"Dong Yifang: Illustrating China's Century of Changes" Chinese Painting Exhibition was held last autumn at Purdue University in Indiana, USA, with works from Mr. Dong Yifang, a painter with academic creativity and pen and ink influence on Chinese painting in the 1950s and 1960s, and his teacher, Mr. Qin Zhongwen, a painter and theorist. The works in the exhibition reflect the academic characteristics and historical background covering the changes of Chinese painting in the past hundred years. This is a rare exhibition of Chinese paintings about Dong Yifang and Mr. Qin Zhongwen in recent years.
Mr. Dong Yifang
In early October, the author was invited by Purdue University to be the main academic guest of this exhibition, and gave an English speech entitled "The Emergence, Development and Contribution of Chinese Painting to Human Society and Health" for the organizers of this exhibition, the Department of Art and The Department of Comparative Literature of Purdue University, and gave a comparative explanation of the works in the exhibition for the researchers who were engaged in Chinese literature and art.
Mr. Dong Yifang's works are the main line of this Chinese painting exhibition, and Mr. Dong's painting process reflects the learning and experience that an accomplished traditional Chinese painter needs to have, especially how he absorbs, digests and integrates between traditional Chinese painting and Western art. His achievements are also inseparable from the teachings and influences of a group of accomplished teachers in his early years by the Calligraphy and Painting Training Class of the Peking Antiquities Exhibition Institute, the National Peking Art College, the Art Department of Fu Jen University, and the Peking Provisional University.
At present, not many people know Mr. Dong Yifang, because Mr. Dong left the Chinese painting industry in the mid-1960s. However, Mr. Dong is indeed a figure that cannot be ignored in the history of modern Chinese painting, and he has both a very solid basic skill in Chinese painting and a good foundation in oil painting and watercolor painting. Therefore, with the skillfulness of traditional pen and ink skills, the rules and perspectives of Mr. Dong's Chinese paintings are getting closer and closer to nature. Looking back at the changes in the theory and ink of Chinese painting in the 1950s and 1960s, we can see that Mr. Dong's academic views and sketches during this period have played a positive and powerful role in promoting the positive reform of Chinese painting.
Mr. Dong's biggest academic highlight is the interpretation of the traditional brush and ink of Chinese painting in the reform of Chinese painting in the 50th and 60th generations of Chinese painting in the 1950s and 1960s. In the May issue of Fine Arts in 1957, he published an article entitled "On the Characteristics of Chinese Painting", in which he discussed the texture description of the light effect between Chinese painting and Western painting, and emphasized the expression of the charm of the line method in Chinese painting. This article still has strong academic significance for the study of Chinese painting today.
Dong Yifang, "A Corner of the Sanmenxia Dam Construction Site", 1960
Mr. Dong's academic views are embodied in the Chinese painting "A Corner of the Sanmenxia Dam Construction Site" during the construction period of New China. Mr. Dong fused the freehand painting of Chinese landscape painting with the boundary painting techniques of traditional Chinese painting, and added the "three far methods" of traditional Chinese painting to the physical perspective (Guo Xi's "Lin Quan Gao Zhi" of the Northern Song Dynasty: "Gao Yuan, Far-reaching, Pingyuan"). The exhibition also exhibits the works of Mr. Qin Zhongwen, Mr. Dong's teacher. As well as the works of Mr. Dong when he was employed and the early landscape paintings of Qin Zhongwen's predecessors. If we rationally examine the spread of Chinese painting overseas in the past 100 years, it is not difficult to find that traditional Chinese painting has always been the mainstream of Chinese art in the world, even in the 1960s and 1970s, the transformation of tradition and the rise of Chinese contemporary art during the reform and opening up period have not changed the status of Chinese painting in the international dissemination of Chinese culture.
The clear academic context and orderly inheritance of this exhibition are the aspirations of overseas scholars to study the tradition and development of Chinese painting. As far as the perspective issues that the West is most concerned about are concerned: from Mr. Dong's expression of the relationship between light and dark in "A Corner of the Sanmenxia Dam Construction Site", it is related to the four kings of landscape and water dyeing contained in the early works of Qin Zhongwen's predecessors, and then traced back to Guo Xi's three-yuan method in the Northern Song Dynasty, and finally positioned in the operation position of the Six Laws of Sheikh during the Southern and Northern Dynasties.
Qin Zhongwen (1896-1974)
Mr. Qin Zhongwen, a modern Chinese painter, was once the author's landscape painting teacher, and he is one of the scholar-type painters and educators in the history of Chinese painting in the past hundred years who has attached equal importance to academic theory and painting techniques.
Mr. Qin's life was full of difficulties, and in October 1947 he resigned indignantly because he opposed the Chinese painting education method of the Peking Art College at that time, and in 1974, he was persecuted because his Chinese painting works were mistakenly hatted, and died in the same year. The former is the famous "Three Professors Strike Case" in the history of modern Chinese painting in the Republic of China period, and the latter is the "black painting incident" in the 70s. The "black painting incident" has been rehabilitated, and the "Three Professors Strike Case" that occurred 70 years ago is still waiting for historical commentary.
Mr. Qin and mr. Guan Songfang, the author's grandfather (who is also the author's Chinese painting teacher), are colleagues and close friends of the Beijing Academy of Painting, and the author has done a cursory study of Mr. Qin's life. I found that in the nearly 100 years of Chinese painting history, almost every major event has been involved by Mr. Qin. It is precisely because of this that Mr. Qin's academic theory and pen and ink reform have attracted the attention of overseas scholars who study Chinese art. This exhibition exhibits Mr. Qin's traditional Chinese paintings during the Republic of China period and the works of the 50s and 60s after the founding of New China, and through the strong contrast between pen and ink and chapters, it is not difficult to see the hard work and convincing academic achievements of the older generation of Chinese painters to promote the reform of Chinese painting.
Today, not much is known about the reform of Chinese painting in the 1950s and 1960s, and the core question of the reform of Chinese painting is: "Can the brush and ink of traditional Chinese painting depict real mountains and real waters?" This formulation seems to be very close to the discussion in the Chinese painting circles at the end of the last century that "pen and ink equals zero". But the difference is that the former clarifies the theory of Chinese painting through discussion and produces convincing brush and ink; while the latter is only a discussion in the sense, lacking pen and ink interpretation and theoretical analysis.
The reform of Chinese painting in the 50s and 60s was the result of the accumulation of Chinese painting by the older generation of Chinese painters, and the foundation of the northern Chinese painters in that era was the "Chinese Painting Research Society" established by Mr. Qin's teacher, Mr. Jin Beilou, after the New Culture Movement in 1919, in order to save traditional Chinese culture, and the results of the subsequent efforts of famous Chinese painting groups such as the Lake Society Painting Society and the Songfeng Painting Society to inherit and carry forward traditional Chinese painting. Naturally, it is inseparable from the decision of Mr. Xu Shichang, the president of the Republic of China, to allocate funds to support the salvation of traditional Chinese paintings. Mr. Qin and the older generation of Chinese painters in the 50s and 60s were all in their 50s, and they were in a golden period of academic and pen and ink maturity to be broken. At that time, the reform of Chinese painting enabled many painters to give full play to their traditional skills in the process of depicting real landscapes, and formed their own unique styles.
Guan Songfang and Qin Zhongwen cooperated in "Welcome Pine", 1960s-1970s
After the reform of Chinese painting in the 50s and 60s, the enthusiasm for Chinese painting creation was high, and classic works with the characteristics of the times emerged in an endless stream. Among them is the landscape painting "Yingke Songsong" co-created by the author's grandfather, Mr. Guan Songfang and Mr. Qin Zhongwen, for the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. This is also the only masterpiece of famous Chinese paintings collected by the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse.
In addition, I think Mr. Qin has two very unique contributions to traditional Chinese painting:
The first is Mr. Qin's theoretical works on Chinese painting. He was one of the rare masters of modern Chinese painting in the field of Chinese painting during the Republic of China, and published works on Chinese painting research, and in 1934, the Beiping Heji Library published Mr. Qin Zhongwen's book "History of Chinese Painting". Unfortunately, this book has been studied by few experts engaged in theoretical research in the current Chinese painting industry. Photocopies of this work can be seen overseas, and some of them have academic value, especially views that are different from the current measurement of the artistic value of Chinese painting, which have been valued by international scholars. Since Chinese painting is art, it needs to be confirmed and developed in the controversy, and rational treatment of different views is the academic and humanistic needs of the information age.
Qin Zhongwen, "Myozhu Mountain Stone", 1974
The second is Mr. Qin's ink opera works. The exhibition also features an ink bamboo painted by Mr. Qin in the year of his death. Ink bamboo is the representative theme of Mr. Qin's ink opera, and its pen and ink, qi rhyme and chapter method are different from the very formal Creation of Chinese painting, and it is the characteristic of ink opera works that are simple and elegant and return with pleasure. With Mr. Qin's advanced age and embarrassing situation, his ink bamboo in his later years became more and more reckless and tenacious.
"Refining ancient methods and absorbing new knowledge" is the closing message of Mr. Jin Beilou, Mr. Qin Zhongwen's teacher, to the researchers of the Chinese Painting Research Association more than 90 years ago. Due to the lack of sufficient attention and in-depth academic research, Mr. Qin Zhongwen's pen and ink techniques and theoretical views of Chinese painting still belong to the new knowledge category of the current Chinese painting industry. In-depth study of Mr. Qin Zhongwen's heritage of Chinese painting is very necessary for the promotion and development of traditional Chinese painting in the information age.
The current situation and future development of traditional Chinese painting is a hot issue of great interest to overseas scholars, and I shared my personal views with the international scholars who attended the lecture during my speech at Purdue University.
From a historical point of view, after the New Culture Movement in 1919 to 1964, the education system of Chinese painting was to cultivate Chinese painting talents through two systems: college education and traditional teacher inheritance. In 1956, after the introduction of the cultural policy of a hundred flowers blooming and a hundred schools of thought contending, Premier Zhou, Chen Yi and other national leaders formally established the policy of "walking on two legs" for the Academy of Fine Arts and the Chinese Painting Academy to cultivate Chinese painting talents. The art departments and painting departments in the "two legs" are cross-teaching each other in terms of teacher teaching, and students on both sides need to go to the academy of fine arts or the academy of painting for further study and participate in seminars in addition to exercising at work. This Chinese painting education system is recognized as the most reasonable Chinese painting talent training system in the history of modern Chinese painting.
Unfortunately, in the 1970s, the chinese painting training system of the art academy system was interrupted. Until 1976, the academy's chinese painting talent training system has not been restored. The cultivation of Chinese painting talents in the Academy of Fine Arts system has not been interrupted. As a result, there has been a perennial singleness of Chinese painting talents, and the training system of Chinese painting talents has also changed from "walking on two legs" to "jumping on one leg". Both the industry and people outside the industry feel the uncertainty, instability, and forward or backward jumping changes in the development of Chinese painting. This current situation of Chinese painting is very incompatible with the five-thousand-year civilization of the Chinese nation and the history of the development of Chinese painting.
After the interruption of the training of painting departments, the older generation of Chinese painters have taught disciples in society. However, the number of disciples trained in this way is absolutely very small compared with the Chinese painting graduates from the art department who have been continuously exported for more than 50 years. Although in the past ten years, with the prosperity of the calligraphy and painting market, there have been many Chinese painting training classes held by famous old painters in society, but the impetuosity of the times and the rapid success of education have seriously affected the quality of Chinese painting inheritance.
So how to save and develop Chinese painting in an education system and a single talent in the ecology of Chinese painting? Over the years, I have been discussing with senior scholars and painters in the field of Chinese painting to seek ways to save Chinese painting. Everyone recognizes that the starting point for saving Chinese painting is to start from the basic skills of Chinese painting. Starting with a pen: Chinese painting can be written and painted with pen and ink skills, but it cannot be brushed throughout. The spirit of craftsmanship is a basic training that cannot be crossed by traditional Chinese painting, and the inheritance of the essence of Chinese painting is achieved by learning the theories of predecessors, pen and ink techniques and tempering basic skills. Therefore, if the training of the basic skills of Chinese painting is strengthened in the existing Chinese painting education of the Academy of Fine Arts, it is equivalent to restoring the basic function of "the other leg".
Because the basic skills of Chinese painting are an indispensable and indispensable ability, whether it is a well-known painter or a beginner in Chinese painting, they will be treated equally in front of the basic skills. Compared with the information conditions of 50 years ago, today's network and publishing are enough to meet the requirements of people's self-study, when there is enough time to learn the history of Chinese painting and appreciate the ancient and modern famous deeds, people can judge whether a Chinese painting really has basic skills based on their own feelings and logic. People's attention to the basic skills of Chinese painting will promote the basic skills training of Chinese painting teaching in the Academy of Fine Arts. It is very gratifying that in the current information age, many efforts that could not be clearly described in the past or achieved by oral transmission can be quantified by data. For example, if all the famous traces of Chinese paintings from the Sui and Tang Dynasties to the Republic of China are classified and scanned twice according to the brush, freehand, and landscapes, figures, flowers and birds, the computer will establish the correct definition of pen and ink skills through graphic recognition and processing, so as to further develop the function of judging good or bad and passing standards.