Source: People's Daily
Liu Jude's Chinese painting "Under the Wisteria".
Hu Mao's Chinese painting "Yue Yue".
Wang Wenxin's Chinese painting "Shuxiang".
Zheng Shuming's Chinese painting "Rest".
He Ying's Chinese painting "Happiness with You".
In 2022, the 27th World Book Day is coming as promised, the chinese land is full of books, and the joy of reading flows in the spring. Along with this, a number of reading theme art creations have also emerged in the field of current art practice. These works are not only the observation and depiction of the age of books, but also an important result of the continuous exploration and innovation of contemporary art.
Dan Qing wrote about the new fashion of reading
With the steady and orderly advancement of the construction of "Book Fragrance China", reading more books, reading good books, loving books, and reading books are becoming the choice of more and more people. People of different ages and occupations are immersed in reading, achieving beautiful landscapes and becoming the subject of depictions by artists.
Some artists focus on the reading status of readers of different ages. For example, He Ying's Chinese painting "Happiness with You" focuses on children's reading scenes. The work uses the artistic technique of line drawing and dyeing to show a cute little girl kneeling on the floor of the bookstore and reading selflessly, and the childlike nature is touching. Liu Jude's Chinese painting "Under the Wisteria" takes youth as the object of expression, and the painter depicts three young people who concentrate on reading under the wisteria tree with bold and refined brushes and refreshing and pure colors. In the work, the young students' strong thirst for knowledge and the wisteria that grow freely in spring shine together, and the vigorous vitality surges in between. The "old book friends" who love to dig for books have also appeared in the pen of art workers many times. Qin Zejia's oil paintings "Book Market" and "Taoshu Memory" depict the crowded book market. In the picture, several middle-aged and elderly readers stand under the awning and look at the books, and the sunset appears warmer under the infiltration of the book fragrance.
Some artists focus their lenses on the moving reading moments of daily life, showing the appeal of books to people. For example, Wei Xinyi's Chinese painting "The Scavenger" depicts a scene of an old scavenger who has experienced many vicissitudes and sits on the bookshelf in his spare time, concentrating on reading. The author uses a paintbrush to convey profound reflections on the relationship between material life and spiritual life.
In the creation of reading themes, art workers not only reflect the good social atmosphere of reading for the whole people with their works, but also innovate in the language of painting. Overall, the number of Chinese paintings with reading themes is relatively large, of which Gongbi paintings account for the majority, and such works have made many useful explorations in terms of character modeling, composition layout, and the relationship between characters and the modern built environment. For example, Li Jiajin's Chinese painting "Just When Reading in the Spring Light" chooses a top-down perspective with high difficulty in expression, the picture composition is interspersed with square and straight lines, and the artistic language pursues diversity as much as possible to conform to the aesthetic habits of contemporary people.
Tell the story of the new changes around you
With the in-depth promotion of reading activities for the whole people, there are more and more new reading spaces such as 24-hour self-service libraries, rural bookstores, and community bookstores, realizing the ideal of people holding books anytime and anywhere. Artists are also keenly aware of this new trend in social development, using paintbrushes to show the new changes related to reading activities around them.
From bustling cities to vast villages, from coastal areas to inland frontiers, public libraries are gradually entering the lives of the masses. Wang Wenxin's Chinese painting "Shuxiang" focuses on the fresh reading experience brought by the "Prairie Bookhouse". In the hut, the walls are full of books and readers, an old man is reading the newspaper with relish, some "little readers" are sitting on the felt carpet and reading carefully, some are slowly looking for bookshelves, and it seems that they can smell the fragrance of books from the picture. Ren Fengming's Chinese painting "Learning the Sea Without End" depicts a city library. Among them, there are many shelves with a variety of books. Following these bookshelves, the reader seems to be able to step into the temple of knowledge step by step. In the Chinese painting "The Sharing Era of Culture and Technology" cooperated by Sang Jianguo, Zhang Xueming, Lu Meiling and others, the emergence of "smart bookhouse" reflects the convenience and efficiency brought by the combination of culture and technology to people's lives.
With the upgrading of cultural consumption patterns, some physical bookstores actively explore the road of transformation and try to introduce exhibitions, cultural creations and other content. Traditional bookstores have been transformed into modern cultural complexes with wide reading spaces, and some have even become landmarks of a city with novel design concepts. These have become the subjects that artists are happy to express. For example, Ji Pingping's Chinese painting "Books on the Mountain has a Road" depicts a group of young people selecting, reading and chatting in a modern urban bookstore. The cozy bookstore becomes the spiritual habitat of the reader.
In recent years, the widespread development of activities such as parent-child reading, campus reading, and community reading has also provided a wealth of creative materials for art workers. For example, Hu Mao's Chinese painting "Yue Reading" shows a variety of reading activities such as parents accompanying their children to read children's books, and reading together with three or two friends outdoors, and the warm tones convey the beauty of reading time. The rise of various types of book clubs has also provided a platform for exchanges and dialogues between different groups. Zhu Yong's sculpture "Sinan Reading Club" focuses on this cultural phenomenon. In the work, bookshelves filled with books point out the narrative background, and several book club participants sit around. Among them, a moderator with a microphone was speaking, and the others listened intently. In this instant, the viewer seems to become an audience, participating in this exchange of ideas with the protagonist of the sculpture.
The endless reading space and diversified forms of reading activities have made the social atmosphere of reading for all people more and more intense. These new achievements and new changes have also enriched the theme and content of contemporary art creation, and promoted the continuous innovation of painting techniques.
Art gives new connotations to the fragrance of books
Love books, so keep books. A separate study, a simple bookcase, and an elegant desk are an important part of Chinese reading at home for generations to come. Looking at the achievements of art creation on the theme of reading in recent years, it not only has a novel idea and a unique perspective, but also artistically expresses the deep emotion between Chinese and books.
In the creation of art on the theme of reading, there is a certain number of works that take the book itself as the object of expression. Works such as Li Shijin's oil painting "Shuxiang", Huang Ming's oil painting "Great Agarwood", Ye Nan's oil painting "Jiangshan Wanli Volume I" and other works all use books full of traces of time as the object of expression, and have made a variety of attempts in terms of material texture, artistic techniques, semantic elements and so on. Under the pen of the artist, these books that have been read by different people have been circulated through the long years, and because of the constantly added memories, they have a sense of life-like temperature and heaviness. Artists want to express their appreciation and respect for books through their works. In these book-themed creations, oil paintings show a unique artistic charm. To a certain extent, this kind of still life oil painting breaks through the mode of classical still life oil painting and highlights the localization language style of contemporary oil painting.
The shelves filled with books have also become the focus of the art works on the theme of reading. For example, He Hanming's oil painting "The Age of Books" depicts a special room - the shelves in the room are piled with books, and the viewer seems to wander in the ocean of knowledge. A mobile phone on the right side of the picture is charging, foreshadowing the background of the information age. The work tries to resonate with the audience in the memory of the past and the reflection on the future. Xiao Haibo's oil painting "The Power of Knowledge" artistically reproduces the shelves of various books in a super realistic way. It is as if through these books full of traces of age, paying tribute to knowledge and classics. It is not difficult to find that under the pen of art workers, books are not only the carriers of knowledge, but also the yearning of people for the book society and the pursuit of spiritual nourishment.
The cultivation of beauty is inseparable from reading, and high-quality reading is also inseparable from the participation and discovery of art. Therefore, art workers are not only participants and beneficiaries of the book society, but also should become promoters and promoters, so that the fragrance of books can flow in all directions with the bloom of the flower of art.
(The author is deputy director of the Institute of Fine Arts of the China Academy of Arts)
Typography: Wang Zheping