Folk life is the source of the beauty of folk art life. The condensation and refinement of life by folk art has created its simplicity and intuitiveness, which not only reflects people's most straightforward wishes, but also satisfies the spiritual needs of working people to a certain extent.
When many people talk about folk art, they always think of solidified memories and see them as some stable and unchanging form. But in fact, the essence of folk art is the art of people, is the feelings that people have precipitated in life for a long time, and its shape and meaning will also be born from life and change with life. Following the previous article, this issue will continue to share the third part of the "Go to the Folk - Pan Lusheng Folk Art Exhibition" exhibited by the National Museum.
Chasing the light and shadow
Memories are often fixed on the inadvertent, we chase the light and shadow, and see the waves of life in the tide of time. Looking back at the development process of folk art, it is not difficult to find that its change process covers three stages: "useful", "meaningful" and "good-looking". If viewed from a horizontal dimension, these three aspects can coexist in the same historical stage, but under careful consideration, they all point to the starting point of folk art, that is, practicality.
In contemporary society, material production is highly developed, and folk art has changed from the initial heavy skills and not heavy arts to the crafts considered by "beauty". This also shows that traditional folk art needs to transcend the original pragmatic purpose and enter the era of aesthetics. There is no eternal and unchanging "folk style" in the continuous development of folk art, and the biggest feature of folk art is self-regulation, which will always evolve at the most appropriate moment with the changes of history and the change of national aesthetic consciousness.
The capture of light, shadow and color is the most noteworthy focus of folk craft recording and display. It reflects not only the distinct personalities of different regions and different ethnic groups affected by various realistic conditions, but also the memories and emotions about this land that are full of every folk handicraft.
Fuhu Town House, Fiber Hand Embroidery, 2006
The third part of the exhibition, "Chasing Light and Chasing Shadows", is cut into the exhibit "Fuhu Town House", which is composed of two parts: "Fun of Light and Shadow" (folk paper-cutting art and Pan Lusheng's "Shadow" series works) and "Colorful Color" (Traditional Chinese Color Printed Cloth and Pan Lusheng Color Ink Works), which not only embodies the use and cherishing of light by traditional folk crafts, but also interprets the eternal driving force of art that intertwines light and color.
Ethnic Backbone, Fiber Hand Embroidery, 2013
Ethnic Backbone (Partial)
Mainstay, Fiber Hand Embroidery, 2013
Mainstay (partial)
The fun of light and shadow
A piece of paper and a pair of scissors constitute the art of paper-cutting with a long history on the mainland, covering different customs and habits. The art of paper-cutting draws nourishment from life, and the winding trajectory truly records the thoughts, feelings and ideals of working people.
When people create paper-cutting, they do not show off their skills or highlight their preciousness, but only regard it as a part of life with a decorative eye. The production methods and patterns of paper-cutting have formed a set of specific image symbols in the process of continuous development, such as serrated patterns, crescent patterns, swirl patterns, folded lines, curved round holes, etc., and the natural and simple artistic character has also formed its foundation of innovation and continuity in the long years.
Folk Art Collection - Paper-cutting art
Paper-cutting is a folk art used to decorate life or to accompany other folk activities. The paper cut attached to the window is more storytelling due to the participation of light and shadow, which follows the sunrise and sunset and the change of the four seasons, bringing different emotional experiences to the viewer. Those simple and subtle symbolic expressions that strike directly at people's hearts stem from the narrative habits in our consciousness, but with the changes of the times, its carrier has become richer--it can be as hot and intense as folk art paper cutouts, or perhaps as cold and deep as black and white silhouettes.
Shadow, Lacquer Painting, 2014-2015
Colorful
The colorful fireworks add fun and vitality to the day-to-day work. Some people say that Chinese peasant paintings are like van Gogh's creations after entering the field, which is a lost romance in the oriental world.
As a kind of painting formed after the founding of New China, peasant painting, the art of the masses of the people, is compatible with the distinctive characteristics of the times while integrating farming culture and folk traditions. Peasant painting is a kind of popular painting, mostly painted or engraved by farmers themselves, its style is peculiar, the technique is exaggerated, and it has the reputation of the Picasso of the East. This kind of work by the hands of farmers preserves the naïve whimsy of human beings, the simple folk customs, and is like a huge cultural treasure.
Vitality No. 8, Silk Color ink, 2014
Danju Chengxiang No. 3, Silk Color Ink, 2014
Our aesthetic has been marked by the changing tide of the times. When the colorful colors meet the soft silk, the dots of color collide with each other to produce a wonderful reaction, orderly in freedom, and enjoy the beauty of rhythm in change. Whether it is "The Eighth of the Vitality" or "Danzhu Chengxiang No. 3", or "Colorful Sayings", the uniqueness of folk art is not only reflected in the use of color, but also in the careful expression of words. Pan Lusheng conveyed the simple enthusiasm he experienced for life with colorful pictures, not for simple flowers, but for the wisdom and beauty of ordinary life between pen and ink.
Multicolored Magic Words Porcelain Plate Painting, 2015
Heritage of ingenuity
The accumulation of tradition, the construction of theories, and the innovation of culture constitute the folk art world that Pan Lusheng is integrated. In this world, there is his artistic expression, there are also the positions of hundreds of millions of people, and there is also the attitude of Chinese civilization.
Pan Lusheng, The Great Master Silk Road (left half)
Pan Lusheng, The Great Master Silk Road (right half)
At the end of the exhibition, a huge fiber hand-embroidered work "The Great Master's Silk Road" is hung. Pan Lusheng tried to extend the tentacles of his creation to the desert, exploring the folk craftsmen and technological changes in the long Silk Road by means of hiking investigation and copying.
The "Silk Road" was the central axis of ancient world civilization and the road connecting ancient China and the Western Regions for trade and commerce. "Master Silk Road" is 960 cm long and 240 cm high, based on the Ming Dynasty scientist Song Yingxing's "Tiangong Kaiwu" as the creative model, around the theme of "Hundred Craftsmen", a total of more than 250 traditional craft scenes on the Silk Road, which not only include shipbuilding, pearling, tea drying and other crafts, but also carefully depicted the shipping tools such as boats and sea boats, while paying tribute to countless folk craftsmen on the Millennium Silk Road, its rich bearing content can be described as a collection of traditional Chinese crafts.
Master Craftsman Silk Road (partial)
Nowadays, Pan Lusheng's footsteps of "going to the people" have stepped into a wider land of China. Folk art inheritance, the inheritance is not only the skill, but also the history, but also the belief.
Footprint map
In Pan Lusheng's view, only when people are in the folk and their hearts are in the folk, can his scholarship be full of vitality and can be called a true scholar. The traditional folk art collections exhibited in this exhibition involve Shandong, Shaanxi, Shaanxi, Henan, Sichuan, Xinjiang and other regions of the country, including traditional embroidery, textile, woodcuts, New Year paintings, paper-cutting and other craft categories, piece by piece, one by one, pan Lusheng has walked a lot of footprints. The style is always new, but the meaning is eternal – the traditional folk art will surely continue its new life in different areas of the life of the times.
Folk Art Collection - Kazakh carpet weaving
So far, the "Go to the Folk - Pan Lusheng Folk Art Exhibition" exhibited at the National Museum has been fully shared. In the next issue, we will bring you a new exhibition content, so stay tuned.
Eye Art Chronicles Part 896 is dedicated to the artistic gift of life. If you need to reprint, please obtain authorization first, and please indicate the source after reprinting
Text Writing: Eye Edge Art Zhi