Wang Zhi'an
No. Five Lakes Sanweng, Longshang Cloud Crane, Thousand Pottery Pavilion Lord. Research librarian, first-class artist, calligrapher, painted pottery research and appraisal expert. Born in Lintao, Gansu Province in 1944, he graduated from the Fine Arts Department of Northwest Normal University. He is currently the honorary president of the Majiayao Culture Research Association of Gansu Province and the dean of the Majiayao Culture Research Institute of Northwest University for Nationalities. President of Majiayao Book Court, Professor of Cultural Relics Identification and Restoration Center of Lanzhou University, Director of Gansu Majiayao Painted Pottery Culture Museum, Member of Gansu Art Association, Member of Gansu Book Association. A leading figure in the field of contemporary Majiayao cultural research and communication. In 2012, he was named one of the 30 calligraphers with the most academic value and collection potential in contemporary China.
Mr. Shen Peng's evaluation of Wang Zhi'an's calligraphy art:
Mr. Wang Zhi'an's thin gold calligraphy works are elegant, with a clean and neat pen, simple and fluent, and strict law. Although the words are independent, they are smooth and natural. Its glyph is slightly longitudinal, the center of gravity is stable, and the middle palace is open. The aesthetic orientation is mainly based on the middle, rather than the strange and sinister victory. The intelligent Wang Zhi'an also understands that the mindset has the duality of positive and negative, and understands the consistency between stability and finding freshness. Knowing the dialectical relationship between broad-mindedness and refinement from a small perspective, he is good at summarizing experience through extensive study, and then returning to practice to exercise the ability to actually improve the level of calligraphy. Therefore, the harmony between "elegant" and "vulgar" in Mr. Wang Zhi'an's thin gold calligraphy art does not refer to the blind catering to the aesthetic taste of art consumption under the wave of popular culture and commodity economy, but not only meets the aesthetic needs of consumers at an appropriate starting point, but also plays a certain role in guiding and improving aesthetic taste.
Lian commented on Wang Zhi'an
Lian Ji's speech at the opening ceremony of the "Ancient Light" Majiayao Painted Pottery Treasures Beijing Exhibition, commenting on Wang Zhi'an's achievements in research culture and calligraphy and painting:
Excerpt from Mr. Lian Ji's speech at the opening ceremony of Wang Zhi'an's Beijing Calligraphy Exhibition. Mr. Wang Zhi'an is committed to the study of the Majiayao culture should be in the period of 5800-4050 years, which can completely connect the 8,000-year-old culture of Dadiwan, and with the faience as evidence of early human civilization, it can be organically connected with the later bronzes, oracle bone inscriptions, and other cultures. We are now engaged in the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, and may need to explain more clearly about prehistory, which is generally classified as the category of myths and legends, the authenticity of history and excavation, and the expression of academic research science, so in such a very difficult situation, Mr. Wang Zhian has done this discussion, I personally feel that in fact, the Majiayao culture is put in the context of the entire human prehistoric culture, which can be a continuation of human evolutionary culture.
As we all know, petroglyphs are an expression of human civilization in the Paleolithic or Mesolithic period, and petroglyphs have been found in more than 150 countries in Africa, and it has petroglyphs around 8000-5000 BC, and Chinese petroglyphs have been around 10,000 years, and there are works between 5000-4000 years, but in the petroglyph works, we have also found petroglyphs of 5,000 BC, 4,000 BC, or even 3,000 or 2,000 years. If there is an overlapping part, the degree of Majiayao culture is much greater than and higher than the level of rock art in the same period around the world, which shows that the development level of Chinese civilization in the Paleolithic, Mesolithic and new periods is the highest on the earth, so we now have a high similarity from the content of rock art expression and Majiayao culture, such as fertility worship, worship of theism, the universe, The expression of natural cognitive concepts, such as praying for prosperity and well-being, rock paintings and Majiayao cultural expressions are very similar, but the way and level of expression, I think the cultural level of Majiayao is much higher, complete and scientific. Therefore, Majiayao culture is the highest level of human children's painting, is the most beautiful song of human nursery rhymes, Mr. Wang Zhian from such a point of view, do research and achieved fruitful results, I feel that the number of painted pottery he collected may not be the largest, but they are all fine products, I have been to the museum he founded several times, including today I repeated the appreciation of several very important representatives of civilization on display.
What needs our great attention is that from its painted pottery content, we can see people's strong desire for survival, consciousness, reproduction, and reproduction concepts. Among them, the frog pattern or frog god originated from the frog, the frog can hibernate, overwinter without dying, has a strong vitality, has a strong reproductive ability, and the desire for human reproduction is expressed through the myth of the frog, which is a very important point of view. For example, human survival needs three conditions, the first land, the second water, and the third sunshine, so in the Majiayao painted pottery, a large number of water patterns, land patterns and sun god patterns. With sunshine, land, and water, people can survive. This can be seen in the painted pottery of Majiayao, these contents are the special development process that cannot be avoided in the process of early human civilization, and Mr. Wang Zhi'an has made in-depth academic answers, especially the two achievements, I believe and are also convinced.
First, he believes that China's dragon culture is an extension of frog culture, which we can see in the faience on display in this exhibition.
Second, there is also the interpretation of the swastika in mythology, which is believed to be the image of a flying bird with feathers, which gave rise to people's worship of the sun. Achievements like these will greatly enrich Chinese archaeology. The reflection of the rich history of Chinese civilization is from an academic point of view.
From an artistic point of view, Mr. Wang Zhian also has his own unique views on the artistic expression of Majiayao painted pottery. The pattern and color of faience, its black and red colors express the earliest art concept in Chinese art history, for example, it is more general, more abstract, more freehand, its earliest form of artistic expression and our later induction of the freehand spirit of Chinese painting, the spirit of abstract generalization, the pursuit of the god to weaken the form.
The point of view of Chinese art is a high problem, what we now call the point of view of Chinese art is from which dynasty to start, not so much to say, it is better to say that it started from Majiayao painted pottery, these are our very good research and summary, Mr. Wang Zhi'an in addition to the study of Majiayao, he actually has a profound education, not only to protect the painted pottery to engage in cultural relics research and identification, but also to write poems, write articles, and to paint, write calligraphy, is what we call the reproduction of the ancient typical literati contemporary.
The ancients attached great importance to comprehensive cultural accomplishment and accumulation, and with a very thick, comprehensive and broad cultural accumulation, it is possible for you to reach the peak of art in a certain field, so Mr. Wang Zhian has probably gone through a broad cultural accumulation and climbed the peak in some fields, congratulations again on the success of this exhibition.
Wang Zhi'an's calligraphy is an art that comes from tradition and can be combined with the aesthetics of the times. Wang Zhi'an's style of writing is natural and smart, and the ancient method is not lost in the natural and agile, and it is natural and flexible in the ancient method, and it is innovative on the basis of inheriting the classics of the ancients, which is a good work.
Sketch of a small scene on the outskirts of the city
Sketch of Sanya scenery
Sketch of Bird's Paradise