Chen Xiong's Fresh "Ding Family Landscape"

Wen/Ma Hongzeng

From his thirties to his seventies, from his prime to his graying temples, he witnessed Ding Guan's artistic journey of exploration. Now facing the unique landscape of the Ding family, I feel sincerely delighted.

Since Ding Guanjia was responsible for rebuilding the Zhenjiang Traditional Chinese Painting Museum in 1978 (renamed "Zhenjiang Chinese Painting Academy" in 1982), we have become friends in art. Zhenjiang is very close to Nanjing, and I am engaged in research work at the Provincial Art Museum, so we naturally have more interactions. Ding Guanjia's artistic comprehension, creative ability, and organizational planning ability are all top-notch. He graduated from the Department of Fine Arts at Nanjing Normal University in his early years. Its predecessor was the Department of Fine Arts at National Central University, with a strong faculty. He has studied at calligraphy and painting masters such as Fu Baoshi, Chen Zhifo, Lv Sibai, Qin Xuanfu, Zhu Jia, Lin Sanzhi, and Yaming, laying the foundation for comprehensive literacy in Chinese and Western painting.

At the beginning of the reform and opening up, Ding Guanjia planned the "New Fourth Army Journey" sketching and creation, and the Painting Academy's special calligraphy and painting exhibition was launched nationwide. His work "Yunling Twilight Mist - Former Site of the New Fourth Army Headquarters" (1938-1941), written in ink and wash, depicts the old houses in the jungle, with a mysterious and profound artistic conception, becoming one of the early representative works. Afterwards, he also planned the "Jiangnan Tour" art exhibition, which conveyed the unique poetic charm of Jiangnan with a strong sense of sketching and dynamic language. The art academy group and himself have once again received positive reviews.

However, Ding Guanjia did not stop exploring and pursuing. Since the 1990s, after experiencing a magnificent journey in the western part of China and Europe, he has broadened his horizons, expanded his thinking, and strengthened his personalized subjective consciousness, which has led to significant changes in his landscape painting creation. Born in Chongming Island on the coast of the sea, this man of nature, who is close to the Yangtze River, the Taihu Lake Lake and the Grand Canal, has shifted his focus on the beauty of the landscape in the south of the Yangtze River. Since the beginning of the new century, his aesthetic ideals have shifted from the elegant and beautiful style of "small bridges, flowing water, and homes" to the grand beauty of "I nurture my majestic spirit" and "the great river flows eastward". The majestic and majestic yet exquisite and fresh style of Ding Guanjia's landscape gives me the overall impression. The characteristics of its brushwork and language are mainly reflected in three aspects.

Firstly, the composition is full, both overall and rich, and the painting is still creative. Especially in works full of water, using dense horizontal short lines, writing from thick to light, stroke by stroke, complex but not feeling dull, interweaving but not feeling chaotic, the natural formation of ink color changes in black and white, like sky light and water shadows flickering in between, with vast and varied postures. This kind of effect has never been seen before, represented by "Time is Long", "Fisherman's Song", and "Moonlight Song". He said, "Painting water expresses a state of mind," and "Painting, painting is ultimately painting the mind.". As the saying goes, the mind is like this, the hand is in sync with the heart, and the pen follows the intention.

Secondly, strengthen the color function, blend thick ink and heavy colors, and create a strong aesthetic tension without losing traditional charm. He often uses ink to outline the skeleton of mountains and rocks, supplemented by heavy colored dots, and uses everything from emerald green, purple red, to deep blue. Due to the dominant role of the ink background, the image is colorful and varied, with rich and thick layers, achieving a visual effect similar to Western oil paintings while also possessing Chinese characteristics. "Spring Mountain After New Rain", "Morning Sunset Full of Lake", and "Two Trees" are all examples.

Thirdly, make full use of the factor of "light", especially the backlight effect, to strengthen the contrast between black and white, virtual and real in the picture, so that the dark parts can also reveal detailed and rich layers, vague and elusive, "vague and elusive, there is something in this". From works such as "Emotional Mountains and Clear Waters", "Source of Rivers", and "Sunset on the Canal", we can feel that the slightly mysterious connotation is more thought-provoking. Of course, the backlight here is not entirely in line with scientific significance, but rather an imaginative artistic treatment.

In short, the artistic conception of "Ding Family Landscape" is majestic and majestic, with spiritual energy emanating from the atmosphere and freshness emanating from the recklessness. Is it not that the nature of this "son of the sea" and "son of the river" has returned? The famous historical and cultural town of Jiangqian has the "Mijia Mountains and Rivers" and the existing "Dingjia Mountains and Rivers", which is not inferior to the mysterious scenery of mountains and rivers.

August 2012 in Dongcheng, Beijing

（Ma Hongzeng, Deputy Director and Researcher of the Theoretical Committee of the Chinese Artists Association, former Deputy Director of the Jiangsu Provincial Art Museum, and a renowned art theorist）