Text/Shang Hui
President and editor-in-chief of Fine Arts magazine, director of the Art Theory Committee of the China Artists Association
After three years of conception and creation, Mr. Liu Zhong finally completed a 202.2-meter-long scroll, "Ice and Snow National Treasure WanliTu". This is a long-scroll masterpiece that uses China's national treasure panda to tell the story of the Chinese Winter Olympic Games, and uses the "national treasure animal" panda to symbolize the Chinese's attention and joy to the Winter Olympics, which is vivid and interesting.
The reason for choosing pandas, I think this idea is very creative. The panda is an animal loved by everyone, enjoys a high reputation in the world, and is also one of the most typical symbols of Chinese animals in the world. Pandas are cute, childlike, innocent and cute. Undoubtedly, in how to perform the Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, it is possible to carry out serious thematic creations, and through these thematic creations, the achievements of today's Chinese people in sports development can also be expressed, and the physical fitness and health standards of the entire Chinese nation can be enhanced through physical exercise for the whole people. However, if you want to paint such a picture, it is not easy to choose what kind of subject object, or what kind of subject object to choose, which can not only have more cultural implications, but also tell people about the relationship between the holding of the Winter Olympic Games and the lives of Chinese people in the most simple and clear way. From this point of view, Mr. Liu Zhong chose the panda as the main body of his picture to express the sports of the 109 Winter Olympics, and this entry point or main image was particularly good. Without such a subject image, it is difficult to express more than a hundred Winter Olympic projects and how to express the relationship between the Winter Olympic Games and The geopolitics of China. So the first point is that the subject object he chooses is allegorical, cute, and an important element that people hope to be able to appreciate through the image of the panda.
The Winter Olympics will be held in China's Beijing and Hebei areas, mainly along the route from Zhangjiakou to Beijing. So how to reflect the characteristics of the region, in order to reflect the regional characteristics of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics? It may not be particularly significant to just show such a lot, but what is important is what kind of connection this lot has with the entire Chinese civilization? Therefore, the 202.2-meter long scroll not only symbolizes 2022 with its length, but more importantly, what kind of regional characteristics this long scroll uses to reflect the spirit of the Chinese nation is a key, so the second point of this painting is that he walked from the northwest, all the way to Shanhaiguan, the old dragon head, and then entered the sea, showing that it is precisely from the Yanshan Mountains to the northwest such a vast and far-reaching road, especially from the northwest Hexi Corridor as the background of the picture, highlighting the characteristics of China's landform. It should be said that from the relevance of such a Chinese landform and the winter Olympic games to find a very distinctive, which also for the long scroll of this painting can be stretched, can be completely combined more than a hundred Olympic projects, played a good role in paving the way.
The third is the historical origin of the length of the long scroll. What we call the rise of the Chinese nation and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation today have a historical heritage. The prosperity of the Chinese nation can be found in the construction of the Great Wall of China, from the pre-Qin to the Two Han Dynasties and then to the Tang Dynasty, the construction of the Great Wall has witnessed the development of China's economy, military and culture. The painting is very cleverly depicted through the depiction of 24 passes, from Yumen Pass, Yangguan, Jiayu Pass to Shanhaiguan, there are many well-known passes, showing the length of geography, and then through this geographical length shows the long history of China. With this as a background, the work will show the ice and snow sports of the panda in such a long and wide scene, reflecting the cultural significance and historical significance of China's hosting of the Winter Olympics.
Fourthly, the painting is undoubtedly romantic and imaginative. As we all know, the environment in which pandas grow is very harsh, and it requires certain temperature and humidity, especially the requirements of vegetation. In fact, this landform is unlikely to be the environment where pandas naturally grow, but the cleverness of this picture is to use the image of the panda as a cute animal and the image of the mascot to express an advocacy of the green environment after China's economic development, or to express the Olympic spirit embodied in the Winter Olympics, in addition to the competition and challenge of human ability, more importantly, it also considers the concept of how to protect the environment after a country's economic development and economic development. Therefore, this painting is a romantic method, which seems impossible, but in fact, it uses pandas to symbolize the rapid development and civilization of China's economy, and embodies a concept of harmonious economic and natural development advocated by our country.
So this painting is particularly ingenious, the picture scroll slowly unfolds the viewer's eyes from the northwest of the land Silk Road place, and then follow the panda into an empty ice and snow, from the ice and snow glacier can see the Yumen Pass, Yang Pass, Jiayu Pass one by one, they are playing 109 winter Olympic games. There are skiing, skating, as well as sledding, ice hockey and other familiar sports that we are familiar with, the competition of these projects may have a lot of technical things, but the painter is not completely limited to the specific portrayal of some competitive competitions, but the pandas with a cute attitude draw a dance posture, there is a high posture in various arenas to shine their figures, not limited to the specific performance of each sport, I think this is precisely the artist's ingenuity and wisdom.
A work of art that expresses the relationship between man and nature, man and city through image. This painting will make people think of many things, the expression and posture of the panda are not a representation of the real panda, but a manifestation of our imagination about the development of people, a depiction of a family relationship between people and animals. Therefore, the use of pandas to express various postures of people, that kind of action look, is indeed Mr. Liu Zhong spent his mind, and the image of each panda has been well anthropomorphized, and I think this is its fifth very important feature.
The sixth feature is the exploration of the language of ink painting. As we all know, since the 20th century, Chinese ink painting has achieved great development, and under Mr. Wu Zuoren's pen, there is a cute image of the panda, and there is also a kind of brush and ink rhyme of Chinese brush and ink. Mr. Liu Zhong can be said to have obtained the true biography of Mr. Wu, using the interactive variations between thick ink and light ink to express the image of the panda itself. It also includes vegetation such as glacial snow peaks in the distant view and snow forest glaciers in the near view, all of which are presented through it in a simple ink language. The painting is expressed in ink throughout, with almost no other color, it considers the skill, method and ability of a painter to use ink with a pen.
We appreciate this painting, not only appreciate its conception, its use of numbers to express the Olympic project, the use of numbers to express the year, but also by depicting geographical location to symbolize history, symbolization of Chinese civilization, and more importantly, through the Chinese painting language and the use of brush and ink to reflect the artistic charm of this painting. In this regard, Mr. Liu Zhong has a long period of creative experience, because Mr. Liu Zhong is good at expressing human spirit and emotion through the expression of animals, which can be said to be an important feature of his artistic creation, in today's contemporary Chinese painting world, few painters are bent on creating animal paintings. Of course, this animal painting is not exactly the same as the tiger and lion we see, he paints African animals or primates, or large animals, which is less or less in the traditional Chinese painting subjects. That is to say, when expressing these large animals, it may be a whole, it may be a group, it may be more of a part, through the close-up lens to reflect the look of this large animal, these looks still reflect the brush and ink rhyme of Chinese painting. From this point of view, Mr. Liu Zhong is an important painter who pioneered contemporary freehand animal painting, and this long volume also gives full play to Mr. Liu Zhong's expertise in expressing animals. In short, this long scroll has a distinct Chinese national art form and a strong Chinese brush stroke and ink rhyme, and his use of giant pandas to express today's Chinese spirit and the enthusiasm and eagerness highlighted by the hosting of this Winter Olympic Games in Chinese are as impressive as the wonderful footage of the Winter Olympics.
Introduction to the painter Liu Zhong
Liu Zhong, born in 1969 in Beijing, China, holds a master's degree in plastic arts from the French Ministry of Education. He is currently a director of the China Artists Association, a researcher of the National Academy of Painting of China, a deputy secretary-general and executive director of the Chinese Painting Society, a senior member of the Youth Federation of central state organs, a former member of the Standing Committee of the Beijing Youth Federation, an honorary director of the "Panda Post Office" of Chengdu, Sichuan, an honorary director of the "Golden Monkey Post Office" of China Post Sichuan Mianyang, an honorary director of the "Great Wall Post Office" of Hebei Shanhaiguan, a publicity ambassador of The Great Wall Post of Hebei Province, a panda propaganda ambassador of Sichuan Ya'an, a panda blood publicity ambassador of the Beijing Red Cross Society, a propaganda ambassador of the mother water cellar, and a "I love giant panda" of China Post. He is the initiator of the International Children's Postcard Painting Competition and the initiator of the Panda Art Development Fund of the China Literature and Art Foundation, and is known as the "First Person to Paint Pandas in China". His works have been selected and exhibited in many countries such as the United Kingdom, France, the United States, Russia, Egypt, Canada, Spain, Italy, Norway, Singapore, Japan, Monaco, Switzerland, Finland, Latvia, Mongolia and other countries, and have won awards in domestic and foreign competitions for many times, and have been collected by many museums at home and abroad.