Yangliuqing New Year Pictures by Four Masters

This is a famous folk woodblock New Year picture in China. It inherited the tradition of painting in Song and Yuan Dynasties, absorbed woodcut prints, arts and crafts, opera stage and other forms in Ming Dynasty, combined woodcut overprint with hand painting, and created a unique style with lively, auspicious and touching themes. In the history of China printmaking, Yangliuqing New Year Pictures and the famous Suzhou Taohuawu New Year Pictures in the south are called "Peach Blossoms in the South and Willow in the North".

The theme style of Yangliuqing New Year pictures has different characteristics in each generation. There are few relics in the Ming dynasty, mostly hand-painted and color printed, but the printers did not leave the specification of book illustrations. On the occasion of Kanggan in Qing Dynasty, some New Year pictures still inherit the stories of historical celebrities with traditional themes, and at the same time, there are exquisite dolls that show auspiciousness, wealth and happiness, and they strive to pursue the style of institutional painting in overprinter and color setting. Later, with the relative stability of society and the prosperity of economy, New Year pictures try their best to meet the psychological requirements of the audience, with many vivid characters and complex structures. History and drama themes are increasing day by day, with exquisite pictures and elegant colors, and most of them are still available to urban citizens. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the national situation gradually declined, and people yearned for a happy life. As a result, Qing Ji folk paintings that reflect the magnificent scenery of mountains and rivers and chivalrous case-solving paintings that exclude hegemony and security have developed. After the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom troops entered Yangliuqing, because the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom believed in God worship, opposed personality worship and advocated equality for all. Therefore, there are flowers, birds, fish, insects and beasts in the New Year pictures during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but there are no figures. After the Revolution of 1911, some people tried to improve New Year pictures, and also drew some works praising * * * and describing warlord wars, but they did not develop well.

The production process of Yangliuqing New Year pictures can be roughly divided into conception, painting, engraving, overprinting, painting and mounting, and each process is extremely precise and accurate. Engraving is an important process related to the quality of New Year pictures. It is emphasized that the knife is used instead of the pen, and the knife method is delicate and smooth, alternating between reality and reality. After the main line version comes out, add different colors, carve out an excellent version, and then overprint.

In post-production, the most expensive process of Yangliuqing New Year pictures is hand painting. After color printing, the painter carries out powder painting, flower painting, face opening and dyeing. The production of New Year pictures requires that the lasting appeal of printmaking and the tone of painting be skillfully combined, so that the two arts can complement each other, thus creating a unique style with lively themes and making Yangliuqing New Year pictures more attractive.

A major theme of Yangliuqing New Year pictures is dolls, which are plump, lively and lovely. They either hold lotus flowers; Or holding carp, all symbolize auspiciousness, beauty and affection.

Some New Year pictures are posted on the gate, so they are also called door pictures. The contents of the painting are: the door god, the god of wealth and the gatekeeper. There are several kinds of door gods, including Zhong Kui, who catches ghosts and exorcises evil spirits, and ancient military commanders who hang weapons behind the door. Two doors, one is Guan Gong and the other is Zhang Fei; Or Qin's and Weichi's twilight; , McCullough or Cheng. The God of Wealth is also the God of Wealth and Wu Caishen. On the one hand, he is a man holding the banner of making a fortune; on the other hand, Zhao Gongming is a man holding a double happiness. The doorman has a fat doll or carp jumping on the dragon gate.

Representative figures include Huo Qingshun, Wang Wenda, Zhang Keqiang, Feng Qingju and other inheritors of national intangible cultural heritage projects. Wang Wenda is 70 years old. At the age of 65,438+06, he entered Yangliuqing Painting Society and worked in printmaking for 54 years. He is a representative inheritor of the six major producing areas of Chinese New Year pictures with long carving time and exquisite skills. As a descendant of the second generation after liberation, looking back on the history of New Year pictures he experienced, Wang Wenda said that in some periods, Yangliuqing New Year pictures were also innovative in subject matter, which was a valuable attempt. "But on the whole, people still prefer the traditional Yangliuqing New Year pictures." Even though the current New Year pictures market has shrunk greatly compared with the past, this has not changed, such as the fat dolls and old stories on the theme, which mean to say goodbye to the old and welcome the new, good luck and so on.

Zhang Keqiang has been engaged in art teaching for many years. He preached and taught students and taught thousands of disciples. Nowadays, most of them have become the backbone of Yangliuqing New Year pictures. As an authentic successor of Yangliuqing New Year Pictures, the "New Year Pictures" created by Zhang Brothers have become a well-known brand of Yangliuqing New Year Pictures, which enjoys a good reputation at home and abroad. Their works are lifelike, with exquisite pictures, bright colors, unique personality, simple and elegant mounting and various forms. They have become the leading representatives of Yangliuqing New Year pictures at present, and are praised by the society as "Dai Lianzeng" in the past and "Dai Lianzeng" today. Especially in recent years, in order to inherit, excavate and develop folk art, actively collect and sort out traditional manuscripts, create new New Year pictures, supplement and perfect them on the basis of inheriting tradition and combining with the needs of the times, improve the technological process, improve the painting quality, and closely combine printing with painting, which has greatly improved and innovated in subject matter, genre and content form, far exceeding the simple production method of traditional New Year pictures, and gradually formed its own characteristics. Let Yangliuqing New Year Pictures, an ancient flower of folk art, inject new blood, endow it with the flavor of the times and make it blossom more colorful. "New Year Picture Zhang" has been featured by many media such as CCTV Zhengda Variety Show, Press Room, Tianjin Satellite TV, An Satellite TV, Phoenix Satellite TV, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and has also made outstanding contributions to Yangliuqing being named as one of the first charming Chinese towns with cultural heritage as its main feature.

Huo Qingshun, Tianjin native, male, 1952 was born in the family of Yangliuqing New Year Pictures Workshop in Tianjin. Yangliuqing Woodblock New Year Pictures is the sixth generation successor, and one of the first "excellent inheritors of China folk culture". Inheritor of Yangliuqing Woodblock New Year Pictures National Intangible Cultural Heritage Project. He began to learn painting at the age of 5 and printing at the age of 12. Until recently, he insisted on printing New Year pictures with traditional woodcuts and drawing them himself. He introduced that woodblock New Year pictures have very high artistic requirements. Whether sketching, carving, overprinting, painting or painting, folk artists can appear before each process. New Year pictures are handicrafts. As a family, he must keep the folk tradition.

Feng Qingju inherited the traditional sketch and painting, and her skills were exquisite. He is the inheritor of the technical essence of Yangliuqing New Year pictures. 1999 "Five Blessingg's Birthday" was selected for the Tianjin Art Exhibition and the National Art Exhibition celebrating the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China and won the prize. 200 1 The works "Wealth" and "Longteng Shi Sheng Guangqing" won the Excellence Award and the Bronze Award in the 6th National Annual Art Exhibition respectively. Six works, such as "Flat Peach Offering Life" and "Horse Reaching Success", were selected for the first China Folk Art Fair. Feng Qingju has been invited to the United States, Belgium and other countries for cultural exchanges. In 2005, she held the Yangliuqing New Year Picture Exhibition in China Art Museum. Now he is a senior arts and crafts artist of Yangliuqing Painting Society.