Mr. Zhang Yiqian strictly enforces construction

Mr. Zhang Yiqian is strict about construction

The first time I met Mr. Zhang Yiqian was at his home in the accounting store of Lianhu District Grain Center on Xi'an South Street in the autumn of 1969. It was directly opposite the Guangming Cinema.

He has a short mother named Zhang Lei with bound feet, whose second maiden name is Yan Xiaorong, a very beautiful Sichuan woman, a very naughty 4-year-old boy named An An, and a girl named An An. It's called Jingjing.

Back then, the courtyard had two entrances, and his family lived in the upper room at the back, in the middle, facing east and west, with a small attic. He was nearly forty years old, thin, wearing a dark blue old Zhongshan suit, with a slightly bald forehead, a slicked back hair, and glasses. He always walked in and out with an expressionless expression while pushing a British Blue Ling bicycle with his back straight and his back straight. He often smells of alcohol. Sometimes I will hum "I am watching the mountain scenery from the tower". The imported bicycle is said to be a prize from abroad.

No one is allowed to enter that cramped attic.

Once I was lucky enough to step on the extremely narrow wooden stairs to the right of the door. I opened a wooden cover and climbed up the stairs. I saw that the low and squat attic was dimly lit and very messy. There were coarse porcelain wine jars. , there were albums, calendars, books, easels, and scattered horse brand Chinese paints. There was a plaster statue of Voltaire in the corner, and several clay sculptures. What shocked me was that there was a nude statue of a beautiful woman with a very familiar appearance. It is concluded that the clay sculpture is its sequel Yan Xiaorong. I also saw a dozen large charcoal sketches on cardboard nailed to the wooden wall with picture nails, which were also female nudes. The bumpy and convex hair is now painted very delicately and realistically. At that time, the outside world could not see these things. The extreme left political climate made people mistakenly think that he was a gangster reflexively. After seeing it, I took a deep breath and hurried downstairs, not daring to speak.

Han Chengxue, my best friend who was a classmate at that time, also had a British Blue Ling bicycle, which was next to him. I often borrow this bike to ride. Very slippery.

Later, I saw his paintings one after another in the mid-1960s, often in the critical column under the bell tower. Just use elm bark paste and stick it on the reed mat. It is slowly damaged by wind and sun, or covered with other things. It is a pity.

When I was in the first grade of junior high school, I wrote an essay "A Person I Love". In addition, my first art class in junior high school was to criticize Qi Baishi's paintings. A cricket was crawling on a cabbage. It was very vulgar and had nothing to do with the image of proletarian workers, peasants and soldiers. The substitute teacher is named Chang Zhidian.

In those years, I entered middle school to resume classes and start a revolution. Engage in political movements all year round. Studying engineering, agriculture, and the military, great criticism, digging air-raid shelters, plowing wheat stubble, camping exercises, military training, etc. The Russian and English in the textbooks are basically long live the xxx, raise your hands and surrender the gun, etc. So much so that when I visited St. Petersburg and Moscow a few years ago, I saw Russian beauties who hesitated to speak but did not dare to practice these few sentences in Russian for fear of being reported to the lunatic asylum.

Back then, Han Chengxue and I often made appointments to watch art calligraphy and photography exhibitions at the Workers’ Club. All are free.

Mr. Zhang Yiqian likes to draw horses. Most of the horses in his paintings are flamboyant and dynamic, especially the mane and tail, and they are rarely still. His brushwork uses splashed ink and lines to describe freehand meanings, with a bold and unrestrained tone of light, thin bones and copper sounds. The best painting is the picture of a horse drinking.

During the art tour in 1972, there was a Chinese painting that impressed me deeply, called "Classmates". The picture shows two young women with red faces and four big braids. One is a female tractor driver and the other is a female postman. They are chatting under the willow shade on the edge of the field. There are tractors and green postal bicycles. It is a pity that this painting was later lost. Regarding this matter, I asked his son Zhang An and he said that it was stolen and I hope to redeem it for a large sum of money. Later, in 1974, the eve of my graduation, he published a comic book "Confucius Laoer's Story of the Conflicts of All Countries".

On June 23, 2001, Mr. When the bad news came, my close friend Zhang Jiemin asked me to go to the family home of the outer courtyard to visit him.

It was cloudy that afternoon. The two of us drove to the outer courtyard. No one answered the knock on the door. After a while, a woman opened the door to his residence. Lao Zhang recognized her as the wife of the dean of the outer courtyard. After chatting with us, we learned that she was visiting his widow, so he quietly beckoned us to enter the unit opposite and met his first wife. Wang Xuan, the current widow of three wives. After chatting for a while, it was said that his son Zhang An was at odds with his stepmother and were fighting for the inheritance. Household disputes are similar to those of Mr. Chen Zhongzhi back then. So I live across the street and dare not go home.

In 2007, Mr. Zhang An was in the Mingdian Cafe business and purchased Nai’s father’s paintings. There were rumors that there was a very vivid portrait of Tang Monk, and someone wanted to use a 130-square-meter house in the northern suburbs. The exchange attempt failed. However, because its pot production has not received market protection and hype, its price has always been mediocre. Last year, a 4-foot-long masterpiece of a human figure was auctioned for NT$40,000. This person has passed away, and the past is like smoke.

Baidu learned that he, together with Liu Wenxi and Chen Zhongzhi, was once known as the trio of the Academy of Fine Arts. This kind-hearted "Shaoling commoner" had a painting talent and a common consciousness since he was a child. He joined the Artists Association at the age of 14, was admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts at the age of 15, and stepped onto the stage at the age of 19. His graduation work "The Horseherd" was selected by the People's Published by the Daily.

Rumor has it that these three people, like Qi Baishi, have a strong desire to pursue beauty. Or it may be the source of the painters' creations, which is also unknown. There is nothing wrong with that. It is said that the most beautiful women painted by painters are the lovers of their dreams.

June 23, 2020, is the 19th anniversary of Mr. Zhang Yiqian’s death.

In memory of you!

Urgent emergency in the early morning of June 23, 2020