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Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Yu Qihui was born in Shanghai in 1934. In 1960, he graduated from the Printmaking Department of Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (now China Academy of Art) and stayed on to teach, and in 1996, he was awarded the "Lu Xun Printmaking Award" by the China Printmakers Association. He is currently a professor of the Printmaking Department of the China Academy of Art, a member of the China Artists Association, a member of the China Printmakers Association, and a director of the West Lake International Artists Association. In 1961, he attracted attention in the field of literature and art with his black-and-white woodcut "Comrades-in-Arms: Lu Xun and Qu Qiubai", and in the 80s, he attracted the attention of printmaking researchers at home and abroad because of his original "woodblock color extension" technique.

His printmaking works have participated in national, provincial and municipal art exhibitions for many times and won awards; and exhibited in dozens of countries such as France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, Australia, Japan, and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, China; Since 1994, he has lectured at universities in Paris, Campbell, London, Los Angeles, Hangzhou, China, and Oster University in Ireland. His works have been collected by the National Art Museum of China, the British Museum, the European Woodblock Print Foundation, the Ashmolean Museum of Oxford University, the Kanagawa Museum of Japan, and many museums and art galleries in China. In 1996, he won the United Kingdom "Today's Printmaking" award. The magazine also presented Yu and his rubbings to the Western art world under the title "China is More Than Porcelain" as an award-winner.

He is the author of "Essence of Black and White Woodcut Techniques", "Chinese Printmaking Techniques", "Painting Creation", "Modern Rubbing Printmaking Techniques - The Art Evolved from Cicada Transformation", and a collaboration with David Brown of United Kingdom. Professor Buck's co-author, Traditional Techniques of Modern Chinese Printmaking, was published by A&C BLACK, London.

A self-report about the cicada's moult

◎ Yu Qihui

Cicada molt is the most primitive hammering and copying technology that has been produced in China 2000 years ago, at that time it was mainly used to collapse the graphics and texts on the stele, because of its detached like the undulating shape of the "knowing the shell", the folk according to its appearance called "cicada molt" after the formal determination of "sealing". After the reform of writing, it was simplified to the current "rubbing". It is a valuable cultural heritage that is unique to the ancient continent and the world.

Mr. Lu Xun once pointed out to the woodcarvers at that time with great foresight: "If we refer to the stone carvings of the Han Dynasty, the book illustrations of the Ming and Qing dynasties, and pay attention to the so-called 'New Year paintings' enjoyed by the people, and the new European law, we may be able to create a better print." "The guidance of the gentleman is like a beacon, illuminating the direction of the woodcarvers. Mr. Lu Xun not only guided theoretically, but also practiced in practice, such as he had rubbed the inscriptions of famous masters in his hometown of Shaoxing, such as Yuling, Keyan, Lanting and other places, and spent a lot of energy to trace more than 100 Wadang patterns with a double hook with a pen, and collected more than 500 rubbings of inscriptions in his life, and also planned to compile an atlas for printmaking students to learn from these valuable heritages, in order to create better prints.

Comrades-in-arms - Lu Xun and Qu Qiubai

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Flame of Truth IV: I still have to learn, of course, if I can survive

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

The cold condenses the earth and blooms in spring

-- Lu Xun and Chen Geng talked freely about the major victories in the struggle against "encirclement and suppression."

I entered the Printmaking Department of the East China Branch of the Central Academy of Fine Arts (now the China Academy of Art) in 1955. Under the governance of the first head of the department at that time, Mr. Zhang Yangxi, the whole department was like a united and friendly family. Out of love for his students, Mr. Zhang selflessly put the original woodcuts of several of his representative works on his desk for the students to view and print. I remember when I was in the second grade, his classic masterpiece "Sending Rice to the Field" came out. When it was my turn to print, the technician explained to me the unique printing steps of rubbing: after the printing paper is covered with a woodcut base, a piece of pulp gauze must be covered on the printing paper, and the abrasive tool will gently grind the printing on the gauze, which will produce a loose impression with a cloth pattern, which is the evolution of Mr. Zhang from the traditional technique of "separating the linen". There are many variations of rubbing, and you need to concentrate on learning...... The technician's words left a deep impression on my heart.

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Ploughing map

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

sacrifice to

In 1958, there was an upsurge of folk songs across the country, and the department mobilized teachers and students to paint folk songs. I chose a Wenzhou folk song "A Dragon Flashing in the East" as the creative material, using the form of tile and absorbing the traditional bas-relief knife technique, and the result was very good, and the work was published in "Yuejin Pictorial" and other publications. Since then, I have gradually developed the habit of using the thinking mode of folk art to absorb and learn from its composition, allegorical artistic techniques, simple folk shapes and simple shapes when it is difficult to break through the common ideas and compositions of each new work. During this period, I created works such as "Fengle Tu", and prepared for the subsequent group of paintings "The Brothers of the Catastrophe" before carving. But at this time, it is still in the black and white rubbing stage. Later, I thought about how to combine watermarking techniques with color rubbing techniques to create richer and less limited rubbing prints.

Since 1988, I have successively created "Spring. Autumn. The "Sacrifice" group of paintings, the "Bridge Township Nai" reflecting the style of the water town, and the "Soul of the Town" depicting the modern harbor and other watermark color rubbing. Seeing that I was very interested in rubbing and the results were good, the department leaders arranged for me to set up a national and folk art appreciation course: rubbing class to enhance students' interest in traditional art. To this end, I spent a lot of energy collecting and borrowing historical materials related to rubbing, motuo, etc., in ancient times on the mainland and other countries, and clarified the ins and outs of rubbing. The course was well received by the students, and the assignments were overdone.

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Jewel – multifaceted Buddha statue

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Treasure - the pearl of the sea

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Jewel – Oriental Goddess

In 1990, I took the graduating students to visit the Northwest for an internship, and saw a large number of excellent stone carvings of the Tang Dynasty in the Forest of Steles Museum in Xi'an, and I admired the superb shaping skills of ancient artists. For example, the remnant body of the Bodhisattva known as the Oriental God of Beauty, as well as the remnant body of Vajra Lux, the multi-faceted Buddha statue, the relief of the "Six Horses of Zhaoling", the folk tethered horse pile and the calligraphy inscription of the famous masters of the past dynasties, make me dizzy and breathtaking. The shocking power of Tang Dynasty art has made me unforgettable for a long time. I thought: From the perspective of a printmaker, how can I use the language of printmaking to introduce such a great art to my peers? After much deliberation and deliberation, I finally decided to use the technique of watermark color extension. Flat, concave and convex three-dimensional three-dimensional carving, the main plate on the Yin engraving and Yang engraving cross carving, rubbing using the "dark color pressing light color" or "light color cover dark" gland effect, so that the work produces a variety of layers, rich color of the ancient style effect.

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Treasure - the god of the city

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Treasure - fission stone carving

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Treasure - Mausoleum Saddle Horse

Since 1992, I have successively created "Oriental Goddess", "Multi-faceted Buddha Statue", "Lux and Bodhisattva", "Fission Stone Sculpture" and "Treasures of the Sand Sea" in the "Treasures" group of paintings. In 1993, Anne Long, the deputy director of the Oriental Department of the British Museum, came to our department to collect all five works I created at that time. Later, in 1994, during my visit to the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, I went to the British Museum in United Kingdom to give lectures to researchers and demonstrate China's unique cicada moulting skills. After hearing the news, Oster University in Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, also invited me to give a lecture on "The History and Development of Traditional Chinese Printmaking" to the teachers and students of the printmaking major, and gave a rubbing demonstration on the spot.

After the end, David. Professor Buck made two requests: First, the book "Chinese Printmaking Printing and Rubbing Techniques" that I brought to him for teaching was left, and he wanted to translate it as a teaching material. 2. I hope that the China Academy of Art and the University of Auster can establish an exchange mechanism to exchange students who study abroad, and the graduate students they send to China will be taught by me. This exchange has increased the opportunities for young teachers and graduate students of the Department of Printmaking to go to foreign countries to study and learn Western techniques, which will help the young teachers of the Department of Printmaking to broaden their horizons and improve their artistic quality. Then, the European Woodblock Print Foundation, the Ashmolean Museum at the University of Oxford in United Kingdom, and the Portland Museum of Art in United States invited me to exhibit, and some of them collected my watermark color rubbings represented by the "Treasure" series. It is worth mentioning that the United Kingdom "Prints Today" magazine also sent people to interview and published an article "China is not only porcelain" to show appreciation and affirmation of China's cicada moult, and awarded me the award of "Today's Prints". Some art museums in China, such as Jiangsu, Shenzhen, Guangdong, Guangxi, Zhejiang, Shanghai and other places, have also exhibited my works. This shows that in modern creation, the use of ancient traditional rubbing techniques can also be affirmed for the use of the past for the present.

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Treasure - fierce gluttony

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Treasure - Qinwa Han Stone

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Treasure - the awakened Qin figurines

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Treasure - Pegin wears jade out of the wall

At that time, I was standing in front of the Roman monuments on the Silk Road, and suddenly it dawned on me: the original "Treasures" series was only the domestic part of the Silk Road, but now the foreign environment is the foreign part of the Silk Road, why not take this opportunity to collect creative materials from the relevant countries and museums? With this idea, he went to Rome, Pisa, Venice and Florence in Italy, and went to museums such as the Louvre, Kimi Oriental Art Museum, and Musée d'Orsay many times to supplement and collect materials. In order to maintain a strong fresh impression, he immediately began to create the "Silk Road Traces" group of paintings after returning to China. In this set of works, because they represent foreign monuments, more Western geometric shapes are used in the processing of the picture, such as triangles, diagonals, squares, circles, etc.; In terms of artistic conception, on the basis of realism, some modern techniques such as dream, symbolism and suspense are integrated. This makes the Silk Road Trail series and the Treasure series both continuous and different. In my creation, I ask myself to make a breakthrough and progress in each painting compared to the previous one, so that I can continue to move forward. When my mentor Mr. Zhao Yannian wrote the preface to one of my albums, he used Lao Tzu's "Self-Victory Strong" as the title to commend my habit of self-criticism and self-breakthrough.

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

The Silk Road traces - a Roman monument

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Traces of the Silk Road - Ancient Carvings in Egypt

Later, I used the technique of watermark color extension to express more difficult works that focused on the portrayal of the human figure. For example, "Guardian Saint Chang Shuhong", which depicts Chang Shuhong, who guarded the treasure house of Dunhuang art for a lifetime, and "In the Camp Cry", which shows Chairman Mao Zedong reading in his spare time in Hangzhou, his "second hometown", and "Historical Photos-Qing Dynasty: Foreign Students Staying in the Qing Dynasty", etc., have all won social affirmation and praise.

Now, I have entered the old age, my physical fitness is declining, and the skill of cicada metamorphosis contains as many as two types of ten methods, to really explore into it, and to be able to use reference, innovation and creation, it is by no means an easy task overnight, it takes decades of hard work. Young printmakers in Greece who pay attention to the study of ethnic and folk art, including teachers and friends of the "Zizhuzhai" folk woodblock studio of the China Academy of Art, bravely took up the heavy burden and carried forward this rare art around the world.

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Andy's affection

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Historical photo of Qian Xuesen and his family

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

The father of Tianyan - Nan Rendong

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Contemporary Shennong - Yuan Longping

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Lu Xun

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Lao She

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Ice Heart

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Zhang ailing

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Zhang Daqian

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Wu Guanzhong

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Einstein

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Tagore

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Teresa

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

The carved window contains a show - the jewel is flowing

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Carved windows with show - Yangti Ancient Bridge

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

spring

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

autumn

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

The breath of the sea

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Yellow Mountain clouds

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

The bright top of the Yellow Mountain

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

The legend of the West Lake - the flying peak

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

After the rain in Huangshan

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Haitian Buddha Pavilion

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Huangshan Yuping Peak

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

The empty battle for the lost goose map

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Hometown, hometown

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Splendid Home

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Ama's moo

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Walk through the sand and sea to find its scriptures

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

The sand sea is in distress, and the god leads in the dream

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Waltz of the construction site

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Molten iron flows

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Dan Xin Yao Snow Mountain

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Blood and tears trace

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Illustration No. 2 of "Kong Yiji".

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Tatetsuka

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Farewell

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Flowers are not flowers, fog is not fog

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Yaya toddler

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Illustration of "A New Story": Running to the Moon

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Illustration of "New Story": Lishui

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Illustration of "A New Story": Rise and Die

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Illustration of "New Story": Shanseki

Yu Qihui: A self-description about the cicada's metamorphosis

Illustration of "A New Story": Forged Sword

Since Yu Qihui was a student at a young age, many excellent works have been published; After graduation, as a teacher, he taught and solved doubts, and the peach and plum were fruitful; As a printmaking artist, he has always been full of creative passion, and he has never stopped cultivating. After creating "Comrades-in-Arms, Lu Xun and Qu Qiubai", he pursued the traditional art of inheriting the motherland; After achieving the excellent artistic effect of expressing the tradition, he began to study how to express the new life of modern people; After that, he wrote a book summary. He opened up a new artistic path, opened another door to the treasure house of wisdom and wisdom, and finally climbed to the new peak that he was looking for for himself.

Why do I say that?

Lao Tzu taught in the Tao Te Ching: Those who win are powerful, and those who win themselves are strong.

Yu Qihui is such a strong person who has been exploring, forging ahead, and overcoming himself for more than 50 years. On the occasion of the imminent publication of his album, I am even more moved to praise him for his spirit of hard work and hard work! I wish him to continue to create and achieve more brilliant results along this path!

- Zhao Yannian

The "Treasures" series is a collection of excellent and unique prints. Woodcut originated in China, but the combination of watermark and color rubbing is creative, and the selection of materials is based on ancient Chinese cultural relics, which is completely different from other ancient civilizations in the world, and is full of vicissitudes and mystery of Chinese taste. However, in the processing of the picture, you have absorbed a variety of elements from Western modern art, such as emphasizing the composition of the plane and paying attention to the division and combination of volumes; Give full play to the characteristics of knife techniques to strengthen the texture effect; The use of these artistic elements makes the works acceptable and better for Westerners.

- Jean-· Louis, Buzinner

Your prints absorb the unique ancient rubbing techniques of China, and apply them to the modern concept of printmaking after transformation, which is full of creativity. After reading your rubbing demonstration, I feel that the difficulty of engraving and printing is very high, and ordinary people can't do it at all. As you said: when carving, we should consider the knife method at different levels of the plane, inclined plane and bottom surface, and there can be no waste knives; When rubbing, different levels of shape and texture should be rubbed out; On the same picture, it is necessary to intersperse yang engraving and yin engraving, and there are different techniques of deep pressure and light cover depth when color rubbing, which is very complicated. Now it seems that the picture can be so solid and so deep, which is inseparable from your creative engraving and rubbing skills. I hope you will give lectures to researchers at the British Museum during your visit to Paris next year......

- Dr. Annie Long