Editor's Note
On January 5th, Xishan Hanji's "Art and Qi: Xiangbaoshan Courtyard Art Affair" was launched in Guiyang Kong Xuetang. The exhibition presents representative works, old objects and old photographs created by cultural people and artists who lived in the XiangbaoShan compound from the 1980s to the beginning of this century, so as to review the years when Guizhou art flourished. The exhibition will be exhibited to the public free of charge for 3 months at the Confucius Xuetang Art and Culture Museum.
"Xiangbaoshan Courtyard" is a witness to the budding development of contemporary art in Guizhou, and a microcosm of The development of art in Guizhou in the past 20 years. A large number of Guizhou contemporary artists such as Dai Mingxian, Dong Kejun, Yu Weiren, Cao Qiongde, Chen Hongwei and so on have all walked out of this compound and are still active in the literary and artistic front, making great achievements for Guizhou literature and art.
Nowadays, holding such an "exhibition of memories" with the theme of Xiangbaoshan Courtyard Art, what is the memory, and what is the reference significance for the present? From Zhou Zhijiang, deputy director of the Guiyang Confucius Academy Cultural Communication Center, the article "The "Small Circle" and the Big Era of Similar Arts and Qi- Written on the Occasion of the Launch of "Art and Qi: The Art affair of the Xiangbaoshan Courtyard"" may be able to find an answer for us.
Xiangbao Mountain, also known as Zhaobi Mountain, was a scene of Guiyang in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and the Guizhou Tongzhi said: "Paiyun Lieling, like Cuiping, confronted dongshan, with Fan Yu on it, quite famous." It is said that once it was a place where the literati gathered in the old days, but now it is no longer the view of the past, only the two cliff carvings above the Biyun Cave still exist, one is "Xiangbao Liuyun" and the other is "Qianyang Half Wall".
However, from the 1980s to the beginning of the new century, No. 29 Lion Road at the foot of Xiangbao Mountain was once the location of the Guiyang Municipal Literary Association and staff dormitory, and the editorial office of the famous domestic pure literature monthly magazine "Huaxi" was once camped here, and now, the Guiyang Painting Institute is still stationed in the compound. In the words of Mr. Dai Mingxian, an elderly man in Guizhou's cultural circles, "A community of art believers has gathered here." Professionally, do their own thing, have a good interest... Almost everyone is outstanding. The 'Guizhou phenomenon' in the painting world, the Guizhou team in the book world, accounts for more than half of it here."
On January 5th, the lunar calendar Peng Shu Xiaohan, "Art and Qi: Xiangbaoshan Courtyard Art Affair" was officially launched at the Guiyang Confucius Academy Art and Literature Museum, exhibiting more than 100 calligraphy and painting works and nearly 200 books, all created by "art believers" who came out of this compound during that period, although most of them moved away or transferred, but they achieved great achievements in their respective fields - Dai Mingxian, Dong Kejun, Liao Gongxian, Yu Weiren, Ping Zhi, Liao Guosong, Chen Hongwei, Cao Qiongde, Tang Yaping, Yang Guoxun, He Liqian, Liu Longji, He Guozheng, Zhang Jianjian , Yan Bing, Dai Bing, Dong Zhong... With the exception of a few who have passed away, most of them are still active on the literary and artistic front.
At the same time, the exhibition also collected many old photos from that period, and collected some old objects, trying to restore some of the scenes of that year, hoping to bring the audience a fresh and nostalgic viewing experience.
At the opening ceremony, ms. Yu Weiren, a writer and scholar, recited a long article specially written for this exhibition, "Anecdotes of the Elderly elder of Xiangbao Mountain Art Garden", which said: "Dai Gongmingxian, this year is eighty-four, in the past we all called him Old Dai, and now it is not convenient to change his mouth." His aesthetic purpose is just like his writing of "art is not integrated, beauty is unique". ”
"Art is not integrated, beauty is unique", almost also the "aesthetic purpose" of the Xiangbaoshan compound.
This group of "compound" artists covered a wide range of genres, from novels, poetry, prose, painting, calligraphy, sculpture, photography, music, dance, drama, film, folklore, to literary theory, and even several of them were both long. Speaking of painting, brush stroke freehand, Western painting and Chinese painting, avant-garde tradition, all are readily available. Take the path or have different, but the interest is like-minded, inclusive, in order to bloom a hundred flowers, this truth can be described as subversive.
In the 1980s and 1990s, during the period of vigorous development after the "reform and opening up", it was not easy to understand this past without the background of this era, and the critic Li Tuo once said in an interview, "A characteristic of the 1980s is that everyone has passion." What passion, not ordinary passion, but passion that carries on the past and opens up... Reflection on history, criticism of reality, permeate the spiritual world shared among friends. That's the most attractive content of friendship, with this thing, how noisy friends are together, how to make trouble, there is always a realm, not tacky, very atmospheric... It turns out that nostalgia is to regain the warmth and spiritual world that we lost in the pursuit of matter."
Whispering, in a word.
The scene of the literary and art critic "Zhang Jianjian's living room" restored in the development was also the place where people in the compound and even people in the literary and art circles in Guizhou Province often gathered, the so-called "living room drama talks about staying up more vigil, not looking down on each other", "such a gathering lasted for almost ten years", materially it was not rich, but spiritually rich.
Zhang Jianjian himself sighed: "On the day of the launch, Mr. Dai Mingxian specifically mentioned that from ancient Yang Longyou to modern Chen Heng'an, as well as the influence of literary artist settlements in different eras on the construction of local culture, I think this is an important statement. Gathering friends with literature, rather than gathering friends by name, gathering friends with strength, and even gathering friends with affection, 'building the charter of the portal, but ending with morality', this is also the true meaning of the ancient literati in the true sense, and it is also the value position of the modern 'artist community'. The exhibition's name 'Art and Spirit' also fully demonstrates this meaning. ”
Chen Hongwei, chairman of the Guizhou Provincial Artists Association, who has worked in the compound for many years, said: "I spent my green years in the Xiangbaoshan compound, and later looked back, I often said that I met the right people at the right time, did the right things, walked the right path, and benefited for life." ”
What is more interesting is that the cultural settlement of "Xiangbaoshan Courtyard" is not limited to Guizhou, when many heavyweights in the domestic literary and art circles have visited the compound and exchanged views, and in many old photos of this exhibition, those images are still preserved.
The poet Tang Yaping wrote: "Guiyang in the 1980s was really fun, at that time, Kwong Yang, Qu Xiaosong, Cao Li, Ma Jianping, Liu Jianyi, Zhu Zhenglin some went to school in Beijing, some have worked in Beijing, Liu Bangyi was in the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, Fan Xinlin was in The Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute in Jiangxi, winter and summer vacations back to Guiyang, everyone would eat and turn together, play together on the mountain, sometimes Qu Xiaosong brought his daughter-in-law Liu Sola, Kuang Yang brought his daughter-in-law Zhang Lida back, everyone lit a bonfire by the Baihua Lake, sang all night, danced all night... There are often painters, poets and writers from Beijing, Sichuan and other provinces and cities in the circle, Gu Cheng, Ma Jian, wang chuan met in Guiyang, and my friends Zhai Yongming and Meng Mei (who was translating Kundera's Novels and Art at that time) also liked to come to Guizhou to play. ”
Wei Quan's book "Shilin's Friendship and Changes in Customs: A Study of the Literati Group in Xuannan in the Nineteenth Century" is the object of study of the literati "small circle" south of Xuanwu Gate in Beijing in the late Qing Dynasty, "the boundaries are relatively clear, large or small, or long or temporary, or close or loose, or famous or unknown, in these small circles, on the one hand, you can lift the 'solo singing silence' of the circle people, bring people the joy of harmony; on the other hand, create a discussion for them... Communication...... environment. In addition, there are certain intrinsic links between these small circles and the large background of the times and the social atmosphere."
There is no doubt that although it is far away in the southwest corner, although it is only a slice of the Guizhou literary and art circle in that era, this small circle of "Xiangbaoshan Compound" in Guiyang still has a symptomatic meaning, which is inherently an "exhibition of memories", but for the present, it is not without inspiration.
7 January 2019
【About the Author】
Zhou Zhijiang: Member of the Party Committee and Deputy Director of the Center of Cultural Communication of Confucius Xuetang in Guiyang, Secretary-General of the Academic Committee of Confucius Xuetang