This article is an excerpt from the December 2020 issue of Calligraphy and Painting World magazine.
National Collection of Fine Arts.
Happy. Greet. Pull. Use.
Scholars and artists are welcome to cite this article, and the format of the reference entries after this article (refer to the national standard GB T 7714-2015 "Information and Literature - Bibliographic Rules") is as follows:
1] Du Zhidong. Melting Matter Me: The Landscape Painting of He Tianjian in the 50s of the 20th Century [J].Painting and Calligraphy World, 2020(12):10-13
Take the method of melting the matter me
——The landscape painting of He Tianjian in the 50s of the 20th century
Wen Du Zhidong.
National Art Museum of China.
With the founding of the People's Republic of China, the new society has new requirements for the function and form of art, and the quality of literature has changed, and all painters here are no exception. The "New Chinese Painting Movement", which began in the 50s of the 20th century, is a movement carried out by the art world to transform traditional Chinese painting in order to meet the artistic needs of the new era. Many traditional painters engaged in the creation of landscape painting actively responded to the literary and artistic policies of New China, changed their creative ideas and concepts in the context of the new era, and devoted themselves to the exploration of new Chinese painting with great enthusiasm. They either went to nature, learned from the law, or on the basis of profound traditional skills, pushed through the old and brought forth the new, and under the inspiration of expressing new rivers and mountains, they wrote about the great changes in the mountains and rivers, and devoted themselves to the upsurge of socialist construction with full pride of the times. These works not only have distinctive characteristics of the times, but also have a certain development in language schema and style. He Tianjian (1891-1977) was such a painter who was influenced by the national literary and artistic policies and the trend of the times, and sincerely and actively transformed his artistic taste and work form. The 50s of the 20th century was the heyday of He Tianjian's artistic creation, and his important masterpieces were completed at this stage. In his book "Self-Description of the Process of Learning to Paint Landscapes", he said: "In my sixty or seventy years of life, I have played a great role in artistic changes, and it is worth counting the ten years of this stage. 1]40 Therefore, the study of He Tianjian's landscape paintings during this period can help us to further understand the artistic exploration and transformation of his painting style in the new era of these traditional painters.
He Tianjian, Splendid Rivers and Mountains, 150cm, 3603cm
1952 Collection of the National Art Museum of China.
He Tianjian was born in Wuxi, Jiangsu, as a representative of the late Shanghai School, his works started from the "Four Kings", and then traced back to the Song and Yuan dynasties, and the law of the traditional landscape of the Five Dynasties and the Two Song Dynasty was skillful, and his works won the essence of "Dong Ju". Taking the founding of the People's Republic of China as the boundary, He Tianjian's creations present a large difference in style before and after, and his early works (before the founding of New China) "although they use vivid and mature brush and ink techniques, the objective authenticity of the works is not clearly reflected compared with the later works." All the straight strokes, delicate ink colors, and clear colors, regardless of the lofty mountains and mountains, and the sparse forests, prove that the author, although constantly changing and novel, before the age of fifty, was mainly a teacher of the ancients" [2] . For example, the "Guanshan Tu" created in the 30s of the 20th century is close to the chapter layout of the Song people's "Xuelu Early Journey", which is a typical Song painting structure. The classic far-reaching schema shows the painter's profound traditional skills, and a path in the painting goes deep into the distance, "half of the sky outside the Guan, interspersed with several peaks", so that the picture gives birth to "dense and secluded feelings, so that people have a sense of misty journey in this atmosphere" [1]132. The title of the picture says: "I have the most Jing Guan in my life, and I finally feel that Ni Huang is flat." It's not a vertical and horizontal vulgar eye, the old man's pen is natural. In the twilight of the year, drinking ten buckets to make this wonderland, ten days to become it. It reveals He Tianjian's heroic and straightforward unbridled feelings and artistic pursuits.
In the transformation of Chinese painting in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the lack of realistic representation of real life was considered to be a common problem in the creation of landscape painting at that time. Feeling the changes of the times and the new atmosphere of life after the founding of the People's Republic of China, He Tianjian sincerely felt that some themes in the past (such as idle content such as "Panasonic playing the piano" and "talking about the valley", as well as negative content such as "high hidden pictures" and "drinking to relieve sorrows", as well as some precipice and wilderness scenes where people are extinct) are no longer suitable for the atmosphere of the new era, and they are themes that are "unhealthy to the top". He actively responded to the call for literary and artistic creation at that time, and successively went to Zhenjiang, Yangzhou, Suzhou, Hangzhou, and Anhui, and sketched in Chaohu, Fuchunjiang, Tongjiang, Yanlingse, and Huangshan, and began to explore the realistic expression of Chinese painting. At this time, He Tianjian obviously paid more attention to learning from nature, and focused on discovering beauty in real landscapes. Another major change in He Tianjian's creation at this time was that he began to try to create characters in modern clothing. He once visited the countryside and factories in the suburbs of Shanghai and began to insist on character sketching practice, "except for meetings and illness, the pen never leaves his hand". These modern figures have become the embellishment of various labor scenes in his landscape works, and more importantly, in the process of sketching and sketching, He Tianjian has gained a deep understanding of the spirit of the times, which has then become the driving force for his artistic innovation.
He Tianjian, Meishan Reservoir 693cm×97.6cm
1956 Collection of the National Art Museum of China.
In May 1952, in order to celebrate the World Peace Conference held in Beijing, He Tianjian borrowed Chen Qiucao's residence to create a huge golden landscape "Splendid Rivers and Mountains", which received great repercussions after the completion of the work and received wide attention and appreciation in the art world. Huang Binhong sent a letter when he heard it: "Recently, there are new creations of Jinbi landscapes, which will be ...... by the people's artThis is the earliest work of He Tianjian to receive wide attention from the art world in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China. "Splendid Rivers and Mountains" is 150cm in length and 360cm in width, with huge size, majestic composition, rich and heavy colors, and brilliant gold, which perfectly shows the magnificent and majestic posture of the mountains and rivers of the motherland. He Tianjian's works use the "Jinbi format", that is, the method of large green and gold, according to the yin and yang frame, adding gold dots and brushes to the places and leaves where the sun side of the mountain stone receives light and the leaves in the painting, and the overall tone is harmonious and unified. Different from the winding path and the slow traveler in "Guanshan Tu", "Splendid Rivers and Mountains" shows a flat modern road built on the mountain wall, and the galloping transport vehicles show the busy scene of socialist construction. This also makes this landscape work created by traditional expression techniques suddenly have a distinct atmosphere of the times and a new picture meaning. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, He Tianjian created many tribute works, in addition to "Splendid Rivers and Mountains", as well as "Spring to the South of the Yangtze River, Splendid Land" and "Clouds Open and Sunny, Mountains and Rivers" completed in 1959. This kind of work is extremely close to the historical context in terms of the theme, the way of expression, and even the naming of the work. This is the embodiment of his joy in the new era, which reveals a creative attitude of endless praise for the mountains and rivers of the motherland. Among them, "Spring to the South of the Yangtze River, the Splendid Land" is made by He Tianjian to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the liberation of Shanghai, although it is also the use of green method, but the picture of the work has no heavy color, the overall tone is pure and elegant, the water surface is left blank in a large area, the pen tone is relaxed, the depiction is fine, and the new green on the shore shows the bright and soft scene of Jiangnan Fandel in spring. The whole work is very comforting.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, large-scale socialist construction was launched, and various forms of construction themes began to become the objects of active expression by painters. In terms of water conservancy, since the 50s of the 20th century, a large number of water conservancy projects have been completed, such as Foziling, Meishan, Xin'an River, and Sanmenxia of the Yellow River. In the early summer of 1956, He Tianjian went to Foziling Reservoir and Meishan Reservoir in Anhui Province with the visiting delegation of the Shanghai Artists Association to visit and sketch, and created works such as "Meishan Reservoir" after returning to Shanghai. The construction of the Meishan Reservoir attracted wide attention in those years, and people like Lu Yanshao, Zhang Wenjun and others had created works on this theme. He Tianjian's "Meishan Reservoir" is different in that he does not record the construction scene of the reservoir construction, nor does it have a large-scale labor scene. He subtly, perhaps instinctively, avoids depicting such scenes. In this work, the magnificent dam project is integrated with the momentum of the mountains, showing the changes of the times of the socialist landscape, and the grand composition perspective with broad artistic conception makes the picture full of fresh and bright atmosphere of the times.
Zhenjiang Xiangshan (1954) depicts the scene of rock survey and mapping by geology students of Nanjing University in Zhenjiang Xiangshan. This work is reminiscent of Liu Zijiu's "Searching for Resources for the Motherland" (1956), which also depicts geological surveys, but the geomorphological characteristics presented in the two paintings are completely different. "Looking for Resources for the Motherland" is written in the stone method of the Northern Zongshan Mountain, highlighting the majestic and magnificent characteristics of the northern landscape, while "Zhenjiang Xiangshan" stands on the riverside, "green bushes and ridges, such as covered with green quilts". Although the figures dotted in the two works are small, they constitute a very crucial existence in highlighting the theme of the work—the prosperity of geological exploration in New China and the use of nature by the builders. Through the inscription, we can see that He Tianjian thoughtfully used green expressions such as "snail green dot pecking" on the basis of analyzing the landform of Xiangshan Mountain, which shows that what is reflected in this work is basically his use of traditional techniques and procedures. Although in the wave of transformation of new Chinese painting, in order to effectively distinguish it from the value orientation of traditional literati painting, many painters are transforming and adapting based on the content and form, and realizing the expression of natural landscapes and production and life in real life through sketching. However, from this work of He Tianjian, it can be seen that he still adheres to the subjective initiative of his personal artistic concept within a certain range. On the basis of the in-depth study of the landscape painting tradition and the extensive exposition of the natural mountains and rivers, the relationship between the theme artistic conception and the brush-and-ink technique can be further dealt with, which can not only be close to the times in terms of theme concept, but also combine the traditional techniques with the in-depth study, so as to make the picture fresh and full of vitality.
He Tianjian, Zhenjiang Xiangshan 1083cm×75.5cm
1954 Collection of the National Art Museum of China.
In 1955, He Tianjian created "September Tongjiang Tree Red", which is a representative work of his exploration of small green landscape paintings. This work is not only derived from the author's realistic perception of traveling on the Tongjiang River, but it is by no means a sketch in the sense of Western painting. What you see along the way: Xiuling, river beach, and tree leaves, through the painter's artisan management, constitute a misty and calm artistic conception. The turquoise of the mountain and stone surface contrasts strongly with the thick red of the leaves, while the clouds and mist across the picture unify the artistic conception. It is worth noting that this work is He Tianjian's improvement of the traditional Chinese art expression of green landscape by borrowing the colors of oil painting. As an artist who has entered New China since then, He Tianjian is not only good at traditional painting, but also has the ability to integrate China and the West. This is inseparable from his early experience of studying Western painting. In this painting "Tongjiang Tree Red in September", He Tianjian refers to some Western painting theories and techniques (color science, etc.). He incorporated a new method of observation, changed the traditional layout and composition form of Chinese painting, and boldly borrowed the color expression characteristics of oil painting in color, "making it more vivid and flexible than the style of our original blue-green painting. Some people call my paintings a new school. I'm very relieved! I am glad that my paintings have become new" [1]43. As an old painter who has been deeply involved in tradition for many years, He Tianjian did not feel too uncomfortable in his creation because he was in the new era, but actively explored the breakthrough of traditional green landscape painting, and at the same time was able to clearly make judgments on inheritance and innovation, reference and choice. In his view, "we must absorb and digest all good things in ancient and modern China and abroad." We absorb and digest in order to develop relationships on the basis of tradition, and to learn from them, not to replace them" [1]159.
In 1959, He Tianjian held a solo exhibition in Beijing, and Fu Baoshi wrote an article entitled "Brush and Ink in the Times" after visiting the exhibition: "The ancients said that 'calligraphy and painting can be discussed in the world, but in the world is enough to know people'. He Lao is a ...... who loves the new societyHe is able to pursue new things desperately, and pursue things that are enough to reflect the new people and new things in the new era. "He Lao's paintings, whether they are large or large, or small in size, green and heavy color, or ink and light color, give people a common feeling, that is, the breath of life is relatively strong, and at the same time, the pen is exquisite and the atmosphere is myriad. 3] Different eras have different values, and as times change, the standards of aesthetics will naturally change. As a "traditionalist", He Tianjian has always embraced the new society with great enthusiasm in his later years, thinking about the development and convergence of traditional brush and ink forms in the new era. His exploration is full of novelty and ancient methods, full of romantic lyrics belonging to that era. Although this kind of change and attempt is only gradual, and its significance is not as prominent as that of Li Keran under the values of the times of "new content" and "new form", this exploration is a response to the proposition of how to inherit the tradition, improve and innovate in modern Chinese painting in the changing times. Especially when we examine the changes of He Tianjian and other painters from a historical perspective, we will find that their experiences, choices and efforts in the context of the time constitute a different landscape under the pattern of the times.
References. 1] He Tianjian. Self-description of the process of learning to paint landscapes[M].Beijing: People's Fine Arts Publishing House, 1992
2] Qin Zhongwen. He Tianjian's Aftermath of the Exhibition[J].Fine Arts, 1990 (9).
3] Fu bouldering. Brush and ink are in the times: I have a feeling when I see "He Tianjian's Solo Exhibition" [n].People**,1959-08-25(7).