Bai Xueshi, with his sincere desire for artistic ideals, persistent pursuit of innovation, and courage to break through the old language stereotype, has embarked on an inspiring artistic road in the creation and innovation of modern China traditional Chinese painting, and is known as one of the representatives of the new landscape of "Beijing School".
The specific natural landscape, under people's aesthetics, forms a variety of patterns and emotional appeal, permeated with humanistic connotation; China's landscape of mountains and rivers has never been a "true" representation of objects, but a "refreshing" work that "melts his thoughts into various interests". There is a saying in painting theory that "whoever paints landscapes, meaning comes first", which emphasizes subjective conception. But this is not a subjective world detached from the objective world and the beauty of nature, but a subjective image or form dominated by conception, which incorporates subjective thoughts and reverie and constitutes far-reaching and rich implications. The theory that "nature is made by foreign teachers and the heart comes from China" just sums up two aspects: conception and connection. This is the traditional essence of China's artistic creation thought of landscape painting. But in practice, it is often ignored or not grasped dialectically. Just like Chinese painting, from the beginning of copying, we pay attention to learning from teachers and regard the success of predecessors as the blueprint for later learning. As a kind of learning, this is a convenient and effective way for beginners. The problem is that this kind of learning method replaces the creative method, with the function of grafting and piecing together procedures, which has caused the wind of imitation, lost the source of life cultivation and sincere emotion, and made art lifeless. One-sided development, resulting in "the change of Chinese painting, so far" situation. In the past hundred years, people of insight among Chinese painters have concentrated on solving a major problem, that is, facing life, facing the times and embracing reality; At the same time, he devoted himself to the journey of "combining Chinese and Western painting into a new era", and made contributions to the transformation and great development of China painting art (including landscape painting art) in the past hundred years. Bai Xueshi's landscape painting art is one of the most diligent and accomplished artists in this exploration and innovation. "Guilin's landscape is the best in the world" is a hot spot of tourism and a favorite place for poets and painters. Wu Guanzhong, a painter, said: "The picturesque landscape of Lijiang River is always a good place for painters to express their feelings, and there are countless paintings in Guilin in the past. However, it is still not finished, and it will never be finished. The times are constantly advancing, people's aesthetic consciousness is constantly developing, and Jiangshan Qian Ying changes with people's aesthetic taste. "
The scenery in Guilin, Bai Xueshi expresses the painter's own unique aesthetic experience, and also captures the strangeness and charm of this special natural landscape. Yuan Mei, a writer in Qing Dynasty, said, "There are many holes, many tricks, many thrushes, many swords and many rats. No context before, no context after. Suddenly, it came to an abrupt end. There are no friends in the southwest and few in the northeast, especially in other mountainous areas. " Zhang Geng, a contemporary writer, wrote: "Beautiful mountain and river environment, hazy drizzle, when the rain stops, the clouds are high and the waves are as flat as a mirror, reflecting the scenery of Ming Che, with a blue sky above and below. When it clears up in the evening, a halo is obliquely reflected on the surface of the mountain, making the whole blue world flicker a little bit of the realm of Jinshan. These are all fascinating. Landscape also has its own character, and Guilin's landscape should be beautiful rather than majestic. Han Yu once wrote two poems describing Guilin's landscape:' The river is a green ribbon and the mountain is like a jade hairpin. The landscape of Guilin, Bai Xueshi not only vividly depicts the strange mountains and waters of Guilin, but also conveys the charm of elegance, purity and ecological harmony of Lijiang River.
Bai Xueshi's landscape painting art can be said to come from tradition and become a sketch. We know that he studied meticulous flowers and birds from Zhao Mengzhu in his early years; After studying in Liang Shunian, he has been specializing in Chinese painting landscapes for more than 60 years and has profound traditional skills and cultivation; At the same time, he mastered the western realistic modeling ability freely, which laid a solid foundation for his artistic exploration and innovation. He can describe real life and reflect the times. Tracing back to the growth track of Bai Xueshi's landscape painting art, it is about 15 years, which is a period of learning and understanding traditional art norms. From his antique work "Sailing on the Autumn River" written in 1947, we can generally appreciate the artistic characteristics at that time. It can be said that we have basically mastered the essence of tradition, but we have not divorced from the old pattern. After 1949, it took about 25 years to come into contact with reality. The works of the 1960s still seem to have a feeling of being shoddy, that is, the traditional pen and ink have not been brought into full play, and the realistic scenes have not been painted properly. It is said that he also painted figures during this period, which is undoubtedly conducive to the exploration and maturity of art, although perhaps there was no obvious effect at that time. At the same time, his long-term engagement in art teaching will inevitably promote his artistic thinking and extensive reference. In the third period, in the last twenty years, Bai Xueshi's art has formed its own unique style, which tends to be mature and perfect on the whole. Although we can see from Bai Xueshi's recent works that he is still making unremitting innovations in subject matter, pen and ink, art and many other aspects, it can be said that he has entered a relatively stable realm of "doing whatever he wants without overstepping the bounds".
Among the painters who came from tradition, Bai Xueshi's landscape painting can develop a new and unique look, which really depends on serious sketching. This can be said to be a reference to the reproducible modeling law of western painting. Through the process of sketching, he deeply felt that he had really practiced the concept of "learning from nature", thus activating his grasp of traditional artistic concepts and techniques, facing reality, and better completing the integration of Chinese and Western arts. Many of his works are original, but originality is not a pen and ink program of a certain school, but based on real landscapes, including the most basic trees, stones, dots and figures in the spectrum of Chinese painting, which have been revisited and have their own experiences. It is precisely because of the meticulous and diligent practice of art that we often understand that even the local details in his works are very interesting and intriguing. For example, the three donkeys in Shallow Stream, the sheep in Yun Qi's Ranch, and the magpies flying up and down in Sparrows Playing in the Spring Forest really enliven the artistic conception and bring poetry. In "Boating on the River", the fisherman rowed very briefly, and his mode of fighting with the pole was vivid. Can it be said that, in comparison, Bai Xueshi's landscape painting is more realistic, but it is by no means a mechanical copy of reality, but "man embodies the truth in art, so it is a kind of cognition, not an abstract or scientific cognition, but an act and an affirmation; One is not to express one's cognition by description, repetition or imitation, but to create something new "(Damian Grant's realism).
Bai Xueshi mostly creates large-scale landscape works for public places. "Painting Lijiang River" is a re-creation after "searching all the strange peaks and drafting", and it is a respect and reconstruction of nature. Although it adopts a rigorous style, it is actually between similarity and dissimilarity, and conveys similarity through form. Not only the expression of space, light, color and volume, but also the design and treatment of composition, the grasp of the overall atmosphere, creating an imposing manner thousands of miles away; At the same time, it has successfully used the treatment of reality and falsehood, which has always been attached great importance to in Chinese painting art, resulting in a certain ethereal and implicit realm, which makes the picture reveal endless poetry. In the overall beautiful picture, it also gives full play to the ink meaning of extension dyeing, which is quite powerful and can withstand repeated examination and scrutiny. The theory of traditional Chinese painting says: "A masterpiece leads to a painting and should not be laid out. The intention must be subtle, but what can be exhausted is cooperation. "
As Zong Baihua said: "The realm of all arts can be said to be nothing more than realism, vividness and creation; From the description of nature, the transmission of life to the creation of artistic conception. "This is the art of Bai Xueshi. Whether it is a panoramic giant structure like the Qianfeng Show of the Lijiang River, or a small corner scene like the Lijiang River after the rain and the Mid-Mountain Pavilion on the Green Lijiang River, it is full of deep feelings and is full of vitality of nature.
Bai Xueshi also painted Huangshan pine clouds, the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River and Jiasheng in Xiangxi; In the later period, it was mostly Taihang Mountain and Yanshan Mountain, but its style became more and more vigorous. Every time I use a pen or spill ink, I make sudden progress in many ways. It can be seen that the painter is constantly seeking new artistic pains and unremitting pursuit.
Art has laws to follow, but it cannot follow the rules. The problem lies in how to treat and apply artistic laws. Successful artists always establish new laws by transcending the rules and carry forward some traditional theories in new breakthroughs and creations. When we appreciate and taste Bai Xueshi's art, we can't help thinking of Su Dongpo's famous philosophical sayings.