New exhibition丨 May, meet the soul-stirring flowers and birds

Hunan Daily, New Hunan Client, May 7 (Reporter Long Wenyang Correspondent Li Ye Lin Yuqian) Flowers that make people shake their hearts, trees with great life tension, like birds flying out of the picture... At the beginning of the warm and cool May, it is good to meet these soul-stirring flowers and birds. Today, the original exhibition "Flowers and Souls and Birds - Zou Chuan'an Art and Documentation Exhibition" sponsored by the Hunan Provincial Museum opened in the museum, showing the legendary life of Hunan painter Zou Chuan'an from porcelain craftsman to master of fine arts.

Zou Chuan'an, born in 1940 in Xinhua, Hunan, is a member of the China Artists Association and a librarian of the Hunan Provincial Research Museum of Literature and History. As one of the leading figures in contemporary Hunan Gongbi flower and bird painting, Zou Chuan'an has formed his own unique "Zou's flower and bird" style. His painting style has led a group of domestic Gongbi painters and laid the cornerstone for the contemporary transformation of Chinese Gongbi painting.

In 2013 and 2021, Zou Chuan'an donated more than 1,000 masterpieces, paintings and manuscripts of various periods to the Provincial Museum. This batch of works allowed the provincial museum to form a systematic collection of Zou Chuan'an's personal, and enriched and continued the museum's "Hunan Famous Artists Calligraphy and Painting Collection".

After systematic collation and research, the museum selected more than 300 pieces (sets) of calligraphy and painting works and documentary materials from the works and cultural relics donated by Zou Chuan'an and launched this exhibition. Through the four parts of carving insects and casting birds, I love Dan Qingzu Taoran, seeking life from the eaves of the Song people, and only now still knowing Xu Huang, the exhibition comprehensively shows the artist's artistic journey, characteristics and achievements from more than 60 years of art.

At the opening ceremony, Zou Chuan'an donated 399 representative works to the Hunan Provincial Museum.

It is worth mentioning that the Provincial Museum took Zou Chuan'an's late masterpiece "Years" as inspiration and planned and produced the documentary of the same name, "Years and Years". The film is divided into four chapters: "Spring", "Summer", "Autumn" and "Winter", which allude to the accumulation period, maturity period, innovation period and peak period of Zou Chuan'an's art with four seasons. In the exhibition hall, the paintings are placed in the same space as the special documentary of the same name, the art chronicle, and 32 diaries, forming a small theme display about "years". In addition to watching the exhibition, the audience can also sit in a quiet corner and feel the frankness and sincerity of the painter.

It is reported that the exhibition will last until June 8 and will be open to the public free of charge.

【Exhibition Details】

The first part is the carving of insects and casting birds of the old porcelain worker

Mr. Zou Chuan'an's experience in working at Xinhua Porcelain Factory from 1957 to 1985 was introduced. During his 28 years of work in the porcelain factory, he not only tried to produce and develop new products, designed many exquisite decorative patterns for export daily porcelain, but also used his spare time to be diligent in sketching and studying brush strokes. The origin of the porcelain worker did not keep Mr. Zou Chuan'an away from artistic creation, but pushed him to embark on the road of traditional painting.

"CH101 Tea Set" and "Butterfly Color Sketches" were the main works of the period.

Part II I love Dan Qingzu Taoran

It tells the story of Zou Chuan'an's creation in the context of The rise of fame in the national art circles since the 1980s, when Hunan art represented by Hunan Gongbi paintings entered a new development process.

At this time, Zou Chuan'an had entered the prime of his life, and the creation of Gongbi painting had also entered a small peak, and his painting style undertook the secrecy and realism of the Song Painting Academy, showing a deep and transparent aesthetic conception. With his superb skills, he stood out in various exhibitions in the province and also made a name for himself in national exhibitions.

At this stage, he was also invited to lecture in a number of art colleges and universities and creative classes, and wrote the systematic and wide audience of "Gongbi Flower and Bird Painting Technique", and gradually became one of the main forces of Hunan Gongbi flower and bird painting.

"Pear Pattern Dove" and "Liu Dan Yao Yu" are representative works of the period.

Part III: The Song people seek life outside the eaves

Since the middle of the 1980s, Zou Chuan'an has taken innovation as the driving force to deeply study and judge the tradition, believing that there is still room for extension in the creation of the traditional brush stroke and the performance of the state of the gods and gods, and should seek "life outside the eaves of the Song people" and strive to "break the existing program of the work stroke".

Based on this artistic concept, he strives to open up a new path of painting flowers and birds with the characteristics of the times, starting from taking the law of nature and paying attention to the relationship between the subject object and the living environment:

Replace the background blank space of traditional gongbi flower and bird paintings with a splash color background; Introduce the perspective of light to enrich the color and layer of the picture; Place the flowers and birds in a more magnificent landscape to enhance the sense of situation in the picture. After more than 20 years of exploration, he has established his own style of flower and bird painting.

Part IV Only today do I still know Xu Huang

"Xu Huang" refers to Xu Xi and Huang Quan, two examples of flower and bird painting in the Five Dynasties period, whose painting style and aesthetic taste had a profound impact on later generations of painters.

Zou Chuan'an has been committed to the creation and research of flower and bird painting for decades, going deep into tradition, stepping out of tradition, and then returning to tradition, freely swimming between contemporary and traditional, organically integrating personal aesthetic tastes with contemporary painting techniques, so that traditional art shines with new opportunities of the times.

The works of this period, such as "The Deep Of the Lotus Flower is My Hometown", "Ten Beautiful Summer Paintings", "Years", etc., abandon the signature splashing background and the integration of the main object, use lighter and more simple colors, emphasize the freehand of the lines, and reveal more deep ideological feelings and humanistic care between pen and ink, reflecting his reflections on the years of life and showing his ideal "holy land of flowers and birds".