Bold Reform—On New Bird-And-Flower Paintings of Zheng Jingxian
Bold Reform—On New Bird-And-Flower Paintings of Zheng Jingxian
Artcile/Hong Huizhen
I was not surprised at the publication of Zheng Jingxian’s Artwork Collection. But one day he visited me and took out his new work. That really surprised me. He had been trying reforms quietly for nearly two years. Things finally changed. I was so excited as if it was my own success.
It is easy for an artist to become famous ;but then his paintings are also prone to “forming a hull” which is not easy to break. An artist who can break his hull and dares to reform and overcome himself is a real strong. Jingxian was as an outstanding student of the late famous artist Shi Yanling. He dared to give up the shorts of the teacher and changed to study from Shanghai School after graduation. During his reputable 30 years of art career, he adored the style of Ren Bonian, but did not blindly follow him. He tried innovations from time to time like the background processing with alum water years ago which created a novel effect but still could not break the “hull” of Ren style. It is really gratifying that he finally gets rid of Shanghai Style and sets up his own by this reform.
In summary, Jingxian’s reform includes three aspects. The first is in technique. Ren style of painting has a complete set of drawing procedures, to draw flowers and leaves by dotting; ink and colors are mixed well before brushing. That’s a fixed technique of traditional free style bird-and-flower painting. But Jingxian refers to the technique of landscape painting and adds ink shading and color piling up after dotting to make the flowers and leaves appear thicker. The advantage of this technique is intensifying the subtropical feature of bird-and-flower painting: lush plants and bright colors. Therefore, it establishes Jingxian’s independence and value as an artist. He is no longer a Fujian student of Shanghai School, but one representative of artists of Fujian bird-and-flower painting style. In this sense, he has not been truly matured until today. The second is in composition. The composition in Shanghai School painting is no more than crossing or echo arrangement of front and back, left and right, up and down which has been used for hundreds of years. Jinxian boldly introduces the plane composition in technological design, to bring new visual interest by use large segment and give us a distinct impression. This is complementary with the effect of color piling and a vital factor of individual style. The third is in image. In Ren-style painting, the shapes of birds and flowers are usually smart and delicate with varied postures but tend to be vulgar. Jingxian moderately transforms the images and adds some decorative taste and modern taste to the images. These three aspects are all particularly presented in his artwork like Thinking, Love Words, and Golden Autumn.
Jingxian’s bird-and-flower painting remain his original refreshing, lively and amiable style. That’s natural flow of the artist’s personality and temperament which is not easy to be changed and doesn’t have to. Many artists go through their life without reaching success because of inappropriate pursuit of art style which does not conform with their own life features. Jingxian is really a wise artist. He makes reforms but never loses his own individuality, worth of learning for peers in the circle.
Written in 1987 at Xiamen University.