Painting is painting on plain silk fabrics such as silk, spinning, aya, crepe, yarn, silk, etc. that have not been dyed and embroidered.
Unearthed in Mawangdui, the Western Han Dynasty painting "Non-Clothing" proves that Chinese painting has reached a very high artistic standard as early as 2,000 years ago. In 2015, the Painting Project, with Mu Yilin as the representative inheritor, officially became one of the fifth batch of intangible cultural heritage projects in Shanghai, and this ancient art has been guaranteed by inheritance. Mu Yilin's painting master Cheng, from his study experience in Shanghai When he was a teenager, he studied at the Shanghai Art College.
Founded in September 1960, Shanghai Fine Arts College is the first higher art school in Shanghai after the founding of New China. At that time, the teachers of various departments and subjects gathered a group of top artists from Shanghai. Mu Yilin, who entered the Department of Chinese Painting to study, worshiped under Mr. Zheng Mukang. Mr. Zheng Mukang's strict teaching cultivated Mu Yilin's painting skills and also brought the feelings of the master and apprentice closer. Unfortunately, after graduation, Mu Yilin entered the sixth factory of enamel and interrupted the creation of paintings until he learned of his master's death in 1982.
The death of the teacher made Mu Yilin realize that the responsibility for the inheritance of painting had fallen on his shoulders. The determination to abandon the paper and follow the veil also slowly awakened in Mu Yilin's heart. In 1983, he was preparing for a national art exhibition. Think of the Mid-Autumn Festival, retired veteran cadres have braved the rain to go to the road to volunteer to manage traffic. When conceiving this work, he went to the silk cloth shop to buy a piece of silk and painted his first painting "Love in the Rain" on the silk.
Relying on the unique creative technique of painting, "Love in the Rain" won the second prize at the National Staff Art Photography Exhibition that year. However, Mu Yilin fell into contemplation. Although the painting is beautiful, the threshold for creation is high, and it is even more weakened by the prosperity of rice paper. If you only stick to traditional techniques, how can you keep this on the verge of being lost? Until 1994, after more than ten years of painstaking exploration, Mu Yilin finally discovered.
After the Spring Festival in 1994, Mu Yilin squeezed onto the bus early in the morning to work, and the silk scarves surrounded by female passengers dangled in front of his eyes, the color of the silk scarves was yellow and red from the front, and the two colors were stacked orange, and from the side, yellow and red were restored to their original colors because of the change in the angle of observation. At this time, he suddenly realized: permeability, refractive index, bright and saturated colors, these are not the characteristics of the silk he is looking for?
Taking advantage of these characteristics of silk, Mu Yilin explored an innovative path in line with contemporary aesthetics in the painting techniques that have been passed down for thousands of years. He has successively created a series of paintings such as "Lantern Festival", "Impression of Xiangxi", and "Tianyake", which vary with the angle of viewing, the different lighting source and the different angle of light illumination, sometimes dazzling, sometimes subtle and elegant.
Today, Mu Yilin, who is 80 years old, is still thinking every day: How will the future road of Chinese painting develop? How to use stronger color expression and richer painting language, so that painting can once again appear on the center of the world painting stage.
(Look at the news Knows reporter: Hu Shengfeng Editor: Lao Xu)