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Arts of Asia, September / October 2018
A NEW FINE LINE – Contemporary Gongbi painting
Julie M. Segraves
Regarded as China’s most conservative and time-consuming brush technique, the fine line or gongbi method of painting combines fine black lines with multiple layers of both ink-shading and unmixed transparent and opaque colours. Historically, the gongbi method has been used to depict realistically figure, bird and flower subjects.[1] During Tang dynasty (618-907), fine line painting flourished, with well-known artists like Zhang Xuan (713-755) and Zhou Fang (750-800) depicting the splendours of court life, including emperors, palace ladies, and at times, even the imperial horses. By the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127), gongbi was used extensively to illustrate birds and flowers as well. Indeed, the Huizong emperor (1082-1135), an art connoisseur, was himself an accomplished bird and flower gongbi painter. But by the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368), the Chinese literati began to exhibit a preference for xieyi, believing that this more spontaneous brush method was better suited to communicating the artist’s inner feelings, and the realism of the gongbi method fell out of favour among many artists.
Although well-known Ming dynasty (1368-1644) artists like Tang Yin (1470-1523?) and Qiu Ying (1494-1552) continued to include gongbi in their painting repertoire, it was not until the 18th century that the gongbi method received a renewal of interest and attention, sparked by the arrival of Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1766), the Jesuit missionary. Castiglione had been charged with the task of creating a synthesis of European methods and traditional Chinese media and formats at the Imperial Painting Academy. Chinese gongbi court painters were soon perfecting a fusion of painting techniques, combining the linear perspective of Western-style realism with traditional Chinese brushwork. Other excellent Qing dynasty (1644-1911) artists using the gongbi techniques include Yuan Shouping (1633-1690) and Ren Xiong (1823-1857). However with the fall of the Qing dynasty and the ultimate demise of the traditional patronage system and the Imperial Painting Academy, many Chinese gongbi and xieyi artists were forced to pursue new avenues of income and modernize their painting techniques. Some artist looked to Japan and the West for new inspiration and income. Other artists living in Shanghai turned to commerce, combining their gongbi skills with Western techniques to create commercial pieces for the popular calendar prints, Yuefenpai.
With the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, and the fondness of the new leadership for Socialist Realist oil painting and other painting techniques that could easily accommodate the political agenda, the popularity of the gongbi technique declined even further. After the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), artists began exploring a host of Western art, media, techniques, and principles, believing that the practice of gongbi painting was simply too old fashioned and too demanding, and that the gongbi genre needed to be relegated to China’s past. Yet, in the early 1990s, a new generation of young, traditionally trained ink artists emerged, revitalizing the gongbi tradition by mixing work that reflects personal concerns, as well as the changing Chinese society in which they live, making the work by these artists all the more surprising and compelling.
Zhu Wei
The son of a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) doctor, Zhu Wei was born in Beijing on the eve of the Cultural Revolution. His parents hoped that he would also enter the medical profession. However, Zhu had other ideas, and he enlisted in the PLA at the age of sixteen. He then began a course of study at the Art College of the PLA, where he excelled in creating propaganda art and posters. After graduating in 1989, Zhu attended the China Painting Academy and the Beijing Film Academy, where he graduated in 1993. Despite his disparate academic art training, Zhu has remained a diligent student of traditional Chinese art, especially the challenging technique of gongbi painting, for which he is acclaimed.
The period after the Tiananmen massacre in the early 1990s was a particularly volatile time for artists in China. Like many of his colleagues, Zhu chose not to be affiliated with any government institution or art academy. While many of his fellow artists did turn to oil painting or acrylic on canvas, the preferred media of the Western art market, Zhu chose to develop his signature gongbi painting style, employing both traditional and ingenious new painting techniques to achieve his statements on China’s society and politics. Zhu Wei has the unique ability to create work that initially appears deceptively simple, even whimsical, yet many of his more than 1000 paintings are, in fact, powerful political portraits PLA soldiers, Party cadres and ordinary citizens.
In Comrade Captain No.3 (7), the artist draws on his PLA background to paint a familiar military subject. Rather than creating the image of a heroic solder preparing to fight, Zhu has captured a more contemplative side of the captain, who appears pensive and introspective. The captain’s head and upper torso dominate the painting, which Zhu has positioned in a three-quarter view. By eliminating the upper portion of the captain’s face, Zhu allows the captain’s eyebrows and eyes, which glance to the side, to become the principal focus. Both hands of the figure cover his mouth in a thoughtful gesture, while one hand holds a cigarette. In this early work, Zhu has already begun to employ the hallmark attributes of his figures: large heads and large eyes.
Painting paper is a major concern for Zhu Wei, and he has developed his own paper preparation process. Initially, he selects substantial pieces of xuan paper which he places on a painted incised stone plate; this gives his paintings an interesting initial layer of ground colour and surface indentations as it dries. Then he applies fine gongbi lines, filling the indentations with repeated layers of paint that result in rich, deep colours.[2] Zhu has used this inventive paper process in the Utopia series (2001-2005), which number over sixty paintings. In Utopia No.48 (8), Zhu focuses on Party members attending a political meeting. However, all appear almost identical, clad in Mao tunics, looking docile, bored, with downcast eyes, broad noses and mouths. One portly cadre uses her chubby fingers to take notes at the tedious party meeting. Zhu has used a red curtain, synonymous with the communist ideology, as a backdrop and images of the easy to cultivate palm leaves, a metaphor for China’s unquestioning masses, are positioned in front of the drapery. The series of flowers in baskets on the lower painting portion are a nod to the past and are reminiscent of those featured in Southern Song gongbi artist Li Song’s Flower Basket painting.
Perhaps Zhu Wei’s most iconic painting is China China 1997 (9), the well-known portrait which mocks Deng Xiaoping, China’s former leader. The inspiration for this painting is an idealized portrait of Mao Zedong, who is showing towering over the Yangzi River. The artist places Deng Xiaoping against a lush riverscape and depicts him in a red Mao tunic, which he has created with multiple layers of red ink. However, in this painted political satire, Zhu depicts Deng’s sagging and aging face, replete with moles, warts and wrinkles. By painting the subject’s eyes closed, Zhu also reveals that Deng is actually blind to the culture of consumption he plans to unleash in China through his series of economic reforms.
Notes:
[1] Although one of the earliest fine line painting is attributed to Gu Kaizhi (344-406), it is not clear that he employed the two brush gongbi technique used by the contemporary gongbi artists: one brush with colour is held between the thumb and forefinger, and the second brush with water is held between the forefinger and third finger. The fist brush is used to paint a stroke of colour and it is immediately followed by the second brush stroke, which modifies the colour.
[2] For more detailed information on Zhu Wei’s paper preparation, see Xenia Tetmajer van Przerwa, “Eccentric Notes of Dissent: The Art of Zhu Wei”, Zhu Wei Work, 1988-2008, Today Museum, January 2013, pp. 68-73, reprint from Yishu, Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, September 2004, Full issue.
Link: Julie M. Segraves' article "The History of Gongbi Painting"
《亚洲艺术》，2018年9/ 10月
新工笔 - 当代工笔画
史珏丽
作为中国最保守和耗时的绘画技术，细笔画，亦称工笔，是将精细的黑色线条与多层晕染结合，可用墨，也可用透明或不透明的颜色。历史上工笔被用来描绘逼真的人物、鸟类和花卉主题[1]。唐代（618-907）工笔画蓬勃发展，著名艺术家如张萱（713-755）和周昉（750-800）描绘了宫廷生活的辉煌，包括皇帝，宫廷女士，甚至是皇家马匹。北宋时期（960-1127）工笔被广泛用于绘制鸟类和花朵。事实上，作为艺术鉴赏家的徽宗皇帝（1082-1??135）本身就是一位多才多艺的花鸟画家。但是到了元朝（1271-1368），中国文人开始表现出对写意的偏爱，认为这种更自发的画法更适合传达艺术家的内心情感，而工笔画的现实主义则在很多艺术家中失宠。
尽管著名的明代（1368-1644）艺术家如唐寅（1470-1523？）和仇英（1494-1552）继续在他们的绘画中使用工笔技法，但直到18世纪时耶稣会传教士朱塞佩·卡斯蒂廖内（郎世宁，1688-1766）的到来，工笔才引发了人们对这个画种的新的兴趣和关注。郎世宁曾在中国宫廷画院负责创建一种欧洲技法和中国传统媒材料与形式的综合体，中国宫廷画院画家很快完善了绘画技巧的融合，将西方写实主义的线性视角与中国传统笔法结合起来。其他优秀的清朝（1644-1911）工笔艺术家包括恽寿平（1633-1690）和任熊（1823-1857）。然而随着清朝的沦陷，以及传统赞助制度与宫廷画院的最终灭亡，许多中国工笔和写意艺术家被迫寻求新的收入渠道，并使他们的绘画技法现代化。一些艺术家向日本和西方寻求新的灵感和收入来源。生活在上海的其他艺术家则转向商业，将他们的技法与西方技术相结合，为流行的月份牌创作商业作品。
随着1949年中华人民共和国的成立，社会主义现实主义油画以及其他易于适应政治议程的绘画技巧受到新领导的喜爱，工笔技法的流行程度进一步下降。 文化大革命（1966-1976）后，艺术家们开始探索一系列西方艺术、媒材、技术和原则，认为画工笔画过于陈旧和苛刻，并且认为这个画种应该退为历史。然而在20世纪90年代初，出现了新一代年轻的受过传统训练的水墨艺术家，他们通过反映个人关怀以及他们身处的不断变化的中国社会的作品重振了工笔传统，他们的作品令人惊讶和引人注目。
朱伟
朱伟是军医的儿子，文化大革命前夕出生在北京。他的父母希望他也能进入医学界。然而朱伟却另有所想。他在十六岁时入伍，随后在解放军艺术学院学习，在那里他擅长绘制宣传艺术和海报。 1989年毕业后朱伟就学于北京电影学院和中国画研究院，并于1993年毕业。尽管受的学术训练颇为多样，朱伟仍是中国传统艺术的勤奋学生，特别是具有挑战性的工笔绘画技法，使他受到好评。
20世纪90年代初之后对于中国艺术家来说是一个特别不安宁的时期。 像他的许多同行一样，朱伟选择不隶属于任何政府机构或艺术学院。与此同时，许多艺术家转向西方艺术市场更认可的油画或丙烯画，朱伟却选择发展他的标志性工笔画风格。他运用传统和创造性的的新绘画技术来实现对中国社会和政治的陈述。朱伟具有独特的创作能力，最初看似简单，甚至是异想天开。他的1000多幅画作中的许多都是强有力的政治肖像，包括士兵，干部和普通公民。
在《上尉同志三号》（7）中，艺术家利用他的从伍背景画出一个熟悉的军事主题。画作中朱伟没有创造出一个准备战斗的英雄铁汉的形象，而是抓住了上尉更沉思的一面，画中人显得深沉和内省。 人物的头部和上身躯干主宰了画面，并定格于人物的四分之三半侧面。 通过剪裁去上尉面部的上半部分，朱伟使被从旁瞥见的人物的眉眼成为主要焦点。人物的双手以一种深思熟虑的姿势遮住嘴，手上夹着一根烟。在这幅早期作品中，朱伟已经开始使用他的人物的标志性特征：大头和大眼睛。
绘画纸也是朱伟的一个主要关注点。他开发了一种独特的纸张准备过程：首先选择结实的宣纸，并将其放在涂色的切割石板上；纸张干燥后，他的画面会产生一种有趣的底色和表面压痕；而后画上工笔线条，并反复敷色，产生丰富深沉的色泽[2]。朱伟在超过60幅画作的乌托邦系列（2001-2005）中使用了这种创造性的制纸工艺。在《乌托邦四十八号》（8）中朱伟聚焦了开会的人员。所有人物看起来几乎相同。他们穿着中山装，看起来温顺、无聊。他们目光低垂，鼻子和嘴巴宽阔。一个身材魁梧的干部用她胖乎乎的手指在繁琐的会议上做笔记。红色帷幕作为意识形态的代名词被用作背景，位于帷幕前容易栽培的棕榈叶隐喻了驯服的群众，画面下部的花篮让人联想到南宋工笔艺术家李嵩，是对传统的致敬。
也许朱伟最具代表性的画作是《中国中国1997》（9），这幅著名的肖像描绘了中国前领导人邓小平。 画的灵感来自一幅毛泽东的理想化肖像，画中的毛泽东伫立于长江之上。艺术家则将邓小平置于一片郁郁葱葱的河景之中，并用红色的颜料描绘了他的红色中山装。 然而，在这幅政治讽刺画中，朱画了邓小平下垂、衰老的脸，脸上布满了痣、疣和皱纹。 通过画出主体闭着眼睛，朱还揭示了邓实际上对他计划通过一系列经济改革在中国释放的消费文化视而不见。
注释:
[1]虽然最早的工笔画据称是顾恺之（344-406），但目前尚不清楚他是否使用了当代工笔艺术家使用的分染法：手拿两支笔，拇指与食指间一支蘸颜色，食指与中指间一支蘸清水，用颜色笔上色，用清水笔晕开。
[2]关于朱伟的纸张准备的更多详细信息请参见Xenia Tetmajer van Przerwa文章“异见的异解——朱伟的绘画”，《朱伟作品1988-2008》，今日美术馆，2013年1月，第68 - 73页，转载自《艺术：当代华人艺术期刊》杂志，2004年9月，全文。
链接：史珏丽 文章原文 |
