Thoughts on Watching Mr. Xiao He's Recent Works
Yesterday, a friend from the media came to visit and brought a group of recent works by Mr. Xiao He, saying that they would be published. Let me write some comments.
This is a group of works depicting ancient children's dramas, with 13 paintings. When the picture slowly unfolded, a fresh breath came to my face. Its precise modeling, refined lines, simple and elegant colors, coupled with lively and splashing dynamics, swept away the old conceptual and stylized atmosphere that was easy to emerge when painting to the ancients, which can be described as "colorful and innovative". It really made my eyes shine, and then I thought of Gu Kaizhi's words in the "Catalogue of Ancient Paintings": "The brushwork is subtle and the pen is correct." In my opinion, these eight words are difficult to do, so they are also highly praised.
Comparing landscape painting with flower-and-bird painting, "On Painting" said: "It is the most difficult to draw with people, the second landscape, the second two dog and the second horse, and the terrace must be good, difficult and easy to achieve." The difficulty of figure painting lies in the subtle style-fresh and accurate, difficult in not making mistakes-reasonable use of pens, difficult in wonderful-vivid. Painting characters, the shape is too rigid, it will lose its charm; If you don't pay attention to modeling, it will be like a charm, and there is no place to stand. It's really not an easy task to be comprehensive in form and spirit, and to write Mo Miao perfectly. So this group of paintings by Mr. Xiao He made my eyes shine. I am very happy for my husband.
I have always believed that personality determines painting. Character does not refer to people's quality, but to people's taste and style. People are elegant and paintings are elegant; People are vulgar, painting is vulgar; People are stiff, but paintings are stiff; People are free and easy, and paintings are elegant; People are frank, painting nature, indifferent and lofty. Li Kuchan said: "people must have personality first, and then they can draw a picture;" People have no character and write poorly. "
I have known Mr. Xiao He for a long time, and I have the impression that he is a painter with an ancient talent style. He is gentle, but he is charming when he is drunk. He is low-key and modest, but when he meets a vulgar thing that doesn't match, he will mercilessly shut people away. "Painting is like a person", so Mr. Xiao He's paintings are free and easy in elegance and a character in gentleness. Although it is casual, it does not lose its statutes.
China's figure painting has always attached importance to politics, religion and ethics, and paid attention to the four virtues, saints, virtues and goodness. This time, He Laoshi Jr. took a different approach and chose to depict a group of scenes of ancient children playing games. This unique perspective and material selection show Mr. Xiao He's enduring childlike innocence and his longing for simplicity, kindness and sincerity. The beautiful and pure pictures in his works show his sincere pursuit of this yearning more directly. This true feeling also deeply touched the heartstrings of every viewer and evoked childhood memories. When I saw that the games played by ancient children were almost the same as those played when we were young, I thought that these games could not only improve intelligence and fitness; Enhancing friendship and cultivating cooperation is not one of the outstanding traditions of the Chinese nation. Therefore, although Mr. Xiao He's paintings are not based on too much material, they have played a great role in returning to the people, regaining innocence and cultivating the spirit.
A group of works with little space and few materials can give viewers so many experiences, which shows that Mr. Xiao He has profound knowledge and skills.
Ma Hongzeng (researcher of Jiangsu Provincial Art Museum, deputy director of theoretical committee of China Artists Association)
Under the situation that the creative orientation of contemporary Chinese painting is diversified, there are few figure paintings with pure taste and profound skill. Recently, I saw dozens of Xiao He's works in Jinling, and my eyes lit up. In my opinion, Xiao He can be regarded as a master of traditional figure painting.
Xiao He's artistic path began with the study of ancient famous paintings, and he followed the path of "learning from tradition-learning from nature-gaining spiritual source". His research on traditional figure painting has considerable breadth and depth. From Gu Kaizhi, Wu Daozi, Zhou Wenju, Li, Liang Kai and Zhao Mengfu to Chen Laolian, Zeng Whale, Ren Weichang and Ren Bonian, he has made painstaking efforts. Because of his solid foundation and high understanding, he not only mastered the skillful vocabulary of pen and ink techniques, especially the wonderful use of lines, but also realized the inner spiritual expression essentials such as vivid form and vivid charm. All these provide him with a broad choice space for his creative thinking in artistic language, which can also be said to be "learning and using flexibly" or "striking a balance".
Xiao He's figure paintings are pure in taste, clean and beautiful, gentle and elegant, and full of romantic and unique literati atmosphere. This is due to the cultural content of the works and the accuracy of artistic language.
"Blue and White" series is unique. Blue and white porcelain is a representative flower in China culture. Xiao He takes blue-and-white porcelain as the main element of the picture, and through the combination of porcelain and elegant and simple ladies, it fully shows the lifestyle and aesthetic taste permeated with the spirit of China culture, and exudes a strong oriental charm. Picture porcelain treasures are white and blue and white, crystal clear, elegant and seamless; The painter skillfully extends the blue-and-white decorative pattern to the clothes and other utensils of the characters, so that people and the scenery can be integrated into one, and the three colors of green, white and black can complement each other, and the traditional culture can be brought into full play, such as the blue after the rain, which is fresh and elegant and inspiring.
Xiao He's figure painting, with blue-and-white series as the main symbol, has built a novel and unique artistic form on the basis of tradition, which can be called the contemporary form of traditional figure painting in China, with rich and profound connotation, which deserves attention and development.
Zuo (theoretical member of Jiangsu Artists Association, executive director of Jiangsu Aesthetics Association, director of Jiangsu Literature Critics Association, professor of Fine Arts College of Nanjing Normal University)
Nowadays, China painting has really entered a new era of letting a hundred flowers blossom. Because of the different painting concepts and aesthetic ideals, painters chose a variety of themes and artistic languages. Xiao He, a famous figure painter in Jinling, chooses classical themes and traditional expression techniques to pursue elegance, interest and completeness. He is unique in the field of figure painting, which has attracted the attention of the whole world, experts, research and praise.
Xiao He, who has a traditional cultural upbringing, found beautiful people, events and plots from traditional personnel, and wrote elegant, interesting and beautiful artistic images with beautiful pen and ink language, which contains profound national cultural spirit and modern significance.
The central theme of Xiao He's figure painting is to express a word "beauty".
Xiao He's paintings are very beautiful. In addition to choosing the theme of beauty and goodness, the most important thing is to use the artistic language of beauty to shape the artistic image of beauty. The artistic language used by Xiao He is mainly traditional model line drawing. He specially analyzed and studied the line drawing techniques of famous artists in past dynasties. He can choose different line drawings according to different objects, showing the texture, quantity, space and beauty of different objects. No matter what painting method he uses, creating a beautiful artistic image and creating a beautiful picture artistic conception is the highest rule.
Xiao He is not only a master of figure painting, but also an excellent landscape flower and bird painter. He often puts his characters in landscapes, flowers and birds, which shows his comprehensive painting literacy. We can see this from his works, such as Shan Gui and Xiyuan Collection.
Influenced by the paintings and calligraphy of my family father and brother, I studied under the famous Yaming, and through hard self-study, I became a master of traditional figure painting, which can best embody the essence of Chinese painting.
Ding Tao (Professor of Nanjing Art Institute)
What needs to be further clarified is that the aesthetic mode revealed in Xiao He's works is closely related to the choice of reference objects, and the expression of formal beauty generally stays in a beautiful and peaceful paradigm. His pen and ink are brilliant, and he is good at Chinese characters, but mainly Chinese characters; Generally speaking, characters account for more than a dozen works, and the background environment matching the characters, such as mountains, rivers, flowers and plants, is often attached to the works by the author carefully. Successful people and characters are in perfect harmony, which plays a role in seeing the clouds and the moon, and the artistic synaesthesia is obvious. The exquisite and peaceful aesthetic characteristics of Xiao He's figure painting are rooted in the author's cultivation, experience, artistic taste and value orientation. He has such a traditional literati character, but he loves painting without publicity. He is impetuous, instead of spending time and energy on entertainment and hype, he focuses on artistic practice.
Huang (director of theoretical research office of Jiangsu Academy of Traditional Chinese Painting, national first-class artist, member of China Artists Association, and distinguished researcher of Jiangsu Art Museum).
Xiao He's figure painting has several characteristics:
1. The purpose of figure painting is to praise life and interpret it poetically. Xiao He's "Poems of Nine Songs in Shan Gui" takes the song "Shan Gui", which is a sacrifice to mountain gods in "Songs of the South" written by Qu Yuan in the Warring States Period, as the theme, and depicts a beautiful young goddess-Shan Gui, roaming freely among lush trees and flowers by adopting the observation method of long scroll composition and scattered perspective layout.
2. The figure painting in Xiao He's works inherits the principle of "line" in Chinese painting to shape the figure form. Xiao He accepted Yaming's instruction, insisted on the traditional painting modeling with lines, and practiced the basic skills of line drawing centering on "writing". After observing, feeling and summarizing the painted people, he put pen to paper and created an artistic image with lines that are most suitable for the object, which not only described the unique image, expression and inner world of the object, but also wrote the painter's unique feelings and emotions. From Yaming, he learned to use the pen with his heart, not to serve the pen, and realized the importance of "using the bone method to use the pen" Use the pen to follow the image of the line of meaning, trying to achieve "moving but not wild, old but not withered, loose but not scattered, alive but not slippery, round and uneven, thick but not turbid." The lines in Guan Xiao's and his figure paintings are accurate, the images are handsome, the pen is heavy but not stagnant, moving but not floating, smooth and delicate, and he pays attention to the echo, look around, rhyme and rhythm of "lines", which has become an indispensable aesthetic factor in his paintings. He insists on depicting characters with high-quality lines, and it is not easy to use a pen in Chinese painting through the ages. Inheriting and carrying forward the achievements of excellent traditions has brought academic enlightenment to many colleagues in the painting world.
3. Xiao He's figure paintings appeal to both refined and popular tastes. His characters are vivid, his lines are accurate and smooth, his colors are elegant and harmonious, his layout is clever and full, and his artistic conception is meaningful and far-reaching.
KATTO (Professor of Nanjing Art Institute, Deputy Director of Theoretical Committee of Jiangsu Artists Association)
Xiao He's figure painting has formed a relatively stable style and aesthetic style. Specifically, it can be divided into three series: one is the type and series of blue and white figures. In this kind of works, the characters have beautiful shapes and elegant postures. The landscape fittings of characters are set off by ancient blue-and-white bottles, and the costumes of characters are mainly blue-and-white symbols. The whole picture is simple and elegant, concise and beautiful, forming a charming and extraordinary style. This kind of works mainly absorbed the techniques of Yu and Ren Bonian in Qing Dynasty in painting origin. However, after innovation and integration, the author shows his unique personal style with his refined and euphemistic style. Second, Buddhism and historical figures series. According to the painter, he has a lot of experience in the exploration and research of Buddhism, and historical facts have given him a deep sense of identity with China's profound cultural traditions. It should be said that his creation of such themes is not a simple nostalgia for the past, but an aesthetic yearning and yearning for China culture with a modern mind. The characters in this work are both strict and natural and unrestrained like Gu Zhuo. The arrangement of the pictures is free to change, which is unexpected, and the whole weather is complex and harmonious. The painting rules mainly absorb the language factors of Gu Kaizhi, Li and Li, and use them flexibly. His brushwork is delicate and interesting, which is in harmony with the theme and image. The third type and series are portrait figures, mainly aimed at contemporary celebrities, such as Lin Sanzhi and Xu Bangda. The clothing lines of these portraits are still sketched by traditional methods, but the faces of the figures can be treated with light ink and color shading with the help of western paintings, which greatly enhances the realism of the object performance, but maintains the inherent interest of Chinese painting. In fact, these portraits are not only taken from western paintings in origin, but also based on tradition. The author once showed his early imitation of "Chen Bo School" whales, which is very reasonable. This shows the author's academic attitude and his intention to learn from others.
Nie (Professor, Master Supervisor, Nanjing Museum Academy of Fine Arts).
Xiao He participated in the compilation of Series of Chinese Painting Techniques. He is responsible for drawing portraits of the characters in it. This paper systematically combs and reinterprets the eighteen methods of Chinese painting by depicting the classic techniques of ancient famous artists and drawing new themes with ancient methods. Xiao He's devotion to this painting has also benefited him a lot, and he has a deeper understanding of his Chinese painting skills, which he has pondered repeatedly since he was a child. Since then, creating "new paintings with ancient themes" has become the conscious behavior of Xiao He's long-term figure painting. The so-called "new paintings and ancient themes" can be divided into two categories in Xiao He's works:
One is based on historical stories, classical literature or symbols of China culture, but ancient painters never participated in writing. Now Xiao He skillfully borrows the ancient methods of famous artists to create. Although it is new, it is full of ancient meaning and elegance, and its style is natural and extraordinary; Such works include: "Jiang Qian meets a ghost" developed and painted by Gong; Draw Su Shi's Belly Picture with Tang Yinfa; Draw the Portrait of Pu Songling with the method of Zeng Whale: draw the fantastic story Fairy Island with the method of Cui Zizhong; Draw "Eight Eccentrics in Yangzhou" with Ren Bonian method and so on. It is not difficult to see that Xiao He has a keen and accurate sense of "counterpoint" when choosing classic painting methods for his new and ancient themes. In the picturesque "Jiang Qian meets a ghost", Xiao He appropriated Gong Kai's "Zhongshan Going on Excursion", the most humorous and interesting ghost painter's masterpiece in ancient times, as a painting model. Tang Yinshan, a romantic genius, painted a charming lady with a little erotic interest to show the story that Dongpo was drunk and molested by a maid, which also brought out the best in each other. Ren Bonian's portrayal of the Eight Eccentrics in Yangzhou who are good at writing the images of new literati in the folk times also responds to the personality characteristics of the Eight Eccentrics who are indecent and do not shy away from novelty.
The other is that although there are predecessors' models for reference, Xiao He did not stick to the ancient method, but made a second creation with new schema and new pen and ink. These works include: Goddess Scattering Flowers, Nine Poems of Qu Yuan and Shan Gui, Seven Sages of Bamboo Forest and Shower for Maids. Xiao He painted flying in the sky, but revealed the beauty of sexual characteristics with the girl's body, highlighting the surging vitality. No matter whether the characters in Xiao He's works belong to ancient or modern times, whether they are immortals or Buddhists, elegant or vulgar, what he has expounded is the human dignity respected by humanists. Xiao He wisely adhered to the study and skills of both internal and external training. With profound knowledge and skillful skills, he deeply explored and reinterpreted the classical themes, and with exquisite skills, he constantly shaped himself into a new generation of scholar-type literati painters in the history of art.
Looking at Xiao He's paintings is like seeing the people he painted with his own eyes. His voice, expression and gestures are sincere and credible. "San Xiao Map of Laohuxi" is a convincing example. Hui Yuan, a master of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, practiced in Lushan Mountain for more than 30 years and never visited Tiger Creek. One day, Tao Yuanming, a Confucian, and Lu Yuandao, a Taoist, came from afar and had a good talk. Wise foresight Fu Jian went down the mountain, but he couldn't hear the roars when he was joking, but he was alert when he crossed the tiger stream, so the three of them laughed heartily. Become a beautiful talk that will be sung through the ages.
The most difficult part of this painting lies in the expression of smile-it must show the different cultural identities and temperament differences of three people. We are delighted to see the expressive force of Xiao He's paintings: Hui Yuan monk, who is broad-minded and fat, laughs uncontrollably and then leans back, showing his willfulness; Tao Yuanming laughed and burst into laughter, but bent down and nodded, maintaining the Confucian demeanor of "not stimulating and not arrogant, but the wind is far away"; Lu Dao Shi, who turned his back, only showed a thin half smile, but it highlighted the wit and humor of those who knew the truth. The position of the three people is just surrounded by three pillars, symbolizing the state of harmony, diversity and inclusiveness of China culture. As for the historical significance symbolized by this painting and the cultural significance born today, Xiao He's inscription has made it clear.
If Xiao He's boudoir women are endowed with love and beauty, then his praise of "Shan Gui" is a vision of infinite freedom. Zhang Wo, a poet in Yuan Dynasty, vividly presented the description of "Shan Gui" in Qu Yuan's "Nine Songs" as images of naked women wearing Ficus pumila, stringing female radishes and riding a red leopard. However, the back of Zhang Wo's paintings is too simple and vague, which limits the imagination of readers aroused by the poem itself.
He wrote "Shan Gui" on the long scroll. The first thing that jumps into the audience's eyes is a large landscape tree, and the only figure in the painting, Shan Gui, is the finishing touch. Different from the common layout of landscape paintings in past dynasties, the overwhelming sea of clouds on the left side of the picture extends to the right side of the picture, replacing the usual rivers and valleys; Trees are also different from traditional paintings, and large tropical plants have appeared, adding a clear and bright modern aesthetic feeling to the picture; Xiao He's ingenious "Shan Gui" is elegant and full of fairy tales, accompanied by a red leopard to help the wood at night; In the morning, you bathe in the valley stream; Then climb the hillside to collect wild flowers; Dialogue between riding a red leopard and climbing a tree by a white ape; In the twilight, there is a sea of clouds in the evening breeze-wonderful ecological environment, leisure lifestyle, how cozy and comfortable! A fascinating and fascinating picture of the holy land is a wonderful portrayal of Xiao He's longing for freedom and advocating love and beauty.
Ding Mang, a Famous Contemporary Poet —— Reading Xiao He's Exhibition of Records of the Six Dynasties
"He" (seven-character archaic style)
Dingmang
Jinling painting is wonderful, and it is as flat as Xia.
Ding Xian has a horizontal stove, and the clear door and bright moon shine on the far cliff.
Xiaoping is famous at home and abroad, and Xiao He is famous for thousands.
Bloom's silent pen was written in the Six Dynasties.
I like Xiao He's figure paintings best. It's always windy and rainy.
Under the guidance of Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism, the boudoir forest is flowing freely.
Dongpo refers to the belly and asks the clouds, and the seven sages play bamboo forests.
The right army becomes a goose to write scriptures, no matter how big San Xiao is.
I prefer to take Shan Gui away, so as to achieve harmony between man and nature.
Blue and white porcelain reflects blue and white sleeves, and the house is quiet and interesting.
Baqiao scattered horses and stepped on the snow, and the lotus screen bathed the female cat to peep.
Climb pine to watch the sunset, lift beard and marry younger sister and laugh at Zhong Kui.
Energy storage and quality control, as well as air conditioning and reflux, are more lyrical.
Turn things into poetry, and create a model with sex.
A lesson from the past and a lesson from today can stand out from the crowd.
Beautiful beautiful and elegant standard style, no wonder the program is popular.
Since ancient times, famous artists have been reluctant to publicize Wenda's loneliness.
Nowadays, the world is full of floating dust, chasing fame and profits and competing for hype.
He Shen's jade is hidden in the mountains, why not be a savage and cry again?
Look at one of my articles, "Harmony is better than Xing", and you can tell the difference between clarity and turbidity.