Liu Yansheng studied hard for four years in fine arts. After graduation, he worked as an American editor, deputy editor-in-chief and deputy director of the provincial party committee in a magazine. It is related to the sensitivity of the profession, and it is inevitable to observe and analyze something often. For the art world, it is more joyful, but there are also some places that we don't understand. It is normal to leave the team for 30 years and not keep up with the situation. But he looked at the art world from a professional perspective, with the cold eyes of onlookers and with the height of society. He has something to say when he is together, depending on what he has done after repainting.
1. Your current works can be divided into three series: microstructure, large freehand brushwork and small freehand brushwork.
Which series of works do you like best? Why?
I try to go to two extremes, one is rigorous and solid, full of sunshine, the other is dripping with ink, concise and lyrical, and of course I have to draw some freehand brushwork in the middle.
I like microstructure series, first of all, because it is an important topic I have explored. I want to do some articles on the sense of the times, the characteristics of pen and ink, and the expressive force of landscape painting, and I have achieved initial results. Second, because Taihang Mountain is the main theme in ideological expression, the great Taihang Mountain has a rich revolutionary historical background, and New China came from Taitai. I can't finish singing and painting this theme, and every work is full of emotion. In my experience, the concept of microstructure is a powerful means to describe the spirit of Taihang Mountain.
Second, micro-structure landscape painting is a very novel concept. Can you give us a brief introduction?
The concept of micro-structure landscape painting is to give full play to the advantages of pen and ink, fully show the small structure and great momentum of rocks, and form artistic characteristics with outstanding structure, strong texture, full sunshine, in line with modern people's visual psychology and rich impact.
It is not one or two works, but a concept, which aims to arouse people's understanding of natural structure and texture and provide effective means to solve this problem.
The characteristics of his pen and ink are: emphasizing the naturalness of pen and ink, rejecting the traces of kitsch and artificial description, and passing through a certain structural relationship and texture to make pen and ink gallop in the professional space. She is a torn thread, a rough face, as if carving rocks with pen and ink. At the same time, it also emphasizes the contrast of relaxation. The pen contains bold and unrestrained pen and ink, especially the part that needs to be relaxed, which is completely based on structure. Another feature is the introduction of sunlight, a natural phenomenon, which effectively enhances the modeling effect and greatly expands the expressive force of pen and ink.
Microstructure landscape painting is the sublimation of nature, not the reproduction of photos. It can be said that there are basically no scenes that can be used as complete landscape painting materials in reality. She is a rigorous conceptual design and creation. In the process of exploration, feasible steps and skills are basically formed, which can be easily expressed for the performance of rocks with various textures.
The concept of microstructure landscape painting is based on the following three aspects.
(1) I stopped writing for more than 30 years. When I picked up the brush again, the problem before me was how to put down my pen.
The ancients have long said that pen and ink should follow the times, and painters always reconstruct new nodes in different historical periods, which is also the painter's sense of historical responsibility. Nowadays, many concepts have undergone great changes, and the appearance of ultra-high-definition images has refreshed modern people's desire for visual perception. So I will take the details of landscape painting as the starting point to make people feel more detailed elements.
(2) Traditional landscape painting lacks the expression of natural forms due to the constraints of concepts and stylization, and those who are arrogant and axe-chopping are not enough to express colorful natural landscapes. So I take nature as my teacher and strive to create a brand-new natural wind.
(3) Looking at most landscape paintings, it is found that there are some deficiencies in the performance of rock structure. As we know, anyone who paints characters must thoroughly grasp the human body structure in order to draw well in his creation. In contrast, the rock structure is much more free and loose, which may also be because some landscape painters have relaxed their understanding and training of rock structure, resulting in passing by only by imagination, not conforming to the laws of nature, being trapped in circles or being vague. Rock structure is the support of landscape painting and an unavoidable topic for landscape painters. Even if it is freehand brushwork, pen and ink should fall on the big structure. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the description of rock structure.
The above three points all point to one direction, that is, on the basis of breaking through the tradition, paying attention to the structural relationship and texture of nature to reflect the visual sense of modern people, so the concept of microstructure landscape painting came into being.
In my works, it is not difficult to find that I am good at expressing local close-ups of rocks, because the intricate changes of rock structure constitute typical points, lines and surfaces and rich expression techniques. I can't turn a blind eye to such a beautiful natural element, I want to make it my artistic label. Emotionally, close the camera, let people have a close conversation with rocks, listen to ancient stories and touch the vicissitudes of those cracks. There are many forms of artistic expression, and they don't all have to be crowded in mountains and rivers, let alone the principle of seeing the big from the small. Besides, a flower smells good, so your natural reaction must be to put it under your nose and smell it. If you go to see the waterfall, you won't see it ten miles away. This is human instinct. If you need to make people feel clear, you should get close to it. Of course, not all works are painted like this.
While microstructure landscape painting is refreshing, some people worry that if it is performed too well, it will lose the spirit of "beauty lies between similarity and dissimilarity". In fact, I have been following this principle. I think this sentence of the old man Baishi should refer to those vulgar and incompetent people. Don't be afraid of similarity, but of flattery. Take meticulous painting for example, at least the ancients intended to draw something relatively similar, but this similarity is of quality, so it has strong vitality. The concept of microstructure is by no means to pursue the "image" of painting, but to extract, enlarge and strengthen the beauty in nature through professional means, which can eventually be sublimated to enhance the appeal and visual impact of works, which comes from life and is higher than life, at least I set the tone in this way.
Some people worry that light will lose the spirit of Chinese painting. I think everything grows on the sun, and the sun determines our life. Why should our art reject the sun? I have been sorry for the sun for thousands of years, and I will not hesitate to describe it in my works. We understand that tradition has many misunderstandings in many aspects. The ancients said that ink is divided into five colors. What is the shade? Isn't it the brightness of light? What's more, without light, everything is impossible. What about line color? If you talk about light, why hide it? Mr. Li Keran's works generously depict the sunlight, and even show the glare under the backlight, forming a unique effect of transparent three-dimensional.
It is normal for a new idea to appear in some disputes, and things always develop in disputes. Of course, the concept of microstructure is only a preliminary study, and there are still many shortcomings and a long way to go. What I am afraid of is wearing new shoes and taking the old road, while wearing old shoes and taking the new road will lead to the new world.
Third, at present, many artists are addicted to using various techniques in their creative process, while ignoring the expression of artistic ideas. How do you handle and balance the relationship between these two points?
This is a good question, and I often pay attention to this matter. Looking at the paintings in recent years, most of them are playing with pen and ink, playing with colors and playing with themselves, paying little attention to the ideological and social nature of the works, involving a wide variety of paintings, resulting in the emergence of works with little weight.
Now that the Internet is so developed, a good work should easily become popular. However, the art world failed to grasp the opportunity of the times and lacked works worthy of praise. In the 1980s and 1990s, Luo Zhongli's oil painting "Father" and Xie Hailong's photography "A Girl with Big Eyes" swept the country without online communication. Why? It is because the thoughts and times of the works have produced a * * * sound.
However, only one or two works have caused a sensation, isn't it too few? Looking back at several social nodes in the past 30 years, artistic creation has indeed failed to follow up. As a circle of the elderly in Nanhai, the epoch-making song "The Story of Spring" was born. 1998 "For Who" infected1300 million people, and there were many important nodes, so artistic creation was completely absent.
Where is the root of the lack of ideological works? First, social advocacy is not enough, and theme creation is marginalized. Second, the values of artists have changed. This change can be divided into two situations. One is a famous painter. Most of them have achieved success by virtue of the depth of their works, but in the face of the temptation of the market, the sense of responsibility for art development has weakened and the world outlook of art serving the society has decreased. The other is the painter on the road. They don't know what the path of success is, and they don't understand that the thought of a work has laid its depth, and the depth has made its work, and the work has made itself.
At present, people are keen on the photography mode in figure painting. Either a portrait of a single person, or three or two people "stay" together to take a group photo, as if they could still hear the cry of "eggplant", without showing their life scenes or work plots in depth, which seriously lacked the flavor of life. In traditional Chinese painting, either two old people play chess with wine, or a lady sits by the spring with a pipa or a folding fan in her hand. There are too many such works. One is that there is no sense of the times, and the other is that there is no thinking. It's just pen and ink repeating over and over again. There seems to be a cloud over the author's head, and I still can't understand that the work is about the sense of the times and ideology.
A large number of western works in different periods have strong stories, and a series of historical allusions can be told behind each work, and the thematic creation of China's revolutionary history theme is also very heavy. At present, the creation is simplified, floating and market-oriented, and thematic creation is rarely carried out. I think this theme creation is broad, not all red themes. You can also start with allusions or historical events, or you can eulogize real life. The story of the Chinese nation is endless. Can you finish it?
Moreover, modern life is rich and colorful, and many painters turn a blind eye to it. If you want to show the beauty of fashion, the elements of fashion are better than the beauty of a beauty without expression. The colorful living space is full of ink and color. Want to show the lives of ordinary people, isn't that more? Documentary is well done, filming the life of a person or a group, and grasping the details of the plot well. The photographer's good work captures the wonderful moments in life. They can make movies only when they are alive, which in turn proves that life is the source of art.
Supposedly, artists should be active in thinking, but some of them just stick to inappropriate circles, resulting in more than three and less than four, that is, behind closed doors, more online imitations, conservative models and less life experience. If you don't live, you will cut off the source of nutrition and look pale and powerless. Practice has proved that life gives pen and ink, life gives color, and life is the only source of artistic creation.
In addition, to be an artist, the foundation lies in thinking, otherwise you can only become a craftsman. It is an iron law that any influential person has established his position because of his ideological and theoretical system.
I came from the era of theme creation and got used to the ideological expression of my works. Otherwise, I will feel no motivation in the process of painting. That's what I am. The sense of responsibility given to me by the times, Taihang has made my pen and ink, and pen and ink have played a role in expressing the details of Taihang. Because I mainly paint landscape paintings, unlike figure paintings, I start with the spiritual temperament of Taihang, or perseverance, or agitation, or poetry, or pursuit, which are also reflected in the names of my works, such as Taihang as iron, Taihang as tide, Taihang as poetry and so on. If it is not to show the works of Taihang Mountain, it is mostly a cry to arouse people's awareness of environmental protection. The work "Silent Gully" depicts an ancient ravine. The running water has disappeared for thousands of years, leaving only a dry spring, quietly and helplessly waiting for its dry body. The work aims to inject positive energy and restore the true colors of nature. Even freehand sketches are endowed with certain feelings. Those moist and pure pictures make people feel the natural and fresh breath, and it is everyone's responsibility to keep the pure land. Also, I occasionally draw some figure paintings to express an emotion, such as Grandpa is like a mountain, which shows the warm and hopeful feelings between grandpa and grandson by dragging her granddaughter to school with grandpa's big hand. In the granddaughter's eyes, grandpa is the indomitable elder, the mountain in front of the door. In grandpa's heart, granddaughter is his hope, and tomorrow is his tomorrow. He expects to go to school well and become a useful material, which is the trust of all grandfathers and grandchildren.
From your introduction, we can see that you were enlightened by Mr. Wu Guanzhong when you were a teenager and began to learn painting.
After 90, I stopped painting and picked up a brush in the past two years. So, how is the daily creation and life arranged?
Luckily, I was enlightened by Mr. 1972 Wu Guanzhong. The Pingshan County Committee of Hebei invited Mr. Wu, who works in the neighboring army, and his students to paint in Xibaipo. My father works in the cultural center, responsible for escort and logistics. At that time, I already liked painting, copied some model operas and stills, and saw Mr. Wu's works in a thick album. As soon as I heard that the great painter was coming, I couldn't wait to see how the painters painted, so I went with him. My father gave me a task, that is, to go out and sketch for Mr. Wu, so that I had enough time to learn the master's sketches and oil paintings. When I don't go out, I often go to the next room to see Mr. Wu's works.
I can't help learning to draw. The first oil painting sketch is a bamboo kettle. I also began to "swing around" like Mr. Wu, piling up some colors with a painting knife or scraping out the direction of bamboo poles from time to time. Teacher Wu saw it in our room, smiled and said, yes, it's very tonal, but the perspective is wrong, and then guided me to finish painting. Although I was only 15 years old and didn't know much about it, I still remember some chat records between Mr. Wu and my father at that time. For example, painting pays attention to hugging, impenetrable and sparse. Later, I understood these truths in his works.
After that important node, I officially began to learn sketch and oil painting. I was admitted to the Fine Arts Department of Hebei Normal University with 1978, and Lao Wu specially sent a greeting card to express his encouragement. For many years, I have often studied the two works and greeting cards that Mr. Wu left to his father, as if it were only yesterday. The master's demeanor has always inspired me, and his artistic thoughts are deeply engraved in my bones.
During the study of basic courses, I gradually fell in love with Chinese painting. At the same time, my teacher Mr. Li Mingjiu's landscape painting touched me, and I chose Chinese painting as my major. At that time, he created the landscape painting "Pearl of Taihang Mountain" and participated in the second national youth art exhibition since 1958. Since then, many works have appeared in newspapers and exhibitions at or above the provincial level, and have become members of the early Provincial Artists Association.
After 90, because of the self-expression of painting at that time, I couldn't understand the painting world, and because I was in politics, I didn't have much time to create, and I gradually left the team. ......
For more than 30 years, I don't know whether art failed me or I abandoned it. Sometimes, I love and hate. Take my roots as art. Come back and start from the beginning. If you don't come back, this rubber band will really break.
Finally, I came back. Suddenly seeing the art park is extremely prosperous, which makes me feel that time is pressing. But I'm still at work, so I can only work hard at night or during holidays. I will retire soon, and then I can devote myself to creation.