Wang Bu's artistic achievements and height of qinghua can be described as unprecedented and difficult to come after the ancients; he does not dare to say anything, and he is worthy of being unprecedented.
To be more precise, from 1855 to 1976, in these 121 years, Jingdezhen porcelain painting artists either light dai, or pastel, or blue and white, or comprehensive decoration, successfully created a very mature Chinese painting on porcelain.
The richness and diversity of Chinese porcelain porcelain art and painting art expressions in this period are groundbreaking in the history of China's porcelain decoration for more than 2,000 years.
Mr. Wang Bu's artistic creation path is roughly divided into three stages.
The first stage, 1907-1926: apprenticeship
In 1907, the 9-year-old Wang Bu went to Jingdezhen alone to learn art, and made a living by painting bird food pots, while being an apprentice, he copied Yongxuan and Kangxi Qinghua in large quantities.
Wang Bu early blue flowers
In 1926, Wu Xiasheng, a master of Wang Bu'en, a porcelain maker and the founder of the famous "Jade Aya Kiln" porcelain tire, died first. Wang Bu began to get rid of antique copying and gradually formed his own style.
After 19 years of basic skills training and 19 years of lying down and tasting courage, Wang Bu went to himself and has been alone in the world ever since.
This spirit may not be like the "pursuit of art" as interpreted today, but the "dedication of the craftsmen" to the industry standard in the old days.
The second stage, 1926-1949: maturity
The works of Wang Bu in this period are fresh and natural, refreshing, and the biggest difference between them and the traditional blue and white is that the porcelain tires are like jade like aya, and the blue flowers are as clear as the 5,000-meter plateau sky. Blue is divided into five colors, the layers and excesses are extremely natural, the depths are as transparent as the deep sea, and the light places are as leisurely as white clouds. All the brushstrokes are covered with nails and rat tails, which are elegant and natural, and extremely pleasing to the eye.
Wang Bu ripening blue flowers
In 1937, the Anti-Japanese War broke out, and in view of the current situation and market factors, Wang Bu changed his painting to pastel. Mr. Wang Bu's pastel works are also like his blue and white, with unique style and high recognition.
Wang Bu ripening blue flowers
The third stage, 1949-1968: the peak of art
After the founding of New China, Mr. Wang Bu entered the Ceramic Research Institute of the Ministry of Light Industry to work, if Wang Bu was a top art craftsman in the Republic of China period, then after the founding of the People's Republic of China to 1968, Mr. Wang Bu completed the transformation from a top art craftsman to a top artist.
Any artist who is admired by the world has a process of transformation.
For example, Zhang Daqian, who was a contemporary of Wang Bu.
Mr. Zhang Daqian is one year younger than Wang Bu. Zhang Daqian's early works are always inseparable from the shadows of his predecessors, such as the shadow of Shi Tao in the landscape and the shadow of the Dunhuang mural in the figure.
In 1965, Mr. Zhang Daqian traveled to Lake Aachen in Austria. Three years later, in 1968, the year of Mr. Wang Bu's death, Mr. Zhang Daqian created the world-renowned masterpiece "Love Trace Lake".
"Love Trace Lake" swept away Zhang Daqian's past creative style, abstract ink and color spilled out of the mountains and waves surging in the picture, the style was reborn, Zhang Daqian became the real Daqian himself, reaching the real artistic peak of Zhang Daqian.
The same is true of Mr. Wang Bu. The Ceramic Research Institute of the Ministry of Light Industry is the highest ceramic research and production institution after the founding of the People's Republic of China, and has concentrated the top ceramic talents and technologies in China. From the decline of the Official Kiln of Chinese porcelain to the turmoil of Xianfeng after qianlong until its dissolution in 1855, there was no supreme porcelain-making system for nearly 100 years. Until the establishment of the Ceramic Research Institute of the Ministry of Light Industry after the founding of the People's Republic of China.
The technical indicators and artistic standards of the institute are not inferior to those of the Ming and Qing dynasty official kilns. It can also be called "New China Official Kiln". Mr. Wang Bu, who works here, benefits from the shared resources of the country, coupled with his unique skills in ingredients and rich artistic expression, and his artistic creation has also had a leaping foundation for rebirth.
Since then, Wang Buyi has changed the delicate and meticulous and fresh expression methods of the Republic of China period, and the blue and white renders a large area of water from thick to light, and the five colors are integrated, and the artistic tension is as smooth as Xu Qingteng's ink, and the smokeless fire atmosphere is breathless.
In the composition layout, Wang Bu often leaves a large blank space, striving to make the picture clean and clear, while at the same time making the blank space without image become the space of the image. The picture is ethereal and open, and the atmosphere is majestic without losing details, just like the beautiful abruptness of the Eight Mountain People, in order to impact the vision.
Wang Bu's art is at its peak in blue and white
The reason why artists become top artists is because they have matured and created their own art, they are no longer anyone, but themselves, and then people continue to worship and imitate and learn from them.
The excellence of Mr. Wang Bu is that he has become an excellent self very early, and then sublimated from an excellent self to a higher self. Thus laying the foundation for posterity's cognition of "one king step in five hundred years".
This is the immortality of art!
By the way, Mr. Wang Bu was a big handsome guy back then.
Wang Bu's family portrait (Wang Bu is wang bu in the middle row, second from the right) taken in 1963