【Lingnan Art Everyone Phase III】
East of Yuncheng West Road in Guangzhou's Baiyun District, a modern building with Lingnan style has been unveiled, attracting the attention of the media and the public. This is the new site of the Guangdong Academy of Painting, which was just completed at the end of last year.
As an art institution with important influence in the national art circle, the 60-year-old Guangdong Academy of Painting has ushered in its new starting point. Shortly after the completion of the new site, the reporter came to the brand-new Guangdong Painting Academy building to visit the director of the painting academy and painter Lin Lan. In the past few days of interviewing, when the new site was opened, she was busy and busy, and the people who came to visit were endless. A minute before the reporter was beckoned to sit down, he had just put down the work at hand and took a break to drink hot tea.
Her office is simple and rustic, with a desk with computers, a bookshelf full of picture books and a wooden storage desk that takes up almost all the space in the room.
Lin Lan
People who have come into contact with Lin Lan will probably be attracted by her unique temperament. Her voice is gentle and flat, her black hair is neatly combed and beautiful, and there is always a sense of cordiality between her eyebrows.
It's like a long marathon. Lin Lan said that the new site project of the Guangdong Academy of Painting was established as early as 2005, and it took more than ten years to complete, after several deans, and he only "ran the last meter, not a hundred meters."
On the day of the interview, the opening exhibition "Guangdong Academy of Fine Works Exhibition" is on display, attracting many visitors. The space of the new exhibition hall is extremely open, with an exhibition area of 9,600 square meters, and 300 masterpieces of the academy in the past 60 years are all on display, including many famous artists of the Lingnan School such as Guan Shanyue, Fang Rending, Wang Zhaomin, Hu Yichuan, Li Xiongcai and Lai Shaoqi.
As we all know, Lin Lan's father was also a well-known painter. Born into a family of "painting idiots", she has a family of eighteen people painting. Looking at the figure of her parents "laboring" painting day after day, copying her father's paintings and growing up, Lin Lan is naturally familiar and kind to Chinese painting. Later, she was naturally admitted to the Chinese Painting Department of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. However, after being buried in the study hall for too long, and coinciding with the tide of reform and opening up in the 90s, Lin Lan's heart began to emerge with the idea of "wanting to do something for society".
With this concept in mind, when she was a graduate student, she studied mural paintings with Mr. Yuan Yunfu, the founder and educator of Chinese public art, and visited Dunhuang four times to study various heavy color painting methods in Dunhuang. "Mr. Yuan has a particularly open and inclusive concept, so at that time, Mr. Yuan was also chosen in the hope of learning the good things of his art for people."
Dreams. Macau.1999 Lin Lan, 211x171cm, color on paper, 2019
After studying murals, doing design, and public art, she has never been able to give up her love for Chinese painting after walking through this seemingly "WTO" road. She returned to pure painting and deepened her research on contemporary ink painting.
Not because of the convenience of the family, for Lin Lan, Chinese painting is her original intention. I have been engaged in mural painting and public art for more than 10 to 20 years, and almost all of them are inseparable from Chinese painting, "I use the foundation of Chinese painting to adapt to different environments, so it has never changed, but it is constantly enriched." ”
She admits that compared with her own life path, her parents have been simple all their lives, purely focused on painting. "From an early age, you can feel in your parents where art means to a person, and art is something you can devote yourself to without regret for a lifetime."
She studied and taught, created paintings, and seems to have never left the school, and before becoming the director of the new Guangdong Academy of Painting, she also immersed herself in the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts for many years, holding teaching positions at the school. Today, this newly built "building" has become the focus of her work today.
"This 16-meter scroll, we painted it for 118 days." Standing in front of the huge work "The Wind of the Southern Country", Lin Lan introduced the collective creative achievements of the Guangdong Academy of Painting to reporters. In 2020, around the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the SAR, the Guangdong Academy of Painting poured all its efforts into a large-scale collective creation, and specially invited the four presidents of the Shenzhen, Shantou, Zhuhai and Macao Artists Association, the Chinese painters of the whole academy and 22 young Chinese painters to jointly complete this huge long volume.
Among the main creative painters, the oldest is Lai Ying of the Macao Artists Association, born in 1949, while the youngest one was born in 1989, and the age range of the group of painters is 40 years old. "In these more than 100 days, a bunch of us are doing this."
In Lin Lan's view, it is the responsibility of the Guangdong Academy of Painting to carry out collective artistic creation around the major historical theme of the country such as the centenary of the founding of the party. She believes that although the personality of individual creation is important, the exercise of large creation will undoubtedly make the artist's self a little bigger. Standing at the juncture of history, artists also have the obligation to write about this era, "artists of any era must have this ambition to write epics." ”
【Interview】
Life's choice of "loved, can, need"
Nandu: You studied murals, did design, did public art before, and now look back, how did these experiences affect you back then?
Lin Lan: From young to old, it seems to be a process from complexity to concentration. I myself used to study mural painting for a long time, and I have been engaged in this public art design for about ten years, and I also want to find some feelings from these designs that I can do something for society, and I don't want to be a student hiding in the bookstore.
In fact, it is also related to the social environment. In the early 90s of last century, when I met the hottest time of Guangdong's reform and opening up, the design rose, the possibility of society appeared, everywhere was very vigorous, I thought, there are already 18 people in the family painting, remember when I went to participate in the 60th anniversary of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, I wanted to bring the children to the family, but because the family is all painting, parents, uncles, cousins and cousins are all brothers and sisters, all went to participate in the school celebration, can not find anyone to help me take the child, In the end, the child can only be stored at a friend's house. Because in such a family, I often wonder if I can do something else, socially related? Therefore, at that time, graduate students would want to take the mural major.
In fact, the mural is not only a wall art, but also a large space art, with the experience of learning murals back to the painting itself, it will make your self relatively lenient, relatively less biased, relatively more calm, so sometimes different professional nutrition, and finally return to a professional above, there will be an unexpected effect.
Nandu: You studied mural painting under Mr. Yuan Yunfu?
Lin Lan: Yes, Mr. Yuan Yunfu has a particularly open and inclusive point of view, the murals he created for the Capital International Airport are painted with oil canvas as the bottom, and the acrylic painted with heavy colors with a heavy color brush, which has the effect of heavy color painting and is easy to clean, and can be directly wiped and cleaned with water after varnish. At that time, I chose Mr. Yuan Yunfu, and I also hoped to learn something good about human art from him. Under his guidance, I went to Dunhuang four times during my graduate studies alone.
Nandu: You finally specialized in Chinese painting and made it an artistic pursuit of your life. In this process, is it more influenced by parents?
Lin Lan: My parents have been painting all their lives, but it is also my original intention. My undergraduate degree is the Chinese Painting Department of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, and from those years of study, I have also deeply cultivated my love for Song painting, and constantly draw the original and most nourishment from traditional Chinese painting.
In fact, the study of mural painting is also inseparable from Chinese painting, and later I have been engaged in mural painting and public art creation for more than 10 to 20 years, and almost all of them are inseparable from Chinese painting, I am using the foundation of Chinese painting to adapt to different environments, so it has not changed, but it is constantly enriched.
From trying different disciplines and majors when you were young, to focusing now, you will slowly discover which one is the self you are best at. Mr. Yang Zhenning said, first, to engage in what you really like, and second, the things you love are not necessarily what you can do, so first choose what I love, and then choose me. But "I love, I can" is not necessarily able to survive, but also have to choose a profession that society needs within 20 years after you graduate from college, and your life choices to consider these points. That is to say, we must consider "what we love, what we can do, and what society needs", and then we will synthesize the last you. So I think from youth to middle age to old age, after this complicated attempt, it slowly becomes a very simple concentration, and I think this process must be indispensable to us.
Nandu: Do you care about the label of "art second generation" on your body for so many years?
Lin Lan: I don't care, this label is a fact (laughs). In fact, my parents were classmates, and they were simple all their lives. If they have experienced a lot of complicated attempts, they have simply focused on painting one thing all their lives. I have been touched by this incident since I was a child, touched by their attitude.
I know that many people copy my father's paintings, and I have copied them myself, and the paintings of my parents are equivalent to my "brothers and sisters" from middle school to college. I grew up in them to feel where art means to a person, and art is something you can devote yourself to without regret for a lifetime.
To be honest, I think painting is interesting, not because of the convenience of the family, but really because of the older generation of their work attitude, that state of commitment, let our next generation of people feel: Ah, this thing is worth investing in a lifetime. So in this sense, the "second generation of art" is a very good thing.
Nandu: Under the aura of my father's generation, will I feel some pressure?
Lin Lan: No. My father had a favorite seal called "Ordinary Heart", and he said that there is no first, only one, in painting: "Red is the only one, green is the only one, there is no first." "He advocates the only, the beautiful and the ordinary. He believes that painting is something you do every day, and others may think that you are very lonely and hard, but it is a daily labor, which is accumulated by thousands of days of labor, and accumulation is your "only". For example, "aesthetic beauty" is his only, many people say that aesthetic beauty is outdated, but he feels that aesthetic beauty is his only. My father taught me this from an early age, and he said to me: You just have to be your own "only" and fine.
Nandu: What do you think is the family atmosphere that your parents have created for you, and the biggest influence they have had on you in terms of art?
Lin Lan: I never felt that they were instilling any experience in me, I just looked at them every day, every day when the sky was dark and the curtains were still backlit, they had already gotten up and painted there, just those two figures, left in my mind. Our family never had a festival, at that time 365 days a year is to eat, paint, at most on the day of the Spring Festival will see a Spring Festival Gala, this is the only time in a year for our family, sitting together for so many hours.
My mother wrote an article recalling the fact that she had been painting for decades. Their influence on me is that I still have to have such a craftsman's attitude when making art. Art has the "art" part, there is also the "art" part, and the "art" part needs to constantly refine it with such an attitude of "craftsman". Because I think they have always treated painting with such a normal, laborious attitude. So really, you say there's going to be some pressure, there really isn't, mainly because they don't give, they just think of this thing as the only thing they want to do, can do, the only thing they want to do.
"There are limits to artistic creation to have the joy and surprise of challenges"
Nandu: What is your current creative status?
Lin Lan: Now the state of creation is more and more specialized than before. After arriving at the academy in 2018, one of the biggest feelings I had was that the academy was a pure creative institution, and 24-hour creation was its duty. If my creation in the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts is to provide a good nutritional support for my own teaching and scientific research, so that I can better teach and educate people, then now I feel that creation is my duty, and it will make you more focused.
Nandu: You are now in charge of the Guangdong Academy of Painting, you have administrative work to do, and you also have personal creations, which identity do you value more?
Lin Lan: This is how I understand administrative work: What we call personnel affairs is nothing more than "managing people well and managing good things", and the second is the premise of the first, this matter must be done well, and people can only sort it out. Then on top of this there is another premise, which is the common ideal. That is to say, everyone here is a smart person, everything is important, if you concentrate these smart people on important things, you need a very high ideal, because in this place of the painting academy, everyone comes here with a very high ideal, not to obey a certain person and a certain organization, but to realize their own ideals, in order to realize the unity of the small self and the big self. At this time, whether there is a higher artistic ideal to unite everyone is very important. As a painter, I know what painters like and want, and I think what I like is what other painters like, and I manage it in this way.
Therefore, administrative work and artistic creation are really not contradictory, in the final analysis, it is still a good thing for everyone to really be together and find the possibility of continuous improvement and improvement of their own art.
Nandu: How do you understand the role of the art academy system in the art world and its social functions?
Lin Lan: In fact, the art academy has existed as early as the Southern Song Dynasty, and many fine paintings of the Song Dynasty appeared in the court painting academy. To put it bluntly, first of all, we must have the leadership to pay attention to, create a better condition for painters, let you devote yourself to creation, you can produce a fine product, the painting academy is such a system, since the Southern Song Dynasty.
Moreover, collective creation must be the creation of the art academy. As an educational unit, the Academy of Fine Arts has the responsibility of education, and the Art Association has the function of organizing artistic activities, but only the Academy of Painting is pure creation, it is a creative institution, painters do this thing here 24 hours, it is possible to organize painters to carry out large-scale collective creation, a group of hot long-term concentration, continuous improvement, this creative mode can only appear in the academy.
Therefore, next, the centenary of the founding of the party, the construction of "two districts", the linkage of Guangzhou and Shenzhen, guangzhou "old city new vitality" and other major themes are our new themes, and we will collectively create around this major historical theme of the country and our province.
Nandu: Speaking of collective creation, last year's large-scale creation "The Wind of the Southern Kingdom", which celebrated the 40th anniversary of the SAR, also appeared in this exhibition, what is the experience for painters to create collective propositions?
Lin Lan: We painted this 16-meter-long scroll for 118 days, and in this hundred or so days, a bunch of us did this one thing. Many painters say that this is a new experience for them, maybe the past personal creation, there is room for personality display, large creation has a major theme, strict requirements, there are many historical events of the organization, screening, there are so many eyes in the examination of you, the painter will be more restricted, but Da Vinci said: "Power is generated in constraints", unrestrained there is no difficulty, because there are restrictions to challenge the fun and surprise.
"Wind of the Southern Kingdom" 300cmx1600cm
The composition of the whole painting is based on the administrative territory of the four special zones, the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge as the line, and the 40 years of construction achievements of the four special zones as the base, including Yantian Port, Tencent, Huawei, BGI Gene, Zhuhai Opera House, etc., in the middle is the Qianhai Stone of reform and opening up. In addition, there are Shantou Tropic of Cancer Monument, Ancient Customs, Xiamen Gulangyu Island, Jimei School Village... What we want to reflect is that the achievements of reform and opening up are not only the events of these 40 years, but also the genes buried in the blood of the people here for more than a hundred years, and our ancestors were already open to the ocean and the world a hundred years ago.
With the building, the next step is to make "masterpieces" and "everyone"
Guangdong Academy of Painting (new site)
Nandu: We see that the new building of Guangdong Academy of Painting is very beautiful, with such a large space and such good hardware conditions, we are looking forward to what improvements it will bring to our Guangdong art circle?
Lin Lan: Mr. Mei Yiqi said that when the times are turbulent, we don't need a building, we only need a master, because a master is our spiritual soul. I think that in the new era of China, "building" and "master" are complementary to each other, now we have a building, of course, the building needs to be further optimized, may be the exhibition hall, constant temperature and humidity, security system optimization. With the hardware of the building, I think there are still three things to do, that is, to make a "big work, everyone, big event".
The so-called "masterpiece" is not just one or two. Only one or two pieces of that are called "surprises", that is called "talent", but those who can really spend a lifetime to write his artistic personality, Zhang Zhang has weight, we can call it "everyone".
After having "big works and everyone", we must engage in "big activities".
The good spirit of Cantonese people lies in "sensitivity to action", but there is a lack of "words", lack of summary, combing, research and dissemination. Things are done, but how this thing is fermented into a more meaningful, continuous, sustainable development strategy, etc., may be something that Guangdong lacks. Therefore, I would like to borrow some major artistic activities to spread our masterpieces of Guangdong art and everyone.
For example, let some national awards settle in Guangdong, such as the national flower and bird painting award. Because Guangdong is a big province of flowers and birds, evergreen in all seasons, flowers and leaves, we have figures, landscapes, flowers and birds in Chinese painting, if in the three disciplines we go to create a flower and bird painting, national, permanent award is possible. I hope that with the help of these large-scale art activities, the "golden signboard" of the Guangdong Academy of Painting will have a radiating effect.
Nandu: In fact, cultivating young artists is also a responsibility of the academy, what are the measures in this regard?
Lin Lan: We want to do a "promotion and training plan for the old middle-aged and young people", using the old site of the academy of paintings to build the project of the Guangdong Academy of Painting, because the paintings are there, and the old man's studio is also there, so the old site has the most favorable conditions for us to set up a research institute. We hope to gather the older generation of artists in the calligraphy and painting circles in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, gather 10-20 people who can represent Guangdong art, conduct in-depth research on them, widely disseminate them, and forge the artistic peak of Guangdong art.
For working painters, it is the prime of life, middle age has a process of continuous progress, if the young painters are small streams and rivers, the older generation is the painting of big rivers and seas, then how to let the stream pour into the sea? How is this path going? I think this is what our working painters at the Guangdong Academy of Painting need to think about, don't "small city is safe", don't "small rich can be", since we are engaged in this cause, we must come with a very high ideal. For this ideal, we still have to constantly forge ourselves. So for working painters we have implemented a "study plan at home and abroad", you can put forward your own training plan, write your own learning plan, we use our own ruler to measure ourselves, with their own standards to review themselves, because each artist has a different personality. Of course, the epidemic has now affected overseas training, but in any case, self-study and self-training must be done.
For young painters, we will change the original Guangdong Youth Painting Institute into an academic project of guangdong Painting Academy, in the form of a project to discover outstanding young authors in Guangdong, with major competitions, major projects, important awards, we directly give indicators, directly to the standard, and at the same time with the Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou Art Museum, etc. to establish a good communication mechanism, recommend these good works in the past, use their collection funds to feed our artists, and use such a mechanism to cultivate our outstanding young artists , from which to discover reserve talents.
We also hope to rely on the "old middle-aged youth promotion and training plan" to build the new site of the Guangdong Academy of Painting into a "Guangdong art major theme creation base", combining the old, middle-aged and young people, after more people, all sides of the opinion, so that the creation is relatively balanced, there will be no hard injuries. At the same time, through this way, we will create a "Guangdong Art Young Reserve Talent Cultivation Base", and push out this Guangdong Art everyone step by step - young people are moving towards middle age, and middle age is moving better.
Written by: Nandu reporter Zhu Rongting intern Qiu Xiaolin