(East-West Question) Wu Weishan: When Qi Baishi "meeted" Da Vinci, how did Chinese freehand sculpture stand out?
China News Agency, Beijing, May 26th: When Qi Baishi "meeted" Da Vinci, how did Chinese freehand sculpture shine?
——An exclusive interview with Wu Weishan, director of the National Art Museum of China and a famous sculptor
China News Agency reporter Ying Ni
In 2017, the bronze statue of "Confucius" was officially "settled" in the "China Plaza" in Curitiba, Brazil; in 2019, the sculpture "A Dialogue Beyond Time and Space - Leonardo Da Vinci and Qi Baishi" was unveiled at the Italian Academy of Art; 2021 In 2009, the sculpture "The Encounter of the Gods - A Dialogue between Confucius and Socrates" stands in the ruins of the ancient market in Athens, Greece, and the sculpture "Statue of Zen Master Yinyuan" is permanently placed at Kofukuji Temple in Nagasaki, Japan...
Wu Weishan accepted an exclusive interview with China News Agency's "East and West Questions".
Photo by China News Agency reporter Sheng Jiapeng
Wu Weishan, a famous sculptor who is currently the director of the National Art Museum of China and the vice chairman of the China Artists Association, has created more than 600 statues in the past 30 years, in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Denmark, Belgium, etc. Guojun Li has his works.
How to integrate sculpture art with the spirit of Chinese aesthetics and tell the world about the "beauty" of China?
A few days ago, Wu Weishan accepted an exclusive interview with China News Agency's "East and West Questions".
The following is a summary of the interview transcript:
China News Agency reporter: Your sculptures are all over the world. From the perspective of cultural exchanges between the East and the West, "Da Vinci and Qi Baishi" and "Confucius and Socrates" are the most representative. These two groups of sculptures hope to express What connotation?
Wu Weishan:
The inspiration for the sculpture "A Dialogue Beyond Time and Space - Da Vinci and Qi Baishi" came from my visit to Venice, Italy more than ten years ago, when I was on a boat in the misty rain, and I came up with the East and the West beyond time and space. Culture represents the image of boating together in the long river of human civilization.
This work depicts the "encounter" between the European Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci and the modern Chinese painting master Qi Baishi.
Da Vinci's realism and Qi Baishi's freehand brushwork represent the aesthetic pursuits of the West and the East respectively, implying the cultural and artistic exchanges between China and China across time and space.
The sculpture of Leonardo da Vinci has long hair like a waterfall and his fingers are in the sky, showing respect for science and reason; Qi Baishi's face is clear and his hand is leaning on a scepter, showing a modest and natural state, but the cane has the momentum of rising 90,000 miles.
In my eyes, the walking stick is a line that connects the sky above and the ground below, symbolizing the cosmology and artistic concept of Chinese culture, and also like the Silk Road connecting the East and the West.
Da Vinci and Qi Baishi lived hundreds of years apart, and their "dialogue" is an exchange that transcends time and space.
In January 2020, "A Dialogue Beyond Time and Space - Italian Art Master Leonardo Da Vinci and Chinese Painter Qi Baishi" was grandly "settled" in Vinci, Italy.
Photo courtesy of the National Art Museum of China
The sculpture "God Encounter - A Dialogue between Confucius and Socrates" stands in the ancient market in Athens, Greece.
Socrates and Confucius stood shoulder-to-shoulder, tall and straight, strong and dignified, and they were talking eloquently; among them, Confucius was gentle and elegant, like a spring, and he gave a chime and salute.
Greek literary master Kazantzakis famously said, "Socrates and Confucius are two masks of human beings, and under the masks is the same rational face of human beings".
The two statues show the world that the dialogue between the great ideas of China and Greece, the ancient country that is the birthplace of Eastern and Western civilizations, is like a spring breeze, symbolizing that the cultural exchange and integration of the East and the West has entered a new stage and a new model.
In September 2021, Wu Weishan's large-scale sculpture "The Encounter of the Gods - A Dialogue between Confucius and Socrates" was completed at the ruins of the ancient market in Athens, Greece.
Photo courtesy of the National Art Museum of China
China News Service: What do you think of the similarities and differences between Chinese sculptures represented by Qin Terracotta Warriors and Dunhuang Grottoes and Western sculptures represented by David and Venus? What cultural and artistic differences do they reflect?
Wu Weishan: In
the primitive period, China's Hongshan and Cishan cultures all showed a high degree of freehand brushwork, which is an intuitive expression of the natural state of life; in the three pre-Qin dynasties, Shang and Zhou bronzes and Sichuan Guanghan Sanxingdui bronze sculptures are represented The freehand brushwork is full of the charm and abstraction of the oriental mysticism; while the sculpture imagery of the Han Dynasty represents the most intense and distinct artistic language in ancient Chinese sculpture, and is another aesthetic system, creation system and Value System.
During the Han Dynasty, Buddhism was introduced to China, and carving stone statues became an important art.
The Buddhist art at that time was influenced by the art of Gandhara in India, and the art of Gandhara was influenced by the art of Greece.
In the process of the blending of Buddhism and Chinese culture, Chinese Buddhist art gradually took on a local appearance.
For example, the flying sky in Dunhuang murals, and the statues of Bodhisattvas, Heavenly Kings, and Luxuries in Longmen and Yungang Grottoes, regardless of form, image, subject matter, and expression technique, fully reflect the blending of civilizations.
Generally speaking, oriental art is imaginative and freehand, and it takes "meaning" as the starting point to shape the artistic image.
Western art, especially Western classical art, has obvious rationality and scientific attitude.
For example, in the sculpture of David, it feels that Michelangelo almost liberated David from the stone, and the strong sense of humanism is fully reflected in the work.
Throughout the development of Chinese sculpture, its spiritual connotation is influenced by politics, religion and philosophy, and its shape is influenced by painting, and it shows Taoism, wisdom and beauty in imagery, abstraction, freehand brushwork, and realism, and has a unique value that is completely different from Western traditions. .
We cannot be satisfied that Chinese sculptures only exist in museums, grottoes, and tomb passages. We should extract the unparalleled heritage, transcendental will, and lofty realms that affect the present and the future.
This is not only to maintain the unique charm of China and carry forward the national tradition, but also to promote the diversified development of human cultural ecology.
In September 2017, a bronze statue of Confucius created by Wu Weishan was unveiled in Curitiba, the capital of Brazil's Paraná state.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Mo Chengxiong
China News Service reporter: Freehand brushwork is the traditional aesthetic of Chinese people. Sculpture has always been known for its realism. How can the two integrate and impact the splendor of art? How does your artistic creation absorb the spirit of Chinese and Western culture and "use it for me"?
Wu Weishan:
My family has a strong cultural atmosphere, and I am deeply influenced by it.
There are outstanding scholars of poetry and calligraphy among my ancestors. I have developed an indissoluble bond with calligraphy since I was a child. When I grew up, I always made an analogy between calligraphy and sculpture, and found common points to integrate with each other.
Calligraphy is based on words, and is itself an abstract painting. The development of words is from figurative to abstract. Just like sculpture, there is an image outside and a structure inside.
In the context of the era of globalization, Chinese artists must find a fulcrum in order to establish cultural coordinates in the picture of world art history.
On the basis of my research on the spirit of Chinese aesthetics and traditional Chinese sculpture art, I put forward the concept of freehand sculpture and have been creating, disseminating and advocating freehand sculpture for many years.
The "meaning" of freehand sculpture is the "meaning" of Chinese culture, and the "spirit" is written through the form to achieve both form and spirit.
Freehand sculpture also absorbs the essence of Western realism and draws on new artistic styles established in the Western visual art revolution since the 20th century.
It aims to integrate ancient and modern Chinese and foreign countries, and to bridge the gap between art types. It is an open and inclusive cultural concept that not only goes to the world, but also talks to the world.
Wu Weishan Works Exhibition "Walking Man - Wu Weishan Between China and the World".
Photo by China News Agency reporter Du Yang
China News Agency reporter: You are committed to the exploration of the series of sculptures of "Chinese historical and cultural celebrities", from Confucius, Laozi, Li Bai to Fei Xiaotong, Ji Xianlin, Yang Zhenning, etc. How can the creation of historical and cultural celebrities under the knife help Chinese culture "go global"? "?
Wu Weishan:
In 1995, I made a head portrait for Mr. Fei Xiaotong, and Mr. Fei inscribed a character for me, "It is better to get the god than to get the appearance."
He told me: "Statues, you must grasp God." This gave me a great inspiration, and it also made me firm in an ideal: to use visible images to display the invisible national history that was written in books and passed down by word of mouth. , so that each sculpture can reflect the spirit of the times.
In Kaixiangong Village, Qidu Town, Wujiang District, Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, in the Fei Xiaotong Jiangcun Memorial Hall, the statue of Mr. Fei Xiaotong created by the famous sculptor Wu Weishan stands in Xiaotong Square.
Photo by Yan Shuai issued by China News Agency
As a matter of fact, no real image documents have been found so far about what Confucius and Laozi looked like, and the portraits that have been handed down are also the imagination of future generations.
For these sage statues, the best way is to start with "God".
The so-called "God" refers to the spiritual outlook of a generation.
Confucius, Su Dongpo, and Lu Xun all have different characteristics from the intellectuals of our era, which is a reflection of the spirit of the times on specific individuals.
Finding their "gods" from cultural traditions is not only a shortcut, but also the only way to go.
But the Chinese spirit is not simply to make sculptures like robes and jackets, but the sculptors themselves must have traditional cultural accomplishment.
Only with the cultural self-confidence from the bottom of the heart can we create artistic works with more national character, personality and style.
"Going out" of Chinese culture should be spread through the specific forms of art and cultural carriers, and an effective way to spread Chinese culture to the world should be explored.
In 2018, the National Art Museum of China successively established the BRICS National Art Museum Alliance and the Silk Road International Art Museum Alliance to ensure cultural exchanges from a mechanism.
In 2018, "Characteristics and Integration - Special Exhibition of BRICS Art Museum Alliance" was held at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Du Yang
At the same time, the "going out" of Chinese culture should not be limited to traditional culture, but must keep pace with the times and have cultural innovations.
It is necessary to do a good job in the evaluation of classics, and select the classics that can truly represent the history of China for more than 5,000 years.
The 16 words "Chinese spirit, Chinese style, contemporary style, and international vision" are in line with the creative pursuits of today's art workers.
China News Service reporter: How do you view the exchanges between Eastern and Western civilizations from the perspective of spreading "beauty"?
Wu Weishan:
The fusion of emotions, the interaction of ideas, and the resonance of values all require cultural exchanges, and the essence of cultural exchanges is heart-to-heart communication.
We should use "beauty" to spread the voice of China to the world, and in the process of mutual respect and dialogue, turn Chinese culture "going out" into Chinese culture being "invited to pass", so that its unique value can be shared by the world, and in the process of building a community with a shared future Generate Chinese cultural influence.
During the COVID-19 outbreak, the National Art Museum of China sent condolences to many museums and art galleries around the world, and the responses they received were also warm.
Everyone invariably realized that in this global epidemic, everyone lives in a small boat and has an obligation to understand and cooperate with each other.
Dialogue between civilizations requires in-depth research on the cultural traditions, value orientations and acceptance psychology of different audiences, and measures according to local conditions and individual conditions.
This is a two-way exchange of values, and it is also an important driving force for the progress of human civilization and the peaceful development of the world.
I think the essence of cultural exchange is: a face, a heart, and a soul.
A face refers to the cultural characteristics of a nation and a country; a heart is a sincere, sincere and gentle heart to each other; a soul is the soul that cherishes and maintains world peace together.
As long as we face each other and connect our hearts to our hearts, we can rely on each other in souls and veins, help each other and move forward hand in hand in the process of building a community with a shared future for mankind.
(Finish)
Interviewee Profile:
Photo by China News Agency reporter Sheng Jiapeng
Wu Weishan, Member of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Director of the National Art Museum of China, an internationally renowned sculptor, and a Corresponding Academician of the French Academy of Arts.
Second-level professor of liberal arts, doctoral tutor of Tsinghua University, Nanjing University, and China National Academy of Arts, chief tutor of Peking University-National Art Museum of China Postdoctoral Research Station, and enjoys special government allowances from the State Council.
He is the founder of "Freehand Sculpture Theory". He has published more than ten monographs that have been translated into multiple languages and published, and created nearly 600 works, which are displayed in museums and squares in many countries around the world.
His sculpture solo exhibitions have been toured in the National Museum of China, the United Nations Headquarters, the Italian National Museum, the Royal Academy of Arts, France, Japan, South Korea and other important museums and galleries at home and abroad.
The Nanjing Museum established the "Wu Weishan Sculpture Museum", and South Korea established the "Wu Weishan Sculpture Park".