Recently, the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) launched the fourth exhibition of the "Drama Rhyme Danqing" opera character painting series, which for the first time shifted the form of the exhibited works from ink painting to the field of oil painting, bringing together the masterpieces of three generations of artists from the old, middle and young generations, and interpreting the meaning of opera with the language of oil painting.
Will Xianghe (oil painting) 2022 Yang Pei.
The ancestors of the Chinese nation left behind incomparably rich and dazzling treasures of traditional art, which have occupied an important position in the spiritual life of the Chinese people for thousands of years. Opera is one of the unique and ancient traditional art forms in China, which plays a non-negligible role in the historical cognition, moral construction and cultural cultivation of ordinary people. Chinese opera is deeply rooted in the essence of traditional culture, on the stage, one table and two chairs, singing, chanting, playing, rhythmic singing, all relying on the highly stylized performance of the actors, creating specific dramatic situations and vivid characters, which is in line with the traditional arts of the whole China such as literature, painting, calligraphy, poetry, etc., representing the unique aesthetic characteristics of Chinese. In the Chinese painting tradition, opera has long been the subject of pictorial expression. In the early 20th century, there was a unique phenomenon of "opera character painting" in the history of modern Chinese art, such as the ink and oil paintings of famous artists such as Lin Fengmian and Guan Liang. In recent years, the creation of Chinese opera character painting has maintained an active momentum, and most of the related painters have academic backgrounds, and they have revealed the innocent pursuit of artistic exploration in Chinese and Western art media, emphasizing the excavation of the connotation of opera and the unique expression of formal beauty.
Drama Life: Mother and Daughter (Oil Painting) 2013 Yu Xiaofei.
The combination of oil painting and opera is not only an exploration of the sinicization of oil painting, but also opens up a new realm of art creation on the theme of opera. The 38 oil painters who participated in this exhibition brought a total of 92 masterpieces, showing the front and back scenes of opera in the form of oil paintings, and unfolding a rich visual world for the audience. For example, Jin Shangyi's work "Hongqiao Gift Pearls" emphasizes the aesthetic requirements of calligraphy, and the color contrast of the works is strong, and the head decoration and pattern style of the characters are depicted in detail, showing the graceful, heroic and resolute characteristics of the Lingbo fairy on the stage. Yan Ping, Yu Xiaofei and Zhang Linong love opera, and are especially good at showing the front and back scenes of rural opera troupes, bringing a refreshing feeling to the audience. For example, Yu Shaofei's work "Students of the Academy of Opera" depicts a girl in a costume but without makeup, the work pursues a classical realistic style, the painting method is rigorous and meticulous, pays attention to the subtle expressions of the characters, and uses the techniques of classical realistic oil painting to express the beauty of traditional Chinese opera art. This conveys the essence of the characters' charm and colorful opera costumes; Yang Pei, Zhang Xiaopeng, and Bian Jiuqiu used their own hearts to experience the art of opera, seized the moment of stage performance, and created opera characters with character, brilliance, and style, such as Yang Pei's Peking Opera and Kunqu Opera series of works, because he himself was born as a Kunqu Opera actor, his works are full of stage and artistic sense, and the characters are accurate in shape and proportion, especially the portrayal of the eyes, which is infectious, and the characters in the painting seem to be about to come out; Wang Qijun spent two years creating a huge oil painting "The Long Song of the Prosperous Age", which brought together 19 Dan characters, which were from 19 Peking Opera repertoire, and the creators verified them many times during the creation process, so as to depict the characters' facial expressions, costume materials, crown and ribbon ornaments, pearl treasures, etc., in detail, conveying the artist's awe of the art of opera and the praise of truth, goodness and beauty.
Compared with ink opera character paintings, opera oil paintings have opened up a different kind of innovative realm of integration of Chinese and Western arts, ancient and modern creations: the opera actors painted by oil painters have faces like peach petals, eyes like autumn waves, long sleeves and good dancing, and elegant postures; The opera performances are wonderful, beautiful and fascinating. Through continuous practice, the oil painter explores the commonalities between the language of opera performance and oil painting, integrates the dynamic performance of opera with static painting, and condenses the narrative, romanticism and humanism contained in the performing arts into the oil painting of visual art, so that the two complement each other and show more artistic features with Chinese characteristics.
The pear orchard is painted with colorful colors, and the pen has a long rhyme. We are glad to see that Western oil painting art has emerged more rich and profound Chinese expressions under the immersion of Chinese opera themes.
The author is a researcher and curator of the Art Department of the National Centre for the Performing Arts).
March 3, 2024 China Culture Daily
A special report was published in the 4th edition.
"Drama" is a different kind of "Danqing".
Editor-in-charge: Chen Chen.