Knights from the Kingdom of Necessity to the Kingdom of Freedom—Interview with the famous painter Mr. Tang Zhikai

■Organization: Taste of Four Seasons by Xue Hongling

Painter profile: Mr. Tang Zhikai, born in Dalian. The painting style is romantic, paying attention to momentum and charm, and the pen and ink are flowing freely. He is currently a member of the Liaoning Branch of the Chinese Artists Association, a member of the Dalian Artists Association, a member of the Chinese Painting Research Association, a director of the Dalian Arts and Crafts Industry Association, an arts and crafts artist, and a full-time painter of Zhikai Studio. Representative works include "The Smokey Clouds Pass by the Boat", "Looking at Dalian from the Sea", "Viewing the Sea", etc.

The scholar was a little crazy, and this expectation was just right. If a cultural and artistic person is even three to five points crazy, then he is far-fetched; but if he is not even one point crazy, his talent is doubtful. It is not easy to grasp the right scale. It is not as simple as choosing between arrogance and restraint. Insight, analytical power, self-awareness, awe of the universe and nature... If a person can achieve "just right", that is A wise man in today’s real society.

Tang Zhikai should be very concerned about this "scale". Although he did not deliberately emphasize it, the aura of pursuit always lingered during the conversation with him. As the son of the late famous painter Tang Yuqing, Tang Zhikai's teenage life was not as triumphant as outsiders imagined; as a strong figure in today's painting world, his current life is also not as complicated as outsiders think, but extremely clear.

On a windy day, we came to Tang Zhikai’s studio in Dalian Antique City. There are rumors in the industry that Tang Zhikai likes the sea. I secretly thought that in such weather, the movement of the sea would be particularly loud.

Humanity has a thick shade, but we never knew it was difficult.

Tang Zhikai’s father, Mr. Tang Yuqing, has been striving for the art of painting all his life. When the old man passed away, it caused a great shock in the art world at that time. Countless artists and celebrities went to bid farewell to the old man, and the grief gathered for several days. Mr. Tang was a person who constantly broke himself throughout his life. He continued to reform until his death. He said: "You can't paint with dead hands!" Mr. Tang's painting style is rigorous, elegant, free and unrestrained. A large number of works have been spread to Japan, the United States, Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan and other countries and regions, and many of them are collected by domestic and foreign museums and collectors such as Zhongnanhai, Soong Ching Ling's Former Residence Museum, Guo Moruo's Former Residence Museum, and China Hanlin Stele. The artistic attainments of the old gentleman are still beyond the reach of countless descendants.

How lucky Tang Zhikai must be to grow up in the lap of such a great man as Mr. Tang! ——Of course, this is just the unilateral speculation of outsiders. Lucky does not mean happiness. You know, the bigger the halo, the bigger the shadow. Tang Zhikai's past years were like a fish drinking water, knowing whether he was warm or cold. "I don't have my own name," Tang Zhikai recalled the past years. This was his most intuitive feeling. These words often make listeners confused, but it is true, because everyone calls him - "Tang Yuqing's son". If you listen to such words once or twice, you may feel infinitely glorious, but if you listen to them more often, it is a sign that a person has lost his self-existence. Pressure will follow.

The belief that I wanted to surpass my father was gradually established at that time. Tang Zhikai still remembers the scene when someone invited the father and son to paint a painting together, but his father decisively refused. The reason is simply that Mr. Tang Yuqing, a strict father, felt that his son Tang Zhikai's kung fu was still far from enough, so how could he show off with pen and ink. "One day, I will make you afraid!" "Okay, I'll wait for you!" Such a conversation happened between the father and son.

Wang Xizhi has a legend that "when he came to the pond to study calligraphy, the water turned black", which reflects the diligence of artists all over the world. The sweat that Tang Zhikai put in through the coming and going of cold and summer is enough to confirm this legend. After studying and practicing hard day and night, and understanding and comprehending day and night, I finally lived up to my expectations. When one day, someone again asked father and son to paint a painting together, Mr. Tang Yuqing finally lost his previous disdain and became more cautious. Later, "Viewing the Sea", which shocked everyone, appeared. "I was very happy when my father passed away." Tang Zhikai finally showed a sense of happiness when he said this.

Don’t paint without being ruthless, don’t paint without being ruthless

Tang Zhikai said that painting requires emotion. If you are ruthless, don’t paint, and when you paint, don’t be ruthless. One day at a friend's party, a drunken meal took place. A Taiwanese female doctor of oil painting sitting next to Tang Zhikai joked: "I'm a very perverted person... I play with colors!" Tang Zhikai laughed and responded: "I'm a very perverted person. Love is the seed of passion." Everyone agrees.

Sex comes out of love, and love comes from sex! All objects in the world have no emotions, but people give them emotions. When people observe life and nature with emotions, and express life and nature with emotions, they are expressing their own emotions. Tang Zhikai gave an example. Some people will feel the vastness of the sea when they see it, some people will feel a kind of power, some people will think of fighting and surfing, and some people will commit suicide thinking of their own insignificance! The emotion of an object varies according to the emotion of the individual.

How are emotions expressed in paintings? What about the emotion of landscape painting? Guo Xi of the Song Dynasty once said: "The mist of true landscapes changes in four seasons. The spring mountains are gorgeous and like a smile, the summer mountains are green and like drops, the autumn mountains are bright and clean like make-up, and the winter mountains are bleak and like sleep."

"Coupled with morning fog, dusk mist, dawn clouds, morning glow, sunset, mountain mist, wind, rain, thunder and snow, plus each person's personality, culture, and cognition, the emotions expressed and reflected are so complex. Every time Tang Zhikai creates a painting When making a work, he must first think about what kind of emotion he wants to express, and then think about what kind of subject matter, what kind of brushwork, and what kind of composition to choose to express this emotion. Therefore, each of his paintings is unique. The emotions expressed are all different: some are about the quiet mountain village where the water flows and the rocks are singing, and the auspicious clouds are lingering, to enjoy the tranquility of this paradise; some are about the changing mountains and rivers, to realize that "I will be at the top of the mountain, and I can see all the small mountains." Who else can I do? Vigor; some are chopping with knives and axes, building up the majestic shores without disdain to contain the masculinity of implicit romantic self-admiration; some are the outpouring of the state of mind of "two lakes, three villages, thousands of gorges, and thousands of rocks, and the sound of rivers breaking through thousands of feet of banks"...

Sometimes he is like a scholar, sometimes he is like a wanderer, sometimes he is like a businessman, sometimes he is like a brave general... he laughs sometimes, laughs sometimes, is sad sometimes, is quiet sometimes and is crazy sometimes, he has been tortured by love. His whole body was bruised and bruised, leaving only a passionate heart that kept beating every day!

There are no rules for artistic aesthetics. The taste of art is determined by personal education and knowledge. Tang Zhikai thinks that his current level is still a green one! Apple, not knowing enough and then making progress, the side ambitions in youth, and the single-mindedness after middle age, now seem to be happy struggles. Treat all experiences as wealth, emotions are as natural as rivers in spring and green mountains in summer, and knowledge is consistent and pen and ink are consistent. Naturally, it becomes clear.

We often say that people should look forward. In fact, people should look inward, and their minds should go inward to understand themselves, improve themselves, and improve themselves. The process of achieving success is the process of gaining external achievements; the degree to which one is perfected is the scale of the person's realm. Therefore, from this perspective, how far a person goes inward determines how wide his life path is.