In the "Nafu on the Lake - Zhejiang Famous Artists Fu Culture and Art Exhibition" in the Hubin Pedestrian Street, the calligraphy work "NaFu on the Lake" by the famous Chinese artist He Shuifa was exhibited, sending New Year blessings to the viewers.
He Shuifa is a very well-rounded artist. Talking about his understanding of Fu culture, he said: "Fu culture has a long history, which is not only the unremitting pursuit of the Chinese nation for generations, the unchangeable expectation of Chinese, but also the 'Chinese Dream' of contemporary Chinese, which embodies our cultural cohesion and warmth. The new era has given us greater blessings, and we must cherish, protect and carry forward the new era. ”
In addition to calligraphy, He Shuifa's cultivation is more profound than his paintings, and his paintings are mainly based on large-scale flowers, which are wanton and arbitrary, and do not lose their order in casual smearing. At home and abroad, including Shanghai, Beijing, Italy, France, Poland, Japan, Ukraine, Spain, Malaysia and other places, he has held solo exhibitions, and has also established He Shuifa Art Center in various parts of the world, such as Italy and Poland. His works have been collected by the National Art Museum of China, the National Museum of China, the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, the National Academy of Painting of China, the Central Military Commission, the Asian Art Museum of the United States, the Japan International Artists Association, the Australian Oriental Artists Association, the Ambrosius Library in Italy, the Marie Curie University in Poland, and the reception venue of the 2016 Hangzhou G20 Summit.
Flowers are my old friends
Flowers are the most common subject matter in He Shuifa paintings. He has a rich variety of flowers, including traditional Meilan bamboo chrysanthemums, as well as peonies, lotuses, begonias, pomegranates, sunflowers, roses and other varieties, which are brilliant and warm and full of vitality. In his flower and bird paintings, he only sees flowers and trees, not stones, breaking the traditional flower and bird painting program of "painting flowers must paint stones". This kind of de-scene composition focuses on highlighting the flowers themselves, and also tests the artist's expressiveness. On the basis of breaking through the traditional formula, he swept straight, boldly set colors, and the picture was full of ink and warm and wanton, which not only showed the traditional skills, but also showed the style of the times.
"Dragon Song Spring Color"
He Shuifa's big freehand flowers are very personal, he integrates personal emotions into it, not only painting flowers, but also recognizing flowers, loving flowers, so many years with flowers, flowers have become an old friend who has accompanied him through the long years. He said: "Each flower is a different friend of mine, and I will arrange enough time every year to sketch and go to see the flowers, in fact, to see my old friends." ”
He Shuifa will take time out every year to collect the wind, "I went to Heze, Shandong 15 times, often worrying about whether the peony is blooming well; I often go to see the flowers in Hangzhou Prince Bay, where the flowers bloom best I know very well." He recalled sketching in Shandong in his early years, "When I went to Heze to paint peonies, I got up at 6 o'clock in the morning, it was the 70s, the road was very potholed and it was not easy to walk, but I insisted on trekking a few kilometers a day to paint on the mountain." Wait until noon, spend 4 cents to eat three burnt cakes and drink a bowl of tea. After that, he continued to paint, often returning to the guest house at 12 o'clock in the evening, and continuing to paint the next day. During that time, every day, there was a nosebleed that came out. Because the peony garden in the early morning is very quiet, the sun rises in the east, under the morning sun, I see the flower buds slowly blooming, only to hear the sound of 'poof', this is the first time I have heard the sound of flowers blooming. At this time, I felt the meaning of the ancients saying 'listen to incense'. ”
In the journey of sketching and searching for flowers, there are often unexpected encounters that touch the heartstrings of the painter. He was touched by the encounter and recorded it with a paintbrush, "A group of us went to eat at a restaurant in a scenic area of Kenya. Restaurant meals are limited, about 30 minutes. I saw a red pomegranate at the entrance of the restaurant, and it attracted me so much that I immediately picked up a pen and drew it, and by the time I finished, it was time to eat. Although my body is tired and hungry, my heart is satisfied. I remember another time, I saw a phoenix flower on the side of a road in Taiwan Province, and it bloomed brilliantly and warmly, and I immediately sketched it and drew it..."
"Dan Persimmon Full of Autumn"
With flowers for decades, He Shuifa is well aware of the shape, vein and direction of flowers, but he pays more attention to the spiritual temperament of flowers. Mo Yan commented on He Shuifa's painting of flowers: "A painter sketches in front of peony flowers. Eyes are like electricity, eyes to hands, no need to look at paper. The peony, which had been painted, withered immediately. Because the essence of the peony has been photographed on paper. He Shuifa appreciated He Shuifa's grasp of the spiritual temperament of the flower.
In the eyes of He Shuifa, flowers are "the softest and most fragile things in nature, but they always strive to bloom the beauty of life", he quoted the Chinese painting master Wu Changshuo as saying , "Ten years less than the fragrant snow sea, plum blossoms remember me and I remember plums" to describe the feelings between himself and flowers. The love of life and the love of flowers are the source of motivation that supports him to continue to create and constantly challenge himself.
Flowers are a symbol and language commonly used all over the world
Napoleon once said: "Where flowers decay, human beings cannot live." The Book of Verses contains: "The peach dreams, scorching its glory", showing the praise of the flower. From ancient times to the present, from home to abroad, people use flowers to convey language and pin certain emotions and wishes on people.
Over the past ten years, He Shuifa has responded to the national "Belt and Road" initiative and walked into the countries along the Belt and Road, he believes that the "Belt and Road" is a road of civilization exchange and communication, providing a broad stage for contemporary literary and artistic creation, exchange and communication; the "Belt and Road" is also a road of responsibility and responsibility, giving literary and art workers a glorious mission to serve the prosperity of the country and human civilization. Literary and art workers should use their own strengths and strengths to promote traditional Chinese culture. So he chose to use Chinese pen and ink to paint the flowers of other countries and promote China's traditional culture to the world. He said: "Flowers are an international language and symbol, each flower represents a different culture around the world, and I want to interpret the voice of the world with the traditional Chinese art of painting." ”
The national flower is a flower that represents the image of a country, a cultural symbol of a country, represents the temperament of a country, the character of the people, condenses the people's feelings for the country, and can best reflect the spirit and expectations of a country and a nation for the future. He Shuifa believes that there are borders between countries, but civilization has no boundaries, the charm of art, the love of flowers are the same, using Chinese pen and ink to paint the flowers of other countries, is a kind of respect for other countries, can bring a sense of identity, but also conducive to the promotion of China's traditional painting art.
In order to express the joy of hosting the G20 summit in his hometown, He Shuifa drew the national flowers of the G20 summit member countries; to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the establishment of dialogue relations between China and ASEAN, He Shuifa specially created the national flowers of the ten ASEAN countries; in order to welcome the upcoming Hangzhou Asian Games, He Shuifa devoted himself to creating more than two years, drawing the national flowers and regional flowers of the 45 member states of the Olympic Council... For so many years, He Shuifa has worked tirelessly and devoted himself to creation, and has so far painted the national flowers of 75 countries.
"This Heart Will Never Change"
"I used to be in Ethiopia," he said, "and the prime minister of Ethiopia met me, and I gave him a work of calla lilies, Ethiopia's national flower, and asked him how he felt when he saw the painting." He said: Using Chinese painting materials and methods to paint our national flower, first of all, I saw the friendly feelings of the Chinese people for our African countries that were conveyed in it. Secondly, when I saw this calla lily, I thought of the national anthem and the national flag, which made me stand in awe. This gave He Shuifa the confidence to constantly create other national flowers.
During the trip, he experienced the customs and customs of the world, "I was going to a town in Poland, where the lights at night were really charming, I ran through many countries, and no country had such a charming light. "But what impressed He Shuifa the most was the flowers of different countries, the suzuran in Sweden, the imperial flower in South Africa, the bauhinia in Thailand, the admiralty in Bangkok... Each has its own style. He not only pays attention to the characteristics of flowers in other countries, but also integrates his own emotions into them. He painted the tulips, the national flower of Afghanistan, in deep black, expressing support for the Afghan people and mourning the loss of life, saying: "Although the language is not common, the emotions of people all over the world are common. ”
Civilization has no boundaries, He Shuifa has built a bridge of cultural communication with the flowers in his hand, actively interpreted the concept of "the beauty of each other, the beauty of beauty, the beauty of the United States, and the unity of the world", on the basis of respecting the feelings of the people of other countries and the culture of other countries, using traditional Chinese ink to create common beauty, spread Chinese art, and pay their own efforts for the spread of Chinese civilization in the world.
Be the inheritor of traditional culture
In the process of traveling in the West, foreign cultures have brought him an impact and nourished his art. Although his freehand flowers borrow from Western art, they are still deeply rooted in the soil of traditional Chinese culture. He said: "Our culture must be rooted in the soil of traditional Chinese culture, and we can learn from and absorb Western culture, but we must adhere to our cultural self-confidence and national characteristics." ”
"Skirt Mopping Old Turtle"
He Shuifa liked to draw and write since he was a child, and his mother taught him to learn calligraphy and let him copy the posters of Liu Gongquan and Yan Zhenqing. In the 1960s, He Shuifa spent 30 yuan to buy three Song albums and copied them continuously. In the 1970s, He Shuifa studied calligraphy with sha menghai and other masters. In 1978, he was admitted to the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (the predecessor of the China Academy of Art), as the first graduate student of Chinese flower and bird painting recruited after the "Cultural Revolution", and officially worshiped Lu Weifei as a teacher. On the basis of practicing Song and Yuan painting and painting a large number of gong pens, He Shuifa sought a breakthrough and turned to Yi pen. In the 1980s, he also moved towards the Maritime School, studying and studying masters such as Wu Changshuo and Ren Bonian, and drawing endless learning from the works of modern masters.
Talking about the context of Chinese flower and bird painting, He Shuifa is like a number of family treasures, five generations of Huang Xiao Xu Xi, Song Dynasty courtyard body painting, Yuan Dynasty Zhao Mengfu literati painting, late Ming and early Qing Dynasty Qingteng Baiyang, Qing Dynasty Eight Greats, Yangzhou Eight Monsters; in modern times, in 1844, Wu Changshuo, the leader of the Hai Sect, was born, Ren Bonian in 1840, Qi Baishi in 1864, Huang Binhong in 1865, and Liu Haisu, Pan Tianshou, Zhang Daqian, Xu Beihong, and Sha Menghai, who were born in the 1890s... Now that the baton of civilization has reached us, we are ashamed of our future generations if we do not work hard. It is with such a sense of mission that He Shuifa rooted his art in traditional culture, and used what he saw and heard to transform traditional paintings, innovating on the basis of tradition.
He Shuifa said: "Art should be widely collected, not built behind closed doors, and it should be widely used by all the people." This sentence is easier said than done, and it is generally copied to paint like it. However, the requirements of this era are not like this, and Chairman Mao Zedong's talk of bringing forth the old and bringing forth the new means that we must have a very deep traditional kung fu, study in depth on the basis of the traditions of the ancients, and have our own positioning and requirements. Qi Baishi said: 'Those who learn from me are born, and those who are like me die', which is the same truth. Under the guidance of this concept, He Shuifa integrated the colors of Van Gogh Impressionism into his flowers, endowed them with new characteristics and aesthetics of the times, developed his own unique appearance, and achieved a breakthrough in traditional Chinese painting in the new era.
"The Phoenix Tail Surges"
In contemporary times, He Shuifa has developed on the basis of traditional contexts and has also been passed down in the process of development. His art is not only an extension of the chinese painting context, but also a successful creation of casting Chinese and Western ink and transforming traditional Chinese ink in the new era.
He Shuifa waddled alone and explored for a long time before sending his old friend "Flower" to the world. In his eyes, civilization has no borders, and art is universal. He grasped both tradition and modernity. Since more than 60 years of art, his exploration of art continues, he still continues to create with full passion, and continues to innovate and develop on the basis of tradition for Traditional Chinese flower and bird paintings, and makes unremitting efforts to move towards a new era.
Biography of He Shuifa
He Shuifa was born in Hangzhou in August 1946 and his ancestral home is Shaoxing.
In 1980, he graduated from the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (now the China Academy of Art) in the Chinese Painting Department of the Chinese Painting Department of the Graduate School of Painting. He is currently a member of the 11th and 12th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a member of the Standing Committee of the 10th and 11th Zhejiang Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a member of the 12th Zhejiang Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a counselor of the People's Government of Zhejiang Province, a cultural adviser of the Xi'an Municipal People's Government, a director of the 7th and 8th China Artists Association, a member of the Chinese Painting Art Committee of the China Artists Association, a vice president of the Chinese Painting Society, a special expert of Zhejiang Province, a consultant of the Zhejiang Provincial Artists Association, a director of the Xiling Printing Society, and an expert of the Silk Road Planning research center of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. Professor (second-level professor), doctoral supervisor of the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Arts of the Ministry of Culture, executive vice chairman of the Friends of Poetry, Calligraphy and Painting Society of the CppcC Zhejiang Provincial Committee, vice president of the Zhejiang Provincial Federation of Intellectuals, president of the Zhejiang Zhimei Painting Institute, dean of the China Freehand Flower and Bird Painting Research Institute of Zhejiang University of Technology, consultant of the Zhejiang Overseas Friendship Association, director of the China Public Diplomacy Association, academician of the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine, honorary doctor of the Lviv National Academy of Arts of Ukraine, academician of the Ambrosius Research Institute of Italy, honorary president of the Fujian Provincial Academy of Painting, Fuzhou Academy of Painting, Honorary Dean of the School of Fine Arts of Hangzhou Normal University, Honorary Dean of luoyang Academy of Painting, Honorary Dean of School of Fine Arts of Luoyang Normal University, expert enjoying special allowances of the State Council.
Written by Xu Jing |
Proofreader | Zhang Xiaoxia
Edited | Sun Ziqing
Audit | Guo Cheng and Shen Qingqing
The source of the figure | He Shui method