Liu Ruixuan recalls Mr. Wang Xiaogu: Striving and fighting in adversity
Text/Liu Ruixuan
About Mr. Wang Xiaogu:
Wang Xiaogu (1915-1982), a native of Guannan County, Jiangsu Province, was a famous contemporary Chinese painter, formerly known as Wang Chonggu, also known as Xiaogu. First learn female painting, followed by flower and bird painting. Start with the brush, then change to small freehand, and tend to be larger in his later years. He has been engaged in art education for a long time. In 1952, he was transferred to Linyi Normal School in Shandong Province, and later taught at Linyi Art School, Linyi School for the Deaf and Dumb, and Linyi Education College. He has successively served as a teacher of art at Linyi Normal School, associate professor of Linyi Education College and Shandong Art College. He served as the vice chairman of the Linyi Regional Arts and Crafts Artists Association and the vice chairman of the Linyi County CPPCC Committee. Before his death, he was the executive director of the Shandong Branch of the China Artists Association and a member of the China Artists Association. His paintings were displayed in the Great Hall of the People. He was a member of the China Artists Association, a standing director of the Shandong Branch of the American Artists Association, the vice chairman of the Linyi County CPPCC Committee, and an associate professor of Linyi Education College and Shandong Art College.
Drizzle sprinkles tears, green willows hang low.
In the face of the qingming morning scene, Mr. Wang Xiaogu's voice and smile appeared in front of his eyes again. The poet Zangke passed down a famous saying: "Some people are alive, he is dead; some people are dead, he is still alive." Mr. Wang Xiaogu is the latter kind of person, although he has passed away for 40 years, but the noble spirit is still inspiring people and constantly moving forward on the road of life; the artistic treasures he creates are still nourishing the artists in the painting world, and they will never stop on the road of art. And let us open the dusty memory, hold out the old wine that has been stored for many years, for people to taste, and let the deeply buried pearls see the light again and shine again.
Through the tunnel of time and space, in the early 1970s, Mr. Wang Xiaogu was wronged after suffering a year of imprisonment, and was "assigned" to a small farm in Hedong to undergo "labor reform". Because of the convenience of geography and the good opportunity, I, a painter, took the risk of asking me to teach painting. With the convenience of traveling on business, I can buy a variety of well-cooked Xuanxuan and traditional Chinese painting pigments from Shanghai Duoyunxuan. When I sent this package of treasures to Mr. Wang's labor reform room, he was like a long-drought person seeing Yunni, a thirsty person encountering manna, a thin face covered with labor and wrinkles bursting into a smile, and a small eye shining with wisdom burst out: "This is great!" I'll paint you flowers with a brush, and I'll paint hundreds of flowers in all seasons. You see me draw, learn from me. After painting, this set of paintings can be saved and valuable information can be left for future generations. "When I heard about this magnificent plan, I was touched and surprised! What moved Mr. Wang was that in such a difficult environment, he did not consider his personal safety and gains and losses, but thought of teaching students who were good at learning art, and considered leaving an artistic legacy to the society to future generations. What was surprising was that I originally wanted the teacher to use these papers to draw a little bit of painting, I could just follow and observe, where do you want to do such a big project? It should be noted that he is an old man with a flower armor, due to long-term fatigue and no treatment, his left eye has gone blind, and the vision of his right eye is also extremely poor. In addition, I have to bear the burden of feeding 53 pigs every day, and I don't have time to paint a lot. Mr. Wang is a man who does what he says, and although I advise him not to be too tired and take care of his body, it is all equal to zero.
Mr. Wang Xiaogu calligraphy
In this way, Mr. Wang worked every day during the day, and at night under the dim lights, he painted, painstakingly and carefully conceived, and did not tire of it. Winter to spring came, day after day, and actually completed half of it. I couldn't bear to let him fight any longer, to buy him some two cents of cigarettes—at that time he was only willing to smoke a few cents a box of inferior cigarettes to relieve his fatigue; give him some food stamps and money, let him replenish it. It was just a slight gesture of gratitude, it was really insignificant, but every time he received it, he kept thanking me and making me feel self-conscious. I repeatedly advised him to stop and rest for a few days, and he waved his hand and shook his pen again. Endure the sweltering summer heat, mosquitoes and flies bite, and in the autumn, it is finally finished. People think that poetry painting is a leisure after tea and dinner, where to know the hardships of painters! Today, when people hold up the exquisite collection of paintings published in Shanghai, "Wang Xiaogu Hundred Flowers", and admire the colorful and colorful hundred flowers, He once knew that this was produced by "labor prisoners" in the dou room, and that there were no conditions for sketching, no books and materials to check, and all drawn from memory. Isn't that a marvel in art history?
Wang Xiaogu (left) and Liu Ruixuan (right) in October 1982
Wang Xiaogu is instructing teenagers to practice calligraphy
Some people say: In the midst of sinister political storms, Wang Xiaogu was a lamb to be slaughtered. This statement is not true, it is neither in line with the truth nor in his character of preferring to bend. When it was difficult to rise, Wang Xiaogu and Zhang Shoumin and others bore the brunt of being "dragged out", closing the cowshed, writing a review, and unable to pass the pass with a thousand words, and the large and small batch fights would reach hundreds of times, punching and kicking at every turn; when the sun was hot, they also had to let the cows, ghosts, and snake gods come out to bask in the sunshine of great ideas... One day there was a criticism meeting, but I couldn't find him. Relatives and friends searched everywhere, and there was no trace. Later, I learned that Mr. Wang really couldn't bear it anymore, so he ran to his home in the home of Feng Mengbai, an old student in northern Jiangsu, and painted for the poor and lower middle peasants.
The movement is constantly escalating. In 1970, Mr. Wang was arrested and imprisoned on charges of "active counter-revolution" and sentenced to "five years in prison." When I met him in Hedong, he said firmly: "I am not a counter-revolutionary, this is a wrong case." I have written a complaint and sent it to the Provincial Revolutionary Committee. Sooner or later, things will have to be implemented. "As far as I know, he wrote more than ten appeals, which were sent to the Linyi County Public Security Organ, the Linyi County Revolutionary Committee, the Shandong Provincial Revolutionary Committee, the Supreme People's Court, the Central Joint Reception Station, and the Regional Policy Implementation Office... It is said that the old artists were very wise about art and "naïve" about politics, and they saw the situation too simple and naïve. Mr. Wang's hopeful appeal was handed over again and again, and he was transferred down again and again, asking for a local settlement. And the counter-revolutionaries fought by the locals, if rehabilitated, are not they punching themselves in the face? Isn't it a denial of the fruits of your own "revolution"? Therefore, it can only be delayed again and again, until the end of the sentence of five years before being released home. Although Mr. Wang's appeal was fruitless, under the situation of the black cloud, he was able not to be discouraged, not discouraged, and constantly resist in his own way, and this spirit of upholding justice and indomitable perseverance is precious and worthy of affirmation and emulation.
About the Author:
Liu Ruixuan, born in 1938, is a native of Tancheng, Shandong. He graduated from Shandong Normal University in 1961. Professor of the College of Literature of Linyi University, member of Shandong Calligraphers Association, director of China Calligraphers and Painters Association, vice president of Linyi Wang Xizhi Research Association. The Chinese painter is Mr. Wang Xiaogu, who is good at painting flowers and birds with pens. Representative works include: "Hundred Flowers", "Hundred Butterfly Diagram" and so on. He has published "Treatise on Ancient Calligraphy in Shandong", "The Zhi of Wang Xizhi" (cooperation), "Dictionary of Contemporary Chinese Calligraphers and Painters", "Wang Xiaogu Hundred Flowers", "Butterfly Painting Method" and so on.