Purist painter emulates the masterworks
By Tan Weiyun |
October 30, 2012, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THE son of a Pudong farmer, Xu Jianrong has devoted his life to Chinese ink-wash paintings, calligraphy and promoting traditional arts.
Xu, who is 62 years old, is also an art professor and critics who has published almost 30 art books over the past 30 years.
"My parents grew crops in the countryside of Pudong and no one in my family had anything to do with art," he says. Xu currently has an art exhibition at the Pudong Library during the Pudong Culture and Arts Festival running through mid-November.
"I hope more people, especially young people, can enjoy the beauty of the ancient Chinese arts," Xu says.
When he was a small boy, Xu was enchanted by the colorful drawings in story books and on cigarette cases. These illustrations were his first art teachers, he jokes.
During the "cultural revolution" (1966-1976), Xu farmed in the rural Gaoqiao Town in Pudong, while still managing to paint and read extensively - poetry, arts, philosophy, history and fiction.
When the "cultural revolution" ended and schools reopened, he was among the first to take the National College Entrance Examination and enrolled in the physics department of Shanghai Normal University. The sciences were popular majors at the time.
However, he was still interested in art. "I realized I had no talent in physics," he says. "Why shouldn't I do what I loved to do?"
After graduation he attended Zhejiang Academy of Art (today's China Academy of Art) in Hangzhou, capital city of Zhejiang Province. He studied with Professor Wang Bomin, a master of traditional painting.
Xu retains traditional skills and subjects of painting and calligraphy. "I am by no means an innovator," he says. "You can call it conservative, but thousands of excellent ancient Chinese art works are out there, waiting for us to study them and carry them forward."
Seeing a growing trend toward Western oil painting since the 1990s, many Chinese artists worried that Chinese painting would die out. But Xu stood firm.
"A tradition that has lived for hundreds of years won't die easily," he says. "The things we should do is telling the classics."
Xu says the correct way forward is to follow and advance the official styles of the Jin (AD 265-420), Tang (AD 618-907), Song (960-1279) and Yuan (1271-1368) dynasties, which features mountains, water, flowers, birds and figures.
Chinese figure painting reached its height during the Jin and Tang dynasties, Xu says. To draw inspiration, he took three trips to the Mogao Grottoes, featuring works from those periods, in Dunhuang. Gansu Province.
By repeatedly copying ancient works by masters such as Gu Kaizhi (AD 348-409) and Yan Liben (AD 601-673), he uses their brisk, simple lines and bright, bold colors that create magnificent atmosphere.
A beautiful Chinese landscape painting should present three "beauties," he says, citing the beauty of the landscape, of the painter and of the technique.
"Of course diversification should also be valued," Xu says. The old-fashioned painter gives thumbs-up for the new, innovative efforts.
"My daughter has her own fashion design studio and she has nothing to do with ancient Chinese arts," he says. "We need young artists to pioneer and show their talents, while another group of artists like us are preserving the tradition."
Xu, who is 62 years old, is also an art professor and critics who has published almost 30 art books over the past 30 years.
"My parents grew crops in the countryside of Pudong and no one in my family had anything to do with art," he says. Xu currently has an art exhibition at the Pudong Library during the Pudong Culture and Arts Festival running through mid-November.
"I hope more people, especially young people, can enjoy the beauty of the ancient Chinese arts," Xu says.
When he was a small boy, Xu was enchanted by the colorful drawings in story books and on cigarette cases. These illustrations were his first art teachers, he jokes.
During the "cultural revolution" (1966-1976), Xu farmed in the rural Gaoqiao Town in Pudong, while still managing to paint and read extensively - poetry, arts, philosophy, history and fiction.
When the "cultural revolution" ended and schools reopened, he was among the first to take the National College Entrance Examination and enrolled in the physics department of Shanghai Normal University. The sciences were popular majors at the time.
However, he was still interested in art. "I realized I had no talent in physics," he says. "Why shouldn't I do what I loved to do?"
After graduation he attended Zhejiang Academy of Art (today's China Academy of Art) in Hangzhou, capital city of Zhejiang Province. He studied with Professor Wang Bomin, a master of traditional painting.
Xu retains traditional skills and subjects of painting and calligraphy. "I am by no means an innovator," he says. "You can call it conservative, but thousands of excellent ancient Chinese art works are out there, waiting for us to study them and carry them forward."
Seeing a growing trend toward Western oil painting since the 1990s, many Chinese artists worried that Chinese painting would die out. But Xu stood firm.
"A tradition that has lived for hundreds of years won't die easily," he says. "The things we should do is telling the classics."
Xu says the correct way forward is to follow and advance the official styles of the Jin (AD 265-420), Tang (AD 618-907), Song (960-1279) and Yuan (1271-1368) dynasties, which features mountains, water, flowers, birds and figures.
Chinese figure painting reached its height during the Jin and Tang dynasties, Xu says. To draw inspiration, he took three trips to the Mogao Grottoes, featuring works from those periods, in Dunhuang. Gansu Province.
By repeatedly copying ancient works by masters such as Gu Kaizhi (AD 348-409) and Yan Liben (AD 601-673), he uses their brisk, simple lines and bright, bold colors that create magnificent atmosphere.
A beautiful Chinese landscape painting should present three "beauties," he says, citing the beauty of the landscape, of the painter and of the technique.
"Of course diversification should also be valued," Xu says. The old-fashioned painter gives thumbs-up for the new, innovative efforts.
"My daughter has her own fashion design studio and she has nothing to do with ancient Chinese arts," he says. "We need young artists to pioneer and show their talents, while another group of artists like us are preserving the tradition."
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
