I know Ding Xuejun in Yang Jianguo's gallery, because there are many painting exhibitions and more meetings, so I am more and more familiar. I have previously participated in the "Shengshi Chongguang - Fine Exhibition of Buddhist Statues Unearthed in Qingzhou, Shandong", and I have lived in the Qingzhou Museum three times, which is also a little bit of Qingzhou. Xuejun is from Qingzhou, and when we talk like this, the relationship is getting closer and closer. When I went to Qingzhou, it was not particularly famous, unlike now it has become an "important gallery town", but also "the Chinese painting market looks at Shandong, Shandong looks at Qingzhou". Just when half of the painters in the country were running to Qingzhou, Xuejun was living in Beijing against the current. Escaping from the hustle and bustle and jumping out of the market shows the ambition of the student army. Xuejun calls himself "Yi Xuan", probably the second oldest in the family, right? Or is there a moral of not arguing for the first place? Xuejun is an interesting person.
Xuejun's brush grass worm painting, the painting method is traditional, outlining, rendering, coloring are the methods of inheriting the ancestors, but where to dye, where to empty, the xuejun has its own scale, so it seems to have tradition and characteristics, inheritance and innovation. Xuejun's brush grass insect painting is traditional, and there is another important aspect, that is, the subject matter is traditional. These insects are common in life, and they are common in poetry, some of which have traveled thousands of years on the ship of culture, and some of which have become symbols of culture and endorsements of certain values. Some insects do not look beautiful, have never been given a beautiful meaning, and have not become the protagonists of beautiful allegories, but this does not prevent them from having their "aesthetic value", such as mosquitoes, flies, grasshoppers, and earth turtles. Some worms can be "pests", which is known when you grow up. But when they are young, they are children's playmates, accompanying children to grow up, such as snails and celestial cows. Snail, called "buffalo" in Beijing dialect, also has a special children's song, which is sung to "buffalo", singing it seriously, it will stick out its horns. Later, after reading, I learned that "Buffalo" is not simple, Zhuangzi told the fable of "Buffalo", and there was a "battle of touching the barbarians" on its horns.
Xuejun not only draws insects, but also raises insects, and raises them very attentively. Because of careful cultivation, only then can we have the opportunity to look carefully, to appreciate the appearance of the insect, and to draw the spirit of the insect. Xuejun's persistence suddenly reminded me of Mr. Wang Shixiang.
Mr. Wang Shixiang is erudite and fun when he is young. I once said to Mr. Wang, "How nice you are, what you like, what you have played, has become a learning when you are old." Mr. Wang has a special article in his "Golden Ash Pile" that examines the qing dynasty imperial palace, from the Kangxi Dynasty onwards, the grasshoppers were raised, and they were artificially bred. When the palace set up banquets, the incessant sound of "chirping" was used to add to the noisy atmosphere. Elder Wang also pointed out that in the Qianlong Dynasty and before, "the grasshoppers in the palace were stored with brocade bags or embroidery cages, while the folk used gourds." Pan Rongxi's "Ji Sheng in the Age of Emperor Jing" said: The grasshopper can survive three winters, carved as a gourd, silver inlaid with teeth, stored and cherished?? The rhyme protrudes from the chest. Yang Miren has a poem written in Qianlong's sixty years of "Dumen Bamboo Branches": The second brother is not called the third brother, and there are many ways to meet everywhere. Suddenly, there was a soft sound in the arms, and the gourd was called a grasshopper inside. "Look at the current Beijing people, aren't they still playing this style?"
The photo on the first page of Xuejun's painting collection "Flower Room" shows a green grasshopper. The twelfth figure on the inner page also depicts a grasshopper, a wandering grasshopper. To the right of the painting is a lying gourd with a lid on the side and a covered core. The painting is ink, the gourd is very freehand, the ink color is clear, the next stroke is affirmative and accurate, and the line is a bone method pen. The grasshopper on the left is meticulously depicted, which can be described as a complete occurrence, and the pen is clearly explained, and the very small claws and claws are painted with a feeling of elasticity, especially the eyes of the grasshopper, which contain essence, as if thoughtful. Xuejun has been trained in academic modeling and drawing, so when painting brush worms, the perspective relationship is more reasonable and looks more comfortable. He paints insect wings, which not only have a sense of transparency, have small veins, but also show the bulges of small veins through careful rendering.
Learning to raise insects in the army is not only observing, but also "observing". During a chat, Xuejun talked about his grasshoppers. In the studio of the ring iron, the winter sun warms the surface of the leather sofa. The grasshopper that came out of the gourd, when it was full, went straight to the sofa, as if it had long known that it was warm. Usually the grasshopper is standing on six feet, the abdominal muscles are tightened, and the stomach is suspended, but on the sofa, simply relax the muscles and put the stomach on the hot leather surface. At this time, the grasshopper's head turns to the right, enjoys it for a moment, and uses its left paw to cover the long left whisker to the mouth and comb it through and let go. Turning his head to the left again, he used his right paw to cover his right whiskers to his mouth, combing through it as usual, just like a Peking Opera actor holding the long pheasant plume. Xuejun lian said with a comparison, imitated it beautifully, and had the meaning of "Zhuang Zhouhua Butterfly".
The grasshopper enters the painting, not only because of its voice, but there is a poem "Ant" in the Book of Poetry:
Ant Si Yu, Yi Er Zi, Yi Er Descendants, Zhen Zhen Xi.
Ant Feather, Silkworm, Yi'er Descendant, Rope Rope.
Ant Si Yu, Yi Er Zi Zi, Yi Er Descendants, Sting Xi.
Grasshoppers are a type of grasshopper. The poem says that the ant flapped its wings, took off in groups, whistled and made sounds, gathered in the air, and its descendants were numerous and continuous. Because the grasshopper also has the meaning of auspicious celebration, it has become a blessing word "Ant Yanqing".
Because the "song insect" of the cockroach is also a common subject in Xuejun's works. People my age have been caught personally when I was a child. I still remember living in the alley of the West And North when I was a child, my brother caught one in the crack of the wall, excitedly turned around and ran home, just in time for a cyclist to arrive, knocked him into a big heel, broke his head, and stitched three stitches. Evoking childhood memories is also the aesthetic function of painting, and in fashionable terms, it may fall into the category of "acceptance of aesthetics", right?
The official name of the cricket seems to be called cricket, which is probably a common name between the north and the south, but I am used to the local dialect, if you do not call it cricket, I always feel like a countryman learning to talk to people in the city, very uncomfortable. More literary, it is also called "promoting weaving", which is the most famous name in students' textbooks. It often appears in ancient poems and is written very vividly. Zhang Wei of the Southern Song Dynasty has a poem "Man Ting Fang Promoting Weaving":
Moon wash high Wu, Dew Pu Youcao, BaoChao Lou in late autumn.
The earth flowers are along the green, and the fireflies fall to the wall yin.
Listen to the cold sound intermittently, slightly rhyme, miserable and sad.
Strive for a partner, diligently persuade weaving, and promote the breakthrough of the dawn machine.
When I was a child, I remembered that the lamp was filled with holes, and the steps followed the sound.
Full of flowers and shadows, as if pursuing.
Carry xiang huatang drama fight, small pavilion, cage smart makeup gold.
This hugh said, from under the bed of the canal, the cool night is accompanied by a lonely groan.
The famous lyricist Jiang Kui, who composed the lyrics at the same time as Zhang Wei, orderly preceded the words of "Qi Tianle" and recorded the process of creation:
At the age of Ying Chen, he and his father (Zhang Wei) would drink Zhang Dake's Hall. Hearing the sound of crickets between the walls of the house, the father of the gong gave the same endowment to the singer. The father is the first to succeed, and the words are very beautiful. Wandering among the jasmine flowers, looking up at the autumn moon, suddenly meditating, looking for this. Crickets, in the middle of the call to promote weaving, good fighting. The good deeds may be given for three or two hundred thousand dollars, and the elephant teeth will be used as a building, and the view will be stored.
The last two sentences of Jiang Baishi's words are written with great emotion:
Laughing at the fence and calling the lamp, children of the world. Write the piano wire, a sound is more bitter.
Xuejun painting a cockroach can draw the feeling of the cockroach flapping its wings, and the two wings are tilted upwards, making a beautiful sound, which is a love song sung when "vying for a partner". There is also "Three Tails" in xuejun paintings, the local dialect of childhood, "tail" reads "yǐer", that is, the mother clam, which is probably moved by the song and self-surrendered to the love network. The "three-tailed child" does not bark or fight, so he is not caught.
Catching "cockroaches" is usually to sell money, or to gamble to win or lose. Catching "clams" is all about listening to the insects. There are many kinds of songbirds, such as grasshoppers, mouths, weavers, oil jujulu, cockroaches, zizi heads, admiraltys, and so on. Look at xuejun's brush grass worm paintings, most of which are depicted.
Song bugs, reminiscent of autumn sounds or associated with music. Xuejun loved music and loved guqin music in high school, so much so that he made a guqin after work. The reference for making the violin is only two photos published in music textbooks. The tung wood piano face, the emblem made of imitation ivory plastic chopsticks, was rubbed with dozens of lacquers. Loaded with strings ordered from Shanghai, it can sound, and the sound is still very accurate. So far, when talking about this matter, not only are everyone puzzled, but even the xuejun brother himself does not know what he thought at that time, that is, he is "fascinated".
Xuejun has a solid foundation in sketching and sketching, and does have enough ability to grasp the shape and perspective, but Xuejun does not pursue novelty, and his pen is still so comfortable. The knife mantis he painted, the posture is still classic, he said that the previous masters also painted these gestures, because this is the best, but also people printed in the mind. The predecessors created the classics, which is art; the younger generations interpreted the classics, which is also art. Just like music, Chopin's creation is art, Karajan's conducting is also art, Horowitz's performance is still art, who can say that Karajan and Horowitz are not artists? The traditional Chinese art of painting is closer to music, so it has been passed down for thousands of years and is still charming.
Xuejun has painted bees, and with traditional methods and his exquisite techniques, he has drawn the fluttering of bee wings, reminiscent of the toil of bees. The Tang Dynasty poet Geng Xiang wrote a poem called "Bees Picking Chrysanthemums":
Swim under the clear sky and look for the chrysanthemum bush.
With a sound, the shadow is in the incense.
Go to live in the residual fog, high and low down the wind.
In the end, the butterfly is different, and it does not communicate with the dream soul.
Butterflies are dreamy, bees are practical. The butterflies and moths painted by the military, the layer of powder on the body, the feeling of furry is unprecedented.
Spiders, in Xuejun's paintings, are also impressive. The head, chest and abdomen are clearly depicted, and the different textures of the three parts can be seen. The eight long feet are particularly vividly painted, and the feeling of hardness and softness on the outside and the very fine barbs on the feet are vividly remembered. In ancient poetry, spiders also appeared a lot. The Tang Dynasty poet Wang Wei wrote in the opening sentence of the "Three Songs of the Ancestors" that the spider, "the cricket hangs on the virtual mule", saying that a spider hangs on the hidden window; the second sentence is "the cricket is removed before the sound".
Xue Junjie's painting collection "Flower Room" has three paintings of cicadas, two paintings of ink and one color. The color is particularly vivid, transparent cicada wings, which not only see through the back of the cicada under the wings, but also see through the plantains under the wings. Cicadas are the gongbi technique, while basho spirit stones are boneless techniques. In particular, the intersection of cicadas and plantains, the angle formed and a small blank space under the cicada head, are very exquisite and just right.
Cicadas are the most famous in ancient poetry, especially the literati are the most happy. Tang Dynasty Yu Shinan's Cicada:
Drink the dew and flow out of the tree.
To be loud and far away is not to take advantage of the autumn wind.
Shen Deqian, a Qing dynasty, said: "Every time a cicada chants its voice, this one respects its character. Yu Shinan's virtue, loyalty, erudition, literary words and calligraphy are famous, and he is known as the "Five Absolutes". Reading Yu poems now also has practical significance, and we must have real ability ourselves, and we must truly stand on the commanding heights of scholarship, and we cannot rely only on incitement. The high willow cicada, the noble character of the food and drink dew, still needs to be preached. Luo Binwang, who was also a poet of the early Tang Dynasty, is even more famous for his "Cicadas in Prison":
The cicadas of the West Land sing, and the South Crown guests think deeply.
Unable to bear the shadow of Xuan Sideburns, come and groan to the white head.
It is difficult to fly heavily, and the wind is loud and easy to sink.
No one believes in purity, who gives to the heart.
In fact, the preface of this poem is more emotional, and the cicada is closer to the author's feelings:
Yu Forbidden Place Forbidden Yuanxi, is the Law Hall Affairs Also, there are several ancient locust plants. Although the business can be known, with the ancient tree of Yin Zhongwen, and listening to the lawsuit, that is, the Gantang of Zhou Zhaobo, every night shines in the low yin, the autumn cicada is sparsely introduced, the voice is quiet, and there is a taste, is it not that when the people's hearts are different from the dawn, the insects will be sad to hear before? Oh, the voice is moving, the virtue is like a sage. Therefore, he purified his body, and the gentleman was highly skilled; he also shed his skin and had the spiritual posture of immortal feathering. Waiting for the time to come, follow the number of yin and yang; it should be changed, and the opportunity to use it for trial and storage. There are eyes that are open, and they do not see it in the way of dimness; they have wings that are thin and thin, and they are not vulgar and thick and easy to be true. The breeze of the tree, the rhyme of the heavens, drinking the fall of autumn, clear fear of people know. The servant lost his way and was embarrassed by the emblem of the time. Do not mourn and complain, do not shake but decline first. Smell the sound of the flow of cockroaches, and realize that the opposite has been played; see the shadow of the praying mantis, and the fear of crisis is not safe. Feeling and embellishing poetry, for the confidant. Affection should follow the object, mourning the weak feather drifting zero; the Tao sends people to know, the loneliness of the aftersound. Non-literal ink, replacing the melancholy cloud.
Cicadas are more common in Tang poetry, so there are also papers that specialize in the imagery of cicadas in Tang poetry.
Xuejun painted three paintings of "Dragonfly Lotus", two paintings of large dragonflies, which are common in the north, and one painting of small dragonflies. I met it next to the Golden Whip Creek in Zhangjiajie. At that time, there were not many people in Zhangjiajie, and the stream was quiet, sitting by the stream, and small dragonflies flew over. These three "dragonflies and lotuses" of Xuejun are all poetic. Yang Wanli of the Song Dynasty: "The spring is silent and delicate, and the shade of the trees loves the water and loves the sunshine and softness." The little lotus only showed its sharp horns, and there were dragonflies standing on its head. Tang Dynasty Wang Jian: "The water of the wild pond is full of autumn embankments, and the diamond flowers are fruitful and the leaves are qi." The rain and wind in Kawaguchi have stopped, and the dragonflies have fished up and down. ”
Although Xuejun's paintings are not inscribed with poems, they have a poetic flavor, which makes people reverie and reminds people of poetry. Xuejun does not like to go out, and he stays at home to paint. Painting traditional brush grass worms, using traditional painting methods, but this does not show that xuejun lacks contemporary thinking. I once saw a portrait of a nude woman sitting on a two-legged bench with a twisted stool in the background of a soaring fire, as if it were sensational. Xuejun painted a stage of "big worms", enlarged a grasshopper to two feet long, all the details were enlarged, usually can not see or can not draw, are presented in front of the eyes, the visual impact can be imagined. Xuejun's creation, from figure painting to "big worm" painting to Gongbi grass insect painting, is to find the station of spiritual respite, which seems to be revealed from the name of his painting collection and exhibition, "Flower Room".
Grass worms, which can be understood as small worms, contain the meaning of lowliness, and small people are grass people, the same reason. Qi Baishi has the inscription "Stealing Life in the Grass", and the title is not only grass worms, fish and shrimp, quail have been written. In recent years, he has compiled a collection of paintings of white stone grass worms, named "Kusama Stealing Life". Some experts say that Qi Baishi's title "Kusama stealing life" means that he is living under Japanese rule, which has also become an allusion to Qi Baishi. Before Qi Baishi, the allusion of "stealing life in the grass" was also used by Wu Meicun in the early Qing Dynasty. He expressed the painful life of life after Shiqing that was worse than death. Before Wu meicun, the original of "Kusama stealing life" was Zhou Yan of the Jin Dynasty. In the History of Jin, it is recorded: "When Wang Dun was defeated by the Six Armies, Shi Haogao and the left and right Wenwu persuaded Him to take refuge, he said: 'I am a minister, and the imperial court is bent on scratching, so why should I seek a life in the grass and throw myself into the evil cult?' Zhou Yan said how could I hide in the grass and secretly live? Isn't that the same as surrendering bandits? "Kusama stealing" later, it is to describe the life is not easy, especially the people at the bottom and the small animals at the bottom. According to expert research, the grass worms painted by Qi Baishi after liberation are undoubtedly a kind of reminiscence and praise for the quiet pastoral life. In his writing, all grass worms are full of vitality and vitality, not melancholy and sad, not weak and decadent, healthy, optimistic, self-sufficient, they either jump, or crawl, or fly, or fight, or rejoice, each of them is a fresh life." If this is true, then it is not appropriate to call the grass worms painted after liberation "Kusama stealing".
Fraternity, not to say big words, bragging about love. Great love is not love for big people, big things, big landscapes, and big creations. Great love is to take care of all sentient beings, even if they are as small as insects and as low as grass. Xuejun's brush grass worm painting is full of love.
Reading Xuejun's gongbi grass insect paintings, I thought of many poems, and there are two poems that are most suitable for Xuejun's works: "The heart is fine into the silk hair" and "the chant is into the gods".
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