Birds fly to narrative? -Comment on Chen Gongbi's flower-and-bird paintings

? When I faced Chen Lin's paintings, I suddenly found that although there were many painters who had commented before, none of them were serious about painting flowers and birds. This is not intentional at all. There should be some reasons subconsciously. Chen Lin expressed a very interesting point in an interview with the reporter of "Famous Painter": figure painting and landscape painting have stronger carrying capacity and are easy to change with the times; The procedure of flower-and-bird painting is relatively fixed, which makes it easier to stick to the rules. For us critics, figure painting and landscape painting have changed a lot, providing more comments, so we have something to say; There is no change in flower-and-bird painting, and there is too much to say, not too much, or even nothing to say, leaving a blank. But Chen Lin is sober. Isn't flower-and-bird painting easy for Chen and Chen Lai? Then seek a breakthrough and try to come up with new ideas and new schemas. Fortunately, the critic met the right person who commented on the flower-and-bird painting and felt that he had something to say, even if he didn't spit it out.

? As Chen Lin said, compared with figure painting and landscape painting, the stability of flower-and-bird painting is obvious. Since the Tang Dynasty became an independent branch of painting, the flower-and-bird painting schema has been in a stable state from the Song Dynasty to the early Ming Dynasty, which is generally a panoramic composition and a broken branch composition differentiated from the panorama. The stable schema structure is closely related to the creative method of reappearing natural forms. Whether it is a panoramic view or a broken branch, it is a true representation of the objective flower-and-bird landscape. For example, Lin Chun's Picture of Fruits Coming to Birds in the Southern Song Dynasty shows the picture of ripe fruits attracting birds to feed. Freehand brushwork flower-and-bird paintings born since the late Ming Dynasty have changed. The incisiveness represented by Xu Wei and the conciseness represented by the Eighth National Congress all use intentional brushwork instead of meticulous brushwork, which simplifies the picture elements and enriches the meaning of the picture, but there is no qualitative breakthrough in schema and narrative function closely related to schema. Since then, flower-and-bird painting has progressed along the two technical routes of meticulous painting and freehand brushwork, and no major variation has been seen. Based on the development history of flower-and-bird painting for more than 1000 years, we will find that the new meticulous flower-and-bird painting, including Chen Lin's painting, can be called the backbone of this camp, and its value and significance are enormous, just as Mr. Zhang Jian said in the mystery of freezing: "Chen Lin's philosophy is that narration is more important than reproduction."

? Yes, the picture of fruit coming to birds describes the event process of "fruit attracting birds to feed", which cannot be said to be narrative. However, in the eyes of Chen Lin and the new meticulous painter, although narrative is a well-known common word, it deviates from the established framework of word interpretation at this time, and then extends to a creative concept beyond visual experience. In other words, the narrative picture of flowers and birds that Chen Lin tried to present was quite different from the natural landscape of flowers and birds that was objectively presented. He wants to describe the objects and their combinations in his works as a logical relationship that is permeated with subjective meaning and interpreted as surreal, so as to show the world of flower and bird art that is connected with traditional brushwork but completely new. Along this creative thinking, Chen Lin began his unremitting pursuit. Around 2002, Chen Lin published paintings such as Red Dragonfly in Red Bean Horn, Red Lentils and Yellow Moon. The picture presented is far away from the natural landscape pattern of flower-and-bird painting for thousands of years, from which we can feel a strong sense of subjective reorganization and reference tendency, and we can feel that the painter has sent a clear signal of seeking novelty and change. In the following years, Chen Lin was admitted to China Academy of Art to study for a doctorate in fine arts. In Beijing, he had frequent contact with the quietly emerging group of "new meticulous painters" and hit it off, which accelerated his pace of seeking novelty and change, especially strengthening the narrative function in his creation. By the time he graduated from his Ph.D. in 2006, the identity of birds in Chen Lin's works had changed greatly, and it was no longer a simple natural image, but was given a narrative gesture with modern significance. Facing the fresh and dazzling cultural landscape, these birds are observing carefully, thinking deeply, judging accurately and trying to communicate, thus forming a new and highly recognized style of meticulous flower-and-bird painting.

? From 2006 to 2008, Chen Lin participated in the "mistaken entry" series of activities for many times. Although I can't find many works in this series today, I am still interested in it, and I am sure that these works were symbolic when he joined the new meticulous camp. Just this suspense painting topic, including those sub-painting topics with uncertain factors, such as "doubt", "dream", "exploration" and "patrol", can stimulate the onlookers' willingness to ask questions and the impulse to find out. Is Chen Lin really "mistaken" I don't think so. He took a firm step on the creative road of "new meticulous painting". There is no doubt that he has planned for a long time, weighed it repeatedly and prepared well. Since it is not, Chen Lin still uses the title of "going astray", but uses flexible narrative techniques to retreat for progress. After all, in the trial stage of collision with traditional meticulous painting, this painting named "Stepping into a new road with doubts" left a lot of room, showing a low-key figure, expressing a cautious attitude and playing a buffering role. Even if the road ahead is blocked, or this road is really impassable, it is all announced in advance anyway, so turn around and explore again. Under this narrative background, the pheasant BLACKPINK in the series of "Misentry" appeared in a wonderful performance: it came to a strange intersection leading to a distant mountain, and sometimes looked around and saw nothing; Sometimes I just hide my head and hide my embarrassed expression that I'm not sure if I'm "going astray". It is thinking about the future direction in its mind. How far is the road ahead? Is the mountain ahead my home? In fact, it knows that it has not gone the wrong way, but as a pioneer, it needs to think for a while and weigh it several times before it can find an accurate position. Following the trail of this pioneer pheasant, Chen Lin strayed into the classic gallery of sages again and again, and even went straight into the forbidden area of famous western paintings, where China painters rarely set foot, looking for the possibility of integration from the cultural conflicts between ancient and modern China and foreign countries, and extending the narrative journey of "new meticulous painting". For example, Golden Rooster painted in 2006, and Golden Rooster painted by Song Huizong are telling the loneliness of being far away from the hubbub, and they feel sorry for themselves through geometric refraction, losing colorful luxury and elegance. In the face of the changes of the times, the duck sent by Chen Lin was surprised, and one paw tilted back involuntarily. We vaguely heard the sigh of Ma Ya, who was wondering whether he was in the wrong place, whether he was "astray" or not. After all, the shining aura on the golden pheasant's head seems to have happened in a previous life, and it is impossible to be young forever. Another example is The Wedding of Van Eyck painted in 2008. Chen Lin sent two red-crowned cranes to "mistake" this masterpiece of the Dutch painter to replace the newlyweds in the original painting. Guan He has realized that he is playing the role of an uninvited guest, but he will be safe when he comes. At this time, he can only try his best to hide his inner uneasiness, integrate into a slightly transformed new environment, and create a harmonious atmosphere suitable for the wedding ceremony. It should be admitted that several batches of birds sent by Chen Lin are very competent. Under the banner of "mistaken entry", they successfully completed the glorious task of crossing the road and testing the water. Their narrative process is full of drama, starting with questions and suspense and ending with a happy ending of cultural conflict and cultural integration. At the same time or later, Chen Lin painted a large number of works of similar nature, such as Meeting Han Gan, Feast, Letter to Vermeer, Margaret in the Mirror, Wise Sunshine, Botticelli's Dance, Mo Landi's Mistake, Travel Notes, Flying over edward hopper and so on. , can be regarded as a work to consolidate the fruits of victory.

? After three or four years' creative practice, a new and distinctive meticulous flower-and-bird painting schema emerged from Chen Lin's works. In this schema, the birds in the foreground are spiritual and intellectual, and have the functions of examining and thinking, analyzing and judging, and reviewing and looking forward. They form a narrative structure with the virtual scene in which they play down contradictions, promote communication and reach reconciliation, thus getting rid of the traditional program of reappearing natural forms and being permeated with a strong aesthetic atmosphere of the times. At this time, Chen Lin has more and more confidence in the direction of planning. It is no longer a low-key "mistake", but a persistent "search", an affectionate "infatuation" and a comforting "* * *". At this stage, the narrative theme of Chen Lin's paintings is also undergoing major changes. Instead of discussing the possibility of "new meticulous painting", it shows the richness of "new meticulous painting". On 20 10, Chen Lin successively launched the series "Looking for Twelve Hairpins, Porcelain Love, and Tianai Love", and sent various birds to search extensively, dabbling in many fields of China traditional culture, and deeply combing the inheritance path between the new meticulous flower-and-bird painting and the historical context. Obviously, compared with "going astray", the connotation of "seeking" is more proactive, clearly indicating that the direction is clear and the goal is ahead, and there is no doubt about whether to go the wrong way. The series Looking for Twelve Women is worth pondering. Birds of all colors pose in various searching postures. The object they are trying to find is only empty in the first picture, but it is just a string of ordinary ornaments in the subsequent pictures. There are many intriguing things in this series: first, the title of Twelve Chapters and the decorations in those paintings give hints to the search target. Whether it is the ladies in A Dream of Red Mansions or the classical objects such as pearl bracelets, they all have a strong historical and cultural orientation, guiding the struggling birds to rush forward and rush to the deep space of inheriting the context. Secondly, the red silk thread used to connect ornaments in series implies this relationship. The red silk thread is very thin, but it is solid and reliable, which firmly binds all kinds of birds and their subjects together and closely pulls the ins and outs of the new meticulous flower-and-bird painting, which is both a variation of tradition and a derivative of tradition. Moreover, the homograph of 12 has been drawn one after another, and the prompt for finding a position is tireless. The accumulation of quantity conveys an unquestionable narrative tone and declares a firm attitude of never giving up until the goal is achieved. Following the narrative clues provided by the series Looking for Twelve Women, the series of Porcelain Love and the series of Love in Heaven have advanced in two aspects: expanding the field and strengthening the emotional concentration, so that the new schema of meticulous flower-and-bird painting with outstanding personality tends to be full and mature. In terms of expanding the field, the two series respectively introduced porcelain and textile equipment, both of which are representative works of traditional handicrafts in China, while the former is simple, pure and smooth, which is more in line with the local cultural spirit; The latter has the tendency of geometric composition, which is more closely related to western artistic concepts, especially the latter has never painted, adding new aesthetic interest to the subject range of meticulous flower-and-bird painting. In the aspect of strengthening emotional concentration, the birds determined their long-awaited dialogue image, and then fell into deep infatuation, which added a strong emotional color, and the narrative state of these birds also changed or became more and more excited, just like marijuana in Song of Porcelain Love. Or more and more distracted, like two turkeys who insist on their own silk thread in "Love in Heaven". By 20 1 1, Chen Lin series appeared, juxtaposing birds with various national musical instruments and western musical instruments, which not only expanded the scope of visitors again, mobilized the participation consciousness of theme elements, expanded the imagination space of picture composition style, but also opened up the dual dialogue mechanism of ancient and modern exchanges and collisions between China and foreign countries, reflecting unremitting scholarship.

? From about 20 12, Chen Lin painted several works of Long Shen series every year, which lasted at least four or five years. In the meantime, I am still painting Le Xiaoyao series, Xiaoyao series and Zuixiang series. Seeing the above painting, we seem to see the birds sent by Chen Lin flying freely and see a more relaxed and relaxed narrative style. At this time, the corner, escalator, windowsill, eaves and other architectural components in the original painting have retreated, and the collage traces related to Chinese and foreign classic images have been quietly erased. The picture space is relatively simple and desolate, which reduces the tendency of foreign composition and restores it to a greater extent, thus creating a good atmosphere for birds to swim back and forth. For example, Zhao Mengfu, Dong Yuan and Gong Xian's landscape paintings, without the partial mosaic of famous paintings, are unfolded in a panoramic view, and the empty birds look forward to their appearance. There is no juxtaposition between them, but mutual tolerance, honor and disgrace and * * *. With the help of the approach bridge, the muscovy duck in "The Charm of a Long God with Half a Thousand Flowers" is ready to enter the picture scroll, and the horn pheasant in "Autumn of a Long God without Flowers" is carefree and doesn't even need the approach bridge, and soon shuttles through the quiet and sparse landscape embrace. It's more interesting to read "Live forever and get fish". Piano Chicken broke into a scholar's study and saw a picture album on the desk, with Yan Lu and Mo Zhu painted on it, and a thread-bound painting. It was so excited that it jumped into the air and flew very high, ignoring that it was whispering. From this point of view, since the "Song of Eternal Sorrow" series, Chen Lin has changed his creative focus again, and his "Birds" has also changed his narrative discourse again: the exploration of the sense of form of innovative schema may come to an end for the time being; In contrast, it is more important to explore the inner spirit of traditional culture.

? From "misguided" to "free spirit", Chen Lin experienced a pleasant creative journey of getting along with birds in his works. Through his leading and effective control, all the birds have successfully turned around beautifully. They are no longer objects and images that enter the picture in the natural landscape, but are truly reproduced. They shoulder the painter's entrustment and important mission and become the narrative subject of the picture. While listening to these birds whispering, we witnessed the remarkable progress of the new meticulous flower-and-bird painting. Next, where will the birds that touched us fly? Let's look forward to it.

2065438+August 2008