Painter Zhao Zhenchuan: One hand reaching toward tradition, one hand reaching toward life
He has devoted himself to the art of traditional Chinese painting for more than half a century, going deep into the grassroots and taking root among the people over the long term. Shaanxi painter Zhao Zhenchuan, a representative figure of the "Chang'an Painting School," has constantly drawn artistic nourishment from tradition and insisted on accumulating creative material in life. He said: "Only when an artist has long 'soaked' in life can he create outstanding works worthy of the times and worthy of the people."
On Zhao Zhenchuan's painting desk lies a yellowed painting, one of the works in the "Rural Sketch Collection" series created by his father, Zhao Wangyun, in the 1930s. In this work, titled "Those Who Toil for Food and Clothing," pedestrians pushing single-wheeled carts and carrying heavy loads on their shoulders walk forward unsteadily with hunched backs, and a few sparse strokes of withered trees and low houses sketch out the scene of the laboring masses of that era rushing about and toiling for a living.
Zhao Zhenchuan was born into an artistic family. His father, Zhao Wangyun, as the founder of the "Chang'an Painting School," pioneered the use of traditional Chinese painting forms to reflect the working people and real life. For more than 50 years engaged in the art of painting, Zhao Zhenchuan has also always adhered to the creative creed of "one hand reaching toward tradition, one hand reaching toward life."
"An artist going into life is like pickling sauerkraut; it takes enough time to soak before the flavor seeps in. Going to a place to sketch from life also requires staying for a period and going down again as much as possible; only after experiencing it repeatedly can one speak of understanding a place, and only then is it possible to paint the flavor of that place and find its distinctive brushwork and formal language," Zhao Zhenchuan said.
Zhao Zhenchuan has long persisted in going to the grassroots to accumulate creative material and communicate face to face with ordinary people. As a landscape painter, Zhao Zhenchuan has for many years kept walking deep into the mountains and into the homes of ordinary people. From Ansai and Yanchuan in northern Shaanxi to Xixiang and Ziyang in southern Shaanxi; from Lanzhou and Dunhuang to Urumqi and Ili, his gaze has always been fixed on the people living and laboring in the great northwest.
Zhang Ping has studied painting under Zhao Zhenchuan for many years. She told reporters that when Zhao Zhenchuan goes to a place to sketch from life, he not only asks students to look and paint, but also to go with him to farmers' homes, see where the farmers live, talk with them and learn about their harvests and living conditions, and even go into stables and cowsheds. That is why his creations all have real-life prototypes and a strong flavor of life.
"The people are my teachers, and the Qinling Mountains are my studio. Whether an artist succeeds depends on whether his works carry the flavor of life, and within that flavor of life, the smell of earth is the most important of all. What is the smell of earth? It is the smell of mud and sweat on rural ordinary people when they work the land," Zhao Zhenchuan said.
Born in the 1940s, Zhao Zhenchuan studied under Shi Lu and He Haixia, and studied painting together with older-generation Chinese painters such as Huang Zhou, Xu Shuzhi and Fang Jizhong. Zhao Zhenchuan's artistic creation has benefited from the older generation of artists' adherence to traditional Chinese culture and their understanding of going deep into life.
In 1964, with his father's support, Zhao Zhenchuan went to the countryside in Long County at the border of Shaanxi and Gansu. During his time there, he carried water and hauled coal, grew vegetables and raised chickens, and still persisted in painting in his spare time. In Zhao Zhenchuan's view, 8 years of labor and life in the countryside tempered his life and changed his thoughts and feelings. From then on, he came to understand that labor creates the times and creates life, and this also laid a solid foundation of life for his later artistic creation.
For more than half a century, he has never interrupted his study and creation of the art of traditional Chinese painting, successively creating a large number of fine Chinese paintings that use traditional painting techniques to express real life, including "Spring Dwelling in the Gobi," "Pastoral Song of the Tianshan Mountains," "Many Jujube Groves by the Yellow River" and "Herding on the Qilian Mountains."
In the integration and innovation of multiple cultural elements, Chinese art has gradually moved toward diversification in recent years. But at the same time, phenomena such as seeking novelty and unconventionality and a restless, utilitarian mentality have also appeared in the art world. Zhao Zhenchuan believes that Chinese artists must "hold the bottom line of brush and ink," that innovation cannot depart from the essence of national traditional art, and that experimentation even more cannot leave the soil of life.
"One hand reaching toward tradition, one hand reaching toward life" is the artistic proposition that the "Chang'an Painting School" has adhered to for a long time. Zhao Zhenchuan believes that traditional Chinese painting embodies the spirit of the Chinese nation, and this spirit is not only deposited in painting works but also in all Chinese cultural and artistic works; no matter what form it takes, it will have a "Chinese flavor." Now Chinese artists already have a calm and confident mindset, can view the culture of the Chinese nation and its traditional spirit more clearly, and can evaluate Chinese painting with the vision of the times. (Reporters Li Yong, Yang Yimiao)