Youth Li Bitter Zen
In the summer of 1918, Li Kuchan, a poor peasant child, could not wait to leave his hometown for Beijing, and the New Culture Movement had quietly begun.
One morning in the summer of this year, at the age of 19, he came to Peking University with his works in high spirits.
He had heard that there was a "Painting Workshop" here.
Li Kuchan's son Li Yan
When I got there, I asked a young man in a long shirt if there was a place to teach painting, and he said yes. The young man I met there was a North Drifter at that time, and it was Mr. Xu Beihong, who would become famous in the future. ”
Getting to know Xu Beihong was a key step on his way to study.
This summer, he has been learning the basic knowledge of Western painting from Xu Beihong at the Peking University Painting Research Association.
In 1922, Li Kuchan was admitted to the Western Painting Department of the National Beijing Academy of Fine Arts.
Soon, he came into contact with another master of art, Qi Baishi.
Studying is hard, and the children of the poor are even more difficult to study.
At that time, many poor people supported their families by pulling rickshaws, and Li Kuchan, a college student, also rented a foreign car to attend classes during the day and pull the cart at night.
The young and strong Li Kuchan pulled the cart and ran fast, and was known as "fast-legged Li".
Pulling a cart is a physical job. Pulling the cart back every night, I was hungry. Li Yingjie boils a pot of porridge every day, divides it into three portions when it is cold, and only eats one portion at a time.
In winter, I didn't have the money to buy coal to make a stove, so I put a set of punches in the snow to keep warm.
A friend saw that he was so hard-working and persistent in his studies, so he gave him a name: Kuzen.
"Suffering" is the experience of suffering, and "Zen" is the freehand. Since then, his name has been changed from "Li Yingjie" to "Li Kuchan".
In 1923, Li Kuchan visited Qi Baishi.
Qi Baishi worked as a carpenter in his early years and later made a living selling paintings, but at that time, he was not well-known.
Li Kuchan once recalled, "As soon as I got there, I said, Mr. Qi, I came to apprentice, I kowtowed to you, but I kowtowed and said: I don't have tuition, I will honor you when I do things in the future." ”
Later, Qi Baishi once sighed: "When Yu Chu came to Beijing, no one knew about it, and Duying (Li Kuchan) also wanted to travel from Yu." ”
Li Kuchan became Qi Baishi's first disciple, and after that he followed the old man for 34 years, until the old man's death.
Bamboo Basket, 1934
Every day, Li Kuchan gets up before dawn to paint, goes to class during the day, rushes to Qi Baishi's house to learn painting after class, and then goes to pull a foreign car at night. You can only sleep five or six hours a day.
When he pulled the foreign car, he always avoided Qi Baishi's residence, he was afraid that his acquaintances would recognize him and embarrass his master.
Once, when Li Kuchan was pulling a car and passing by a southern paper shop, he happened to be seen by Qi Baishi, who came out of the store.
From then on, Qi Baishi cared more about this disciple who could work as hard as himself, and gave him some good rice paper and homemade paints.
During this period, Li Kuchan's techniques became more and more proficient, and the ink used was more elegant, and the eagles he painted had the brush and ink of the ancients, and integrated into the Western modeling structure, which looked like he was ready to fly, vigorous and powerful.
In the summer of 1925, Li Kuchan graduated. In the graduate exhibition, he was selected for 8 works.
Principal Lin Fengmian sighed while admiring and sighing, and curiously inquired about who this "bitter Zen" was, only to know that the author was Li Kuchan who was learning to paint while pulling a foreign car.
At that time, Lin Fengmian organized the teachers of the National Art School to buy all the paintings with eight pieces of the ocean.
The next day, several newspapers prominently praised Mr. Li's graduation work.
The disciples are outstanding, the teacher is bright, and the two masters and apprentices of Qi Baishi and Li Kuzen have attracted wide attention from the world.
Xu Beihong, Qi Baishi, and Lin Fengmian are all shining names in the history of modern Chinese art. Li Kuchan, a poor peasant child, was personally mentored by these masters at a very young age.
The master leads the way and practices in the individual. Next, how will Li Kuchan continue his artistic path?
April 26-29
Documenting the Great Era "A Century of Masters"
Guan Shanyue (Part I & Part II)
Li Kuchan (Part I & Part II)
Producer: Tang Damai
Choreographer: Hu Songyang
Editor: Wang Dingyao