Exhibition posters
On October 23, 2021, the "Avenue to Scissors - Zhang Yongzhong Paper-cut Art Works Exhibition" sponsored by the Shanxi Provincial Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the Jincheng City People's Government opened at the National Art Museum of China.
Gaoping paper-cutting belongs to the southeast of Jindong province, with a long history, a wide variety and rich content, and its theme originates from the folk, originates from life, and is closely related to people's living customs. As a typical representative of Gaoping paper-cutting, Hanshantang paper-cutting features totem sacrifice paper-cutting and folk paper-cutting, and from the late Qing Dynasty, it began to pass on paper-cutting skills in the form of master-apprentice teaching.
Opening of the exhibition
This exhibition exhibits more than 100 works by Zhang Yongzhong, the fifth generation of Hanshantang paper-cutting, including both huge works such as the soul of the Chinese Yan Emperor, as well as national totems originating from life, in these works, Zhang Yongzhong integrates the wisdom of life, philosophy and art with rich life experience, and fully shows people the Taihang style, Shanxi scenery and Chinese beauty through a piece of red paper.
Present at the opening ceremony were Zhao Shaohua, former deputy secretary of the party leading group and vice minister of the Ministry of Culture; Dong Yaopeng, member of the party group, vice chairman, and secretary of the secretariat of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles; Hu Congjing, former president of the Chinese Cultural Research Institute; Yan Dongsheng, secretary of the party committee of the National Art Museum of China; Jiang Jianyong, former deputy director of the State Administration of Religious Affairs; Xiang Yunju, vice chairman and secretary general of the China Literature and Art Foundation and vice chairman of the China Critics Association; and Li Bin, secretary of the party group of the Shanxi Provincial Federation of Literary and Art Circles. The opening ceremony was presided over by Wu Jianpeng, member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Jincheng City CPC Committee, vice mayor and minister of propaganda. Fan Di'an, chairman of the China Artists Association, and Yang Lizhou, former director of the National Art Museum of China, also congratulated the opening of the exhibition in different ways.
Li Bin, secretary of the party group of the Shanxi Provincial Federation of Literary and Art Circles, delivered a speech
Li Bin, secretary of the party group of the Shanxi Provincial Federation of Literary and Art Circles, said in his speech at the opening ceremony that in recent years, the Shanxi Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government have deeply studied and implemented General Secretary Xi Jinping's important exposition on cultural construction, deeply studied and implemented the important instructions of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech on inspecting Shanxi, strengthened cultural self-confidence, strengthened cultural people, prospered cultural undertakings, strengthened cultural industries, reformed the cultural system, deepened the integration of culture and tourism, accelerated the construction of a culturally strong province, and provided a new engine and cultivated new momentum for all-round promotion of high-quality development. Active efforts have been made to carry forward the excellent traditional Chinese culture and promote the inheritance and development of folk literature and art, and fruitful results have been achieved. Jincheng Zhang Yongzhong's paper-cutting art is an outstanding representative of Shanxi folk art, with rich imagination and local cultural characteristics.
Yan Dongsheng, Secretary of the Party Committee of the National Art Museum of China, delivered a speech
Yan Dongsheng, Secretary of the Party Committee of the National Art Museum of China, said in his opening speech, "The uniqueness of Zhang Yongzhong's paper-cutting art lies in the free-spirited materials and ever-changing techniques, and his works include both lifelike characters and exquisite flowers and birds. It can not only outline the vivid image of the working people with simple lines, but also depict immersive historical stories with interesting dramatic conflicts. ”
Duan Gaifang, researcher of Shanxi Mass Art Museum, delivered a speech
Duan Gaifang, a researcher at the Shanxi Mass Art Museum, said in his speech: "The biggest feature of Zhang Yongzhong's paper-cutting is paper-cutting, which truly verifies our Chinese paper-cutting tradition. He loves life and is very knowledgeable, and from the works in this exhibition, we can see his sense of life, and then through his hand scissors, it is beautifully presented. ”
Artist Zhang Yongzhong gave a thank-you speech
Artist Zhang Yongzhong said: "Folk paper-cutting is born in the day-to-day farming work, in the yearning and pursuit of a happy life, it carries a strong human fireworks, conveys all the emotions and will of the creators, from the fields, rural villages, into the sacred national art hall, for the broad masses of the people to bring the imagination of history, the traces of the years and the return of the harvest." These paper-cut works are my summary of my past life, but also my true feelings about the meaning of life, I hope that they can bring thinking and resonance to all those who appreciate, from which to feel the beauty of civilization, the beauty of life, the beauty of art, and embrace all beautiful things with my heart. ”
Wu Jianpeng, member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Jincheng City CPC Committee, vice mayor and director of propaganda, presided over the opening ceremony
Guests visit the exhibition
The art of paper-cutting is made from the simplest paper and scissors, which can create exquisite and all-encompassing works of art under the hands of artists. Paper-cutting is integrated into folklore and carries the emotions and memories of folk life. Pan Lusheng, chairman of the China Folk Writers Association, commented: "Zhang Yongzhong's paper-cutting art comes from tradition, adopts folk language, mainly scissors, the knife style is transparent, and the beginning and turning are full of ingenuity. Its chapter layout breaks through the traditional pattern of diamond shape, square grid, corner corner and other traditional cut patterns, both the transparency of paper cuts in small pieces and the style of huge paper cuts. Judging from works such as "The Soul of the Emperor of China", "Ballad of Life", "Ode to the Three Jins" and so on, on the basis of inheriting tradition, it has an aesthetic style of contemporary life and expands the expression space of paper-cutting art. ”
Exhibition site
Zhang Yongzhong's paper-cutting themes are rich, there are "praying" theme of the mythical image of paper-cutting, showing the human ancestor gods Fuxi, the Yellow Emperor, the YanDi, Cangjie, such as the huge paper-cut "Chinese Yandi Soul" exhibited this time, the works are simple and clumsy, mysterious and magnificent, showing the "Dragon Descending" and "Fu Hu" that "ward off evil spirits", "Catching bun dolls" and so on; there are also "laborers singing in things" Labor scene works "Farming Map", "Wrangling Horses", as well as "Dust Labor Yin", "Widows and Cows", "Five Grains and Fengdeng" and other joyful pictures of life, exuding local atmosphere, Soak up the flavor of life. In the long years, folk paper-cutting has expressed far-reaching and conventional cultural connotations in simple and simple language forms. Zhang Yongzhong comes from the people, understands the pain of "wind and rain and sweat flowing", and knows the fun of life with bitterness. His art of paper-cutting is rooted in folk and expresses life, containing a strong and simple cultural spirit.
The scene of the academic seminar
After the opening ceremony of zhang Yongzhong's paper-cut art exhibition "Avenue to Scissors", the guests moved to the multi-functional hall on the seventh floor of the National Art Museum of China to hold an exhibition academic seminar. The symposium was presided over by Yi Calyx, Director of the Research Department of the National Art Museum of China.
Xiang Yunju, vice chairman and secretary general of the China Literature and Art Foundation and vice chairman of the China Critics Association, evaluated Zhang Yongzhong's paper-cutting artistic achievements from the height of the development of intangible cultural heritage and the contemporary development of folk art, and affirmed it from the three angles of innovation, sense of form and folk. Zhang Yongzhong uses tradition to control large structures, large schemas, and large scenes, which are also relatively lacking in folk art. He uses modern art to deal with folk life very harmoniously and interestingly, which is already a very rare sight in our creation and inheritance.
Duan Gaifang, a researcher who has been a teacher and friend of Zhang Yongzhong for many years and is very familiar with him at the Shanxi Mass Art Museum, introduced Zhang Yongzhong's family origins in the discussion, allowing us to have a deeper understanding of his path of art. Zhang Yongzhong was born in a papermaking family, tearing paper from a young age gave him a paper-cutting complex, these lives are an accumulation for him, he expresses very ordinary things in the form of art. He put some of the very complex and multi-layered folk activities and some cultural customs in the folk, which can be controlled and expressed by paper cutting.
Chang Sixin, advisor to the China Folk Writers Association, spoke highly of Zhang Yongzhong's promotion of Shanxi's national culture and his significance of the development of the original paper-cut source, "This exhibition is the first high-standard exhibition of folk artists in Shanxi Province held in Beijing, which is the national art museum of China's real support for the cultural construction of our old revolutionary area of Shanxi. In this exhibition, we want to show the culture of Southeast Jin as a solid and as a plane, which is Zhang Yongzhong's contribution to our culture of Southeast Jin and Shanxi. ”
Ma Liming, an expert in the Folk Art Department of the National Art Museum of China, said that "cutting everything" is the highest praise for Zhang Yongzhong's paper-cutting art. The huge scale complements the grand themes he expresses, forming a very clever and integrated atmosphere. He skillfully fused man, the universe, heaven and earth, and all things in nature. When we stood in front of the huge work "The Soul of the Chinese Yan Emperor" with strong humanistic colors, we felt an incomparable awe in our hearts, which caused a shock in our hearts. The whole exhibition, whether it is a huge or a small and delicate paper-cut work, is very imaginative and creative.
Xu Zhuo, a senior photojournalist at the People's Daily, commented, "In the plump content of Zhang Yongzhong's works, every part is very good and worthy of serious study. What impressed him the most was his modeling language, which was completely a paper-cutting language, not to say that the painting was turned into a paper-cutting, so this is a pure folk practice of paper-cutting. He has four small theatrical paper cuts, the language and shape are very simple, especially bright and moving, I think this is the real paper cut artist's technique. ”
Yang Yang, a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts of Tsinghua University, said after viewing the exhibition that the two large works of "Ballad of Life" and "Dust And Labor" are both pictures and texts, and it is Zhang Yongzhong himself who designs, layouts, compositions and calligraphy. This particularly reflects his cultural heritage, his love for the culture of his hometown, he collected a lot of folk songs, folk songs, including nursery rhymes, proverbs, spoken words are written and included in his pictures, well organized. "The Newborn Calf Is Not Afraid of the Tiger" and "The Baby Cow", the composition is full, and the visual power expands outward, indicating that his artistic and modeling ability is very strong.
Wang Xuefeng, director of the Folk Art Department of the National Art Museum of China, said that Zhang Yongzhong's art comes from life and traditional culture, such as farming life, folk myths, historical stories, especially works that express the folk customs of Shanxi, and truly and the art advocated in the literary and art policy should serve the people, and art should show social life, which is a real expression of the original culture.
Wang Wei, an expert in the Folk Art Department of the National Art Museum of China, said, "The holding of Zhang Yongzhong's paper-cutting exhibition is in line with the theme of inheritance and development of folk traditional culture and art that the National Art Museum of China has always advocated. I think this result is not only a major event in Zhang Yongzhong's personal artistic career, but also a major event in the development of our Chinese folk art, especially paper-cutting art. ”
Yang Jing, an expert in the Folk Art Department of the National Art Museum of China, witnessed Zhang Yongzhong's artistic development all the way, walked out of Shanxi, and finally came to the National Art Hall of China to exhibit, and dedicated her wonderful works to everyone. She said that "The Soul of the Chinese Yan Emperor", "Ode to the Three Jins", "Ballad of Life", "Dust and Labor", each folk paper-cut image is very touching, because it is a microcosm of a regional culture, a cultural memory that we are most familiar with, and the most sincere expression of our personal feelings. Life is as simple as paper-cutting and folk songs, and the joys and sorrows in life are all in the paper-cutting, singing for life and cutting for life.
Fan Di'an, chairman of the China Artists Association and president of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, said when visiting Zhang Yongzhong's paper-cutting art exhibition on the 24th, "The exhibition gives me two very profound feelings: First, he is based on his hometown, based on the thick soil of Shanxi culture, the theme of his paper-cutting works is related to the homeland and hometown where he lives, and many legendary stories and cultural allusions from local culture and local culture also include the folk lifestyle and life ideals that have lasted for thousands of years to the present day. With his paper-cut masterpiece of The Yan Emperor, we can see that he is very fond of his hometown and full of respect for Chinese culture and Chinese civilization. Second, Zhang Yongzhong's paper-cutting has its own unique appearance. His works belong to the majestic and simple aesthetic style in style. The shape of the paper-cut can be thick or thin, and in the same red color, through the change of lines and surfaces, a different style of each paper-cut artist is formed between red and white. Zhang Yongzhong as a paper-cutter with very simple feelings and grand ambitions for the development of folk art, I think he has naturally formed a relatively strong style in life and practice, paying attention to the rhythm distribution of the entire picture of the big image, and the cutting technique is also more directly combining large areas of red and white lines, so his works make people feel the thick and simple ancient cultural atmosphere from the Yellow River Basin in northern China.
Throughout the ages, paper-cutting decoration of life, expression of emotions, and sustenance of spirit have become the distinctive ornamental genealogy, folk symbols and artistic creations of the Chinese nation, accumulating Chinese collective cultural consciousness. The inheritance and development of paper-cutting is therefore related to our cultural memory and cultural uniqueness. Its living inheritance is inseparable from the inheritance, refinement and innovation of folk artists and artists, and the attention, appreciation and dissemination of a wider range of people. Zhang Yongzhong's paper-cutting art exhibition was held at the National Art Museum of China, which is another focus, interpretation and exchange of paper-cutting in the National Art Hall, a gaze and understanding of paper-cutting, an excellent Traditional Chinese cultural style, and a feeling and resonance of folk art creativity and creative spirit.