Water paintings in memory of an old friend
- By Wu Jin
0 Comment(s)
Print
E-mail China.org.cn, December 6, 2012
Dozens of water paintings from contemporary traditional artists, including Cheng Zhenguo, Li Youzeng and Zhou Xi, were on display to tell the stories of the friendship between them and with their late teacher Liang Shunian (1911-2005).
Opening on Dec. 5 at the Art Gallery of China’s National Academy of Painting, the exhibition commemorates the 10th anniversary of the Songshiyou Club or the Club of the Friendship between Pine and Stone initiated by Liang.
 |
|
Painter Zhang Heping's "Hearing the waterfall rushing from the window lashed by the windy rain" in the exhibition. [photo: Art China.CN] |
Liang organized the club in the hopes of recognizing more young faces in a casual way rather than a formal one.
In one of his calligraphies exhibited at the gallery hall, he euphemistically expressed his intentions of creating the club. It is a poem that reads, "The pine on Mount. Huangshan asks its neighboring stone how old it is. The stone smilingly replies, 'As we both stand in the frosty snow, we have already befriended each other regardless of age.'”
"A good painting is not those composed at random at all, it is made with your meaning and thoughts," said the late master Liang to his students a few years ago.
"A painting should feature meanings…with poetic expression and demonstrating one's own feelings. And you can only command the technique of illustrating your inner world freely through frequent practice."
All of his students at the exhibition have seemingly taken his advice on board, albeit through their own styles.
On a couple of Cheng’s works, respectively completed in 2004 and 2012, he depicted the same water-mountain scenery, but the styles have slightly changed. In his early painting, there are misty clouds swaying against the back of the mountains, and the waterfall was gorgeously places in front of a pavilion. But eight years on, the painter apparently added more details to the picture; the creek and waterfall have become narrower, whereas the trees and arrays of mountain tops show more detail.
"Traditional Chinese painting requires a composition of dots, lines and space," said Yu Zehai, deputy executive director of The Art Gallery of Binzhou, Shandong.
"[Despite the fundamental rule], each painter would pack his/her own story into one painting, and for most of the audience they have to interpret the author's inner world through an understanding different from that of their own cultural backgrounds," Yu, a self-professed close friend of Cheng's, said.
"Yet society is calling for diversity which comprises different styles," he added.
And the styles are different indeed.
Varying from Cheng's strict adherence to tradition, some artists, like Zhou Xi and Zhao Gang, are unanimously adding western elements to their pictures.
In one of Zhou's scenic paintings, he colored the mountainous forest with dots of green, completely mystifying the bungalow sitting at the mountain foot.
However, in spite of the seemingly slight alienation, most of the artists and audience taking part in the exhibition still consider it to be very traditional.
"We need to promote our own painting and calligraphy on the basis of the treasures left behind by our ancestors," said Zhao Jianwei, member from the Art Gallery of China National Academy of Painting.
In the decades since China's reform and opening up, the country has been dominated by western culture which rushed into the land with some major commercial support.
We need to know more about the world, Zhao said, but we should not simply follow so-called external trends without taking care of our own.
"We are apparently getting more chances to see a broader world than our ancestors ever did, but their peaceful inner world is also something we need to carry with and inside ourselves," Zhao said.
Date: Dec. 5-Dec.10, 2012
Address: No.54 Third Ring W. (Xisanhuan Beilu), Beijing.
Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)