From the Beijing Olympic mascot Fuwa to the upcoming release of the zodiac rat ticket on January 5, Han Meilin's creations are rich and diverse, and these are the results of a race against time.
There is an artist who designed Air China's phoenix logo on a two-and-a-half-hour flight from Beijing to Guangzhou; he poured years of hard work into the Beijing Olympic mascot Fuwa, repeatedly changing and changing; he created a huge Chinese painting "Eight Juntu" for the Great Hall of the People, a horse's ass is one meter and five meters; he also designed several zodiac stamps, and the zodiac rat ticket for the year of Gengzi will be officially issued on January 5, 2020... He said: "Carved, carved, printed, dyed, written, painted, clothed, stone, wood, metal, ceramic, nothing I do not do." "His exuberant creativity, the diversity of creative means, the sheer volume of his works, and the distinctive style make him unique in the art world — he is Han Meilin."
Han Meilin is 83 years old, and he doesn't go to bed until one or two o'clock in the night every night, and then gets up at six o'clock in the morning to start creating. At the entrance of the three Han Meilin Art Museums in Hangzhou, Beijing and Yinchuan, he wrote the same sentence, "The heavens told me, Han Meilin, you are a cow, you will work in this life!" ”
In an exclusive interview with this newspaper, the sentence he said the most was, "I am the poor man of time."
Hit by mistake, with the wall as paper
"Shandong is the hometown of Confucius, and it is a matter of course to write calligraphy since I was a child, and I have been writing since I was five years old." Han Meilin said that no matter how poor his family was, he did not give up letting the three brothers learn to write calligraphy. "Although I went to primary school for the poor, I was lucky. There were three art teachers and three music teachers in the six classes, and I still remember the names of the three art teachers: Li Zhici, An Dengyun, and Gong Qixun. The school had two pianos, and students could play them at will, and the atmosphere of acting, singing, and painting in the school was very active. Later, when I went to college to listen to music appreciation classes, I realized that I was already familiar with beethoven and Mozart's songs when I was in elementary school. In the fourth grade of primary school, we painstakingly read "Ancient Literature and GuanZhi". My primary school acted in the drama "The Education of Love", and the tutor was Qin Hongyun, who was the pioneer of China's first silent film and the teacher of Zhao Dan..." Han Meilin gushed endlessly, with a proud look, and reported many famous names, Li Yuanqing, Chen Shuliang, Zhao Yuanren. He said that he did not know how to understand stupidity, did not expect that the blind cat encountered so many teachers, "since elementary school, the teacher has encouraged me as a 'little painter'"; he said that in his childhood, lime and walls were his paper and ink, "I often scribble on people's walls, especially new walls, and it is common for people to complain and be beaten." In addition, the stone road in our alley is also a good place for me to draw and write. ”
On September 24, 1948, Jinan was liberated, and Han Meilin, who had been in junior high school for three months, dropped out of school. My brother joined the army at the age of 15, "On April 12, 1949, I joined the army when I was less than 13 years old. "He worked as a correspondent for a commander in a unit that built a martyrs' memorial tower, standing guard, delivering letters, serving meals, sweeping the floor, and leading horses; fortunately, the commander saw that he liked to paint things, and within half a year he was transferred to the relief group." I leapt through the ages with a large number of architectural engineers, painters and musicians who laid the foundation for my life's work as an artist, and I absorbed like a sponge the knowledge they brought me. ”
In his twenties, he was "full of stars" at the top
In 1955, Han Meilin was admitted to the Central Academy of Fine Arts. He also remembers that the first lesson of the university was the director of the Academic Affairs Office of the Central Academy of Fine Arts who gave them a meeting, "He said, you are from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, and we want to train you into a pillar of the country." This is the goal I have strived for in my life, I have never wavered, and I have never thought about how much calligraphy and painting will sell. ”
Han Meilin in his youth
In the first year of college, the class teacher Zhou Lingzhao (the designer of the national emblem and the painter of Chairman Mao's portrait on the upper floor of Tiananmen Square at the founding ceremony) took him and his classmate Li Qi to participate in the design of the Tiananmen "May Day" and "Eleventh" parades. "When I was a 19- or 20-year-old child, I went to paint the Great Hall of the People, the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, the Minzu Hotel, and the Museum of The Chinese Revolution... The teacher backed us up in the back. The 'full of stars' in the Great Hall of the People was completed by me with the teacher. Han Meilin recalled the scene when Premier Zhou came to hold the "Zhuge Liang Meeting", "Teacher Zhou said: 'Premier, we are so busy, what did you ask us to do?'" Premier Zhou said: "There is no big deal, but it is not a small matter, that is, the top issue of the Great Hall of the People." This top is too big, how to make the chandelier? The small auditorium of the CPPCC 800 people has 21 tons of chandeliers. A thunderbolt hit down and the chandelier smashed more than 30 seats. Fortunately, there was no meeting that day, otherwise more than 30 expert-level standing committee members would have been smashed to death. I asked everyone to come here to solve the problem of chandeliers in the Great Hall of the People. ’
'Cough, this problem is easy, full of stars!' Teacher Zhou said it casually. After Premier Zhou listened, he put his hand in his pocket and said, 'Okay, adjourn the meeting!' In this way, 'full of stars' was set, which shows the enlightened atmosphere at that time, between teachers and students, between academic circles and officials. That's how I grew up, the teacher was willing to teach everything, I wanted to learn everything. ”
Caravan, more than forty years
In the absurd years, Han Meilin suffered a lot. The foot bones were trampled and broken into more than forty pieces, and the tendons of the hands were broken, and I still can't hold the pen and chopsticks steadily. "But what I chose was to forget that and continue to look for beauty and realize it, which is what I should do as an artist."
Thus, in 1978, the "Han Meilin Art Caravan" was officially launched. For more than forty years, there has never been a break, and every year I go down to the factory and go to the countryside to walk 20,000 or 30,000 kilometers, which makes every painting of Han Meilin not repeat the same.
On 13 October 2015, UNESCO Director-General Bokova presented Han Meilin with the "Artist of Peace" certificate, becoming the first person in the Chinese art industry to receive this award
He said that the caravan did not go to those lively tourist spots, but to the deep mountains and old forests, the loess sand sea, where there was once a prosperity, but now it is a wasteland, those ancient cultural relics that cannot be moved, the wind and sand and heat wave can not be affected for a while, is his most interested place, "In my paintings, every painting can see the influence of ancient Chinese culture on me." "He said that the caravan went from the Jiaodong Peninsula to the Central Plains, to the northwest frontier, to the hinterland of the southwest, and then to the southeast coast... "We also go to Europe and Africa, to India, Japan, Nepal, and the Arab region, art has no borders, and we must absorb the nutrition of world art to enrich the art of our own nation."
He also said that if you go down often, you can know the bittersweet and bittersweet of the common people, go to the countryside to paint, and mingle with your fellow villagers, "eat with them, live with them, chat with them, laugh together, work together, paint with them, cut together, sing together, pinch together, laugh together, cry together... Ask them for advice, learn from them. ”
Talking about the caravan's plans for the next few months, Han Meilin was full of enthusiasm: "Recently, I have to go to Jingdezhen, Yixing, Hangzhou, and by the way, I have to go to Sanjiangyuan again." "Last year, he went to Sanjiangyuan, and at an altitude of 4300 meters, he lacked oxygen and planted it head-on. But this year I have to go again, "strive for 5300 meters, I don't look at Sanjiangyuan myself, I can't do that sculpture well." Later, Han Meilin took reporters to visit his sculpture "workshop", and the small manuscript several meters high had begun to take shape, and he proudly said: "To engage in a thing, without three or four years of observation, accumulation, and attempt, it is absolutely impossible to hand it over without certainty." ”
Two long-cherished wishes, are working hard
Han Meilin not only learned from the ancients and fellow villagers, but also tried to keep up with the pace of the times. He studies Jewish philosophy, also reads the history of big data, and is also very interested in the era of human intelligence development, the era of new energy, the era of bits, and he even said, "I watch all the tv dramas that are abusive, and I have to see what young people like today." Han Meilin absorbed almost non-stop, and also kept refurbishing, and every day he was saying goodbye to yesterday.
Han Meilin said that he still had two long-cherished wishes that had not been fulfilled and was working hard. The first is the "Chinese Paleography Art Dictionary", "We have already produced the "Book of Heaven", which is the prelude, in the study of ancient texts, we have encountered ancient texts like "Heavenly Book" that everyone does not know, do not understand, and that paleographers are not interested in, and I want to pick them up." At present, I have collected tens of thousands of words and continue to collect them. This has contributed to society, the study of ancient characters, and traditional Chinese culture. The second is oil painting," I have prepared for this for a lifetime. Because oil painting is an import of foreign art, I have to familiarize Chinese art thoroughly before I can integrate Chinese elements. The national is the world, art must emphasize individuality, nationality, if there is no nationality, the world is not interesting. In 2011, Han Meilin, who had been writing calligraphy for 70 years, finally felt that his cursive writing could be seen, so he took it out for exhibition. How long will the oil painting exhibition be held? Han Meilin replied, "In my lifetime, definitely." ”
Reporter's Note: People who have love are young
Walk out of Han Meilin's studio and wander around the art museum. There are more than a hundred small porcelain plates hanging on a long wall, and in the center of each small plate is a painting sketch, in which the birds, rabbits, flowers, and various wonderful patterns seem to be singing. This is what Han Meilin and his wife Zhou Jianping left behind when they were in love, "At that time, I was making ceramics in Henan, my wife called and said she wanted to come over, I put down the phone and began to draw, until I saw her, in less than a day, a total of 179 pictures were drawn." The paintings were then fired on porcelain plates of ordinary size and coarse glaze to testify to the artist's love.
Han Meilin and his wife Zhou Jianping
Han Meilin's love is concrete, to the lady, to the child. Han Meilin's love is also broad. He said that he had suffered a lot of human suffering, but artists should not frown, should not pass on their "suffering" to others, and should not pass on their imaginary "suffering" to others. He said that the starting point of the artist's life should be "good", to treat the earth, animals, and resources; "to 'love', great love, love, love, love, only in this way, can the 'beauty' be passed on to everyone, this is the artist's vocation." ”
Han Meilin and Feng Ji have been friends for many years
Feng Jicai, an old friend, said that whenever Han Meilin had a new artistic creation and a new artistic language, he would call, "Come to my studio and see my latest paintings, it's great." But whenever friends stand in front of his new painting and can't help but say something new in their hearts, Han Meilin will say, "Believe it or not, I haven't started yet!" Feng Jicai said that this was the words of his old friend who he loved to hear the most.
I believe that it has not yet begun. I believe that the 83-year-old Han Meilin is artistically young. (Sun Jiayin)