I often dream of Van Gogh's raven in the wheat field, and I say that it is Van Gogh's flying soul, and the raven is the symbol of Van Gogh's soul, and the crow is the crow, but people give it all kinds of impressions. Van Gogh unleashed the height of his spirit, a height that could not resonate with people while he was alive, and I wanted to be a painter with a soul height.
Reading this preface to the exhibition of Maggie Ami Hibiscus oil paintings, the author's heart was instantly moved. It is rare and difficult to pursue the height of the soul and the spirituality of art.
In this spring of March, the Maggie Ami Hibiscus Oil Painting Exhibition and Seminar was held in the Songzhuang Courtyard of Li Keran Painting Institute in Beijing. For the contemporary art world, the name of Maggie Ami Hibiscus is unfamiliar. Maggie Ami Hibiscus, formerly known as Yoon Jindan, is a Korean ethnic and a financial practitioner. She has made some achievements in the field of literary translation, publishing translations of "No One Survives", "Chunchuan House", "Suitcase", etc., and re-edited and published "In Defense of Freedom". She is a member of the Chinese Writers Association and the chairman of the Tianjin Financial Writers Association.
Generally speaking, financial work requires a high degree of rationality and obedience to commonality, while artistic creation requires a high degree of emotion and individuality. Perhaps in overcoming the unity of opposites and conflicts of these contradictions, running in both directions, Maggie Ami Hibiscus's paintings also have a unique aesthetic connotation and aesthetic power.
Hegel said, "Beauty is the sensual manifestation of ideas." "Hibiscus's career, as well as her experience in writing and translating, have enabled her to think more deeply about the relationships between nature and people, society and people, people and people, and people and themselves. This kind of thinking also enhances the spirituality of his works.
"It's all very warm subjects, full of passion for life, and it touches me a lot, and I want to pick up the brush again, whether it's as a profession or as a hobby. A college student who chose a good job major and gave up his hobby of painting said after watching the exhibition. This kind of emotional resonance is precious and the greatest encouragement for art creators. Touching people with emotion and enlightening the soul is the power and meaning of art.
"Mountaineering is full of love in the mountains, and watching the sea is overflowing in the sea. Mu Jin, who loves life, has a keen and sentimental heart, as she herself said: "Intoxicated with falling flowers and flowing water, the spirit of nature and all things, until now, after the wind and rain, is still simple and warm, compassionate, chasing the beauty of the world, often tears in her eyes." Therefore, the pen is affectionate. Her paintings are rich in materials, full of compassion for the earth, full of respect for the delicate tenderness of all things in nature, full of humanistic care and deep love, and full of thinking about life and world affairs.
"Warm Home" series, whether it is a small courtyard covered with sunshine or a village covered with snow, is so warm and quiet, full of vitality; "Belgian Alley", "Dutch Cottage", "The Old House of Ulanqab" and "The Streets of Brussels" record the beautiful scenery left in the bottom of my heart; "The Intersection of Changchun Road and Jiefang Road" tells the story of stray dogs, expressing the concept of growing together with all things and cherishing beautiful opportunities and encounters; "The Source of Life" pays attention to marine pollution and calls for loving the ocean and cherishing life; "Deconstruction" interprets the thinking logic of "removing the concrete and discovering the essence"; "Tribute to Gauguin" expresses the persistent pursuit of dreams and aesthetics; "Tai Chi" and "Heaven and Earth Xuanhuang" express the philosophical thinking of the universe......
"Ulanqab House" oil on canvas
"Bloom", oil on canvas
Wandering through the more than 50 oil paintings in the exhibition hall, you can get the double pleasure of hearing and vision. Oil painting is a visual art, but most of the colors and compositions as far as the eye can see are large color blocks and large brushstrokes, opening and closing, unrestrained, majestic and agitated, as if echoing Beethoven's "Symphony of Destiny".
The bold color, eclectic, and hearty are the outstanding characteristics of hibiscus oil painting. "Golden Pond" and "The First Flower" use a thick and chic brush, the colors dance on the cloth, the light and shadow are full and harmonious, as if playing a symphony of colors, leaving a deep impression.
Hibiscus has an in-depth study of the color of oil painting, and also has a unique insight into the use of color. In his newly published collection of works, "Heart Painting", there are special discussions on chromatic aberration, complementary colors, high-grade grays, and tonal colors.
She believes that the beauty and ugliness of color are completely determined by personal feelings, especially in the face of objective sketching, any light source color, inherent color and environmental color are the result of the combination of visual and emotional feelings; the beauty of color is not a reproduction of reality, but beyond the objective subjective feeling, without emotional resonance, beauty is gone. There are a thousand Hamlets in the minds of a thousand people, and the same is true for colors, different artists have different feelings about the same color, forming a kaleidoscopic variety of colors, and also forming different artistic styles of artists.
The subjective colors infused with hibiscus also contribute to her artistic style. She believes that there are two points that should be paid special attention to in oil painting, one is color, "high-grade gray" is "the spring and white snow in color", and the other is the perspective relationship between distance and proximity. In landscape sketching, attention is often focused on rich colors and the treatment of "high-grade gray" is neglected, especially the spatial relationship between near and far and the perspective of color, which is seemingly simple but very easy to ignore. A beautiful landscape painting, color and skill are equally important, but from an aesthetic point of view, the color of the "high-grade gray" is more flavorful, cold and warm is the soul of the color, we will have ideas and pursuits in the process of color processing, "high-grade gray" is the favorite of art students who like color.
In the hibiscus oil paintings, "high-grade gray" appears and disappears. "The Most Beautiful April Day in the World" uses "one-sixth of the powder" and "embellished white" to set off the "high-grade gray", which is intoxicating. Especially in the "Snow Country" series, "high-grade gray" is fully used. When the snow falls on the earth, everything has a new hue, gray, black, blue and orange are rearranged, ancient and simple, smart and innocent, and full of interest.
Wandering between realism and freehand, the pursuit of "between the similar and the unlike", formed a diversified style of hibiscus oil painting. There are very realistic sketches - docks, still lifes, landscapes, as well as abstract works, drawing on the elements of impressionist painting, such as "Tribute to Van Gogh", "Red Rose and White Rose", "Music", "Illumination", "Light" and so on.
Hibiscus's abstract works are romantic and uninhibited, but they are not undisciplined and arbitrary. She believes that without solid sketching and modeling skills, abstraction is just a tree without roots. Realism is the color closest to the objective object, and the color that is most easily accepted and recognized by the general public, while the color of impression style is further improved on the basis of realism, with more emphasis on the rich changes of color, and weakening the shaping of the shape. Abstract painting, then, is the ultimate expression of color, and it is the extreme stage of analyzing the colors of nature, where there is no appeal to the form, but only the color flow of natural objects under the light.
In order to achieve the true sense of "splashing ink at will", Hibiscus studied deeply, strictly demanded himself according to the standards of the academy, and constantly polished himself and improved himself in terms of composition, shape, texture, and space. She does not approve of naming abstract paintings, what you see is what you get, what you think is what you paint, but she is more objective and rational.
Wandering through the more than 50 oil paintings in the exhibition hall, it is hard to believe that this is an art world created by a non-professional painter. Busy management work, but also bear the family responsibilities of being a wife, mother, daughter, daughter-in-law, in addition to doing a good job in these roles, but also continue to create, perhaps love is the biggest motivation.
Hibiscus has loved painting since she was a child, and her mother's support has made her love. Mu Hibiscus suffers from a congenital eye disease, and how much perseverance it takes to overcome this obstacle to paint! From Mu Hibiscus's literary works, in the conversations with Mu Hibiscus, you can also deeply feel her love for her family, her love for nature, and her love for life. When it comes to the topic of motherhood, she always has tears in her eyes. Hibiscus said, "Mother is willing to exchange her eyeballs for me. In the process of taking care of my mother, watching my mother go from illness to aging, watching my mother change little by little, just like a flower shrinking a little bit, my heart is extremely painful. Because of these loves, Hibiscus's oil paintings are more warm, more touching and warm.
Wandering through the more than 50 oil paintings in the exhibition hall, the author can't help but see the beautiful hibiscus flowers in front of my eyes.
Hibiscus flowers, also known as infinite flowers, are "tough and simple, eternal love". Tang Dynasty Cui Daorong's poem "Hibiscus Flower" cloud: "Hibiscus flowers do not see the sunset, and they are new every day." The east wind blows peaches and plums, and it must be until next spring. "The tenacious vitality of the hibiscus flower can bloom from midsummer to early winter, and it continues continuously. Hibiscus, who has retired from work, is still chasing his dream of becoming a "painter with a high soul". On this difficult road, the spirit of hibiscus will be endless power!
Source: Financial Times
Author: Meng Li
Image: Meng Li
Editor: Duan Jiaxi
Email: [email protected]