From June 3 to 6, the "Second China Arts and Crafts Expo" will be held in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province. At that time, the senior arts and crafts artist of China Banknote Printing and Minting Group Corporation and Beijing Banknote Printing Co., Ltd., the third generation inheritor of handmade steel gravure engraving of Chinese Min coin, and the master of Beijing Arts and Crafts - Liu Dadong and his steel engraving studio will bring four works of "Jinggangshan", "Pagoda Mountain", "Great Wall" and "Heart Sutra" to the exhibition. These works combine the modern techniques of handmade steel gravure engraving with traditional techniques, inheriting the traditional cultural color and integrating improved modern craftsmanship, highlighting the artistic charm of handmade steel gravure engraving.
Master Liu Dadong is working
Great Hall of the People, Potala Palace, Guilin Landscape, Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, Mount Taishan, Hangzhou West Lake... The main picture of the fifth set of renminbi fully shows the magnificent mountains and rivers of the mainland. To transfer these pictures from the painter's pen to the banknotes, it is inseparable from the process of handmade steel gravure engraving.
Among the only more than ten craftsmen in the mainland who are engaged in RMB carving, Liu Dadong is one of the best. The handmade steel gravure engraving technique essentially inherits the Chinese engraving technique, which is closely related to the Chinese printing technique of engraving metal and engraving woodblocks for reproduction and printing. But unlike painting, the steel gravure engraver can only present the content through points and lines, and some points even need more than a dozen knives to complete, the thinnest line is only 1 micron, and the lines cannot be crossed or overlapped. Steel gravure engravers must have a foundation in painting and superb knife work, but also have strong artistic inspiration and good psychological quality, in order to create a vivid, clear and three-dimensional, almost perfect picture. "I was destined to go into the business of handmade steel intaglio carving." Liu Dadong told reporters, "Since I was a child, I have loved painting, and I began to learn painting with the famous calligrapher Guo Jinming at the age of 7, and later learned calligraphy. In 1978, 15-year-old Liu Dadong was admitted to the printing factory with a strong level of painting, and the story between him and handmade steel gravure engraving officially began.
The Great Wall
"Handmade steel gravure engraving is a collection of printing anti-counterfeiting technology in one of the skills, that is to say, you can only take a knife to engrave the useless, but also must have an understanding of the printing process, including paper, ink and even machinery, to be familiar with." Liu Dadong introduced that when he first entered the factory, he required himself to develop in an all-round way, and he had almost all done the work related to handmade steel gravure engraving. For example, the light plate process before designing the engraving: this is a manual work, it must first use a piece of coarse sandpaper to smooth the rough steel plate, then use fine sandpaper to grind, and finally use water sandpaper to polish the steel plate to the extent that it can be engraved. Such preparation work is generally done by a special master, and few engravers personally get started, but in order to better understand the handmade steel gravure engraving technique, Liu Dadong continued to learn until he mastered this process.
More crucially, he met a group of famous teachers such as Wu Pengyue, the second generation of handmade steel gravure engraving masters. "I learned a lot from them, and that's what I've been able to do for 40 years in the industry." Liu Dadong told reporters, "When I first started my apprenticeship, my master Wu Pengyue asked us to endure loneliness, and at that time, every day we had to practice calligraphy for an hour, and then practice carving. Wu Pengyue, Zhou Lingzhao, Hou Yimin, Chen Ruoju, Deng Shu, Guo Jinming, Liao Jingwen and other top domestic masters have educated and guided him so that he can feel the spirit of craftsmanship in them while learning art - excellence, dedication and responsibility.
Forty years of focusing on handmade steel gravure engraving, the hardships of which can be imagined. He was the only one who persevered among the workers who entered the factory with Liu Dadong. Sitting in front of the workbench from morning to night, the carving knife was repeatedly crossed over the steel plate in Liu Dadong's hand, and every line and every point in his eyes was vivid. This long-term study and hard work also brought him remarkable achievements: from 1983 to 1990, he participated in the engraving of the fourth set of renminbi, and all the words and national emblems were completed by him. In addition, he also participated in the design and engraving of the fifth set of Renminbi and the new hong Kong dollar and mop. It is worth mentioning that the Great Wall pattern on the back of the second-generation resident ID card is also his work, which is almost a "work of art for Chinese citizens".
Rich experience in handmade steel gravure engraving allowed Liu Dadong to form his own unique carving style, in 2013, "Liu Dadong Oil Painting Art Creation Room" and "Liu Dadong Steel Plate Engraving Studio" were established one after another, and he also began to think about how to better carry forward this national art that has been formed from generation to generation. In recent years, Liu Dadong has tried to combine handmade steel gravure carving with other forms of artistic expression, and finally innovated a new art form - ink carving.
"Pagoda Hill"
Ink engraving is a new art form produced by the organic combination of handmade steel gravure engraving technology and Chinese ink painting, that is, the characteristics of steel intaglio engraving are reflected in an ink painting. In terms of craftsmanship, it is to first complete the printing of handmade steel gravure engraving works, and then complete the creation of ink large freehand paintings. Make the two achieve organic unity through a two-step creative approach. Not only does it enable the handmade steel gravure engraving technology to be well inherited in the new century, but also expands this technology to the field of fine arts, so that this traditional skill has more room for development.
"Ink engraving is formed on the basis of handmade steel intaglio engraving, and we have been developing ink engraving for more than ten years." Liu Dadong introduced that to achieve the art form of ink carving, the first problem to be solved is how to print content without destroying rice paper, "because the pressure of the printing machine is relatively large, the printing process is easy to cause damage to rice paper, and it is difficult to paint again." ”
After more than ten years of repeated experimentation, Liu Dadong's team finally found a balance between paper, plate and printing press, "after printing, we can still retain the characteristics of rice paper, paving the way for later painting creation, which is a breakthrough for us." Liu Dadong told reporters.
The understanding of the relationship between ink and ink is also the key to this artistic innovation. Liu Dadong introduced that ink carving uses the incompatibility of water and oil, and the painting in the finished part of the printing will not destroy the printed content, and even plays a role in protection and anti-counterfeiting. Liu Dadong said proudly, "After the successful research and development of ink engraving technology, its anti-counterfeiting field has been broadened, such as Chinese painting, counterfeits can be easily made, but ink carving can do the 'work' of handmade steel intaglio engraving technology and the 'art' of ink painting, it is difficult to have a fake." ”
Work "Jinggangshan"
In fact, the handmade steel gravure engraving technology itself is a combination of "work" and "art". Liu Dadong believes that an excellent handmade steel gravure engraver must be both a craftsman and an artist.
Craftsmen have "craftsmanship", excellence is "craftsmanship", and sleeping and forgetting to eat is also "craftsmanship". In Liu Dadong's cognition, "craftsmanship" is indispensable for a beginner, "it allows you to sink your heart and practice the basic skills." Liu Dadong told reporters, "If there are many things that are exposed to at the beginning, the foundation is not solid, and it is absolutely not good for personal growth, which is applicable in all walks of life, that is, the craftsman spirit advocated by everyone." ”
But for handmade steel gravure engravers, it is not enough to have "craftsmanship". In the words of Liu Dadong, the handmade steel gravure engraving technique is technically more rigorous in all aspects, and it is not conducive to creation if it is too rigid. "I'm happy if people rate me as a craftsman, but I've also been working hard to improve my 'Aura.'" Liu Dadong confessed that his master attaches great importance to a person's "aura", "If you want to do a good job, you can't do it without 'craftsmanship', and you can't do it without 'reiki'." ”
In his career of more than 14,000 days, Liu Dadong has injected human "aura" into his works, and also integrated into the inseparable emotions. For Liu Dadong, every point and every line engraved on the plate contains his deep feelings for this craft, "I have been doing this matter of handmade steel intaglio engraving for a lifetime." Master passed on the craft to me, and I have an obligation to pass it on again. Skills should not be lost in our generation, and history must not be interrupted in our hands. ”
Wen | Liu Yuan, an intern reporter of this newspaper