Text / Kang Zheng
Where should China's flower and bird painting go in twenty-first Century? This is a cliche and long and uncertain question. For us, it is neither too isolated nor boundless. The coexistence of all kinds of artistic ideas makes the flower and bird painting arena present a variety of ideological coexistence, but it has a common characteristic, that is, the pursuit of trend. The direct harm of this kind of wind is a direct result of the decline of the aesthetic spirit of Chinese traditional flower and bird painting. The simplification, mechanization and procedural making techniques eat the aesthetic concept of "freehand" like dust storms.
Wang Bokui is "out of date" on this point. He pursues the significance of the flower and bird painting, but pays more attention to the development rule and the origin and development of the flower and bird painting. His paintings are simple and concise, but in the process of dealing with the picture, he can not only do as much as he can, but also grasp the random and random character of the brush and ink. His painting belongs to the life - based, he does not hesitate to use the condensed brush strokes to render the background of the painting, try to realize the prelude of the whole movement, and then naturally derive the theme. His bird lives in a specific environment and interprets the organic environment of harmony and serenity, so that the picture has a spiritual realm of harmony and beauty.
Bo Kui |Independence heaven and earth | doufang | freehand brushwork bird and flower painting
Wang Bokui's character is very round and full of temperament. He is good at depicting scenes of waterside and waterbirds. His "waterside tired shadow” (180*97cm) depicts three weary waterfowls, or hesitancy, or anticipation, or close their eyes to rest, all in their own spirit, and "Keep the spirit of high and clear" between the trees and dangerous stones, and “the lonely shadow is all over the sky” "180*97cm", with some cold breath, and a lonely duck looking up to the sky and calling like a call, or like sigh, or like whine, is now the late autumn season, the boundless flow of water, vigorous branches, in the pride and frustration between how many feelings of life? In addition, “riverside nap”(180*97cm) and “spring hidden”(180*97cm) have constantly improved their self-cultivation in the ideal pursuit of painting art.
From the artistic conception of painting, his paintings are literati paintings. Meanwhile, his paintings have their own new ideas and creativity in techniques. “literati" and "man" in the "literati painting" are not said, but "painting" come out, the literati can draw, but his paintings are not necessarily "literati painting", because the art of painting is a problem that any painter can not avoid. His painting ideas promoted the aesthetic value of his techniques, and his painting techniques enriched his artistic conception.
Bo Kui | waterside tiredness shadow | freehand brushwork flower and bird painting | 2007
I was moved to read the works of Bo Kui, and his works have clearly marked his aesthetic tendencies. He has deleted the disorderly language and made the language of the painting more pure, so his style of painting has been opened up. From his painting, we can also see that his research on traditional flower and bird painting is systematic.
From the mature painting of the Song Dynasty to the gorgeous paintings of the Yuan Dynasty, and then to the liberation and the anti earning of the self individuality of the Ming and Qing paintings, he has carried out a study. In this research process, he grasped the mainstream consciousness of the development of Chinese flower and bird painting and the aesthetic demand of the times for painting. Referring to his personality, the cultural background of the times and the development prospect of flower and bird painting, he should take a road of painting that suits himself, that is, the judgement and choice he made.
This is a very wise choice for a young painter. He is a pure artist. He is very persistent and even obsessed with his painting career. For the sake of art, he gave up his comfortable job and embarked on a hard way to earn his living. This is the choice of his life and his choice of art. This choice will definitely affect his painting. Directly speaking, his art of painting should take into account the problems of survival and social needs. From his creative ideas, I see his return to life and eulogize. His paintings have a kind of very good desire.
That is, he wants to evolve the painting art of his own personality into a kind of aesthetic commonality and let more appreciates understand him. In this way, his painting will be promoted from his own personality to a sense of responsibility to the society. He wants to exceed the people who are still wandering in the dark art world through the art of painting.
Bo Kui | dripping rain startling dream | freehand brushwork flower and bird painting | 2007
His works also have a wide audience in the flow of society. The meaning of his work "atmosphere" is also here. He has transcended the realm of "art" for "I" and has entered the realm of "him". The sublimation of artistic realm must bring high artistic tone. On the road of art for so many years, I have seen a toddler, a lonely uncle, a struggling uncle, a beg of seeking, and today I finally see a mature mother. Of course, the maturity and success of art are temporary, immature and incomplete is eternal, from maturity and success to the future is the inevitable experience of the artist, but also a fulcrum of art.
Bo Kui | a tree full of gold |freehand brushwork flower and bird painting | 2015
In his recent works, he can not separate the deep-rooted ties with tradition. But this connection is already a spiritual and soul communication. From his paintings, I read the shadow of Mr. Ren Bonian. Mr. Ren Bonian's artistic achievement is basically created by this commercial city of Shanghai. He did not deliberately put on the coat of literati to make a so-called literati painter. He did the job of a painter purely. He was a man who earned his living by painting.
Therefore, his painting from the aesthetic point of view, there is a mild, friendly, happy style, the same style belongs to Chinese traditional culture, it is also elegant and beautiful. In the form of graphic language, Mr. Ren Bonien often uses panoramic composition to manipulate the theme image in the natural environment and endow painting with the meaning of life. While he owns these characteristics, he pays more attention to the transmission of brush and ink and cultural consciousness. He turned the "reality" of Ren Bonian into the "emptiness" of brush and ink meaning, and pursued the expressive power of brush and ink and the artistic conception beyond painting.
If Mr. Ren Bonian arrived at the popularized realm of painting with "addition", he realized the beauty of form and artistic conception of painting by "subtraction". After entering the new historical period, the traditional Chinese culture spirit is facing challenges with the formation of the pluralistic structure of Chinese culture. How to deal with the problem of self cultural choice is very important for a painter. What kind of cultural choice for what kind of artistic expression is there?
Bo Kui | Interesting sound in the coconut forest | freehand brushwork bird and flower painting | 2016
In the creation of flower and bird painting, there are three different value selections. First, it gradually deviated from the traditional Chinese painting, and went to the decoration, composition, abstract and even absurd side. Secondly, to further deified the Chinese painting's brush and ink spirit, and finally fell into the quagmire of the brush and ink doctrine; thirdly, they walked with the times according to the law of the development of flower and bird painting. Try to adapt to the aesthetic style of the times. It is obvious that Bo Kui belongs to the latter. The reason why I call his painting "authentic inheritance" is that his understanding of Chinese traditional flower and bird painting stands in the purity of Chinese culture. He inherited Chinese flower and bird painting without partial or separated in the process of inheritance.
We know that the two factors of flower and bird painting are flowers and birds. In aesthetic form, they represent the contrast factors of static and dynamic, Yin and Yang, object and subject, etc. In the aesthetic of flower and bird painting, people are very sensitive to the shape of birds, because people often find the shadow and spiritual activity of the birds in the shape of the birds. Therefore, the shape of the bird is a specific expression of the artistic sensitivity and artistic power of a flower and bird painter, which is not only the height of a technique, but also the cultural symbol of the painter. It is easy for flower and bird painters to expose their flaws in the shape of birds. Some artists are avoiding this problem. Bo Kui has been devoted to the modeling of birds for many years, and thus becomes the best of the contemporary young artists. It is easy for us to see his artistic ideals and his cultural ideas from the artistic images of his cat, fish, seagull, cock, goose, and caragana. He did not evade the problem, but spent the most energy to solve the problem. If this problem is not solved, Chinese flower and bird painting will go into a narrower lane, and the traditional Chinese flower and bird painting spirit will also be perished sooner or later.
Bo Kui | Life is endless |136x68cm | 2016
Now, I am not willing to give next assertion for Bo Kui's style of painting. Because his active thoughts often collide with new sparks in his artistic exploration. These sparks will bring many new factors to his paintings. His style of painting is to seek temporary stability in perpetual instability. In his constant self denial, he went to the future world of flower and bird painting. His goal was clear and distant. As long as he keeps on walking, his paintings will remain steadfast in his world just like his footprints. I'm sure that’s the kind of painter.