Editor's Note
In the exploration and practice of contemporary Chinese painting creation, Feng Yuan is undoubtedly one of the most representative leading figures, his works are mostly based on reflecting historical themes and real life, the shape is vivid, the atmosphere of life is rich, the painting form is novel, especially good at creating large-scale epic works and classical poetry and painting works, representative works include Chinese paintings "The Great Wall", "Spark", "Mother and Child Diagram", "Qu Fu Words", "Century Wise Man", "Day by Day Map", "World" and so on.
In 2022, Feng Yuan entered the year of ancient rarity. From Beidahuang Zhiqing to graduate students of Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts, from professors and vice presidents of the Academy of Fine Arts to the curator of the National Art Museum of China, vice chairman of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, deputy director of the Central Research Museum of Literature and History, and honorary chairman of the China Artists Association, no matter how his identity is changed, Feng Yuan, as an artist, has never put down the brush in his hand, and in addition to his intense and busy work and affairs, he is always conceiving and creating. The "Endless Intentions - Feng Yuan Painting Art Exhibition", which is currently being held at the Art Museum of Tsinghua University, is the most systematic and complete summary of Feng Yuan's creative career, with nearly 200 works spanning up to 40 years, from which we can glimpse the traces and mental process of his exploration and practice of the language and paradigm innovation of Chinese objects.
On this occasion, Guangming Daily conducted an exclusive interview with Feng Yuan, and from his paintings and thoughts, we can also see the problems and explorations in the development of Chinese painting modernization.
"I see a bigger world"
——Interview with Feng Yuan, Honorary Chairman of the China Artists Association
Guangming Daily reporter Zhang Yumei Yu Yuanyuan Xu Xinyi
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent Feng Yuan (Chinese painting) to the Silk Road through the frontier
Mother and Son (Chinese painting) Feng Yuan
Ink Ancient Poetry Painting Meaning No. 6 (Chinese Painting) Feng Yuan
Reporter: In 2012, when you were 60 years old, you held an exhibition of "Pen and Ink Dust" at the National Art Museum of China, from the age of 60 to 70, ten years apart, two major exhibitions, from the perspective of the creation of works and the understanding of the realm of life, what new realizations and feelings did you have?
Feng Yuan: This exhibition is a review of this decade, most of them have selected new works, and the exhibition is relatively complete, with nearly 200 works exhibited in four units: Shangyi Humanities, Shang technology and gods, time history, and whether there is or not, all categories. At the age of 70, from the perspective of the human realm, after spending the early years of the natural realm, the realm of survival, and the realm of utilitarianism, it is time to express my understanding of life and the world with the professional skills I have learned.
Artists have their peak period of creation, and when they reach a certain age, they will always decline for various reasons, and no one can avoid such a law, so I want to take advantage of the physical strength to draw more works. After the age of 65, I completed a series of works, that is, the "To the New World" series: First, I painted "The Present", and on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, I painted "Citizen", which is expressed in the form of a collective portrait; In 2021, I completed my sister article "Chinese Humanistic Map", drawing history in depth, one painting the leaders and famous generals of the past, and the other painting famous educators, thinkers, and scientists since the pre-Qin Dynasty to pay homage to the sages; The third piece, "The World", which was just completed in April this year, was drawn according to the map of the world, the original starting point was the global fight against the epidemic, and then on the basis of the fight against the epidemic, other contents were integrated, showing the people and things that are happening in various countries.
If I want to talk about enlightenment, I see a larger world, and I see the various roles and different living conditions that human beings play in the community of destiny. I do have a small "ambition", and my creations are indeed more laborious, but as a person in the process of the times, I have added such a mission to myself, I want to express the wisdom of China, the strength of China, and show the spiritual outlook of the new era in an all-round and panoramic way.
Reporter: On the road of creating figure paintings, you have never been biased. There are also some artists engaged in the creation of figure paintings who have repaid flowers, birds and landscapes, and they may think that figure painting has its limitations and is not as "open" as painting landscapes, flowers and birds. In recent years, your large works have more and more characters and more complex compositions, so why insist on a seemingly thankless form of creation?
Feng Yuan: In my personal opinion, if a person's original specialty is figure painting, and then he changes to painting others, this is a free personal choice. A thousand worlds, rich and colorful. Landscape, flower and bird paintings have their own charm, and they do not have as strict requirements for "shape" as figure painting. Is it because it is difficult to draw figures, do you have to avoid it? Our predecessors had so many excellent figure painters, and those were all people with a certain sense of mission, from Jiang Zhaohe to later Fang Zengxian and Zhou Sicong... Who will promote the development of Chinese figure painting? My conscience told me that someone had to do it. To draw a good character painting, you must understand people, know people, and understand people in order to create works that touch people's hearts. Because man is the primate of all things in this world, he makes this world sound and color.
The transformation of figure painting, I have also done some exploration. In fact, I can also be like Picasso, painting exaggerated deformations, like the "Face of the Han Soul" in this exhibition, those works with some philosophical ideas, abstract forms. But after studying the expression of some Western contemporary art in the 1980s and 1990s, I returned to the original point. I think the most deadly thing about Western modern and contemporary art is that they can negate + negate and launch various innovative ideas, but I am afraid that it is difficult to produce shocking masterpieces, in addition to novelty, lack of connection with the spiritual world of people. If the artist only pays attention to the concept and style renovation, then the art may fall into shallow Mannerism. China is in such a stage of a century of change, and there is a lot of content that can be expressed, so I am back to the original point. Although I return to realism, there is no shortage of work that demands of me, but I am willing.
Reporter: Some people think that the content of your works is well arranged, the picture composition is meticulous, the plot is complete, and there is even a sense of "strength", leaving readers with relatively little room for thinking.
Feng Yuan: I think that the history of Chinese art is a history of "lack of calcium", and it is difficult to read the kind of character paintings of the Zhengda atmosphere and the Han and Tang Dynasties in the history of Chinese art, especially after Su Dongpo, who I admired very much, advocated literati painting, and the situation deteriorated. After the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, there were a large number of landscape paintings, flowers and birds paintings, which were very exquisite, especially after modern times, reaching the ultimate level, but in terms of figure painting, you can't see the grand narrative, and you can't see the momentum of "why don't boys take Wu hooks and collect guanshan fifty states". Perhaps because our feudal history is too long, a considerable number of cultural people in China are keen to find the emotions they want to express in the landscape, which is an external reason. However, I believe that every dynasty must have those paintings that are documentary, thematic, and grand narrative. Is it fair that our art history only relies on the aesthetic orientation of the scholar to choose the representative style of painting? I think the history of Chinese art should be re-examined, which is also my original intention to promote the major historical themes of the past century and the historical themes of Chinese civilization. Maybe the flaws in my work are exactly here, and I want to say too much and too full, so that I oppress the imagination of the audience. I also have a lot of light-hearted and lyrical works, such as "The Earth" in this exhibition, "Purple Bamboo February", etc., I did not deliberately "strong" to reflect a certain tall, stylized, conceptual concept, I just want to try to express the ideas I want to express as richly as possible, do not let the audience misunderstand.
Reporter: Looking back on your own creative process, you once said, "I have taken a path of 'art for life, art for form, art for life', which represents the pursuit of artistic values and attitudes towards life in different periods". What are some of these three "different arts" at all stages of your life?
Feng Yuan: Now I still think so.
In the first stage, "Art for Life," I painted the first series of works. At that time, I had just gone to school from Zhiqing, and when my villagers and fathers sent me to the truck and to the train station to take the train, I secretly made a wish, and when I learned the skill in the future, I must paint you and paint the people. My graduation project painted farmers. Then the second work I painted was Defending the Yellow River Trilogy. Later, I always wanted to paint a figure, as a spiritual symbol of the Chinese nation, and I wanted to come and go, and then a teacher from the Academy of Social Sciences said that you could paint Qu Yuan. In the early years, I also painted the kind of Qu Yuan who was cloaked, indignant, and indignated, and walked on the side of the song, but later I understood that he was martyred for an ideal, and must have tidied up his clothes and jumped down with a stone in his arms.
"Art for form", that is, later learning painting techniques in the academy, and then after various Western artistic trends came in, left and right suddenly wanted to break the traditional concept of painting. At the age of sixty or seventy, to my age, I really want to create for people, for heaven and earth, that is, "the art of life."
Reporter: In the article "Contemporary Chinese Painting: Not a Choice of Betrayal", you think that the exploration of Chinese painting can be more extensive, and future generations will not be able to open up cloth books, linen books, other paper books and various chemical costs, using generalized brushes and various pigments, paints, and chemical pigments. So, do you still think so about this open mind about the development of Chinese painting?
Feng Yuan: I still have an open view today. I had painted on sacks, on native white cloth, and tried tie-dye techniques, but I didn't show the whole process of exploration in my exhibition.
The development of Chinese painting has been all the way to the present, has it ended like this? I guess it shouldn't be. Chinese painting has shown a very prosperous and active state in recent years, which is directly related to an open mind. Just mentioned Chinese pen and ink, is the ancient Chinese literati used to write tools, transferred to the "same source of calligraphy and painting", it is a writing instrument cultivated, every change in Chinese painting materials will trigger a jump in the purpose of Chinese pictures. I feel that I can make bold changes, and even break up and reorganize some of the artistic elements of the Chinese tradition, just like the faces I paint. So doesn't the tool material need to be changed? Wu Guanzhong uses the brush very smoothly, the Chinese ink is also very similar to the black advertising pigment, ah, in the end we must evaluate the visual illustration, not what kind of material, what kind of pen. Therefore, I think that compared with the material, it is important that the work contains some of the essence of China's oriental spirit and traditional Chinese culture.
It cannot be said that Chinese painting has entered a closed stage by now, it still needs to develop, and any development is premised on the elimination of old elements. If we compare painting to 100% capacity, you have to add 20%, 30% of the innovative ideas, you have to eliminate 20%, 30% of the old elements. It is important to see the Chinese spirit in the works, as for what pens and paints to use, the young people in the future will be much bolder than us, just a generation to do a generation's work. I believe that after ten or twenty years, the art appreciation of ordinary chinese people will be greatly improved, so I have no doubt about the diversification of art in the future, and I believe that the future people will also have a more tolerant attitude towards artistic innovation.
Reporter: As a young general audience, if you lack professional aesthetic literacy, do not have enough experience and training, and sometimes you may feel that you can't understand and can't read Chinese painting in the face of Chinese painting, so how can you let young people really enter Chinese painting and understand Chinese painting?
Feng Yuan: This is the importance of aesthetic education, I think we have not done enough in publicity and popularization over the years, we must try to enhance their comprehensive cultivation and aesthetic vision. Interlaced like a mountain, if you want to understand many of the essential meanings of Chinese painting, you may have to gradually improve it with your age.
On the other hand, young people are easily affected by some modern ideas abroad, which is a very natural thing, so it is necessary to spend some energy on aesthetic education in colleges and universities, so that college students have some basic aesthetic literacy, which is also an in-depth understanding of traditional Chinese culture. In fact, there are some basic essentials to appreciating Chinese painting, and it is not so difficult. Interpretation of Western modern art to have a doorway, the same understanding of Chinese art and culture also has a key, young people are in the best age to absorb knowledge, I think if you can pass on the knowledge to them, they will be willing to understand.
Reporter: Looking forward to the eighty years old, how will your artistic practice change and expectations?
Feng Yuan: I do have some preliminary ideas, such as planning to write a book, organizing some of my insights, and some experiences and lessons, including some personal views on art, in words. There is also a vague idea, before you saw a lot of works are the external world, I think that after that I will do some creative exploration and experimentation on the inner world of people and the rich diversity of human nature.
Guangming Daily (2022.07.24 11th edition)
Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily