From 65438 to 0979, Shang Yang was admitted as a graduate student of oil painting in the Fine Arts Department of Hubei University of the Arts, and studied oil painting with Yang and his teacher. This is an opportunity for him to learn and hone himself again after leaving art for so many years of study and thinking.
At this time, Shang Yang is not the young Shang Yang when he was studying in the affiliated middle school and university. He is 37 years old, approaching the age of no doubt, with a mature outlook on life and years of artistic thinking, which has formed a deep personal emotional foundation. Frankly speaking, students of this age are a major feature of the late 1970s and early 1980s. This kind of students have accumulated in the society for a period of time, but for various reasons, they can't get the opportunity of further study. Once they get a chance to learn again, the emotion they have accumulated in their hearts will soon find a suitable outlet, and often it will shock the world as soon as it comes out.
Life of study always passes quickly. At this time, Shang Yang did not consider the problem of classroom work, nor was it just the problem of creation. He thought a lot and thought far. Style, concept, way out, depth of thinking, etc. , must all enter the scope of his thinking, and then sort out a core here, let him build a platform that can really show his talents on this basis. This kind of thinking can be said to occupy almost most of Shang Yang's graduate career.
It's the day of graduation creation soon. At this time, China's art education system is still running along the traditional track. The graduation creation of all art colleges is to go to a certain place to experience, and then sublimate a theme from the experience, and then highlight all the skills learned in the school to complete a work.
Shang Yang did not violate the basic requirements of this system. He is familiar with this method and knows how to find his place in it.
Where to experience life is the first problem.
When I was young, I went to Yunyang and heard the frequent and high-pitched tunes faintly ringing in his heart. This whistling charm of Qin opera reminds him of the Loess Plateau. The golden color in that dream shook in front of Shang Yang's eyes, which made him produce a kind of * * * song that could not be removed anyway.
This is the call of the soul and history.
In the early 1980s, all China was calling for the eternal life of the Loess Plateau. This kind of life has faded away in ten years, no, twenty years, or even longer. Now, after the disaster, people think of the plateau in confusion and even pain.
It turned out to be the plateau in Shang Yang's heart.
Therefore, Shang Yang decided to go to the Loess Plateau, to that land, and to turn all his dreams accumulated over the years into reality.
In order to make the teacher agree with Shang Yang's plan smoothly, he drew two sketches related to the Loess Plateau by imagination. Unexpectedly, Teacher Yang was very satisfied, agreed to Shang Yang's request and went to northern Shaanxi.
Excited Shang Yang set off soon. He started from Xi 'an by bus and went to Suide via Yan 'an, especially getting off at Huangling. He is going to worship the holy land of China's ancestors. He freshened up in the guest room and then went to Qiao Shan alone. Shang Yang meditated very devoutly in the cypress forest in Qiao Shan. In such a big Qiao Shan, Shang Yang is the only one. Facing the sacred land of ancestors, Shang Yang made a deep pilgrimage in front of the Huangdi Mausoleum.
Coming to this land seems to be looking for roots. Shang Yang thought, isn't this artistic way the way of seeking roots?
After leaving Huangling, Shang Yang arrived at his destination Suide. He lived in the county cultural center and met Yan, an art cadre of the county cultural center.
Yan, a native of Suide, returned to work in Suide for many years after graduating from Anmei Institute. As a local, he is very familiar with the mountains and rivers in this area.
After a few days in Suide, Shang Yang took his painting tools and camera and went to jia county via Mizhi. Jia county lies on the Yellow River. The ancient town is dying, but the Yellow River Beach is still a little angry, and the boatmen are busy. Shang Yang wandered on the Yellow River beach, looking at the ordinary boatman in front of him. The image of them chopping with knives and axes stands high on the cold Yellow River beach in the boundless sky. Shang Yang was moved by their images. For an instant, Shang Yang felt that this striking image in front of him was what he had been pursuing for many years. He comes to this beach almost every day, chats with the boatmen, gets on their boats and crosses the other side with them.
In early spring and March, the ice on the Yellow River washed down from the upstream, and large pieces of ice piled up by the river. In order to push the big wooden boat stranded on the Yellow River beach into the river, more than a dozen boatmen came forward together, singing and shouting, rocking the boat from side to side, and gradually, the huge wooden boat was moved into the Yellow River.
Shang Yang was moved by this scene. Didn't he just see a complete work? In an instant, a flat picture rose from his mind, simple and magnificent.
He knew this was his graduation project.
This is the true echo of the exciting Shaanxi opera heard in northwest Hubei more than 20 years ago.
That voice has echoed in Shang Yang's heart for so many years, and now it can finally be implemented in a painting.
That is the great image of a boatman on the Yellow River. Previous people have painted it, and today people have painted it. Now, Shang Yang wants to re-express his attachment to the Yellow River and the Loess in his own way.
Of course, this is also the unique emotion of China people.
The composition came out soon, with a flat style, a huge hull as the background, and the paddle placed on the boat as the living eye of the whole picture, forming an acute angle with the crowd placed in the center of the picture, pushing the boatman who was carrying the boat to the audience.
Shang Yang gave this sketch from Suide to Mr. Yang and Mr. Wang in the academy. He is looking forward to the teacher's approval so that he can start writing at once.
During this period, Shang Yang found a kind of rough paper called hemp paper in the local local specialty store, which was quite strong, especially the rough effect of yellowing on the paper, which made Shang Yang particularly satisfied, because in this way, he could sketch directly on such rough paper. He immediately bought a lot of hemp paper and began to draw sketches with it.
Shang Yang likes direct and simple sketching. This time, he found inspiration and used oil painting materials to show a sense of expression on a rough piece of paper. I didn't expect Shang Yang's style of sketching with draft paper to have such a great influence later. At the same time, he also sketched with Korean paper that he carried with him, and found that rough effects could also be drawn on Korean paper. So he created many works on Korean paper and hemp paper non-stop. Through this series of creations on paper materials, Shang Yang gradually formed his personal style.
This is what Shang Yang dreamed of for many years, that is, he hoped to find a painting style different from that of the Soviet Union in the university. In the fourteen years when he didn't paint, he was actually thinking about this problem. Now Shang Yang has gained this freedom. Facing the figures and scenery on the Loess Plateau, he painted in a nearly flat way. He gave up colorful colors and used only earthy tones. He gave up space and depth, and used a simple China writing method to rub and dye rough linen paper and Korean paper. In these pictures, the unprecedented effect he expected really appeared. This flat style and pure tone drive away the expression of space and color used in painting in the past. Therefore, Shang Yang thought that he had found a technique that was divorced from the Soviet style, thus establishing his own personal style.
It is very important for an artist to discover his own personality, but it is not easy to link this personality with specific techniques to form his own face. Shang Yang was already a person who was particularly interested in materials and textures when he was studying. Now, he has found a way from the combination of paper and oily pigment. Thus, in the Loess Plateau, for the first time in his life, Shang Yang turned the magnificent scene into a picture with far-reaching images in his own original way.
Many years have passed, and people are still impressed by Shang Yang's paintings on those papers. People even found a special yellow color in his works on the Loess Plateau. Interestingly, in the following years, Shang Yang has been using this special yellow tone to conceive his series of works.
Indeed, at that time, Shang Yang liked to paint with this dark golden warm yellow tone. His graduation work is based on this tone.
However, for graduation creation, although there is a foundation in conception, it still feels lacking in effect. He wants to know whether he can find a way to make his works have unique visual charm. One day, Shang Yang happened to walk into a local product store in Suide City, and saw paraffin on the shelves, and he had a whim. He thought that paraffin wax could be mixed with oil painting pigments, so that it could be mixed with pigments to produce special effects. He did try it, and the effect really surprised him, with a heavy feeling and a very special feeling.
Then the letter from the tutor came. Mr. Yang Liguang said in his letter that some teachers in the department disagreed with Shang Yang's idea. They feel that this theme has been "marching in the torrent" by Du Jian of the Central Academy of Fine Arts and "the tracker of the Volga River" by the great Russian painter Lie Bin. I'm afraid it's hard to break through the theme of Shang Yang's paintings. However, Teacher Yang told Shang Yang that he thought Shang Yang could draw this picture. He said that the theme is not the most important, the most important thing is how to draw. He argued passionately that there were so many people who painted the Virgin Mary in the Middle Ages, and their masterpieces continued. This shows that the focus of painting lies in painting itself.
Mr. Yang is an older generation artist with profound artistic accomplishment. He has been in an atmosphere of attaching importance to themes over techniques for many years, but he still maintains a pure understanding in his heart, that is, painting is painting and painting is the most important thing. Isn't the painter's mission to paint? Over the years, many painters have not forgotten their responsibilities of painting, but have regarded the subject matter as more important than anything else.
Shang Yang was moved by the support of his tutor. More importantly, what teachers want students to do is actually the word "art".
In the early 1980s, "art" came back like a shy soul.
Shang Yang naturally understood his mentor's thoughts, but he was also grateful for the arrival of a new era. It is this increasingly open era that gives him and a large number of artists like him a stage for activities. Although there are many cold currents, cold light and even frost swords, no one can stop the pace of an era.
In the cave of Suide Cultural Center, Shang Yang immediately began to create. He fixed the drawing paper on the wall and then drew a draft on it with charcoal strips. The rough marks on the mud wall are presented on the screen together with the carbon strips, which makes the sketch have a unique effect. Shang Yang looked at the large sketch in front of him and thought how interesting it would be if the oil painting could have so many texture effects. Unfortunately, time and materials don't allow him to do more experiments, so he can only finish this oil painting as soon as possible. Yes, Shang Yang thinks sketch is more in line with his ideal than oil painting. Unfortunately, sketching is not a graduation creation.
The day of creation is very stressful. Yan goes to the cave at six o'clock every morning, drags her out of bed and goes running together. Shang Yang likes to stay up late, but he is lazy in the morning, so he lies in bed. Yan Hongfei threw himself into it, pulled up Shang Yang and ran out. He ran three times on the court before coming back. After coming back, Shang Yang was going to wash his face, but Yan said, the water here is precious, so we don't need to wash it. Let's go and paint. This relationship is really interesting. In terms of age, Yan is much younger than Shang Yang, but like Shang Yang's guardian, he tries his best to arrange Shang Yang's life and creation, only asking Shang Yang to listen to him.
That's what they did. They get up and run every morning, and then draw pictures. Shang Yang painted his big picture and Yan painted his small picture. It took Shang Yang only eighteen days to complete a graduation creation nearly four meters long.
This trip to the Yellow River, business can be said to be quite fruitful. He brought back a large number of oil paintings on paper and a finished graduation work. He also brought back a kind of "praise yellow". Shang Yang's works surprised the younger generation, peers and teachers, and many students came to watch and appreciate them after hearing about them. It is rare for people like Shang Yang to paint oil paintings directly on big paper, and people also give high praise to Shang Yang's graduation creation.
Shang Yang graduated smoothly, and he stayed in the fine arts department of the school as a teacher. Shang Yang's "Yellow River Boatman" and his graduation thesis "On the Creation of Yellow River Boatman" were soon published in Art magazine. At that time, people knew Shang Yang, a painter who painted the Yellow River, and his works were appreciated by all parties. Later, his oil paintings on a batch of paper gained an unexpected reputation.
The art world even began to spread a saying: "It's still yellow." That refers to the tone of Shang Yang's works brought down from the Loess Plateau, which is calm and vigorous, gentle and elegant; Gray, but bright gray; Shiny, but not eye-catching.
Shang Yang himself actually does not admit this statement.
However, it is this unique yellow color that opens Shang Yang's artistic world. In this way, he entered the first important stage of his personal artistic creation: the period of expression and lyricism.