Ask about the source of Wu Zuoren, Sha Qi, Zhong Han, Zhao Youping, Hu Zhenyu's journey to study in Belgium

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, European culture saw a repudiation of tradition. Modernist art camps in Western countries have sprung up. In Belgium, however, the tradition of realism and the method of realism are still alive. Because of this, Mr. Xu Beihong recommended a group of Chinese students such as Wu Zuoren, Sha Qi, Zhang Chongren, Lu Xiaguang, Li Ruinian and others to study at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Belgium. After the reform and opening up, China sent Zhong Han, Zhao Youping, Hu Zhenyu and other painters to continue to study at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Belgium. They brought back a new experience of Belgian realistic painting and played an important role in artistic practice and oil painting teaching after returning home.

Today, through the study and appreciation of the oil paintings of the five painters, we hope to pay further attention to this school of oil painting and its enlightenment to Chinese oil painting. The metabolism of artistic language is an objective law of the development of national culture, which requires the interaction and collision of internal and external factors, and it must not forget the original intention.

Reporter Li Yiping On April 23, sponsored by the China Oil Painting Society, Zhejiang Provincial Museum, Wu Zuoren International Art Foundation, Beijing Jin Shangyi Art Foundation, and undertaken by Zhejiang Quanshan Stone Art Center, the "Asking for The Source - Studying in Belgium Five Oil Painting Exhibition" opened in Hangzhou Quanshan Stone Art Center, the exhibition brought together more than 150 oil paintings and drawings of five painters who studied in Belgium in the 1930s and 1980s, aiming to track the image memory of the two eras. Trace the artistic charm of the source of oil painting.

The leaders and guests attending the opening ceremony were: Yan Bono, Consul General of Belgium in Shanghai, Xin Liwei, Consul general of Hungary in Shanghai, Jin Shangyi, honorary chairman of the China Artists Association and former president of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Feng Yuan, deputy director of the Central Research Museum of Literature and History, vice chairman of the China Federation of Literature and Literature, and honorary chairman of the China Artists Association, Zhan Jianjun, honorary chairman of the China Oil Painting Society and former president of the Oil Painting Institute of the National Academy of Painting, Xu Jiang, vice chairman of the China Artists Association, chairman of the China Oil Painting Society, and chairman of the Zhejiang Provincial Federation of Literary and Art Circles. Zhang Zuying, Vice Chairman of the China Oil Painting Society, Lei Bo, Secretary General of the China Oil Painting Society, Zhu Qingsheng, Chairman of the International Art History Society and Professor of the Department of History of Peking University, Yang Jin, Vice Chairman of the Zhejiang Provincial Federation of Literature and Literature and Chairman of the Ningbo Municipal Federation of Literature and Literature, etc.; Mr. Zhong Han, a professor of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Mr. Hu Zhenyu, a professor of the China Academy of Fine Arts, Mr. Sha Tianxing, the son of Mr. Sha Qi, as well as artists from Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Nanchang, Hangzhou, Ningbo and Germany.

At the opening ceremony, Jin Shangyi pointed out in his speech: Oil painting originated from the Renaissance, has a history of hundreds of years, to the 17th century, Belgium, the Netherlands region got rid of the form of traditional murals, to the oil painting ontology language conversion, reflecting real life, showing the real shape and color, reflecting the special charm of oil painting language. He pointed out that there is a phenomenon in the Chinese oil painting industry that ignores sketching, and even when sketching, he also takes a photo and paints according to the photo, which is because the painter does not know the charm of oil painting, its shape and the characteristics of color language. Therefore, today's exhibition gives you a revelation, that is, to recognize the importance of the ontological language of oil painting, so this exhibition has practical significance.

Subsequently, Xu Jiang delivered a passionate speech, expressing the profound and far-reaching influence of Belgian realist oil painting on China and the enlightening significance of this exhibition for Chinese oil painting. Zheng Rongsheng, deputy secretary and deputy director of the party group of the Standing Committee of the Hangzhou Municipal People's Congress and chairman of the Hangzhou Federation of Trade Unions, also made a speech.

Zhong Han has visited Belgium twice, and at the age of 91, he delivered a speech as a representative of painters, with earnest words, and talked about the experience and insight of studying oil painting in Belgium. He said: "In 1980 and 1983, I went to Belgium twice to study and visit. Before going abroad, I went to Mr. Wu Zuoren to listen to his opinion. Mr. Wu said that when he went to study oil painting in the West, he might not learn anything in school, and I was afraid that it would be better to go to the museum to copy paintings. I copied in the museum the works of Painters such as Ensor, Modigliani, Rubens, Vial and others. Among them, I copied Viar's "Doctor" for more than two months. Through studying in Belgium twice, I realized that the community of human destiny is ultimately a community of human culture, and we must learn the language and true meaning of Western oil painting, and then melt it into the life of our own people in order to create art shared by mankind. At the same time, I feel the law of artistic creation, realize that art comes from life and is a reflection of the objective world, but it needs to be transformed, and it must undergo a double transformation, that is, from the object into the image of the subject, and then into the image on the canvas, that is, from the spirit of the subject to the re-transformation of the formal language. Moreover, the process of transformation is actually more complex, from the object to the subjective image to the objective artistic image, and the transformation activity during this period is infinite.

Quan Shanshi is ninety years old, and he calls himself "post-90s". In order to launch the exhibition of the art center, the whole old man has invested a lot of preparatory work with an elderly body, and a lot of work has been practiced and personally done, which can be described as well-intentioned and painstaking. As the exhibition's chief curator, he gave a thank-you speech. Finally, Yan Bonuo, Feng Yuan, Zhan Jianjun, Zhu Qingsheng, Huang Jianjian, Cheng Jianfei, Chen Shuihua and Xu Wanmao cut the ribbon for the exhibition. The opening ceremony was presided over by Xiang Xingliang, director of Quanshan Stone Art Center.

This exhibition exhibits the oil paintings of Wu Zuoren, Sha Qi, Zhong Han, Zhao Youping and Hu Zhenyu during their studies in Belgium, as well as some of the important works they painted after returning to China. It is hoped that through the study and appreciation of their works, people will pay more attention to this school of oil painting and its enlightenment to Chinese oil painting. In today's era of artistic pluralism, this genre of oil painting will undoubtedly make Chinese oil painting more colorful.

In Belgium at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the tradition and methods of realism still flourished. Because of this, Mr. Xu Beihong recommended a group of Chinese students such as Wu Zuoren, Sha Qi, Zhang Chongren, Lu Xiaguang, Li Ruinian and others to study at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Belgium. They brought back realistic oil paintings from Belgium rich in flanders tradition, giving us a visually intuitive example of our understanding of the language of Western oil painting.

It is understood that the participating artist Hu Zhenyu was sent to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent, Belgium in 1983 to study, and after returning to China in 1986, he has been teaching in the oil painting department of the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (that is, the Zhongyuan Academy of Fine Arts). "Every year after retirement, I spend a period of time abroad sketching. Painting is a very personal thing, many foreign painters themselves settle down to paint, they have a great influence on me, so I generally do not participate in the exhibition, do not contact with the outside, is boring painting. At the exhibition site, Hu Zhenyu told this reporter about his capricious feelings. In his view, painting is not based on a momentary excitement, but needs to calm down and need patience; excitement should be "excitement" in the painting, not "excitement" outside the painting, he said that he experienced this in the past few years abroad, so he did not want to make the painting always public. In addition, Hu Zhenyu said that the most important thing in learning oil painting is to understand the history of oil painting, learn the foundation, not oil paint and brush can be painted on the canvas, he laughed: "Oil painting has language, brush strokes, oil, media, etc. must be reasonably matched together, the effect can come out." After all, oil painting is a foreign kind of painting, and it has only been a hundred years in China, and I myself feel that I have not learned well and continue to learn. How can a person who paints not paint a day? ”

In front of a small painting, Teacher Hu stopped, "You see, its color is very beautiful, very attractive to me, itself is a simple café, an old street suddenly met, quite interesting, I drew some sketches on the spot, and then combined the environment and characters together to form a red café." If the red is not well drawn, it is very swollen and dull, and I have painted it many times so that it can reveal this color, and the picture is louder. From his description, it is not difficult to find that these life scenes are inadvertently captured by the artist, and the ordinary little by little can arouse the ripples in his heart, and express them through the language of the oil painting body.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Belgium, and the exhibition organizers hope to further strengthen mutual cultural exchanges with Belgium, which has a long cultural heritage, and promote the development of Chinese oil painting to a higher and more authentic level, towering over the forest of oil painting in the world. It is reported that the exhibition will last until June 24.

On the afternoon of the opening day, an academic seminar on "Artistic Tradition and Artistic Language" was also held, which was presided over by Yang Zhenyu, Dean of the School of Arts and Humanities of the China Academy of Art. The five artists how to understand the language of Western oil painting, and conducted academic discussions on the two generations of painters who traveled far away to Belgium to learn the ontological language of oil painting and realist oil painting, and integrated the spirit of eastern nationalities in China to create and teach and disseminate.

Source: Fine Arts Newspaper