Some friends in the painting and calligraphy circle often feel that every time they look at Mr. Fang Xiaoshi's paintings and calligraphy in his later years, they are always puzzled.
for a painter and calligrapher like Mr. Wang, who aims at innovation, if he doesn't understand his thoughts, life and creative trajectory, he will naturally fail to appreciate the artist's artistic realm.
when I visited my husband's home again eleven years later, the home I saw was still so simple and unpretentious that there was hardly anything that could be called a display. Mr. Ru's tea set is just an ordinary small bowl covered with a small dish. Stepping into Mr. Wang's studio, next to a simple painting case, only dozens of brushes hanging are particularly eye-catching ... < P > Under an incandescent lamp, Mr. Wang is sitting on the sofa in a blue cotton-padded jacket, with a very calm conversation tone and no sense of makeup between words. But when it comes to events, people and other essentials, Mr. Wang will pause slightly, and every word will strive to be accurate and clear. I like painting, so I painted it today. This is Mr. Wang's summary of himself.
In the field of calligraphy and painting, it may be rare to see an artist like Mr. Wang who is still creating at the age of 96. He has lived a very frugal life for decades and silently devoted all his efforts to artistic creation.
As a generation of young people influenced by the new culture, Mr. Wang studied in the National Art College when he was weak. When recalling the influence of that experience on him, he said, "A person's thoughts are always influenced by the times, and we grew up in an era of open mind. At that time, everyone looked at everything and spoke freely, and there was nothing taboo ... "
Although the communication was endless, Mr. Wang believed that there was a clear direction, that is, opposing old things and creating new things. He said: "New things will not grow up at once, but it will take decades to form a scale, and we are growing up in this process."
"Why do you always repeat what our predecessors did? The creative environment of our time is superior than ever! " Mr. Wang added: "The painting materials used in the Five Dynasties, the Song Dynasty, the Yuan Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty were different. At that time, people's social life and background of the times were also different, which naturally formed different forms and contents, so they left outstanding works. If you always repeat the skin-deep painting in paper, there will be no development and no time. "
by innovation, Mr. Wang means that every era has its own flavor of life and new things that have never been seen before. If we don't repeat what our predecessors have done, we need to innovate. If we want to avoid Chen Xiang-yin, we should learn innovative artistic nutrition from social practice. Rich life accumulation and artistic practice are the cornerstone of Mr. Wang's flower-and-bird painting innovation and a key to understand his artistic style. Like this print "Building the Head Bridge in Guiyang" (see photo), it was created in the early 195s, with a magnificent picture and a rigorous structure in three levels. 3 or so figures, such as picking soil, driving cars, and bridging bridges, were all in their proper places, or picking, lifting, helping, pulling, or rushing ... It truly reflected the labor scene of compatriots of all ethnic groups who picked horses to build a new Guiyang under extremely difficult conditions at that time.
After liberation, with the needs of rural construction, Mr. Wang also went to Guizhou's old and young border poor areas to participate in productive labor for nearly eight years. At that time, under the harsh conditions where people and animals lived, he did not forget to engage in artistic creation after work, and created a large number of works reflecting the customs, productive labor and social conditions of ethnic minorities at that time by using prints, sketches, watercolors and line drawings.
In the 196s, during Mr. Wang's five years in Anshun, these sketches (see photo) with the theme of ethnic customs were made at that time. Its lines are like flowing clouds, and it is superb in capturing the changing dynamics of characters and conveying the subtle emotions of objects.
Weining in Bijie, where bandits were turned against tyrants, Liping in southeastern Guizhou during the two land reforms, and Bingwu in southern Guizhou during the construction of people's communes ... all left the footprints of artists' creation in the fields. Guizhou's honest local customs are the source of Mr. Wang's saying that "the former sages failed".
Even the freehand flowers and birds that Mr. Wang specializes in are full of Guizhou customs, and they all think and feel about what is in front of them. A picture of Magnolia Officinalis painted in the 198s (see photo), in which two vigorous ink magnolias occupy most of the picture unceremoniously, which forms a strong visual contrast with the local red pomegranate flower in the lower right corner; At this time, four lavender birds (a flower in Kunming) flew in from the left of the picture. The aura of the birds seemed to reconcile the conflict and opposition between the two flowers, and everything became harmonious and fresh.
This painting was introduced by Mr. Wang, and it was known that Magnolia grandiflora was introduced to Guiyang for 2 years before it was widely planted and became a popular street flower for the citizens. Usually, he did not write poems, but also wrote a six-character poem: "Moving to the bamboo city in the second period, Wanrui piled snow in cui wei;" The flowers are dripping with leaves, and the red and purple are blooming. " "Feelings are nothing more than feelings" is the aesthetic feature of China's flower-and-bird paintings.
Embrace clouds and smoke, brush the lute, and flowers and birds in the mountains write songs; The old house is a dream, and the album is like gold. Looking back on the Fang Xiaoshi Album more than ten years ago, I have some feelings: flowers can explain words, but birds also know-being fascinated by emotions is my intuitive feeling about my husband's artistic expression.
Mr. Wang's flower-and-bird painting creation, which integrates poetry, calligraphy and printing, extends the aesthetic space of traditional flower-and-bird painting in many aspects such as artistic conception, color and brushwork.
Some people say that Mr. Wang's paintings in his later years always feel loose and disconnected in many places. As everyone knows, this state of isolating and insulating objects is the result of the painter's reform in his later years. It permeates the paper, and can be empty, shed, deep and practical, as Ouyang Xiu said: "The painter may get the meaning of this difficult painting, but the viewer may not be able to recognize it. Therefore, flying is slow, things with shallow meaning are easy to see, while leisure and strictness are hard to shape. "
At the "Fang Xiaoshi Flower-and-Bird Exhibition Seminar" held in China Art Museum in p>1995, an art theorist said that a bird, a flower and a branch painted by Mr. Fang felt as if they were ethereal, which was unique among contemporary flower-and-bird paintings.
Seeing the color before seeing the flowers is Mr. Wang's seal and his painting style. Anyone who has a basic knowledge of painting knows that it is the most difficult to paint with dark colors. If a color is not appropriate, it will damage the style, but if the color is vivid, it will all be in the heat. Mr. Wang uses colors according to the class, and likes to use color change. The color contrast is strong, and the colors are calm, beautiful and harmonious, resulting in a natural and interesting aesthetic feeling. Such as "Yuanyang Tu" and "Good Scenery in the Mountain Village" (see photo), their beauty lies not only in color selection, but in color harmony according to the theme of the picture, which runs through a lively atmosphere of interest.
from Mr. Wang's painting style, it is not difficult to see the application of calligraphy. Seeing that Mr. Wang painted bamboo in his later years, he seemed to write in calligraphy. Asked about Mr. Wang's understanding of learning calligraphy, he said, "Learning calligraphy is learning culture. Without culture, learning calligraphy is inevitably blind. " Mr. Wang's calligraphy is exquisite in brushwork and brushwork, and he gains the charm of Zhang Cao and seal script. For example, the couplet of the top book, which is about four meters high (see photo), can feel the perfection of his calligraphy. It is no wonder that Li Kuchan said, "The height from the book to the painting is the height, and the painting to the book is the extreme."
In Mr. Wang's prestigious seal cutting, the Gu Zhuo spirit of calligraphy is also evident. For example, "Taiping world is cool and hot around the world" and "Gaoxia comes out of Pinghu" are printed on both sides, and the brushwork and charm of calligraphy are vividly above the printed surface. Just as Ms. Yin Shenwei said, "Xiao Shi managed to seal in his later years, and when he knew the law, he worked hard at it." This word "Hua" shows the artistic expression of Mr. Wang in his later years.
I remember an artist said that it is difficult to draw a good picture, but it is even more difficult to draw your own style. Mr. Wang's exquisite artistic expression is precisely his repeated processing and long-term blending of thoughts, life and art, thus forming a seamless integration of his life truth and thoughts and feelings. How can such works with unique painting language not make people tempted at first sight, or even unforgettable? [2]