Pang Xuanxuan's "Jiangnan Water Town"
On the spring evening of CCTV this year, the creative music and dance poetry painting "Remembering Jiangnan", which is based on the famous painting "Fuchun Mountain Jutu" passed down by Huang Gongwang of the Yuan Dynasty, attracted countless applause from the audience, and also made people once again have a strong interest in ancient paintings with the theme of Jiangnan and Jiangnan Water Town. Since the Song Dynasty, especially during the Ming and Qing dynasties, ancient paintings with themes in Jiangnan and Jiangnan water towns can be said to have emerged in an endless stream, and related research monographs and articles are still full of sweat. However, in the history of the development of modern and contemporary art, those excellent works that express the beauty and charm of Jiangnan and Jiangnan water towns do not seem to have attracted the attention of all parties like ancient paintings, which is a pity.
In recent years, due to coincidence, the author has curated exhibitions of modern and contemporary art works with the theme of Jiangnan and Jiangnan Water Town in Shanghai, Suzhou Art Museum, China Art Palace, etc., and made a speech on the theme of "Jiangnan Culture Lecture Hall" jointly launched by the Shanghai Federation of Social Sciences and the Shanghai Museum with the title of "'Jiangnan Water Town' in the Visual Image of Modern and Contemporary Art", and deeply felt that we lack comprehensive, systematic and in-depth dredging, research and introduction of modern and contemporary art works with the theme of Jiangnan and Jiangnan Water Town. If we forget the modern and contemporary art classics that have had a considerable impact on our spiritual life, we will not be able to accurately understand and grasp the changes and characteristics of Jiangnan and Jiangnan water town culture in the context of modern and contemporary times, and appreciate the different artistic charms of ancient and modern paintings of different eras.
Liu Haisu "Confucius Temple"
"Memories of Hometown - Double Bridge": It has made many people think that Jiangnan Water Town is Zhouzhuang and other Jiangnan ancient towns
If the time goes back thirty or forty years, many people's cognition of Jiangnan Water Town is probably xiaoqiao liushui people, that is, Jiangnan ancient town, or to be more specific, it may be Zhouzhuang. Why have Zhouzhuang and Jiangnan Ancient Town become synonymous with Jiangnan Water Town in the minds of many people? This may be related to a very famous contemporary art work, that is, the late Famous Shanghai oil painter Chen Yifei's "Memories of Hometown - Double Bridge" created in the early 1980s.
According to local people recalling, Chen Yifei, who stayed in the United States at his own expense, returned to Shanghai in the early 1980s to collect wind from the ancient towns of Zhouzhuang and Jinxi Water Town in Kunshan, when the road from Kunshan to Jinxi and Zhouzhuang had not yet been built, and it was a waterway. Zhouzhuang and Jinxi are ancient towns that arose in the Southern Song Dynasty, and many Ming and Qing Dynasty buildings have been preserved. Chen Yifei did not directly sketch, but used the camera to photograph the scene of interest, take it back to the studio, and recreate it. "Memories of Hometown - Double Bridge" is the product of the trip to the water town. This work was collected by Mr. Hammer, an American business magnate at the time. Mr. Hammer opened a well-known Art Circle Art Gallery in the United States, and signed a five-year agreement with Chen Yifei to hold solo exhibitions for him every year. Mr. Hammer was very fond of the painting "Memories of Hometown - Double Bridge", and Deng Xiaoping later received Mr. Hammer in Beijing, and Mr. Hammer gave it as an important gift to Deng Xiaoping and Chinese. The painting was later on the first day cover of the United Nations Post Office. At that time, there was a lot of coverage in the domestic media. Zhou Zhuang suddenly became famous.
Since the mid-1980s, the number of art lovers and art school students who come to Zhouzhuang every year has been the largest number of small towns in the country. Zhouzhuang is also the most crowded among tourists in various towns in Jiangnan. Of course, later some people said that the double bridge in Chen Yifei's painting was not in Zhouzhuang but in Jinxi. I once asked Chen Yifei, and he said, "The ancient town of Jiangnan is very similar, and since Zhouzhuang now has this reputation, it is even on Zhouzhuang's account." ”
Chen Yifei, "Memories of Hometown - Double Bridge"
The wide spread of "Memories of Hometown - Double Bridge" has made many people think that Jiangnan Water Town is Zhouzhuang, which is the Jiangnan town of these small bridges and flowing water. However, if we conduct more in-depth research, we will find that in fact, the "Jiangnan Water Town" that appears in many modern and contemporary art works is far more than just a Jiangnan town with small bridges and flowing water. In the vision of modern and contemporary painters, the extension and connotation of "Jiangnan Water Town" are far richer than those of Xiaoqiao Liushuiren. In terms of geographical appearance, Jiangnan water town also has lakes, mountains, forests, farmland, trees including cities with rivers, in the past, "the city is small and wild", jiangnan cities are often surrounded by warm farmland forests and rivers, so Suzhou Hangzhou Shaoxing and many other jiangnan cities that are larger than small towns can be regarded as Jiangnan water towns. In terms of humanistic resources, Jiangnan Water Township people are brilliant and Zhong Lingyuxiu. In the spiritual core of "Jiangnan Water Town", it is often full of poetry, and it is the spiritual hometown of many modern and contemporary artists who were born, grew up here or engaged in artistic creation in Jiangnan.
"Double Swallow": Modernist art has blown a new wind of Chinese and Western fusion for Jiangnan water town theme painting
In the context of "Jiangnan" and "Jiangnan Water Town" in the visual images of modern and contemporary art, the author feels that there are two dimensions that are often overlooked.
The first dimension is a new wind of Fusion between China and the West brought by modernist art to the painting of Jiangnan Water Town. Since the 1920s, the whole of Gangnam has been synchronized with the world, and the degree of openness is far beyond our imagination. Since the establishment of a new style of art education in the 1910s and 1920s, Jiangnan has always had a special love for impressionism and modernism after impressionism in Western Europe. The Shanghai Art College founded and taught by Liu Haisu, Guan Liang, Pang Xianqin, zhou Bichu, etc., the Suzhou Art College founded by Yan Wenliang, and the National Hangzhou Art College founded, taught, and studied by Lin Fengmian, Wu Dayu, Zao Wou-ki, Wu Guanzhong, zhu Dequn, etc., were all important teaching centers for modernist art in China. Most of the founders and teachers of these three schools stayed in Europe and Stayed in Japan; many students who were later trained also went to Europe to study. They aspire to promote the development of modernist art in China, especially in the Jiangnan region, and pursue the integration of Chinese and Western art. In the history of Chinese art, a series of modern and contemporary art masters and masters have closely related to the area of Jiangnan Water Town. Their paintings not only expanded from traditional Chinese painting to the entire field of Western painting, but also brought subversive changes in all aspects of creative concepts, styles, and techniques. Their art was called the "New School of Painting" at that time, some directly expressed the beauty, characters, customs and customs of Jiangnan Water Town, and some drew abundant inspiration from Jiangnan Water Town, directly and indirectly presented their fascination and emotion for Jiangnan Water Town, so that the world saw the uniqueness and extraordinaryness of these Chinese modern art originating from Jiangnan Water Town, and let people see their pursuit of artistic ideals of the integration of East and West, whose influence extends to this day, and also the development of contemporary art in today's emerging new era. It played a decisive role in enlightenment and promotion.
Yan Wenliang's "Moonlit Night Rafting"
For example, some of Yan Wenliang's works depicting the water town of Jiangnan adopt the french impressionist method, and the vague light and shadow treatment is very flavorful of Monet's works. Liu Haisu's partial paintings with the theme of Jiangnan Water Town draw nourishment from Post-Impressionism and Fauvism, and at the same time conduct cross-cultural comparison and research with Shi Tao in China, explore the transformation of oil painting modernity from the perspective of Chinese literati painting, and explore the sinicization of European modernist painting. While pursuing European Cubism and Expressionism, Lin Fengmian's paintings also find the conversion and nutrition of intuitionism from Chinese folk art and ceramic painting, and reflect Chinese folk art from modernism, so that he has obtained the unity of the external form of modernism and the inner poetry of Jiangnan culture. Lin Fengmian created a large number of paintings on the subject of the West Lake in Hangzhou, Jiangnan in the 1960s, and although he was from Guangdong, he said in his memoirs that the biggest influence on him was in the years when he was the principal of the Hangzhou National Art College, and Jiangnan changed his cultural genes. Wu Dayu was the head of the Department of Hangzhou National Art College, and was the "pillar" who advocated modernism in Hangzhou National Art College at that time, and his abstract paintings with oriental charm were quite groundbreaking, and trained many outstanding students, such as Wu Guanzhong, Zao Wou-ki, Zhu Dequn, etc. Wu Guanzhong once made a strong appeal for the encounter of his teacher Wu Dayu: he said that he wanted to study Wu Dayu, and Mr. Wu Dayu was a very remarkable artist who needed to be reacquainted. His crayon sketch "Jiangnan Countryside" is unique. Sekiyoshi returned from Japan, and his paintings were not realistic, but learned the methods of modernist painting, with deformation, exaggeration, including the use of color is also very bold. Zhou Bichu and Pang Xuanxuan also returned from studying in France. Their works also promoted the spread of modernist painting in Jiangnan. Zao Wou-Ki worked as a student at the Hangzhou National Art College, and later went to France to study, and became famous for his oriental poetic abstract paintings. In his later years, he said that he often thought of Hangzhou and Suzhou in his dreams because his mother was from Suzhou. He said that my abstract paintings are now accepted by the French, not because I am like the French, but because they see the taste of the East and Jiangnan in my abstract paintings, which is the real value.
Wu Guanzhong "Double Swallow"
Among these modern and contemporary art masters, Wu Guanzhong is undoubtedly the one who has the most efforts and achievements in the theme of Jiangnan Water Town. Many of his masterpieces are related to Jiangnan Water Town. Jiangnan Water Town has been brilliantly and creatively interpreted in Wu Guanzhong's pen. As a painter born in Jiangnan and raised in a water town, Wu Guanzhong has a strong friendship for Jiangnan. He also said to the students, "As soon as I return to Jiangnan, I will be excited..." "I have been painting Jiangnan intermittently all my life..." Wu Guanzhong's painting of Jiangnan is not limited by the established techniques, and he has absorbed a wealth of modern artistic expression methods and created his own style. Wu Guanzhong's early ink painting masterpiece "Double Swallow", which is collected by the National Art Museum of China, is a typical painting with the theme of Jiangnan Water Town. The creation of "Double Swallow" is purely accidental. In the 1980s, Wu Guanzhong took a group of students to Jiangnan to sketch. While waiting for the train at the Ningbo Railway Station to return to school, Wu Guanzhong found a row of white-walled black-tiled houses typical of Jiangnan on the other side of the river, so he took out a sketchbook and drew it. At this time, the train began to check the tickets, and his companion urged Wu Guanzhong to get on the train quickly. Although in a hurry, this picture cannot be erased for a long time in the Wuguan Center, just like a pot of good wine brewed in his heart for eight years, and finally in 1988, the melon ripened and fell, and the ink painting "Double Swallow" came out. Wu Guanzhong later wrote an article recalling, "'Double Swallow' focuses on plane segmentation, geometric combination, horizontal long lines and white blocks and longitudinal short black blocks to form a strong contrast. The geometric combination of Mondrian's (Dutch abstract painter of geometric geometry) pursues simple, simple beauty, but its emotional disclosure is too vague, even equal to zero. "Double Swallow" clearly expresses the oriental sentiment, even if the double swallow flies, the nostalgia is still there. The contrasting beauty of horizontal and straight, black and white, after the success of "Double Swallow", became the artistic eye that remained in my heart for a long time. For example, from "Qiu Jin's Former Residence" in 1988 to "Remembering Jiangnan" in 1996, only a few horizontal lines and a few black dots remained, all of which belonged to the "Double Swallow" lineage. "Among the many Jiangnan-themed works, and even in all my works, I think the most prominent and representative is "Double Swallow.""
Changshu Tian: Modern and contemporary Chinese painting expands the boundaries of jiangnan water town themes
The second dimension is the new expansion of the boundaries of Chinese painting to the theme of Jiangnan water towns after the founding of New China. After the founding of New China, the realistic picture of society has changed, and the visual graphics should naturally have corresponding differences. Jiangnan Water Town is not only the sustenance of traditional literati painters to express themselves and express the air in their chests, but also an important object for expressing the new life in the new era. As far as Jiangnan Water Town itself is concerned, great changes have also taken place. For example, water conservancy construction, agricultural production, new people and new winds that can be seen everywhere in Jiangnan have become important creative themes for Chinese painters at that time, and "new Chinese painting" came into being. The transformation of reality carried out by these works is not only reflected in the depiction of subjects that have not been expressed in traditional Chinese painting for eternity, but also in the expression of chinese painters' psychology and realistic emotions. The realm evoked by these works is a new social landscape, and the transformation of the realm has undoubtedly triggered and directly contributed to the re-integration of pen and ink language and the injection of new vitality.
At that time, among Chinese painters, the trend of "sketching" was greatly promoted, and "to paint landscapes, we must paint real landscapes". From a broader perspective, this has played a rather positive role in promoting the reflection of real life in Chinese painting. Chinese painters who come from tradition regard sketching as an experimental field for innovation, how can sketching connect with traditional brush and ink? How does the new era style merge with stylized landscape painting? How does sketching transform Chinese landscape painting? It is gratifying that these Chinese paintings from the water town life in Jiangnan do not reject the connection with tradition, but on the contrary, rely on such a relationship to build a bridge that can be communicated between the new and the old, combining the feelings of reality with the traditional brush and ink to present the "new" social significance. For example, Qian Songlan's Chinese painting "Changshu Tian" created in the 1960s is a successful example.
Qian Songlun "Changshu Tian"
"Changshu Tian" depicts ordinary rural scenes in Jiangnan that have never been expressed in traditional Chinese landscape paintings in the past. The work has no relationship with the ancient meaning of xiao han, detachment, and non-cannibalism pursued by traditional literati paintings, allowing us to see a new world full of vitality. This painting was made by Qian Songkun after going to Changshu Yushan to sketch and witnessing the new scene of prosperity in Changshu farmland at that time. The countryside of Jiangnan is less mountainous and more of a paddy field with thousands of miles of flat land. But how can a flat paddy field gain an extraordinary momentum on the screen? Qian Songkun adopted a bird's-eye view and full compositional method, and when he later talked about the painting, he said that although he had a real experience of overlooking yushan mountain outside changshu's west gate, he thought of the general impression of "Jiangnantian" composed of Yixing, Wuxi and other places. The rice fields that occupy most of the entire picture are from near to far, from real to virtual, and have the potential of thousands of miles. In terms of coloring, Qian Songsong originally wanted to use golden yellow as the base, but the two times he went to Changshu to see green wheat seedlings, so he finally decided to apply green. Since the Yuan Ming Dynasty paintings, most traditional literati painters have considered heavy colors to be too tacky, and ink painting is elegant. However, Qian Songkun believes that whether it is ink or heavy color, the key lies in how the two are mixed. This work uses bright stone green on a large area, and changes with the intensity of the rice field. The strong and harmonious colors just right reflect the vibrant new look of Jiangnan. The painting is named "Changshu Tian", a pun. Qian Songlan specially inscribed on the painting: "Changshu County, the plain domain is ten thousand hectares, the years are harvested, and the name is really in line with the name." In the past, a couplet said, "The sky is in the wilderness of Changshu", and after the founding of New China, "Changshu" is "Changshu" every year, which is not only Qian Songkun's praise for the prosperity of farmland in Jiangnan, but also sends his good wishes for a bumper harvest in agriculture every year. And his "Changshu Tian" can be said to be an excellent response to the new topics raised by the new era for artists, and has made innovative breakthroughs in the creation of Chinese paintings with water village themes in Jiangnan.
Another example is the long volume of "Xin'anJiang" co-created by Lu Yushao, Tang Yunwu Lifu Zhang Shoucheng, a painter at the Shanghai Academy of Chinese Painting, after deeply living in the 1950s, which was also a direct and panoramic reflection of the style of the construction of the Xin'anjiang Reservoir in Jiangnan and the new achievements of collective creation at that time. Of course, times are different, and artists' treatment of the same subject matter will change. Last year, the Shanghai Academy of Chinese Painting organized painters to return to the Xin'anjiang Reservoir, and the artistic presentations of the two female painters, Bao Ying and Wan Fu, were completely different from those of their predecessors. Bao Ying's painting of the Xin'anjiang Reservoir, the main body of the picture is clustered flowers and plants, and the Xin'anjiang Reservoir serves as a distant, hazy background, which reminds us of the change of time and month. On the two-thirds of the picture, Wan Fu prominently depicts 10 flying egrets, and the Xin'anjiang Reservoir surrounded by mountains is blurred, which is quite poetic in Jiangnan.
Author: Zhang Lixing
Editor: Fan Xin
Planner: Fan Xin
Editor-in-Charge: Wang Yan
*Wenhui exclusive manuscript, please indicate the source when reprinting.