Coming to Hangzhou in spring has become a unique cultural event.
From March 18, “Song Yun Jinhui” art exhibition opened in the China Academy of Art Art Museum, the exhibition will last until March 16.
From the opening day on, there are long lines at the front of the pavilion every day.
The staff of the art museum lamented that such a high popularity was not expected before, but also rare in recent years.
37 pieces (sets) of paintings and calligraphy handed down from Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, 13 national first-class cultural relics (sets), 21 second-class cultural relics (sets), and 3 third-level cultural relics (sets), the system presents the artistic context of Song and Yun painting and calligraphy from the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing to modern Jiangnan areas.
What is more remarkable is that this is the first time that the works of Li, Liu and Ma Xia, the four major masters of the Southern Song Dynasty, have gathered in the same exhibition.
Song paintings gathered in the former capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, what kind of enthusiasm was aroused, we carefully tasted.
“Four people” why to get together in Hangzhou
This is an exhibition full of Zhejiang elements.
Let’s look at the author first.
“Li, Liu, Ma Xia” came to —— Li Tang, Liu Songnian, Ma Yuan, Xia GUI, known as the “Four masters of the Southern Song Dynasty”, they all have deep roots with Zhejiang and Hangzhou.
After 800 years, they have gathered together by the West Lake.
For example, Liu Songnian, who lived in the Qingbo Gate in Hangzhou, was named “Qingbo”.
This time his representative work “Four Landscape Map” just back to the Qingbo Gate.
Xia GUI was also a native of Hangzhou. He was a local painter when Song Ningzong and Li Zong vigorously protected the painting academy. He was good at landscape painting and was known as “Xia Bian Bian”.
Look at the painting again.
The bright mountains and beautiful rivers in Zhejiang have always been an inexhaustible material for the literati, especially the scenery of the West Lake.
In the exhibition, in addition to the “Four Landscape Map”, Li Song’s “West Lake Map” and Wang Yuanqi’s “Ten Landscape Map of the West Lake” present different West Lake scenes in the eyes of different painters, making many audiences look back at the historical style and weather of their hometown in their paintings.
What is little known is that the preparation for the exhibition is not easy.
In August 2021, the Cultural Work Conference of Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee proposed the implementation of the “Song Yun Culture Project”.
Soon after, a high-level Song Yun theme exhibition was put on the agenda.
The Propaganda Department of the Provincial Party Committee, the Provincial Federation of Literary and Art, and the China Academy of Art jointly proposed to hold an exhibition of the Song Dynasty painting and calligraphy in Hangzhou.
At that time, many people thought that this was an almost impossible task.
why?
Strictly speaking, there are almost no representative collections of authentic Song paintings in Zhejiang. In order to hold an exhibition of authentic Song paintings, the paintings basically need to be borrowed.
In addition, most of the authentic Song paintings belong to national first-class cultural relics. According to relevant regulations, these cultural relics need to be “dormant” whenever they are exhibited, and they need to book a “schedule” one or two years in advance.
In addition, the cultural relics of the major museums have their own exhibition plans, some never out of the province, some rarely out of the museum, some even very few people, it is even more difficult to borrow treasures.
Throughout the preparation process, the curatorial team is very dedicated to “Li Liu Ma Xia”.
in total.According to curator Yu Xuhong, “Li Liu Ma Xia” is not only one of the pinnacles in the history of Chinese painting, but also has special significance for Hangzhou. If their paintings can be exhibited in Hangzhou, it will be the happiness of Hangzhou citizens, the wish of generations of scholars, and a tribute to the ancient Chinese painting tradition.
But it is not easy to get together “Li Liu Masha”. For the exhibition team, this is a “hard bone”, and we must do our best to “gnaw” it.
Dong Baohou, deputy director of the Liaoning Provincial Museum, clearly knows the significance of this exhibition for Zhejiang and Hangzhou. Hangzhou once gave birth to the splendid culture of the Southern Song Dynasty, and with the efforts of the painters represented by “Li Liu Ma Xia”, the painting art of the Southern Song Dynasty reached the peak level. Liao Bo lent a total of 6 works this time, including Ma Yuan’s “Song Shou Tu”.
Although all major museums have given their full support, there are still some twists and turns in the process of borrowing paintings, and there are almost “three missing one”. One of the paintings of “Li Liu Ma Xia” was to be used for one of their own temporary exhibitions according to the plan of the original collection unit, and the other party was hesitant at first.
“No matter how hard it is, give it a try.” The curatorial team insisted. After many times of communication between the two parties, the person in charge of the other museum’s museum finally decided to lend the paintings.
What’s more, the painting of “Li Liu Masha” arrived in Hangzhou on the same night before the exhibition, which may be another wonderful fate.
Why did such a difficult exhibition succeed in the end? In the process of borrowing paintings, major museums have felt the sincerity, perseverance and determination of the curatorial team.
To the surprise of many audiences, this exhibition is the first time that Guo Xi’s “Journey to the Mountains and Streams” of the Northern Song Dynasty has gone out of Yunnan in more than 70 years. “We made this decision for two reasons, Hangzhou has a deep heritage that has lasted for thousands of years, and we also see the strength and feelings of the curatorial team itself.” Liu Xu, director of the Yunnan Provincial Museum, said.
Ma Chi, deputy director of the Tianjin Museum, remembers that the curatorial team went to Tianjin many times to communicate, once arriving at noon and leaving at night. A person in charge of the Shanghai Museum mentioned that sometimes at 3 a.m., he received a WeChat message from the curatorial team about the exhibition, “I was moved by their sincerity.” ”
Another important reason for the success of the exhibition is that the Art Museum of China Academy of Art has also made full preparations. After more than two years of renovation, the conditions of the collection have been upgraded, which can not only meet the requirements of the first-class cultural relics on display, but also meet the evaluation of 97 points in the international security certificate assessment, which can connect with the most important collections in the world.
Why is the exhibition so popular?
At 9 a.m., the opening time of the Art Museum of China Academy of Art. From 8 o’clock, the queue at the entrance of the art museum began, and often by the time the museum opened, the line had already “bent a few corners”.
“At first, there was a queue at the door, and then there was a queue inside and out. There is a queue in front of the painting, and there is also a queue in front of the exhibition hall……” the staff said, such a hot scene, days.See you in heaven.
Why is the exhibition so popular?
It is a blooming exhibition from which different people can see different points of interest.
For example, archaeologist Du Zhengxian paid attention to the bare mountains by the West Lake. “In the past, families needed wood to build houses and cook on fires, so it was difficult to leave big trees on the nearby hills. It can also be seen in the photos of the Republic of China that the mountains around West Lake at that time were much bare than now. He said that using history as a mirror, the gem mountain, which has now become lush and green, is the result of decades of protection, adding a bit of style to the West Lake.
For example, scholar Chen Ye found that painters were keen on “Jiangnan”, and studied more deeply the down-to-earth efforts behind their artistic creation. Huang Gongwang, the author of “Fuchun Mountain Residence Map”, has lived in the south of the Yangtze River for a long time, and after the age of 50, he has traveled to famous mountains and rivers. When he lived in seclusion in the Fuchun River, whenever he appreciated the victory of the rivers and mountains and fishing beaches, he brought paper and pen to make sketch notes, ‘the trees and trees returned to the painting bag’. Chen Ye said that as a result, the material for his landscape paintings comes from countless landscapes, and the interest of brush and ink and the charm of the south of the Yangtze River leap on the paper.
For example, many museum experts have noticed that the renovated art museum uses low-reflective glass, which allows the audience to better appreciate ancient paintings, and many museums in China have only started this transformation in recent years.
Fu Wuwei, the newly recruited dean of the School of Arts and Humanities at the China Academy of Art, is a native of Germany. He is not an expert in Song painting, but he is very interested in this exhibition. As he said, “A good exhibition is never for experts, but for the public.” ”
It’s also an exhibition that’s always new. After completing the installation of the exhibition, the organizer did not choose to do it once and for all, but always started from the needs of the audience, constantly adjusted the details, and provided more and more humane choices.
Some viewers said they couldn’t understand it. Graduate students and doctoral students from the China Academy of Art volunteered, and the audience only needed to book a guided tour to get a professional explanation. Volunteers can also interact with the audience and repeatedly appreciate the authentic works of famous artists again and again.
Some viewers said that there are many people, it is difficult to make an appointment, and the queue is long, what should I do? From March 25th, the exhibition will be open for weekend night performances. Every Saturday and Sunday evening, the exhibition opens from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Some viewers mentioned that they can see more content in key works? On March 25, the three exhibits were re-paged for the first time. You can see the new chapters of Qing Shen Quan and other “Poems and Paintings of Famous Masters Shou Cao Tipu in the Early Qing Dynasty”, Qing Lu Huancheng’s “Colored Landscape Album”, and Huang Binhong’s “Yellow Sea Smoke and Cloud Album”.
It can be said that behind the popularity of the exhibition is a real cultural self-confidence. When you stand in the exhibition hall and look at these masterpieces in person, as if “traveling through time and space” to talk to the masters, I am afraid that your heart will beat faster and a sense of cultural pride will arise spontaneously.
How to bloom the dazzling “Present Glory”
The time, place, and people made this Song Yun feast astonishing.Gorgeously presented in front of the audience.
In August 2021, the Provincial Party Committee’s Cultural Work Conference proposed the implementation of the “Song Yun Cultural Inheritance Project”, emphasizing “let the millennium Song Yun ‘flow’ and ‘inherit’ in the new era”. The profound meaning of this special exhibition is to tell the inheritance and innovation of Song Yun culture in the Danqing world, and to explain the significance of the “Song Yun Culture Inheritance Project” from one side.
This is the dazzling “Jinhui” on the road of Song Yun.
From the perspective of exhibition arrangement, it is the inheritance and flow of artworks. The significance of the peak of Song painting has long been fully recognized in the world art circles, precisely because the Song Yun it represents provides a tangible example for the world in terms of aesthetics and development. The landscapes of the south of the Yangtze River that were once written by the Song people have been depicted more diversely thousands of years later.
The two sections of “Night Mountain Hook Ancient – Huang Binhong’s Song Painting Research and Its Inheritance” and “Standing on the Highest Peak – Pan Tianshou’s Way of Constant Change” tell the two art masters’ significant excavation and innovation of Song painting. “Containing English and Tsui Hua: Gome Oil Paintings Drawing between China and the West” exhibits oil paintings mainly collected by the Art Museum of the China Academy of Art, showing the influence of traditional Chinese painting on the creation of contemporary Chinese oil painting. “A Hundred Generations of Classics – Two Song Dynasty Painting and Calligraphy Exhibition” is a tribute to the master’s works by teachers and students of the China Academy of Art, showing the transmission of Song Dynasty calligraphy and painting in the teaching of the academy in different periods.
For Hangzhou, it is a thousand-year-old continuation of the scenery of lakes and mountains. Li Song of the Southern Song Dynasty “West Lake Map”, Ming Tang Yin “Qiantang Scenery Map”, Ming Xie Shichen “Su Di Lian Bi Tu”, Ming Xiang Shengmo “West Lake Manxing Map”, Qing Wang Yuanqi “Ten Views of West Lake”, Qing Zhao Yangzhi “Twenty Views of West Lake Calligraphy and Painting Album”, Southern Song Dynasty Liu Songnian “Four Scenery Landscape Map”, Southern Song Dynasty Xia Gui “Yanxiu Forest Dwelling Map” …… Although the West Lake in each picture is different, the works of the past dynasties have gathered to build an artistic and humanistic tradition with the West Lake as the carrier. When people walk out of the exhibition hall and look for the real landscape in the “authentic relics” of the West Lake, a unique social aesthetic education behavior with the participation of the whole people is imperceptibly changing the cultural temperament of the city.
The popularity of the exhibition reflects people’s thirst for Song Yun culture and high-quality exhibitions. “You see, the two pine trees in the upper right corner and the lower left side of the place here make up a diagonal composition, and you can easily be attracted to it.” At the exhibition site, the reporter met an art teacher surnamed Li, who was carefully telling the students how Ma Yuan’s “Songshou Tu” was completed in the composition of “Ma Yijiao”. Mr. Li, a native of Hangzhou, said: “In fact, there are many famous stories worth excavating in Hangzhou, such as the Yuan Dynasty painter Zhao Mengfu who wrote the word ‘pass the lamp’ in Huiyin Gaoli Temple. ”
“Song Yun Jinhui” is oriented to history, based on the contemporary, and pointing to the future. In the future, how will Song Yun bloom “Jinhui”?
In today’s Zhejiang, cultural activities to spread Song Yun are emerging in endlessly. Especially biography.During the Tongfeng Festival, the Song Yun bazaars around the country seem to have become the standard, and activities such as ordering tea, cosplay in Song costumes, and displaying calligraphy and painting in the Song Dynasty allow people to feel the elegance of the Song people.
Song Yun culture reflects the outstanding historical wisdom, rich aspirations and open and inclusive social outlook of the Song and Song dynasties, which is not only a cultural symbol with Chinese style and Zhejiang recognition, but also a valuable “rich mine” for the construction of a culturally strong province in Zhejiang.
From the Southern Song Dynasty Deshou Palace Ruins Museum to the Hangzhou National Version Museum, which integrates ancient and modern Song Yun architecture…… For more than a year, the beginning of Song Yun culture is attracting more and more attention. The relevant person in charge of the Propaganda Department of the Provincial Party Committee said that the next step will be to promote Song Yun culture to get closer to the side, into life, and reflect reality, so as to provide strong spiritual strength for the construction of a culturally strong province.
Reporter Lu Yao, Jiang Xiaorong, correspondent Liu Yang