The Liang Kai School of Subtractive Brush Stroke is a genre of Chinese painting named after the brush technique. Because of Liang Kai's special achievements in reduced brush figure painting, people call this school of painting liang kai reduced pen figure painting school or Liang Kai reduced brush stroke transmission school. The emergence of the Liang Kai subtraction school is an important symbol of the development of chinese figure painting from brushwork to freehand. The emergence of Liang Kai's reduced brush figure painting marks that China's freehand figure painting has begun to enter a new stage of development.
In the late Northern Song Dynasty and the early Southern Song Dynasty, with the further maturity of the creative concept of literati painting and the further strengthening of the sense of social identity by the thick brush strokes, the high maturity of Li Tang's thick brush landscape and Mi's Yunshan Mountain were bound to affect the creation of Daoshi figure paintings and the change of aesthetic concepts. During this period, through the unremitting efforts of Li Gonglin, white painting officially became an independent painting art form, which also accelerated the process of the development of fine brush figure painting and subtracted stroke figure painting.
【Northern Song Dynasty】 Li Gonglin Wei Mo Tiannu Vertical Axis, Japan Shengfu Temple Collection
Liang Kai's teacher, Jia Shigu, comes from Li Gonglin's penmanship tradition, and Liang Kai also made a breakthrough on the basis of the teachers Li Gonglin and Jia Shigu. Jia Shigu's brushwork tended to be simple, and the broken pen and stick figures of Fanlong and Zhirong in this period also gave Liang Kai a major inspiration, becoming the prelude to Liang Kai's subtraction and change of pen, promoting new changes in his brushwork, and gaining the general resonance and approval of society. The emergence of Liang Kai's subtractive brush stroke method is more suitable for painters to express their inner emotions freely, marking the further self-consciousness of the figure painting itself.
【Tang】 Wu Daozi (Chuan) Sending Son Tenno Picture Scroll (Partial) Collection of Osaka City Museum of Art, Japan
Before this, because the development of figure painting in the Tang, Five Dynasties and even the Northern Song Dynasty was still dominated by Daoshi painting, with the purpose of utility, the figure painting itself had not yet entered the degree of ontological self-consciousness, and at the same time, the Daoist figure painting was not taken as an object of appreciation by the literati, such as Mi Fu in the "History of Painting" believed that Daoshi painting and shinu painting "did not enter the Qing play", so the character painting creation of Shi Ke and others since five generations was only a different type at that time, and for the creation of painters, it was an occasional thing, with thick brushes, Stick figure creation cannot become the mainstream, dominant and correct way of painting creation. Give full play to the performance of pen and ink to express emotions, especially the expression of strong spiritual emotions, pour out one's inner state of mind in the pen and ink, only by making a breakthrough in the use of the pen, it is generally recognized and accepted by the society.
Liang Kai's reduced brush figure paintings were selectively accepted by society, and finally ushered in the advent of the era of reduced brush freehand figure painting. The breakthrough in brushwork based on solid white painting skills on the highly exquisite painting level has an extraordinary significance in the history of painting. The emergence of Liang Kai's subtractive brushwork directly led to the fundamental change of Chinese object painting. Reduced-stroke figure painting and freehand figure painting have become a kind of Chinese object painting that has been widely accepted and recognized by later generations, and the Liang Kai subtractive figure painting school has also come into being.
【Southern Song Dynasty】 Liang Kai Huang Tingjing Deity Image (Part 1) Weng Wangezang, Usa
【Southern Song Dynasty】 Liang Kai Huang Tingjing Deity Image (Part 2) American Weng Wange Zang
Liang Kai's paintings mainly studied under Wu Daozi, Shi Ke, Li Gonglin, Jia Shigu and others, he understood the use of pen and ink lines that express spiritual emotions and summarize objects from Wu Daozi's lettuce drawings, Li Gonglin orchid leaf drawings and Shi Ke's indulgent brushstrokes, consciously introduced calligraphic brushwork, and created subtractive brush strokes such as folding reed drawings, nail-headed rattail drawings, and dry wood strokes, which greatly strengthened the subjective expression and lyrical components of the lines, and brought new aesthetic elements and facial features to the character paintings. Wu Daozi once learned calligraphy from Zhang Xu, and his calligraphy obviously has a profound influence on cursive brushwork, and his ability to highly summarize objects and subjective expressions in his lines is very strong, which has a non-negligible impact on the formation of Liang Kai's subtractive brushwork:
The State Dynasty Wu Daoxuan walked alone in ancient and modern times, and did not see Gu Lu before, and there was no one to come after. The penmanship was taught to Zhang Xu, who also knew that calligraphy and painting were the same as the pen. Zhang Jie's number is upside down, and Wu Yi is a painter. God is made in heaven, and the spirit is not poor. All are secret in hope, and I am away from its dot painting; all are careful of the image, and I am free from its ordinary. Curved arc straight blade, planted pillar structure beam, not false boundary straight ruler. Qiu Shu Yunbin, a few feet flying, hair roots out of flesh, more than enough strength. When there is a recipe, no one knows. The painting of counting, either from the arm, or from the foot. Huge and strange, skin veins connected, too monkly. (Tang Zhang Yanyuan's "Records of Famous Paintings of Past Dynasties")
Li Gonglin's brushwork has a profound influence on Wu Daozi, Liang Kai's teacher Jia Shigu received the Fa Li Gonglin, Liang Kai as a disciple of Jia Shigu, Li Gonglin's disciple, his brushwork originated from wu Daozi, Li Gonglin, Jia Shigu's painting style naturally:
( Li Gonglin ) A special worker figure, who can distinguish his appearance, so that people can see that they are the Gallery Temple, pavilion, mountain forest, grass field, Lu Yan, Zang Di, Zhan You, and Soap Li. As for the attitude of action, the pitching and pitching, the size of good and evil, and the difference between the talent of the husband, the east, the west, the south, and the north, the dignity and the lowliness, and the saltiness, it is not the same as the worldly painters. Noble and ugly to fat red skinny black points. About Gonglin takes the intention as the first, the arrangement of the edge decoration as the second, its dyeing is exquisite, the layman may be learnable, and the rate is slightly simple, but it is not close in the end. (Song "Xuanhe Pictorial Notation", vol. 7)
【Tang】Wu Daozi Sending Son Tenno Diagram On Paper Collection of osaka Municipal Museum of Art, Japan
Li Gonglin's "slightly simple" brushwork very naturally opened up the formation of Liang Kai's simple and refined pen and the synthesis of generalization and indulgence. According to the Illustrated Treasure Book, Jia Shigu:
Bian Ren, good at painting Taoist characters, Shi Li Boshi. The Shaoxing Painting Academy is waiting, and its white characters are quite leisurely.
It is said that his white painting has considerable achievements, which will naturally have an impact on the formation of Liang Kai's brushwork, and the distinct literati painting style and simple brushwork further affect the formation of Liang Kai's reduced brushwork. From the paintings left behind by Jia Shigu, we can also fully feel some of the characteristics of Liang Kai's subtractive brushwork. Liang Kai's subtractive figure paintings already had a great influence in the academy at that time.
【Southern Song Dynasty】 Liang Kai Shakya out of the mountain, Tokyo National Museum, Japan
According to his own personality temperament, Liang Kai actively accepted the results of the brush techniques of the previous generations of painters, actively changed the method, and finally established his own brush reduction method to create character paintings. It is on the basis of inheriting the brushwork of previous generations of painters that Liang Kai has achieved the success of the reform of reduced brushwork. The formation of Liang Kai's unique brush technique enabled him to create a different face of the reduced brush figure painting works, and the majestic and tall and simple and quick stroke reduction figure painting style was freely presented in his pen.
【Southern Song Dynasty】 Liang Kai Liuzu Truncated Bamboo Drawing, Tokyo National Museum, Japan
【Southern Song Dynasty】 Liang Kai, Li Baixing, Yin Tu Scroll, Tokyo National Museum, Japan
On the basis of his predecessors, Liang Kai created an aesthetic concept and pen and ink style of reduced-stroke figure painting with his own personality characteristics. This is also the inevitable result of the continued expansion of the highly mature literati paintings of the late Northern Song Dynasty, with the convergence of the aesthetic ideas of literati painting and Zen thought. The artistic characteristics of Liang Kai's reduced-stroke figure paintings have a unique social and cultural background and origin, and Liang Kai's personal spiritual temperament, personality characteristics and his natural conditions also provide the most important subjective conditions for the emergence of the aesthetic category and pen-and-ink style characteristics of his reduced-stroke figure paintings (excerpt)
◆ Collector's Magazine 202008 issue cover
Article Source: The Collector
202008 issue of "Wanting to Be Tough and Graceful Haiyun - Liang Kai's Reduced Brush Character Painting School"
Author: Zhao Qibin
Editor-in-Charge: Qin Jia