In the contemporary Chinese painting and calligraphy world, people have mixed evaluations of him, and in his decades of artistic career, there has been no shortage of master-level teachers and teachers.
However, his mentor Li Kuchan said that he was a white-eyed wolf, and Shen Congwen turned against him; those who knew his emotional experience said that he was Chen Shimei; Li Ao said that his calligraphy and painting were only the level of Mr. Accounting.
However, some other masters have a very positive evaluation of him, such as Ji Xianlin, Qian Zhongshu, and Yang Zhenning, who all say that he is a contemporary "master".
In the end, whose evaluation is closer to the real him, one or two sentences are not clear, the parties who make the evaluation are standing on their own positions, as a viewer, we need to look at these evaluations more objectively.
But no matter what others said about him, he himself never cared. Now 83 years old, his paintings can sell at sky-high prices in the painting and calligraphy market, and he even claims that he is the No. 1 among Chinese painters - this person is Fan Zeng.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="6" > "talented man" who was expelled from the division</h1>
Fan Zeng was born in 1938 in Nantong, Jiangsu Province, into a family of scholars, whose ancestors had thirteen generations and were well-known local poets and painters.
Growing up in such a family with profound cultural heritage, Fan Zeng showed extraordinary artistic talent from an early age, and entered the Nantong Artists Association at the age of 13 and became one of the "Nantong Little Painters".
Fan Zeng was not only extremely talented in art, but also very intelligent. From an early age, he was surrounded by the praise of "prodigies" and "geniuses", which also created his arrogant personality.
In the impression of Fan Zeng's classmate Ji Sui, Fan Zeng showed an unusually rich knowledge of literature and art in junior high school, so he was very popular with his classmates and teachers.
In 1955, at the age of 17, Fan Zeng was successfully admitted to Nankai University, but initially took history. After two years of studying in the history department, he realized that he still loved art more, so he transferred to the Central Academy of Fine Arts.
When Fan Zeng graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, his graduation work "Wen Ji Gui Han Tu" made him famous in the art world. However, it should be said that Fan Zeng is indeed very talented in painting, but he is also quite clever.
After his painting was completed, he inquired around about Guo Moruo's residence. After that, he squatted outside Mr. Guo's house every day. Until one day, he finally met Guo Moruo, who was returning home from work, and immediately ran to Mr. Guo to ask for an inscription.
Elder Guo saw that this young man's painting was really good, so he mentioned a 48-sentence five-word ancient style poem.
This incident caused a sensation in the Central Academy of Fine Arts that year, and Fan Zeng's teacher and the head of the department at the time were extremely dissatisfied with him, believing that he was not right in his heart and wanted to rely on the inscriptions of famous artists to put pressure on the school.
After graduating from undergraduate, he successfully entered the Chinese History Museum, which was also an enviable "iron rice bowl" at that time, and it was Mr. Shen Congwen, who was a well-known literary hero at that time, who helped him enter the history museum.
The difference between the two is exactly 36 years, and from the relevant information left behind, the two can become close masters and apprentices during that period, which is completely the result of Fan Zeng's deliberate efforts.
At that time, in order to enter the historical museum, Fan Zeng often wrote letters to Shen Congwen, which not only expressed his infinite admiration for Mr. Shen Congwen, but also revealed his concern for Mr. Shen from time to time.
Even one night, he rushed from Tianjin to Beijing overnight, rushed to Mr. Shen's house before dawn, only to come to visit mr. Shen because he dreamed that Mr. Shen was ill, so he was so considerate of the elders that Mr. Shen was deeply moved.
With the enthusiastic help of Mr. Shen Congwen, Fan Zeng successfully entered the China History Museum and was assigned to mr. Shen's art group as an assistant to him. Fan Zeng could be described as a young man at that time, and he was smooth sailing.
Who would have thought that four years later, his relationship with Mr. Shen's mentor and apprentice would change drastically.
During the special period, Fan once listed many fictitious things, and wrote hundreds of accusations to frame Shen Congwen, and slandered and insulted Shen Congwen in public.
Shen Congwen mentioned in a letter to a friend in his later years that once when he was kind enough to remind Fan Zeng of a mistake in the portrait dress, he was insulted by Fan Zeng with his nose pointed and stared, completely disregarding the feelings of teachers and students in the past.
Since this incident, Mr. Shen has no longer been willing to mention Fan Zeng's name on any occasion.
However, the trick that Fan had used on Mr. Shen had also been used many times on several other masters. Whenever there is an achievement, he credits himself, and for the absurd behavior he has committed, he has pushed to the "times".
To say that the benefactor who was disappointed by Fan Zeng, there is also Li Kuchan.
Li Kuchan was a disciple of Qi Baishi and a master of modern and contemporary Chinese freehand flower and bird painting.
Fan Zeng was only a nobody when he followed Li Kuchan to learn Chinese painting, but Fan Zeng, who has always been good at creating opportunities and seizing opportunities with ingenuity, regarded the teacher as a springboard for development and rise, and after achieving achievements, he no longer respected Li Kuchan and did not miss the teacher at all.
As Fan Zeng's teacher, Mr. Li Kuchan did not admit that he had this student, and said that "the sub-lineage of mountain wolves is rampant."
It can be seen that he had a lot of dissatisfaction with this student, so much so that when he was dying, he also told his family that refusing Fan Zeng to come to his funeral and refusing him to help the spirit was tantamount to telling the world to expel Fan Zeng from the division.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="13" > robs a friend's wife and "breaks off" with his daughter</h1>
In addition to being ungrateful to his mentor, Fan has been criticized for another reason, he once cheated on him in marriage, robbed a friend's wife, and made his daughter cut off contact with him.
Fan Zeng's emotional experience in life is also very rich, he has had three wives.
His first wife was Lin Xiu, a famous poet, calligrapher, and vice chairman of the 4th and 5th China Book Association.
Lin Xie grew up in Nantong, Jiangsu Province, where her grandfather grew up and studied at Nantong Middle School, where Fan Zeng's father was a Chinese teacher at Nantong Middle School.
In his hometown, people think that Fan Zeng and Lin Xiu are a good match, but the shoes do not fit, only the feet know. During the special period, the two men later parted ways due to their different political positions.
Fan Zeng's second wife was Bian Baohua, and the two were both classmates of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. After graduating from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Fan worked at the China History Museum, when Fan zeng had nothing.
Bian Baohua, whose family was in Beijing, gave Fan Zeng the greatest help, and Fan Zeng was once very grateful to Bian Baohua, and the relationship between the two during that period was also very good, and they also gave birth to a daughter.
Their marriage lasted 20 years, and most of that time was spent in deception.
Speaking of Fan Zeng's third wife, it is also necessary to mention that one of his benefactors must be obedient.
In 1970, when Fan Zeng was 32 years old, he was sent to Xianning, Hubei Province, where he had to work in the fields during the day and live in a broken grass hut at night, often without enough to eat.
In the year after his devolution, he became acquainted with an actor who was also sent to the local area, and this actor was Su Zunde.
At that time, Xu Zunde's salary was higher than Fan Zeng's, and he admired Fan Zeng's talent and sympathized with his suffering. In the same time of suffering, Xu Zunde often gave Fan Zeng some help in life, and as long as he had the opportunity to make some delicious food, he would definitely call Fan Zeng.
In the summer of that year, they had a few days off to return to Beijing. The hospitable Xu Zunde invited Fan Zeng to his home in Beijing.
Neither of them expected that this visit would actually change the trajectory of the two families.
At the time of the appointment, Fan Zeng did not particularly care about the party, so there was no special decoration, and he had just returned from the devolution, dressed in rags and dark skin.
However, everything changed the moment he knocked on the door of Xu Zunde's house, the person who opened the door was Xu Zunde's wife, she was wearing a white dress at the time, her posture was graceful and elegant, and she revealed a smell of books between her hands and feet, although she was the mother of three children, her face was still beautiful and lovely, as her name was, her name was Nanli.
At this time, Fan Zenggang and his second wife Bian Baohua were married not long ago.
On the other hand, Nanli was also captivated by Fan Zeng's talent, and under Fan Zeng's fierce pursuit, she fell in love.
Therefore, a husband with a wife, a woman with a husband, behind the back of the lovers of both sides, cheated in marriage and began an extramarital affair that lasted for more than ten years.
Due to the needs of his work, he often had to perform in other places. This also created a great opportunity for Nanli and Fan Zeng. In order not to be discovered by others, Fan Zeng often climbed from the 1st floor to Nanli's home on the 14th floor without taking the elevator.
One after the other, Fan Zeng often had private meetings with Nanli when Xu Zunde was not at home, and both of them were nourished by happiness in this extramarital affair.
No wonder Fan once wrote in his article that "life and love are wonderful twin sisters, and the arrival of spring makes people young." ”
Nanli also said that "calling for the spring in my heart" and "in the days of deep seclusion, the letters exchanged by the two became the biggest source of her happiness".
In the early 1980s, Fan had filed for divorce from his wife, Bian Baohua, who did not agree, but Fan Zeng refused to turn back, and in 1984 he moved out of the house, and began a nine-year separation from Bian Baohua.
Four years later, when Nan Li and Xu Zunde went through the divorce procedures, they learned that their wife and best friend had such a dirty relationship, and they were furious.
Knowing that Nanli had returned to singlehood, Fan once felt that he no longer had to hide, but Bian Baohua still refused to divorce, so he took Nanli to Paris, France.
In 1993, Bian Baohua finally agreed to divorce. At this point, Fan Zeng's marriage to his second wife, which had barely lasted for 20 years, finally ended. After the divorce, his first thing was to rush back to Paris to have a wedding with Nanli.
At that time, the wedding was very grand, and the people who came to the wedding were all people with heads and faces in the city of Paris.
The news spread to China, and Fan Zeng's daughter learned at this time that her father had cheated in marriage and her mother had been wronged for so many years. The daughter angrily rushes to Paris to question her father, but Fan Zeng does not think that he has done anything wrong.
After the father and daughter argued, Fan Zeng ruthlessly broke off relations with his daughter.
At that time, Nanli was already a 49-year-old and half-old Xu Niang, but in Fan Zeng's eyes, she was still like a treasure, and he once wrote such a poem for Nanli: "BMW strikes the morning wind, and the ten wings are not extramarital." Silver Iris came to the West Sea, and Nan Shu was still a dream person. ”
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="15" > a popular painting</h1>
To say that the character, probably Fan has been the most accused by the outside world, but to say talent, but I have to admit that he is very popular in the painting and calligraphy market, not only in China, abroad has held many painting exhibitions, but also in the auction market, his paintings are very popular.
In 2011, the painting of "Lingquan Road Wind Map" was auctioned for 18.4 million. Fan Zeng's value has soared, and he is ranked 13th in the list of "China's 100 Most Outstanding Artists".
This made Fan Zeng a little fluttery, and even released words to say, "I am the first among Chinese painters, and I am very confident in this!" ”
In addition, after becoming famous, he did a lot of philanthropy.
During the SARS epidemic, he donated 500,000 yuan to his alma mater, Nankai University, and 10 million yuan during the Wenchuan earthquake.
Fan Zeng, a person quite conceited, has always cared nothing about the evaluation of him by the outside world, and has only pursued what he wants all his life. His life was indeed as he wished.