Which is the first contemporary Chinese dragon painter? What are his works?

Chinese dragon painting through the ages

Chinese dragon painting through the ages: Cao Buxing of the Three Kingdoms, Gu Kaizhi of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Zhang Shengxiao of the North and South Dynasties, Feng Shaozheng of the Tang Dynasty, Wu Daozi, Dong Yu of the Five Dynasties, Songshuo of the Northern Song Dynasty, Fachang of the Southern Song Dynasty, Chen Rong, Zhou Xun of the Qing Dynasty, Fanni of the Republic of China, and Wang Chunhui of the contemporary painters. Chinese dragons have a long history, and the famous dragon painters of the past dynasties have been famous for their outstanding skills and unique styles. They have an important position and influence in the history of Chinese painting. The dragon is the totem of the Chinese nation. Regarding the image of the dragon, "in the Han and Tang dynasties, it was mostly in the form of a beast, and after the Song Dynasty, it gradually changed into the form of a snake". In painting, the image of the dragon is a product of the ancient totem patchwork, and no one has really seen it, so the painters had to add their own imagination and creation in the creative process.

The following are some of the great dragon-painting artists of all times:

Cao Buxing of the Three Kingdoms period

According to Xu Song's "Wu Records," Cao Buxing was one of the eight great painters of folk art at that time. He was employed by Sun Quan and became a court painter. In order to curry favor with Sun Quan's family, he drew a picture "Qingxi see red dragon out of the water", which was labeled as a gift to Sun Hao, the grandson of Sun Quan, who was only three years old at that time. Lu Tanwei saw this scroll in his residence, and tried to place it on the water, and suddenly "the water became foggy and poured for days", and it really looked like a real dragon! Therefore, Qi Xiehe in the Southern Dynasties, said: "the traces of the unimprovement, almost no reproduction. Only the secret cabinet, a dragon only. Observe its bones, the name is not false." This anecdote shows that the technique of dragon painting was already perfected at that time. Cao Buxing has painted a variety of dragons, he has depicted "the dragon's head like four volumes of four heads, Qingxi side sitting red dragon plate red dragon picture two volumes", unfortunately, due to the age of his works but none of the works have been handed down to the present day.

Eastern Jin Dynasty Gu Kaizhi

Eastern Jin Dynasty painter Gu Kaizhi also specializes in painting dragons, and "versatile, especially the work of painting, writing situation, no wonder". Today, hidden in the Palace Museum in Beijing, "Luoshen Fu Figure", the painting of Luoshen sitting in the cloud car, recycling Gu Gu, the seat in front of a goddess acting as a driver, before the cloud car six dragons and driving Qiqiqi drive pulling the car to run in the clouds; another dragon from the water jumped up to rise up, and claws, quite a momentum. The picture of the dragon are slightly shorter head, the two horns of the elongated slightly curved, snake neck and animal body, the form of tame and gentle, full of childishness.

North and South Dynasties Zhang Sincerity

Tang Dynasty Zhang Yanyuan's Records of Famous Paintings of All Ages records that Zhang Sincerity painted four white dragons at the Anle Temple in Jinling in a very lifelike form, and when he was finished, he refused to give the dragons any eyes, saying that the dragons would fly away if he gave them some eyes. The people didn't believe him and insisted on letting him do it. As a result, the two dragons flew away. From then on, Zhang became famous and the idiom of "drawing dragons and dotting their eyes" has been passed down to this day. Zhang was a famous painter and minister of the Liang Dynasty during the Northern and Southern Dynasties. He was a minister of the Liang Dynasty and a famous painter. In the middle of the Liang Dynasty, he served as a minister of the Wuling Kingdom, and then became a general of the Right Army and a governor of Wuxing. He was a painstakingly talented painter who was good at drawing and painting Buddha statues, dragons and eagles, and made many scroll paintings and frescoes. Unfortunately, no works have been handed down.

Tang Dynasty Feng Shaozheng

Feng Shaozheng, a painter of the Sheng Tang Dynasty, specialized in painting dragons and water. In the middle of the Tang Dynasty, there was a great drought in Guanfu, and the lack of rain in the capital was especially serious. Feng Shaozheng, the supervisor of the Shaofu District, painted a dragon on the west wall of a hall, and then ordered a dragon to be painted on each of the four walls, which was "a strange and sinuous shape, like a desire to vibrate and leap, and before the painting was half done, it was as if the wind and clouds were born with the brush". The emperor and the officials "in the wall under the view, Lin A are wet. Set the color is not finished, there are white gas if the curtain between the wuzhu out, into the pool, the waves, thunder and lightning with the rise of ...... not the end of the day and manna all over the gui!" The story of the painting of the dragon to rain has become a myth of the ruler's favor.

Tang Dynasty Wu Daozi

According to Xuanhe Paintings, Wu Daozi was also a master at drawing dragons, "Daozi drew dragons, then Linjia flying, and every day when it rains, the smoke is born." The sequel to the "Youyang Miscellany Chopper" also records that: "(Chang'an) west of the middle three doors in the South Gate, Wu Sheng painted dragons and brush Heavenly King's beard, handwriting such as iron, there is the furnace of heavenly maiden, stealing the eyes want to talk." Visible degree of skill in painting dragons, the people also saw Wu Daozi, "ten walls of misery, Wu Sheng Zong wild traces". The wind and clouds will force people, ghosts and gods as off the wall. Among them, the dragon is the strangest, and Zhang Jiafang is trembling in fear. When there is a rustling in the darkness of the night, there are no thunderbolts.

Dong Yu of the Fifth Dynasty

Dong Yu's name was Zhongxiang. He was a native of Biling (now Changzhou). The painter of the Southern Tang Dynasty in the Five Dynasties. Originally, he was an imperial edict of the Painting Academy, and later joined the Song Painting Academy as an artist. According to legend, his works include Teng Yun Yu Bo Dragon Figure, Dancing Mist Playing Water Dragon Figure, Battle Salon Figure, Piercing Mountain Dragon Figure, and Dangshou Blowing Xiao Figure, etc. He was also the author of Paintings of Dragons, a collection of paintings of dragons. He is also the author of the "Dragon Painting Series".

Northern Song Dynasty - Songsho

For Songsho, the history of painting is little known, but the view of the Songsho "ink dragon drawing" painting method, and Chen Rong similar, Mr. Xu Bangda once took Chen Rong's information in-depth comparative study, concluded that the Songsho's "Shenlong drawing" lines than the Southern Song Dynasty painting more solid and simple, more rich in three-dimensional sense. The claws are handled square, hard, round and strong, three claws holding the pearl (three claws for Song, four claws for Chen Rong). Composition is the center of the axis of the characteristics of the side, the painting composition of the conscious cloud was s-shaped, dragon tail into another s-shaped and cross, the dragon head in the center, is a typical Northern Song dynasty center of the axis of the composition. Therefore, it is concluded that Songshuo, a painter of the Northern Song Dynasty, was good at painting dragons, and Chen Rong's ink dragon painting method is from Songshuo. Painting the dragon beast body like a long snake, unicorn head, carp tail, face with a long beard, horns like a deer, with five claws, looks mighty, endowed with the power of aura and life, and the surrounding surging waves more set off the vigor of the dragon beast. Shape and God's interest, so that the whole painting is magnificent, dominant and even.

Fa Chang of the Southern Song Dynasty

Chinese painter and monk of the Southern Song Dynasty. His name was Muxi. Dates of birth and death are not known. He was active in the 60s and 80s of the 13th century. He was a native of Shu (present-day Sichuan). Wanted for opposing the traitorous minister Jia Sidao, he took refuge in the house of a man named Qiu in Zhejiang. He specialized in dragons, tigers, apes, cranes, geese, landscapes and figures. He was modeled after Liang Kai, but developed and changed his style. His paintings of apes, cranes, Guanyin and Lohan were rigorously modeled and accurately portrayed. In the Song Dynasty, because people's thoughts became more and more free and active after the "Southern Crossing", some intellectuals and even scholars became more and more aware of the national anxieties, so people naturally used the image of the dragon, the symbol of the Chinese nation, to express their feelings and the dragon's extraordinary power and divine behavior to imply that the dragon is a symbol of the Chinese nation. Changeable, to symbolize their own lofty ideals and spiritual pursuit, at this time began to appear real dragon painting "professionals", the Southern Song Dynasty Chen Rong, Fa Chang are famous dragon painting. Among them, Fachang Chen Rong is the most well-known.

Southern Song Dynasty Chen Rong

Chen Rong, the word Gong Reserve, No. Weng, Changle, Fujian, "Jinxi County Records" for Linchuan (now in Jiangxi), Figure "Painting Baojian" for the Fotang (now Fuqing, Fujian), birth and death is unknown. In the second year of Duanping of Emperor Li Zong (1235), he was a scholar, and knew Pingyang County. He lectured with famous scholars on theories and theories, and the scholarly community was revitalized. He was once the head of the State Prison and the governor of Putian, Fujian Province, and served as the head of the Chaozan Daifu. Poetry and poetry, leisure travel ink, good at drawing dragons, Baoyou (1253-1258) between the famous for a while.

Chen Rong and the dragon, which symbolizes the Chinese totem, had an inseparable relationship. The dragon is not a creature that lives in the real world, but a divine beast that exists in ancient Chinese legends. The Song Dynasty scholar Luo Wang once described the image of the dragon in "Er Ya wing":

"Horns like a deer, head like a camel, eyes like a rabbit, neck like a snake, belly like a mirage, scales like a fish, claws like an eagle, palms like a tiger, ears like a cow."

From here we can see, in fact, the image of the dragon is a deer, camel, rabbit, snake and other animal images mixed together. About the specific image of the dragon, people have not been a conclusion. In a sense, the image of the dragon can be deconstructed by future generations, after all, it is a fictional character.

In order to show the dragon's many different forms and its unpredictability, Chen Rong tends to use ink and wash in his paintings. Instead of drawing the whole dragon, he would place it in the mountains and clouds, creating a mysterious and ethereal image of the dragon. It is worth mentioning that Chen Rong's paintings are even more unique when he is drunk.

Whenever he was in a drunken state, he would take off his clothes, pick up a brush and scribble on the paper, sometimes completing the whole painting in one go, sometimes half of it. The finished product in such a state often has the feeling of being made by the hand of a natural artist.

The people of the time spoke highly of Chen Rong's paintings, especially his paintings of dragons, and praised him for his paintings of "clouds and rain flying, the sky hanging down and the sea standing up, prancing and swaying, and the ghosts and monsters seeing". People even called the dragons painted by Chen Rong as "Weng Dragon", the name came from Chen Rong's name as "Weng".

The Qing Dynasty's Zhou Li

Another famous dragon painter in the Qing Dynasty, Zhou Li (1649--1729), was famous for his dragon paintings, and once posted his paintings in the Yellow Crane Tower at a price of 100 taels. A man from the government office of the provincial government, who climbed up to the Yellow Crane Tower and saw it, appreciated it and said, "It really costs 100 taels. Zhou Li then gave the painting to him, saying: I do not necessarily want to get a hundred taels, but just to see how the world looks at it, you can recognize the painting, is my confidant ah, I want to give it to my confidant. So he became famous. The dragons in his paintings are tumbling in the clouds and mist, with hundreds of turns, shallow in the distance, deep in the near distance, and hidden and rumbling, which is very beautiful to look at. Zhou's works have been handed down to many generations, and his "Ink Dragon Drawing" is in the Nanjing Museum.

Fang Yi of the Republic of China

Fang Yi, (1889-1979), known as Fang Fangshan, was born in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province. He was a native of Changzhou, Jiangsu Province. He was a painter of landscapes and beasts, specializing in ink dragons. He was the master of the famous master. After the liberation, at the age of seventy, he went to various places for sketching, and his work was so realistic that he did not look old.

Contemporary Wang Chunhui

Ancestrally from Nanyang, Henan Province, he has been practicing painting and calligraphy since childhood. Now he lives and works in Shanghai. He has been engaged in the art, advertising and design industry for many years, and then traveled to the United States to serve many of the world's top 500 companies. With unique insights into different regional cultures and the diverse contexts of art and design styles, he integrates different academic languages such as the Chinese ancient book Zi Wei Dou Shu, Lu Ban's creation, and Feng Shui Ruler into art and design. And in 2021 launched the original IP Chinese dragon series, once launched, become the trend of the circle of heavyweight masterpiece, and in the design industry pop-up frequently, the same year by the Central Propaganda Department sponsored by the "2021 Top Ten Annual IP Selection" Silver Award, harvesting a lot of brand and product fan favorite. We hope to use the youthful and energetic hip and cool aesthetic system to convey oriental feelings and create trendy works with the spirit of China, with the intention of creating an internationalized super IP for the Chinese nation.

Wang Chunhui is the most representative painter of contemporary dragon painting. Through the collision and fusion of street trends and traditional Chinese culture, he uses visual language to express the "dragon soul" that has been hidden in the hearts of the current youth groups; implanting the image of the Great Wall into the base, and integrating the elements of metal punk and street culture into the dragon's body, which combines both oriental traditions and modern trends; this heavy masterpiece that shakes up the contemporary trend circle, at the same time, highlights the extraordinary beauty of the dragon. highlights the extraordinary aesthetic value and commercial value, to stimulate the spirit of the national ****ming.