"Flowers and birds are two things, and the creator is born to flatter people. ”
For more than 1,000 years, the painting of flowers and birds has become an independent type of painting, and it has become a deep-rooted classical sentiment in Chinese culture. And the flowers and birds have come out in large numbers, Huang Xu is different, and the pearl at the bottom of the pen has also left a brilliant brilliance.
The foundation of Western art learning and the aesthetics of Song painting have made Jiang Hongwei the most representative painter of flowers and birds today. The painting method based on washing and dyeing that he accidentally created, departed from Chen Chen Xiangyin's painting skills, and infiltrated the "leisure" in the soul into the world of flowers and birds, giving flowers and birds an aura that transcends nature.
In the dialogue between "100 Chinese Aesthetic People" and Jiang Hongwei, what he said the most was "very accidental", starting to paint brush strokes by chance, meeting and getting to know his favorite Song painting by chance, and accidentally staying in the school to teach Gongbi flower and bird painting...... It seems that it is just a myriad of fateful accidents, which make up his inevitability.
He prefers to give examples, using layers of foreshadowing to shape the atmosphere of the answer, just like his paintings always rub some "leisure" into the layers of smudge, only from a flower and a bird to feel the bitterness and happiness of life, prosperity and fleeting, when you have to explain something reasonable, you will lose the true meaning that has come to your mouth.
When do you think ancient China was the greatest and most classic time period, and why do you think it was great?
Strictly speaking, tradition is not a paragraph, it is a flowing river. And what I love is that when I happen to be thirsty, I scoop a ladle of water from the river, and it quenches my thirst. Because what I think is great and classic, maybe it just means that I have drunk such a scoop of water to quench my thirst.
So specifically, what is the water that quenches your thirst?
If you have to talk about an era, it should be the Song Dynasty.
Here are a few factors:
When I studied painting, it was probably in the 70s of the last century, when it was the former Soviet Union teaching system, the itinerant painting school, Repin and Surikov all the way, and it was under this system that I was guided to observe and depict nature.
I was a worker, peasant and soldier cadet, and after graduation, "I didn't come from anywhere", so I was fortunate to stay in school and be assigned to teach gongbi painting. At that time, I was reluctant to do so, because in the context of that time, Gongbi flower and bird painting was very rigid and dogmatic, and it seemed to have nothing to do with the art in my heart, so I was uneasy, and I was unwilling to follow the rules to learn and create the so-called "tradition" of later generations' dogmatic and stylized interpretation.
In the 80s, when China began to introduce European art, I happened to see the paintings of Botticelli, Raphael, and Ingres in the magazine "Art World". Of course, this kind of synaesthesia may only belong to my own creative concept of formulating.
波提切利,《维纳斯的诞生(The Birth of Venus)》, 1485年
Song Huizong, Tang Zhangxuan, "Pounding Practice", now in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA
—— Swipe left and right to view ——
I remember in 1986, a European cultural counselor in Beijing was chatting with me and said that Chinese painters could not paint the human body as wonderfully as Western painters.
At that time, I blindly emerged with a kind of Chinese self-esteem, and I said that the West has never been like China, where beauty can be so tactfully and accurately projected on a leaf and a flower. The examples I gave are "Hibiscus out of the Water" and "Camellia Picture". Indeed, from the state of depicting the reality of nature, Song painting and Western classical painting have their own brilliance.
"Xueji Mountain Camellia", Lin Chun, Song
Now when it comes to traditional Chinese aesthetics, what is the core of it?
The first is time. "Tradition" is fluid. When we look at ancient works now, we are also standing on the basis of modern aesthetic concepts. For example, the Dunhuang murals, if there is really a good person to restore it to the original appearance of the Tang Dynasty, it may not be in line with the current aesthetics.
The second is distance. For example, "the moon is the hometown of Ming", the person who can say this must be a wanderer. It was only his long travels and the wind and frost that made his hometown give the moon a sense of vicissitudes, and then he had the right to miss it. In the same way, our modern cities look almost indistinguishable from the globalized world, which is why we have the right to reflect on the traditions of the past.
Once a work enters the museum, it is a past tense, a memory of the past, which once condenses a memory of the past, and the beauty it contains is rooted in the depths of memory, often filtering out some noise, and even contains the color of recreation and mythology reflected in the modern background.
"Flowers and Birds Album"
32×42cm, 2023
—— Swipe left and right to view ——
So, tradition isn't static?
In Chinese history, the weaker the idea of unity, the greater the degree of freedom of thought. Like the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and the Republic of China. Once the country is fully unified, there will certainly be a choice between order and freedom.
The essence of tradition has been selected by history and has had the glory of the past, does this essence belong to our time? Whether we can really achieve it by doing so? No one will discuss this question.
Besides, people who speak of tradition may not necessarily understand tradition, and many people just regard preference as tradition, and when preference develops to a certain extent, it becomes paranoid. In the years that I have been studying painting, the tradition has changed several times: in the era of comic books, it was Chen Laolian who was considered traditional, and it was "The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival"; in the era of emphasizing life and art, it was Shi Tao; after the reform and opening up, it was Mi Youren, Gong Xian, and Jin Nong, because of their strong sense of schema; later, when I studied Cézanne and Post-Impressionism, I talked about Dong Qichang; and now it is Wang Yuanqi. So I think that treating tradition is like treating ancestors, you have to respect, but there are always people who keep holding the ancestors to pressure you.
I think the establishment of the ancestor is its own innocence, not to put on a face to teach you a lesson. To put it bluntly, when discussing a painting, we should not look at whether it has tradition or not, but whether the painting is good or not. But the reality sometimes becomes like this, if you paint well, people who are traditional will say that it is good because there is tradition, and if you don't paint well, he will say that because you have no tradition, which is really ridiculous.
How do you translate these feelings of tradition into your work?
In terms of coloring, I follow the basic method of rendering. This is nothing more than the expression of the volume of the object, using a programmed means. As the rendering progresses, the object is slowly revealed, moving from blur to clarity. The clarity at this point is only for individual objects, not for the overall picture.
After finishing this "clear" state of the picture, I began to create a kind of blur. Usually, after the base color is brushed as a whole to dry, it is washed with water to embed the object into the bottom layer, so that it presents a unity with the paper, and the object only has a vague shadow. At this time, whether it is hidden or explicit, strong or weak, it has to be slowly deepened and distinguished according to the needs of the picture.
work
pen
draw
use
material
thin
section
When I use the word "feeling", I am actually a kind of helplessness in the description of language.
For example, a magnolia is white, but I don't blindly use white, and even use gray and cyan as a foreshadowing to make it feel white. The same peach is not pure red, but slightly mixed with a little rouge and cyan in the ink. This extends to every detail, whether to emphasize its main body or weaken its volume, it is up to the heart to feel.
What makes your paintings relate to contemporary aesthetics?
In the Song Dynasty, almost all paintings were not signed with the name of the painter, and painting did not need to show off oneself. This is the most beautiful place of Song Dynasty painting. It is to experience nature from a person's perspective, to depict it in detail, to concentrate on it, not to show off every personality. Therefore, when I see Song paintings, I can first perceive a sensitive heart, pay attention to every grass and tree, and also feel the elegant, delicate and noble aesthetic realm expressed by the presentation of the pictures in that era.
There are also paintings in the West that really move me, such as the herbarium drawn by botanists. From these pictures, we can see a focused and calm mind, because the painter does not want the so-called delusion of the artist, but when he depicts carefully, he completely devotes his spirit to it.
"Flower and Bird Album: Peony Double Butterfly"
34.5×45.8cm, 2004
Peony of Flowers and Birds Album
35cm×45cm, 2004
I think there are two kinds of art that can be called art: one is to show one's own characteristics, that is, to become Shakyamuni to lead and guide the world, and the other is to quietly perceive and experience the world within the scope of one's own cognition. Perhaps my personality and talents can only fall into the latter category.
Do you get tired of drawing similar subjects all the time?
When I put my mind on a flower or a grass, of course, I don't get tired of it.
Every day when the sun rises in the morning and sets in the evening, will you get tired of the sun? A flower goes through a cold winter, and then it blooms again the next spring, and the blooming and falling of the flower is not a simple repetition.
As a result, the shaping of this flower and a bird has far surpassed a bird and a flower in the ordinary sense. Of course, as we grow older, the experience will be repeated, and no one can get rid of it, that is, the cycle will be repeated, and with a peaceful state of mind, you can also taste the taste of repetition.
Jiang Hongwei's "24 Solar Terms" series of works
"Beginning of Spring"
96.5×89.5cm, 2011
Rain
96.5×89.5cm, 2011
"Sting"
96.5×89.5cm, 2011
"Spring Equinox"
96.5×89.5cm, 2011
"Seimei"
96.5×89.5cm, 2010
"Valley Rain"
96.5×89.5cm, 2010
"Riskatsu"
96.5×89.5cm, 2010
"Little Man"
96.5×89.5cm, 2010
"Mangzhong"
96.5×89.5cm, 2010
"Summer Solstice"
96.5×89.5cm, 2010
"Little Heat"
96.5×89.5cm, 2010
"The Great Heat"
96.5×89.5cm, 2010
《Standing Autumn》
96.5×89.5cm, 2009
"Summer Heat"
96.5×89.5cm, 2011
White Dew
96.5×89.5cm, 2011
"Autumnal Equinox"
96.5×89.5cm, 2009
"Cold Dew"
96.5×89.5cm, 2010
"Frosting"
96.5×89.5cm, 2009
"The Beginning of Winter"
96.5×89.5cm, 2009
"Light Snow"
96.6×89.5cm, 2010
"Heavy Snow"
97×89.5cm, 2011
"Winter Solstice"
97×89cm, 2011
"The Great Cold"
96.5×89.5cm, 2011
"Heavy Snow"
97×89.5cm, 2011
—— Swipe left and right to view ——
Have you ever wanted to break through the current way of creating?
I'm not a self-motivated person. I remember 30 years ago, a theorist discussed this problem with me, that is, how to break through myself, and I said that I could not complete this proposition. A flower blooms again in spring, although it is a repetition, but it brings me a different kind of joy, even if the joy is a moment.
Some painters are constantly changing, while others are never changing. "Morandi color" is very popular in China now, but Morandi is not a first-rate painter who stands out in the Western art world. He has been painting bottles and cans all his life, and he has lived in a small street in the countryside all his life and has never gone far away. But why do the Chinese like him so much now?
George Morandi,
"Flowers",
1951
George Morandi,
Still Life,
1939 year
George Morandi,
Still Life,
1946
George Morandi,
Still Life,
1949
I think it's because China's society is too changeable, but our ancestors came from a stable agrarian society, which is a sense of stability in every Chinese's genes. Change after change gives us novel stimuli, but its side effect is anxiety. Of course, the evolution of society must be constantly changing, but as an individual, I am only true to my own time period and grateful for the time period I once had.
"The old man talks about juvenile madness", after all, he is an old man, and he must appreciate the real teenager with an appreciative eye. One cannot be greedy. ”
Do you think there is a discontinuity in aesthetics now?
This is a false proposition. The establishment of the traditional aesthetic is that you see it as valuable. But it would be wrong to take it as the only criterion. The value of tradition was specific to that era, and it could leapfrog into the modern age, but it was not necessary to follow it now.
It must be continuous, developing, and endless.
Times are always changing, everyone only stands in his own situation to care about the past, present and future, and the new generation of artists has a new generation of knowledge structure, and they are absorbing the new era. Perhaps, sooner or later, they will return to the "tradition" from his perspective and look for his own Chinese elements, like the wanderer who admires the bright moon in his hometown. Everyone's nostalgia and expression are different, maybe the farther distance, the feelings of missing are more charming.
Therefore, I am also opposed to the tendency of using ancestors to suppress young people to move forward. However, when a young man stands in a relatively consistent fashion culture and aesthetic level, he will inevitably look back and find that these ancient memories that originally existed in his genes will unconsciously permeate the evolving art forms and concepts. This belongs to the oriental genes.
For example, in contemporary art such as Zao Wou-ki, I see a living traditional spirit. This is the Oriental gene.
《Spring Intent》,
66.2×96.7cm,
2023
"White Peony",
66×96.3cm,
2023
Waterfowl Diagram,
69.5×35.5cm, 2023
"Peacock",
96.6×89cm, 2021
How do you soothe your anxiety?
Drawing, cooking. Drawing is my own time, in which I can condense my thoughts, and cooking allows me to realize the beauty of life, as long as it is so simple with my heart.
If it was possible, which dynasty would you most like to go back to?
I haven't studied history. I once heard a scholar say that the openness of the Song Dynasty was the openness of human nature, so if I could, I would like to go back to the Song Dynasty and become a certain character in "The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival", full of fireworks in the world.
Detail of Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival, Northern Song Dynasty, by Zhang Zeduan, silk, light color, 24.8 cm long, 528 cm wide. ©Palace museum.
Is aesthetics a way of life for you?
Aesthetics is my profession. Actually, I'm rather evasive about talking about art myself, why do I avoid it? Because everyone has their own state of existence. If I'm a geologist and I'm going to go to the desert wilderness, if I'm a mathematician, I'm studying numbers in a small room, and if I'm an artist, then artistic aesthetics are my habits.
Jiang Hongwei Studio
What's your favorite book to read?
Easy reading is one of my hobbies. Reading is a process that accumulates over time.
Some time ago, I really enjoyed reading books about plants. There is a lot of cold and cold in the plant world. For example, the dog's tail grass, why does it survive endlessly? Because its seeds are small and the protein content is very low, humans can't use it, so it can live freely for a long time. After human beings entered the farming culture, the perspective of looking at plants is to see how much protein and starch they contain. Why are the number of nomads getting smaller and smaller? Because since the advent of wheat and rice, the energy obtained by farming peoples through agriculture is hundreds of times that of nomads, so the population of Europe has grown at a very rapid rate after the cultivation of potatoes and corn. Knowing this, you will feel that we humans are very small when looking at nature from a broad worldview.
I also like to read some books on natural science, for example, in the book I saw a point of view: protecting the earth is a false proposition. The earth has experienced the Cretaceous period, which made the dinosaurs extinct, the Triassic period, which rained continuously for more than 2 million years, and the glacial period, when most plants and animals were wiped out, and the earth itself is much stronger than we think. So, it's not so much about protecting the planet as it is about protecting the survival of humanity.
"Autumn Mood No. 4",
58×34cm,
2019
"Autumn Mood No. 1",
58.5×34cm,
2019
"Autumn Mood No. 2",
57.5×34cm,
2019
Cherry Blossoms Rebloom, 97×132.5cm, 2018
—— Swipe up and down to view ——
one
The originator of sketching, Huang Zhen
Huang Zhen is an extremely lucky painter. From entering the palace at the age of 17, he experienced the former Shu, the later Shu, until he entered the Song Dynasty, not only did not lose power because of the change of dynasties, but has always been appreciated and favored by the emperor. He lived in the palace for more than 50 years, and his painting style was completely linked to the aesthetics and needs of this wealthy class. Moreover, with the continuous rise of him and his son in the court of the Song Dynasty, the art form and style of the Huang family's flowers and birds became the standard for the early Song Dynasty Painting Academy to evaluate the merits of paintings, making the style of painting popular for a hundred years.
It can be seen from the only surviving Huang Quan's "Sketch of Rare Birds" that in addition to the vivid image, there is also a kind of aristocratic temperament that is naturally formed by the ears and eyes. This is the result of a long period of court life, and it is used to it. In the Song Dynasty's "Dongzhai Chronicle", it is said: "Huang Zhen, Huang Juhuan...... His family raises more eagles and falcons, and looks at its handsomeness, so it is wonderful. Such insight is by no means available to ordinary people. As a court painter, his duty was to satisfy the curiosity of the emperor and nobles and the psychological needs of wealth and prosperity.
Sketch of Rare Birds, Detail, Huang Quan, Five Dynasties
Sketch of Rare Birds, Detail, Huang Quan, Five Dynasties
Sketch of Rare Birds, Detail, Huang Quan, Five Dynasties
"Flower Sketch", Huang Juhuan, five generations
—— Swipe left and right to view ——
two
Song Huizong, who loves flowers and birds and does not love the country
A person of high authority has laid a more solid foundation for the aesthetics of flower and bird painting in several eras. This is Song Huizong Zhao Ji.
In terms of historical merits, Huizong of the Song Dynasty was undoubtedly a mediocre ruler, but in the history of culture, Huizong loved art and spent a lot of financial resources on the shaping of national culture and aesthetic concepts. He is not only an advocate and supporter of the academy, but also an accomplished painter and a highly qualified connoisseur. Song Huizong loved flowers and birds, and his paintings had a naïve dignity and hypocrisy. He once painted 20 different postures of cranes, and when painting birds and birds, he used raw lacquer to put the finishing touches, and black beans protruded from the paper silk, making the eyes shiny and very vivid. Moreover, he also asked the painter to learn from nature, grasp the "modality and color" of the object, and pay attention to the physical law. As the king of a country, he will be more serious about whether to raise his left foot or his right foot for the peacock in the painting.
Atlas of Flowers and Birds, Zhao Ji, Northern Song Dynasty
"Picture of Green Bamboo and Two Birds", Huizong of the Song Dynasty
"Crane Picture", Song Huizong Zhao Ji
—— Swipe left and right to view ——
叁
Step on the flowers and return to the horseshoe incense
Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty established the Hanlin Academy of Painting and Calligraphy, using painting as an examination method for the promotion of officials in the imperial examination, and using poetry as the theme every year to stimulate candidates to use more intentional and graceful creations. For example, in the title "Ancient Tibetan Temple in the Mountains", the candidate who won the first place did not draw any house, but only painted a monk carrying water in a mountain stream; another title was "Walking on Flowers and Returning to the Horseshoe Incense", and the first place winner did not draw any flowers, but only painted a person riding a horse, with butterflies flying around the horse's hooves, and so on.
The status of court painters in the Song Dynasty was raised to the highest position in history, and painters who tried to enter the academy also flocked to it. There are many talents in the academy, most of whom are far-reaching painters of the Northern Song Dynasty, such as Ma Ben, Wang Ximeng, Zhang Zeduan, Li Tang, Zhu Rui, Su Hanchen, Liu Yi, Fu Xie, etc. In the early days of the Southern Song Dynasty, the old people of the Xuanhe Painting Institute were still used to rebuild the painting academy with local painters, and famous artists also gathered in the court, including Ma Yuan, Xia Gui, Li Song, Liang Wei, Li Di and other painting giants, which once again set off a climax of court painting.
Pear Blossom Parrot, Song, Museum of Fine Arts, © Boston
Flower Basket, on silk, Li Song, Song
《牡丹图页》，绢本，佚名，宋
Blue Flower, Song
Picture Page of Ripe Fruit and Birds, silk, Lin Chun, Song
"Orange and Green Picture" on silk, Ma Lin, Song
White Rose Picture Page, Ma Yuan, Song
"Flower Basket" Zhao Chang, Song
"Apricot Blossom Picture", Zhao Chang, Song
"Bi Tao Picture Page", Anonymous, Song
—— Swipe left and right to view ——
肆
Sketching is a broken branch and a creation
"Hibiscus out of the water" can be described as a "standard portrait" of lotus flowers in the past dynasties, and its image is so classic that we forget that it came from the pen of the Song people. This lotus flower is painted on a small fan page, about 25 centimeters, and is not available on silk. There is a corner of the residual print, framed and labeled: "Wu Bing out of the water hibiscus".
Historical data on Wu Bing's record is unknown, the year of birth and death can not be studied, from the only surviving historical materials to know that he was born in Changzhou City, Jiangsu Province, once as a painting academy to serve in the Southern Song Dynasty Guangzong period of the painting academy, his painting skills are very superb, especially good at flowers and birds, the work is the most obvious Song Dynasty courtyard painting style.
"Hibiscus out of the water" is a typical "broken branches" painting, the so-called broken branches are painted flowers do not paint the whole plant, only draw part of the flower branches broken off from the trunk, hence the name. The form of folding branches and flowers and birds has become the most common form of composition among flower and bird painters from the middle and late Tang dynasties to the Song Dynasty. Sketch flower paintings such as fan pages are often composed with simple folding branches, which is elegant and elegant.
Hibiscus out of the water, Wu Bing, Song
Detail of "Hibiscus out of the Water".
Detail of "Hibiscus out of the Water".
—— Swipe left and right to view ——
Image source: In addition to the signature, provided by the interviewee Jiang Hongwei
display
芭莎文化艺术部Green Bazaar Lab
Editor-in-chief: Sha Xiaoli
出品人：董云燕 | 监制：徐宁 | 艺术顾问：顾维洁
Author: Zhao Yu (Yibai Studio)
编辑：毛阿达 | 设计：张晓晨 | 助理编辑：肖瑶
Cooperative [email protected]