I once wrote a review of Mr. Yu Guowei's artwork, and some friends thought it was pretty good, but now looking back, I think it's a bit gorgeous, and gorgeous things tend to hide their authenticity and heart. I hurriedly wrote another article for this exhibition of Brother Guo Wei, which is to examine Brother Guowei's artworks from the perspective of a poet and the perspective and vision of a large culture.
The current period of Chinese art is the most harmonious and prosperous in the past 40 years, and various schools of art have tolerated each other and begun to merge and innovate. But at the same time as technological progress, another kind of worry comes to mind, that is, petty feelings, copying others, repeating oneself. The artist lacks attention to grand themes, let alone consistently and persistently creates great ideals. Such an ending is that the work is fine, but there is no emotion, no direction in the work, and no power for the viewer to see the blood and blood and the intestines. Because there is no feeling, the pattern of the works is becoming smaller, and some of the works are very large in size, and they are steaming on the surface, but they have no spirit and taste.
The spirit is not necessarily the mountains and seas, maybe it is a red plum, but the subtleties of the pen and ink are moving, and people have a broad and firm view of life and even life. Because art is not an ornament, but to reflect and illuminate human nature. This is the fundamental core of art, many painters ignore it, they just paint and paint, only know how much money per square foot, and do not know that art is oriented, let alone that art should be a good medicine, or a torch, which has the effect of making humanity better and better. That's why I say that what art lacks most at present is not the boutique, but the feelings. Ideals, morality, care, compassion and chivalrous courage are derived from feelings. The feelings seem to be very large, but in fact they are very small, so small that they cannot be seen, but like a kind of gas permeating the artist's body and mind. A sigh, a tear, an affectionate glance at the lowly, and an angry glare at the ** are all manifestations of emotional instinct. More importantly, feelings can lead artists to get closer to great beauty, great love, and great ideals. Therefore, our art world needs the fire of feelings to burn out works that are sympathetic to human nature, great care for life, and great warmth.
It is gratifying to see the light of feelings in the protagonist of our exhibition today, Yu Guowei. I firmly believe that a work of art can be seen, that is, the heart and spirit of the artist can be seen through the ink and the objects depicted. In terms of technology, Yu Guowei's works will definitely have something to learn from everyone, but there is no sickness-free moaning in his works, no obscurity and gloom, and no grandstanding for the sake of innovation. There is light in his works, and there is the courage, confidence and strength to pursue and open up to the distance.
Specifically, the first is that there are great ambitions in his works, that is, ideal feelings. The ideal is to be a beacon that guides people forward in the dark night, requiring the painter to always have a heart of admiration for beauty and sublimity, and to move forward. Once upon a time, our art placed too much emphasis on intelligence, causing technology to rise and style to decline. Our painters are also too obsessed with trivial and fragmented scenes. Artists should not only contribute to the world for beauty, but also give people confidence and strength, not only confidence and strength, but also awaken people's souls. Good art is a kind of education for people, so that people become pure, and take beauty, love, and freedom as a lifelong belief, so as to abandon obscenity and pursue a meaningful and interesting life. The ancients have long said, "The heart is cold with frost, and the ambition is with the clouds." "(Jin Dynasty Lu Ji) is to propose that writers and all artists should have pure hearts and lofty aspirations. In Yu Guowei's works, we can see this kind of sentiment and pattern. Looking through all of Yu Guowei's works, his ideal feelings can be divided into two kinds: one is to take pure beauty and purity as the realm of art; One is to give people courage, faith and hope as the pursuit of art. The former is self-reflection, self-cultivation, subtraction, and subtraction of inner distractions in order to reach the vast and boundless realm of art and life, which is the traction of art. The latter is for him, it is addition, and it is the appeal of art to influence people with the spirit transmitted by the works. The former is birth, emptiness, and softening. The latter is WTO accession and reality. Actually, I'll limit it a little bit here, which is the actual feeling. Personally, I pay more attention to the real part. I remember Brother Guowei said such a sentence, that is: people can have nothing, but they can't have no hope. Then art can give people hope and the courage to pursue hope, which is a kind of salvation for people. A work of art can have such a function, that is, it turns the virtual into reality, it is the light that enlightens and saves the soul from confusion.
So aesthetically speaking, how does Brother Guowei transform the invisible void of feelings into the visible reality of art? This cannot fail to mention the driving force of art, which is passion. Without passion, the ideal is just a gasoline barrel, and only passion can make the ideal soar into a raging fire. And passion itself is fire, urging the artist to create. But without ideals, passion is easy to deviate. Passion and feelings make Brother Yu Guowei's works faster, like a big river going east, pouring thousands of miles.
Therefore, these works of Yu Guowei are dynamic, or static first and then moving. A good painting is always made up of stillness. Looking at his works, it is really like a torrent flowing towards us, some are magnificent, some are not magnificent, but they are also surging and have a strong impact. This is a power, an irrepressible passion. This passion forms the veins of the work of art, which swells and rushes, making water and ink boil and even roll forward. At the same time, it pulls the reader so that we can't help but devote all our eyes to it, and then the emotions stir and the heart shakes because of it! This is not mysterious, but mysterious, because good art has bacteria, and they are all contagious. It spreads into the appeal and influence of art.
If you find a key word to summarize the aesthetic character of Yu Guowei's works, it is Xiongjian. Male is male, that is, anti-void into the muddy, and accumulating health for male. Health is vigorous, that is, the spirit is like the air, and the spirit is like a rainbow. Majestic and vigorous (in fact, two qualities) are the temperament of his works, which is the unity of fiction and reality, spirit and appearance. Showing momentum on the outside, it is vast, sweeping away. It is condensed into a kind of bearing, which refers to the thickness of people's cultivation and spirit, that is, the wind and rain, only the soul is calm and unhurried, and sonorous and powerful. In this way, his works have the inspiration and meaning of Tianxingjian gentleman should be self-improvement (such a meaning permeates all his works, and specific examples will not be mentioned).
I see this sentence as the theme of Yu Guowei's art work, which shines with sober heroism and solid idealism. Heroism is preceded by sobriety to show that the painter does not blindly exaggerate himself, such as Hamlet. Instead, they know that they are afraid of difficulties and do their best. Down-to-earth idealism also means this, that is, having ideals in mind, but not forgetting to consolidate every step. It should be pointed out that all works are the highlight of the artist's personality, and the artist's heart has mountains and seas, so that the works can be vast and open. When the heart is opened, the pattern is bigger. I understand all of this as the meaning of Yu Guowei's work.
The second kind of emotion is the warmth and deep emotions revealed in Yu Guowei's works. In short, it is the love and righteousness in the work. Affection and righteousness are the heart and gall of all works, and a little more simplified is the sense of justice and compassion. In theory, it is called humanitarianism, and in life, it is called kind-hearted. I've seen too many smart and talented people, but they didn't make it in the end, they just lacked a good heart. A good heart is chivalrous and soft, it allows you to treat all things with sincerity, care for the weak, and dare to criticize inhumane things and things. From this point of view, many of Yu Guowei's works are WTO and have the warm and cold atmosphere of the world. This is different from the theme of Chinese painting, which advocates transcendence and freedom from the world. But this is not a contradiction, the direction of Yu Guowei's work is in line with the artistic conception of Chinese painting, that is, tranquility and transcendence, which is his conscious behavior. This was the focus of my original review for him. And I said that there are fires and flames in Guowei's works, which are the natural expression of his temperament and personality, and they are unconsciously automatic. Let's talk about the hearth fire first, the hearth fire is affectionate, righteous, loving, and breathing of life. For example, "Birdsong Drives Fog and Looks at the Sunrise", "Changbai Spring" and "Walking Wuxia" Although the works are majestic and imposing. But the love still seeped through. As with all the works of painting landscapes and seas, there is a kind of jubilation, enthusiasm and joy that is revealed. These works are warm, and we can see that the painter has poured his true affection and irrepressible love for life, nature, hometown, and every plant and tree. In particular, he is good at painting a touch of red in a piece of grass or above the sea, such as "Crane Singing Jiugao", "Red Sun Shines on the Sea", "Sun Reflecting Red Beach" and so on, giving people a joyful galloping momentum. This red color is the finishing touch, and it is transmitted to the audience, which is a kind of excitement and excitement, and then has a positive power for life. This is where the value of the painter's emotional temperature of life and life lies.
Speaking of fire, I see the fire in my work as his attitude towards life. You see some of his paintings, such as "Return", "Return", etc., the colors are darkened in the twilight, and the artistic conception has a sense of condensation, the picture is warm, but it is also a little dignified. This is another mood of the painter. There is also the fight for spring, the flowers and plants that grow in several stone crevices, there is tenacious vitality, of course, there are congenital deficiencies, we are rejuvenated by its spirit and fighting spirit at the same time, but also sigh: how long the big tree on the stone slab, can not grow the grass on the top of the fertile mountain. And so, the thought came out. That's the metaphor. All works should have an off-string sound, and works that do not arouse people's associations and expand people's imagination are not good works. We can see these as the spiritual history of the painter in different periods, with sighs and helplessness, as well as resistance and disobedience. Therefore, these works also give people a bit of a low and depressed feeling, but this is not negative, but a profound view of life, which is the presentation of another life experience and inner world of the painter. We can see it as his silence on the unreasonable and unbright part of the good world. This resentment of the present world and fate is the edge of his work, which gives his work thickness and depth.
The fire makes his works ruddy, plump and warm. And the depth and resistance give his works the strength of thought. It also proves that Yu Guowei is an artist with great love and great pain. Although there are thoughts and resentment in this part, it is still mainly lyrical, and it is the expression of a variety of emotions. That's why I call it the sentiment in Yu Guowei's poetry.
Finally, I use electric fire as a metaphor for the technological exploration in Yu Guowei's works, that is, the feelings of innovation. Art is always fond of the new and dislikes the old, and innovation is only made in a familiar place to make a sense of strangeness, and make the feeling of being shocked by an electric shock. Every new breakthrough in art is an out-of-body experience, like lightning that instantly crosses the sky and illuminates the dark part of the mind, which is the electric fire of inspiration. This also shows that every progress in art is a technological progress, and it is the innovation and advancement of methods and techniques. The first contest between writers is not the content, but the craft, that is, facing the same subject matter to see who is more unique.
Of course, whether or not this step can be achieved depends on the artist's aesthetic power. Some painters have deep kung fu and are very old and spicy, but when they look at their works, they always feel very clumsy and have no spirituality, which is not enough aesthetic power. Yu Guowei's works may still need to be learned from artists in terms of techniques and the use of brush and ink. But as soon as he made a move, there was a kind of charm in his works, revealing a unique beauty. This is talent, innate aesthetic power and sensibility for art. Many painters try to paint what they want to do and how to do it well, and that's true, but they lose sight of what they want to express. To express something, it is a step closer than drawing. This is the phenomenon that moves closer to the mind. Of course, when the artist's lofty mind and lofty values and aesthetics become the quality of the artist, the artist can freely and casually "blind" painting, and all the works of art will become the symbol of his heart, the code of his thoughts, and his view of the world and the universe. The uncertain picture and vague subject matter may represent the painter's larger cosmology. This may be the psychological context in which contemporary art is produced. Of course, Yu Guowei's artistic creation has not yet reached such a height and degree of freedom, and he is still on the basis of painting, how can he express his inner desire and let his thoughts be more deeply and appropriately integrated in ink painting, but also reveal his instinctive yearning for more free and willful play.
Yu Guowei's artistic exploration first pursues the overall sense of poetry, that is, the charm. Secondly, his compositions are all striving for novelty, or a sudden rise of a cliff in the wilderness, a clear spring in a mountain forest flashing like lightning, and a few white wings shining like stars in the vast sea of reeds, as well as a little red berries like fireflies in the autumn colors, all of which immediately make the picture vivid and have a sense of steepness for a moment. And the picture is both familiar and unfamiliar; It's real, it's like a dream. But what the artist wants to paint is the scenery that he often has in his heart but has not encountered in his life, that is, between the image and the dislike. The best works are those that move you and shock your heart, but you can't say the specific meaning, that is, you want to argue and forget to speak. This is the artistic situation that Yu Guowei has achieved intentionally or unintentionally. It's not technology, it's intelligence, it's not a big creation, but it's definitely a small discovery, and it's a combination of IQ and emotional intelligence. Its principle is to make the still scene move and come alive in an instant. This is the poetry of the long-lasting aftertaste. This kind of poetry is like the echo of the empty valley reverberating back and forth, and the longer it lasts, the more flavorful it becomes.
In short, reading Yu Guowei's art works, I often fall into this charm. Thinking about where his first stroke began and where it ended, silently experiencing the rhythm, where it is fast and where it is slow, the ups and downs of emotions and even breathing. This is to experience and enjoy this charm, and the spiritual realm of Yu Guowei conveyed by this charm in the charm, so what is his spiritual realm?
In his lyricism of passion like a shower and contemplation like the sea, his heart is not in a hurry, but his mind is extremely active, up to the clouds and down to the core of the earth. This shows that he pursues the ethereal of art forms while striving for the solidity of his thoughts. This is a contrast, but also a complementarity, illustrating the perfection of a person's personality and the richness of his heart. We can understand it this way, the shape (appearance) of the painter is elegant, agile and transcendent, while the spirit (spirit) is firm and calm. Artistically, Yu Guowei strives to fly upwards until he enters the realm of silence in the clouds. But in thinking, he sinks hard downward, until he sinks to the springs of the world, and squeezes out all impurities and vanities, so that his thoughts and his personality are as pure as the distant echoes of striking bronze and bronze.
Therefore, Yu Guowei is a painter who pursues the realm, and painting is his efforts to make a spiritual leap in ordinary life. Some people say that art is a gentle anesthetic, making people temporarily forget the repression of life and the pain of reality. But for Yu Guowei, art is an ideal, a salvation, and a great beauty. Art can make him better observe reality, love life, and also let him enter the artistic conception of spiritual exaltation and beauty. It's a real life. Because all matter is a process, and the absolute freedom and beauty of the spirit is the ultimate destination of human beings. I understand this as the highest ideal and the best state of Yu Guowei's painting. It is also the only way for innovation and breakthrough in contemporary ink art.
(Wen Li Li, Deputy Secretary-General of the Organizing Committee of the Chinese Poetry Journey, Vice President of the Liaoning New Poetry Society, Executive Editor-in-Chief of Shenzhen Poetry, and Special Editor-in-Chief of Mammoth Poetry Magazine).
*: China Poetry Network).
Artist Profile
Yu Guowei, the fisherman. Postgraduate degree, Ph.D. degree. He is a national first-class artist, a visiting scholar of Lu Yushun, president of the National Academy of Painting, a member of the Chinese Artists Association, a member of the China Literature and Art Critics Association, the former vice chairman of the Liaoning Provincial Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the Liaoning Artists Association, and the deputy director of the Chinese Painting Art Committee of the Liaoning Artists Association.