The Origin of Chinese Bird and Flower Painting

The origin of Chinese bird and flower painting, according to its definition of "the object of expression includes all plants and animals other than human beings in nature", the earliest paintings as independent ornamental paintings are feared to be Han Gan's "Shining the Night White Picture" and anonymous "Hundred Horses Picture Scrolls" in the Tang Dynasty, and Han Hwang's "Five Oxen Picture Scrolls"; the earliest pure expression of flowers and birds is the Tang Dynasty's anonymous "Flower and Bird Picture Screen". The earliest pure representation of flowers and birds was the anonymous Flower and Bird Picture Screen of the Tang Dynasty. The later derivation of flower and bird paintings, like landscape and figure paintings, was roughly divided into three main streams: courtyard paintings, literati paintings, and painter's paintings. Contemporary flower and bird painting, as Mr. Ma Hongzeng said, is transforming from "classical form to modern form", and its "development of aesthetic connotation has triggered" the "evolution of artistic language". However, bird and flower painters engaged in this conversion and evolution of the exploration and practice, but only a few pioneers; I think Zhao Zhiping should be one of the success of this minority, its success is broadly manifested in these aspects:

One, the work of the flower and bird paintings to the realm of true realism.

Before interpreting Zhao Zhiping's bird and flower paintings, it is necessary to compare the epistemological differences between Chinese and Western paintings: Western paintings have always been rooted in the development of realism, the understanding of the object of the performance of the object first and foremost and the main objective, the Westerner's sketching is a respect for the object, not only pay attention to the observation of the object to be written by the accuracy of the proportion of the external image of the contours, but also pay attention to the understanding of the inner structure and research, thus producing the discipline of artistic anatomy, the subject of the anatomy of the art of the artist. Produced the discipline of artistic anatomy, but also emphasized the performance of the depicted object due to changes in movement and changes in body shape, from the epistemological point of view is objective materialism of the theory of reflection. Traditional flower and bird paintings, whether they are courtyard paintings, literati paintings or artist paintings, the "shape" of the depicted object is mainly based on the subjective impression of the artist, so there are very few accurate sketches of the shape, which is materialistic from the epistemological point of view. Of course, the traditional flower and bird painting is also based on the theory of "six methods", also emphasizes the "transfer copying and writing", that is, writing, also emphasizes the division of creation, but the way of thinking of the Chinese people in the cast of Confucianism in the mold of stereotypes, and Confucianism focuses on the spirit of "introversion". "Convergence", only attached importance to the established standards, do not attach importance to the understanding of objective things and research, the understanding of the shape of the teacher with the apprentice in the teaching of the teacher's influence to stay in the mind of the ready-made impression. Five Dynasties Huang Chyuan's "Rare Birds Scroll" and the Southern Song Dynasty Zhao Ji's "Hibiscus and Chicken", both of which are brushstrokes and birds, seem to be more than the importance of sketching, the shape of the sketch is not allowed to be, they all seem mechanical and dull, because the subjective mode of thinking hinders the correct understanding of the shape of the object. This is related to the one-sided understanding of the traditional Chinese painting theory: the core of the traditional Chinese painting theory is "form, God". Su Shi, in "The Folding Branches Painted by Wang Zhuanzhu in Yanling," said, "When one discusses painting in terms of resemblance to form, one sees a child's neighbor." It is believed that the opinion of those who discuss the similarity of form is similar to that of children. Chen Yu of the Song Dynasty said in Zangyi yishu, "It is not difficult to write the shape, but it is difficult to write the heart." Ancient Chinese painters ignore the tendency of modeling can be seen. Do not know, the shape of the inadmissible, God will be attached! Chinese painting "God", in fact, most of the painter's taken for granted, is illusory, even the history of the "immortal" masterpieces of figure painting, such as "87 Immortals Volume", "Han Xizai Banquet", "Han Palace Spring Dawn", "the Emperor's carriage" and so on, the painting on the Characters, none of them are seriously disallowed, none of them are formulaic appearance, none of them are expressionless, dull demeanor, it is really difficult to call people to really see and understand its "God". Western painting first pay attention to the shape of the accurate and beautiful modeling, and then on the basis of the pursuit of the portrayal of God to obtain the life and soul, such as da Vinci's "Mona Lisa", "The Last Supper", Leben's "Ivan kills the son of the Volga," "Cossacks chiefs answered the King of the Sultan's letter", all of them let a person clear, clear feeling of the painting of each character's color, thought, mood, from form to God, and the God of the world, and the God of the people. Both Oriental and Westerners, artists and the general public can understand and appreciate them.

Along with Chinese brushwork birds and flowers, Zhao Zhiping's brushwork paintings of birds, whether egrets, quails, turkeys, or fishing eagles, are very accurate in their outlines of form, and very detailed and realistic in their carvings. Zhao Zhiping often paints more than ten or even dozens of birds of the same kind in one painting, and sometimes, although they all seem to be in a static state, each of them has a different posture and different changes in body shape. He sketched the shape of the hard work is good at capturing the changes in the shape of the body, are not only very accurate, and the posture is vivid and natural. Gongbi flower and bird painting is a continuation of the Song Dynasty Hanlin Painting Academy's courtyard painting, which itself is a type of fine carving, but Zhao Zhiping's mastery of bird carving exceeds the traditional Gongbi flower and bird painting in the degree of carving finesse, yet he is able to get rid of the traces of the traditional Gongbi flower and bird painting's carving and traces of the dynamic man-made design through the ingenious treatment of the real and the imaginary. He learned the techniques of brush and ink by studying under a famous master, and it is reasonable to say that this kind of teaching and learning under a master is easy to limit the sense of originality; however, he was not subject to such limitations, and his ability of observing, grasping, and depicting the image gave people the impression that he had received the rigorous training in basic sketching skills from the western-style scientific art teaching. It can be seen that he was not bound by the traditional culture of materialistic mode of thinking, and accepted the scientific materialistic method of understanding.

Second, to create an environmental atmosphere, giving the background of the real natural vitality of the painting of flowers and birds

Traditional painting of flowers and birds is the work of painting birds and flowers, most of them are small scenes of small works, even if the painting of a larger reflection of the scene, but also the pattern of a small scene, in the sense of the narrow meaning of the painting of flowers and birds, the birds and flowers are just a kind of collocation, a kind of patchwork, such as peacocks with peonies or yuccas, cranes with cranes and lotus with kingfisher, not the natural world, not a kingfisher. The birds and flowers are just a kind of collocation, like peacocks with peonies or magnolias, cranes with pines, lotuses with kingfishers. Zhao Zhiping's brushwork flowers and birds is to paint birds with fine details and "flowers" with splashes of ink and color. The flowers are no longer the specific flowers in the traditional sense, but all the scenery in a specific natural environment. The specificity of this environment, which is composed of a certain kind of plants or several kinds of plants, is a unique scene affected by seasons and climate, which not only appears to be vast, but also appears to be far-reaching, and can produce a unique atmosphere and a grand momentum.

The creation of environmental atmosphere in Zhao Zhiping's bird and flower paintings uses the effect of texture, which covers the whole picture, and the intensity, shape, and level of ink bleed are varied and completely natural. Of course, Zhao Zhiping is not the only artist who utilizes the texture effect, but there is a big difference between the different artists who utilize it. Zhao Zhiping's use of texture effect is not innovation for the sake of innovation, not blindly catching up with the fashion, but trying to match different texture effects with similar experiences and feelings he has obtained in different natural environments, and intermingling them, reproducing such experiences by supplementing the outlining of specific objects through the paintbrush, and miraculously evolving them into specific natural environments and creating a specific and strong atmosphere. Although he starts from doing nothing to produce illusory texture effects, he ultimately relies on the mobilization of life accumulation, refinement, and conceptualization to combine into works. Perhaps it can be said that the integration of birds and "flowers" in Zhao Zhiping's work-brush flower and bird paintings is the creation of inspiration triggered by the texture effect. The texture in his paintings is processed into the background, which seems to be Chinese painting's capitalistic ink splashing, but in fact, the essence is realistic - not the subjective idea of writing, but to express the objective environment atmosphere, the painter's responsibility is not to transform it to replace it with the subjective, but can only be discovered from itself and found that the common people can't find it, but it can be understood by the common people, It is only by discovering and discovering from the painting itself the spiritual aspect that ordinary people cannot discover but can be understood and appreciated by ordinary people that there can be the possibility of communicating with the viewer's feelings and echoing with the heart. This breaks the stereotype of traditional Chinese bird and flower painting composition with blank background, and the aesthetic psychology shifts from conceptual materialism to intuitive materialism.

To this point, it may be worthwhile to go back and mention the topic of Zhao Zhiping's image of painting birds, he painted birds especially realistic is the secret, is to paint each bird in its body to see the marks of the environment, as in oil paintings, photographs, film and television people in different light and dark, different atmospheres to give people a different feeling, that is, the image of the depiction of the environment and its survival as one, completely beyond the traditional brushwork painting of flowers and birds in that kind of flowers and birds patchwork type or It is completely beyond the traditional flower and bird paintings of the patchwork or collocation type of relationship. I am afraid that there are not many contemporary flower and bird paintings that have achieved this kind of "fusion".

Thirdly, the modern concept of subject matter and theme.

The traditional depiction of flowers and birds in flower and bird paintings was only for the enjoyment of emperors, literati, and scholars as ornaments, and most of the flowers and birds were used as symbols of good fortune, such as "longevity of pine age and crane," "rich and noble picture" of peony, and the ideological content was stereotyped and formulaic, with no creative content. They are stereotyped and formulaic, with no creative component and with the character of primitive totem; or they personify flowers and birds as bodies, attaching the "souls" of the literati's personal thoughts and emotions; and quite a few of them do not pursue clear ideological connotations, but only seek for a little fun. As a result, the painter's consciousness is that flowers and birds belong to and are used by people, which originates from the concept that people are the masters of other natural lives. The main theme of Zhao Zhiping's bird and flower paintings is to express the "primitive life form of nature", to show his "love of life, love of the sun, land and rain on which life depends", and to "...love of life". . the inseparable relationship between nature and us is not only a living association, but also becomes a spiritual and emotional component." Zhao Zhiping's flowers and birds, and people are *** life *** glory interdependent kinship. This is in line with the new modern understanding of the relationship between man and nature. His works in a variety of birds, or resting, or foraging for food, or dormant, or playing, or soaring, or chirping ...... the environment in which it is placed in the flowers and plants, is through the wind and sunshine, rain, dew, frost and snow in the different states, whether it is a bird or a "flower", are both fed by nature, and by Nature feeds, but also by nature's test.

Zhao Zhiping's works of brush painting, less often painted only one or two birds, his masterpiece "Ride the Spring" and "Southern Charm", as well as "Snow", "White Dew", etc., are painted by a group of birds, which can be seen, the artist's deep concern for the survival of life groups. I think this is the main modern feature of his brushwork bird and flower works in terms of subject matter and theme, that is, modern character. From his works, we can see the harmonious and coordinated state of existence of life groups in the natural world, and we can also feel the resilience and tenacity of natural life. In Zhao Zhiping's brushwork flower and bird paintings, he reproduces a real scene that is more typical than a real natural scene. He is using his paintings to express his realization of the true nature of natural life, and to arouse people's love for the life of nature. This gives a whole new soul to brushwork flowers and birds.

In addition, the full development of the potential of color and lyricism, breaking the limitations of the traditional Chinese pigments, boldly borrowing from Western paintings to express the complexity and subtlety of the color changes in the artistic image with complex colors, and the use of color to express the sense of the light and the sense of backlighting, which is the focus of Western painting, strengthened and enriched the expressive power of the color of Chinese paintings, and is also the work of Zao Zhiping birds and flowers in the absorption of the nutrition of the Western paintings in a number of aspects of the success of the work of the birds and flowers.

There are many other unique aspects of Zhao Zhiping's brushwork bird and flower art expression techniques, such as highlighting the contrast between complexity and simplicity, density and lightness, coldness and warmth in the composition; for example, he is good at placing the image in different degrees of haze to create a hazy beauty ...... These are not going to be commented on again, but this article focuses on Zhao Zhiping's brushwork bird and flower in the following aspects The focus of this article is on Zhao Zhiping's practice of "conversion from classical form to modern form" and "evolution of artistic language". This kind of conversion and evolution is not an innovation in the general sense of microcosm, let alone the kind of actually meaningless and worthless form of bluffing, but a cultural level and aesthetic psychology and aesthetic concept of change. Chinese traditional painting of writing, especially literati painting, is the literati, the scholar-painter's self-painting of self-appreciation, self-entertainment, self-love or self-compassionate art, whether it is the ideological content or the form of expression, the civilian are very difficult to really understand and appreciate. In the development of Chinese literature, from content to form, there was a major historical change from the scholarly class to the common people of the marketplace. Such a change has never occurred in traditional Chinese painting. Therefore, the language of traditional Chinese painting is difficult to communicate with the general public. in the early 20th century, Wu Changshuo introduced the jinshi text into the writing of birds and flowers, which is still the traditional aesthetic psychology of the literati painting, the change of appearance has not been changed, and has nothing to do with the public's aesthetics. Xu Beihong introduced western aesthetics, in the form of realistic refinement of the image of accurate scientific modeling, in the content of the keen attention and dedication to the performance of the civilian life, both in content and form, are equipped with a complete language system of dialogue with the public, is the most important and most essential revolution in the history of Chinese painting; only to birds and flowers, landscapes failed to play a truly catalytic role. Birds and flowers and landscapes have still been added to the narrow realm of literati painting, and lack the knowledge and cultivation of the traditional literati as a foundation. In the new era, there is certainly no lack of innovators and explorers among the ranks of contemporary flower and bird painters, but I am afraid that not many of them are really focusing on deeper transformation and evolution from the perspective of cultural scrutiny, and are actively searching for a language of painting that can be communicated with the general public.

The painter's painting language is to be expressed to the viewer, I do not agree that the painter only cares about his own "innovation", the critic only cares about "creating" a new "theoretical vocabulary" to comment on the painting, but I do not agree that the painter's painting language is to be expressed to the viewer. I don't agree that painters only care about their own "innovation" and critics only care about "creating" new "theoretical vocabulary" and commenting on it in a mysterious way, showing "high and low" and pushing the viewers into the clouds. The aesthetic value of a work of art can only be realized through the aesthetic activities of the viewers. This aesthetic activity must be the heart of the work of thought and emotion and artistic charm of the feeling and comprehension, rather than just based on the painter's reputation, deaf to laugh and listen to other people's mysterious comments blind superstition. The deep meaning of painting creation and the depth and height of painting theory should be consistent with popularization and populism. The creative practice of Zhao Zhiping's work-brush flower and bird, the pursuit of realistic representation of the image, the processing of texture effects to express the real and specific natural scenery, with modern people's understanding of man and nature and feelings of the new works of a new connotation, from the content to the form of a modern character, should be able to communicate with the hearts of the contemporary public, the more successful work of the work-brush flower and bird paintings looking for a new source of life.

In fact, Zhao Zhiping's traditional brush and ink techniques can be said to be excellent, and his painting of birds and flowers in large capitals can also be called a master. Large brush painting costs dozens of times or even hundreds of times the effort of capitalism, but he is obsessed with the painstaking creation of brush painting, this is because he has a voyage beacon: "human history has changed dramatically, the earth is getting smaller, the cultures are blending," "we have to use a kind of international vision to treat everything! "We have to approach everything with an international perspective" and "welcome any form of beauty in the world to enrich our picture". His success is the success of the transformation of the cultural level, obviously achieved under the grasp of a macro vision. This pursuit of his, perhaps, is also the artistic language that can be dialogued with the peoples of the world.