In the past 20 years, the painter Cheng Xiaoguang has taken "sketching" as the direction of landscape art, expressed the aesthetic interest of nature with imagery, and with the prophetic spirit called by the wilderness, "standing in the world to observe the image of things, thinking about the world and writing the heart," footprints all over the mountains and rivers of China, creating a series of "masterpieces" that transcend the ruins of the ecological environment, while changing the concept of academic oil painting and sketching, it also pushes the landscape art on the shelf to a new height. A wash of the body, mind and dust net, and climb towards the peak of spirituality, revealing people to insight into the mysteries of life, nature and sacredness, and reaching the realm of ecological poetics.
Shonan Imagery Series 150cm x 180cm Oil on canvas 2015.
From the perspective of landscape culture or ecological aesthetics, contemporary landscape art has become a vane for human beings to take the lead in nature, reflect on the ecological environment and express self-awareness through landscapes. This is due to the fact that the land given to mankind by the Creator has long since become the domain of various forms of capital or developmentalist ideology, material values and utilitarianism have forcefully replaced the aesthetic and ethical values of nature, and in a country without a sense of repentance, the landscape and the representations of the landscape have been attached to a rather deceptive nature in vain, and the appearance and inner origin of the landscape of the era have been obscured by a false ideological curtain. In this kind of captive living situation, not only is the habitat of life objectified as the existence of identity and non-existence, but also people's ** and expressions have lost their authenticity.
Southern Summer, 160cm*180cm, Oil on canvas, 2015.
The Book of Rites and Music begins with a point of "the movement of people's hearts, and the things make it so", and external objects can touch people's hearts. Then he said: "Life is quiet, and so is the nature of nature." Moved by things, sexual desire. Things are known, and then likes and dislikes are formed. Likes and dislikes are inward, knowledge is tempted outward, and they cannot bow back, and the principles of heaven are destroyed. The touching of things is endless, and the likes and dislikes of people are unrestrained, which is the end of things and the transformation of things. Those who humanize things are also those who destroy the principles of heaven and the desires of the poor. So there is rebellion and deceit, and there are sexual immorality. Therefore, the strong coerce the weak, the many are tyrannical, the knowers are deceitful, the brave are cowardly, the sick are not raised, the old and the young are lonely, and this is the way of chaos. ”
"Humanized thing" means that man is transformed by things, and the objectified person is a material person, as a servant of things, he becomes a slave of material desires and foreign things, although he has a human form, he lacks personality. Kong Yingda Shu: "Foreign things come, and people are in things, good things are good, things are evil, and people are evil, and people are also humanized." Before establishing a gentleman's personality, it is easy for people to "turn things into things". Materialization is discouragement and loss of moral self-discipline, so the objectifier must be materialistic, profit-oriented and egoistic, and those who "destroy the principles of heaven and the desires of the poor".
Shonan Imagery Series 160cm*180cm Oil on canvas 2015.
From the perspective of Chinese civilization, the materialization of nature, the deterioration of the ecological environment and even the non-poetic situation of the landscape can be traced back to the objectification of people's soul and morality, and at the same time, people's universal loneliness, the sense of fate of being thrown away from the true world and being uprooted have become the humanistic basis of landscape representation. The smoke and clouds, the blue air and auspicious clouds, and the fog lost and the moon and the moon masturbated by the classical landscape poetry are full of lingering haze, exhaust gas, and sandstorms in today's vision.
Kunqu Opera - Wushi Ji - Great Beauty Like Water 80cm x 100cm Oil on canvas 2020.
Kunqu Opera - Wushi Ji - Defending Grievances I 80cm x 100cm Oil on canvas 2020.
Cheng Xiaoguang's sketching landscape art contains a powerful spiritual structure, and the concept of sketching has not only been reversed in his artistic thinking, but in fact has also produced a fundamental change in artistic techniques. Different from the realist and even formalist concept of landscape, Cheng Xiaoguang's artistic notes, poems, and discourses first address key issues, such as the "unity of nature and man" and ecological existence; "Imagery aesthetics" and "poetic dwelling" meet; With "there are four major in the domain, man is one", and the fourfold harmony of heaven, earth, man and god meets; With nostalgic poems and "homeland consciousness" to meet; Choosing a place to live and "place consciousness" meets; It is with the above-mentioned multiple connections that the painter uses the above-mentioned multiple connections to construct his own landscape art that contains ancient Chinese ecological wisdom, resources and discourse.
Shonan Image Series 160cm x 180cm Oil on canvas 2015.
Therefore, for Cheng Xiaoguang, a painter with a "second youth", sketching is not a copying or reproduction of nature itself, but an expression of subjective experience, will and passion. Sketching, like the sacred mission of a pilgrim, inspires him to participate in the symbiosis and poetic germination of heaven, earth, man and god. Sketching means facing different scenes, instantly opening up the spiritual world obscured by traditional realistic images, and it means completely immersing one's body and mind in the natural sounds, selflessness and selflessness, so that you forget the mountains in front of you and the rivers at your feet, until your body becomes the charm of the scenery and the god of wind. As a result, it is no longer just a visual field, or even a "landscape", but becomes a composite sensation – a complex of light, color, smell, sound, and haptic experience. This kind of sketch gives a portrait of the heart that illuminates people's hearts, and also calls out the sacred place of the natural world.
One of the carefree flower series 60cmx60cm2023
Sanssono Flower Series No. 2 60cmx60cm2023
In short, Cheng Xiaoguang's sketching is from the eclecticism of "eclectic law" to the freewheeling of "impossible law". With my heart, I will know the heart of all things, and then the heart of heaven and earth. The spirit of freedom has opened up the realm of clarity hidden by the figurative world, so he has won a unique pattern and atmosphere, and has become the most spiritual landscape painter.
Because the painter can control reason with spirituality and control the sensual brushstroke, the specific human geographical elements can be taken care of, and the attention of the theme content of different regions is appropriately balanced, so it is not difficult for the viewer to find that his northern Shaanxi Plateau, Yimeng Mountains, Changdao fishing village and even Penglai Xiandao all have topographical characteristics.
Sanssouci flower series to the third 60cmx60em2023
Sanssouci Flower Series No. 4 60cmx60cm2023
Cheng Xiaoguang's landscape oil painting language creates a unique depth image, which is partly due to his calligraphic characteristics—the writing that transforms the posture of calligraphy, draws on the permeated and transparent writing of landscape painting, and combines the "scratching and scribbling" of Western contemporary painting, thus generating a new calligraphic painting language with strong gestures, rich colors, timeless meanings, and magnificent compositions. For example, its ink hook-style writing lines and writing points, and the large brushstrokes of the Han Li Wei tablet style are quick to write, so that each picture has achieved the overall unity of interest, charm and spirit. This is precisely the inherent artistic charm of his "sketching" landscape, the nobility of life, and the ineffable "divine revelation".
(Wen Daozi, professor at the Academy of Fine Arts of Tsinghua University, famous artist critic).
South of the Clouds, 60cmx60cm2023
Caiyun South Seven 60cmx60cm2023
Caiyun Nan III 60emx60cm2023
South of the Clouds 5 60cmx60cm2023
Peach Blossom Flood No. 3 Paintings, 122cm*488cm*2, Oil on canvas, 2011.
About the Artist
Cheng XiaoguangHe was born in Hunan in 1953 and his ancestral home is Shandong. Artist, founder of "Sketch China", chairman of the China Imagery Oil Painting Research Association, president of the Imagery Oil Painting Research Institute, and vice president of the Beijing International Science, Technology and Cultural Exchange Association.
He lives in Beijing Huairou Qiaozi Art Commune.