Sketching and Teacher's Creation
Since the May Fourth Movement, one of the contents of the New Art Movement has been to advocate the revitalization of the declining literati landscape through sketching. Regardless of their position, almost all painters are aware of the dangers caused by the repetition and obscurity of old landscape paintings. Sketching is regarded as the only way to revitalize and eliminate disadvantages, and attaching importance to sketching has become a consensus. Therefore, all the outstanding landscape painters of the 20th century re-understood the landscape and the tradition of landscape painting through sketching, and then completed the construction of their personal artistic style.
Ancient Chinese landscape painting has always attached great importance to sketching and the creation of teachers, but this "sketching" is not the other "sketching". In the 20th century, Gao Jianfu tried to sketch on the spot and introduced new visual elements such as cars, airplanes, and telephone poles into landscape paintings, while Zhao Wangyun went directly to rural sketching, but their efforts were not widely recognized at the time because they were still inextricably linked with the old forms in terms of language and schema, or because the combination of Chinese and Western elements was not without reluctance. The real change began with the "Transformation of Chinese Painting" that emerged in the 50s, which was a rebirth of traditional Chinese painting, which produced a complete change in the painting function, aesthetic orientation, expression subject matter and technical language.
At that time, the purpose of the transformation of Chinese painting was very clear, and it had to adapt to the revolutionary realist creative techniques advocated at that time, so as to serve politics and the people. In order to meet the requirements of the situation, to achieve docking with the new era. Willingly or not, almost all Chinese painters have been caught up in this transformational trend. In this context, "sketching" facing life has become the main content and means of "transformation of Chinese painting".
At this time, sketching was no longer the visual memorization of landscape painting in the past, only looking at it without painting or a few brushstrokes, and most of the painters accepted the method of Western painting to directly sketch the scene, pursuing a true and accurate reflection of the object, capturing the visual grasp of immediacy, and resorting to brush and ink. Indoctrination and realism were established as the basic paradigm of landscape painting, and the eulogy of the times and the magnificent mountains and rivers became the main theme of landscape painting at that time, and then the three major themes of the times, such as the construction scene, the poetry of the chairman and the landscape of the revolutionary holy land, were formed, and the birth of traditional landscape painting was swept away.
Mr. Yu Jianhua's 1935 essay "Sketching of Chinese Landscape Painting" discusses in depth the differences between Chinese and Western painting. He believes that landscape sketching has existed in ancient times, and later generations of painters only know that copying and sketching has led to the decline of landscape painting, and if they want to revive the prosperity of Tang and Song Dynasty landscapes, they must engage in on-the-spot sketching. However, as far as sketching is concerned, there is an incomparable gap between Chinese and Western methods, and Western-style sketching must follow the principles of perspective, and it is not easy to fix the viewpoint, so it can force the real scene; The sketch of Chinese painting has no fixed point of view and horizon, and the painter is like taking an airplane, up and down, left and right at will, and the appearance is taken from the gods, which is not the place where Western law can not reach. Therefore, he believed that the first step in sketching should be to start with Western methods, and then he could follow the method of Chinese painting, and he believed that this was a shortcut to reviving landscape painting.
《崂山写生》68cmx45cm
It should be said that Mr. Li Keran, the representative of the life painting school, basically innovated and reformed according to this path. In his early years, Li Keran studied at the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts and the Hangzhou National Academy of Arts, where he systematically mastered oil painting, drawing, and watercolor, and was familiar with Western-style field sketching. Li Keran has a clear understanding of the pros and cons of Chinese and Western sketching, and his pioneering point of view lies in boldly jumping out of the constraints of a single point of view of Western-style landscape sketching, and seamlessly connecting Western sketching with landscape painting in the way of viewing objects and taking images from "big and small", still retaining the sense of scene of sketching and conforming to conventional perspective habits. As for perspective, Li Keran advocated that "the problem of perspective should only be seen, science should serve art, and art cannot accommodate science." Li Keran's exploration has better solved the problem of landscape painting from tradition to modernity, from not eating fireworks to truly reflecting real life, creating a new schema, and profoundly influencing the basic appearance of landscape painting from the 50s to 70s of the 20th century, and the influence on the teaching of Chinese painting has continued to this day.
Of course, this method of sketching scenes, which borrowed from Western painting, is still different from the "master" of landscape painting, although it is still attributed to Chinese painting, and the meaning of "master" is much broader than "sketching". The so-called "traveling thousands of miles" by the ancients is not only a process of "traveling", but also a process of "enlightenment". "Enlightenment" is the "principle" of understanding the heavens, earth, mountains and rivers, which is more fundamental than "sketching". The capture of the immediate visual experience of Western-style sketching is only limited to "normal", and as for "common sense", it cannot be obtained without "mastering". In fact, Shi Tao's complete expression is: "The mountains and rivers are born from Yuye, and Yu is born from the mountains and rivers, and the mountains and rivers are also drafted by the strange peaks, and the mountains and rivers meet with the gods and become traces, so they are finally returned to Dadiye." "Looking at the wonders of the peaks, the mountains and rivers are listed in the chest, and then the sketch is out, which is "the teacher's creation", which is far from being covered by the sketch of the scene.
《天台山太阳宫》68cmx45cm
Objectively evaluated, the introduction of "life painting" profoundly changed the face of Chinese painting in the 20th century, reversed the decline of landscape painting for hundreds of years, and made a historic contribution to the life painting school represented by Mr. Li Keran. However, it is difficult to deny the negative impact of the introduction of Western-style sketching into the teaching of Chinese painting as the main body of basic skill training. In the past, painting was learned by copying to understand the principles of painting, but now it is through the depiction of shapes to reproduce daily visual experience, which has led to the creation of landscape painting becoming more and more superficial, and the inherent cultural connotation and basic function of landscape painting have been lost. At the same time, it should also be noted that Li Keran, Zhang Ding, Luo Ming, and Guan Shanyue had already laid a deep foundation in Chinese brush and ink before trying to introduce the method of Western painting into landscape painting, so when they used the brush to sketch the scene, they were able to solve all kinds of contradictions between Chinese and Western painting methods.
Jiuhua One Thousand Temples Scattered in the Clouds and Mist, 66.5cmx31cm
After experiencing the hustle and bustle of the "85 New Wave", the Chinese painting world gradually realized the harm of national nihilism and total westernization, and the tradition was once again valued. But there are two sides to everything, and the long-standing extreme mindset makes it easy for people to go from one extreme to the other. When sketching flourished, the tradition was abandoned, and now the signs of advocating tradition and learning from the ancients, blindly mud the ancients, behind closed doors, and learning from the traces of the ancients without learning from the ancients, have begun to rise again, such as the "pseudo-antiquity" that is full of the current painting world and the trend of following the ancient and modern masters. Mr. Li Keran and other pioneered landscape painting has been more than half a century, compared with the long history of Chinese art, its history is quite short, and there are still many problems to be solved, although they have opened a new realm for Chinese landscape painting in the 20th century, but in addition, relying on traditional management, Huang Binhong and Zhang Daqian also represent the highest achievements of landscape painting in the 20th century. Sketching and mastering are not only different in specific operations, but also huge differences in recognizing and grasping nature from a macro perspective. When we lament the rupture of the traditional cultural context today, and face the fundamental issues of how Chinese painting can maintain its own formal and linguistic characteristics, and how to continue in the new social and cultural environment, it is undoubtedly very necessary to seriously review the different choices of various schools in the 20th century and their gains and losses.
(Text/Yang Huidong)
(The article is excerpted from "Sketching and Teacher's Creation: Exotic Expressions and Contemporary Reflections from Different Perspectives")
Work appreciation
《白日依山尽》66.5cmx31cm
《崂山返岭海湾》68cmx68cm
《崂山北九水写生》68cmx45cm
《崂山太清宫》68cmx45cm
《雁荡大龙湫》248cmx124cm
《北海松风》180cmx98cm
《威海写生之一》68cmx45cm
《威海写生之二》68cmx45cm
"Tianmu Mountain Sketch No. 1", 53cmx45cm
《天目山写生之二》53cmx45cm
《天目山写生之三》53cmx45cm
《雁荡》248cmx124cm
《苍崖海天》180cmx98cm
(Source: Yuntai Mountain Oriental Painting Institute)
Artist Profile
Yang Huidong, born in August 1968, is a native of Suining, Jiangsu. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts of Nanjing University of the Arts with a doctorate degree. He is currently the president of Tianjin People's Fine Arts Publishing House, the editor-in-chief of the magazine "Chinese Painter", the executive director and deputy secretary-general of the Chinese Painting Society, a member of the Chinese Artists Association, the secretary-general of the Heshan Painting Association of the Chinese Artists Association, and a researcher of the Painting and Calligraphy Institute of the Central Museum of Culture and History. His works have participated in many exhibitions at home and abroad, and have been collected by many art galleries and museums. He has published monographs such as "Analysis of Shitao Landscape Techniques", "Luo Ping", "Painting of Four Monks in the Early Qing Dynasty", "Lan Ying" and a variety of personal albums, and published many academic papers.