Since the birth of the Yellow River Cantata in 1939, the symbolic significance of the Yellow River to the Chinese nation comes from its great power. The display, control and release of great power have become the basic characteristics of the image of the Yellow River in the written text. The boatmen, who most often fight with the Yellow River, have become a medium that can not only show the power of the Yellow River, but also set off the glory of the people.
The first part of the "Yellow River Cantata" is "The Yellow River Boatman's Song". The song is preceded by a recitation that reveals the relationship between the boatman and the Yellow River:
Have you ever been to the Yellow River? Have you crossed the Yellow River? Do you remember the scene of the boatmen on the river fighting with their lives against the stormy waves? If you have forgotten it, then listen!
In the second half of the 20th century, artists showed the struggle and harmony, wild and warm relationship between the boatmen and the Yellow River from different angles. When the gondoliers became the protagonists of art, they were inevitably associated with the Loess Plateau. Simplicity, tenacity, tenacity and other beautiful qualities have been endowed with him, and these qualities have become excellent traits that have been inherited by the Chinese nation for thousands of years. The Yellow River and the loess eventually became the inner historical context of the people.
Du Jian, Advancing in the Torrent, 220cm×332cm, oil on canvas, 1963
In the art creation of the Yellow River, Du Jian's "Advancing in the Torrent" is one of the earliest works to put the working people in the picture to celebrate. In the 3.3-meter-wide picture, only a flat boat moves forward with its head held high in the turbulent current, and several boatmen on the boat struggle to shake the oars, and the power of man collides with the fierce waves, which is shocking.
In order to create this work, Du Jian went to Yumen, Shanxi Province and Jiachuan in the Northern Song Dynasty of Shaanxi Province to investigate and live for two months. Here, Du Jian had in-depth exchanges with boatmen of different ages, analyzed the personality of the river and wooden boats, and made many discoveries: "The boats of the Yellow River are different in different sections of the river due to different water potentials. From the meanders of the river to the area of Tongguan, due to the large drop, the river is turbulent, the ships are not big, and the full load is not more than 20 tons. Controlling a fully loaded ship with manpower in the rapids is also no easy task. Ferries often have to pull the fiber upriver first, rowing the boat to the opposite bank as they go downstream. Another example: "The boats on the Yellow River are very beautiful." The size and structure of the ship are a kind of 'rules' that have been exchanged for many years of sweat and sweat, and each boat is individualized. There is no 'mechanization standard' of modern industry, everything is handmade, including the nails, which are also made by blacksmiths. The timber used for shipbuilding still retains their growth and figure as a tree. Each boat is unique and the embodiment of the simplicity, wisdom and strength of the Yellow River people. These knowledge and experiences about rivers and boating have laid the foundation for Du Jian's further in-depth creation.
The river in Du Jian's "Advancing in the Rapids".
During the experience of life, Du Jian drew a lot of sketches. Some of the characters in the oil paintings can also be found in the sketchbooks preserved by Du Jian to this day. For example, a man wrapped in a turban at the back of the boat should be modeled after the boatman Fan Shiming. In the sketch "Portrait of Fan Shiming", the painter recorded the boatman's dark complexion, vicissitudes of life, and tough character. On the sketch picture, the painter also deliberately wrote down his feelings when painting: "Yellow water, loess, and yellow wind grow in water, soil, and wind." This is the Yellow River boatman!"
After the completion of "Advancing in the Torrent", it was widely acclaimed, and an article in the fifth issue of Fine Arts in 1963 praised this "very powerful work": "Those who have been to the Yellow River will be attracted by the familiar golden water as soon as they come into contact with the picture", which "shows the great spirit and inexhaustible strength of the working people, no matter how turbulent the flood is, they will be powerless, and they will be left far behind again and again".
Subsequently, in 1963, the 6th issue of Fine Arts magazine published Du Jian's article "How I Paint 'Moving Forward in the Torrent'". In the article, Du Jian talked about how he felt when he learned to sing "The Ballad of Yellow Water" (the fourth part of "The Yellow River Cantata") when he was a child—"an awakened national feeling that demanded liberation, as if it was associated with the Yellow River at that time." When Du Jian talked about his experience of shaping the Yellow River, he particularly emphasized the relationship between water and people. He said that if the water surface is too big and the boat is too small, the boat will become the backdrop of the Yellow River, and if the boat is too big and the people are too small, not only will the picture appear clogged, but the "majesty of people" will not be able to stand out because there is no water to support it. In Du Jian's view, "Advancing in the Torrent" is certainly a tribute to the Yellow River, but more importantly, it highlights the "majesty of people". The relationship between the water surface and the size of the boat determines the artistic conception to be conveyed in the picture. In order to deal with this problem, Du Jian repeatedly weighed and cut the sketch.
Du Jian, "Advancing in the Torrent" (composition 1), 78cm×108cm, Sketch, 1962
Although Du Jian subjectively attaches more importance to "human prestige", he actually invests more energy in shaping the Yellow River. He said, "In the production process, the most strenuous thing is the Yellow River water." During his investigation along the Yellow River, Du Jian had already decided to focus on the water of the Yellow River. He said: "In my heart, the water of the Yellow River is an important factor in the expression of the Yellow River people. There are two reasons for this: first, the people on the banks of the Yellow River have a particularly complex love-hate relationship with the Yellow River's water, and the other is that the special sediment content has formed the unique character of the Yellow River, which in turn has shaped the Yellow River people and become the counterpart of the Yellow River people. Only by painting the water of the Yellow River can the spiritual temperament of the Yellow River people be better expressed. ”
Du Jian, Sketch of the Yellow River, 38.5cm×27cm, 1962
Du Jian spent a lot of time understanding and studying the characteristics of the Yellow River. In a sketch on July 15, 1962, he recorded his thrilling journey through the Yellow River at the entrance of Yumen in Shanxi Province: "As soon as I landed, the boat was almost washed away by the muddy. In another sketch, he recorded the "chaos but not chaos" of the Yellow River: "Chaos but not chaos. On the whole, there is a general trend, and there are various conflicts before and after, left and right, and scattered. There are small areas of calm between the waves, which make the rapids appear like blank waters. These meticulous observations and summaries make Du Jian's "torrent" of the Yellow River both physical and spiritual.
Du Jian, Sketch of the Yellow River, 27cm×38cm, 1962
In fact, the most touching part of the painting "Advancing in the Rapids" is also the rushing river. The yellow-brown river rushing from afar fills the entire picture, forming large and small masses and whirlpools, undulating and agitating, fully showing the majesty of nature. Du Jian himself felt that he had put too much thought and energy into the Yellow River, but as a result, the river painting was too successful, and the characters did not look very satisfactory. This, he admits, is the "main drawback" of the painting: "The water has a strong sense of volume, and in contrast, the person appears thin." From the perspective of depicting the Yellow River, this "shortcoming" may not be a shortcoming, but a bright spot.
The painting "Advancing in the Torrent" was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. In 1992, Du Jian repainted "Advancing in the Torrent" based on the preserved prints. To show the difference between the two, Du Jian named the second painting "Yellow River Rapids". This repainting evokes Du Jian's memory of the Yellow River and his passion for creation. In the 30 years since, Du Jian has continued to return to this theme, recreating "moving forward in the torrent" many times. One of the larger works was exhibited in Yinchuan in 2020 under the title "The Yellow River".
Du Jian, Yellow River Rapids, 180cm×240cm, Oil on Canvas, 1992, Collection of the National Art Museum of China
The river water in Du Jian's "Yellow River Rapids".
If "The Yellow River Rapids" still has the nature of restoration, "The Endless Yellow River" is a re-creation of the old theme. In The Yellow River, the boatmen remain largely unchanged, while the Yellow River water is completely transformed, not only in richer colors, but also in the undulating waters and surging waves.
The painter's obsession with the "rapids" of the Yellow River has remained unchanged for decades, and his repeated artistic method of creating the same subject matter – repetition is a common technique in contemporary art – has given his paintings of the Yellow River a new sense of the times. As the title of "The Yellow River" suggests, the Yellow River flows endlessly, and Du Jian's artistic creation has never stopped.
This article is excerpted from "Ode to the Great River: The Yellow River in Chinese Modern Art"
Written by Wu Xueshan
Ode to the Great River: The Yellow River in Chinese Modern Art