【艺旅回望】
Author: Wang Zhenyu (writer, author of "Li Jianchen, the Father of Chinese Watercolor Painting")
Inheritance is not in the past, and innovation is not separated from the source. In the creation of art, color is power.
——Li Jianchen (1900-2002)
In the winter of 1942, the National Art Exhibition was held in Chongqing. People linger in front of an oil painting called "The Wandering Child". The work depicts a ragged boy sitting on a hillside, his eyes bewildered and helpless, his left hand resting on all his belongings—a broken bamboo basket containing his sleeping mat and sheets. The leaves of the plants were yellowing and falling, but the poor child was barefoot. In front of the painting, a middle-aged man with tears in his eyes told the painter Li Jianchen that the child in the painting was exactly the same as his lost son, and he didn't know where he had wandered, and he decided to go back to his hometown to find it immediately.
Water Town (watercolor) Li Jianchen
Li Jianchen, whose real name is Li Ruhua, was born in 1900 in a scholarly family in Neihuang County, Henan Province, and after graduating from Henan Provincial First Normal School in 1922, he was admitted to the Beijing National Art School. During the ten years of teaching in Henan Provincial No. 1 Division, No. 5 Division, and Women's Normal School, Li Jianchen conducted systematic research on watercolor painting, solved the relationship between the three elements of watercolor painting, color, moisture, and time, and explored the dry painting method and wet painting method. In September 1937, Li Jianchen went to England to study, and returned to China in August 1939, determined to serve the motherland with his own brush.
The Beautiful Temple of Heaven (watercolor) Li Jianchen
Soon after returning to China, Lü Fengzi hired Li Jianchen as the director of the Western Painting Department of the Chongqing National Art School, and later succeeded Pan Tianshou as the dean. In August 1941, Li Jianchen was hired as a second-level professor in the Department of Architecture, School of Engineering, Central University, teaching watercolor painting. Since then, although the school has been restructured several times, he has been teaching in the Department of Architecture, Wu Liangyong, Zhong Xunzheng, Pan Guxi, Qi Kang, etc. are all his masters.
In addition to teaching, especially every summer vacation, Li Jianchen has to go out to sketch and paint. He combined his skillful Western painting techniques with oriental colors and moods to form a unique artistic language, and created a large number of watercolor paintings depicting the magnificent mountains and rivers of the motherland, scenic spots and historical sites, as well as ever-changing construction scenes. For example, the work "Morning" presents the construction scene of the Monument to the People's Heroes and won the first prize of Jiangsu Province Art Works; "Water Town" depicts the beautiful picture of the small bridge and flowing water in the water town in the south of the Yangtze River with bright brushstrokes; "East China Sea Wind and Cloud" uses unrestrained colors to render the majestic melody of the storm and clouds between the sea and the sky; and "Beautiful Temple of Heaven" highlights the magnificence of ancient Chinese architecture with colorful colors. His watercolor paintings are rich in subject matter, timeless in artistic conception, and have a strong artistic appeal.
The Goose Girl (Chinese painting) Li Jianchen
In 1958, Li Jianchen's "Watercolor Painting Techniques" was in short supply upon its publication, and was reprinted 12 times in Hong Kong alone, and distributed all over the world, becoming a model for watercolor painting lovers to learn Xi. Later, "Watercolor Painting Creation Techniques" was published, which condensed Li Jianchen's decades of creative experience.
For a long time, Li Jianchen has been good at both Chinese and Western paintings, insisting on "walking on two legs", and has created a lot of oil painting, watercolor painting, and Chinese painting at the same time. In 1959, he accepted the task to create the oil painting "Rushing to Repair Shanghai Airport" for the Military Museum of the Chinese Revolution, and later created huge oil paintings such as "Princess Wencheng", "Cai Wenji" and "Thick Summer", as well as a large number of watercolors with the characteristics of the times. In the 80s, Li Jianchen devoted himself to the research and innovation of Chinese painting, calling himself "picking up the missing pieces and filling in the gaps". He tried to combine the colors and compositions of Western painting with the traditional brushwork of Chinese painting, creating works with rich colors and new styles, injecting the vitality of the times into ancient Chinese paintings. Chinese paintings such as "Summer Morning", "Jinling Spring", "Magnificent Wind and Cloud" are rich and elegant, rich and fresh, and those works with character themes such as "Tang Dynasty Poet Li Bai" and "Weaver Girl" are "also Chinese and Western and me, flesh and blood, flesh and god".
Autumn News (watercolor) Li Jianchen
In November 1991, the "Li Jianchen Jiuyi Painting Exhibition" was held, and many people came to buy paintings, but they were all rejected by Li Lao. He said: "My paintings will not be sold, and they will be donated to the country in the future." Later, Mr. Li donated all the fine paintings he made during his life to art institutions in Jiangsu Province and Henan Province and the collection of the National Art Museum of China. In recognition of Li Jianchen's outstanding contributions to art creation and art education, the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the China Artists Association awarded him the highest national academic award in the field of fine arts, the China Fine Arts Golden Color Award Achievement Award, in June 2001. May Li Jianchen's artistic and innovative spirit be passed on from generation to generation, inspire future generations, and carry it forward.
Guangming Daily (December 24, 2023 09 edition)
Source: Guangming Net-Guangming Daily