Wang Kai.
Xin Dongwang did not like the countryside, and he was particularly resistant to farm work, so at the age of 15 he decided to leave the village where he was born. But how could he leave, who had little interest in learning? He worked as a painter, going from village to village to paint wall enclosures and glass paintings, until he went to work in a coal mine with his relatives, and he never abandoned his paintbrush.
Xin Dongwang once mentioned that "I am glad that I like to paint", in fact, realistic art should also be glad that Xin Dongwang, who has suffered a lot, has not given up painting.
The time came to 1986, which was the first turning point in Xin Dongwang's life, "completely rewriting my status as a farmer or temporary worker." He was first admitted to the Fine Arts Department of Jinzhong Normal College, and later assigned to Datong Normal School as an art teacher.
Leaving the place of birth and nourishment, Xin Dongwang suddenly had a strong nostalgia for his hometown. Paintings reflecting the life of the hometown, such as "Zhao", "Roots", "Confrontation", and "Echo", have been painted one after another, and each painting is like a poem, depicting the place where the teenager wanted to leave with a warm, bright, and beautiful style.
However, for Xin Dongwang, who has just found a painting style, his low education has made him feel inferior again in the mainstream art world. After all, he was still just a peasant who had not even finished his studies, and the works he saw were all painted by authors from the class.
At this time, Xin Dongwang, who had just broken through the limitations of class, was constantly hesitating and sad in the persistent pursuit of art and the unchangeable low education, so that the first painting that truly reflected his artistic ideas, "The Bound Denim", was born in 1991.
Through the fire of his works, Xin Dongwang took advantage of the explosion of inspiration to continue his creation, and in the same year, the Chinese painting "Sting" won the silver medal of "China's Four Seasons Art Exhibition". The birth of these two works made Xin Dongwang stand out in the art world at that time, and gradually entered the vision of the world's public and became a new generation of realistic painters.
Second, "Chengcheng City" determines the turning point of the artistic soul
In 1995, Xin Dongwang participated in the third "Chinese Oil Painting Annual Exhibition" with the oil painting "Chengcheng", and Xu Jiang, as a judge, recalled that this work had been unsuccessful, but later accidentally found this painting, took it out, and finally selected it as a silver award.
Since the completion of the creation of "Sting", Xin Dongwang's inspiration explosion period has ended, and he has to stop the brush. Until one day, he saw a group of migrant peasants in the Datong Station Square, and his nostalgia for his hometown and his empathy for the peasants coming to the city to seek survival made this peasant painter who had just broken through the class restrictions tremble.
"Why did they flee en masse?" Since the nineties, peasants have appeared in groups at the railway stations of various cities with their luggage, their anxious looks obviously not pleasing to the townspeople, and at the same time with deep confusion and sorrow.
In the process of constantly roaring urban construction, migrant workers are like sand and gravel, being mixed and processed, and finally thrown into this reinforced concrete steel jungle. They are always inseparable from large bags and small bags, although they are dilapidated, but these are the places where their hearts can rest.
Xin Dongwang found his former shadow in them, and it was from this silver medal-winning work that he found a unique artistic soul of his own - peasant realism.
In 2004, the oil painting "Early Morning" won the gold medal in the oil painting group of the National Art Exhibition; a series of paintings reflecting the migrant worker group such as "Selling Peaches", "Uyghur Old Man Wearing Kazakh Flower Hats", and "Melting Winter" were released one after another; in the same year, as an outstanding artistic talent, Xin Dongwang was introduced to the Academy of Fine Arts of Tsinghua University to teach.
Xin Dongwang's works at this stage express the peasants who entered the city for the sake of life, and the eyes, expressions, etc. of the paintings showed the desire for survival in line with human nature. In that society at that time, spiritual motivation could not mobilize the enthusiasm of the broad masses of the people like material life, but what was really needed was the material foundation.
At this time, Xin Dongwang had completely shifted from landscape paintings that reflected his hometown and beautiful life to the study of exploring the basic survival pursuits of free people. He no longer depicts the peasants' simple satisfaction with life, but in contrast to the details of various environments and characters, he highlights the discomfort of the peasants entering the city and the helplessness of having to adapt to the rules of the city in order to survive.
At the same time as holding the exhibition, Xin Dongwang also became a university professor. This profession, which he once felt inferior to himself, the goal of fleeing the countryside when he was a teenager, the identity he once had unattainable, has now become a reality.
He completed the transformation of his identity, truly from the peasants to the city, realized his own "sincere city", and at the same time, his artistic style also changed from the beautiful and idyllic rural scenery to the portrait realism.
3. "Cabbage" - the homecoming of the art of living
"The mission of art is destined not to hide in comfort." In the age of entering the destiny of heaven, Xin Dongwang has a beautiful family, children and children, the family's life is happy and harmonious, and the heavens treat him not thin, so that he can change the appearance of life through his own efforts.
But as an art, Xin Dongwang did not stop the pursuit of the ultimate footsteps, he is competing with life, art has no end, stopping the pursuit often means the exhaustion of inspiration, therefore, in the later stage of his life, the proposition of the painting gradually turned into "transcendence".
Later, Xin Dongwang painted more and more natural objects, such as the most famous and the most expensive work in his paintings, "Cabbage", which cost 517,500 yuan.
"Cabbage" is a representative work of Xin Dongwang's life stage, in addition to "Pomegranate", "Life Lift", "Shi Xian HeShou", "Coconut" and other vegetable and fruit works. Seemingly naturally copied branches and fruits, showing pure lines and tones, with the ethereal beauty of oriental landscapes, but also a true portrayal of vitality.
Xin Dongwang's "Cabbage", there is no lack of yellowed or rotten leaves, not the perfect cabbage that people have to choose when they go to the supermarket, this is exactly the truth that Xin Dongwang wants to show.
Many authors want to pursue the most perfect side, but Xin Dongwang pursues authenticity, just like his own life, there are twists and turns, loneliness and pain, he shows the most fundamental and simple side of cabbage to the fullest.
"The Lifting of Life" is a work written during Xin Dongwang's hospitalization, when a friend sent a bouquet of tulips when he visited Xin Dongwang in bed. After seeing this bouquet of flowers, he urged his wife to take the drawing tools, and the many leaves were tightly clustered around the flower that was about to wither, looking like the family protecting themselves, which was also Xin Dongwang's last work.
Xin Dongwang's art is the art of pursuit, is the art of positive, even if life has reached the end, he did not complain about the world, but used the painting "Life's Lift" as the end point, showing not despair, but the hope of life and the beauty of love.
At about 19:30 on January 11, 2014, a Weibo message from critic Yang Wei broke the calm of the winter night: "I was shocked to hear that the famous artist Xin Dongwang has died of illness today. ”
Many artists in the art world have also expressed their pain and shock at the death of Xin Dongwang on various social media.
However, just like Xin Dongwang's paintings, in a portrait of a personal person, especially in the final stage of life, the fruit and vegetable works created show a positive life signal and love between people, which reflect Xin Dongwang's persistent pursuit of life, the end of life does not represent the drifting of the spirit, his works will continue to lead generations of art students in the world with the spirit of Xin Dongwang.
Xin Dongwang's paintings are not only the innovative development of Chinese oil painting for realistic characters, but also the inheritance of humanistic spiritual traditions in art history, expressing a high degree of concern for human nature. In his works, through the stillness of the look and posture, the sentient beings of the world glow the human nature of the marginalization of the city and every ordinary person.
In the current era of information explosion, a large number of advertising images and daily images are constantly processed and reused, stimulating the visual nerves of the public with almost the ultimate sense of beauty, but ignoring the need to enrich the humanity contained in each appearance, which also makes the humanistic value gradually empty, and the quality of the picture is becoming faster and faster.
In the same year, the Art Museum of Tsinghua University held an academic research on the title of "The Heart of a Genius"; in 2021, the National Agricultural Exhibition Center in Beijing, "2021 Art Beijing Xin Dongwang Works Special Exhibition".
What is genius? Is there really a genius? Opinions vary, and there is no consensus. But Xin Dongwang is an artist who insists on simplicity and purity and pursues authenticity on the road of art, although he has left the scene, his works and the spirit of artistic exploration will not dissipate, but will become the small oil lamp that brings him light, and continue to guide the direction for future generations.
Text/ Wow haha
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