Qianjiang Evening News Hourly News Reporter Song Hao/Wen Lin Yunlong/Photo
Zhejiang Art Museum, "Autumn Ruixiang - Qi Baishi, Huang Binhong Flower and Bird Painting Exhibition" is under exhibition.
In the glass cabinet of Hall 9, a draft of Qi Baishi was placed horizontally, which attracted many people to stop. The 28 cm high and 20.5 cm wide painting depicts a bird with a simple silhouette and a cute posture, which can be described as "cute" in today's words. In the inscription of the old man of Shiraishi on the painting, there are six words "really have natural interest".
In the view of Wu Hongliang, an art critic and president of the Beijing Academy of Painting, this is also the artistic purpose that Qi Baishi has pursued all his life.
Look at the bees in his painting with a magnifying glass, and the shadows of fluttering wings can be drawn
Qi Baishi's most famous shrimp, such as swimming in the water, come to life. So much so that he once lamented: "Seventy-eight years old, people say that they can only draw shrimp, wronged!" It seems that the old man Shiraishi is also depressed, regretting that the world thinks that he can only draw shrimp. But after watching this exhibition, many people will be like me, and can't help but sigh Qi Baishi's eyesight and ingenuity.
Among the nearly 100 works of flowers and birds in this exhibition, in addition to fish and shrimp, there are also a number of grass and insect works, such as bees, grasshoppers, crickets, locusts, moths, dragonflies, praying mantises, cicadas and so on. In the exhibition hall, a magnifying glass is placed next to these insect works to facilitate visitors to see the subtleties. It turns out that the bugs on this painting are almost all restored according to 1:1, which is the same size as the real insects in nature.
Dragonflies and cicadas, transparent wings are a network of lines; moth wings covered with powder shiny; grasshoppers are full of stomachs, there are actually hidden folds, strong hind legs and small thorns... These details are revealed in the magnifying glass. There were two bees, one parked and one hanging, and the shadows of the rapid vibration of the bee's wings were drawn.
Double Bee
There is a "Mantis Painting Draft", although this is only a draft, but it clearly records the process of Qi Baishi's thinking. There are two flowers on the painting, marked next to them, which are diagonally upwards, and the yellow in the center of the petals does not have ink hooks. There are also a few praying mantises around the flowers. One in the upper left corner is outlined with lines, and the bias pen, the line of the mantis's back and abdomen, and the barbs on the forelimbs are all drawn.
Qi Baishi painting
The rest of the pieces, composed of ink blocks, are more freehand, such as the entire torso only used one or two strokes to skim, there is also a feeling of dry brush, and then taste, this brushwork just draws the transparent effect of the praying mantis wings. Qi Baishi also marked on the side: "Good freehand, this four-word word worm." It seems that, after some experimentation and comparison, he concluded that it was better to paint mantises in a more freehand way.
In the "Annals of Qi Baishi", Qi Shibai's forgotten friend Li Jinxi once recalled: Before 1901, Qi Baishi's paintings were mainly gongbi, and grass insects had long been transmitted. Because his family has always raised grass worms: textile maidens, grasshoppers, locusts and the like, and other creatures, he often pays attention to its characteristics and does direct sketching exercises, which last a long time and naturally convey the spirit. After settling in Beijing, he created the two-colored flowers of safflower ink leaves and the famous shrimp with few strokes.
"Long Life"
The grass worms exhibited this time only account for a part of Qi Baishi's grass worm works. There are 295 works of Qi Baishi grass worms in the collection of the Beijing Academy of Painting, involving 22 types of grass worms, of which the largest is dragonflies, with 45 pieces, followed by 43 grasshoppers. Some species also draw different families under them, such as moths including lamp moths, phoenix moths, ruler moths, moths, deer moths, borer moths, silkworm moths, finches moths, etc., and the subtle differences between them are almost difficult to distinguish if they are not insect experts.
The Lone Flower House studied loofah vines, and his love of nature was fully written
In 1960, the Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio filmed the first experimental ink animation "Little Tadpole Finds Mother". The tadpoles, frogs, fish and shrimp, chickens, lotuses, and loofahs in the animation of that year are all from Qi Baishi's pen. As soon as the animation was released, it won the Special Prize at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, the world's largest international animation festival.
Qi Baishi's shrimp
His flowers, grasses, insects, fish, shrimp, crabs, butterflies, praying mantises, ladybirds and even gourds, pomegranates and other plants, pieces of wings, tentacles, let people feel the breath of real nature coming out of the paper.
Qi Baishi's son, Qi Liangchi, said that his father had to make a belly draft before painting each painting. When he was typing the manuscript, he had to observe the physical object. For example, if you want to paint a peony flower, go and see how the peony flower blooms, how the leaves are long, whether it is raw or alternate, what is the difference between it and the peony flower, etc., and even take notes and sketch out a draft.
Part of "Grass Worm Begonia"
A love of nature is innate in Qi Baishi.
Qi Baishi's childhood was spent in Xingdoutang, Xingdoutang, Xingziwu, Xiangtan, Hunan. He said that when he was a child, "when he saw dogs and cats, he laughed, and when he saw a guest, he cried." "He loves flowers and plants, he loves puppies and kittens, he loves fish and shrimp in ponds. So many years later, Qi Baishi, who settled in Beijing, rebuilt the farm's pastoral garden in the courtyard.
In 1926, No. 15, Beijing Cross-train Hutong. In the courtyard, Qi Baishi opened up a plot of land and planted loofahs, grapes, flowers and plants, which his family called "flower yard". "This is my father's favorite yard." His son Qi Liangchi said, "My father planted a lot of loofahs in the flower garden, and the loofahs bore a lot of knots, and each one grew a meter long. ”
This great painter often likes to walk alone in the flower garden.
Once, Qi Liangchi walked over, and Qi Baishi pointed to the end of a loofah vine and said, "You remember its position on the shelf, come to see it at night, and come back tomorrow morning, you will know that the vine grows very slowly during the day, and only at night does it grow very fast." "Qi Baishi faced the loofah and explained to his son the walking of vines and leaves, and the places to pay attention to when painting." He also taught me to pay more attention to the naturally growing plants I encountered in my life. ”
Qi Baishi's friend Long Gong mentioned in the "Biography of Qi Baishi" that Qi Baishi himself raised many grass worms and carried out a considerable number of sketches: from 1909 to 1919, eleven years, sketches or detailed drawings on raw paper were at least more than a thousand. Each drawing is not the size of a piece of letter paper, some draw a few insects, some draw a bird, some even have disrupted petals or folded leaves, each with a month and day, for some inscriptions.
Qi Baishi once said: "Yu painted chickens for twenty years, ten years can get a shape, ten years can get a god like." Qi Baishi made sufficient efforts to observe loofah vines, chickens, shrimps and crabs, and the so-called confident, so that there were flowers, birds, insects and fish with both form and god and full of natural atmosphere.
Qi Baishi has been painting flowers, birds and grass worms for 50 years, and as long as he has seen grass worms, almost all of them are painted by him.
Where does the natural interest come from, this "cute" bird hides the answer
Qi Baishi's grass worms show his natural interest, why is this something that is not found in the previous generation of painters, and it is also difficult for future generations of painters to see?
Lü Xiao, director of the Theoretical Research Department of the Beijing Academy of Painting, believes that there has been no shortage of famous artists who are good at painting grass worms in China throughout the ages, who are either good at writing brushes or rewriting freehand, but rarely like Qi Baishi, seamlessly combine the brush and freehand to create their own unique artistic language. Moreover, under the pen of successive painters, grass worms are only embellishments of flowers and plants. In Qi Baishi's paintings, although the grass worm is no different from the size of the real worm, it becomes the real protagonist and visual center.
Qi Baishi "Gourd" part
Although his brush grass worm is extremely realistic, it is not a dead specimen, full of vitality and vitality, although meticulous, but highly generalized, concise and trivial.
Qi Baishi's grass worm paintings have been widely welcomed since 1920, and he feels that he is old and dizzy, and it is a bit painful to paint such a meticulous work, and he often feels the contradiction between the two painting methods and the difficulty of reaching the shape of the gods. But in the end he realized: "Those who are good at freehand writing, speak exclusively of their gods; those who work on sketching, only pay attention to their form, they must sketch and then write freehand, write freehand and then repeat life, they can see all the forms and gods, and they can get it by chance." ”
What is the core of Qi Baishi's art? This is a question that Wu Hongliang, president of the Beijing Academy of Painting, has been thinking about, until in the nearly 2,000 Qi Baishi collections of the Academy, Wu Hongliang saw a painting manuscript and suddenly became enlightened - that is, the cute bird mentioned at the beginning of the article.
Qi Baishi has an inscription on the painting: "On June 18, I was talking with the doorman Zhang Boren, in Beijing's Fayuan Temple, and I suddenly saw that there were grindstone prints on the bricks on the ground, and the stone pulp was white in color, just like this bird, and Yu used this paper to paint and store its grass on the ground, which was really interesting." ”
"It's really interesting to be natural", Wu Hongliang felt that he could not find a more appropriate expression.
Wu Hongliang, president of the Beijing Academy of Painting, infographic
Fayuan Temple, an ancient temple during the Tang Dynasty, is the oldest temple in Beijing. 101 years ago, Qi Baishi lived in Beijing and temporarily lived in the temple. Once, while chatting with the juniors, I happened to catch a glimpse of the stone bricks on the ground, carved with the pattern of birds. Qi Baishi put the paper on the ground and drew it down. The stone bricks are full of birds full of natural interest, attracting Qi Baishi, who is also full of natural interest in his heart.
"These two lines of inscriptions depict for us the most real Qi Baishi, an old man who has experienced the vicissitudes of the world, but still maintains a simple childlike heart." Wu Hongliang said, "The true interest of nature is exactly the portrayal of Qi Baishi himself, and Qi Baishi is a 'true' character. It is precisely because of this that his small fish and shrimp, pomegranate and peach are so vivid and lovely, and that natural feeling jumps on the paper.
"Aquatic Crab Diagram"
Wu Hongliang believes that this simple happiness is the love of Baishi, and in interpersonal communication, he is also free. For example, he is very fond of a sketch of a small shrimp he painted, and does not want to sell it, he will directly write "This small shrimp is for the old eye sketch, when not sold for money." ”
In order to prevent some bureaucrats and merchants from asking for paintings, he wrote a notice to hang in the house: "Regardless of the friendship of selling paintings, gentlemen are ashamed, please pay according to Runge." "Runge is the price list, the Beijing Academy of Painting collection of his Runge, probably the content is: the fan surface is thirty yuan, the middle one is twenty-five yuan; red reuse ten yuan, less use five yuan; engraving Zhu Wen twenty yuan, white text fifteen yuan. Finally, he added a sentence :"The painting of going out, turn around and add prints and words, don't agree!" "That's his bluntness and crispness, just like his art.
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Source: Qianjiang Evening News Hourly News