Wang Hongen was born on December 26, 1954 in Lingtai County, Gansu Province. Graduated from the Fine Arts Department of Northwest Normal University. He is a professor at the School of Fine Arts of Northwest Normal University, a master tutor, and a visiting researcher at the Institute of Fine Arts of Dunhuang Research Institute. He was appointed by the Guazhou Cultural Relics Bureau of Gansu Province as the artistic director of the Dunhuang Grottoes - East Thousand Buddha Caves and Western Xia Mural Copying Research.
Wang Hongen has been immersed in Dunhuang art for more than thirty years, from the initial copying to the creation in recent years, he has shifted from the absorption of form to the feeling of Dunhuang art ontology. Tangible is invisible, Dunhuang art is no longer a sword in his hand, so many people will feel very strange after seeing Wang Hongen's paintings, you have studied Dunhuang art for so many years, how can you rarely see the influence of Dunhuang in the paintings? How is your drawing different from what I saw?
Dunhuang art has taken root in Wang Hongen's heart and naturally permeated his art. In his eyes, the greatest harvest given to him by Dunhuang art is not only the openness and richness of form, but also the concentration, nature, tranquility and simplicity embodied by the creators in the creative process under religious worship. It is a testimony of emotion and a unique temperament rare in art.
Judging from his recent works, Wang Hongen seems to have stayed away from Dunhuang in the choice of subject matter, but as he said: "I am not very interested in religious forms, but I have decided that life is religion." Painting, in the final analysis, is a kind of life, but also a religion. It is important to integrate into ordinary life with ordinary mentality and simple language, to reveal the things you feel to the end of the pen, and to create a new reality with ideals, which is in line with the needs of life and emotions. "
When many artists today rush to Dunhuang with a pious mentality, hoping to find inspiration from the dialogue with the murals and paint their art with a layer of sacred Dunhuang light, Wang Hongen, a painter who has been entangled with Dunhuang art for nearly thirty years, has turned around. From that moment on, in his eyes, the form of Dunhuang art no longer existed, and in his heart, Dunhuang had become his breath and blood, an undercurrent of his art, surging strongly and unknownly.
Because of this, when we admire Wang Hong'en's paintings, it is difficult to see the images and patterns of Dunhuang revealed in his paintings. It is not that it does not exist, but after getting rid of the simplification of the sense of form, it is implicitly absorbed and expressed. But this kind of distance learning and creation is not understood and accepted by more people, and he can only move forward alone with great difficulty and loneliness.
Photo excerpt from /Dunhuang Yi/Dunhuang Art Creation