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On the morning of July 26, Du Songru, a famous painter, director of the China Artists Association, director of the Chinese Painting Society, director of the Exhibition Department of the Fine Arts Center of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, and researcher of the China National Academy of Painting, walked into the cultural vision.
Liang Hongwen, chairman of China.com Shandong & Cultural Vision Network, warmly received the visiting old friends, cooked tea and set up seats, talked about the past and the present, and felt uncomfortable.
Afterwards, several people strolled through the "China Art Space" together, and everyone appraised the paintings of famous artists, talked about the creation stories behind the works, and shared their feelings about the paintings.
In the editorial department of the two networks, everyone reviewed the manuscript about Du Songru published by the two networks. In the review, Du Songru shared his creative experience of printmaking and ink painting, and expressed his gratitude for the display of calligraphy and painting works on the website.
When I first met Mr. Du Songru, he was always smiling and very easy-going. Starting with his recent ink paintings, he traces back to his printmaking creation, study experience, and family history...... Under the influence of his father Du Ziling, Du Songru developed a strong interest in painting when he was a child, and was later admitted to the Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts and embarked on the road of systematically studying printmaking. During his studies in Japan, he combined the artistic characteristics of Chinese woodblock prints and Japan ukiyo-e prints to form his own printmaking language. As he grew older, he returned from printmaking to ink painting, looking for his own ink outlet.
The road of exploration of printmaking art
At the beginning of this year, Du Songru wrote a letter to recall his father Du Ziling, recalling the bits and pieces with his father, which was sincere and touching. "As far as I can remember, the lights in his studio were always on, and that hasn't changed for decades...... My father told me repeatedly, "Don't think anything wrong as a painter, don't forget why you picked up a paintbrush at that time, you must be a good person and paint well......"
Du Songru said: "My father's words, language, treatment and dedication to art have always influenced me, and his achievements in the field of Chinese painting stem from perseverance and love. He became famous very early, but he has been practicing hard, and the brush has never stopped; In life, he remains kind, cares for others, and can feel that he treats everyone equally, pampering and humiliating, and puts life and people into his own creations. My father's generation had a pure heart for art, which is worth learning from. ”
Du Songru was born into a family of traditional Chinese painting artists and was the son of the famous painter Du Ziling. His father had a profound influence on Juniper Ru's artistic path. Since he was a child, he often watched his father paint, and also followed his father to participate in some art activities. But he began to learn painting systematically from junior high school.
Later, when he was admitted to university, his father wanted Du Songru to study Chinese painting, but he wanted to study oil painting, and the two had a disagreement on the choice of artistic path. Later, they came up with a compromise and let Juniper Ru learn printmaking. On the one hand, because printmaking pays attention to the training of modeling foundation and the relationship between black and white in the picture, whether you want to learn Chinese painting or oil painting in the future, you can lay a good foundation.
In 1993, Du Songru was admitted to the Department of Painting of Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts, majoring in printmaking, under the tutelage of the famous lithographer Chen Jiuru. After graduating from university in 1997, Juniper wanted to further his studies in order to reach a higher level professionally. He had seen a 1962 print by the famous Japan printmaker Akira Kurosaki in a magazine, and he was surprised that the work was beautiful and very modern, and he had the idea of learning from Akira Kurosaki.
Jun Songru (first from left)
In 1998, Juniper went to Japan to study. During his stay in Japan, he found that although Chinese woodblock prints and Japan ukiyo-e woodblock prints were both water-based, due to the differences in materials and techniques, the two were different in terms of production technology and printing degree, and Japan's ukiyo-e prints were more delicate, while Chinese woodblock prints were slightly rougher. In the process of learning, Juniper gradually found his own printmaking language, that is, printing with the method of mixing the front and back, printing with the method of Japan ukiyo-e printmaking on the front, and presenting a mottled, old and unforeseen effect on the reverse side.
Love Life, 2000
Dust, 2001
During his one-year training, Juniper's work was selected for the 68th Japan National Printmaking Exhibition. After that, he went to the Sato workshop to study the printing of ukiyo-e prints. In 2000, he was admitted to the Graduate School of Art at Kyoto Seika University in Japan, where he studied printmaking under Akira Kurosaki. At the same time, he also traveled to major art museums in Japan, and during his vacations, he studied in the West, admired masterpieces, and gained a deeper understanding of printmaking. During the five years of studying and traveling in Japan, Du Songru has made gratifying achievements in printmaking: he has won important awards such as the Newcomer Award at the Japan KYOTO2000 Printmaking Exhibition and the Gold Award at the 2001 Beijing Exhibition of the Japan, and has held more than 30 group exhibitions and solo exhibitions.
The "crossover" of printmaking and ink painting
As he grew older, Juniper's re-understanding of ink painting prompted him to shift from printmaking to ink painting. In 2002, when Du Songru returned to China, he gradually slowed down the pace of printmaking and further explored the field of ink painting.
The experience of printmaking has had a great influence on Juniper's ink painting. Following the idea of creating prints in Japan, he brought some of the schemas and languages of printmaking to the creation of ink paintings. "I directly use the thick and formal language of printmaking in the creation of ink painting, and I have a natural hobby for the language of form, and there must be design in painting, which is a point of view that I agree with very much, such as how to lay out and how to express complex ideas in simple language." Juniper said.
From the perspective of the picture, he was influenced by Japan aesthetic concepts, such as flat composition and quiet atmosphere, but he also liked the heaviness of Chinese ink, so he used a lot of ink accumulation methods. He paints slowly, not overnight, but polishes little by little, and finally accumulates to the extent he wants.
Appreciating Jun Songru's ink paintings, we can find that his ink paintings are different from ink paintings in the traditional sense, showing distinct personal characteristics. He said, "My work cannot be strictly said to be Chinese painting, because I came from a Western painting background, and I specialized in learning the use of Japan ukiyo-e prints in contemporary prints. I returned from printmaking to ink painting, creating works that combine Chinese and Western cultures, but I didn't think too much about it when I was creating, I just combined my artistic experience, life experience and my own heart, painted my own paintings, and painted what I wanted to express in my heart. ”
Yanyu Jiangnan
纸本水墨设色 136cm×68cm 2011
Although he has also participated in some exhibitions of contemporary ink paintings, Du Songru said that he has always had some doubts about the term "contemporary ink", and he believes that ink is ink, so why should it be called "contemporary ink"? There is no old or new painting, only good and bad. The same is true for ink. There are only good and bad inks, and there is no distinction between the present and the past. If you put a painter in the long river of history, sages such as Shi Tao are also at the forefront of the times. Therefore, he has always believed that the term "contemporary ink" is not accurate enough, and it is more appropriate to give the work to the audience and let them interpret it.
Find your own ink outlet
In the process of creation, how to inherit the tradition is a problem that every artist has to face. For a long time, Jun Songru has been committed to exploring the modernization path of traditional Chinese ink painting.
Mountains of rice fat
68cm×46cm 纸本水墨设色 2011
In Juniper's view, contemporary ink painting should not rebel against tradition, but innovate on the basis of tradition. "For me, I think inheritance is still spiritual, not formal. If we just follow the schema of the past, it is difficult to surpass the peak of our predecessors, and it is of little significance. The times are advancing, everyone is also progressing, and we should combine our own artistic accomplishment and artistic experience to create our own ink and wash forms and find our own ink and wash outlets. Juniper said.
He also added that retro is not advisable, innovation must be moderate, innovation must be carried out on the basis of cultural inheritance, and the strange cannot be beautiful, ugly is beautiful, and new is beautiful. Contemporary artists need to put aside all distractions, truly start from the ontology, sincerely face the world and their own works, and reflect the information they receive and their own attitude towards the world into the picture.
In addition, in terms of his attitude towards Chinese and Western paintings, Du Songru emphasized that personal creation must inherit the excellent traditional Chinese culture and not blindly turn to the West. Drawing on and absorbing the elements of excellent Western paintings, and localizing them and innovating them in contemporary fashion, so that the works can be grounded, so that the audience can better accept, absorb, understand and appreciate them. Some people are blindly retro, and they don't have their own face after painting for a lifetime. On the one hand, Jun Songru also copied excellent ancient paintings, not "through", but found some interesting parts from them, and copied them according to his own understanding. On the other hand, he feels that sometimes reading a painting is more important than drawing. Reading is not only about pictures, but also about philosophical thinking.
memory
纸本水墨设色 136cm×68cm 2014
From the previous preference for bright colors to the current black and white in the paintings, this shift reflects the changes in Juniper's mood over the years. "My prints at that time were very colorful and used strong contrasting colors to organize the picture, which was very prominent among Japan printmakers who mainly used light colors. After returning to China, I also intervened in the creation of ink at first, but the characteristics of rice paper did not allow people to bring too much color to the picture, and often good Chinese paintings did not use too much color, so I used more cyan and ochre colors. Later, for a while, the picture was purely black and white again. Juniper said.
direction
248cm×192cm 纸本水墨设色 2018
Jun Songru once held a solo exhibition "The End of Color", and he believes that the end of color is black, which is high-end and inclusive. In the past two years of ink painting, Juniper Ru is thinking about whether he can bring back the color. In this regard, he will continue to explore.
My Mountain
240cm×200cm 纸本水墨设色 2021
Dream Hill II
246cm×369cm 纸本水墨设色 2021
Impression of Dunhuang
纸本水墨设色 136cm×68cm 2015
In his paintings, Jun Songru does not set too many rules for himself, he wants to be an artist, not a simple Chinese painter or printmaker. "I think an artist is not like today and tomorrow, and consistently, I have the rules of my artistic language, as well as my aesthetic requirements, how to perfect it and elevate it to a better height, which requires the painter to sum up experience in long-term practice." He will continue to paint, painting his own "landscape of mental imagery".
This is the end of the activity of Mr. Du Songru entering the cultural vision, everyone took a group photo, and looked forward to the next reunion of old friends.
Source/Cultural Vision Network Author/Sun Xiuqing
Videography and photography / Wang Yajing Li Jianlong
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