Do you recognize a man named Shi Tan?
Text/He Liwei
Shitan's real name is Tan Wei, and like Bai Shiweng, it runs through Xiangtan. Bai Shi Weng is a Bai Shi Pu person, so the stage name is Bai Shi, and Shi Tan is a person from Shi Tan Town, so he signed the stage name Shi Tan. They all love Sangzi, they all paint, one has a long beard, one has a short beard, one is a surprised man, a magnificent master, and a cloth is a mustard, by virtue of namelessness. People are incomparable, especially fate, as well as talent and pattern.
Ben didn't know Shitan and had never heard of it. Last year, a friend of mine, Lao Zhou, handed me his mobile phone across two people at the dinner table and said how do you look at this person's painting? Old Zhou studied painting in college, and later became a big money, and still loved to draw, and he didn't have anything to carry the drawing board to the river to sketch. Dreams of youth, with a lifetime to fulfill. Roundness is merit, circle cannot be masturbation. There are five or six paintings, ink paintings of scary big people. The writing is lighthearted, slightly playful, exaggerated, yet evocative. Flip it over, put it down, spin and pick it up again, pull two fingers apart on the screen, look closely, and laugh. Lao Zhou said something and replied: The road is very wild, but it has taste, and painting the big people in this way shows that he also sees the gods as mortals. Not bad. In the matter of painting, his courage is fatter than others. Ask Old Zhou, where is this sacred. Lao Zhou said that this was a friend of his in a WeChat group, a teacher at the University of Electricity, and the paintings were posted in the circle of friends. I say it's convenient to find an opportunity to meet, and this guy should be an interesting person worthy of fellowship.
A week later, Lao Zhou made an appointment to eat a table of fish on a large plate in a live fish village on the southern outskirts of the city. SeeIng Shi Tan, he was short in stature, looking like Feng Zikai, sparse hair, round glasses, beard, white flowers, like a small old man who came from the Republic of China era, and his breath was Sven. Although its appearance is not impressive, it is also very eye-catching. Such a look is generally unforgettable.
In this way, they met each other, added WeChat to each other, and talked shallowly, but they already regarded each other as friends. After that, we often get together, eat, rub mahjong, chat, communicate with each other, and have fun. In fact, since adding WeChat, I can see Shitan every day because he posts his paintings in the circle of friends every day. That day we were eating in the live fish village, and when he went back, he drew a table of people and pasted it in the circle of friends that night. I like to look at his paintings, grasp the shape accurately, and most importantly, especially convey the spirit, and can sketch out the emotional characteristics of each character with a few strokes. The lines are affirmative, the ink is bold, the wild is painted with books, and it is careless, casual and complete. In short, each vertical brush does not have any traditional ink painting stylized shackles, and in the swing, it reflects his free and proud heart. He painted me, and it was me at first glance, Hanging Er Lang Dang. Old Zhou, as an ancient and serious person, has the appearance that the Affairs of the State Council are to be entrusted to him. The other characters, each of them, come alive and vivid. I laughed and cursed in front of Shi Tan's name. Fiercely cordial.
To be honest, Shi Tan's paintings are not very clever, at least not very professional. But fortunately, he is not very professional, and all the college paths, stylized condoms, and old fritter-like habits have nothing to do with his pen and ink. I only later heard him say that he intended to keep a distance from the academy, and in turn, he liked the folk simplicity and children's natural fun. He is like a fine cub graffiti, unrestrained, indulgent, but fresh, but vivid, but can grasp the eyes, but a look is a stone pool. That's called fun. This kind of fun is reflected by the indifference of countless colleges and lakes. In a cluster of dead branches and leaves, there is no reason not to be happy about a fresh little wildflower that is hard to see.
Every time I met Shi Tan, that night, or the next day, there was a portrait of me in the painting in his circle of friends, and each time it was different, but I crowned a national curse in front of his name, and the kindness was the same. One day a group of us went to play in Shitan's studio, looked at his paintings on the wall and the unfinished paintings on the case, sighed at his diligence, and the recent works had obvious progress compared with the old works of one or two years ago, and praised him. Shi Tan's face was flushed, and his hands were rubbing back and forth, saying that you should carry which one you like. Suddenly, he said to me, Cai Wenhao, and Wang Ping, how about I paint you three literati? He took a picture of us, holding a mobile phone in one hand, a brush in the other, drawing on the case, and when it was finished, we roared angrily: Good! Shi Tan said, there is no question yet, Teacher He, you come to the question. I said, you write. Immediately, the mouth occupied four sentences: Old friends have three, come to see the stone pond. Draw a sample and commemorate it.
When the question was finished, a crowd of people gathered around and said that the painting was like, oh yo, you will know which one is which. Shi Tan smiled as if he had made a mistake, saying that he was barely able to do so, and surrounded people to see me draw, but I still couldn't let go of my hands and feet. Needless to say, this picture was posted in the circle of friends that night.
Shitan's circle of friends, with thousands of friends, all over the country and even overseas, most of them have not met, and most of them are people who like to see his paintings. What made ShiTan particularly happy and a little proud was that there were a number of painters he liked, as well as professors and even deans of the Academy of Fine Arts, who praised under his paintings and lamented that they had received too much professional training, could not get rid of the norm, were too habitable, and could not paint Shi tan's kind of freedom, allowing the same innocence in their bones. Instead, these professionals envied Shitan's relaxed and free state of painting.
In fact, to put it bluntly, ShiTan's relaxed freedom stems from the non-utilitarianism and ambitionlessness of his paintings. He just draws and plays. Painted, pasted in the circle of friends, everyone to like, especially the praise of professionals, let him come to energy, he painted more, sent more circles of friends, completely is a fine cub-like person to go crazy. Shi Tan himself told me that his original heart is to paint obscurely, not to make money with famous paintings, so when he paints, he feels that he is happy, and happiness is the greatest spiritual reward. Of course, everyone comes to like it, and it is also happy.
And the level of his painting has also been rapidly improved in such happiness.
Shi Tan said that his activity in the circle of friends and WeChat group is five-star. He even became the owner of the art group, and regularly held online group exhibitions called "Ink Tuantuan" online. Among the friends in the group, there are even such great immortals as old trees and bald stubborn people.
The material of Shitan painting is basically the photos of various immortals in the circle of friends, there are parties, karaoke, dancing, cuddling, shoulder to shoulder, cups and plates after drinking, on the road, under the eaves, star hotels, fenced houses, men and women, young and old, mortal celebrities... He is painting these various forms in the circle of friends and painting the lives of various states in society. This is the life he has and does not have, and he likes it and indulges it, because such a life is full of vitality and vitality, and it is the world in which each of us lives. There was a painting of a famous Beijing entrepreneur he particularly admired, and he painted nine paintings in one go, and after the circle of friends, jiugong Geshai was seen by a Beijing friend who had never met with this entrepreneur, saying that the painting was really good, and the shape of the gods was very similar. The private message asked him if he could sell it, and he wanted to buy it and give it to this entrepreneur friend. Shi Tan was a little confused, thought about it, and said that if you have to buy it, you can. The man asked, how much is a painting? Shi Tan had never sold a painting, and said casually, then, two thousand. The man said well, I want all nine. The words fell, Shitan's mobile phone rang, and eighteen thousand called. This was the first time that Shi Tan had sold nine paintings by a guy, and he was surprised and excited. What happened after this made ShiTan even more unexpected and excited. The big entrepreneur who loves to do charity, after receiving the paintings, hung one of the most evocative frames in the office, and the other eight paintings were sent to do charity auctions, and as a result, all eight paintings were auctioned out, each painting was auctioned for 150,000 yuan, and 1.2 million yuan was obtained, all of which were used for the sand control project in Alashan, the westernmost part of Inner Mongolia. The friend who bought the painting told Shitan this information in WeChat, and said that the entrepreneur big man likes your paintings, and he wants to invite you to Beijing to meet and get together. If you agree, I'll book a ticket with you. Shi Tan said Oh oh such a big character, like my painting to get, people do not need to see. I was a hundred and eighteen thousand miles away from him.
After thanking him, not long after, the entrepreneur big man engaged in a large-scale charity auction, asked Shi Tan to paint a painting to send a photo, Shi Tan sent a "big guy eating melon picture", the painting is this entrepreneur and his other two friends who are also entrepreneurs, sitting on the ground eating melons, laughing at the world. As a result, the painting was punched out 450,000 at the charity auction. The charity money is also used for inner Mongolia to control sand. Shi Tan laughed when he told me about these interesting things, "You can't tell me, I still made a little contribution to the charity of the motherland."
One night after the spring, I went to the Shitan studio alone to see him, sipping tea, smoking cigarettes, sitting and chatting until late at night, talking like Zhu Jun's program, artistic life. Shi Tan said Teacher He, I know which painters you like. One by one, sure enough. So my heart burned. He also said that what you like is exactly what I like. Our tastes are more consistent. Then it was hot again, and it roared: Sip tea sip tea! The teacup replaced the wine cup.
Cold night chat, Yixing flying. Shi Tan got up and said Oh, a house of smoke, I opened some windows to get it. The windows opened, and each other's faces gradually became clear.
Shi Tan told me about his experience, born in Xiangtan and raised in Changde Cotton Spinning Factory. During the Cultural Revolution, he and his mother were ordered to return to their hometowns, so they went to primary school in Shitan Town, Xiangtan. After that, the implementation of the policy returned to Changde. Because his household registration with his mother was in the countryside, he was the youngest and smallest in the class, and he had been bullied by his classmates for a long time. Before solving the hukou problem, his classmates called him a "township turtle" with contempt. He grew up in discrimination and developed a weak character, retreating, forbearing, and not fighting with others. But he is strong in his heart, and he is not willing to be left behind. He loves to draw, has no teacher guidance, gropes in the dark, and takes a crooked path. Until one day he ran from the Deshan District to Changde City, saw a beautiful woman of the same age, and now in Switzerland, the female painter Luo Mingjun painted a plaster sketch of the weeping baby, he was surprised and eye-opening, and he knew where the right way to learn to paint was. In 1983, he was finally admitted to the Fine Arts Department of Hunan Normal University and became the only design student at that time. Prior to this, after graduating from high school, he had been working as a temporary worker in the factory, carrying sand, hanging shafts, pendulum pipes, and car blanks. After graduating from university, he taught in Yiyang, worked for several years, and was not willing to live the same life, so he resigned and ran south, engaged in interior design in large and small companies in Shenzhen, Dongguan and other places. It has been wandering here and there for more than ten years, and it has returned to Changsha. In 2001, he joined the Radio and Television University and became a teacher again, teaching art and design. The days finally settled.
The brush that has been lost for many years is picked up again and again from this time. After all, his lifelong love was painting. Like Lao Zhou, the dream of youth will eventually come true.
A blink of an eye, a nail.
When he met me, Shi Tan said, I turned sixty and finally retired. Teacher He, I would like to hold a small painting exhibition to commemorate the years of my life and also to commemorate my pen and ink career. Then rubbed his hands and asked timidly, can you be my curator?
I didn't hesitate and said ok, no problem.
After a few days, I thought about it for a while, called Shi Tan, and said that if you just exhibited some of the characters you painted, oh opera, he landscape, flowers, birds, oh, it wouldn't be much fun. To set a theme, focus on the exhibition of a content, I see that you paint more of the theme of the circle of friends, get more praise, can not be this theme: "circle of friends".
The end of the phone exclaimed, good oh good oh too good, "circle of friends", to get, is the "circle of friends"!
I said that although there are many art exhibitions these days, the concept of "circle of friends" seems that no one has done it yet. If you think about it, who can leave the "circle of friends"? You can't do without it! The "circle of friends" is the daily life of each and every one of us, and it is the ukiyo-e of Chinese today.
He said yes, and no one could be separated from the "circle of friends" grin.
We discussed excitedly, and the matter was settled. I immediately contacted the "Qianjin Art Museum", and the executive director Zhang Dandan listened to my bombing recommendation and also promised to take it down.
To this end, Shi Tan and his wife who is also learning design, in order to cooperate with this exhibition, day and night, with all their efforts, made a picture book: "I want to see". When I saw the sample book, how to say it, I can only say that this is the most special one I have ever seen in the album, whether it is decorated, folio, paper, binding, layout, or text and graphic collocation, plane division, it is refreshing. This album is to be given to the audience at the exhibition.
The date of the launch was finally set, February 26th. Oh, it's fast.
I'm happy, for Stone Pond, but also for myself. Shitan is unknown to most Changsha citizens, and I am pleased to be able to pass on his playful paintings to the public a naïveté in his heart, a passion and love for the world, and a non-utilitarian sincerity of art that ordinary people have, and at the same time push Shitan and his affirmative creative attitude to the public.
I wish that his "Circle of Friends" painting exhibition will be loved by the audience.
I suppose, well, in Mr. Lu Xun's words, that's a certainty.