"Wuhan is originally a heroic city." In the spring of two years ago, academician Zhong Nanshan mentioned Wuhan facing a lockdown in an interview, with tears in his eyes.
Too many people remember the emotion when they saw this scene. Feng Shaoxie, vice president of the Guangdong Academy of Painting, used a paintbrush to freeze that feeling forever in art history.
Nanfang Daily and Nanfang + reporters learned that after the oil painting "Member of the Communist Party of China - Zhong Nanshan" followed the permanent collection of the National Art Museum of China, Feng Shaoxie accepted the invitation to create the same work again, which has recently been permanently collected by the National Museum of China. Works on the same theme are also collected by two of China's top professional art museums, which is rare in the history of Chinese art.
The oil painting "Member of the Communist Party of China - Zhong Nanshan" collected by the National Museum of China.
Recently, the Conference on Solidly Promoting the Construction of a Culturally Strong Province was held in Guangzhou, proposing the implementation of high-quality cultural supply projects to better meet the new expectations of the people's spiritual and cultural life.
Guangdong artists are also giving full play to the advantages of Lingnan culture, striving to create high-quality works and telling Chinese stories and Guangdong stories well.
"The work paints me haggard, but it faithfully reflects the situation at that time"
Feng Shaoxie is known for his realistic oil painting portraits. He is good at exploring and revealing social reality through his works, drawing and showing the spiritual connotation of characters through details.
The huge oil painting "Member of the Communist Party of China - Zhong Nanshan" is a re-creation inspired by Feng Shaoxie's news footage.
Feng Shaoxie said that at the moment of fighting the epidemic and in the face of disasters, the great spirit of Academician Zhong Nanshan who dared to take responsibility and did his duty touched countless Chinese people, and it was this kind of touch that made him create this work.
Feng Shaoxie (left) and Academician Zhong Nanshan.
"I want to use the form of oil painting to make this feeling forever frozen in the history of art, but also to record the contribution of a Chinese to the world in the history of human disasters." Feng Shaoxi told the Southern Daily and the Southern + reporter.
Up to now, he has created a total of four works of the same title, two large and two small. Two of them are 2.3 meters wide and 1.8 meters high, which are collected by the National Art Museum of China and the National Museum of China, and the other two are 0.9 meters wide and 0.7 meters high, which are collected by Academician Zhong Nanshan himself and the Shanghai Art Badai Art Museum.
Chen Lusheng, former deputy director of the National Museum of China, said that Feng Shaoxie carefully portrayed Zhong Nanshan's inner world with the method of "writing gods in shape" in traditional Chinese painting, which included his perseverance and courage, his fearless dedication, his love and compassion, and his responsibility to the country and the people.
"I have paid attention to this work a long time ago," said Academician Zhong Nanshan, seeing this painting, his thoughts also returned to the anti-epidemic scene in Wuhan, when the epidemic was very severe, and his mood was also very anxious, "This work painted me more haggard, but it truthfully reflected the situation at that time."
Favorite certificates.
"That tear has the power to hit the audience's soul"
In fact, this work also had a relationship with the National Museum of China before: in 2020, in the "Exhibition of Art Works on the Theme of Unity of Purpose and One Anti-epidemic" held by the National Museum, "Zhong Nanshan, a member of the Communist Party of China" was placed in the most conspicuous position at the entrance of the exhibition hall.
Since then, the National Art Museum of China has held the "Great Journey, The Picture Scroll of the Times and the Celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China", "Beauty in Science and Technology Collection Exhibition", "Beauty in Cultivation Collection Exhibition", and "Exhibition of Centennial Party History in the Century-old FanghuaYi Art Classics" held by the Propaganda Department of the Hubei Provincial Party Committee. The work has been featured in several exhibitions.
Feng Shaoxie and Zhong Nanshan.
"Shocking" and "following the tears" are the feedback that Feng Shaoxie received the most from the audience at the exhibition site.
"This masterpiece can be described as an extremely shining and outstanding representative work in the Guangdong Academy of Painting's special creation of 'Art War Epidemic'." Xu Qinsong, former vice chairman of the China Artists Association, chairman of the Guangdong Artists Association, and president of the Guangdong Academy of Painting, mentioned that Academician Zhong Nanshan in the picture is dignified and profound, and his heart is concerned about the people of his home country. And the finishing touch in the painting, the tears that the boy does not flick, excellently reflects the great love of Academician Zhong Nanshan and the magic of benevolence.
As Li Jinkun, vice chairman of the China Artists Association, chairman of the Guangdong Artists Association, and president of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, said, the reason why it touches people's hearts is related to the fact that the painting vividly shows a heroic figure who stepped forward in times of danger, and it is more related to the fact that the work has the power to directly hit the soul of the audience in terms of emotional interpretation.
Kong Wei, president of the Shandong Academy of Painting, said that whether it is the gray hair on his forehead, or the eye sockets full of tears, the anxious and resolute eyes, or the neck with vicissitudes, a large number of details deeply portray the spiritual characteristics of Academician Zhong's all-out struggle and the "epidemic" and the great love for the country and the people.
Hu Bin, deputy director of the Art Museum of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, believes that this is not just a portrait of an individual, but a "monument" that presents a group of people who are united in their will and overcome difficulties together.
[Reporter] Liu Changxin
【Author】 Liu Changxin
【Source】 Southern Press Media Group South + client