"No matter which form of art creation is borrowed, the core is to explore the truth and essence of it. Not only to create and paint, but also to cultivate, live, and work, so as to enrich their body and mind and achieve the cultivation goal of eventually becoming a 'perfect person'. His writing is like his people, his paintings are like his people, only by closely linking and combining works with people can the realm of painting be opened and reflect the cultivation, style and realm. ”
Sincerity is the foundation
I once wrote a short article entitled "Sincerity is the starting point, quality is life, innovation is the soul, persistence is the ladder", the four arguments expressed in the title can basically be summarized as an artist's pursuit process, so I also take "sincerity-oriented" as the starting point and the first point of view of my lecture.
What is art for? Why we create art is a question worth pondering, and it is also a question that each of us artists must answer. From the current creative environment, some artists consciously link their creations with the fate of the country, and the development of the nation and mankind are very closely integrated; some artists pay attention to self-cultivation, self-reliance, artistic creation carries a strong sense of personal awareness; some artists pay attention to environmental protection, pay attention to science and technology, and even let their creations directly link with the most cutting-edge innovation results, etc., these creative motivations are reasonable, because no matter which angle we cut from, art always comes from life itself. It is based on our strong feelings for society, for the people, for the country, for the whole nation.
With the different angles of entry and the different themes, the art form will inevitably change, and contemporary art has long broken through ink on paper and gradually becomes diversified. But I think that no matter what kind of theme and what form, there is only one core, that is, to be in the heart, not to hide, not to be hypocritical. The reason why sincerity is important is because it is the starting point of artistic creation, without the word sincerity, artistic creation is not far away, can not go out of their own style and system, and can not go to the peak of creation.
Today's art environment is very different from the traditional period, just like the art form tends to be diversified, the creation and living environment has become very complex, we are in it, it is extremely easy to be led by the market, for fame and fortune to create, to create paintings that are not from the original intention, which is to leave the nature. A painting that is popular in the market is not the same as a good painting, and the artist must have the ability to distinguish between them. In addition to the market, many national art exhibitions now often appear in some works that are not from the heart, which arouses the disgust of the judges, in fact, those paintings with the same style and theme, which are "fake paintings", not "real paintings", which are suspected of plagiarism.
Li Xiang,Nansha Heavenly Bath, 177× 263cm Chinese Painting, 2012
Words are the expression of writers, musical instruments are the expressions of musicians, and painters use paintbrushes to express our true voices. There are many people who tell lies and clichés in life, and there are many works of fake paintings, sets of paintings, large paintings, and empty paintings in artistic creation, if we can't move ourselves first, how can we move others? Even if we passively accept a certain subject, we also need to collect a lot of information, find the point that touches you in the data, and then create, don't rush to write. The media of Chinese painting is mainly brush and rice paper, the expression of brush and rice paper is actually the expression of the chest, which is determined by the characteristics of the media and the pursuit of aesthetics, so the highest state of Chinese painting is the smoothness of the heart, that is, what you think in your heart can paint, but unfortunately many ink painters can not reach this realm. Of course, there are many reasons for this failure, the main reason is that this point is too difficult to practice, and no real effort has been made. The process of going from discovery to reproduction and finally to performance is the three creative steps that must be experienced. At present, this process is more difficult to achieve, because we are facing the explosion of information, a huge Chinese and foreign art system, complex types of expression, in which we must preserve that little bit of sincerity from the heart, in order to firmly stand at the starting point of self-creation, it is possible to finally achieve the peak of self-creation, rather than being in the clouds, lost in the huge system and complex types and the amount of information exploded.
So sincerity is too important to do this, and many artists "die" when they walk, and they walk without sound. Everyone has everyone's life experience, cultivation, knowledge, insight, these are more important things for an artist than to learn which master, personality is the most precious in artistic creation, aware of their own personality and accept it, sincere treatment of it is the right way to create. Of course, there are many connotations that the word sincerity can dig deep into, and I will only talk about its value in artistic creation this time.
Fusion is optimal
The second point I want to talk about is to integrate and optimize. In learning and creating, we are often faced with the problem of personal artistic language contradicting many artistic languages, and this problem must also be solved. Professional art colleges and universities bachelor's, master's, doctoral training of practical talents in the basic modeling ability far more than the traditional painters, open social environment also allows them to see more different art forms, with such ability and vision of artists must not be satisfied with only adhere to the traditional type of artistic language, will inevitably learn and try to make innovative breakthroughs on the basis of the original modeling. For traditional Chinese painting, innovation and breakthrough is to solve the drawbacks of Chinese painting. One of the biggest drawbacks of traditional Chinese painting is that it cannot dock well with real life, its requirements for pen and ink style are very high, and aesthetic pursuits are often above real life, and for a long time, this conservative and personal tendency is very obvious.
Since modern times, many painters began to try to improve and change in the ability to model, color composition, black, white and gray composition ability, Huang Binhong in his later years in the imitation of Impressionist paintings, so that many of his later paintings added heavy colors, although immature but beginning to take shape, if given another five or ten years, he may be able to solve the problem of color in Chinese painting, the coordination of color and pen and ink is a long-standing problem in Chinese painting, in the weakness and the problem left to be solved, It is the responsibility of us as artists, and this is what I want to talk about: ancient and modern, East and West, landscapes, flowers, birds, figures and other themes, not limited to a certain angle, a certain position, but should have a broad vision that matches this open era, in order to truly understand how the current Chinese painting should be painted and where to develop.
Li Xiang, "Spring Comes Everywhere", 69×69cm, 2017
Not rejecting is critical acceptance, not total denial, and the premise of criticism is enough understanding, and only by understanding can we have the ability to discern. For example, Western contemporary art pays attention to concepts, pays attention to the commodity attributes of art, does not attach importance to basic skills, since Duchamp, art styles that use various ready-made objects to express concepts have appeared in art museums, which is of course good and progressive from the perspective of artistic development, but at the same time, this kind of art works are also defective in seeking novelty without seeking quality, that is, the connotations wanted to be expressed are not sufficient and incomplete. Chinese art is relatively more focused on the aesthetic function of art, aesthetic function is one of the most important functions of art, the so-called truth, goodness and beauty, is the bottom line of art, should not be pushed down this bottom line, many art theorists also have a consensus, conscience as a guide, stop at the highest good, knowledge and action are one, should adhere to the must adhere to.
The entire history of the development of Western art, first to solve the problem of modeling, perspective, and then to solve the problem of color, light, and then break through the solidified form, from the most extreme part of painting "abstraction" to the most extreme part of art "concept", everyone is an artist, art has no quality, artists, especially art theorists have led art to the dead end. But realistic painting in China is in the ascendant, because traditional Chinese culture has never been to "real image" as the purpose, but to "mental image" as the goal, the two "elephants" are not the same, I think Chinese oil painting even if the painting realistic, and the Western judgment standards are also different, oil painting should also pay attention to the realm, pay attention to cultivation and style, the self-cultivation is reflected in the picture to reach the point of smooth hands, then it must be Chinese-style oil painting. Of course, many Western views are worth learning, such as innovation and originality, shame on being similar to others and similar to ourselves, the desire to seek knowledge in the pursuit of truth, and being good at exploring the connotation of the media itself, and including the connotation of the media into the overall artistic thinking.
Li Xiang,Red Yimeng, 200×160cm Rice Paper Coloring, 1991
Sketch enlightenment
Artists should grasp some new nutrients every once in a while to supplement and improve their creations, such as reading books or going to enlightenment in the landscape of the field, dahua enlightenment, this is a good state, I use some of my personal experiences to explain the "sketching enlightenment". At the end of the four-year military art study process, I created the graduation work "Red Yimeng", which is set in a cart like a thousand armies and horses, and the foreground is three sculptural figures: a woman, a prime-aged man, and an old man pushing a cart. Marshal Chen Yi once said: "The victory of the Chinese revolution, or the victory in the Battle of Huaihai, was pushed out by a small cart", and my creation was to show the idea of this sentence. The process of participating in this work was quite bumpy, the national art exhibition for the 70th anniversary of the founding of the party was unsuccessful, and later I sent the painting to the fine art exhibition of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Party in Beijing, not only was it selected, but "Red Yimeng" was also rated as the highest award and gave me more than 2,000 collection fees. This experience gave me inspiration: painting cannot be painted for the judges, cannot be painted for others, but must be painted for the unique feelings in their hearts. That is to say, during the creation of their own realization, the painter experiences more things, including the psychological level of experience, the more exercise, of course, do not be stubborn, the artist's personality is easy to develop into stubborn, to correct stubbornness, or to correct their own eyes, the eyes must first be high, and then talk about the problem of stubbornness.
When I first graduated, in order to be selected as a member of the China Artists Association and to highlight my works among many excellent painters, I tried some self-created methods. For example, in "Zhengyue Zheng", which is also the theme of Yimeng Mountain, I painted the color back and forth on the front and back of the Koryo paper, and then kneaded it into a new form, so that the paper first had some production effects, and the size was very large, this way of creating was very unique and eye-catching in the whole exhibition. However, later, I gradually felt that the way of overemphasizing the production of traces was contrary to the traditional Chinese writing and freehand, which was the foundation of Chinese painting, so I gave up production and explored in the direction of freehand.
Li Xiang, "Fathers and Fellow Countrymen", 230×200cm rice paper coloring, 2004
The creation of figure painting should balance the relationship between freehand and realistic modeling, and I have my own traces of twists and turns in this process, and I also have my own understanding in it. In the early 1990s, the army art circle was not in full swing, and the teachers who could really teach modeling were not many painters in the country, and I did learn a lot in the military art creation classes and various forms of training classes organized before each national art exhibition, such as modeling classes and color classes, so I began to explore the performance of character modeling until I created "Father and Fellow Countrymen". "Fathers and Fellow Countrymen" is a creation based on reality for the purpose of recording the scene of the times in rural China, and the characters are realistic. How to make the value of realistic painting stand out and make it more irreplaceable than photographs is a topic; how to derive from reality and distance itself from reality is another big topic. I have told students about my own experience: one is to paint historical scenes that the camera failed to shoot, reflecting the value of painting; the other is to inject his own concepts into the realistic subject matter and give the work a spiritual connotation, just like Leng Jun's "Five-Pointed Star", knocking out the five-pointed star with iron and painting it is his concept.
Since photographs can replace elaborate sketches, the enlightenment in the process of realism is even more important.
Finally, I express my thoughts on color. In the traditional literati painting system, the color is basically a blank area, and the way of coloring with the class is also a less scientific color system, which is undoubtedly a section to be cultivated for modern and contemporary painters. At that time, the purpose of my entrance examination to the oil painting graduate class and teaching assistant class of the Central Academy of Fine Arts was to understand the use of color in the entire Western painting concept and solve the problem of using brushes and rice paper to set colors, so after being admitted, I did not take the oil paint pen, or used pen and ink and rice paper to create. Three years of harvest is very big, although the color can be explained clearly in a few words, but it is more difficult to truly transform the theory into familiarity in the hand, or melt it in the blood, and it requires a process of understanding and practicing alone.
It is recommended to enjoy it in landscape
Li Xiang,Taidai Chunhui,76×,180cm Rice paper coloring, 2021
On the Ten Laws of Painting
The methodology of artistic creation involves many aspects, I once wrote an article called "On the Ten Laws of Painting", which basically summarizes the creation methodology as "Ten Laws", and there are more detailed divisions in each "law" in the original text.
The first is styling. Modeling is not only realistic modeling, but also freehand modeling, or can be collectively called the ability to shape the body. Realism and freehand have both overlapping and similar parts and differences, and even realism and freehand are often difficult to distinguish, and there is no need to distinguish between them. But for artists, there is only one goal, that is, to fully express their feelings with the ability to model. Whether it is realistic, freehand or abstract, decoration has a style and level of high and low.
The second is the color I mentioned earlier. Generally speaking, the level of color is known at a glance on the screen, and the ability to paint colors and create is standard, that is, the overall harmony is the basic requirement of color, color theory is very simple, and the important thing is the ability to practice and apply.
Li Xiang sketches and works
Li Xiang sketches portraits
The third is pen and ink. Pen and ink is the most core feature of Chinese painting, but also the actual embodiment of the aesthetic standards of the Chinese nation, and it is also the essence of the extremely characteristics in the pursuit of Chinese painting aesthetics. There are many details hidden in the pen and ink, such as thick and light dry and wet scorch, the degree of use of the pen method ink method, the relationship between writing and modeling color, and so on.
The fourth is composition. The composition is basically the same as the business position in the Sheikh's Six Laws, and the location is not easy to manage, because there are many elements to be taken into account: chiaroscuro, perspective, black and white gray, dots and lines, size, square circles, primary and secondary, virtual reality, and even melody, rhythm, density, fat and thin length, material texture, weight, thickness, visual route, etc. are all important elements that affect the composition of the picture.
The fifth is qi rhyme. Qi yun is the advanced realm pursued by Chinese aesthetics, which refers to a kind of breath that permeates the work and above the picture, and is the flow of this breath smooth? Is it alive? Does it imply agility or loftiness? It is all our judgment and grasp of qi rhyme.
Li Xiang, Yang Wensen, Zhang Rui, Dragon Tengdawan, 414×318cm Color on paper, 2021
The sixth is innovation. Innovation is a necessary condition for everyone to open the school, because art pays attention to the expression of psychological feelings, so any ready-made art model can not fully express their unique feelings, it can be said that only innovation can fully express themselves, and only under the premise of innovation, artists can slowly form their own unique style. The so-called unique style of their own refers to the works that have not been done by predecessors, or improved on the basis of predecessors, which are completely different from any artist at present, and the creation of this appearance and style is undoubtedly valuable.
The seventh is thought. The spiritual problem of painting is always the core problem, and the idea is the part related to this spiritual and artistic concept. This part is more complex, referring to the artist's profound understanding of the current society and human development, with advanced and keen consciousness, research on traditional philosophy, modern to contemporary philosophy, self-knowledge and views on life, society, and nature, and finally be able to express his own understanding, consciousness and views through the works, so that the audience can think, think, enlighten and cultivate while watching the works.
Li Xiang, "Food for Heaven", 205× 183cm rice paper coloring, 2009
The eighth is style. The level of style is related to the depth of the artist's personal cultivation and the level of his thoughts, as well as with his personal nature and talent. In short, it is the final result of the overall enlightenment and comprehensive cultivation, and it is also the embodiment of an aesthetic character and ideological sentiment.
The ninth is cultivation. Profound cultural cultivation, such as literary accomplishment, is of great benefit to painters, and excellent poetry and song can enhance and nourish the quality of works, which is the meaning of the so-called book volume. Of course, the more extensive the monastic path, the better.
Finally, there is character. Why emphasize the character, because its paintings are like its people, this is the wisdom of traditional culture, only when the works are synchronized with the character, can everyone tend to conscience, tend to be good and beautiful, and tend to positive energy. (Li Xiang)
Painter Profile
Li Xiang, born in October 1962 in Linyi, Shandong, is currently the vice chairman of the China Artists Association, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a professor, the deputy director of the National Major Theme Art Creation Art Committee of the China Artists Association, the deputy director of the Fourth Chinese Painting Art Committee of the China Artists Association, a distinguished professor of the Art College of Peking University and Capital Normal University, an art researcher of the China Academy of Arts, and a director of the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Chinese Calligraphers Association. He is a national propaganda and cultural system cultural master and "four batches" talents, a leading talent of the national "Ten Thousand Talents Plan", a member of the Expert Committee of the National Arts Fund, and enjoys special government allowances from the State Council.
Representative works include "Red Movement", "Painting Soldier", "Father and Fellow Villager", "Yuanxiang", "Captain Tashi Phuntsok and Abba and Auntie", "Nansha Sky Bath", "Mother Mother", "South China Sea South China Sea" and so on.