Wang Mingming, born in May 1952, is a native of Penglai, Shandong. Famous contemporary Chinese painter. Director of the Art Committee of Beijing Academy of Fine Arts, first-class artist, librarian of the Central Museum of Culture and History. He used to be the deputy director of the Counsellors' Office of the State Council, the deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture, the president of the Beijing Painting Academy, the vice chairman of the China Artists Association, the chairman of the Beijing Artists Association, and the vice chairman of the Beijing Federation of Literary and Art Circles. Experts enjoying special allowances from the State Council.
Li Zhiyi's "Bu Operator Lovesickness" lyric intention 71cm×30cm Wang Mingming, 2015
The "innovative" view of Chinese painting
Any aspiring painter dreams of achieving breakthroughs and transcendences in creation, and is often burdened by "innovation".
Looking at the classics of Chinese painting throughout the ages, we will find that the most attractive and moving part of a work is not its "creation" or "newness", but depends on the artist's self-expression, and all forms and techniques are external attachments that serve this purpose and cannot exist in isolation. Therefore, focusing only on form and technique "innovation" can only be regarded as superficial.
Liu Fangping, "Moon Night", poetic intention, 71cm×30cm, Wang Mingming, 2017
The newness of Dong Yuan lies in the pen that is not strange, the newness of Song Huizong lies in the subtlety and the combination of form and spirit, the newness of Zhao Ziang lies in having poetic feelings, the newness of Qian Xuan lies in being unswerving and not falling into the dust, the newness of Huang Gongwang lies in the bones and body, the newness of Ni Yunlin lies in the remoteness and coldness, high and elegant, the newness of Dong Qichang lies in self-confidence and harmony, fresh and elegant, the newness of Xu Wei lies in being wild and uninhibited, the newness of the eight major lies in the ink dots without many tears, the new of Qi Baishi lies in the simplicity and natural interest, and the newness of Huang Binhong lies in the thick huazi... On the surface, their works are new in schemas and techniques, but in fact they are new in the artist's ideological realm, new in personality and new in emotional appeal. With the development of the times, the problems faced by painters are changing, and their vision and pursuit are changing accordingly, which has promoted the transformation of Chinese painting. No matter how it develops, its inner aesthetic spirit has not changed, and there is a connection and inheritance of cultural context. Huang Binhong once said: "Painting has a national character, but no epochality, although the appearance changes due to the times, the spirit does not change." Therefore, it is more accurate to use "inheritance and development" to describe this unique development law of Chinese painting than to use the word "innovation".
Wang Anshi, "The Residence of Dinglin", poetic intention, 71cm×30cm, Wang Mingming, 2007
Among the traditional families, the painter with the most "innovative" consciousness is Shi Tao. He emphasized that "I use my own method" and "the ancient mustache cannot be satisfied with my face". However, he put a lot of effort into tradition, and in his early years, he extensively studied the strengths of successive generations of painters, especially Ding Yunpeng and Dong Qichang, and involved calligraphy, poetry and other artistic disciplines. Shi Tao has a pioneering and innovative spirit, but he does not deny tradition, cut off history, and establishes the new instead of shattering the old, but borrows the ancient to open up the present and integrate the ancient method as our law. It is worth mentioning that Shi Tao's "pen and ink should be of the times" has been taken out of context and misquoted by many people.
Wei Yingwu, "Autumn Night Sending Qiu Yuanwai", poetic intention, 71cm×30cm, Wang Mingming, 2007
At the visual level, although Eastern and Western paintings have common things, in order to truly understand Chinese painting, we must also enter the context of Chinese culture. The problem now is that Chinese painting is often evaluated in other contexts, and the length of the resulting is unnatural. Rooted in Chinese soil, absorbing the nutrients in it, flowering and fruiting must of course have Chinese characteristics. Using pen and ink to perceive the world or perceive life, expressing the cognition of nature, society and related politics, philosophy, religion and other aspects, advocating freehand, attaching importance to artistic conception and charm, condensing distant moods and explosive emotions on one piece of paper, can be described as the uniqueness of Chinese painting's aesthetics.
Zhang Ruoxi's Spring River Flower and Moon Night, Poetic Intent 71cm×30cm, Wang Mingming, 2018
Compared with other types of painting, Chinese painting shows some "limitations" in terms of aesthetic purpose, expression and teaching inheritance, and the space for play is relatively small. This is precisely the charm of its charm, which guarantees the purity of its "bloodline" and its height. In fact, Chinese painting is a matter of "spring and white snow", which requires the viewer to have a certain cultural background and cultural level, otherwise it is impossible to understand the mystery. Some Western concepts and techniques cannot be grafted on Chinese painting without restraint, otherwise the charm of Chinese painting will disappear. Once the uniqueness of national cultural crystallization is destroyed, its spiritual value will inevitably be weakened. Although those so-called "pioneering" works are superficially above history, they only have superficial semantics, but they are difficult to become classics, let alone inheritable.
Zhang Xu's "Peach Blossom Stream" poetic intention 71cm×30cm Wang Mingming, 2019
Looking back at the development history of Chinese painting for more than 2,000 years, we will find that although it has a "limited" side, it is also very inclusive, and its "hematopoietic" function is no less than any other art form in the world, and it has never refused to absorb nutrients from other art categories. In this way, Ren Bonian, Lin Fengmian, Guan Liang, Jiang Zhaohe, Li Keran appeared... They are all artists who have made outstanding achievements in the integration of China and the West, and each of them has a firm stance on Chinese culture, and they are very in awe and admiration for traditional culture in their hearts. Although they learned and borrowed some Western concepts, they did not use them to transform Chinese painting, but digested, absorbed, integrated into the context of Chinese culture, organically combined with Chinese art, and finally became an artistic language with Chinese characteristics. No one said they were painting Western. This is wisdom.
The experience of our predecessors is our inexhaustible wealth, find our own foothold from traditional, localized and folk content and form, activate our own creative inspiration through acquisition, digestion and absorption, and inject new vitality into the traditional spirit - the painter's own reaction to the times, life and nature, and realize and complete a new creative process, which is the correct concept of "innovation" of Chinese painting. The spirit of inheriting tradition cannot be mistakenly understood as Chen Chen Xiangyin, and if the achievements of predecessors are only "copied", the brilliance of Chinese painting will only gradually diminish, weaken, and eventually disappear.