Spring is finally coming: Art Highlights for the First Quarter of 2022
When spring is in full swing, it's reading day. China Writers Network has prepared a new art book to be published this spring to entertain readers. In terms of film, there are a collection of articles left by film master Bergman throughout his life, a research monograph by Japanese "New Wave" director Nagisa Oshima, a conversation record of Hollywood director Billy Wilder in his later years, and an interview with Japanese actor Nakadai Tatsuya recalling the golden age of Japanese cinema... In terms of painting, the highly anticipated "David Hockney in Normandy" was officially published, as well as Xu Xiaohu's "Painting Quotations" recorded by listening to the American calligrapher wang Jiqian talk about Chinese painting brush and ink, the famous American sinologist Gao Juhan's "Application and Entertainment" in his later years to study the secular paintings of the Qing Dynasty, the "Feast that Does Not Disperse" from the perspective of painting; a classic work on photography theory "Photographic Aesthetics"; and three wonderful biographies: "Chaplin's Autobiography", "Da Vinci's Biography" and "Chopin's Biography".
We Are All Circus: The Bergman Anthology
[Sweden] Ingmar Bergman, CITIC Publishing Group, Yazhong Culture, translated by Wang Kaimei
2018 marks the centenary of the birth of Swedish film maestro Ingmar Bergmann, with grand commemorations held around the world. Sweden itself deliberately compiled more than 80 articles published by Bergman from the 1930s to the 1990s into a book, including essays, personal letters, diaries, film criticism, literary criticism, lecture notes and other genres. For fans who love Bergman, We Are All Circus: The Bergman Anthology is a great addition to Bergman's films and autobiography The Magic Lantern, helping to understand the inner world of the great director.
The book was jointly introduced this year by CITIC Dafang and Yazhong Culture, and art writer and curator Wang Kaimei translated it directly from Swedish into Chinese. In the book, Bergman summarizes artistic experience, explains the filming process, and makes a sharp voice on social issues, while also carrying Bergman's unique introspective and reflective characteristics. "My aim is to create like the medieval craftsmen who painted, with the same universality, sensitivity and passion as they did," Bergman said. My characters are going to cry, to laugh, to shout, to cry, they are afraid, they suffer, they question, they keep questioning..."
Nagisa Oshima and Japan
[Japanese] ShikataDa Inuhiko, Peking University Press, produced by Peiwen, translated by Zhi Fina
Nagisa Oshima is a Japanese director who has been fully affirmed by the world film industry after Akira Kurosawa, Yasujiro Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi and other film giants, and the representative director of Japan's "New Wave". From "Cruel Youth Story" to "Teenager", from "Hanging Death Sentence" to "Sensory Kingdom", from "Lawrence on the Battlefield" to "Imperial Law", Nagisa Oshima has dedicated a large number of outstanding works with different styles and famous film history in his directing career. Nagisa Oshima never followed the rules, opposing and criticizing the tradition of cinematic imagery, as Shikatada Inuhiko put it, "The style of his life is varied, and each style is close to the extreme, and he strives to pursue the tipping point where each style is full and about to collapse, but he is not at all limited to it, and immediately devotes himself to creating another director's style and editing order in the next work." ”
So, how do you understand the variability of Nagisa Oshima's film style and nagisa's place in Japanese film history? Inuhiko Shikatada, a Japanese film researcher and professor at Meiji Gakuin University, made a detailed introduction and discussion of Nagisa Oshima's life and important works in "Nagisa Oshima and Japan", and conducted in-depth research on Oshima's films from the perspectives of film criticism, creative process, and academic connotations in combination with the theme of "Nagisa Oshima and Japan". The book is also supported by Mrs. Nagisa Oshima and Nagisa Oshima Studio, which exclusively provides precious private photographs, and the Chinese translation is translated by ChiFina, senior editor of the Film and Television Research Institute of the China Academy of Arts and a Japanese film researcher.
Sunset Strip: A Conversation with Billy Wilder
Cameron Crowe, CITIC Publishing Group, Produced by Yazhong Culture, translated by Zhang Yan
When 91-year-old Billy Wilder sits in front of his junior Cameron Crowe and gushes, does he realize he's going to be the greatest person he's ever created? Sunset Boulevard: Conversations with Billy Wilder is a prized portrait of an artist interviewed and written by fellow directors that underscores the book's value. Cameron Crowe, who has achieved fame, spent more than a year interviewing Wilder at the age of 91, and the conversation was recorded and compiled into a book, showing fans and readers the image of a witty and humorous old child.
Billy Wilder is recognized as the great director of Hollywood's Golden Age, the first film artist to win three Oscars at the same time. "How exactly does such a character write and how does he live?" Finding answers from 91-year-old Billy Wilder can turn into a full-time job. Cameron Crowe turned this curiosity into words. Sunset Boulevard: Billy Wilder covers how Wilder went from "Gunner" to screenwriter to director, as well as Wilder's attitude toward work, life and love, and reads about Hollywood's Golden Age, behind-the-scenes details and anecdotes. The well-known American director Martin Scorsese read it with praise, "The interview is like Wilder's best film, sharp observation, concise and precise, full of fun but serious background." ”
The Golden Age of Japanese Cinema: An Interview with Tatsuya Nakayo
[Japanese] Kasuga Taiichi, Shanghai People's Publishing House, translated by Wu Weili
The 1960s were the golden age of Japanese cinema, with not only the birth of world-renowned film giants such as Akira Kurosawa, Yasujiro Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi, and Kioo Naruse, but also a number of outstanding film actors, such as Toshiro Mifune, Hideko Takayama, and Setsuko Hara, whose acting skills were recognized worldwide, and Tatsuya Nakayo was one of them. He has collaborated with famous directors such as Akira Kurosawa, Akio Naruse, Masaki Kobayashi, Hero Gosha, and Kihachi Okamoto, and has created many classic characters. As a superstar in the Japanese film industry, Tatsuya Nakayo is now more than 90 years old and is still active in the film and television industry and the theater stage.
It can be said that Tatsuya Nakayo has been a witness to Japanese cinema for more than half a century, and his incomparably rich film experience is a valuable asset in the history of Japanese cinema. His collaborations with actors such as Toshiro Mifune, Hideko Takayama, Setsuko Hara, and Shintaro Katsumi are also a great story. So what did he think the Japanese film scene of the second half of the 20th century looked like? "The Golden Age of Japanese Cinema: Interview with Tatsuya Nakayo" provides us with an opportunity to "be on the scene": in front of Taiyi Kasuga, a scholar of film history, Tatsuya Nakayo recounts her experience on the set and the impressions of contact with famous directors and actors, and relives the golden age of Japanese cinema.
Spring Is Coming: David Hockney in Normandy
David Hockney / Martin Gaiford, Zhejiang People's Fine Arts Publishing House, edited by Wan Muchun, translated by Hu Yating/Yang Suyao
In the spring of 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged the globe, the famous British artist David Hockney was locked down in his studio in the Normandy countryside of France. Instead of inhibiting Hockney's creative drive, the isolation made him more and more enthusiastically engaged in the depiction of beautiful spring light. During this time, David Hockney created a total of 220 iPad paintings, which were posted on social platforms. In 2021, David Hockney presented an exhibition titled "The Arrival of Spring, Normandy" at the Royal College of Art in London, featuring 116 of his paintings in Normandy from early spring, mid-spring to late spring.
This was followed by the birth of Spring: David Hockney in Normandy, a large number of new conversations and correspondence between Hockney and art critic Martin Gafford, interspersed with hawkney's iPad spring scene in Normandy, and masterpieces by Van Gogh, Monet, Bruegel and others. Hockney has a long history of painting with iPad, and does not shy away from the invasion of traditional painting by digital. He sees painting with an iPad as a challenge – "The painter needs to have excellent drafting and coloring skills at the same time, because each piece is magnified several times when printed, and the visitor can clearly see the details of the painter's brush strokes."
Hockney's new book evokes a passion for life for people in the shadow of the pandemic, and as Hockney says in the book, "It's rather silly that we lose touch with nature because we're part of it, not outside of it." Sooner or later, the epidemic will end, and then what? What do we learn from this? ...... The only real things in life are food and love, just like our puppy Ruby... The source of art is love. I love life. ”
"Painting Quotations: Listening to Wang Jiqian talk about the brush and ink of Chinese painting and calligraphy"
Xu Xiaohu /Wang Jiqian, Shanghai Sanlian Bookstore, produced by Ideal Republic
Chinese painting pays attention to the use of pen and ink, and pen and ink constitute the essence of a Chinese painting. Exploring the mysteries of Chinese brush and ink, I am afraid that no one has studied it more than Xu Xiaohu. In 1971, Xu Xiaohu and Wang Jiqian, a calligrapher, painter, expert and collector living in New York, began an eight-year dialogue on calligraphy and painting. In the dialogue, Wang Jiqian explained to Xu Xiaohu his views on the pen and ink characteristics, pen skills, composition layout, and style characteristics of ancient Chinese calligraphy and painting. 40 years later, Xu Xiaohu, who was in his old age, began to re-examine Wang Jiqian's interpretations of pen and ink. On the basis of the original dialogue, she added new annotations and video courses, added detailed diagrams, and intuitively demonstrated the way of writing and ink that "can only be understood, not ineffable" in the form of mutual interpretation of text and pictures.
"Painting Quotations (Revised Edition)" is a re-edition of the same book in 2014, which has been upgraded on the basis of the first edition, involving 187 works by 68 writers and painters from the Jin Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, intuitively clarifying the intuitive experience of booksellers and painters, so that readers can understand the "vivid rhyme". It is worth mentioning that Xu Xiaohu was born in Nanjing, grew up in a multilingual and cross-cultural environment, and has studied Chinese art history at Bannington College in the United States and Princeton University, and obtained a doctorate degree from Oxford University in the United Kingdom. Inspired by Wang Jiqian, she summarized the theory of "pen and ink behavior", and combined the study of Japanese painting and calligraphy and Western style analysis, and developed a clear and meticulous identification method. These achievements are epitomized in the book "Forgotten Authentic Works: A Re-examination of Wuzhen Calligraphy and Painting".
"Use and Entertainment: Secular Paintings of the Prosperous Qing Dynasty"
[Beauty] Gao Juhan, Life, Reading, And Xinzhi Triptych Bookstore, translated by Yang Duo
Chinese painting theory has a tradition of praising literati painting and degrading secular painting, which is closely related to the Chinese literati tradition. Literati painting is similar to the author's film, which is the expression of the painter's personal will; secular portrait commercial films, which are created by the painter after being commissioned by the patron, are naturally of a lower value. However, in the view of Gao Juhan, a famous American sinologist, secular paintings that have been ignored by the history of Chinese painting also have research value, and he started from excavating the value of secular paintings in art history and created this book "Application and Entertainment: Secular Paintings of the Great Qing Dynasty", thus starting the academic transformation in his later years.
"Application and Entertainment" conducts visual research and style analysis of more than 120 secular paintings from the heyday of the Qing Dynasty, explaining how to create new painting methods and programs by actively absorbing Western techniques and integrating the painting styles of the Southern and Northern Sects by actively absorbing Western techniques and integrating the painting styles of the Southern and Northern Sects in the heyday of the Qing Dynasty. Gao Juhan broke the narrative of Chinese painting history dominated by literati landscape painting, reinterpreted the value of secular painting, and enriched the history of Chinese painting.
The Feast That Never Disperses: A History of Food Culture in Art
[English] Gillian Riley, The Commercial Press, translated by Xiang Yao
Throughout the ages, whether Chinese or foreign, eating has been a top priority, and the daily diet contains the taste and culture of the nation. "The Feast That Never Disperses: A History of Food Culture in Art" takes the depiction of physical objects as a starting point to tell the evolution of the "eating" in human history and the story and culture behind it.
"The Feast That Never Disperses" is not only an art history, but also a cultural history. The author Gillian Riley starts from the Stone Age, leading readers to review the presentation of food in paintings, showing various food preservation recipes, restoring scenes of fishing, farming and farming, and telling the relationship between food, mythology and religion in works of art, with a unique perspective and high value.
Aesthetics of Photography
[French] François Suraje, Shanghai People's Fine Arts Publishing House, produced by Houlang, translated by Chen Qing/Zhang Hui
Since its publication in France in 1998, Aesthetics of Photography has become a recognized classic in the field of photography theory. In this notebook on the aesthetics of photography, François Suraje presents a wonderful discussion of many of the master photographers and their works that readers are familiar with: Cartier Bresson, Julia Margaret Cameron, Duane Michaels, William Klein, Don McCullin, Christian Bourtansky, Jacques-Henry Lattig, Diane Arbos, Anna Fox, Tono Starno, Man Ray...
François Suraje explores the place of photography in contemporary art around three main questions: What is the relationship between photography and reality? What are the characteristics of photography? Why is the art of photography at the heart of contemporary art, or even at the heart of contemporary art itself? This leads to a photographic aesthetic based on reason. The Chinese translation is the second edition of the original book, adding new forms of photography such as digital photography and selfies that have emerged in the past two decades.
Chaplin's Autobiography
[English] Charlie Chaplin, Translated by Yilin Publishing House, translated by Ye Dongxin
Charlie Chaplin is a master of silent comedy, and everyone knows this. Since childhood, he was attracted by the stage celebrities passing by in front of his house and aspired to become an actor. After becoming famous, they have successively fallen into the dilemma of marriage failure and personal scandals. Under Chaplin's bright screen appearance, what kind of sad experience is hidden? In his lonely years, Chaplin himself wrote about the stories behind the scenes: a poor childhood in London's South End, his first appearance on stage, his efforts to fight for film autonomy, a failed marriage, an escape from Hollywood, and personal scandals.
At the peak of his life, Chaplin dedicated masterpieces such as "The Modern Age", "The Great Dictator", and "Monsieur Verdun", but by the time of McCarthyism, his career had fallen into a low ebb, and he himself had been monitored by the FBI. In 1952, disheartened Chaplin moved to Europe, directing his last two films, The King of New York and The Countess of Hong Kong, while completing his autobiography. It is conceivable how sad and true the memories of life written at the time of loneliness will be. Chaplin was particularly frank, he gave his heart to the reader, and made this simple but shocking biography.
The Biography of Leonardo da Vinci: The Man Who Longs to Know Everything
[De] Bernd Luke, Hunan Literature and Art Publishing House, produced by Boji Tianjuan, translated by Sun Meng
Leonardo da Vinci is known as an encyclopedic figure of the Renaissance, and in addition to painting, he has achieved great success in sculpture, architecture, music, physics, geometry, anatomy, hydraulic engineering, design and many other fields. At the same time, the mysteries and contradictions of leonardo da Vinci also make us curious about this prolific genius. What kind of life did leonardo da Vinci go through, and why did he have such a strong curiosity to create so many achievements? The biography of Leonardo da Vinci may give you an answer.
The author of this book, Bernd Lurk, is one of Europe's most prestigious experts on the history of the Renaissance, and he uses a large number of first-hand materials to present da Vinci's life experience and creative process in detail, allowing readers to get a close glimpse of da Vinci's inner world. At the same time, the biography recreates a turbulent era intertwined with da Vinci's life, restoring the glorious and mysterious Renaissance.
Chopin: Life and Times
[English] Alan Walker, Social Sciences Literature Press, produced by Son, translated by Hu Yundi
Chopin: Life and Times is an 800-page book by Alan Walker, a decade-long, first-hand account of Chopin's dramatic life through first-hand accounts from the archives in Warsaw, Paris, London, New York, and Washington, D.C. He paid particular attention to Chopin's childhood and youth in Poland and the nine years of his love life with George Sand to complete the best chopin biography to date.
The commentary said that this is a biography of de-falsification, clarifying many misrepresentations and rumors surrounding Chopin for a long time. "Alan Walker's unseen clarity of the interpretation of Chopin and his music brings the image of the most mysterious, beloved, and legendary artist of the 19th century to the table." Perhaps the best way to read this book is to enter the secret inner world of the biographer's owner in the company of Chopin's music.
Editor: Deng Jiefeng
Second instance: Liu Ya
Third trial: Chen Tao, Wang Yang