A few years ago, I bought a book written by Xiong Bingming to Gu Shouguan. The letter was written in 1958. The content is an overview of the first-line painters of the time. Wu Guanzhong once commented that Xiong Bingming "combines Chinese taste with Western spirit, and he has a deeper understanding of the language of painting." This letter is necessary to be made public and is reproduced in its entirety as follows:
Shouguan,
When I returned from the Beijing Guan Expo and saw the album you sent, I was extremely happy and grateful. Look at your words on the first page of the White Stone Memorial Book, asking me to give me my opinion on these painters, and I will write them out a little. In the middle of this, of course, the old man Shiraishi is today's master of solitude, his paintings are full of a bold and unquestionable optimism, and he observes all things deeply and with enthusiasm. Like the inscription sentence of "the old man saw the plow full of sweat", he knew that his observation was the bitterness of his own life experience. The little insects and the grass have become vivid, jumping, magnificent, resolute, vigorous, and alive in his pen. It is technically new and has many characteristics of modern art (abstract = crystallized). And the content is also new. A change of ancient Chinese static contemplation is a "play reward" that cheers for jumping. Like his long ancient squirrels, magnolias, shrimp swarms, tadpole falling springs... It is really a long stream of life pouring out, making people bathe in it, washing away the tiny gray emotions, and re-entering life, like a healthy and strong modern person.
In Paris, I have seen four or five original works by Huang Binhong, all in one copy. It feels quite dull, dry, and less varied as you say. I can't get any satisfaction in it. Such landscapes are not fascinating, I can't know what they are doing. I don't think the author loves the mountains enough, nor does he live in the mountains. His landscape has no real clouds, really wet fog, no real beach shores, really thin forests. Although the pen is skilled, it cannot catch the truth. You say that "the realistic side is good", and I don't think there is any truth in it.
Xu painting should be more "realistic". But the real problem with art is not photographic realism. His observation is naturally very superficial, the appearance of the outside of things, and finally only the skin and hair are drawn, and the real life is lost from it. Looking at his, at first glance it is not bad, and after a little scrutiny, it is full of problems, like a specimen placed there, plausible.
Fu Baoshi is also considered a landscape painter today. I have seen twenty or thirty of the originals and I am not satisfied. Nor did it penetrate into the interior of the landscape. I think in recent decades, Chinese have lost their trust and trust in the landscape. If you don't send the meaning of life there like the ancients, the landscape cannot be painted well. In Switzerland, I once saw a landscape of Li Shizhuo (one of the ten philosophers in the yongzheng Qianlongjian painting), which was excellent. The structure is not unusual, but it is deep and tortuous, and every stone and wood is full of a kind of truth, a strong love of mountains and water, love of wood and love of stone. When people see it, they are attracted and persuaded. I was deeply touched. I think that Chinese landscapes and Western religious paintings are similar, and painting religious paintings without religious feelings is the same as painting landscapes without landscape emotions. The statue of the Virgin Can only become an ordinary portrait, and the landscape can only become an ordinary landscape. Fu Hua wanted to make landscapes but failed to really achieve it.
Li Keyan did not want to paint landscapes and paint landscapes, but felt that there was a new realm, but there were two worlds with ancient landscapes.
I hope that you can continue to search for some calligraphy and painting books in the old bookstore, especially the Ming and Qing dynasties, who can show a strong personality. For example, Bada, Shi Tao, Xu Wei, Chen Chun, Chen Shou (Lao Lian), Li Feng (FuTang), Jin Nong (Dong Xin), Zheng Xie (Banqiao) and others. This time there are quite interesting ones sent, but I will not repeat them. What books do I have in Paris that I can buy for you, please sue me, in exchange, how?
Recently, I saw the murals of peasants in the People's Daily and felt extremely interested. Much better than the average painter's painting. Vivid, direct, with strong expressiveness, and fully national style. Watching makes people homesick and homesick. From this there is more unlimited, unpredictable things. What do you think? It is a very good phenomenon that is attached great importance to the country.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Bingming
1958, 10, 25 Paris
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Ministry of Education of the Nationalist Government organized a publicly-funded examination for studying abroad in 1946. 120 publicly-funded students to the United States, Britain, Switzerland and other countries were admitted on merit. In addition, 20 publicly-funded students and 50 exchange students studying in France are enrolled in the Board of Directors of the Chinese and English Education Fund. In this period of exchange students in France, in addition to the well-known painter Wu Guanzhong, there are also literary translators Wang Daoqian, who later became famous for translating the works of Margaret Duras and Rimbaud, and Xiong Bingming and Gu Shouguan, who studied philosophy. It can be described as a set of talents.
Xiong Bingming is the son of Xiong Qinglai, president of Yunnan University and mathematician. He and Gu Shouguan were in the same class as the Philosophy Department of Southwest United University, and they were friends with Du Du. Soon after going to France, Xiong Bingming gave up his profession and studied sculpture instead. In the past four or nine years, the situation has been turned upside down, and these people are faced with the choice of whether to go or stay. They talked night and night, arguing fiercely. Xiong Bingming decided to continue his studies in Paris because he was not skilled in his studies. Several others chose to return home to pay their respects. "Shouguan said that only ploughing the fields, hoeing the fields, and harvesting were real labor, and Daoqian cursed the uselessness and deception of art, and Wenqing thought that in the new society, painters could create happily." (Press: Wenqing refers to the painter Liu Wenqing)
No one expected that this separation of classmates and teenagers would almost become a farewell. Gu Shouguan, Wang Daoqian, Liu Wenqing, and Wu Guanzhong, who returned to China, have all experienced great tribulations of varying degrees since then.
Liu Wenqing, for example, in the late 1960s, was "shocked, mentally disturbed, claiming that the painter was guilty of wasting paper, going to the street every day to collect horse dung to prepare papermaking, and the corner of the room was full of raw materials returned from coat pockets, and the smell in the house was the same as that of the stables" (Zhang Xinxin's "Nine People").
I have previously read Xiong Bingming describe the reunion of him and Wang Daoqian decades later, which is infuriating: "In 1985, I went to Shanghai and Signed an exchange event with Mr. La Basedide, dean of the Institute of Oriental Languages and Cultures in Paris. The reception department arranged for me to meet with Daoqian. I remember the urgency of waiting for him in a living room. However, as soon as we met, it seemed that everything was covered with a layer of frost. The strenuous smile that floated on his face was still the kind of laugh that was laborious and not hearty, but it was different after all. The laughter of the past blooms from the depths of the soul, distant and mysterious. And the smile I saw that day was tired and cold. We started with this indifferent tone and said some insignificant polite words, and we felt awkward ourselves. The next day I left Shanghai, and I think we became strangers. ("The King I Know")
As for Gu Shouguan, who is the best with Xiong Bingming (Xiong uses the words "rational", "philosophical temperament", "high standard", etc.) when evaluating him, his reputation is almost annihilated. Apart from his translations of Plato's Republic and several of Spinoza's writings, there are few accounts of him. It is only known that he first served in the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and then transferred to the Commercial Press as a translator of Western philosophy. "In the political movement, he was criticized as a 'white flag' and wanted to remove his 'white flag.'" (Wu Guanzhong,"Xiong Bingming") It is also said that Gu Shouguan later went crazy, and his spirit was temporarily good and bad. In 1990, he died in Beijing Hot Spring Tuberculosis Hospital.
Author: Chen Xiaowei
Editors: Andy, Qian Yutong
Editor-in-Charge: Shu Ming
*Wenhui exclusive manuscript, please indicate the source when reprinting.