A brief introduction to the art of Wang Kuohai, the founder of Chinese New Han Ink Painting
Wang Kuohai (formerly known as Wang Kehai), born in Zhaoyuan City, Shandong Province in 1952, enlisted in the army in 1970, graduated from the Chinese Painting Department of the People's Liberation Army Academy of Arts in 1989, and is currently a senior consultant of the Calligraphy and Painting Professional Committee of the Chinese Talent Research Association and director of the Art Talent Expert Steering Committee, the honorary president of the Hanmo Calligraphy and Painting Academy in Beijing, China, the former chairman of the Artists Association of Central State Organs, the vice chairman of the Calligraphers Association of Central State Organs, the seventh director of the China Artists Association, and CCTV's "Interview with Large High-end Figures" Column art consultant, director of the Chinese Painting Society, executive director of the Chinese Gongbi Painting Society. He is a full-time painter in the creation room of the Political Department of the Second Artillery Corps and a national first-class artist. He is a judge of the senior title of the whole army, an art committee member of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Calligraphy and Painting Art Research Institute, the president of the China Han Painting Art Research Institute, and a senior graduate tutor of Tsinghua, Renmin University and Rongbaozhai Painting Academy. Chairman of the Academic Committee of the International University of Chinese Painting and Calligraphy, tenured professor.
Mr. Wang Kuohai's research and innovation in the art of ink painting in New Han Painting is the culmination of more than 50 years of experience in brush and ink and plastic arts. He has long been devoted to the study of Chinese painting art theory and traditional brush and ink techniques, advocating the comprehensive inheritance of Chinese painting traditions, advocating the broad and majestic cultural spirit of the Han Dynasty, and absorbing the essence of Han bricks, Han tiles, and Han portrait stone carving art, communicating the soul between Han portrait stone carving and Chinese brush and ink, and eclectic relief, murals, Tang Sancai, bronze, painted pottery, gold and stone, oracle bones, paper-cutting, The essence of folk art and classical art such as shadow puppetry, which has opened up the joints and lifelines of various cultures for 5,000 years, combined with Chinese literati painting and boneless ink painting, and transformed and integrated it into a modern ink and wash pattern, which is praised by the art world as "Wang Kuohai's new Han painting art". Form your own unique artistic language and formal symbols. And far inherited Song Liangkai's "Splashing Ink Immortals", connected to the Eight Mountain People, and close to Zhang Daqian, pushing the Chinese painting without bones to a new field. Integrating his own poetry and calligraphy education, he pushed his own new Chinese painting art to a high-quality, high-quality, high-grade literati painting realm. His New Han Dynasty paintings exalt the cultural and spiritual essence of the Han nation, which is broad and vigorous, strong and unrestrained, simple and elegant, rich in bookishness, endured and savored, wild and subtle, free and powerful. His works create a kind of blending illusion between the ink and color, which seems to be there but is not, what seems to be nothing but there is, and the mystery enters the door of all wonders. With the neoclassical style, it shows a new direction for the development of Chinese ink painting. He is recognized as the founder of Chinese New Han Painting Art. In 2018, Mr. Wang Kuohai's original Chinese painting technique won the invention patent right of the State Intellectual Property Office, becoming the first person to obtain a national invention patent for Chinese painting techniques since the founding of the People's Republic of China. In 2019, the "Wang Kuohai New Han Painting Art Museum" was completed in Tengzhou City, Shandong Province and an academic unveiling ceremony and academic seminar were held.
Let's talk about everyone's meteorology - to the open sea
The guest has asked what is the atmosphere of art, what is the weather of a small family, what is the weather of everyone, and what is the atmosphere of masters and masters?
Meteorologist: In a nutshell, it's air. The breath of man is also angry, and the breath of the soul is also angry. The atmosphere of art should refer to the soul, not the material. Where to carve red cut cui, carving insect skills, relish in a view, what it does, only talk about it
The entertainment of the ears and eyes, which increases the blockage of the human soul, this small family meteorological ear. Where the clouds are sent to make the moon, the skills are refined to slay the dragon, and all things are restored, what they do, how can the speed of the official sense be limited? As for the master, he is the commander in the army and the commander of the article. Art into the Tao, thinking of the waves, sorrow full of pools, so its weather is generous, can not be traced, every look at its inner purification is not words can be described. More masters, then Mencius's so-called "five hundred years will have a king to prosper" also, and the spirit of heaven and earth to return, the reason in the reason, the image outside the image, the touching of his works like Sanskrit drums, church bells, the heart to the silence, the meaning to return to the light, like the sun, moon and stars of the sky, rivers and springs of the line, no place is not round, there is no trace, as for the art, can be described as the realm. The devil at the top, may not be seen once in five hundred years, the beginning of humanity is still missing, and I don't want to put it in my beak.
The guest also asked: What is the weather of the broad sea? Every time the ten wings look at their people, they are wise and simple, wise and straight, and all the words they say are the traces of the heart, slightly unobstructed, and the big husband is also down. Looking back at his paintings, he swallows the great wilderness, travels in the heart, and is not a small spit of a small master. All of these are in line with the above-mentioned analysis of everyone's meteorology, and the unbridled pen comes from the courage and vastness of the feelings in the mind.
The sketch of the Ten Wings View of the Broad Sea, as subtle and vast as possible, the horse and the Russian master Phison competed, so it is known that the broad sea is vertical and horizontal, and has a solid foundation. The sketches made can especially reveal the fleeting impression in the sketches, and those who are not talented cannot achieve this. Kuohai is a master of freehand, chasing its reason, covering the knowledge of the thick and high, broad and deep, non-shallow scholars can dream.
The theory of the six laws of Chinese painting was described in detail by the ancients, but those who did not know its essentials were not practitioners of large-scale strokes. In the rest of the view, there are only two of the six methods that need to have a vivid rhyme and a bone method with a pen, and the other four methods are among them. Pictograms, colors, and positions are all necessary conditions for vividness, and mold shifting is the last thing for the painter. And the boneless method with the pen, like no way to stand, God will be entrusted with the charm of the great sea, the charm of the vivid, needless to say, and its pen ups and downs, wrist strength is outstanding, so its painting has a shocking power. The viewer is difficult to move in front of the painting, and the brush and ink are charming because of their rich content. The broad sea is not only a person in the army, so its wandering eyes are often heavy on the big ones, the style of the military is galloping and unstoppable, and its courage is beyond the pen of Wang Xizhi. In short, in terms of qi rhyme and bone law, we have no doubts about the broad sea.
In recent years, Kuhai has advocated the "art of new Han painting", and in one of his eloquent speeches, I read his analysis of the six characteristics of the art of new Chinese painting. I am a poet, and I have the nature of a poet, and I think he talks heavily. The simplest explanation of his new Han paintings is to borrow the cups of the Han Dynasty and pour personalized wine to pour their own blocks, and fight wine for ten thousand years, which is the real Kuohai. With Brother Li Cunbao's article on the vast sea in front, it is inevitable that I will continue to mink, but for Li Wenkuo's paintings, I have the following destruction:
Li Wen said that Gou Kuohai is in the business field and on the battlefield, the former will lose his foundation, and the latter will lose, these are all uncertain conjectures, listen to his words and judge his deeds, people are very good, and Kuohai will gallop in any field, for example, with a platoon of stormtroopers, he is definitely a warrior who takes the lead in "cutting off the heads of devils with a big sword", as for whether he can strategize, that is suspenseful. So I think of the painting of the broad sea, the broad sea does have the character of Zhuangzi's "indulgence but not indulgence", but the realm of "grand and open, deep and unbridled" should be the ultimate goal of the broad sea. At that time, the paintings would be like Cao Mengde's poem: "The water is surging", not forever the waves and holes, this is what I hope for the open sea: in addition to the vertical and horizontal air, there is more rushing and melting energy, and in addition to the wanton, there is more restrained. What we look forward to in the open sea is not just a lone hero who immediately crosses the sword, but a calm general, and at that time, we will call him a master.
Fan Zeng
Midsummer in Beijing Bishui Villa
Put the straight dry "book" without bones
——Viewing Mr. Wang Kuohai's "New Han Painting" art
Commentary: Wu Yongqiang (Art Critic, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor of Sichuan University)
Looking at Mr. Wang Kuohai's works, at first glance, we will think of the Han Dynasty portrait stone. Following the direction of this association, we will travel through the time tunnel to the depths of the history of Chinese civilization, and see the traditional art factors that have had the greatest influence on Mr. Wang Kuohai. Indeed, the Han Dynasty portrait stone is enough to serve as a prototype, allowing us to identify Mr. Wang Kuohai's unique works from the complex contemporary paintings. His art is therefore known as the "Art of New Han Painting".
Mr. Wang Kuohai is mainly a figure painter. Over the past half century or so, his pen has featured characters of many themes, involving real life, historical stories, myths and legends, theatrical stages, poetic conceptions, and philosophical interests; among them are ancient civil servants, military generals, ladies, and nobles, as well as today's generals, soldiers, neighbors, and ethnic minority compatriots; there are memories of the eventful years, and songs for the era of peace; there are the heroic shouts and thrilling battles of the soldiers, as well as the customs of daily life and the labor of ordinary people...... Its shape and language style are first and foremost due to the requirements of the theme and subject matter. For example, his military-themed works are vigorous and powerful; his customs scenes, domestic animal images, and opera characters are lively and interesting; and his Bogu series of works are far away and exude the charm of high antiquity. Therefore, on the whole, although the forms of Mr. Wang Kuohai's works are rich and diverse, the forms never go their own way, and they conscientiously meet the needs of content expression, so as to highly echo the content of the paintings, and together constitute an aesthetic whole.
But, as we are well aware, the relationship between the form and the content of a work of art is a dialectical one, and the content determines the form, which is certainly good as a general law. However, form is also relatively independent, and when form demands the exercise of its independent right, it is bound to show a reaction force to the content. It is precisely in the mutual restraint of action and reaction that the work of art becomes a harmonious and unified perfect organism. The rich linguistic forms and stylistic styles of Mr. Wang Kuohai's works certainly respond to the needs of the content expression of specific works, but in his long artistic career, the language style based on the artist's personality temperament and subject cultivation still grows irrepressibly, which makes his works show a changing and constant rhythm, and often shows a strong personality with its reaction to the specific expression content.
Mr. Wang Kuohai is good at both brushwork and freehand, ink and color, but a large proportion of his works are freehand and ink paintings. Even if it is a fine brushstroke, it is often involved in the small freehand component, and it is changed to a chapter that is written in the work, and is accepted and put inside. There is no lack of beautiful works in his works, but most of the time he is stingy with color, either allowing the ink to be colorful, or using ink to light color,—— or slightly applying variegation in the thick ink of the thick brush, or slightly dyeing and applying light compress in the light ink - it can be modified from the so-called "pen to establish its shape and quality, ink to divide its yin and yang" to "ink to establish its shape and quality, color to increase its brilliance". In his freehand ink paintings, there are not only the white-drawn subtractive images that are formed by lines and can be completed by just a few brushstrokes by Xiao Xiao, but also the structured images that are shaped by the interweaving of lines and dots, lines and dyeing, as well as the ink-falling images that are linked and dyed, and the ink-falling images that change lines into surfaces, and at the same time there are boneless images formed by not fake bone lines, relying on splashing ink and hitting water. For example, some of his sketches are white-painted and sloppy, while his masterpieces on the theme of the revolutionary war, such as "Iron Bone Soul Defending China" and "Flying to Capture the Luding Bridge", have a complex structure interspersed with lines and planes, which combine the sketches of Western paintings, the lines, smudging and rubbing of Chinese paintings, giving the figures a full volume and dense texture, and making the whole picture achieve a powerful and majestic effect; Some opera characters or poetic images integrate the method of hooking into the pen and ink, and their luck is where they move, but they see the pen and ink will meet, and the color will follow the ink, hearty. Today, in this series of works with a Bogu theme, we have seen the pure work of the boneless method. The stone shapes of Han paintings are transformed into phantoms of water and light, forming a series of images of "New Han Paintings".
However, if we only put Mr. Wang Kuohai's "New Han Paintings" into today's Bogu series, it will be too superficial. In fact, the reason why Mr. Wang Kuohai's creations can stand alone under the name of "New Han Painting" is that they have systematically inherited and transformed a whole art world from the portrait stones of the Han Dynasty. It includes not only the extraction of the artistic spirit of the Han Dynasty on which the portrait stone depends, but also the reference to the shape of the Han painting stone. Mr. Lu Xun said, "But the stone carvings of the Han Dynasty are deep and majestic", so "I think about how many Han people are free", and sigh that their "courage is magnificent". Looking at Mr. Wang Kuohai's military series of works, we can't help but feel "deep and majestic" and "how much Hongfang"; and looking at his series of domestic animals such as "Donkey" and some opera characters or poetic images, we will think of Mr. Lu Xun's praise of the art of stone carving in the Han Dynasty, such as "no restraint" and "let go of the straight work". As for the Bogu series unfolding in front of our eyes today, what can allow us to connect it with the Han painting stone is not only its figures or chariot and horse shapes, but also its inner display and vitality, which are also - as Mr. Lu Xun said - full of energy projection. Therefore, in terms of its relationship with the art of Han painting and stone, Mr. Wang Kuohai's creation is actually a dialectical unity of spirit and image, although it is sometimes emphasized, but the two have never been separated. It is precisely because of this that they have achieved a complete art system of "New Han Painting".
Mr. Lu Xun said: "Only writers and viewers who are full of energy can give birth to the art of 'power'." I am afraid that the picture of 'putting it straight and doing it' will be difficult to survive in a decadent and small society. Mr. Wang Kuohai's "New Han Painting" is first and foremost a kind of "force" art, which is based on his personal vigorous artistic vitality and is promoted by the great power of the times. The former stems from his sincere love for art, and the latter stems from his attachment to the land in which he lives. More than 40 years of military career has cultivated Mr. Wang Kuohai's deep affection for the army and the officers and men in the army, and he has a special understanding of what is the "iron bone and steel soul". Tracing back the eventful years, he used the theme of revolutionary war to express his praise for this kind of iron and steel soul, and explored the long history of the Han and Tang dynasties, and found the long context of this iron and steel soul in the Han and Tang dynasties. He has an untiring passion for traditional Chinese culture. However, in his view, the Chinese art tradition is not only the literati art tradition from the Song and Yuan dynasties, but more importantly, the Han and Tang dynasties, which pursue the beauty of power and the general atmosphere. He used the Han painting stone as a model, in order to trace the ancient saints and sages of the Divine Society, found a carrier for the art of entrusting the "power" in his heart, and excavated a source of inspiration for experiencing the pleasure of "putting the pen and doing it straight".
Mr. Wang Kuohai's "New Han Painting Art" is based on Han painting stones, but its soil exceeds the capacity of Han painting stones themselves. It takes the shape and spirit of the Han painting stone as the backbone, plunges the root system into folk art at one end, and extends to literati art at the other, absorbing nutrients extensively, and finally cultivating itself into a big tree. The former includes shadow puppetry, paper-cutting, Tang Sancai, woodblock prints, New Year paintings, reliefs, opera masks, and linemen, while the latter includes a rich range of literati ink paintings since the Song and Yuan dynasties, with the "boneless method" as the quintessence.
It is generally believed that the boneless method began in the Southern Tang Dynasty and became the grandson of Xu Xi, Xu Chonghe. Although the "Xuanhe Painting Spectrum" contains a piece of Xishu Huang Qian's "Boneless Flower Branch Drawing", and the "Dongtian Qinglu Collection" says that it is "really like a pile of powder, not a circle", but the history of painting still follows Guo Ruoxu's "Pictures and Stories", and pushes Huang Qian as a model of the hook filling method, in order to contrast Xu Xi's falling ink flowers, so the cloud "Huang family is rich, Xu family Yeyi" is called "Xu Huang Heterogene". This is considered to be the beginning of the division of brushwork and freehand in Chinese painting. But in any case, Xu Xi's ink flowers are dyed with hooks, which does provide a primitive method for the boneless method, and also opens up the realm of freehand painting, so that the painter can no longer be bound by the outline modeling, and have more freedom of expression. When Xu Chongsi changed ink to color, and used the method of falling ink flowers to use color, the boneless method was born. In this way, the origin of the boneless method lies in the ink method. Since the late Tang Dynasty, ink painting has flourished and has been admired ever since, gradually evolving from a painting method to the supreme aesthetic realm of literati painting. This trend began as early as the Tang Dynasty, Wang Wei once said: "In the painting of the husband, ink is the supremacy, which causes the nature of nature and becomes the work of creation." Under such a conceptual framework, ink painting is no longer a creative methodology concept, but an ontological and axiological concept of painting art. In contrast, whether it uses color is not an important issue. As a result, Liang Kai's reduced brush ink figure paintings, Qingteng, Bada, Shi Tao, etc., can all be included in the category of the boneless method, not to mention the works of Yun Shouping and Ren Bonian, who were originally famous for the boneless method.
Mr. Wang Kuohai's boneless method naturally inherits the above tradition, but today's batch of Bogu series of works tells us that he has come to the point of saying goodbye to his predecessors in the exploration of boneless methods. We see that the linear pen with hook and dye is gone, and all that remains is water stains and ink, and the occasional faint flash of color. A transparent water tone replaces the thick ink of the traditional boneless method. Whether it is the figures, carriages and horses, the space furnishings or the props in the hands of the figures, the images in the painting seem to be formed by splashing ink and flushing with water and hitting the water, but the uncertainty of these methods does not lead to the distortion of the outline and the disintegration of the image. But the whole image is transparent, as if it is illuminated by light behind it. If we take into account the factors of folk art, we may be the first to have a perceptual association with shadow puppetry, because the image in the painting is like a ball of light, a cluster of shadows, shadows and shadows, swaying, like blooming ripples, just formed but about to disappear, like a shadow puppet hiding behind the scenes, visible but unable to grasp. With an excellent feel, the painter transforms an uncontrollable force in the opposite direction into a controllable force, but at the same time, the aftermath of the struggle between the controllable and the uncontrollable remains in front of our eyes, so that our attention does not dare to relax.
This state of not daring to relax is not so much due to tension as it is due to the fact that we are seized by the aura in the painting. The first of the Sheikh's "Six Methods" is called "vividness", which is not about the method of painting, but about the realm of painting. In the moment of contemplation of the picture, we could not find a more appropriate word to describe the scene we see than "vivid". Although the canvas is large and small, there is a charm that runs through the middle, overflows the paper, and wraps us in the painting like a magnetic field. Then, we can travel through time and space, accompany the ancients, travel, hunt, and plough the fields with them, and witness the events that have happened on the earth: the emperor of the Qin Dynasty went out hunting, "my car is both working"; the beauties of the Tang Dynasty went out to the green, "the state is strong and far-reaching"; on the ancient road of the Han and Tang Dynasties, the beauties swim the dragon and the phoenix, rolling up the rolling red dust; looking at the "freak people riding the truth, holding the hibiscus", we smell the breath of the fairy wind and bones; listening to the ancient sounds, the strong men play songs, we are infected with the "purifying filth and turbidity and preserving the righteous spirit" Under the questioning of ink water marks, the ancient rhyme of painted pottery, the glow of bronze and the color temperature of Tang Sancai, with the expression of time, tell the story of the past.
If you want to ask Mr. Wang Kuohai's "New Han Painting" where it is new, there is no need to say anything, we already know that its greatest manifestation lies in the innovation of the boneless method, because this batch of Bogu series works has given a vivid interpretation. Of course, we can go to the ancients and neighbors to trace all kinds of traces to explain the origin of Wang Kuohai's "boneless method" in the inheritance, such as Wang Wei, Zhang Qi's ink breaking method, Liang Kai's ink splashing method, Juchao and Ju Lian's water hitting method, Zhang Daqian's splashing color method, etc., but in Mr. Wang Kuohai's place, all these influencing factors have not become a program that binds his hands and feet, the appearance of his works is new, the technique is new, the origin and resolution of various conflicts in the painting, and the establishment of various delicate balances belong to him. Moreover, each of these works has a consistent effect, indicating that they are not accidental, but the product of a heart's work. At the same time, it shows that Mr. Wang Kuohai's boneless method has systematically surpassed his predecessors and has become an original technical system, which not only provides a resource for enriching the expression of Chinese ink painting, but also is expected to be used as a successful case to provide important inspiration for the innovative transformation and creative development of traditional Chinese art.
Mr. Wang Kuohai has a strong interest in the art of Han painting stone and profound research, has written a four-word poem "Ancient Han Painting Stone Carving Praise" 10 articles, around the origin of Han painting stone, artistic style and subject matter, to highlight its achievements of "shaking the past and shining the present, shining brilliantly", "General Praise" section to "send a thousand years, who to take the sages?", expressed his grand ambition to create the art of "new Han painting". In this Bogu series, we can read excerpts from the first "Yuan Yin" and the eighth "Production and Life" in the inscriptions of "Morong Bronze" (Part 1) and "Spring Ploughing Map", respectively. In addition to a number of self-written poems, the inscriptions in this series are more derived from ancient classics, for example, another inscription of "Morong Bronze" is from Langya carved stone inscriptions, "Longxi Xing" is from Han Yuefu, "Travel Map" is from "Pre-Qin History Seven Volumes (Volume 5)", "Out of the Hunting Map" is from the pre-Qin stone drum text, "Ancient Voices" is from Cai Yong of the Eastern Han Dynasty, "Chang'an Waterside Dolries" is from Du Shi, "Freak Chengzhen" is from Tang Sikongtu's "Twenty-four Poems: Gao Gu", etc. In any case, Mr. Wang Kuohai maintained the traditional form of Chinese painting with the unity of poetry, calligraphy and painting, perhaps for him, this is not to adhere to a traditional convention, but to maintain the aesthetic characteristics and cultural character of national art. Although he has a deep desire to break new ground and innovate, he does not intend to give up the best of tradition. This may provide a symbol that helps us understand the subjective basis for how he can use control to restrain the anti-control that spreads throughout the painting.
However, we understand that any subjective good intentions are useless without practical efforts to support them. At this time, the calligraphy used for the inscription in the painting reminds us. In these text movements, which are inscribed by large seals, small grasses or line letters, we see the calligraphy attainments that integrate the Qin Jian Han Monument, the North Monument and the Southern Monument and the charm of ancient and modern families. It is this kind of attainment that has formed the pattern of "painting with calligraphy", which has helped Mr. Wang Kuohai to turn painting into writing, thus turning the freehand spirit of Chinese painting into practice. In this way, he successfully realized the expression of his subjective control and achieved the realm of his "New Han Painting" art.
September 2, 2020 in Chengdu, Sichuan