When spring comes, it is advisable to return home
2024 Annual Theme Series Works Invitational Exhibition
Curated
Ma Gang. Invited Artists (in alphabetical order).
Chen Duo, Chen Hang, Xiang Jun, Gao Navy.
Kong Geye, Li Fuyan, Li Jun, Liu Jian.
Mo Xiaosong, Ning Qiang, Ren Huizhong, Sun Jian.
Wang Bing, Wang Eryi, Wang Fumin, and Wang Jian.
Xing Qingren, Xue Conglun, You Xusheng, Zhang Wanling.
Zhang Wenping, Zhao Xing, Zou Xiaoping, Zhou Xin.
Sponsorship
Northwest Institute of Chinese Painting, Lanzhou University of Finance and Economics.
The New Year is approaching, and the nostalgia is getting stronger.
When the time is to build a dream, it is appropriate to sing the praises of the time.
Walking to the northwest, I saw the bright moon in the mountains and heard the wind howling in the plains. The desert sand is like snow, calling the wanderer to remember the countryside; The good times are the same as the spring solstice, which leads the world to feel homesick. If there is always a gene in an artist's creation, hometown is always the most profound chapter in his growth experience. The artistic marks of the times and the shared cultural memory maintain the nostalgia and respect of the wanderers. The countryside, the local sound, and the nostalgia infinitely contain the wanderers who "run away", search for the spirit of art, and find the splendor of life, which is the time mapping of the homeland and its stars.
Accordingly, the Northwest Academy of Chinese Painting specially planned and invited more than 20 artists who "left their hometowns" to hold the "Spring Comes, It is Time to Return to Hometown" cloud art exhibition. After years and multi-dimensional explorations, they have formed their own artistic concepts and ways of language. When they meet again, they turn their memories and reality into real and distant feelings, circulating and echoing in the land of Northwest.
—Editor's note
The vast sadness sees warmth
——Landscape painting of the Xiang Army
Xiang Jun, a landscape painter who was born in Minqin, Gansu Province and came out of the western plateau, is inseparable from the true love for the homeland that nurtured him from the material to the expression of artistic conception. The simple rural life he lived in his childhood, and the majesty, thickness, vastness and sadness of the mountains and rivers of the Hexi Corridor initially cultivated his attitude towards life and aesthetic feelings, and also determined the basic direction of his subsequent artistic creation. The art education and painting training he received at Northwest Normal University and ** Academy of Fine Arts made him gradually realize the latent artistic energy in him, and began his path of searching and excavating, groping forward step by step in failure and success. Having extensive contact with domestic and foreign art classics, and under the guidance of famous teachers, his vision was greatly broadened, and he began to touch on the problem that made him both excited and distressed: how can landscape painting not only conform to the conventional universal standards, express the external and internal beauty of objective nature, but also express his inner thoughts and feelings with pleasure and have his own independent appearance. If someone asks what is special about Xiang Jun's paintings in the past 20 years, I think that he has experienced and gained something through continuous study, continuous thinking, and continuous exploration, and has demonstrated his artistic style and enviable artistic ability in expressing the inner beauty of the western landscape. This can be seen in one of his confessions: "...For me, the desert and the Gobi are vast, unpredictable, and thrilling, but what is important is the immensity that can be seen as far as the eye can see, and the feeling of time and space that arises from it. Although the snow-capped mountains are majestic and crystalline, and the grasslands are vast and infinite, the most eternal thing is the mystery and sacredness that people cannot explore. Only by understanding the grandeur of the western landscape, the ancient desolation and the mysterious spiritual temperament that radiates new charm can it be said that we are close to the core of the language of western landscape painting, and it is possible to express all the deep feelings and ...... for the great west with the language of brush and ink”
Xiang Jun perceives the inner spirit and charm of the western landscape from the long, mysterious and unpredictable scenes of time and space, and finds his own language of expression. He not only attaches great importance to sketching and learning from nature, but also attaches more importance to sublimating the feelings obtained from natural scenes on the basis of observation and experience, so as to further write about the hills and valleys in his chest. His painting style gradually shifted from majestic and thick to varied and playful fluttering, which undoubtedly blended with the brush and ink taste of literati painting. The reason for this change, in addition to his in-depth thinking about the western landscape as pointed out above, cannot ignore the inspiration and nourishment he received from the southern landscape.
Aside from the stereotype of "painting is divided into north and south", it should be an indisputable fact that the paintings of the northerners are more majestic and imposing, while the paintings of the southerners are more elegant and beautiful. The vast scenery of the Northwest Heaven and Earth and the heroic character of the Northwest people play a decisive role in the life and artistic genes of the Xiang Jun, and when he studied at the ** Academy of Fine Arts, he was guided by Mr. Jia Youfu, so that his initial paintings have obvious characteristics of northern landscapes: pay attention to the majesty and vigor of language. However, it is impossible for his later life experience and artistic activities in Jiangnan not to have an impact on his painting style. To put it simply, the soft and meticulous painting style of the Southern School of Landscape and the expression method that attaches great importance to the language of brush and ink, especially the change of brush power, will inspire him visibly and invisibly. Of course, he mainly borrowed from the brush and ink of the Southern School, and he had a special fondness for Gong Xian in the eight schools of the Jinling School, and was especially infatuated with Gong Xian's painting style in the Heiti period, and studied his ink accumulation method attentively. In terms of brushwork, he has benefited greatly from Wu Bin's landscapes in the Ming Dynasty, which has strengthened the traditional cultural meaning of his works. In this process, he consciously or unconsciously weakens the method, strengthens the wet brush, dots and lines, and pursues some uncertainty in the shape and a little hazy in the image, so as to enrich the artistic expression of the picture.
In traditional Chinese culture, there is a saying that the northern people are like the south and the southern people are like the north. Of course, it is almost impossible to turn the northerners into the character and customs of the southerners, or, on the contrary, to do so, but the proper absorption of some of the strengths of the other by each will certainly help to perfect one's own personality. The strength of the painting of the northerners is borrowed from the paintings of the southerners, and the delicate softness of the paintings of the northerners is referred to in the paintings of the southerners. This is the characteristic of Xiangjun's landscape painting creation in recent years, such as the "Northwest Wind" series, "Western Heart" series, "Sanqing Mountain" series, "European Sketch" series, "Garden Sketch" series, etc., which are also a manifestation of the "Northerners and South Portraits" in his works in recent years!
The reason why I think that Xiang Jun continues to explore his goal and has a lot of room for the future is because he is not disturbed by the bad atmosphere in the current art world. There are two worrisome tendencies in the creation of landscape painting in China today: one attaches too much importance to sketching, aiming to imitate the reality of nature, without the imagination and creativity of the author, and also lacks the taste of brush and ink; The other is to return to the traditional literati pen and ink as the name, obsessed with the pen and ink symbols of the predecessors, forgetting the predecessors' teaching of writing form and spirit, both form and spirit, the picture has a superficial antique appearance, but there is no cultural spirit and artistic conception that the ancients valued, which is actually another manifestation of the author's lack of imagination and creativity. Xiang Jun's efforts seem to run counter to these two tendencies, and he closely combines the teaching of nature with the teaching of the ancients and the importance of his own inner experience, and comprehensively hammers his strength and improves his cultivation. A few years ago, when I read Xiang Jun's paintings, I once said that he was "not only good at meticulous 'dense body' painting, but also quite accomplished in 'sparse body' ink painting, he is a multi-faceted painter." I thought that his dreamlike ink and wash landscape paintings created by him in exaggerated techniques have their own personality and characteristics, and their works have strong tension. Looking at his recent works, I feel that he has continued to delve into the classical tradition, not only to study the techniques in the works of his predecessors, especially the brushwork techniques, but also to experience how the works can obtain pure style and character. The theory and practice of traditional painting seem to have strengthened his understanding that art is the true reflection of character, and that people's character and cultivation will naturally flow in their works. Xiang Jun was an honest man, painting honestly and passionately, and his efforts were rewarded; There is a new expansion in art, and his works are more and more praised and appreciated by the industry and the audience.
It is hoped that Xiangjun will continue to follow the principle of traditional Chinese painting, "foreign teachers create nature, and the heart is the source", and strive to go to the depths and heights of art to achieve greater success!
(Wen Shao Dazhen, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor of **Academy of Fine Arts).
Direction Jun Works Appreciation
Siming Villa at the foot of Qingliang Mountain.
Ink on paper. 246x200cm
In 2023.
It's cool and autumnal.
Ink on paper. 240x200cm
In 2017.
The breeze blows through the green fields.
Ink on paper. 240x200cm
In 2019
Longdong people. Ink on paper.
240x200cm
In 2020
Si Chun Goddess should be intentional.
Ink on paper. 246x200cm
In 2022
Xifeng Heshui Li Zhuang sketch.
Ink on paper. 80x60cm
In 2016.
Sketching in the snow field on the outskirts of the West Peak.
Ink on paper. 80x60cm
In 2016.
Qingyang Huanxian Han Wazi sketch.
Ink on paper. 80x60cm
In 2016.
The north wind swept the ground and the white grass folded.
Ink on paper. 225x100cm
In 2016.
The snow is clear, the clouds are light, and the sun is cold.
Ink on paper. 136x68cm
In 2020
The ridge is full of red.
Ink on paper. 136x68cm
In 2022
The western slope is full of mountains and mountains.
Ink on paper. 136x68cm
In 2022
Wenxing Guoyunchang.
Ink on paper. 240x200cm
In 2018.
Northwest Institute of Chinese Painting, Lanzhou University of Finance and Economics.
Artist Profile
Direction Army,Gansu Minqin people. He graduated from the Fine Arts Department of Northwest Normal University, majoring in Chinese painting. He is currently the vice president of Jiangsu Provincial Academy of Chinese Painting, deputy director of the Art Committee, and a professor. Master tutor of Soochow University and Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.