Hong Huizhen
The modern civilization, with its irresistible pushing force, is destroying the tradition which created by human beings in the past years. Only with the heritage value of the material and non-material cultural heritage, only by social attention and protection, but it is only a drop in the bucket. Some artists use brush to record wonderful tradition that touched them, such as urban and rural scene inside and outside traditional houses reflect the China agricultural society, the harmony between man and nature, quiet, peaceful, leisurely and elegant way of life.
Fang Guangzhi was studied for graduate degree, identified the traditional houses and performance as the research topic, only devotion, and quite exploring experience and personal views (see he published in "art research" in 2007 fourth issue of the "cultural landscape color painting thought and practice" article).
Fang Guangzhi collected a large number of urban and rural houses from the Ming and Qing Dynasties to the modern times. They were characterized by the construction of red brick, which became the basis of his personal design. First he put the pot filled with courtyard as the main exhibition scene, while later into the chamber, painting interior space, while out of the house, painting from the external environment, to expand the space of artistic conception. At the same time, the introduction of the impressionist painter sunshine spot (but with subjective design means), inside and outside the building is bright, fresh air, bright colors, and refrain from the classical architectural usual old and mould and lost breath, still beautiful and livable and rich poetic, also makes the works with healthy modern taste and temperament.
In order to display the traditional houses but also make people live in modern poetry, or that the modern people live in the traditional houses, still very poetic, Fang Guangzhi uses some modern symbols, toy cars, bicycles and motorcycles repeatedly interspersed (the scene painting can not have people, some people in there will be lost Chinese painting’s implicit interest, only rely on life props implied popularity), to remind the viewer of the building of the painting is not in the Folk Museum, or to protect the cultural heritage of the original and relocate residents, only visit, like Zhouzhuang big house, but there are still people in the modern life of ordinary traditional houses, which can reveal the extraordinary charm of them completely different from the modern residence. Sometimes he put the toy car into the air, it seems to follow the western surrealist approach, the intention is to test how to make the theme of traditional folk art performance, get rid of the limitations of classical and aesthetic. Although sometimes appear abrupt, not easy for the audience to understand, but enhanced the sense of modernity, is a kind of exploration attempt.
Fang Guangzhi's schema with a lot of subjectivity, including the scene of the viewing angle, shape, brush and ink, composition, color, as well as the overall atmosphere of the design, have originality. Shape deformation after generalization, the pursuit of decorative taste, instead of realistic visual record. Keep the brush on the center, independent appreciation value, also to avoid the battle of the shape. The composition of self created framework, drew the lessons from the western constitution, emphasizing the best visual effect of organic combination of point and line and plane. Color is deliberately prominent, more than the ink component, and subjective design into a variety of colors, in order to better shape the mood atmosphere.
It is for this reason that, the house of Fang Guangzhi painting, unlike the direction of the Guangdong painters in the painting of the house so that people yearn for the passing away of the good tradition, but it is envious of those who have a good fortune to live in the meantime. They not only share the convenience of modern western industrial civilization, but also enjoy the leisure of Chinese classical civilization. I therefore in one of his works, poems:
"One year is easy and the autumn wind, Sunday leisure and relaxation. Afternoon dreams do not know time is late, rosy clouds full of courtyard are red."
I admire this kind of life not only, also looking for the actual residence and environment, it is not easy, can only sigh "for each habitat in dream, more than a painting with inscription". Traditional houses continue to annihilation, and the natural environment has also closely related and mutually dependent deterioration. Even though the houses can be imitated, the nature can not be restored, and all the poems will not exist. The actual performance of the about Guangzhi poetry, also reveals nostalgia and regret (such as "dense green trees remembering my dream", "drink water of pond in childhood" etc.). The reality is far from the picture, the picture is often the artist's vision. It is caused by reflection, a reminder of the protection of traditional culture and the natural environment should become a pressing matter of the moment of the whole society, Fang Guangzhi and the direction they left, really only a dream, a dream of irreversible traditional culture.
School of art, Xiamen University, in October 2008