The Value of Lao Jia’s New Creation
2016-11-04 13:28:40来源：作者：Shao Dazhen
Lao Jia’s presence in the world of contemporary Chinese painting as a man of honesty, gregariousness and simplicity is truly rare—he is an artist that has forged his own path. He has received classical training in the academy and mastered representational skills. As early as the Cultural Revolution, Lao Jia has worked on large-scale individual ink paintings, heavy color gongbi paintings, storybooks, propaganda and comic books, achieving extraordinary results in the realm of realistic painting. However, his true intuition regarding the essence of painting and his own artistic trajectory was only realized in the latter part of the Cultural Revolution during the 1970s. The great wave of Reform and Opening gave him great bravery and strength, allowing him to assiduously study the direction of traditional ink painting, choosing an artistic trajectory best suited to his individual personality, quality, and temperament. From the mid-1980s to day, he has devoted all of his energy towards the creation of freehand ink painting, not only forming a singular style of painting, but also producing great influence in the theory and practice of painting, attracting wide attention and interest both in China and abroad.
Lao Jia has clear artistic principles: ink painting should not merely follow old traditions and should instead take the path of creation, following the forward movement of the times and remaining constant with man’s nature of “out with the old and in with the new.” The principles of art that he advocates are “helping life by giving man happiness and strength while advocating goodness and repressing evil.” He respects the tradition of ethnic painting including literati painting, but rejects the decadent tendency of late-period literati painting towards imitating the ancients and distancing oneself from physical reality. Lao Jia uses his own practice of painting to summon up the masculine energy within our times. Moving from realistic figuration to freehand painting, from using form to depict spirit to using spirit to depict form. He employs a practiced mastery of ink painting to create form, seeking to achieve a comprehensive image while emphasizing strength of ink and brush, giving the viewer an aesthetic image of strength combined with a visual and spiritual shock. The figures and animal forms in Lao Jia’s work are the result of minute observation and study of objective nature, as well as ceaseless reflection and experience. What appears as mere strokes on paper are in fact full of the power of life, and the sweat and labor he has invested is difficult for the average person to imagine. Such a commitment to artistic creation and an attitude of profundity is in itself deeply touching. Of course, in addition to all these traits is Lao Jia’s deep intuition and spiritual understanding of art. I have always believed that that such deep intuition and spiritual understanding of art is what inspires people, conforming to the principle of one’s talent being destined for great things. Clear understanding of oneself is what helps the artist not loose himself amongst centuries of tradition and disparate styles.
The value of Lao Jia’s art is on one hand the talent to create beautiful and inspiring works of art, vigorously challenging the assumptions of ink painting, and on another hand the ability to use one’s artistic principles and practice to reveal a truth conforming to the essence of art: all art including ink painting must bravely take the creative road less traveled. All art has rules, but mastery of the rules is only the first step in studying art and not the destination of artistic pursuits. Whether in regards to ink and brush or composition, art must change in response to the times and is different for every artist, illuminating our era with the brilliance of individuality!