Wu Changshuo Old Boy Axis 50x108 on paper
In the Forbidden City in 2018, following the Zhang Boju Collection Exhibition, the "Iron Pen Raw Flowers - Special Exhibition of Wu Changshuo Calligraphy and Painting Seal Engraving in the Collection of the Palace Museum" was once again boiling with everyone. It can be said that Wu Changshuo is a big person in the history of calligraphy and painting.
Go to check Wu Changshuo's resume, found that he is also like Gauguin, forty years old to learn to paint, let me suddenly ignite the fire of hope, it seems that after forty years old to learn to paint is not too late, "thirty to learn poetry, fifty to learn to paint", first and so on.
Wu Changshuo - Chunmei chart axis 41x45
It is said that although people only learned to paint at the age of forty, they have a foundation and a family origin, "When he was a teenager, he was influenced by his father, that is, he liked to write books and engrave. "His grandfather and father are poets, his father loves seal carving, he was influenced by his father, he also brandished carved knives and stones since he was a child, carried them with him, accompanied by stones all day long, and had a solitary personality like a girl, so that others made fun of him and called him "Sister Xiang".
However, hobby is also a double-edged sword, when he was 14 years old, he was once cut by a knife, bleeding like a blood, because he did not get good treatment, and eventually his fingers were half-cut.
Qing Wu Changshuo Asahi Red Lotus Paper 93x46
Despite this, the golden stone can be skeletonized, the original intention does not change, and the seal carving has accompanied him from childhood to old age. He himself later recalled: "Give a little good seal carving, from the young to the old and the seal is not a day away." ”
Wu Changshuo's life, although the story is not so strong, may be that there are not too many yanshi scandals, but it is indeed a typical example of the chaotic literati, Wu Changshuo's hometown in Anji, Huzhou, Zhejiang Province, is exactly the place where the Taiping Army and the Qing Army fought, the local people have thus become victims, Wu Changshuo's family, brother and sister died of hunger and infectious diseases, mother and original wife also died of illness, can be described as family destruction. In the escape, the bark and weeds are fed.
Modern_Modern_Wu Changshuo_Shen Xiangting Peony Diagram_On Paper 67.2x135.8
He successively sat in the library to teach, engraved and sold words, and when he was a small official in the imperial court, his life was embarrassing and sour, and from some of his poems, he could see that his life was not satisfactory, "The official is dignified, and the small official goes to the hot summer." The belt tends to the door, and the sweat is like rain. To call is to dare to enter, and the heart is discouraged first. Ask what you see, and you want to answer the question of defense. Knowing that he was sour and cold, he was afraid of touching the anger of the government. Timid and strong, hanging hands and leaning. Asagiri was not full, Zhuo Zhuo was noon. Middle-aged people are aging, and their waist and feet are bitter. ”
Wu Changshuo - Bamboo Stone Diagram 34.5x138.3 on paper
"Last year ran away from debt, and this year I think of a perch." "I want to return to my homeland, to study and cultivate crops, and to make a living, and to break my house and go down the mountain." People say not to bend the waist for five buckets of rice, that is, when it is not the time when there is a real shortage of five buckets of rice, Wu Changshuo, who has been tortured by the chaotic world, is a humble official for the sake of five buckets of rice, "Reading is not successful, what is the good ancient?" The boy is good at it, why not draw the sword dance? Seek a full meal and sit in the audience and humiliate people. "My mother bit the root of the vegetable and entertained the grandson." My wife cooked and there was no bucket in the urn. "He was leaning over his waist, his face was depressed, he bent over for his livelihood, and he was the most aware of it.
Wu Changshuo - Staggered Coral Branches Diagram on paper 48x104.8
It was difficult to achieve the county order, but he lost his position because he used public funds to sink wells for the people. At the age of 60, there were rumors that Wu Changshuo was deafened by a cannon in the Sino-Japanese War, and since then he has become a deaf painter. Unexpectedly, in his old age, he became famous. He successively met some noble people in his life, such as Yang Dan, who was very proficient in Lishu, and said that Ren Bonian instructed him, and Ren Bonian proposed that he be included in calligraphy, which just laid the foundation for him to be unique in the painting world.
Qing_Wu Changshuo_Coral bead_paper_46x94.7cm
In fact, in the early years, he was very unconfident, sometimes someone asked for painting, when it was difficult to refuse, he asked someone to paint on his behalf, and his shortcomings in seiko meticulousness. In another letter to Gu Linshi, he wrote: "In the former Songjiang Province, Chen Tai obeyed the order to compose the "Hidden Map of the Fengli Eunuch", and the brother told him that he could not paint landscapes, and that taizun would be strong, and had no choice but to ask his brother to start a draft, and the brother should follow the pattern, but only need to be rough, if he is delicate, the brother cannot learn to walk. "So the master also has the shortcomings of the master, and the fine pen is not what he is good at."
Qing_Wu Changshuo_Peony_Paper_33x133
What really made Wu Changshuo angry was his Japanese students, who spared no effort to promote him, and it can be said that his initial popularity was actually in Japan. When he was popular, Qi Baishi was still a nobody, and once asked Wu Changshuo to run for him. Everyone knows that Qi Baishi learned from Wu Changshuo, and later after Qi Baishi became popular in Beijing, Wu Changshuo was very dissatisfied, "Some people in the north learned my skin and became famous." Qi Baishi then ruled the Indian side "the old man is also in the fur category". Presumably, both of them have some upside-downs in their hearts. However, today, in repeated auctions, Qi Baishi has far surpassed Wu Changshuo.
Qing_Wu Changshuo_Pomegranate Diagram_Paper _41x153cm
In fact, speaking of his life in addition to Gauguin, I also think of Monet, Monet was also poor and nameless when he was young, and the evening scenery was finally beautiful and happy, and artistically recognized, and finally became one of the "four masters of the late Qing Dynasty".
So let's take a look at the uniqueness of such a representative figure of the Shanghai School in art.
Wu Changshuo's most praised natural time freehand flowers and birds, in his place, the flowers and birds are pushed to "elegant and common appreciation", making it secularized, no longer limited to Meilan bamboo chrysanthemum, but peonies, daffodils, wisteria, melons and so on, full of interest in life.
Qing_Wu Shuochang_Tianzhu for flower diagram
It is worth mentioning his beloved plum blossoms, "The bitter railway man Mei confidant, the portrayal of flowers is a long skill." "In his life, he is also like a cold plum, stubbornly blooming in the fierce cold wind, his plum blossoms, their own characteristics, especially like to paint old plums, with calligraphy into the painting, vigorous branches, powerful lines, especially vigorous, and the flowers are much lighter, "The cold fragrance wind blows down Dongbi, and the mountains and rivers are deeply extinct." The stone wall stands thousands of feet in the sky, a branch of plum blossoms and snow white. And the soup is not to save the hunger, and it is still waiting for the height. Ice heart iron bone peerless posture, the world's tao Li An learned? "Ice heart iron bone, is a portrayal of his life, the world calls him "Mei Zhiji", we can see that "iron bone" and "iron pen" are often used to describe his style, artists who have suffered from the hardships of the chaotic world have long lost their sweet and vulgar atmosphere.
Wu Changshuo_Jiushou Peach Diagram_Paper _66x132
On the other hand, Wu Changshuo's melon fruit peach plum is also quite distinctive, symbolizing longevity peach, lychee, gourd, grape, and the year of the Pilgrimage, with simple and bright brushstrokes and colors, the breath of life is vividly expressed. His pen is like a storm, people say that his works are rich in golden stone fun golden stone flavor, that is, the gold text cast on the bell ding and the words engraved on the stone tablet, it is precisely because of the stone carving, the formation of his calligraphy and painting is different from ordinary people's calligraphy and painting style, and he has the most direct relationship with his childhood to learn seal carving, he often uses the seal pen to write Meilan, wild grass as grapes, his calligraphy Huang Tingjian and Wang Duo, the line skills are extremely deep, the pen power is old and spicy, the bold painting, no restraint, the poetry, the book, the painting, the printing is confined to a piece of paper, it is a school of its own, the center of the pen, Soft and rigid, proud of the bones, is the so-called "iron pen raw flowers".
Qing_Wu Changshuo_Portuguese Stone Diagram_Paper_34x137.8
He also paints a lot of peonies and chrysanthemums, not seeking to resemble, using a lot of red and green colors, but not tacky at all, it is the kind of eclectic and bold skill that pushes the big picture to the peak. "Bitter iron painting qi does not paint shapes", that qi comes from a lifetime of upheaval and displacement, from a lifetime of seal engraving calligraphy, from the thousand hammers and hundreds of exercises of life, no ancients before, the latter is difficult to chase.
70 Wu Changshuo - Chunmei diagram axis 41x45 .jpg
Remarks: "Iron Pen Raw Flowers - Special Exhibition of Wu Changshuo Calligraphy and Painting Seal Engraving in the Collection of the Palace Museum" opened on June 3 in the exhibition hall of the Wenhua Hall of the Palace Museum. Through four units, the exhibition is presented from the four aspects of wu changshuo's artistic origins, freehand painting style, communication and influence, and calligraphy and seal engraving, highlighting Wu Changshuo's most characteristic painting style and vitality of brush and ink, showing the open and enterprising broad mind of this artistic master and the active integration of the times. The first unit is "Integrating the Ancient and Opening the Present", giving full play to the advantages of the Forbidden City's collection, and exhibiting Wu Changshuo's works at the same time as the works of many painters in the Ming and Qing dynasties, such as Chen Chun and Xu Wei in the Ming Dynasty, the works of the Eight Great Congresses of the Qing Dynasty, Li Kun, Zhao Zhiqian, Ren Bonian and others, which are intuitively compared with Wu Changshuo's works, reflecting Wu Changshuo's inheritance of the freehand flower techniques of his predecessors and the absorption of contemporary painters. The second unit, "Fragrant Flowers of The Silk House", breaks the previous exhibition convention of taking the creation age as the order, takes the flowers of the four seasons as the performance theme, selects the representative flowers of each season in Wu Changshuo's works, and intersperses some seasonal themes, and shows Wu Changshuo's painting appearance and artistic style to the greatest extent with rich picture content. Let the audience in Wu Changshuo's big freehand world taste the four seasons rotated, enjoy the flowers and flowers blooming. The third unit, "Shi Jiao Chuan Xin", shows Wu Changshuo's artistic exchange activities, including wu Changshuo's co-painting works with others, as well as the works of Chen Shizeng, Chen Banding, Qi Baishi and other descendants of masters influenced by Wu Changshuo. The fourth unit, "Iron Pen Softness", focuses on Wu Changshuo's artistic achievements in seal engraving and calligraphy as a master of poetry, calligraphy, painting and printing.