Hu Zhengwei's famous evaluation.

Perception, frontier fortress, mind, fantasy trip, life-long review of Hu Zhengwei art

Ron Shao Jun

1839 On August 9th, the French painter Daguerre announced the invention of silver plate photography, marking the beginning of a new era for mankind. Then the appearance of movies, television and computers completely changed the way people see the world. From the macroscopic view of the universe to the microscopic view of molecules, from photography to 3D modeling, the latest scientific and technological means are trying to meet the requirements of human vision for real experience. Although scientific and technological means can record the instant and development process of things, visual reality can't show people the true feelings of things, which leaves a huge development space for the development of painting. The difference between painting and photography is that painting contains the painter's deep feelings. As lev tolstoy said: "The feelings experienced by the author can infect the audience or listeners, which is art." He explained: "Arouse the feelings experienced by oneself, and then convey them with the actions, lines, colors, sounds and images expressed in language, so that others can experience the same feelings. This is an artistic activity. " In contemporary China painting circles, painters express their experiences and feelings about life with artistic language. Mr Hu Zhengwei is an outstanding representative among them. He devoted himself to the creation of northwest frontier fortress theme for decades, and blew a fresh and strong "west wind" to the painting world with romantic feelings and skillful pen and ink, which had a great impact on the development of contemporary freehand brushwork.

With the progress of recording TV (video), we can enjoy the beautiful scenery of various places, and the development of tourism enables us to go where we want to go. The scenery in the west has undoubtedly attracted a large number of tourists. After taking photos, eating local specialties, buying souvenirs and returning to their hometown with a tired body, they found that they had not gained any other experience except the beautiful scenery in the documentary. It's not that documentaries deceive people, nor that tourism is not in place, but that we lack a deep understanding of local customs, so we can't deeply understand the uniqueness of beautiful scenery, because beautiful scenery is the beauty of people-"humanized nature". The difference between humans and animals is that animals adapt to nature, while humans transform nature, making more and more natural ecosystems become artificial ecosystems. Mr Hu Zhengwei has been rooted in Gansu for decades. Walking in towns and villages in the west, he experienced the loneliness of the Gobi desert and the coldness and indifference of iceberg rivers, and deeply understood the unique optimistic, tenacious and kind character of westerners. Because of his profound experience of people's life in the west, his works are full of tenacity and warmth. Painters attach great importance to shaping characters' emotions. He said, "Understand and observe his (her) life and region, dig out his (her) inner temperament and charm, achieve' likeness', and more importantly' likeness', express his (her) feelings through pen and ink, and shape the characters' hearts. "In the picture of returning to the market, the kindness of the Hui uncle, the optimism of the middle-aged man, the simplicity of the Hui sister-in-law and the beauty of the Han girl are integrated. Through the depiction of the characters' hearts, as well as the background of fat sheep and motorcycles; The life and customs of returnees are vividly portrayed. Riverside depicts a Tibetan woman combing her hair by the river. Her strong body, smiling expression and other details fully express her inner satisfaction with a happy life and longing for a better life. Warmth fully expresses the improvement of the living standards of Hui people in Ningxia after the reform and opening up, and is a sincere praise for the reform and opening up.

Man is a living individual living in a cultural and historical environment. His behavior and thoughts are not only his personal behavior and psychology, but also the product of history and culture. Mr. Hu Zhengwei's works not only show the real life of the people in the northwest, but also look back to the distant depths of history. In the picture of "Guan Shanyue", the first half outlines the wrinkled snow-capped mountains and ice peaks, towering into the clouds, with the moon hanging on the top of the mountain in the shadow of smoke clouds. jathyapple is looming, which seems to be close to the snow and ice, showing the vastness and sadness of "closing the mountain", introducing the desolation and hardship of thinking about the frontier fortress, and having a feeling of "camping in Wan Li without battlements until joining the desert in the snow the next day" (in Li Wei's, There are a lot of blanks in the middle of the picture, which indicates an infinitely rich and inexhaustible border situation. It is a kind of "empty writing" and the richest expression. The most striking thing is that the lower part of the picture shows travelers trekking in the mountains in a close-up way. They communicate with the East and the West, and are messengers of cultural exchanges between the East and the West. Painters use personalized artistic language. In another "Travel Map of Tianshan Mountain", the composition of banners is adopted: a camel team carrying goods and businessmen walks at the foot of Tianshan Mountain at close range, with snow-capped mountains in the distance. The characters in the picture are all wearing thick headscarves, especially the red headscarves of women and the red hats on men's hats are like flames, which are particularly eye-catching in the picture. It is a symbol of vitality.

Ningxia City, Gansu Province was once the capital of Xixia Kingdom, which was established with reference to the political, economic and cultural systems of the Northern Song Dynasty. Its customs not only contain the contents of the Central Plains, but also have its own unique characteristics beyond the Great Wall. Many of Mr. Hu Zhengwei's works directly depict the ancient customs beyond the Great Wall through heavy historical latitude and longitude, which gives us a historical longitudinal experience of the customs of the northwest frontier. In the records of Xixia customs, the painter used banners to compose the composition. In the picture, Populus euphratica shows a white tent. On the ground next to Populus euphratica, there are camel teams ready to go. There are women who milk cows and carry water ... Camels, Khufu and Ren Hu ... show the exotic customs to the fullest. In "Morning Exercise Map", a man riding a Mercedes-Benz horse shoots at a distant target at the edge of Populus euphratica, and a woman riding a brave camel with an arrow and a bow shows the heroic pride and fully expresses the fearless and heroic struggle spirit of the people beyond the Great Wall. In addition, such as "only know how to shoot an eagle with a bow" and "Camel Country Map"; The works with the theme of pastoral return have a profound sense of history.

As far as painting methods are concerned, Mr. Hu Zhengwei's paintings belong to freehand brushwork. Obviously, he inherited the advantages of traditional painting and reformed it to adapt to the contemporary spirit, forming a unique freehand figure painting style. Pen and ink became the core carrier of China's painting. From Wang Wei's "emphasizing ink painting in Taoist painting" (translated as Wang Wei's "Landscape Tactics") to modern Huang's "The ancients used pens to remove ink and used ink for painting, which was unreasonable and ignorant" (Talking about Painting). Mr. Hu's freehand figure painting is splashed with ink. The ink on the picture is black and dry, and the lines are interspersed, and a bold and unrestrained heroism comes to my face. It should be said that Mr. Hu applied some techniques of flowers, birds and landscapes to figure painting and formed his own charm. In the painting of Badashanren, pine trees, grotesque rocks and waterfowl constitute the typical language style of Badashanren. After careful observation, the painter transformed the portrait of Badashanren into a grotesque rock. The whole painting has a general shape and rich brushwork, which fully reveals the mood of "no ink and more tears" when Badashanren died. The shape of Lin Bu in the Northern Song Dynasty in The Beauty of the Crane is similar to that of the rock, while the shape of the old fisherman in Dongpo Poems is completely different from that of the rock, which was all transformed by Mr. Hu with traditional pen and ink.

In the use of pen and ink, Mr. Hu emphasized the cooperation and composition of pen and ink. In the figure painting "Shepherd of Su Wu"-the figure, the painter created the image of Su Wu in the strong wind with rotating brush strokes, and the hair and beard blown by the wind showed Su Wu's firm belief in the snowstorm. The bare scepter and Su Wu's body are like flags blown high by the wind, which are the embodiment of China people's belief of "invincible power". In the picture Zhao Jun Boats, the painter depicts Zhao Jun's "hair" blown by strong wind. The painter splashed ink to show that the hair blown by the wind covered half of Zhao Jun's face and whole body, which can also be regarded as the wind blowing Zhao Jun's cloak. This expression not only shows the bleak natural scene, but also reveals a sense of sadness, which accords with the concept of modern painting and endows it with an atmosphere of modern painting. In Camel Race, the painter is the "reins" to relax pen and ink. The picture is mottled ink blocks, showing an "S" shape from top to bottom, which is very dynamic. The head and limbs of the camel are outlined with smooth strokes in the ink block, and the camel runs on the paper. People riding on camels also outline their heads and limbs with ink lines, so that people and camels can merge into a magnificent chorus of pen and ink. & lt also uses this expression on foot, especially the man in red robe in the middle of the picture. His waving hands and red robe constitute the strongest voice in the picture.

To sum up, the ancients have long put forward the concept of "asking the canal is so clear, it is a source of living water", warning people to draw nutrition from life. Modern people even put forward the view that "life is the only source of art", which is the inheritance and sublimation of ancient people's thoughts. But in practice, people often simply understand life as a phenomenon of life, without seeing the essence of life. It seems that as long as we can grasp the phenomenon of life like a camera, we can grasp life itself. The phenomenon of life is actually just the shell of life without understanding life. Only grasping the phenomenon will make art superficial and fragmented. Mr. Hu Zhengwei went deep into life with deep feelings, prevented superficial and subjective understanding of life observation, and put his feelings in the warp and weft of history, making history thicker and reality richer. Throughout his art, his understanding of life comes from two aspects, on the one hand, his observation of life phenomena, on the other hand, his personal experience of life. Mr. Hu took materials from his life and integrated his rich feelings about life into his artistic creation, eventually forming a unique artistic style with high artistic value.