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Preface
By Jiyan
Zhou
My student Junxin Diao is a famous American Chinese painter. He has been living
in America for eighteen years. He kept in touch
with me often while he was oversea, and every time he came back he would pay a
visit to me. “Even though I became a United States citizen, my love for my
hometown, my people, my teachers, my ex-classmates and my friends has been all
the time consistent. Each time I came back to Nanjing, I was very excited by her
new constructions and new outlook. I am a reminiscent person, and my hometown is
always the best place in my heart.” These are the true words from the inner
heart of a person who has left his hometown for a long time. “I often felt
lonely in spirit. Besides feeling homesick, the only other thing I can do is
painting to express my nostalgic feelings,” he had said.
America is a “melting pot”, where people come from different countries with
different cultures. So called “melting pot” means that America can embrace the
different peoples with different languages, cultures and colors. But it is easy
for a person to be “melted” if he does not possess his own national features.
Most painters oversea make a living by selling their paintings. Only because
some painters have not found the right way to develop their art career, even
though their paintings are actually excellent, but their artworks don’t attract
the customers. Therefore they quit their painting career, change their painting
style or just go back to China. The cruel arts market oversea “melts” a lot of
painters, but the painters who are left have already found the right way to
continue with their art. These painters don’t expect to get full acceptance, but
some customers still come to you, this is the value of the painters. During the
past eighteen years, Junxin has been engaged in his art creation nonstop, and
today he still devotes himself to painting. He supports his family only by
selling his paintings; he leads a well off life. The reason that he can
establish himself in America is that he spares no opportunity to promote Chinese
culture and develop his art career with his own distinctive features. Finally he
wins the acceptance of the art market oversea. When he talked about his art
career, he was full of confidence: “In my opinion, it is important for a painter
to select a fine subject and an appropriate form of expression to make his every
painting unique and distinctive. In addition to good advertisement, the sales of
such paintings should not be worried about.”
“Fine subject” refers to that a painter should first know what is his customers’
preference. Junxin is good at painting figures, mountains and water, as well as
flowers and birds. But when he stays in America, he selects Tibet’s figures and
the figures in Chinese history and literature as his main subjects. Besides his
preference, another important reason is that these subjects are popular
overseas. Though the paintings are not expensive, these paintings win great
popularity and customers, who usually are specialists, professors, scholars and
those who love Chinese culture.
“Appreciate form of expression” refers to that a painter will never create a
good painting if he only has a fine subject but not an appreciable form of
expression. In the
eighties of 20th
century, with excellent academic achievements, Junxin, majoring in traditional
Chinese painting, graduated from Fine Arts Department of Nanjing Art Institute.
Trained strictly, Junxin is not only equipped with good ability of painting
realistically and the firm foundations of traditional Chinese painting, but also
absorbs the “nutrition” from Western paintings. Therefore, he can alter his form
of expression according to different subjects. He is good at meticulous
brushwork, freehand brushwork, meticulous and freehand painting, outline
drawing, boneless painting, strong coloring painting, light coloring painting,
ink and wash painting, splash-ink painting, splash-color painting, etc. He
always stresses that a painter should have an idea before painting, a painter
should have a well-thought-out plan to his painting, put pen to paper
decisively, deal with the details carefully and express truth, virtue and beauty
in his painting, to give a work spirit and truth.
Only “unique and distinctive” paintings would be sellable, so painters have to
be equipped with the ability to create originally. For example, many Americans
who were interested in traditional Chinese medical science visited Junxin and
expected to buy some paintings about the stories of the traditional Chinese
medical science. Therefore, he had to create the traditional Chinese paintings
with different forms and styles; otherwise, no one would want to buy his
paintings anymore.
Whether in Chinese or in foreign countries, a good painter always needs “good
advertisement.” By advertising on the media, the paintings can be known by
society, especially by customers, who can then decide to buy your paintings.
There are only few customers who really know about the paintings. Therefore the
advertisements mainly point to the people who want to collect paintings but
don’t understand much about art. Sometimes some paintings with low level are
given an exaggerated account by media, and misled by media. The customers are
likely to pay a high price for these paintings. Someone said: “Good paintings do
not need advertisement.” This is not necessarily correct. The customers may not
know these good paintings. If there is no advertisement, these good paintings
may be losing market or be sold with low price. Junxin fully understands this
principle. In nineties of 20th century, with his keen far-sight, he
established the first China fine arts online web site. This is an art window. He
introduces his friends and his paintings to the whole world and communicates
with the friends from different countries over the web site. Besides selling his
paintings, he also designing web sites, web pages and
appreciating artworks. Now over internet, his paintings are collected by many
art units and individuals from many countries, such as America, Canada, Mexico,
etc.
Among his figure paintings, the most outstanding
is his Tibetan figure paintings. During the last eighteen years, he almost
painted it every day. Tibetan is one of the ethnic minorities in China. With a
population of several million, Tibetan mainly live in the Tibet autonomous
region and in the Sichuan, Qinghai, Gansu, and Yunnan provinces. They speak and
write in Tibetan. They make a living by agriculture and animal rising. Most of
Tibetan professes Tibetan Buddhism, and the Tibetans own an abundant cultural
heritage. As early as in Tang dynasty, Tibetan regime had already established a
close relationship with Central Plains. The Tsanpo of the Tupo Dynasty Songtsan
Gampo was conferred on the titles “Fuma Duwei” and “Prince of the western
Region” by Tang dynasty. In his Bunian painting, Yan Li Ben, the great painter
of the Tang dynasty, depicts a beautiful story that happened during the 14th
year of Zhen Kuan time period, in which an ambassador from the Tupo dynasty is
sent to Changan to negotiate a marriage. During their long-term historical
development, the Tibetans have formed a close and united relationship with the
Hans and other peoples. With strong national style and resistant national
spirit, the Tibetans have become the subject of many artists domestic and
oversea. Especially for Junxin, he and Tibet were tied together by fate. In
1983, 1988 and 1998, he had gone to Tibet to experience the local life and
create many Tibetan figure paintings. This album of paintings carefully selects
more than eighty of Junxin’s favorite paintings from the eighties of 20th
century, most of them created recently. These paintings vividly depict Tibetan
life and custom, and embody the industrious, kind, devout and honest merits of
the Tibetan. His paintings convey the spirit of the figure by lively imagery, or
present the figure’s image by grasping the spirit. The most valuable aspect of
his paintings is his vivid touch. Whether he paints rain, snow or cloud in his
paintings, the final purpose is to depict figures and to create the art
atmosphere. By brush, ink and color, he successfully portrays his figures. The
paintings “The Tibetan in Moonlight” and “The Family with Three Members” are
Junxin’s impromptu work. With quick and powerful painting, concise, bold lines
and impassioned and forceful color, the two paintings are vivid and truly
lifelike. By the water stain on rice paper, the paintings “The Woman Walking in
Moonlight” and “Moonlight Impression” present the artistic mood and achieve the
best artistic effect. By carefully depicting the girl’s face, the painting
“Childhood” presents the girl’s naive and pure inner world. It is out of the
power of religion that the little girl pilgrims in temple with her mother
everyday. By portraying the figure densely or lightly, weakly or strongly, and
creating the background with light ink, the painting “Childhood” makes you feel
as if you were present on the scene. The newly painted “Road” shows a Tibetan
child, who walks lonely along the road in snowy weather. No matter how long the
road, the only thing the child can do is to go on his journey. By depicting the
little child’s back profile, the picture stresses the subject of the arduous
task and endless study one should confront. The painting actually is the true
reflection of the painter. Junxin often depicts figure’s back profile in his
works in admiration of the Tibetans’ power, spirit and merit. His paintings
express his spirit, feelings and interest.
With earnest attitudes, industrious spirit,
artistic accomplishment, amazing understanding and high intelligence, Junxin has
made a great achievement to Tibetan figure paintings and contributed a lot to
the development of Chinese culture and the exchange of Chinese and American
culture. I am excited and pleasured by his success, and send my cordial
congratulations on the publication of his painting album. Junxin, who has
reached middle age, is experiencing his golden period of art creation with a
bright future. I believe that on the way of scaling the height of art, Junxin
definitely will achieve more success. This is the preface.
* The preface is written by
the famous art critic, painter, calligrapher, professor and doctoral supervisor
of Nanjing Art Institute.
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