Most of the educated youth painters of the "Cultural Revolution" were the same age as those of the Republic of China. They had the following experiences: First, they all received revolutionary ideological education, and historical paintings with big themes were their initial ideas and practices; Second, the pursuit of transplanting Soviet realism from the previous generation, obsessed with large-scale pictures with narration, pictures and characters; Third, when I was a teenager, I witnessed the "Cultural Revolution riots", participated in the countryside, stayed at the bottom of society for a long time, and was extremely sensitive to the deficit between propaganda and reality; Fourthly, political themes and politicians have a decisive influence on their creative thinking, which constitutes the symbol resources of this generation of painters, with Mao Zedong as the focus.
What's more, the personalities of these painters have grown up and become highly politicized, and their memories of youth are also a strong political memory. The so-called "educated youth painter" is the identity of the Cultural Revolution itself-from belief to doubt, from participation to deviation, from persistence to rebellion, many pain points and pleasures in his creative career are intertwined with the Cultural Revolution experience.
In the post-Cultural Revolution period, naturally, this generation of painters gradually abandoned the "Cultural Revolution" style, bid farewell to political themes, and took the initiative to start the process of depoliticization and depoliticization-although this is still a typical politicized choice-the Shanghai educated youth painter group to which Wei Jia belongs can be said to be a remarkable example.
Under the above background, Wei Jia's highly politicized works may get relatively clear historical clues. In my opinion, he is an example that most contemporary painters openly adhere to the creative mode of revolutionary realism and develop their own political themes within this mode. They reject the so-called assumption of pure art and contemporary art-this is the "political correctness" generally attached to artistic creation for more than 20 years-on the contrary, they are not taboo, but clearly hope that almost every work they have done for more than 10 years will become a history lesson or be like a political paper.
From the distance of space and time, I may understand why his position is so: we have all lived abroad for a long time and witnessed what modern western art, contemporary art and the real western world are. At the same time, we are getting older and have accumulated enough years. Look at the background of the "Cultural Revolution" in which we grew up: the background is getting farther and farther away, but as the heritage of the Cultural Revolution, nothing can change the authenticity of this heritage here, in our hands, on canvas and in taste. In other words, the more we realize that we are hostages of the Cultural Revolution: the West and the years have never erased the political memory of the Cultural Revolution. On the contrary, it is time and the west that have taught us how to interpret this profound memory, and the language that tells this memory loudly has never left us-this language, in short, is the revolutionary realism of the Cultural Revolution.
Therefore, in Wei Jia, what to draw and how to draw are not only consistent, but also equally important. When Wei Jia put Jesus in Mantana on Li Hongzhang's desk, I found that political metaphor is not just historical imagination, which gives his paintings another textual value.
This is a private drama of China's realistic oil painting: like revenge for the Cultural Revolution, it also presents a tenacious revision. From the paintings, I can see that Wei Jia still loves the art of our childhood. He cherished, rather than escaped, the political experience he cheated, and fiercely questioned the betrayed revolution. Then, with historical enthusiasm, he tried to save revolutionary painting and make it truly revolutionary. I don't know if he agrees that this is a revolutionary and political painting, but it seems that he is willing to live and die with this painting. Shen Jiawei recently went to Canberra not only to see Princesse Marie, but also to see his early works. It seems that Shen Jiawei will encounter his own works wherever he goes. He first met the princess in 2005, when the National Portrait Gallery commissioned him to paint her portrait.
Australian-born Mary Tang Nuo once met her prince in a beer house in Sydney. Five years later, she gave Shen three hours to sketch in the rock zone not far from the beer hall and the hotel where she stayed. He drew a sketch of the princess and took many photos, and then went back to his studio in Bondina to paint her oil portrait. The princess could not attend the unveiling ceremony of the portrait held in June 5438+that year 10. But in the following year, Shen followed this portrait and visited Copenhagen with the exhibition of the National Portrait Gallery of Australia. "When I met the princess in Copenhagen, I gave her the sketch. She and Prince Frederick like it very much. " Shen said.
Of course, when the Danish royal couple visited Australia, Shen's family, including his wife Wang Lan (also a painter) and his daughter Suni, were invited to Canberra. The family first attended the official luncheon of the Prime Minister welcoming the royal couple at the Parliament Building, and then met the royal couple in front of the princess portrait in the National Portrait Gallery. Shen said, "They want to see this portrait again, so they came here specially. For the ordinary audience, this is an ordinary day, so they are surprised and surprised when they see the prince and princess. "
"The curator told me that Mary's portrait was the first painting that visitors wanted to see." Ten minutes before painting, the royal couple discussed with the painter the importance of hand-drawing in portraits. It seems that after enjoying Princesse Marie's face, the audience was attracted by the wonderful details of her hand. "Hands are very important in portraits. Because hands are like faces-each hand is unique. " Shen explained.
Two other portraits of Shen also hang here: tom hughes, a barrister, and Gordon Darling, founder and philanthropist of portrait gallery. In the National Museum, Shen Yu saw a big painting he created in 1987. This was painted two years before he came to Australia. Its name is Red Star Shines on China, which is a huge work, drawing more than 20 political figures in China/KLOC-0. As part of the exhibition "New Realm of Contemporary Art in China", this painting will be exhibited in Australia until 20 12 1. (Maria galinovic, Australian leader) 20 1 1 At the end of September, the collection exhibition "New Realm" of China Art Museum was grandly opened at the National Museum in Canberra, Australia. Among them, 1 1 m's Red Star Shines on China has attracted much attention. This portrait of a large historical figure that I created 24 years ago has aroused the interest of many Australian audiences, especially when I know that almost all the 124 characters in the painting are real people. They like to listen to my stories about the characters. A former Australian diplomatic representative in Hong Kong, a retired writer, asked me the name of my family. So, for the convenience of the audience behind, I typed out a complete list of people in Chinese and English.
A quarter of a century and the vast space and time in the northern and southern hemispheres have provided me with a rare opportunity to test my creative practice. "Red Star" is a total explosion of my 20-year life calendar practice and reading thinking accumulation, from 65438 to 0987, in less than half a year. It is a severe challenge to the "fake sky" and "red light" patterns formed in the "Cultural Revolution". I have successfully created a historical painting pattern that writes the truth. In this work, the leaders and main generals of the Red Army and China, who have just finished the Long March, all show their true colors, and there is no trace of the period of "personality cult". Everyone is equal, which truly embodies the core value of the ideal they pursue.
Nowadays, this work can impress western audiences who don't hold the values of * * *, which shows that this creative method is completely realistic and based on human nature. Mr. Lu Xun once said: "As long as what is written is the truth, it is beneficial to China, and it is clear from right and wrong, and it is fair to expose it." This passage is very close to the creative purpose of my work. Every character in the painting is telling his own story to the audience. The author's task is only to revive them in front of the audience. I finished the task well. They will continue to tell their stories to countless generations after my death.
When I write these words, the research-oriented historical painting exhibition sponsored by school of visual arts of Fudan University in Shanghai is about to open in Shanghai Art Museum. I will show two recent works in this exhibition. When discussing the creation techniques of historical paintings, I put forward that fiction is the privilege of historical painters. In terms of creative techniques, novels are everywhere. Just like this old work Red Star Shines on China, how do these 124 characters get together to "take" a big photo? If I don't break the limitation of time and space, I can't build this picture. I still have a lot of experience to sum up. For example, if you want to sit on the "fiction" in a real painting, you need more realistic details and costume props, and you can't be sloppy. In the quarter century since I painted "Red Star", none of the film and television works I have seen describing the Red Army is in line with historical truth. Therefore, when creating works with historical themes, artists should, like Hu Shi's scholarship, "boldly assume and carefully verify".
But more importantly, it is not in the level of creative techniques, but in the purpose of creation to practice Lu Xun's "writing truth" before, leaving a real history for future generations. To borrow Ba Jin's statement is to "tell the truth". In other words, it is "to be a real person." "All history is contemporary history". Today we are drawing historical pictures, and future generations will look at our historical pictures and our dead history. We must write and revise our own history before we can draw and revise the history of our predecessors. (Shen Jiawei 20111214 Australian Ting Yuzhai Diary)