· Painter Profile
Wang Yuzhen, born in 1964 in Sichuan, later married to Ning Qiang, Hanzhong, Shaanxi, an ordinary rural woman. Since childhood, he liked to draw, but did not have the conditions to learn. In 2015, he began to create works under the encouragement of his son Zhang Binglin, and has accumulated more than 300 works so far.
Wang Yuzhen's "Country Band" is colored on paper
30cm x 20cm 2015年
Soul Painter: Wang Yuzhen, a village woman deep in the mountains
· Zheng Weibin ·
Bing Lin Disu made good friends with me, and once he posted his mother's paintings in the circle of friends, which were vivid and vivid, clumsy and interesting, which made a deep impression on me. It was Women's Day in March, so I planned the "Mother's Paintings" series and invited him to send his mother's works. After opening the folder, fifty or sixty works are like a new continent, surprise, joy, admiration, eye light, refreshing, strongly touching my artistic nerves, quite excited and excited. I watched it many times on the computer, and then enlarged it one by one to see its details, read its inscription and writing text, and applauded it one after another. So I told Binglin that his mother was a master of folk painting, which was a major discovery for me.
Binglin's mother, Wang Yuzhen, was born in 1964 in Qianshan Village, Datan Town, Chaotian District, Guangyuan District, Sichuan Province, with seven brothers and sisters, and she is the fourth oldest. Like the fate of most rural girls in the mountainous areas at that time, she dropped out of school because her family was poor and only read primary school for three or four years, and then worked with her parents and brothers at home to share the housework. By 1983, she was married to a family surnamed Zhang in Shi Muzi Village, Anlehe Township, Ningqiang County, Hanzhong County, Shaanxi Province. After marriage, like the fate of most rural women at that time, she gave birth to children, served her in-laws, and did endless farm and housework, day after day, year after year, living plainly and hard. More than half of her life has passed, and what makes her proud is that her two sons have grown up and are very successful, the eldest son is engaged in calligraphy creation in a county cultural center, and the second son, Binglin and daughter-in-law Wu Meiyan, are both very active and excellent young oil painters in Shaanxi (Binglin is also good at singing, playing guitar, horsehead piano, and even has the temperament of a western singer).
Wang Yuzhen has liked to scribble and paint since she was a child, but she did not have the conditions and experience to learn to paint. Bing Lin Shang remembers seeing his mother doodling on the wall when he was a child. Around 2015, with Binglin's conscious encouragement, her mother picked up a paintbrush and began to "create". This was the first time she had actually started drawing on paper, and she hadn't even been exposed to colored pencils, markers, watercolors, sketch paper, cardboard, and other painting tools. Her artistic power exploded, and she could not receive it at once, sometimes sitting at home and painting for four or five hours, sometimes painting until one or two o'clock in the middle of the night, and she has accumulated more than three hundred works in the past six or seven years. She doesn't have any "foundation" and hasn't had any "professional" training. Bing Lin originally wanted to tutor her, but failed, and found that she did not need counseling, and her paintings were completed independently. Most of her paintings are her own life experience since the 80s and the mountain village scenery she is familiar with, with a strong sense of narrative and substitution, and a sense of realism like a rural nostalgic drama, but all her paintings are free to play, silently write and create, and her own "screenwriter" combination, reproducing the "original situation", without reference or copying any photos and models, without sketching in front of the object, without "collecting style", without "going deep into life". She lives in Shi Muzi Village for many years, and after painting new works, she usually uses her mobile phone to send to her son and daughter-in-law to see, sometimes comes to Binglin Xi'an home to stay, likes to look through the albums of Chinese and foreign painters on Binglin's bookcase, and occasionally accompanies them to the art museum to see the exhibition, but only looks very seriously, and does not make any evaluation, which may be the only contact and exchange she has with the outside world and the "art circle".
Wang Yuzhen's "Footprints of a Pregnant Woman" is colored on paper
30cm x 40cm 2019年
"In-laws beat pregnant daughters-in-law", "In-laws' instructions", "Pregnant women pull mills", "Footprints of a pregnant woman" and other "in-laws" series of works, telling the story of the greatest pain and misfortune she suffered in her life, the in-laws often scolded and even beat her pregnant, her husband was not at home on weekdays because of his work in the town's financial office, she not only took on too much of the family's farm work and housework, but also suffered too much heartache and grievances. In the picture, she is wearing clothes sewn with pudding, pulling on her toddler eldest son, carrying her young son in her belly, carrying a basket up the mountain to cut grass, returning home hungry but not giving food, but also hungry chopping grass to feed the pigs, while the in-laws are smoking dry cigarettes and accusing and scolding; digging potatoes on the ground, full of a basket of potatoes is too heavy, she can only kneel on the ground with a big belly and hold a hoe in both hands to make the force struggle upwards, while the in-laws stand on the side and accuse and scold; they carry a child, She was still carrying a child in her stomach and pushing hard, and her in-laws were holding a rice bowl and accusing and scolding; what was even more infuriating was that the mother-in-law grabbed her hair and beat her, and her feet kicked at her bulging waist... This is Wang Yuzhen's painting, and it is also a real fragment of her tragic life.
The "Village Bully" series of works depicts the dark parts of her memory, portraying the image of the arrogant and evil woman in the village and her brutal behavior of carrying an axe to cut the door. These works are like comic strips, the plot is complete, we see that later the lawsuit was hit by the Hanzhong Intermediate People's Court, justice was upheld, the evil woman's illegal acts were punished by law, and from the picture of "Village Bully No. 6", we can see her happy smile and the ugly state of the evil woman.
Wang Yuzhen's "Returning to Her Mother's House to Overcome Difficulties" is colored on paper
Wang Yuzhen's "Returning to Her Mother's House to Overcome Difficulties No. 2" is colored on paper
30cm x 20cm 2015年
Wang Yuzhen's "Returning to Her Mother's House to Overcome Difficulties No. 3" is colored on paper
The series of works "Returning to Her Mother's House to Survive" lets us read again the hardships she has experienced. From Ningqiangshi Dumb Village to Guangyuan Shifting Mountain Village, every morning before dawn five or six o'clock until eight or nine o'clock in the evening to arrive, she stood up with a big belly and carried a child on her back, and she still had to carry a bag and a satchel in her hand. Over the mountains, all sheep intestine trails, some deep mountains and old forest areas even no road, many places to climb over, jump over, along the way vicious dogs bully each other, wild beasts infested, sometimes wind and rain, hunger, worry about the fetus ... But no matter how difficult it is, from the strong warm colors of the mother's and son's full body clothes in the picture, we see the longing and yearning for her relatives and the happiness of her hometown in her heart on the way back to her mother's home, because the pain and grievances of returning to her mother's home can be comforted and the warmth that has been missing for a long time can be obtained.
Wang Yuzhen's "Homecoming" is colored on paper
Most of the works, such as "Cauliflower Nectar", "Spring Song Line", "Welcoming the Bride in the Mountains", "Happy Events at Home", "Rushing Back", "New Year", "Homecoming", "Homeland", "Children's Fun Memories", "Country Band", "Persimmon Processing", etc., are full of human warmth, pleasant atmosphere of rural life and beautiful and colorful mountain scenery. "Aoki River Is Picturesque", "Dragon Claw Mountain", and "New Look of the New Village" are several paintings that have the nature of traveling mountains and rivers, depicting the new style of rural construction in recent years. The portrayal of different character images and the collocation of colors in "Old Home" and "Willow Dark Flowers and Bright Village" can be called delicate, exquisite and unique.
Wang Yuzhen's "Homeland" is colored on paper
Wang Yuzhen's "Homeland No. 2" is colored on paper
The dyeing of the Mountains and Gullies in the "Homeland" picture seems to borrow the techniques and artistic conceptions of traditional literati paintings, and the footage of the farmer leading a donkey across the bridge is particularly vivid. "Fishing Boat Singing Evening" is also very leisurely and warm pastoral, through a strong sense of form of the picture we seem to be able to hear the sound of fishermen paddling between the green mountains and green waters and the sound of the flock of ducks formed by the natural concerto, and a puppy in front of the neat duck team to lead the team, but also add a different kind of peasant interest. "Homeland No. 2" is a very romantic and classical "rural love story", the hero and heroine are dressed in costumes, the women are playing in the idle court, the men are leisurely returning to the fan like Pengze County Order, and a pair of Mandarin ducks are on the tree, one in the woman's hand, the chirping echoes, Gu Pan has feelings, and strengthens the theme of the picture with the Bixing technique, the crowds inside and outside the fence are blooming, the bamboo is lush, and the fresh shoots are crazy, which is really idyllic and the years are quiet and worthwhile. From these works, we can read the extraordinary romance and warmth in the heart of this rural woman.
Wang Yuzhen's "Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China" is colored on paper
30cm x 40cm 2021年
Several works, such as "Celebrating the Centenary of the Founding of the Party", "Welcoming the Bride in the Mountains", "Happy Events at Home", "New Look of the New Village", "Country Band" and so on, show her super ability to shape many character images, organize complex scenes, control the overall situation, and highlight the theme without art training. "Celebrating the Centenary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China" shows men, women, young and old, bustling, bustling, lively, seemingly ordinary market towns to catch up, and the author cleverly uses the slogans on the bridge and wall to point out the topic, which is really wisdom.
Wang Yuzhen's wonderful works are too many, and there are too many wonderful points in the works, which cannot be counted here. Her paintings are an allusion of the sour, sweet and bitter course of her life, with the pain and helplessness of "no ink dots without more tears", as well as the calm and leisure of "yellow hair hanging down and enjoying yourself". Each of her works comes from the delicate and nuanced observation of life, from the expression of sincerity and true feelings, and is her way of releasing life and reconstructing her own cultural life. Each work has its own main theme of exposition, and the intention is clear. Her loose and inaccurate modeling, proportions, perspective, interspersing, combination and a series of techniques that have no routines to follow, but in the specific picture can form a harmonious and reasonable relationship, forming different synergies and tensions. Her color collocation is natural, will be colored with the class, has a good relationship between cold and warm virtual reality, and will set off the atmosphere and highlight the painting eye. Her technique is sometimes bold and exaggerated, such as cooking smoke, and several strong white dividers appear in the picture. But no matter what her technique, what the subject matter content is, what the size of the scale, her paintings are simple and vivid, fresh and free, enthusiastic and real, with life and profound. Like the "footprints" she has depicted many times in her paintings, these paintings will become new and unforgettable "footprints" in her life.
Wang Yuzhen's "Greeting the Bride in the Mountains" is colored on paper
40cm x 40cm 2019年
In order to read more, she spent a lot of effort to copy the Xinhua Dictionary twice. Although the inscription on the painting still has errors and omissions, it is catchy to read, or rhyming, or more rhyming, or not rhyming, but it is simple and true. For example, "Greeting the Bride in the Mountains" wrote: "Poor students greet the bride, relatives and friends come to help, the sound of cheers is joyful, there is no money, no car, no earthen wall house, rent a horse to welcome the bride, the salute is soaring in all directions, the laughter is worshipped in the father's mother, money gifts are not nothing, love to the old is the most important." "In-laws' Memories II" wrote: "The old woman is really hateful, not to eat and work, mother and child hungry dare not say, tired and hungry can not live." Another example is "Returning to the Mother's House to Overcome difficulties" wrote: "The three mothers and sons have passed through the difficulties, and the legs with stomach pain (soft) are soft." Ah, the slope is really dangerous, the old forest deep ditch is uninhabited! Another example is "Persimmon Red": "Harvest persimmons, you can eat without teeth, take soft, delicious, sweet and sweet, hahaha..." When the flower-cutting lady Ku Shulan cuts the paper, she will sing a song with words, forming a set of "Flower-cutting Lady Songs". The inscription on Wang Yuzhen's painting is also a very interesting prototype of local literature when read carefully.
Wang Yuzhen's "Persimmon Matter Red" is written in black and white
Wang Yuzhen's paintings are different from today's mainstream academic schools, different from jianghu painters, without the exquisite elegance of elite art, without the low-end habits of the market customs, and unlike the so-called peasant paintings. The academic programs, the routines of jianghu painters, and the propaganda attributes of peasant paintings are all technical systems and evaluation standards that have been formed for a long time with the participation of many people, and have different degrees of rights, utilitarian attributes and collectivity. And Wang Yuzhen's painting is a pure individual, she paints for herself, entertains herself, and strives for the enrichment of life value by painting, simple and simple, clean, without the slightest utilitarian baggage. Today, Wang Yuzhen and her husband still live in the plain stone dumb village, serving their mother-in-law's living and eating, and painting in the house when they are free. The people in the village didn't know she was painting, and no one could see that she could.
Monk Liangkuan once said that in his life, he disliked the writer's words, the chef's dishes and the poet's poems. Chen Danqing said: "What is important at the top of art is not knowledge, not proficiency, not what we now call cultural upbringing, but intuition, but instinct, but the freshest feeling, and even a valuable ignorance." "After the beloved old man Ku Shulan of Xunyi County, I hope and believe that Wang Yuzhen, a village woman deep in the mountains of Ningqiang County, will create a new height for folk painters.
(The author is the director of the Theoretical Research Office of Shaanxi Academy of Chinese Painting and the editor-in-chief of the Culture and Art Newspaper "Chinese Painting Weekly")
Wang Yuzhen's "Fish Boat Evening Singing" is colored on paper
Wang Yuzhen's "One of the Village Bullies" is colored on paper
21cm x 15cm 2015年
Wang Yuzhen's "Village Bully No. 3" is colored on paper
Wang Yuzhen's "Village Bully No. 6" is colored on paper
Wang Yuzhen's "Playmate" is colored on paper
Wang Yuzhen's "Feed the Pigs" is colored on paper
21cm x 15cm
Wang Yuzhen's "Memory of in-laws" is colored on paper
30cm x 20cm 2021年
Wang Yuzhen's "Memory of the Mother-in-law II" is colored on paper
30cm x 20cm 2014年
Wang Yuzhen's "Too Big Year" is colored on paper
Wang Yuzhen's "Happy Events at Home" is colored on paper
40cm x 40cm 2021年
Wang Yuzhen's "Roasting Fire" is colored on paper
Wang Yuzhen's "Happy Spring" is colored on paper
Wang Yuzhen's "Memories of The Old Home" is colored on paper
30cm x 30cm 2022年
Wang Yuzhen's "Willow Dark Flowers Bright and Another Village" is colored on paper
30cm x 30cm 2021年
Wang Yuzhen's "Dragon Claw Mountain" is colored on paper
Wang Yuzhen's "Agricultural Dazhai" is colored on paper
30cm x 20cm 2014年
Wang Yuzhen's "Aoki River Is Picturesque" is colored on paper
Wang Yuzhen's "Autumn Number Urges Farmers to Be Busy" is colored on paper
30cm x 40cm 2021年
Wang Yuzhen's "Persimmon Processing" is colored on paper
Wang Yuzhen's "Harvesting Corn" is in black and white on paper
Wang Yuzhen's "Song of Stepping on Spring" is colored on paper
30cm x 30cm 2022年
Wang Yuzhen's "Children's Funny Memories" is colored on paper
Wang Yuzhen's "My Family's Red Jujube Tree" is colored on paper
Wang Yuzhen's "Footprints in the Heart" is colored on paper
Wang Yuzhen's "Transporting Sand" is colored on paper
Wang Yuzhen's "Greeting the Bride" is colored on paper
Wang Yuzhen's "Pregnant Woman Pulling Mill" is colored on paper
Wang Yuzhen's "Autumn Harvest" is colored on paper
Wang Yuzhen's "New Look of the New Village" is colored on paper
Zheng Weibin, editor-in-chief of Chinese Painting Weekly