Since the end of the Qing Dynasty, Chinese painting and Chinese culture have faced a crisis of survival. How to survive and develop has become the focus of the painstaking efforts of the first-class intelligent people in modern China. The cultural controversies between China and the West in the past hundred years, and the debate over the modernization of Chinese art, have not yet ended. In a nutshell, in addition to the polar confrontation between "sticking to tradition" and "total Westernization", it is to use Western concepts and methods to transform Chinese culture, and to seek the regeneration of Chinese culture with Chinese culture as the main body and absorb the nutrition of other cultures.
As far as Chinese painting is concerned, the efforts of modern painters on these two roads have indeed seen many extraordinary achievements. From the Opium War to the middle of the 20th century, among the first-class Chinese ink painters, Ren Bonian, Wu Changshuo, Huang Binhong and Qi Baishi, were characters who emerged from the traditional literati painting category, vibrated and declined, and pioneered unique paths; Xu Beihong, Li Keyan and Lin Fengmian are among the painters who used Western concepts and methods to transform Chinese painting and pioneered the trend.
Of course, this rough classification is only for the convenience of discussion and cognition, and cannot be absolute. For example, Ren Bonian undoubtedly accepted the influence of Western culture; Xu, Li and Lin's insight and persistence in the national art style are even more admirable. In fact, the exchange of Chinese and foreign art has a long history; Especially in modern times, the west wind is gradually moving east, and the direct and indirect influence of the West is only different in degree. And every great painter who creates independently is a "special" and is incomparable.
Fu Baoshi, who was active in the first half of the 20th century and has a growing reputation today, is precisely the above two types of great painters who are difficult to regulate on the one hand, he has a very strong belief in the subjectivity of national art, but he has deliberately adopted some foreign art and methods On the other hand, he developed Chinese literati painting, but also lamented the death of artistic life after the "genre" of Chen literati painting; On the one hand, he studied Chinese painting and calligraphy, seal engraving and art history all his life, but on the other hand, he borrowed from Japanese painting, watercolor, drawing and other foreign art and academic research methods in his study abroad. Unlike Wu Changshuo and Huang Binhong, he combed and cut his hair in the ancient tradition, and finally turned decay into magic; It is not like Xu Beihong and Lin Fengmian, who have mastered the sharp tools of the West, transferring flowers and trees, and opening up new faces. Fu Baoshi set another example in between.
Fu Baoshi, formerly known as Changsheng, changed his name to Ruilin in the fourth grade of elementary school. At the age of 17, he studied at the Provincial First Normal School and began to create and research art, calling himself "Fu Baoshi, the master of bouldering". Born on October 5, 1904 (August 1904 in the 30th year of Qing Guangxu), he was born in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province. His ancestral home is Zhangtang Village, Xinyu County. He died of cerebral hemorrhage on September 29, 1965 at the age of 61.
Fu Baoshi's father was an orphan and worked as a long-term worker in the countryside. Because of lung disease, he could not carry heavy work, and he was exiled to Nanchang to make a living by supplementing umbrellas. The mother was a child bride who ran away from home. They had 7 children, but their livelihood was difficult, and 6 died one after another, and Fu Baoshi was the only 7th remaining. When he was young, Fu Baoshi was tragically killed by his father and became a second-generation orphan, relying on his widowed mother to make up umbrellas and laundry to maintain his poor livelihood. At the age of 7, he entered a private school and at the age of 11, he went to work as an apprentice in a porcelain shop. The neighboring painting shop and engraving shop sparked his initial interest in calligraphy and painting seal engraving, and he began to teach himself. At the age of 13, he was sponsored by the villagers to go to the First Normal School in Jiangxi Province. After graduating from high school, he was admitted to a normal school because of his excellent grades. At the age of 22, he has written his first book, "An Overview of the Origin and Flow of Chinese Painting".
At the age of 23, he graduated from the Normal Arts Department and stayed on to teach. At the age of 26, he completed his first art history monograph, Outline of the History of Chinese Painting Changes (1931 edition). Such an outstanding young man finally came to work, received Xu Beihong's praise and recommendation, and in 1933 studied in Japan at the public expense of Jiangxi Province. According to Shiobe Hero and Sakuro Kanahara, Fu Baoshi had already learned of Kimwon Shogo, a titan of Japanese Oriental art studies, when he was in China, and admired him, and wrote a letter asking for advice and was pleased with him. Fu Baoshi then studied the Graduate School of Fine Arts in Tokyo, where he studied art history and theory under Dr. Gogo Kanahara; On Mr. Yamaguchi Tsuyoshi and others to learn Japanese books; On Mr. Shimizu Dokyoshi learned sculpture. Fu Baoshi is in Japan, and his diligence and hard work are very human. In 3 years, he translated the Japanese Umezawa kazuhime's "Wang Mojie" and The Paintings of the Tang and Song Dynasties by Kimwon Shogo; Wrote the Theory of Chinese Painting; In May 1934, he held a solo exhibition of calligraphy and seal engraving in Tokyo. A number of calligraphy, paintings, photographs, and books he left behind in Tokyo were donated by The Kinwon family to the Musashino Art University Library, which was restructured and upgraded from the former Imperial School of Fine Arts, after the death of Kimwon Province (1958, at the age of 69). But his family letters written in Japan were burned to the ground during the "Cultural Revolution."
In July 1935, Fu Baoshi returned to China to teach at the Art Department of Nanjing Central University. The hardships of life until his death in 1965 could not inhibit the exuberance of his spiritual creativity. In the past 30 years, Fu Baoshi has spared his last drop of effort in teaching, research, writing, travel sketching and unremitting painting creation, leaving an extremely precious and rich artistic heritage on earth.
Fu Baoshi married Ms. Lo Shih-wai in 1930. In many memories and commemorative texts, we know that Mrs. Fu has worked hard for decades to support the cause of this great artist. Her exploits will be preserved in Fu Baoshi's art forever, and will be remembered forever by future generations.
Three
Fu Baoshi is a painter, but his research on art history and theory is also profound, and he is completely a typical scholar. It is precisely because of his profundity in the study of history and theory that he has created paintings that he has spontaneously created. His extremely strong sense of national self-esteem has made him have a strong sense of mission in the era of national decline and cultural decline. Looking at the past and learning from the past, the study of history became his first project to revitalize Chinese cultural ambitions. He said: "I have a history of fetish... For the study of art history and painting history, I always do not feel tired, perhaps it is the role of this habit. Therefore, the size of my brush often preserves a strong historical flavor. It can be said that the formation of Fu Baoshi's painting style is closely related to his understanding and judgment of Chinese art history. His development and criticism of the history of painting established his own view of painting, and he was able to learn the essence and learn lessons in his creation. From the age of 21 when he wrote "An Overview of the Origin of Chinese Painting" to 1962 when he wrote "Zheng Banqiao's Examination Theory", in the decades before and after, there was no interruption in writing, translation and editing, and there were many single texts. According to his wife, only one-third of his total works are now included in Fu Baoshi's Collected Works, and the text of his life's writings should be around 2 million words. This is quite a rich volume of writing. What is particularly admirable is his unique vision and historical knowledge. He once said: "I am most interested in two periods in the history of Chinese painting, one is the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Six Dynasties, and the other is the Ming and Qing dynasties. The former is from the study of Gu Kaizhi, overlooking the Six Dynasties; The latter I started from the study of Shi Tao, and extended up and down to Longwan of the Ming Dynasty and Qianjia of the Qing Dynasty. Over the past ten years, I have personally felt a lot of comfort for the efforts of these two great artists. The Eastern Jin Dynasty was the hub of the great transformation of Chinese painting, and the Ming and Qing dynasties were the era of Chinese painting with a full moon. These two eras swirled around in my head, so the subject matter of the clumsy work could most likely belong to one of these two eras. ”
Fu Baoshi studied Gu Kaizhi in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and from the examination of "Painting Yuntai Mountain", he knew that "Gu Kaizhi was not only an outstanding figure painter, but also a landscape painter". Thus overturning the more than a thousand years of belief that landscape painting originated in the Tang Dynasty, the Six Dynasties, the Eastern Jin Dynasty, etc., and that it should be traced back to the Han and Wei Dynasties. And the admiration for Gu Kaizhi's artistic concepts such as "moving the imagination is wonderful" is just as he admired and obeyed Shi Tao's famous words of "pen and ink should be contemporary" and "search for Qifeng to play drafts". Fu Baoshi's research on the history of painting not only contributed his insights academically, but also established his own artistic outlook and methodology for painting in creation. At the same time, it is also part of the inspiration and source of Fu Baoshi's creation. This is the intersection of learning and talent, which is far from being able to have it both.
In his article "Self-Introduction to the Chongqing Painting Exhibition at noon", Fu Baoshi said that the sources of his creations were four: (1) taking nature: (2) poetry into painting; (3) historical facts; (4) copying the ancients. It was written in 1942. In fact, when I look at Fu Baoshi's paintings, there is a fifth source, that is, "straight to the chest, a spit block". It's all out of imagination and nostalgia. Of course, it can also be said that Fu Baoshi's most outstanding works, no matter which of the four, have a fifth component. Even if you write about historical figures, you are still writing feelings, expressing the sense of the times, or using your own situation. His paintings also express his "historical fetish" in terms of subject matter, showing an artist himself who runs through ancient and modern times and integrates Taoism.
Four
In terms of artistic style and expressive skills, Fu Baoshi integrates the wisdom of history and the achievements of tradition into his personal creation. He is well versed in the longitude and latitude of historical development, and has a unique understanding of the changing context of Chinese ink painting. He wants to play a role in the mainstream of history. His "historical fetish" is really a "sense of history" of cultural inheritance and a "sense of mission" of giving up others. Specifically, Fu Baoshi wants to inherit and carry forward the tradition of "big freehand" ink painting.
In recent decades, the debate between "figuration" and "abstraction" in Chinese painting is still chattering today. In fact, abstraction is nothing more than a reaction caused by the long tradition of realism in Western painting that has become a shackle to individuality. Whether figuration and abstraction should be dualistic opposites in painting is highly questionable. In the past, China did not have Western-style realism, and it did not have the inevitability and necessity to follow the Western modern art ideas, not to mention that abstraction was only a branch of Western modernism. Abstraction wants to take form (image) to write about God, that is, to think that God can be independent of the image. Do you know that Wang Chong of the Han Dynasty had already said that "the fire extinguished and the light was extinguished", and fan Jian of the Southern and Northern Dynasties had the saying that "it is useless to give up the knife"? Form and God are not isolated and self-existent dualities. Since ancient times, Chinese painting has transcended figurative, abstract paranoia. From Gu Kaizhi's "Writing God in Form" and "Thinking Of Wonderful Things". Zong Bing's "Should See the Heart" and "Should Feel the God", Wang Wei's "The Appearance of the Form, the Spirit and the Heart of the Changing"; Wu Daozi Jialing River more than 300 miles of landscape and water in one day: Su Dongpo said that Wang Wei's paintings have poetry, contemptuous of the shape; Huang Zijiu's "Painting, but the meaning is only", Ni Yunlin's "Yibi Cursive Does Not Seek Shape", Cha Yi huang's "Dream of Calligraphy and Painting When Awakening", and Even Shi Tao's "Mountains and Rivers Meet with Gods and Traces", "Not Similar", etc., in short, advocate "both form and god", the unity of subjectivity and objectivity.
Fu Baoshi's big idea is to inherit the spirit that is constantly evolving in this tradition. His figure paintings look like gossamer, but they are like wild grass: his landscape painting method seems to be a chaotic painting, but it integrates and refines the methods of phi ma, unsoiling, chaotic firewood, cow hair, ghost face, skeleton, cirrus clouds, axe splitting, lotus leaves, folding belts and so on. There is hardly a method of inclusivity that is not absorbed, but is gathered under the use of broken pens and scattered edges, creating the famous "bouldering".
The in-depth study and experience of painting history, painting theory and painting methods, as well as the induction of the times, can be seamlessly coordinated with personal ambitions and talents, and have forged an artistic style that is compatible with personality and corresponding, which is a rare genius in the history of painting!
As far as figure painting is concerned, there are probably two kinds: historical figures and allusions; A figure painting based on literary masterpieces or poems. Fu Baoshi's historical figures, such as Qu Yuan, Du Fu, Tao Yuanming, Li Bai, Wang Xizhi, and the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Forest, are all figures with lofty personalities that have a unique embrace in history. Their grief, depression, dissatisfaction with reality, Xiao's looseness and relaxation, and the indescribable sadness and heaviness in the depths of the characters' hearts are all in the hearts of the painters under Fu Baoshi's brushwork. It makes people feel that he is not only painting people, but also painting the state of mind, expressing the encounters of life and expressing the painter's understanding and resonance with them; It makes people feel that the painter is not only painting the ancients, but also painting himself. In ancient times, we only occasionally saw this kind of figure painting in the pens of Gu Xianzhong, Chen Laolian, Wu Wei, Luo Ping, Ren Yi and others. Deep figure painting often does not use exaggerated dramatic techniques, but shows simple and calm, plain and unpretentious techniques. Fu Baoshi's figure is the peak of this quality. In expressing the state of mind and resonance, his achievements are not seen before.
Undoubtedly, Qu Yuan's statues and many of the works with the theme of the Nine Songs are Fu Baoshi's best-performed figure paintings. One of the earliest paintings of Qu Yuan's portrait was made in 1942. Yokoyama Daikan has a painting of Qu Yuan (painted in 1898), and there is no doubt that Fu Baoshi was influenced by him. The poet and historian Guo Moruo, who greatly admired and encouraged Fu Baoshi, wrote a five-act play "Qu Yuan" in 1942, and he also wrote a series of research texts such as "Qu Yuan Research" and translated "Leaving Sorrows" in language style. Fu Baoshi was touched by Guo, and not only did he make a portrait of Qu Yuan (Guo Zeng's inscription Wuyan Ancient Poem), but also Qu Yuan's other works such as "Xiang Jun", "Lady Xiang", "Mountain Ghost", "National Martyrdom", etc., especially Erxiang, also became the most important subjects of his figure paintings. Qu Yuan was an "anti-Qin faction" at that time, and in the War of Resistance Against Japan, Fu Baoshi used Qu Yuan's works to express patriotic and anti-enemy sentiments, and there were also factors of the times. More importantly, he fully embodies the essence of Chinese paintings to "convey the gods". The tradition usually uses spring silkworm silk drawing, gaogu gossamer silk drawing, iron wire drawing and orchid leaf drawing, from Gu Kaizhi and Wu Daozi to the Ming and Qing dynasties, mostly for the whole brushwork. Fu Baoshi's character line drawings are difficult to classify in tradition, but they are close to gossamer and iron wire. The biggest difference between him and the traditional technique, that is, his originality, is that the chemical industry is strictly composed for freehand flying and the use of broken edges and white lines. It seems to be sloppy, but in fact, it is necessary to convey the dynamics and charm of the characters, and a high degree of omission and generalization. Because the clothing patterns, siblings and clothing only outline their fortunes, and do not make accurate depictions, they can focus all their attention on the head, especially the eyebrows. Fu Baoshi's characters are most seductively captured in the eyebrows. What is further is that he has changed the ancient lines from the original neat to flying scrawled, and he has used many broken and white lines. This makes Fu Baoshi's figure painting technique, like the "bouldering" in his landscape paintings, show the characteristics of music - the beauty of melody and rhythm transcends the clarity of concepts and the rigidity of depiction. It is those vague and inexplicable forms of pen and ink that appear with the ups and downs of the rhythm of the mind, which more deeply and vividly express the richness, complexity and subtlety of the object. At the same time, under the vague and scrawled pen and ink contrast, the brilliance of the eyebrows and the head can be more prominent. The creative control of the "contrast" and "relationship" of painting elements is the key to the unique creation of Fu Baoshi's figure paintings and landscape paintings.
The most worth mentioning is that on "Lady Xiang" or "Erxiang Tu", he painted autumn winds and falling leaves, and the pieces floated down from the air, from far and near, far and near, far and near, to almost the same as the head of a person. This is entirely camera framing, applying the camera's "depth of field" principle to the picture. Qu Yuan's "Lady Xiang" has "The emperor descended to the north, and his eyes were wide open and sad." Autumn wind, dongting wave under the leaves of the wood" sentence. Fu Baoshi is ingenious, except for the characters on the screen, he only sees thousands of blue waves, no trees, but leaves floating in place. No one has ever painted fallen leaves using this method. These fallen leaves, which fly on the face, add to the loneliness of the autumn wind and the smoke and waves. Visually, these drifting leaves also enhance the creativity of the picture.
Five
Landscape painting played the most important part of Fu Baoshi's life. Although his best figure paintings and landscape paintings are difficult to distinguish, from the perspective of personal creation, his landscape paintings undoubtedly have higher achievements.
In terms of layout, he often sticks the summit of the mountain out of the paper, or on top of the drawing paper, so it does not leave much of the sky, breaking the traditional pattern, and forming a majestic momentum that covers the sky. The traditional smoke clouds and virtual reality treatment methods are also often used by Fu Baoshi, but they are not much like the formulaization and stereotyping of the traditional school. He is more full of paper filled with mountain trees, forming a "large article" structure. Such as "Xiao Xiao Twilight Rain", "Bitter Melon Lian Dantai Poetry", "Twilight Rhyme Map", "Alpine Elevation", "Du Fu Poetry", "Listening to The Fountain Map" and so on. His "big block" structure, which has layers and veins, is also vague and inky. This ambiguous vein constitutes Fu Baoshi's unique texture
The person who weaves this unique texture is the "bouldering" that looks at the ancient and modern times. As mentioned above, his method of acupuncture integrates and uses various traditional methods, and collects them in the application of "breaking the pen and scattering the front". Some people think that "bouldering" is "using cursive brushwork as a stroke", and some people point out that "the ancients only had two kinds of penmanship, the center and the flank, the change is limited, the flanking is wrinkled and Easy to condense Mr. Creatively spread the pen edge, which is actually equal to countless centers". It's all very insightful. In my experience, when the broken pen is lifted upwards, there are indeed countless centers, and when the downward pressure is countless centers and flanks. The ancients only knew how to use the center and the flank, and only knew to use the end of the brush to half (like writing), the so-called painting is like a book. Later, the belly of the pen and even the root of the pen (the part near the barrel) were used. This breaks the norm of painting like a book. As long as you can express different characteristics and interests, writing, painting, wiping, pushing, pulling, pressing, clustering, turning, sweeping are all uncontrained, and truly free to play. As Fu Baoshi said: "I think Chinese painting needs to quickly input warmth, so that the stiff thing first gradually restores its perception, and then tries to change everything about it." In other words, Chinese painting must first make it move, and only when it can move can it have a way. "Fu Baoshi's various changes and breakthroughs in the pen used by the law are indeed unprecedented!
However, "bouldering" is not a form of play to create visual novelty. His understanding and study of the geological structure of landforms and mountain stones is probably unprecedented, and he has never seen anyone since. In 1957, he compiled and published the book "Writing Mountain Method" based on Takashima Beihai's "Tips for Writing Mountains", which has a detailed analysis of the relationship between geological structures, rock species characteristics and the method of writing mountains. This book has many of his own experiences and insights, and it should be called a compilation. After reading this book and looking back at Fu Baoshi's paintings, I was amazed that he could combine rigorous rational understanding with the sensibility of the torrential rain! Just as his refined study of the history and theory of painting and his creative talent can be seamlessly integrated into an artistic style, we see a classical and romantic genius.
Fu Baoshi inherited the literati painting's reliance on lines, believing that the thick colors must be intolerable to the lines that pick the girder. But his color is very different from the traditional standardization and poor tone. The color complements the charm of the pen and ink, and it also determines the tone of the work. He also often has a new eye for the use of color. Add ink to the color, a large area of this dye, the momentum is thick, unique. Broken pen scattered, the line from the milli-end, as thin as gossamer, from the belly of the pen and the root of the pen, there are flying white and blocky scratches, only the sharp and thick line. The traces of his handwriting are extremely varied and unexamineable. These crazy and complex pens and lines are reduced one by one to make it an "organization" (that is, the "texture" above), showing the hierarchy, and the growth of hair into rhyme depends on rendering. In Fu Baoshi's landscape technique, the rendering of kung fu is also a major feature. In the early days, some people ridiculed it as "Japanese painting" and "watercolor painting", which is also referred to as this. Fu Baoshi expressed his sadness and disdain for rebuttal. He believes that the "genre" of traditional literati painting, the mantle of the ancestors of the ancestors, has no locality and the times, and even the Japanese people look down on it. Wu Zhiqiu, Tang Dingzhi, Pu Xinshe, Zhang Daqian, Hu Peiheng, etc., all begged for a living in the traditional portal. Japanese painters absorbed Chinese painting and most of them "became their own faces". "Their methods and materials are mostly ancient Chinese methods, especially rendering, and they are all Song methods." "Speaking exclusively from the method of painting, the Japanese method cannot be said to be Japanese." This can be said to be "lost in art and begged for Tsuno (Japan)". In fact, in terms of accepting the influence of Japanese painting, Fu Baoshi and the Lingnan painter Gao Shi Kunzhong are very different. The digestion of foreign culture and the imitation of floating light are also different in depth.
The bold use of the thick rendering method unifies lines, crevices and points into surfaces and bodies. The most obvious appearance of Fu Baoshi's landscape paintings is that they are integrated, eliminating the trivial and piling common problems of traditional Chinese landscapes. And the creation of atmosphere is also due to the superb skill of rendering.
From the structure to the brush and ink technique, all efforts are made to express the thoughts and feelings of the painter, to express the image on which this thought and feeling are pinned, and to express the realm conveyed by this image. All first-class artists in ancient and modern China and abroad, no matter what themes they use and what different techniques they use, have created their own independent works of art, because behind the works there is the author's personality spirit, so many of their works must have some common characteristics, venting their feelings and attitudes towards the life of the universe. The same is true of Fu Baoshi, who has thousands of works in his lifetime, with different themes and techniques. As far as landscape painting is concerned, the vastness of Sichuan, the majesty of the Three Gorges, the xiaoser of autumn, the leaves of spring willows... Of course, they are different. However, the first-class artists are by no means satisfied with writing mountain-shaped landforms and depicting spring flowers and autumn moons, but borrow the characteristics of objects and images to shape images, manage artistic conceptions, express his perceptions, pin his arms, and even gallop his imagination and exude his passion.
As far as Fu Baoshi's landscape paintings are concerned, they show the lush darkness and majestic dangers of the mountains and rivers of heaven and earth, and the loneliness, helplessness and sigh of people who are suddenly like dust, and show the bitterness and sorrow that are thrilling and frightening. "Reading the heavens and the earth is leisurely, alone but weeping" Chen Ziang's two poems are almost comparable. He has already shown his mature style during the "King Kong Po" period, and it can even be said that his most representative works, both landscapes and figures, have been completed before he is 50 years old. The last dozen years of his life were just a continuation of this style and a change in the environment of different eras. As far as his most important landscape works are concerned, his personified landscape, the hills and ravines that are full of the painter's personal feelings, the mountains and lush grasses that rush into his blood and passion, the obscure mountains and lush grasses, are the long songs triggered by the painter under the touch of nature, and the tragic scenes of the mountains and rivers when the painter's soul is called. He carved a seal with Shi Tao's sentence "As far as the mountains and rivers are concerned". In fact, it should be said that he uses mountains and rivers as the theme to express his heart. Among the landscape paintings of the 20th century, Fu Baoshi is the most prominent one who integrates strong personal feelings, outlook on life and cosmology into the conception of landscape painting.
Fu Baoshi is not only the first-class Chinese painter in this century, but also the world's first-class painter. Even in the history of painting, he was a talented artist who could only be seen for hundreds of years.