Forever "full of family"
□ Xie Bingyi
I remember that in the eighties of the last century, when the first national landscape painting exhibition opened in Hefei, Anhui Province, there were four small green paintings framed together, crystal clear, fresh and refined, which made my eyes shine. At that time, there were very few people who painted green, because green was not easy to paint, and it was easy to be sweet and vulgar. I couldn't help but come to the front to see the author's name, and from then on, I remembered its author, Man Weiqi.
Later, at the turn of the century more than 20 years ago, Zhang Fuxing planned the activity of "Splendid China Journey: Lijiang Chapter". For more than ten days in Guilin, we ate and lived together, chatted about the land, talked about painting, enjoyed the beautiful scenery of Xingping, Jiuma Painting Mountain, Yangshuo, and Yangdi, and returned to paint an eight-foot painting that was exhibited at the Guangxi Academy of Fine Arts and the National Art Museum of China. Later, he went to Taihang Mountain to sketch and create, and exhibited in the Henan Museum and the National Art Museum of China, which was a grand event in the Chinese landscape painting circle at that time. Twenty-five or six years have passed. Time flies, time flies, and it is as vivid as a lifetime. At that time, Lao Man was a lively, cheerful, well-read, witty and interesting person, and many people liked to associate with him, which was both relaxed and pleasant. Over the years, we have been to many places together, Canada, the United States, France, Northern Europe, Eastern Europe, he is often both the convener, the leader and the organizer, often see him carrying heavy painting tools running between the mountains, steep cliffs and ravines, eating and sleeping in the wind and rain, this is a true portrayal of him. His obsession with sketching made him let go of his legs, and despite his illness, he ran all over Guilin, Huangshan, Taihang Mountain, Zhangjiajie, Xiangxi, Qiandongnan, Xiamen, Fujian, and Hainan Island...... Extract the most vivid materials from nature and turn them into brush and ink, changing the style of painting in the past. The styles of these different regions have been easily brought by him, and turned into his own brush and ink language, coloring methods, and compositional characteristics, forming his own "Manjia style" independent of the landscape painting world. It has made a unique contribution to enriching the creative language of landscape painting, especially the modern mode of green landscape.
His obsession with sketching is deeply rooted in his bones, and it is also the direction he has been working towards in recent years. Lao Man not only works very hard at home, but also never slackens off, full of real strength and full of energy. Sketching is a desperate Saburo, often against the wind, braving the snow, not afraid of the sun, not afraid of the cold, hungry and thirsty is commonplace. And the labor intensity is very high, painting is more than ten hours, and there is no rest in between, this kind of hard-working attitude is incomparable to many young people. The hard work pays off, and it is not an exaggeration to describe his sketches over the years as a surplus of boxes. More than 2,000 sketches are a convincing portrayal of his years of hard work. The year before last, he also held an exhibition of his sketches, with a wide range of themes, diverse techniques, novel compositions, and changeable colors, none of which had the same technique, and won wide acclaim in the landscape painting circles. It's really a masterpiece that comes from sketching, and the drawing is like a natural cut. I think Lao Man's sketching is not only vivid and lively, but more importantly, he writes the mountains and rivers in his heart, borrowing the mountains and stones of nature, pouring the blocks in his chest, the kind of warm, affectionate, bright and harmonious brushwork, which is not only a true portrayal of Lao Man's personality, but also his expectations for the world.
At this time last year, Lao Man left us forever. Now, when I open the album at that time, one by one, one by one, it seems to be his voice and smile. Soliciting things and feelings, things are people, and sorrow comes from it, which is embarrassing. I remember the last exhibition held at the Tianjin Art Academy, his emaciated face and warm smile are forever frozen. Forever old Manchurian, forever "Manchurian".
Xie Bingyi 2024.5.27
Xie Bingyi
Director of the Chinese Artists Association
Vice Chairman of Henan Artists Association
Director of the Chinese Painting Society
Editor's note:
June 12, 2024 is the 1st anniversary of Mr. Man Weiqi's death, and student Tie Feng invited Mr. Man's former friends to write an article to reminisce about the past and offer his remembrance. I would like to commemorate Mr. Man Weiqi with the memorial essays of all my teachers and friends.