Shape and space
——One side of Mo Xiaosong's painting of flowers and birds
Mr. Mo Xiaosong is a representative painter in the field of Chinese Gongbi flower and bird painting, and with his decades of pen and ink cultivation, he has opened up a new realm for the continuation of traditional Chinese Gongbi flower and bird painting and the innovation of contemporary Chinese Gongbi flower and bird painting. This is not only a judgment made from the artistic skills of the work, but also a spontaneous sigh from the style of his painting. Reading Mr. Mo Xiaosong's paintings makes people feel refreshed and happy, like a spring breeze.
In my humble opinion, Mr. Mo Xiaosong's works of flowers and birds have both the precision of writing and the expressive interest, especially the concise brushwork to outline the image of the object, with the delicate and restrained hairspring, the shape of the plants, trees, flowers and stones into a kind of writing line narrative, and then use the elegant ink rhyme or bright color to dye the painted objects layer by layer, so that the picture in the light and shadow symphony, produce a dreamlike aesthetic effect, so that the viewer can see the flowers, like the moonlight, physical and mental happiness.
Not only that, Mr. Mo Xiaosong's works are also special in addition to writing and expressing, there is also a kind of wisdom of speech. "Shangshu Yaodian" says "poetry and words", so that the function of poetry jumps out of the Chen Yi of "dancing and writing to make ink" and sublimates it into the feeling of life circumstances and the chant of life contemplation. As a "silent poem", especially for the lyrical, decorative, auspicious meaning of the painting of flowers and birds, if it can also contain the meaning of nostalgia, homeland, heaven and earth, in addition to the pleasantness, it is even rarer. Throughout the history of Danqing for thousands of years, only Xu Xi, Cui Bai, Qingteng, and Xue can reach this realm, and Mr. Mo Xiaosong can inherit the legacy of the predecessors, write the vast mind with subtle descriptions, see the vastness of the world in the ancient pen and ink, sing the meaning of the long and beautiful in the color, and send the majestic atmosphere in the traditional schema, the simplicity of the Tang people, the elegance of the Song people, and the sustenance of the Yuan people at the end of the pen, and the new style of the era of the literati's interest. Out of a combination of Chinese and Western, ancient and modern art garden path.
In the nineties of the last century, Mr. Mo Xiaosong, who was in the northwest at the time, often traveled through the plains of the yellow sky and thick soil, and felt nostalgic in the tour of searching for the monuments, and created a large number of works with exquisite techniques and profound artistic conception such as "Wei Man", "Clouds and Moon" and "Long Shangxing", and placed the jackdaws, sparrows, pheasants and other birds in the background of the vast image of the smoke with fine brushwork, forming an ancient and gloomy artistic appearance. In Mr. Mo Xiaosong's pen, these birds seem to have been cast a "fixation spell", whether they are standing in the cold garden, perching on the branches or soaring among the clouds, as if they have existed in the venerable sculpture since the beginning of the yin and yang - or the shape of a single shadow and alone, or the double residence and amphibious and whispering secret words, or in groups of three or five and walking and stopping as companions, in the misty atmosphere of smoke and water, the mind is guarded and the appearance is solemn. Here, the painter condenses the clear scenery in front of him, the ancient meaning in his chest, and the smoke and ink at the end of the pen into a kind of "monument" style of antiquity and vastness, sighing for thousands of years. A quiet and ancient sadness is condensed into a scene of eternity without beginning and end in the large or small picture, accompanied by the undulating ravines on the high slopes of the loess, reciting the leisurely nature of heaven and earth, which is both silent and lofty.
If Mr. Mo Xiaosong is confined to the quaintness of his early works, we may be fortunate to meet a "symbolist" painter who gives a strong sense of history to flower and bird painting, and the historical evolution of traditional Chinese gongbi flower and bird painting can also enter a new humanistic realm. In 2002's "Spring to the Red Wall", the artist's early works explored the quaintness and majesty of the artist's early works and gave birth to a clear and bright new style, not only the colors become brighter, but the composition also abandons the vastness and vastness of the ink paintings, and deliberately emphasizes a kind of luxuriant beauty and abundance - a white magnolia tree blooms passionately and brilliantly, and on a warm spring day, it is reflected in the mottled and solemn red wall to "grab the door". An inexplicable joy erupted in the huge canvas. This may be a praise of spring, or a song of life, and the images of gloom, remoteness, and antiquity in the early works also seem to have disappeared in the soothing of infinite spring, replaced by the brightness of the sun and the enthusiasm of jubilation and noise. Such a picture atmosphere is constantly reproduced in other works of the same period, such as "Ode to Autumn", "Lotus Picture" and "Bright Sun", which almost constitute the main tone of Mr. Mo Xiaosong's artistic creation at the beginning of the new century.
Among the many works in this period, "Spring to the Red Wall" and "Dark Fragrance Floating" are particularly eye-catching. The completion time of these two paintings is similar, one is ink, the other is coloring, both are fine brush outlines, color and ink fine dyeing, lush foliage and tall scrolls, not only the pen is strong, but also full of emotion, both the meticulousness of the sketch and the magnanimity of the opening and closing, it is a rare masterpiece in the large-scale fine brush flower and bird painting.
Even more significant is the composition of these two works. In the painting, huge flowers and trees inhabit the canvas, and there are red walls on both sides or stone walls such as screens, and the painter uses the perspective of "viewing the scenery through the window" in garden art to divide the original clear picture into multiple spaces that are separated from each other, opposite each other inside and outside, and reflected in depth. On the one hand, the painter's delicate dye of the lush flowers and trees, the branches and leaves are full of leaves, and the layers are distinct, constituting the "visible scene" of the gods in the works. The mottled red walls and the stone walls in the shape of Buddhist caves are intended to be "contemplative" in the first place, which is a certain "invisible" meaning or meditation that the painter inhabits in his paintings. Thus, through the juxtaposition or superposition of the "visible" and the "invisible", a kind of "surrealist" artistic metaphor looms, and the meaning of the work becomes subtle, profound, and timeless.
Rather than delicately and delicately delineated, Mr. Mo Xiaosong seems to prefer to use the creation of a "compartmental" picture structure to complicate the space in the painting, and implicitly remind the viewer to enter into a speculation or exploration of some vague and uncertain "ambiguity" of the painting. Through the "known" and "realistic" as seen by the eye, the "unknown" and "meaning" of the mind are introduced, which not only expands the space of the picture composition, but also elevates the spiritual direction of the painting. It's just that the painter's reminder is "the hand pointing to the moon" and "the eye of the Hong", and the emptiness left to the viewer is the "true meaning" that wants to be said.
Historically, Mr. Mo Xiaosong's creative method has undoubtedly further enhanced the artistic expression of Gongbi flower and bird painting, jumped out of the aesthetic inertia of the traditional Gongbi flower and bird painting "expressive portrayal", expanded the expression space of this kind of painting on "meaning", and expanded the expression of the objects in the picture to the meaning outside the picture, thus exploring new methods for the creation of Gongbi flowers and birds, and further determined in the huge works such as "Spring Surge Picture" and "Autumn Blossom Spring Flower Fragrance" created later, breaking through the elegant, clear and beautiful, The limitations of traditional aesthetic imagery such as Gongzhi integrate bright and elegant elegance with long connotation, forming a distinctive style with majestic bones, delicate brushwork, bright colors, long meanings, and grand atmosphere, creating a gorgeous and full, sunny and majestic new world of art, which is unique in the contemporary Chinese Gongbi flower and bird painting circle.
(Text/Wu Zhan)
Work appreciation
(Source: Landscaping Art)
Artist Profile
Mo Xiaosong, originally from Longxi, Gansu Province, graduated from the Fine Arts Department of Northwest Normal University in 1986 and is currently the vice president of the Beijing Fine Art Academy, the deputy director of the Art Committee, and the director of the Education Committee. National first-class artist. He is a director of the China Artists Association, a vice president of the China Gongbi Painting Society, a director of the Chinese Painting Society, a director of the Beijing Artists Association, an executive director of the Tropical Rainforest Art Research Institute, a director of the Beijing Association of Non-Party Senior Intellectuals, and a member of the Beijing Senior Title Review Committee. His Chinese painting works have participated in the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th National Art Exhibitions, the Centennial Chinese Painting Exhibition, and won the gold medal of the National Contemporary Chinese Flower and Bird Painting Art Exhibition.
In September 2022, "Tracing the Traces of the Future: Mo Xiaosong's Ink Painting Exhibition" will be held at the Beijing Digital Channel Art Museum
May 2023 National Art Museum of China Academic Invitational Series Exhibition "Brilliant Charm - Mo Xiaosong's Works Exhibition"
Since 2005, he has created huge works of flowers and birds for the Great Hall of the People, the Central Military Commission, the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the United Front Work Department of the Central Committee, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Centre for the Performing Arts, the Beijing Municipal Party Committee, and the Central Party History Museum. He has held solo or group exhibitions at UNESCO Headquarters, the Louvre Museum in France, the Macao Museum, the Malaysian Museum, the National Museum of China, the Art Museum of Beijing Fine Art Academy, and the Guan Shanyue Art Museum. He has published a variety of albums such as "Tracing the Muse: Mo Xiaosong's Ink and Wash Collection", "Spring Flowers and Autumn Grass: Mo Jiancheng, Mo Xiaosong's Collection", "Qing and My Heart: Mo Xiaosong's Gongbi Flower and Bird Collection".