Known as the "prodigy of the painting world", "the first person to paint pandas in China", and "the day student of the Winter Olympics", he has formed an indissoluble relationship with the national treasure giant panda in his life, presenting a unique cultural expression. He is Liu Zhong, a director of the China Artists Association and a researcher at the National Academy of Painting of China.
《Ice and Snow National Treasure Wanli Map》
At the Beijing Municipal Planning Museum, a 202.2-meter-long and 1-meter-high "Ice and Snow National Treasure Wanli Map" created by Liu Zhong was displayed, and more than 5,000 giant pandas with different forms broke through the ice and interpreted 109 groups of ice and snow sports projects, with the theme of giant pandas, the Great Wall and the Forbidden City, the three Major Chinese IP cultural symbols, showing the world the brilliant civilization of the Chinese nation, and also conveying to the audience the spirit of ice and snow sports that unite and cooperate and are not afraid of challenges.
"For a painter, it is undoubtedly a serious challenge to complete a huge scroll dominated by pandas, but I am willing to accept this challenge, I want to use the giant panda image representing Chinese culture to show the dialogue, exchange and frozen between China and the world; I was born in Beijing, grew up in Beijing, I want to use the best panda paintings, express my great pride and my congratulations to Beijing, the world's only 'double Olympic' city." Liu Zhong, a "winter Olympic student on duty", is currently a director of the China Artists Association and a researcher at the China National Academy of Painting, said in an interview.
The long volume of "Ice and Snow National Treasure Wanlitu" was created by Liu Zhong over a period of 3 years. Through the expressive techniques of Chinese ink painting, it vividly shows the fusion of China's 5,000 years of culture and Olympic culture. At the end, the panda, as a torchbearer riding a beast, conveys the Olympic spirit and values, and declares the deep love between the Olympic Games and China, sports and giant pandas. The 24 important passes of the Great Wall and the Forbidden City building in the distance of the picture jump on the paper, showing the glorious achievements of the Chinese nation to the world.
The national treasure giant panda, which is cute, interpreted 109 groups of ice and snow sports projects, and used anthropomorphic techniques to portray the Olympic athletes who competed passionately.
Liu Zhong's long volume of "Ten Thousand Miles of Ice and Snow National Treasures" shows the infinite charm of ice and snow sports to the world with the representative elements of Chinese culture, and also popularizes the ice and snow culture of the Winter Olympics to people. The Olympic spirit, the ideal of peace and friendship, and the world cultural exchange are gathered together, expressing a high degree of integration and harmonious coexistence between art and sports, man and nature. It also showed the world the excellent culture of the Chinese nation and the spirit of the Winter Olympics.
Liu Zhong introduced that in the process of planning and drawing the "Ice and Snow National Treasure Ten Thousand Miles Map", he not only walked through the 24 passes of the Great Wall to experience the terrain and landforms; studied a large number of Winter Olympic literature to accurately display the image of the stadium; but also kept improving, changing his manuscript several times, taking three years and carefully drawing. This long scroll eventually became the largest, longest, most profound, and most satisfying work of his painting career.
It is worth mentioning that China Post has joined hands with Liu Zhong, the "Winter Olympics Duty Student", three times to issue a postage machine publicity stamp and the first day cover with the Prosperity of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games as the node, and together with the national treasure of ice and snow to help the Winter Olympics.
An indissoluble relationship with pandas
Liu Zhong, a Hui painter known as the "first person to paint giant pandas in China". When he was a child, he learned to paint with his parents as a painter, and went to the Beijing Zoo for the first time to see many animals, and the most attractive thing to him was the black-and-white giant panda.
He said: "The giant panda is the most adorable, cute in a cute demeanor and big and round eyes. Only by painting its demeanor and eyes can the painting come alive. In order to paint the giant panda, Liu Zhong went to the Sichuan Ya'an giant panda breeding base every year to sketch, he introduced, every time he saw the panda, the first look at the look, running, up the tree, rolling, sleeping, that look is very rich. The second look at the eyes, don't look at it has a big dark circle, in fact, its eyes are very godly. If you grasp the eyes, you will grasp the charm of chinese painting.
When the Ya'an earthquake in Sichuan Province struck in 2013, Liu Zhong rushed to Ya'an to visit the giant pandas and was able to get close to the pandas for three days. "Five or six months old panda is not aggressive, cute and sticky, I can't draw it, it always holds your legs and won't let you go, it is very good at spoiling." The larger panda is different, according to friends in Sichuan, it is a bear, and the general breeder cannot approach it, so the giant panda is also a very powerful animal. Liu Zhong said.
"The image of the giant panda is both sacred and solemn, close to people, containing the genes and values of Chinese culture; the giant panda is healthy, strong, and a messenger of peace, suitable for olympic athletes who are strong and powerful and have a fighting spirit." Liu Zhong said: "My painting career is closely related to the Olympic spirit. ”
With the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games about to be held, Liu Zhong used the paintbrush in his hand to create a giant panda image masterpiece with "Bo" as the representative of this international sports event, and held the "Natural Harmony to Welcome the Olympic Games - Liu Zhong Painting Exhibition", which for the first time integrated the image of the giant panda, a national treasure representing nature and harmony, with the Olympic sports culture, which aroused the praise of the audience and became an exciting and unforgettable artistic landscape in the "2008 Beijing Olympic Cultural Festival".
In 2015, in order to help Beijing bid for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games together with Zhangjiakou, at the invitation of the Organizing Committee of the Winter Olympics, Liu Zhong created a large-scale panda work "Rainbow Seven Treasures", which is set against the backdrop of the Badaling Great Wall, depicting seven cute giant pandas playing in the snow, praying for the success of Beijing's bid for the Winter Olympics.
In February 2018, when Chinese short track speed skater Wu Dajing won the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, Liu Zhong was excited to create a painting entitled "Ice and Snow National Flag Exhibition, National Treasure Crown Winter Olympics", in which a national treasure panda with a five-star red flag in his hand ran proudly on the ice and snow land to congratulate Wu Dajing on winning the championship, and also wished Wu Dajing another championship at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing four years later. At the end of February of that year, when Wu Dajing, who had won the championship and returned to Beijing, saw this painting, he was full of confidence in winning the championship again, and gladly signed Wu Dajing's three big characters under the title of the painting. On February 5, 2022, Wu Dajing lived up to his expectations and won the championship again.
For 14 years, Liu Zhong has been walking with Shuang'ao. The intersection of sports and painting art interprets the Olympic spirit of "faster, higher, stronger and more united" to the extreme.
The prodigy of the painting altar grows into a memory
Liu Zhong, born in 1969, was influenced by his parents since childhood, learned to paint at the age of four, and has been in contact with famous masterpieces for a long time, and has been ordered by Liu Haisu, Wu Zuoren, Wu Guan, and other older masters to practice his solid basic skills in painting.
Although Liu Zhong's parents are excellent artists, they never ask him much in art, but give him full imagination and creative space to do what he likes.
At the age of 9, he created the Chinese painting "Cradle" with the theme of pandas, which integrates his love for his mother and the motherland into the paintings, conveying a strong sense of affection, bold and realistic techniques and meticulous depictions of pandas, showing his outstanding artistic talent.
He has won the first prize of the National and Beijing Children's Painting Competition six times, and the Grand Prize of the International Children's Painting Competition three times.
Liu Zhong, who has been known as a "prodigy in the painting world" since childhood, told this writer, "I am very lucky and have been growing up in encouragement. Whether it is China Post giving our 4 little painters stamps or going to France to study, it is inseparable from the support and encouragement of the state, teachers, relatives and friends. ”
"When I was twelve or thirteen years old, I also encountered a creative bottleneck, and I felt that I didn't improve at all, which made me very miserable compared to adults." Liu Zhong recalled that when he was a child, he had feelings, but his family did not blame him, but gave him good advice, and his parents told him: "Everyone has a wall when creating, when you feel stuck, you have to break through with force and find a new discovery." Later, he has been using this method until today. Because he understands that painting is not based on talent, but more importantly, diligence, hard work and persistence, as well as constantly challenging himself and pursuing a higher artistic realm.
In his youth, Liu Zhong left his family and went to France alone to study. Although his mother was seriously ill at this moment, she still encouraged him to pursue, and the support of his family gave him courage. When truly in a foreign country, Fang Zhijia's warmth and the greatness of the motherland.
Liu Zhong cherished this learning opportunity, and during his stay in France, he tirelessly carried out systematic study and research on the Western art system, prompting himself to start to think deeply about the current situation, future and personal artistic path of today's Chinese painting world. By borrowing and absorbing Western artistic and aesthetic concepts, he successfully broke through the boundaries of abstraction and figurative understanding in Chinese and Western cultures, achieved eclecticism, gradually formed a distinct personal style, and ushered in an important turning point in the growth of his art.
After three years of unremitting efforts, Liu Zhong subversively combines the traditional ink brushwork of Chinese painting with the realistic techniques of oil painting and color blending, so that the painting style presents a modern style with unique personal characteristics, with the vividness and delicacy of Western painting, without losing the elegance and romance of Chinese style. He finally received his Master of Fine Arts in Plastic Arts and a Bachelor of French from the French Ministry of Education in 1997. In the face of the superior creative conditions in France at that time, he resolutely returned to his mother and the motherland he loved and loved.
After choosing to paint the giant panda, it is not difficult to see the strong patriotic feelings that have been integrated into Liu Zhong's blood. He knows that his panda is not only a rare national treasure, but also symbolizes the image of Chinese gentle and elegant, approachable, and also pins on people's beautiful vision of world peace and harmonious coexistence. He firmly believed that this undeserved Chinese spirit would eventually enable the Chinese nation to stand tall among the nations of the world with a more lofty posture and realize its great rejuvenation and great dreams.
Liu Zhong's panda, every hair, delicate and not dexterous, the fur blown by the breeze comes to life; the eyes are cute, the demeanor is cute, and it is ready to come out; it seems that through the ink, the sound of the panda creaking and chewing bamboo is faintly heard.
Years later, Liu Zhongdu lamented that this study abroad experience not only expanded his horizons and magnified the pattern, but also made the panda, a Chinese cultural symbol, begin to run through his future artistic life.
Messengers of love and beauty
Liu Zhong has been constantly seeking on the road of pursuing art, and has never stopped in his spiritual and ideological pursuits. If the vision of trekking to five continents and returning from thousands of miles has refined a more beautiful painting art, then the feelings of devoting themselves to public welfare and patriotic responsibility have written the style of the times of contemporary Chinese artists.
"I grew up with the cultivation of the party and the state." Liu Zhong constantly emphasized in an interview. Today's Liu Zhong, has made some achievements, as an artist who has published stamps and legal tender at the same time, his paintings have been auctioned at high prices, but he has not forgotten to give back to the society, he is the Capital Free Blood Donation Volunteer Association "Panda Blood Publicity Ambassador", actively participate in blood donation public welfare activities, advocate the concept of paying attention to life, and publicize the concept of free blood donation. He has donated a total of 467399 yuan twice to support the development of blood donation in the capital.
On the road of advocating blood donation to save people, Liu Zhong's steps are firm. He is the messenger of love.
On the night of Chinese New Year's Eve 2022, coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Beijing Red Cross Blood Center Rare Blood Type Love Home, and also the opening of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, as the rare blood type publicity ambassador of the Beijing Red Cross Blood Center, Liu Zhong splashed ink to send New Year blessings to the rare blood type emergency blood donation volunteers of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, and created 30 paintings of "Panda Blessing Love Inheritance" based on the "Love" character of the Love Home and the mascot of the Love House, the giant panda. Gifted to the Beijing Winter Olympics rare blood type emergency blood donation volunteers, encourage volunteers to work together to help the Winter Olympics, together to the future!
"My mother is not only an artist, but also a kind and simple person." His mother's kindness, diligence and loyalty made Liu Zhong hear about it when he was a teenager, and under his mother's words and deeds, Liu Zhong also became such a person.
On March 21, 2021, Liu Zhong and people from all walks of life who love and care about the national treasure panda, love art and love public welfare jointly initiated the establishment of the "Panda Art Development Fund of the China Literature and Art Foundation", which aims to encourage young people to love Chinese culture, strengthen art education, improve aesthetic level, and pay attention to ecological environmental protection. Not only did he choose to hold the unveiling ceremony of the Panda Art Development Fund of the China Literature and Art Foundation in his mother's hometown of Fujian, but he also taught and personally guided the local children many times, and demonstrated in terms of composition, light and shadow, shape, color and structure.
"Traditional Chinese culture is our deepest soft power, using art to convey the truth, goodness and beauty of life to children, and to give children enlightenment about national feelings and humanistic spirit, helping them better understand the world, pursue truth, and realize themselves."
Liu Zhong integrates lofty values and beautiful emotions into the cultivation of children, and he is a disseminator of beauty.
Liu Zhong once said: "Art is all about writing the heart, freehand, and writing feelings, and the means of expression can be cleared in front of the spirit and thought." He said so and did the same.
Liu Zhong Profile:
Liu Zhong, born in 1969 in Beijing, China, holds a master's degree in plastic arts from the French Ministry of Education. He is currently a director of the China Artists Association, a researcher of the National Academy of Painting of China, a deputy secretary-general and executive director of the Chinese Painting Society, a senior member of the Youth Federation of central state organs, a former member of the Standing Committee of the Beijing Youth Federation, an honorary director of the "Panda Post Office" of Chengdu, Sichuan, an honorary director of the "Golden Monkey Post Office" of China Post Sichuan Mianyang, an honorary director of the "Great Wall Post Office" of Hebei Shanhaiguan, a publicity ambassador of The Great Wall Post of Hebei Province, a panda propaganda ambassador of Sichuan Ya'an, a panda blood publicity ambassador of the Beijing Red Cross Society, a propaganda ambassador of the mother water cellar, and a "I love giant panda" of China Post. He is the initiator of the International Children's Postcard Painting Competition and the initiator of the Panda Art Development Fund of the China Literature and Art Foundation, and is known as the "First Person to Paint Pandas in China".
His works have been selected and exhibited in many countries such as the United Kingdom, France, the United States, Russia, Egypt, Canada, Spain, Italy, Norway, Singapore, Japan, Monaco, Switzerland, Finland, Latvia, Mongolia and other countries, and have won awards in domestic and foreign competitions for many times, and have been collected by many museums at home and abroad.