1. Fang Hui on Huang Binhong's concept of life: the reconstruction of the living system in the world of painting
Sun Xiaona: Director Fang, hello! You are an expert in the study of Huang Binhong in China. When I chatted with you before, I talked about Huang Binhong's process of reconstructing the life system in his own art world. This life system is not only the presentation of his artistic thoughts, but also the key "grasp" for understanding his artistic creation. Therefore, today I would like to ask you to talk about the origin of Huang Binhong's thought on the reconstruction of the life system.
Fang Hui: Huang Binhong has made a very big historical contribution, that is, he has taken the reconstruction of living forms as one of the important criteria for measuring modern Chinese painting. In his opinion, Chinese painting is probably the art that best embodies this standard in world art. Huang Binhong believes that the expression of brush and ink in Chinese painting is a process of re-creation of a living body. His paintings are all unified from a specific technique to a macro concept. As the saying goes, "the technique is close to the Tao", his technique contains the attributes of the Tao. Personally, I think Huang Binhong is the best at this.
Respect for life is actually an important feature of the traditional culture of the Chinese nation, which contains the dialectical unity of philosophy and science. China's "Dao" culture contains two levels: scientific evidence, and philosophy with the characteristics of comprehensive thinking, which is a very complete system. In the history of more than 1,000 years from the Han Dynasty to the late Ming Dynasty, the connection between philosophy and science was severed, but Fang Yizhi of the late Ming Dynasty recombined the two and made a unity from the philosophical point of view, that is, the study of "quality measurement and general number", and then Huang Binhong's thinking method of "preserving philosophy in science".
What is the purpose of Huang Binhong's unification of science and philosophy? The main purpose is to study the cosmology of life pointed to by the humanistic spirit. He believes that everything in the world has life, and life is the most precious thing in the universe, it is a factor parallel to time and space, and its dimensions are independent. In the context of the collision and integration of Chinese and Western cultures in the 20th century, in the context of what Liang Qichao called "the China of the world", Huang Binhong unified the social responsibility of Confucian scholars, the Taoist concept of natural equality, and the Buddhist concept of compassion into his own landscape painting, expressing his understanding of national culture and expressing the gentle national spirit in the way of reconstructing artistic life. Therefore, he deliberately emphasized the importance of recreating a living system through artistic means, and then hoped to recreate a new national spirit. This is the pursuit that distinguishes it from any previous landscape painter.
Sun Xiaona: Thank you very much for giving us a complete account of the origin of Huang Binhong's thought on the reconstruction of the life system. Huang Binhong lived in a period of crisis for the Chinese nation in the 20th century. His great love for the country and the nation and his artistic achievements actually contain his own considerations of the dual attributes of nature and nationality. Can you talk a little bit more about how his reinvention is embodied from these two perspectives?
Fang Hui: In the 20th century, Chinese culture faced a huge crisis, which mainly included two aspects: on the one hand, it meant that the nation-state was facing political life and death; On the other hand, there is the crisis of national spirit brought about by the impact of Western culture, which mainly refers to the negative impact of the invasion of so-called "material civilization" on human spiritual civilization. Materiality itself is not a bad thing, but excessive materialization will lead to the objectification of people, cause war and mental pain to human beings, and cause damage to China, an ancient civilization. To this day, the problem of over-materialization still exists. A group of cultural figures represented by Cai Yuanpei, Chen Shizeng, Huang Binhong, etc., advocated saving the country through art. So how to save it? It is to use painting to assist politics and religion, and then influence industry, transform the national spirit, and thus re-establish a modern national culture. Therefore, in the midst of war, some people who originally wanted to escape from the war from the perspective of nature took the initiative to protect the survival of their national culture, enriched and developed their own national culture by absorbing the excellent culture of the West, and took the initiative to integrate into modern society. Huang Binhong cited Israel as an example that the country can die, but the national culture cannot die, and if the culture does not die, there is hope for rebuilding the nation. At that time, after the First World War, "nationalism" in the world became an important trend. I used to think that Huang Binhong should be a liberal and an artist. However, it was later discovered that he was indeed a nationalist in his early days, and the "nationalist" ideas at that time could easily unite the national spirit against foreign cultural erosion in a short period of time, so as to form national cohesion. As far as the demand for independence in the world is concerned, the demand of a weak country to call for independence was very valid at that time. Huang Binhong first thought about the significance of the reinvention of the national spirit in his own artistic creation and the reconstruction of the life system.
What is the raison d'être of Chinese painting? How to face the future? Huang Binhong absorbed the achievements of Western science and philosophy with an open spirit, but he did not reject all Chinese things because of absorption. He did not weaken the characteristics of Chinese painting, and even deliberately strengthened the advantages of China's excellent traditional culture in the current world, and used Chinese philosophy to supplement and develop himself by promoting his strengths and avoiding weaknesses. In the face of the impact of Western painting, he chose to redefine the unique value of Chinese painting, and rethink it from the perspective of life science and the modernity of Chinese culture. This is the core idea and value of his reinvention of the life system.
Sun Xiaona: Through your explanation, I feel that Huang Binhong has absorbed some modern science, psychology and philosophy achievements from the West on the basis of the excellent traditional culture of the Chinese nation. His greatest contribution is that he did not let Western science and philosophy dissolve China's traditional culture, but instead promoted and innovated the excellent traditional culture of the Chinese nation with the help of Western science and philosophy.
Now we basically know and understand his ideology. Next, please lead us to interpret him from the aspects of his pen and ink language, imagery and humanistic spirit.
Fang Hui: This idea and question are very good. Nowadays, many people can't understand Huang Binhong's paintings, because they don't understand his theoretical system and ideological system. His method of thinking is "preserving philosophy in science".
There was a Christian missionary named Matteo Ricci in Italy at that time, who was sent to China as a missionary in the tenth year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty. When he came to China and met with the Wanli Emperor, he said, "China is the center of the world." Roughly speaking, ancient China was about science, and science was originally a Chinese thing. There is a saying that "courtesy is lost and the wilderness is sought", that is, the Chinese civilization is scattered to the "four yi", and science is also your Chinese culture inherited by the West. In turn, we will report back this scientific spirit and research results and integrate them into the Chinese civilization. Emperor Wanli was very satisfied after hearing this. He then allowed the missionaries to introduce Western scientific and technological knowledge such as mathematics, astronomy, and geography, as well as fine arts, and other artistic disciplines into China. Matteo Ricci later collaborated with Xu Guangqi on the translation of the first six volumes of Geometry. To a certain extent, all these have promoted the integration of Chinese and Western science and philosophy. However, in the later period of the Kangxi Emperor, he began to boycott the Western Church and imprisoned the missionaries in Macao, and science and art were affected and interrupted. After modern times, Western culture spread again, Huang Binhong and other intellectuals began to reflect, learn from historical experience, and summarized the thinking method of "preserving philosophy in science" from the late Ming Dynasty philosopher Fang Yizhi's theory of "quality measurement and general number", a kind of learning based on "Zhou Yi".
Huang Binhong believes that Chinese and Western cultures have realized a "folding of knowledge" in the first half of the 20th century, and whether it is culture or other learning, it must have a scientific basis, of course, not necessarily natural science, or social science, and then apply philosophy on the basis of science. Chinese culture has advantages in respect for living beings, the integration of the art of life, philosophy of life and beauty, and the integration of science and philosophy. Early Western culture advocated the duality of subject and object, attached importance to logic, and pitted human beings against nature, which was later changed. China, on the other hand, advocates the unity of subject and object in the "nature of nature", and the brush and ink are based on the "way of nature". This kind of thinking is systematic, and it is a very advanced cultural form. This is equivalent to that at that time, Huang Binhong reaffirmed such a modern value, rethought the function of Chinese painting, and studied culture through the art of painting, which was very advanced. Today, when we look back at his thoughts, we will also find that he is great and great, because when the Chinese were enthusiastic about Western science, he reflected on the limitations of science and knew that it would bring many problems. Huang Binhong has made a forward-looking cultural contribution to us.
In the contemporary environment of commercial competition and rampant materialism, looking back on Huang Binhong's painting creation and theoretical thoughts, we can more deeply feel the spiritual healing effect of painting, and will also greatly enhance our national self-confidence, self-esteem and cultural self-confidence. It also contains the path of cultural revival and the direction of contemporaneity. Through the cultural focus of Huang Binhong and his times, we can see that his creation and ideological system include the absorption of science, the understanding of art, the thinking of life, and the love of his family and country. Therefore, his concept of brush and ink and his language of brush and ink also revolve around this system, not just limited to the category of a painter, which is of course a gateway for us to enter the tradition. If we look directly at the West now, or look directly at ancient things, it is actually difficult to resonate with them, because the context is different, the angle of interpretation is different, so it is difficult to communicate. Huang Binhong has a small book called "New Painting Training", "New Painting" refers to "modern painting", and "Training" is the criterion and also called painting theory. Huang Binhong believes that in terms of painting theory, China and the West are common, but the painting method is different due to the national character, and modern painting should retain the national painting method and develop. The book has eight chapters. Its appearance is equivalent to establishing the standard of modern Chinese painting. But in the past, we in the contemporary art world have almost forgotten about it. Recently, I have been publishing research articles on this book, contributing Huang Binhong's thoughts on modern Chinese painting. The history of art and his concept of modern art have important reference value and reference significance for the development of Chinese art today.
Therefore, at that time, Huang Binhong was faced with the problem of the future of Chinese painting, not only to prove the value of modernity of Chinese painting, but also to recreate a living body, that is, the casting of the national soul and the casting of the spiritual world, as well as the process of reconstructing individual life with the help of art. In other words, every stroke and ink in his paintings is a process of re-creation of living organisms. What he created is a living organism, a spiritual interaction that can communicate and dialogue with us at all times, and a unique contribution of Chinese culture to world culture.
Sun Xiaona: Yes, his brush and ink language is very rich, and the whole composition and the final artistic conception created are full of life, realizing the unity of subject and object. Can you elaborate on that?
Fang Hui: The landscapes painted by Huang Binhong are all landscapes in experience. This is not a purely visual product, nor is it an objective copy, but a cultural product that has been processed by experience and subjectivity. From the perspective of visual psychology, he expresses the reality of his own experience and the experience of the spiritual world. He said in the New Painting Training: "The way of painting is to seek it from the mind", and the relationship between the mind and the tools and materials of painting is the essential meaning of painting. The first pursuit of Chinese painting is the "vividness of the charm" as stated in the "Six Laws" of Sheikh. The first thing that Western painting pursues is not the question of charm.
For him, the function of painting in depicting shapes and objects in history has become obsolete, and painting should enter the study of the "mind", and painting itself is a reflection of the relationship between the spiritual subject and nature. Of course, Lacan and Foucault confirmed people's creativity, subconscious and self-energy through mental patients, while China cultivates morality, educates the people, stimulates the subconscious and nourishes life through the art of painting. It's a very advanced art form, and these are not added to us. Huang Binhong's art is precisely the product of the new Chinese culture of that era. He succeeded in embodying the self-confidence of the nation through his art.
Sun Xiaona: Do you have any specific examples? For example, the positive impact of his work on the human psyche.
Fang Hui: There are many examples of this. For example, when you are in a very casual and relaxed state, you will have an aesthetic cognition, and a painter who is not very nervous about painting will be creative. Chinese painting must first let go of your attachments. Zhuangzi said that "spring with things" is to maintain a happy spirit in the heart at all times. The emotions brought about by Western philosophical and scientific thinking are tense and persistent. In Chinese painting, if you are persistent, you can't paint, not that this kind of beauty can be embodied through hard work and simulation. Huang Binhong's paintings look casual, but when put together, they produce a particularly natural beauty. It's actually about relaxing your mind, and that's where life science research comes in. You have to rely on persistence to grasp and understand, and the more you grasp, the more you lose.
Sun Xiaona: Maybe when you only pay attention to his strokes, you feel that he is a little relaxed. But when you look at the big picture, you can notice that his entire painting is a compatible system.
Fang Hui: That's right, this recognizes the fundamental essence of his creation. For example, if you look at this black and white, some people look at it late at night, and they simulate that kind of black, and that is only the black of the appearance has nothing to do with the nature of the mind. Huang Binhong is not only a local brush-and-ink effect, but also a chaotic result of this combination of overlapping iterations of "fractal geometry". The final result of his creation is chaotic, that is, temporal and spatial. Therefore, the beauty that belongs to him is born, which is very wonderful. He is parallel to nature, creating and recreating a time and space, which is natural. This emphasizes the importance of the human spiritual subject, from science to philosophy, of course, many of the great philosophers in the West after the 20th century are also studying the boundaries of language and comprehensive thinking, and want to develop new modes of thinking, such as the philosopher Huai Dehai that Huang Binhong is concerned about.
Sun Xiaona: Yes, in fact, it is "all scenery is love".
Fang Hui: Well, it's just that Huang Binhong may have combined the basic theories of modern psychology with modern scientific methods, and at the same time, he did not lose the essence of traditional Chinese culture, but reinterpreted and strengthened it, and systematized it, grasping the excellent tradition of the pre-Qin period. He uses this as a method of observation to conduct research on the philosophy of life around the life sciences.
Huang Binhong's theory is remarkable. Two days ago, I saw an original work in the Zhejiang Museum, the original is much better than the print, why? The contrast of the printed matter is too bright, and after it is too bright, it is easy to look stiff, so you still have to look at the original, the original work makes people feel more intimate and natural, and it is very healing.
Sun Xiaona: "Cordial" is a word that is used very well, it is a natural feeling, the feeling of being close to nature.
2. Fang Hui talks about Huang Binhong's view of nature: nature and nature
Fang Hui: Look at this piece, the original work is very natural. If you look at this print again, the contrast is a bit too much, a bit like a sharpening feeling. So this brings us to Huang Binhong's view of nature.
Sun Xiaona: I think his view of nature can be summed up in two words: nature and nature.
Fang Hui: That's right. Western modern art also pursues subjective spiritual expression. Huang Binhong called it the nature in vision, which is the first nature. Huang Binhong's nature is natural, which is equivalent to transcending the appearance of nature and is the second nature. The significance of Chinese painting lies in its firm grasp of the second nature. How to comprehend the unity of heaven and man is the characteristic and essence of Chinese culture. Huang Binhong believes that everyone will have a different vision of nature because of their different knowledge structures and thinking personalities, but they are all to express their personal "nature in visual logic", so the so-called "truth" does not exist. How human beings naturally integrate into the landscape is the true meaning of landscape painting, that is, the harmony between man and nature. This is also the core essence of Lao Zhuang's thought, and Cézanne also discovered this when he spoke of "nature in visual logic" in his letters to friends.
Sun Xiaona: Yes. And this kind of thinking also crosses with Confucianism and Zen thought. The idea of nature and spontaneity in Huang Binhong's view of nature actually involves the idea of the confluence of the three schools.
Fang Hui: Huang Binhong is equivalent to constructing the traditional knowledge system of landscape painting into the modern discipline, and at the same time integrating the essence of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, which is his greatness.
Sun Xiaona: Then we have found the "grasp" to understand his view of nature.
Fang Hui: It may be more profound to understand the problem in this way. He said that the mountains and rivers of nature are the embodiment of the spirit of life, and now many people are talking about techniques, but in fact, if you don't understand the essence of his thoughts, you can't solve the problem of techniques.
If you look at his paintings, this place is made of burnt ink or heavy ink, and it looks like a black patch, but it's not. When it comes to his realm, it is a spirit-driven technique, and if we simply copy his technique and do not comprehend its spirit, it will definitely be of little significance. If painting is too visual, it will often lead to the collapse of the artistry and spirituality of Chinese painting.
Sun Xiaona: When you talk about Huang Binhong's thoughts and spirit, it seems that we have already begun to naturally enter his paintings and feel the process of his life experience.
Fang Hui: It's like Jung studying Chinese Taoism. He found that the Chinese had a way to make the transition from man to nature. This specific approach is important for humanity in the future. He admired the Chinese practice method, which could finally truly solve the spiritual hardship of human beings.
Sun Xiaona: Jung interpreted the secrets of the Tao in the way of modern psychology.
Fang Hui: Yes, but it's difficult, psychology is just a scientific evidence, it's not a method. Nowadays, there are many layers of black, white and gray in realistic sketches. Someone looked at Huang Binhong's painting and wanted to try whether his sketch could be like him, but the final result was that he couldn't draw it. The reason why I can't draw it is that the realistic sketch uses a binary observation method. The effect of Huang Binhong's brushwork is influenced by Wang Yangming's "study of the heart", and the black, white and gray light and shadow that he feels are painted by his true inner experience. The unity of knowledge and action advocated by Wang Yangming is also practical learning, and the spirit of practical learning is to practice true knowledge and find a way out from experience. Some scholars have discovered the materialism of Wang Yangming's theory in the process of research, but in fact he is one with mind and matter. On the surface, Huang Binhong's creation is nothing more than the practice of brush and ink, but in fact it is a reflection of the mind to nature.
Sun Xiaona: Actually, it is also the process of connecting the mind to nature. Just as Jung understood the Eastern way of practice as an exploration of the mind. This kind of exploration is not only idealistic, but also materialistic, integrating philosophy and science.
Fang Hui: I think it's interesting for you to bring questions to the discussion. Huang Binhong focuses on the performance of the god of mountains and rivers. This verve reflects his spirituality, creativity and sense of life. You see, his paintings are full of the feeling of being rich and nurturing all things, gentle and gentle. The benevolence of Confucianism, the temperament of mountains and rivers and the spirit of his art are all contained in it and move you. He didn't put aside some of the other elements, but consciously strengthened this unique natural temperament. In his paintings, there is no sense of tension and strife, but a rich harmony, natural beauty, but there is power inside.
Sun Xiaona: Therefore, Huang Binhong's momentum is not a strange and dangerous trend, but a natural, gentle, and relaxed trend?
Fang Hui: For example, in this work, the autumn colors in it are that after he weakens the acute angles, it makes people feel very comfortable and relaxed, releases anxiety, and does not make the viewer feel nervous. He is not to stimulate your fighting spirit, but to let the viewer reflect on a kind of wisdom of the origin of life in the middle and peace.
Sun Xiaona: Can you elaborate on that?
Fang Hui: Any art has a conceptual nature, and the conceptual nature emphasized by Huang Binhong is embodied in the nature of nature. The softer the thing, the more vital it is, and the stiffer it is, it is not alive, it is a sign of death, so that people do not feel vitality. The excessive materialization of human beings will cause spiritual damage and loss of life, so too many people have died and died young, which is a painful lesson for mankind. Material things may be as harmful to human beings as the lack of materials, and the purpose of preparing things is to protect oneself and keep one's life going, but it is precisely because of excessive concern that this thing is missing that it causes suffering. Art is something that makes human beings reflect, it is not something that fuels human desires, but some art is a factor that contributes to the mutilation of life. Huang Binhong's paintings have the function of making you reflect, reflecting on our current state of life, what is the meaning of human beings? Is this state of humanity correct? This reflects the function of art.
Art is the closest way to express the truth, and the function of art must be philosophical. Of course, the content of logic and philosophy is not the only philosophy we understand, in the past we thought that China does not talk about logic and there is no philosophy, just like the famous debate between Huizi and Zhuangzi "Zi is not a fish, the joy of knowing the fish", Zhuangzi ridiculed Huizi "the shape of the chosen son, the son sings with a strong white", "Jianbai" is a pure discussion of logic, and the society that focuses on logic loses its understanding of the truth.
Sun Xiaona: Just like "Cooking", returning to nature can be natural and easy.
Fang Hui: Exactly. Huang Binhong entered the Tao from technology, from science to philosophy. His paintings have reached the third level of Zen Buddhism, returning to the realm of "looking at mountains or mountains, and looking at water or water". The first layer is the realm of classicism realism: "Look at the mountains are mountains, and see the water is water". The second layer is "looking at the mountain is not the mountain, and the water is not the water", which is the scientific analytical thinking, and the points, lines, planes, black, white and gray are all abstract forms. Finally, it is the natural realm of Huang Binhong's "looking at the mountains or the mountains, and looking at the water or the water". What is this mountain of his? It is no longer to return to realistic artistic expression, but to show the nature of nature, the essence of nature. No matter how he paints, it is the reality of his subjective experience, but no matter how he looks at it, it looks like something from nature, but it is not from nature, but an image created by his spirit. It's a great creation, and he gets the breath of nature.
The "spirit" of human beings is given by nature, but the brush and ink are created by human beings, so the purpose of the brush and ink is not to depict that specific nature, but to return to nature spiritually, which is very difficult. This nature is nature. He is no longer the kind of worldly person who does not fight for fame and fortune. But he did not say that he became a Taoist priest or a monk, but transformed it into artistic beauty with pen and ink, so that everyone could feel the spiritual realm, even beyond the boundaries of nations and countries. For example, in France, many people especially like Huang Binhong. When I talked to Mr. Daniel, he said that Huang Binhong was very clever and different from other Chinese painters.
Sun Xiaona: "The nature of nature is the work of creation." ”
Fang Hui: Yes, Wang Wei is an important artist from the perspective of art, and his contribution is also very great from the perspective of cultural history and human history. In the late Tang Dynasty, he unified the visual psychology of poetry with landscape painting through Zen Buddhism. His art is not just a tool to vent his emotions, but also realizes the salvation of the human spirit, and he advocates the philosophical spirit of "ink and wash first" to fight against the materialistic worldly life. He regarded landscape painting as a medium for spiritual reflection, and after him, the function of Chinese art underwent an important change, and it no longer served the service of visual and scientific thinking.
Sun Xiaona: It may be said that he emphasizes the natural nature of human beings with his art, and makes the viewer enter the salvation of the self-spirit from reality.
Fang Hui: Yes, the ancients said that after a good landscape painting is hung, reading it can cure diseases, because it can make your impetuous heart fire down, and the visual experience of Huazi will cause your kidney water energy to extinguish the heart fire. Desire causes fire in the heart, and the mantra of calming the heart is in line with Chinese painting and in line with the health of traditional Chinese medicine. In the process of viewing and appreciating the paintings, the viewer also gets a kind of pleasure, and this healing function is comfort. United Kingdom Alain de Botton, ·Australia John · Armstrong's book The Solace of Art selects 150 classic works of art to illustrate the healing function of art. But previously the West recognized that "bland" was synonymous with boring, and they did not attach much importance to this culture. Huang Binhong had already emphasized this function of painting in his painting theory, and deliberately highlighted the healing function of art in his landscape paintings.
Sun Xiaona: This may be the reason why Huang Binhong emphasizes the character of pen and ink.
Fang Hui: That's right. Huang Binhong: Why does he emphasize pen and ink? Because brush and ink are like the basic linguistic structure of the Chinese language, they all carry Chinese culture. Once Chinese painting no longer uses the language of brush and ink, it may lose its national cultural characteristics. Therefore, he wants to strengthen the characteristics of the language of pen and ink, because it has had a deep impact on our thinking and philosophy, and will continue to have an impact in the future, so it is important to emphasize the way of expression of the language of pen and ink. At the same time, in the process of strengthening, Huang Binhong systematized it and put forward a visual psychological concept of "rich Huazi nationality". "Rich Bloom" has become his aesthetic experience and aesthetic pursuit.
After this spiritual direction of his changed, he changed the weak character of the literati in the past. His brushwork emphasizes the strength of the lines, which is the power of softness and rigidity, and the power of "turning 100 steels into softness around the fingers". He presents it in a gentle manner, but he is strong in his bones, a kind of cultural self-confidence. He conveys this self-confidence that is unique to Chinese culture through pen and ink. He was influenced by scientific knowledge, as well as his own writing. For example, the seal calligraphy in Jinshi is based on the Taiji diagram. Lishu is a painting hexagram in the gossip. Therefore, he reflects on the process of reconstructing words through the intervention of brushwork modeling. The closer the Chinese people are to its thinking, the greater their creativity. Therefore, each stroke of Huang Binhong is an S-shaped twist of Tai Chi, just like the life form has the characteristics of "twists and turns", and the brushwork is also "twists and turns". His works are not copies of nature, but the same frequency of natural life. Tai Chi Yin and Yang include white and black, rigid and soft, curved and straight, etc. They are surrounded and haunted by each other. Huang Binhong's thinking is greatly influenced by Lao Tzu's thinking, emphasizing nothingness, which is what Western philosophy calls existence. A lot of white space is nothing. What is the void? Huang Binhong believes that emptiness is the embodiment of life energy. From this point of view, Huang Binhong will have a deeper understanding of why his brush and ink are pursued in this way. His little bit and every line must reflect his own state of life. Nowadays, the disciplines are called semiotics, morphology, and traces, all of which embody a person's spirit, wisdom, and realm through traces. Therefore, the inclusion of Chinese calligraphy in painting is a confirmation of the value of Chinese brush and ink. It is not dyed, nor is it copied by images, but written, it is the flow of energy of living beings, and it is another form of expression of life in the universe. Sometimes, through this, you can know whether the person's body is healthy or not, and whether the qi and blood are prosperous, so he provides a very important reference for modern science and even medicine, and it is a kind of reservation of the spiritual level of people. Although Mr. Huang Binhong has passed away, his artworks are all re-presentations of his individual life, and they are still in dialogue with us. When you find this feeling in nature, you can also communicate with him. It's a great art of life, pure life.
From the perspective of using ink, it was the expression of light and shadow in Western painting that inspired Huang Binhong. In "Twenty Lectures on World Art", Fu Lei believes that Rembrandt embodies the national character of Northern Europe, and especially likes to express light from backlight. Huang Binhong believes that light and matter together create our perception of the world. In the past, the ancients were taboo about light and dark, because without natural science, they did not dare to express light. If you don't paint well, you will be painted black and pitch black, and everyone will think that it is not beautiful, so they simply avoid that difficulty and only paint those lighted surfaces. Huang Binhong has always emphasized the realm of "negative yin and embracing yang, impulsive and harmonious", and took the initiative to depict the beauty of backlight. Although many people can't understand his paintings, the main reason is that they don't like him as black. In fact, his black is very rich and transparent, and the layers inside are very detailed and rich, and the descriptive things are weakened, which is a very natural realm to set off the reality with virtual reflection. This kind of natural, natural, unrefined beauty is hard to find. The beauty of order and law in nature is a very high philosophy. Huang Binhong wrote to Fu Lei that "Dao" is barely dead. Nothing can be forced, it is naturally formed, with infinite vitality, this is Chinese philosophy. What are the signs of success in Chinese philosophy? Huang Binhong said that success in the West means to do realistic things and achieve the expected results. In China, it is called Chengde, which is the complete perfection of morality. These are two values.
Sun Xiaona: As the saying goes, "there is something for profit, but nothing for use". We can see that his pen and ink language embodies Chinese philosophy and traditional culture. You just mentioned that the naturalness and vitality of his pen and ink language reflect his mental state and emotions.
Fang Hui: Actually, another point is the use of water in Chinese painting. "Good as water" is the attitude of Chinese towards water, which is particularly close to the state of "Tao". At that time, Changsha Mawangdui unearthed Lao Tzu's silk book "Tao Te Ching" A and B and "Taisheng Water", "Taiyi" is Taiji, Taiji gives birth to the life of all things, Taiji water can be said to be the water of life, can be understood through it. The cultural cognition and thinking of the Chinese ancestors on the natural generation of the universe and the living forms were very different from those of other ethnic groups. Huang Binhong fused the magic of this water with pen and ink to explore the presentation of the Tao. He explored deeply, so there seemed to be a kind of undry water vapor in his paintings, a kind of moist atmosphere. Unlike some of the paintings now, they are very dry. His paintings are full of water, which is the visual presentation of Chinese culture, like the worship of jade. Ink painting is also the pursuit of the kind of virtue, subtlety, and warmth of beauty, the beauty of the charm, but it is embodied in the way of "immersion" in ink, which is different from the Western emphasis on the splendor of metal. Therefore, Huang Binhong finds inspiration for his creation from the objects of nature, which he calls natural creation. Creation is a great beauty that naturally exists in heaven and earth. Therefore, his aesthetic taste is extremely high, without the study of archaeology, without the understanding of ancient culture, it is difficult to produce the pursuit of this "ancient" atmosphere. So the quaint things are like the sense of time, especially deep and subtle. This pursuit of the noble beauty of ancient jade reflects the unique sense of life and the unique aesthetic pursuit of temperament of the Chinese nation.
Sun Xiaona: His paintings are like ancient jade with "pulp", full of natural and simple life. You have systematically shared with us his outlook on life and nature, can it also be understood that his change in the function of art may be rooted in the influence of his spiritual ecology? Because the previous symposium on the theme of ecological civilization held at the Shandong Art Museum also talked about this issue, that is, ecological civilization may not only involve environmental materials, but also include the ecology of the soul.
Fang Hui: Yes.
3. Fang Hui's Ecological Concept in Creation: The Ecological Pursuit of Brush and Ink and Soul
Sun Xiaona: You have studied Huang Binhong's art theory and practice so systematically, and I believe he must have had a profound influence on your personal creation. Can you talk more about his system of life reinvention and what kind of experience has it brought you?
Fang Hui: Huang Binhong's pursuit of life reconstruction has made me more deeply understand the relationship between man and life, and between man and nature, and made me gradually realize the importance of Chinese philosophy of mind. A few years ago, I also began to explore the relationship between pen and ink and the mind, as well as the relationship between psychological science and traditional Chinese philosophy.
方辉 神秀禅诗 34x70cm，2022
Sun Xiaona: The way of pen and ink is actually a reflection of the way of the heart. The mind is the origin and return of philosophy.
Fang Hui: That's right. The greatest contribution of a good work of art is that when it is disseminated, it is seen by many people, causing emotional changes, being moved and being educated. When people experience the unique spirit in it, learning to find the spirit of freedom and independence becomes an eternal topic. This requires constant integration of one's life, continuous practice, continuous creation, and exploration of the true "great beauty".
Sun Xiaona: How do you use Huang Binhong's view of life and nature to create?
Fang Hui: Huang Binhong reconstructs Chinese landscape painting from the perspective of modern art. He combined the chaos of Chinese philosophy with Western scientific analysis. Therefore, in my creation, I am also trying to weaken the concrete content of reality, and attach importance to the overall relationship of the picture, and only in the clear blur can I glimpse the expression of the sexual spirit. Because we are trained in realism by the academy, we are not very good at weakening details, only painting what we see, and we do not pay attention to the ability to draw from memory afterwards, but emphasize too much on the ability to sketch scenes. There is a lack of systematic training between the two – and this is precisely the strength of the ancients. Cézanne said that he should paint "nature in visual logic", which is very similar to the nature of Chinese painting. Painting is to transcend people from material reality and preserve the original nature of human beings. The wisdom of the thinking methods of the ancients can serve as a resource and treasure trove for our innovation today. However, this is not enough, you also need to develop and develop, to create new ways of cognition, especially to have a contemporary aesthetic in order to arouse more people to pay attention to your work, so that the audience can obtain a contemporary aesthetic.
方辉 空钓石不染 42x69cm 2022
Sun Xiaona: Some scholars divide Huang Binhong's landscape paintings into two historical stages: "white Binhong" and "black Binhong". What do you think of this change? How do you deal with the relationship between white and black in your work?
Fang Hui: "White Binhong" and "Black Binhong" reflect Huang Binhong's ecological and life consciousness. It is two periods before and after, and scholars often regard Huang Binhong's paintings after the 40s as the era of Hei Binhong. It's just that sometimes we tend to mechanize it. In addition to the natural environment, it also includes the care and contemplation of the whole cosmic life and the respect for the spirit of life. His black and white landscapes actually embody the humanistic and ecological contexts. In his later years, his art reflected more love for people, love for nature, and care for living beings. The art of Chinese painting first respects nature and people, so I think the most important thing is this spiritual connotation, especially the paintings of his later years embody Lao Tzu's "realm of negative yin and embracing yang", looking for the light of the soul from the darkness.
High-rise buildings and mechanized civilization can numb our minds and cloud our creativity. Therefore, we need art, we need ecological landscape painting art. It should reflect this sense of life in the universe, not only in painting, but also in design, home environment and the relationship between people, which needs to reflect this core idea, which is our own modernity and contemporaneity, rather than copying the ancients or the West, in fact, this is a great disrespect for culture.
Therefore, "black" is Huang Binhong's great creation of integrating the natural temperament with the human spirit. His blackness is in the evening, when the sun gradually fades and the object gradually dims, which is also more in line with one of the core concepts of Chinese aesthetics - "concealment". Huang Binhong once said that he often paints mountains in the afternoon, mountains in the evening, and mountains in the rain. In the evening, everything is hidden, and there is a unique quiet beauty, which is very meaningful. Wang Yangming regards the night as the middle realm of all things hidden but not developed, he said: "The conscience is the essence when it comes out in the night, and it has no material desires. This is the true meaning of Huang Binhong's "black". He has to realize the supreme state of mind that is nurtured by the essence of the mind. He rarely uses splashed ink, but more often uses the clear distinction of brushwork to express chaos. You see me painting like this: painting as a wet brush, dry brush, backlit, smooth, chaotic, clear, these are not the main thing, the main thing is this kind of charm. Sometimes his paintings are like this light coming out from behind a tree, and it's a feeling. Therefore, black and white is only a means of expressing the essence of life, which is philosophical thinking, not scientific thinking. It is integrated thinking, not analytical thinking.
Sun Xiaona: Therefore, Huang Binhong's "black" is for the pursuit of light, which is the superposition effect of the rich layers of objects and light and shadow that the light reveals from behind, the charm of the spirit, the subtle and introverted spiritual manifestation of traditional Chinese culture, the vigorous stability, and the philosophy of life and the realm of life.
Fang Hui: In order to express vigorously, you must learn to change your own works when painting landscape paintings. Moreover, it is necessary to grasp the proportion of water, repeatedly knead, and repeatedly paint, in order to produce a subtle inner beauty and rich visual effect. It does not come from a completely deliberate pursuit by man. Sometimes it's modified, and it's accidental. Just like in our lives, it is impossible not to make mistakes, but in the process of correcting mistakes, there will be a kind of inspiration and wisdom, and something that will transcend oneself. Landscape painting is closer to such a life, a kind of controllable contingency, and brush and ink is a way of understanding.
Sun Xiaona: Your creations are also pursuing the effect of rich bloom, right? In fact, it comes from the excellent traditional culture and national spiritual core of the Chinese nation; Watts is a sense of life, a breath of life that is presented to the viewer through the processing and recreation of one's own soul, and now it is clear to all of us.
Fang Hui: Yes, Rich Huazi is a form of transcendence of Huang Binhong's continuous pursuit of the soul and the ecology of pen and ink, and it is also a realm that I pursue.
Sun Xiaona: Do you use calligraphy in your artistic creation? If so, what impact has it had on your pen and ink language?
Fang Hui: My current painting is based on calligraphy, emphasizing calligraphy.
Sun Xiaona: Is there any specific type of book, or is it that they have all been fused together?
Fang Hui: Huang Binhong mainly uses the penmanship of seal script and line calligraphy, and his cultivation of big seal is particularly deep. I used to be in the calligraphy of the Wei, Jin and Six Dynasties, and also wrote Lishu, so I like Huang Binhong's calligraphy very much, not too much, I see a lot, and there are some thick lines in my paintings, which may be influenced by him. However, unlike his paintings, which are dominated by linen and linen, I tend more to be in the style of the calligraphy, focusing on the square and fold changes of the outer contours of the mountains and rocks, but try to paint as quaint as possible, without stiffness. I think this way of dealing with it is more modern, and it is not the same as the delicate and trivial feeling of Huang Binhong's south, and it is also more neat - this is purely my personal orientation, and it is also inspired by Huang Binhong's theory, and this is how art continues to move forward.
Sun Xiaona: What kind of action does the point figure in your picture have?
Fang Hui: It's a state of distraction and selflessness. It is the kind of open-mindedness that transcends oneself in nature, which is something I have been influenced by the landscape sketches of the Song Dynasty.
Fang Hui, Portrait of the River, 42x69cm, 2022
Sun Xiaona: I don't think you have adopted the costume of the ancient point figures.
Fang Hui: Yes, there are also modern tourists who wear straw hats. The figure is a symbol, which is not the same as Western landscape painting.
Sun Xiaona: There is a kind of "natural fun" in your paintings. In what ways do you think this natural fun can be reflected, and what kind of fun do you ultimately pursue?
Fang Hui: Yes, this natural interest is natural beauty, and the picture must not only have personal emotions and states, but also be innocent. Innocence is very important, which is the biggest feature of Chinese painting that distinguishes it from other paintings, emphasizing "plain and innocent". What embodies natural interest is natural beauty, and there are not so many deliberate things. Naturalness and relaxation embody a serene realm that is transcendent from the outside of things, a realm that is transcendent from reality. The more you are in the material city, the more you have to pursue this kind of thing to have aesthetic value. It is also a philosophy of life, which revolves around the subjectivity of human beings and respects their nature. If we develop all our studies from the perspective of respecting the harmony between man and nature, we will not do anything that destroys nature.
方辉 颇得湖山趣 69x42cm 2022
Sun Xiaona: In this way, the artwork will have more humanistic care and the thickness of life. What are the characteristics of your composition?
Fang Hui: My paintings also incorporate some compositions from Western paintings. Huang Binhong's composition is a little simpler, which may be influenced by the Northern Song Dynasty schema, which emphasizes subjectivity. I studied the landscapes of the Southern Song Dynasty, the corner of the horse, the half of the summer, emphasizing the unevenness, and realizing the integrity of the Juche spirit in the incompleteness, which is influenced by the Zen culture, so it is more contemporary. On the other hand, in order to achieve that kind of rich and luxurious realm, Huang Binhong will accumulate brush and ink layer by layer, which will make the painting size of the work not large. When he got bigger, he was very tired because he had to weave layer by layer. I focus more on consciously emphasizing the sense of the picture. My brushwork has distribution points, lines and surfaces, black, white and gray, emphasizing not only the sense of wholeness, but also the sense of form and space, so I have a lot of large paintings. It can be seen that the times are different, our aesthetic tastes are different, and the composition is also different. Don't be attached to your predecessors in the face of painting. Some of the paintings, on the surface, look exactly the same, but if you look closely, they are not, and it seems to be completely difficult. I consciously emphasized that I was not like Huang Binhong, on the contrary, I absorbed a lot of things from him. I have made contemporary innovations based on my own realities. Therefore, art must respect the individual and respect oneself. No matter how great the painter you admire, you can't be his slave. He and you are just friends and can talk to each other. After you learn from him, you may instantly fit into a certain emotion of his, which is normal, and don't shy away from it. It's like I'm studying Huang Binhong now, not in the past, I'm studying Huang Binhong, and I've entered the second stage. The first stage is to study who Huang Binhong is, how he is, what he thinks, etc., which is completely scientific thinking. Now I study the problems that Huang Binhong is thinking about, and I am also thinking that my painting is the best way to experiment and think by myself, and finally be like Mr. Huang Binhong. His paintings are also his experimental field for dealing with the relationship between man and man, man and nature, man and self. He has had failures, frustrations and setbacks, but this is all true, and this is the real art.
Sun Xiaona: "Things have no positioning, and the fittest are precious." ”
Fang Hui: Definitely. I continue to absorb nutrients from traditions, including Huang Binhong, to inspire myself, and then find my own path based on my personal learning experience. The times are different, some people accept academic art, and some people deny academic art, believing that it destroys traditional culture. I think that my painting is to give full play to my education and its strengths, and then it will naturally take on a different look. Absorb Huang Binhong from the spiritual level and use him as a spiritual benchmark, including some of his brush and ink methods, painting style, etc., so that his taste and style will gradually improve. Sometimes when you have an artistic idea, 10 or 20 years will slip by before you know it. When you look back, you can see that progress is really slow, so there are often people who work tirelessly and hard every day and don't necessarily achieve great things. Huang Binhong lived in his 90s and worked hard all his life, but in his art, it took the last seven years to reach a relatively satisfactory state, which is also an important reason for his rich brushwork. We sometimes feel that we are not improving, that we always find that there is no way out, and that we often lose hope. But we don't have to be overly anxious, when you take Huang Binhong and other pioneers as a reference and example, from their experience, you may find that there is still a broad road ahead, a very clear concept and method, and you will feel that there are many things to do. Of course, in addition to painting, we should read more books in other fields, so as to increase our social experience and expand our knowledge, including the understanding and study of scientific knowledge and other fields and other disciplines. These things will all affect your picture eventually. Your perception of painting will also change gradually. When you step into another discipline, your picture may be different, or even completely new. This change is good.
Sketch of Yan'an, Northern Shaanxi, 65x45cm, 2019
Sun Xiaona: Huang Binhong's works are a product of his time, and we want to create our own era. What do you think are the possible angles of innovation?
Fang Hui: Possible innovation is the innovation of understanding the world, the innovation of observation methods and aesthetic innovation. With the development of high technology, our understanding of the world is becoming more and more different. The ancients mostly walked mainly, and later there were trains, and now they often take planes. Today, we look at the mountains and rivers mostly at the level and from the bottom, and the ancients rarely saw the top of the mountain, because walking was the main mode of travel in ancient times, so they basically looked up. Now taking a plane, passing through the clouds, it is a bit of a feeling that the Zhuangzi Dapeng bird is flying high in the sky. My paintings embody the aesthetic mood of modern people, the perspective of modern people. The emotions are different, the things you want to express are different, and the kind of emotions you ask us to paint in the past is definitely impossible. I think that's the biggest change. Then the language has to be changed accordingly, so there are often corrective and contradictory things in my paintings. There are more contradictions, but the overall sense of things is more enjoyable, which is more in line with the aesthetic experience of modern people. On the whole, it is still relatively harmonious, and the treatment of parts has changed. The theme of Huang Binhong's times at that time was the exploration of national character, and the self-confidence of national culture should be reflected in the world. Our era is to explore the worries, anxieties, and reflections of artists about ecological civilization, ecological environment, and future technology, or a reaction, a criticism, and a kind of tension...... There's a big difference. We also study traditional culture, but we also read a lot of Western books, and the structure of knowledge is different. This is definitely different from Huang Binhong. In particular, the 20th and 21st centuries have produced many disciplines, and the view of the world has also undergone major changes. All of these can have a big impact on our artistic creation.
Xiaona Sun: The knowledge system has changed significantly. Can you elaborate on how these ideas are expressed in the picture?
Fang Hui: The visual effect of my picture is composed of pieces of pictures. It may be one white and one black, one dense and one sparse...... From a philosophical point of view, it is also a kind of partial clarity, sparseness and sparseness, as if it is clear, but it does not explain such a state. The other is to simplify Huang Binhong's airtightness. My open, geometric way of processing and composing the picture adds a sense of movement, and it may be a state of spiritual clarity in the midst of chaos. Because today we are very scientific, there are more mechanized things, which is also our visual experience, from square to circle. The square of the combination of square and circle represents the scientific, and the circle represents the philosophical. Fang Yizhi, the great philosopher of the Ming Dynasty, emphasized that "the upper is in the lower learning" and "the knowledge is returned to the object", and I also agree with his view.
方辉 青山过雨浓 69x42cm 2022
Sun Xiaona: Do you want to embody the philosophical nature of science through this form of pen and ink language and the treatment of this kind of momentum?
Fang Hui: That's right. This is also more in line with Huang Binhong's view of "preserving philosophy in science".
Sun Xiaona: I think this is probably a better way to solve the current ecological crisis.
Fang Hui: I also agree with this view.
Sun Xiaona: Finally, from the perspective of the "globalization" of the language and spirit of Huang Binhong's landscape paintings, can you talk about your thoughts on your own creation?
Fang Hui: Many people in the West like Huang Binhong's works. Daniel of France, mentioned above, was a scholar specializing in Orientalism. At an academic seminar, he talked about the blank space of Chinese painting. He said that there is no concept of white space in the West, but it is a pity that he has not seen a monograph on white space in China. I said that Huang Binhong's theory is there, and he asked me if I could organize the relevant materials and work on a project together, which might have a great impact on Western art. I was very touched by his attitude. He said, you see, a Chinese now understands both our Western traditions and your own Chinese traditions, but we only know our own traditions, and we know too little about your China. The art of a master like Huang Binhong is important for us to understand exactly how he thinks. His teachings are also very precious and important to us. I said that we also need to share with everyone. He showed great interest in Huang Binhong, saying that when we exhibited here, the France people liked it very much, and they thought that his paintings had some impressionist things in them, and they were very excited. This welcome has aroused respect for Chinese culture among other ethnic groups. The more Huang Binhong's paintings are in that environment, the more his noble temperament is revealed, because there is a realm of oriental philosophy in the paintings. The reason why the France people love Mr. Huang's paintings so much is because he has a cosmopolitan character.
Sun Xiaona: Where do you think the global language docking point in his paintings?
Fang Hui: It is the commonality of abstract emotions and the expression of natural beauty. One of the reasons why Westerners like his art is that Huang Binhong ignores the classical routines in his creations, and expresses his love for nature through the study of Impressionism, the wisdom and temperament of the philosophers of the East who are transcendent from the outside of things, and the intertwined feeling of light and shadow and water color, which arouses some emotional memories in us. The era in which Huang Binhong lived was the rise of Western Impressionism, and the concepts and art forms were more in line with the aesthetics of the times, so they could be connected. He said that moving from indoors to outdoors is a great step forward in the West, so that it can embody the feeling of nature, freedom and mystery. This also provides an important enlightenment for our contemporary art creation to connect with the world.
Sun Xiaona: In fact, he has combined the national character with the times, the natural nature with the artistry, and the traditional with the contemporary. Is it possible to say that he has actually explored such an effective way for Chinese brush and ink language and art to go global?
Fang Hui: Yes. The abstraction in his work is also important. The less concrete it is, the more spiritual it is, and the more resonant it is, like moving from impression to abstraction. Although a foreigner does not understand Chinese, he can feel the same things through your picture. Abstract things are more symbolic. When Huang Binhong paints, for example, the tree and its background are painted separately, and they are combined together, like an oil painting, and the background is blended together, paying attention to the contrast of the picture. The light in the back is actually eliminating that sense of space. Because it is not obvious, when it is not obvious, it will be full of strangeness, and it will have the effect of defamiliarization. And the point of the brush, it is also natural, it is composed of points, and the point is the composition, and it is also the earliest symbol of human beings. These things cannot be done without thinking, and it can be said that Chinese painting is a kind of science. Therefore, when I create works, I also pay attention to the abstract expression of concrete objects, and I will continue to explore super cultural and art symbols that can connect with the world.
Fang Hui, Revison Bamboo Shoots, 42x69cm, 2022
Sun Xiaona: Director Fang, thank you very much for presenting Mr. Huang's ideological system, brush and ink language, composition, artistic conception and the relationship between his art and world art from the perspective of Huang Binhong's outlook on life and nature. At the same time, we also learned about your contemporary thinking, application and innovation of traditional culture and Huang Binhong's view of life and nature in his creative theory, as well as your contemporary ecological view, as well as your ecological thinking and pursuit of brushwork and soul.
Fang Hui: Thank you for your question!
About the Artist
Fang Hui is a native of Laizhou, Shandong. Mr. Long Rui of the Chinese Academy of Arts, Doctor of Fine Arts, Director of the Institute of Fine Arts, Associate Research Librarian of Shandong Academy of Arts, Master Tutor, Landscape Painting Tutor of the Art Training Center of the Chinese Academy of Arts, Vice President of Zhejiang Huang Binhong Painting Institute, Visiting Professor of Jinan University, Director of Shandong Artists Association.
Sun Xiaona is an associate professor at Shandong University of the Arts, deputy secretary-general of Shandong Artists Association, and director of the Theory Committee of Shandong Young Artists Association.