Evaluation of Xiao Haichun’s works

Landscapes and rivers are just soothing. After Zong Bing and Xiao Haichun, most landscape artists only talked about techniques. This is not so much because Zhuangzi said: Skill can be close to Tao, but rather because it is the temptation of nature. Climbing mountains and facing water is a symbol of the consciousness of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, and also a symbol of the Renaissance. Although they are thousands of years apart, they have the same purpose.

Xiao Haichun called landscapes smoke and clouds. When talking about mountains and rivers, we talk about "quality"; when talking about smoke and clouds, we talk about "interesting spirit". The mountains and rivers are there, but the smoke and clouds are nothing. This complementation and harmony of existence and non-being is the painter's mood and the subtlety of art.

Xiao Haichun

Smoke and clouds are ever-changing, just like the fluidity of pen and ink. How to make pen and ink as vivid as changing smoke and clouds. It's Xiao Haichun's problem, and it's Xiao Haichun's personal problem.

In the hot current situation where public enthusiasm is being hyped, Xiao Haichun is silent in his daily work. In fact, the painter's "smoky cloud daily lessons" is just like the poet's "busy with poetry all day long", which generally refers to a daily life state. If the art of surviving and living artistically is the foundation of Chinese culture, then Xiao Haichun, who studies smoke and clouds all day long, must have a quiet and tranquil environment unlike the water palace pavilion.

Daily classes mean that students do the homework assigned by the teacher. Because Dong Qichang said that painters have two lifelong teachers: "The painter takes the ancients as his teacher, which is already the best, and then he takes heaven and earth as his teacher." Therefore, Xiao Haichun often copied the ancients and sketched nature as a daily lesson.

Taking the ancients as teachers and nature as teacher is a cliché; once the old clichés are turned into concrete actions, we will see the true tradition. And those who truly inherit traditions are often the ones who create them. The history of conquest can be found everywhere: Confucius was thinking about restoration, Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan advocated restoration, Zhao Mengfu and Dong Qichang even set up the banner of restoration; even the Renaissance was initiated by Petrarch. open. Therefore, history often presents historical facts that are not true to the truth. The so-called innovation, bustling with excitement, is actually just pruning branches and leaves; the so-called retro, silent, but digging up roots. In fact, the restorers whose mission is to inherit the tradition are also the most fundamental creators. For this reason, Xiao Haichun, who is busy with daily classes, deserves attention.

Daily lessons should be persevered, and perseverance is often an opportunity for unexpected gains. Xiao Haichun respected the ancients and nature. It is this kind of awe that puts Xiao Haichun in a dilemma between the ancients and nature; therefore, he uses nature to question the ancients and uses the ancients to verify nature; however, the ancients cannot speak, and nature is silent. Therefore, this self-created dilemma, just like the witty words of the Zen masters, turned into a pure question that had nothing to do with the times, history, nature, or even Xiao Haichun in mutual silence, and became a The problem of landscape itself. This was Xiao Haichun's unexpected gain.

As a result, the daily class turned into a hand-to-hand conversation between Xiao Haichun, the ancients and nature - this is a conversation that does not require logic or ideas; a conversation that goes beyond words, Communication beyond language; this kind of exchange and communication at the deepest and final bottom line, Wang Wei said that it was "the coming of the gods", and Dong Qichang said that "the form, the heart and the hand come together and forget each other."

Hand-to-hand talk is a kind of physical communication. In the eyes of the Chinese, it is the most real communication and the most fundamental communication. Sighing; sighing is not enough, so I sing it forever; singing is not enough, I don’t know how to dance with my hands, and dance with my feet." ("Mao Shi Zhengyi Preface") Actions are intuitive and direct, and movements are fundamental. True and original, therefore, movement removes cover and introduces light.

This is probably why Xiao Haichun said bottom line and watch. This is probably why Xiao Haichun said: "In art, durability is more important than uniqueness. The value of concentrated moments is destined to be forever Sexual transcendence, only persistence can produce mysterious and constant power."

Rate classes are a state of existence. What Xiao Haichun, who is doing daily classes in the mist, experienced may be what Dong Qichang praised as "taking painting as a refuge." ”, the living state of “painting for pleasure”.

With the trend of opening up, Xiao Haichun's landscape paintings have become increasingly graceful, fresh, luxurious, and stunningly beautiful. Xiao Haichun's landscape paintings inherit the spring breeze of the Tang Dynasty, the learning skills of the court of the Song Dynasty, and the straightforwardness of the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, sweeping away the morbidity of the sad autumn and loneliness in the old literati paintings. The murals of the Han and Tang dynasties are full of emotion and vividness, with literary hearts and dragons carved into them. They are romantic and celestial, and the sky is bright and smooth. When people from the north entered the Southern Tang Dynasty, scholars wore hairpins. In this environment, the sky is full, the moon is full, the branches are full of flowers, and spring is rising from the sea. "Landscapes of the Xiao Family" amaze everyone at sea.

Xiao Haichun's traditional Chinese painting also embodies the merits of Northerners' Confucian studies. He is endowed with accumulated knowledge, has many famous traces, and has the appearance of flowers. The essence of traditional Chinese painting is a broad literary context, and a realist is also an idealist. Xiao Haichun paints with charming shapes, a brocade-like environment, and smooth brushwork. His paintings show the spirit of Neo-Confucianism, with appropriate concealment and exposure, profound and profound, magnanimous demeanor, and magnanimous style. Full width.

Western learning is the content and the essence of Chinese painting. Xiao Haichun has a profound theory on the changes in Chinese painting. Therefore, being calm and proud and promoting the national self-confidence spirit of Chinese painting are the essence of Xiao Haichun's painting style. With this shape and quality, Xiao Haichun's traditional Chinese paintings are famous.