How did the famous painter Gong Xian's ink-accumulated landscape come into being in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties? The Style Characteristics of Gong Xian's Paintings

Gong Xian was an outstanding painter in the landscape painting field in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties. He created deep, rich and interesting paintings that the previous generation of landscape painters had never seen before, especially his later "Black Gong" works, which made people feel his indifferent personality and lofty aesthetic thoughts, expanded the unique spiritual realm of landscape painting in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and realized the harmonious unity of spirit and natural landscape. Gong Xian is good at painting with accumulated ink, making good use of multi-level accumulated ink, which is deep, vigorous, clear and clean, effectively shaping the landscape image and atmosphere and enhancing the artistic charm. His masterpieces handed down from generation to generation include Thousand Rocks and Thousands of Waters, Muyedan Huang Tu, Summer Rain Map and so on. Many of his paintings, not only at that time, but today, are quite novel and unique. The beauty of ancient brushwork penetrates the soul, which is very rare among ancient painters in China.

Gong county jiangcun fishing hidden map vertical axis ink paper

First, the characteristics of Gong Xian's landscape painting pen and ink style

The style of Gong Xian's landscape painting is profound, which is related to Gong Xian's technique of using pen and ink, especially the application of ink method. Gong Xian is particularly good at painting with accumulated ink.

The so-called ink accumulation is the accumulation of ink color, repeated dyeing, layering and massiness. The biggest feature of Gong's ink painting method is that it is dyed layer by layer until seven or eight points. There is a gap between pens when accumulating ink. When the ink is accumulated for the second and third times, increase its thickness and elegant feeling, which will enrich the appearance until it is accumulated for more than seven or eight times, and the more it is accumulated, the thicker it will be. So wet ink can't be used, and it's easy to die. Accumulate a few times more, it will not be rich and beautiful, nor will it show the sense of volume of the rock. I'm afraid there is only one piece of black paper left. Gong Xian's paintings don't need to be wiped with wet ink, and finally they are rendered with light wet ink. If you are not in a hurry, slowly and gradually increase layer by layer, first dry and then wet, so as to have moist, bright and colorful light and shadow effects. His ink painting style is plain and unique, deep and deep.

(1) The picture is full of light.

In Gong Xian's paintings, the structure of gravel is expressed by "ink accumulation". The lower part of the stone is very dark and the light is very strong, while the stone above is still dark and bright.

The head is fresh and transparent, with strong contrast between light and shade, which is very Fu Guang. Gong Xian paints trees, which also works well with stones. He painted rocks repeatedly with a dry pen, but painted the trunk with little or no scratches, let alone rendering, using only a wet pen and a straight center. There are often several white trunks protruding from thick black stones, or white trunks surrounded by thick black leaves. Dark leaves are painted on the light-colored rocks, which forms a sharp contrast between black and white. With the deepening of ink color, he developed "bright" ink and established a bright and luminous picture, which is his unique contribution to Chinese painting.

(2) seek to be moist but not wet.

Gong Xian is particular about using ink, but it can be "moist" but not "wet", so the commentator said: "The reason why it has been unique for 5,000 years is more in ink." Gong Xian paints mainly in ink, which can make him old, fresh, beautiful and moist. "Moisturizing" is different from "wetting". The difference between the two lies in that Moistening Ink is bright, shiny and businesslike, which can express the sense of life of nature, making it possible to "view it with beauty and view it with five colors".

(3) The layering is obvious.

Gong Xian's ink-accumulated landscape paintings strive for light and shade, but his expression of light and shade is different from that of western paintings. Yin and Yang, virtual reality and light and shade in Chinese painting are two different concepts from light and shade in western painting. Yin and Yang in Chinese painting solve the relationship between local three-dimensional structure and hierarchy. Gong Xian's Tree and Mountain Map is divided into levels, and the distance of space is solved in the expression of levels. For the painting of trees, Gong Xian gave a detailed explanation in "The Apprentice's Painting". He also talked about how to order leaves, how to order them once, twice, three times, five times or even seven times. All these methods he expounded are aimed at strengthening the level and integrity of the picture. This gives people room to stretch in the line of sight, which is an empty inspiration on the screen.

(4) Flexible use of water.

Gong Xian pays great attention to the flexible use of water in landscape painting. Gong Xian's landscape paintings are full of smoke. Except that he uses ink well and water badly. It is impossible to draw such touching clouds, rain and haze. When Gong Xian painted, he emphasized moistening and opposed wetting, which did not mean that he excluded water from painting. Gong Xian's so-called "wet" is relative to "moist". For example, dyeing should be wet. Too much "wetting" means it exceeds the degree of wetting and becomes "dead ink" with humidity. Gong Xian splashed water boldly and cautiously. He not only painted it on the front of the painting, but also added ink to the painting in turn, which increased the permeability of ink and made the picture deep and moist.

Landscape Axis of Wenshan Waterfall in Gongxian County

Second, the formation process of Gong Xian's landscape painting style.

Gong Xian's life painting can be divided into three stages: the early stage is before the age of 30, which is a learning stage and has no style; From 30 to 38 years old in the early stage, the "hundred-work" painting style outlined by simple strokes has gradually taken shape; Later, at the age of 38 to 40, he continued to improve the stick figure style, and at the same time tried to rub and dye this complex painting method many times, and finally formed a moist and muddy "black gong" painting style. Gong Xian's early paintings tend to be simple landscape painting style. The Landscape Atlas of Ink Pen was written by Gong Xian in his early years. This painting depicts mountains, waterfalls and magnificent weather. From the painting point of view, the picture focuses on the outline of the mountain shape, the lines are round and flexible, and the whole picture is mainly gray, which has seen the style of "Bai Gong".

The painting "Hidden Scenery Axis" has a clear rock vein, giving people an elegant atmosphere, and its emphasis on pen and ink is far above the mountains and valleys. The description of verve, brush and ink, hills and valleys in the painting reflects his pursuit at this stage, and this painting can be used as a symbol of the initial formation of Gong Xian's early painting style. Gong Xian's early paintings followed the method of minimalism. Jane means not a simple composition, but a simple pen. Jane has only a few lines on the screen, and then a little bit of rubbing and dyeing. The whole painting seems to be good at sketching, and this style of work was not made occasionally until later years. "Bai Gong" works are quite perfect, with thick brushwork, weak spirit and moist pen and ink. Whether it is pen and ink, composition layout, artistic conception transmission or style establishment, it is relatively mature. The works of "Baigong" style tend to study "pen". This kind of works, with exposed brush strokes, are clear at a glance, which makes full preparations for the better transformation to "black gong" of "ink" in the future. The painting in the middle and late period perfected the painting style of "Bai Gong" in the early period, and Gong Xian began the artistic conception of "Ink", which needed to be accumulated most and took the most effort.

The pen and ink of Chinese painting is not a simple technique, but a realm with an independent life. Therefore, any mature pen and ink can show us the inheritance and knowledge background of the painter's pen and ink, as well as his personal character, temperament, artistic pursuit and aesthetic tendency. Without mature pen and ink and vivid charm, no matter how good the structure is, it will not help. From this point of view, Gong Xian's choice is the only way for his landscape painting pen and ink style to mature-the promotion of "Heigong" landscape painting pen and ink style.

The landscape painting of "Black Gong" is painted by ink storage. Its pictures are colorful, dense, quiet and vigorous, thick and moist, and a boundless atmosphere of heaven and earth begins to appear. During this period, there were many landscape paintings in Gong Xian, such as Scenery of Heavy Mountains, Picture of Qiuxi Bookstore, Picture of a Clear Autumn, etc. The establishment of Gong Xian's "Black Gong" ink method is a unique understanding of the interaction between ink and wash, which shows his sensitivity to black and white. His landscape paintings are from simple to complex, from white to black, from vivid to mysterious, and formed after a long and arduous exploration process. On the basis of traditional black and white, Gong Xian promoted black and white with various mysterious and subtle gray levels. This gray color is determined by the depth of ink and the number of dyeing. For example, Gong Xian painted a stone, "white on the top and black on the bottom". After many times of dyeing, the ink color is thick and black, and the number of dyeing gradually decreases and gradually turns white. A rich gray field is formed between black and white, and gray increases the three-dimensional sense.