"If I spend thirty years, I can surpass the Eight Mountain People." This is Mr. Fan Zeng's evaluation of himself, which means that if God lends me another 30 years, my painting art will be able to surpass the Bada Shanren. Is this really the case?
(1) Eight mountain people
Who are the Bada Shan people? Bada Shanren' name was Zhu Yun, a painter and calligrapher in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, who became a monk after the fall of the Ming Dynasty, and because of his sadness, he became a monk, and later became one of the "four monks" in the early Qing Dynasty. As a royal family member, Zhu Yun was worried that he would be cut down by the Rulers of the Qing Dynasty and had to live in seclusion in the mountains and forests. He gave himself a name, called bada mountain people.
Zhu Yun's 4 characters can be seen as eight bull ears when taken apart and solved. We have a word that says that holding power is called holding the cow's ear, Zhu Yun removed the two words of the cow's ear, and became the eight great, and the reclusive mountain forest became a mountain person, so together they were called the eight mountain people. The 4 words of the Eight Mountain People, if written vertically, can be pronounced as laughter, can also be pronounced as crying, which is suitable for the free, crying and laughing casual character of the high people who live in the mountains and forests.
His painting characteristics focus on the status and momentum of the picture layout, the painting layout highlights the timely, surprising, ingenious characteristics, if you find the lack of picture layout, sometimes on the painting to mention poetry, supplement the meaning. Noh can poetry, exquisite calligraphy, painting with a sense of meaning - several aspects complement each other, which is the ingenuity of bada Shanren's paintings. Bada Shanren has always been regarded as a "benchmark" by the traditional Chinese calligraphy and painting circles.
(2) Fan Zeng's madness
Dare to say so wildly, Fan Zeng is not "poor and white", it is true that there are two brushes. First of all, the reason why Fan Zeng dares to say that he can match the Bada Shanren in painting is indeed because in the current mainland Chinese painting market, Fan Zeng's painting style is quite popular. He has been at the top of the Hurun Art List for several consecutive years, and his paintings are very popular with collectors in the art market, with a turnover rate of more than 90% for many years in a row, which is very rare for a painter.
In 2011 alone, Fan Zeng's works reached a total transaction of 940 million yuan, of which the highest price of a single painting was 69 million yuan, which was his "Eight Immortals Picture Mirror Heart" created in 1997. There is also his famous work "Lao Tzu Out of customs", the auction price of 11.04 million yuan. Secondly, Fan Zeng's ink style is unique, that is, the "iron wire painting style" that netizens make fun of, and in some of his paintings, he can indeed see the shadow of "taking poetry as the soul and books as the bone", and his creation can be as productive as the assembly line, and he is still the first person in China. No wonder some people jokingly call him a "money printing machine", and even say that the printing machine is not as fast as he makes money.
After making a fortune, Fan Zeng also did a lot of charity in various parts of the motherland, including during the Wenchuan earthquake and the Yushu earthquake, donated a total of more than 20 million yuan to the disaster area for disaster relief. This move also attracted the attention of netizens across the country, and people realized that a calligrapher and painter could be so rich. Even so, Fan Zeng's wild words still attracted the ridicule of netizens, who believe that his paintings only imitated the shape of the Bada Shanren, but did not learn his meaning, no wonder some people say that Fan Zeng's paintings are like "reading pictures and literacy", as shallow as comic strips, lacking in artistic conception.
"Live another 30 years, surpass the Bada Shanren", this is Fan Zeng's arrogance and self-confidence, but many netizens have made up a fatal knife: "I can live for 30 years!" ”