Peng Xiancheng-Portrait of Geshan
by Peng Xiancheng
The crucial element of traditional Chinese painting is not the subject of the work; but the impressive use of brush and ink. When brush and ink are applied to a scenic spot, they surpass nature. Thus, those who truly understand painting savor the brush and ink. In works created the year that Qi Baishi died, we can see clearly what he strove for in his later years. His brilliant words are filled with deep meaning. “Of the shanshui painters of the last four hundred years, I only admire Dong Qichang and Shi Tao. The rest are merely craftsmen.” He also said, “Xu Wei and Bada Shanren were not ordinary people. In his later years, Wu Changshuo was also extraordinary. If I died and was reborn, I would be their willing disciple, doing whatever they asked.” This reflects Qi Baishi’s high degree of self-awareness in his aesthetic judgment and understanding of painting.
Painting is determined by training and natural artistic talent, which reflects the personal character of the painter. Your personal character is your painting. Of course, the careful understanding of ancient paintings to find how several members of the older generation used painstaking research is necessary to transform your own painting. In short, your painting must come from the ancient traditions and then transcend the ancient masters, or else you will not reach a higher level. When Qi Baishi was 94, he painted a picture that contained a few willow branches and two bamboo fences. The inscription reads, “The autumn colors and the spring winds are not as magnificent as this.” The entire painting is just a few lines, but they are painted with great self-confidence. He is essentially saying, “If you have skill like mine, you should not care about the autumn colors and the spring winds.” Huang Binhong did more in-depth research into the history of painting; whether he was copying ancient paintings or sketching, he provided his own interpretation. I think that judgment is important to traditional Chinese painters. If you can judge your own work, you will also have the impressive ability to look at the painting of others and the history of painting.
However, if you carefully seek an outlet for painting, it is easy to just follow old patterns. So when I wield the ink and brush, I take my inspiration from calligraphy. Oracle bone inscriptions, greater seal and lesser seal calligraphy, official script, regular script, and cursive script all contain the mysteries of the brush and ink. The painting is not beautiful but the words are written beautifully; it is because the painting involves the technique and form of calligraphy and seeks subtle changes in the use of ink and brush. I rise into the realm of calligraphic spatial organization, and then merge it seamlessly into painting. Recently, I have thought a lot about Bada Shanren’s accomplishments. Originally, he stretched the rules for calligraphy and painting in his strokes. His words are like painting and his painting is like words, without distinguishing between the two.
Peng Xiancheng-Realm of Li QingZhao's Poetry, 2002; ink and color on paper; 35cm×58cm
I pay attention to the control shown through the brush and the degree of freedom to be had in pursuit of this control. The center is of course the essence of controlling the brush and the freedom therein often comes from a multi-faceted approach. From the tip to the stomach to the root, every part of the brush has an effect as the brush moves. Changes in my multi-faceted approach lead to lively images. When I paint figures in ink, I use the subtle functions of the brush and the wrist to transmit movement, yin and yang, twists and turns, which, in the final analysis, are always the concerns of painting.
I am an introvert, so I paint by myself. I very much enjoy this hand-to-hand combat with rice paper, and the painting flows freely, which makes use of my multi-faceted brush. My paintings have a spiritual kinship with Western expressionist painting, because I paint for the delight of body and mind, not to express art to show other people.
Good painting is more precious than subtlety. Subtlety is not accurate and careful; it is the exquisite arrangement and spontaneity of a natural revelation. The old masters said that the beauty of Pan An’s work was such that “if you added anything the painting would be too much and if you removed anything the painting would be too sparse.” All painters understand subtlety, and the more I painted the more I enjoyed it. In his later years, every stroke in Bada Shanren’s calligraphy changed and turned. It was extremely subtle, natural, and smooth. Because of Bada Shanren, contemporary traditional Chinese painters should investigate thoroughly the possibility of blending and exchanging painting and calligraphy. Self-consciousness leads to a consciousness of the elements and space in modern painting. Last year I saw an original eight-foot shanshui painting by Bada Shanren. It was stunning. Next to it was a four-foot painting by Wang Yuanqi. It was very well-painted, but compared with Bada Shanren’s painting it seemed a little murky. Why was this? This was because I am a modern person, and I saw a modern consciousness in Bada Shanren’s mastery of space. Huang Binhong made veiled criticisms of Bada Shanren, saying that Bada was only investing time and energy into distribution and density, but I disagree. Distribution and density are ancient, traditional concepts and techniques, but spatial consciousness in painting and calligraphy is a modern concept. In terms of modern spatial consciousness, I think that Bada Shanren and other classical painters such as Shi Tao actually surpass Huang Binhong. Regardless of academic evaluations of the aold masters, the course of contemporary Chinese ink painting would have changed forever if Bada Shanren and Shi Tao had not existed. So later generations have benefitted from their experiments, and their work is hard to surpass, even today.
Peng Xiancheng-Spring Tour, 2000; ink and color on paper; 137cm×68cm
The modern transformation of Chinese ink painting needs this kind of historical marker. In fact, the practices of Zhang Daqian, Qi Baishi, Huang Binhong, Lu Yanshao, and Fu Baoshi wittingly or unwittingly drew nourishment and inspiration from their resources. Shi Tao’s Painted Records cannot be underestimated. The Brush and Ink Should Follow the Times and Improvisation in Search of Extraordinary Peaks both reflect a developed and farsighted viewpoint.
The destiny of painting is the contamination and interchange between the artist and the materials, but there remains an element of chance. A careful plan cannot necessarily control fresh rice paper, so the painter must still act according to the circumstances. This is a painter’s tacit understanding after the accumulation of many years of practice in water, ink, rice paper, and color. There is a big difference in the tastes of Wu Changshuo and Huang Binhong. The former’s work did not avoid the bright and beautiful. The latter’s work has a primal beauty. I enjoyed them both and learned from them both. For a long time, I painted with watercolors, gouache, and oil paints. My experiences with color from these media also naturally enter my ink paintings, helping me to control the idea that “color has nothing to do with ink and ink has nothing to do with color.”
When I paint, I make use of my candid emotions toward the mountains and rivers, never mechanically applying a method to paint a landscape. Painting Mount Emei requires one technique and painting Qingcheng Mountain requires another. They are both famous mountains in Sichuan, but the emotions they evoke are different. The use of water, brush, and ink changes, so you cannot cling to a certain school or a certain technique. The landscape in Sichuan cannot be confused with the landscape in Jiangnan, which is also different from the landscape of the Northern School. I am not a painter who specializes in shanshui, so I am not picky about form and language. My own feelings are always first, but that does not exclude my several decades of study of shanshui painting. This study is too rich a resource, like a great mountain that is hard to cross. The shanshui painting, theory, brushstrokes, and even feelings of the ancient masters are an inexhaustible treasure-trove; there will always be new discoveries and new surprises. The calligraphic styles and ink styles are naturally different when I paint shanshui and figures. You will not reach your potential by simply painting figures.
Peng Xiancheng-Chanty on Da Du River, 2007; ink and color on paper, 202cm×127cm
Peng Xiancheng-Bell Ringing in the Evening, 2007; ink and color on paper; 88cm×61.5cm
Peng Xiancheng-It clears up after snow. 2008; ink and color on paper, 247cm×125cm
When I paint shanshui, I am not just painting ink landscapes, they are prose poems from my journeys in the mountains. When Chinese people travel in the mountains, they feel and trust that they do not have a formal relationship with the shanshui before them. In the end, I do not care about to how people paint shanshui, but I do value shanshui and whether or not a painting refines different ink effects. There is no way to replicate the atmosphere of a person in landscape. My shanshui sketches are the representation of an interior state in the moment when I am confronted with landscape.
For me, there is no boundary between painting and life. I have always enjoyed the fact that I do not feel painting to be a burden. In the end, interest and delight are intelligent desires. If there is no desire to paint, then nothing will be painted. Art dies when painting becomes a burden or a way to earn a living. But painters do not paint all day long. With consideration and intelligence, you can understand the true essence of painting. True painters must actively judge and adjust their direction at all times. Otherwise, painting becomes just a lowly technical pursuit.
Peng Xiancheng-Tibetan Girl retuning Home After Shepherd, 2002; ink and color on paper; 34cm×52.5cm
Peng Xiancheng-Scroll of Arhats (part I), 1996; ink on silk; 22.5cm×163cm
Peng Xiancheng-Scroll of Arhats (part II), 1996; ink on silk; 22.5cm×163cm
Traditional Chinese painting is an ascetic activity. I originally wrote a series of reflections called Chinese Painting Must be Nourished. “Nourished” implies the condensation and accumulation of time. The concept of “changes at the end of life” in traditional Chinese painting is unique in world painting, which points to the formative and intense role of time. If Qi Baishi and Huang Binhong had not lived as long, then the dominion of Qi Baishi and Huang Binhong would not exist. Bada Shanren is the same; his important works were made after the age of 60. Chinese art analyzes the long term accumulation of knowledge, which is an accumulation of understanding and strokes of ink. When we are only discussing the accumulation of strokes of ink, not necessarily the application of these strokes, the long term process of self-discipline is indispensible. But I do not pay attention to the divisions between source material and subject matter. For true masters, shanshui, figures, and birds and flowers, executed either precisely or loosely, do not have boundaries. Because Chinese painting’s only motif is brush and ink, the consciousness of brush and ink, and the unresolved accumulation of brush and ink, when a painter specializes in a subject matter, the painting will not be outstanding.
At the same time, calligraphy is not equivalent to painting. Wang Duo’s calligraphy is very good, but the quality of his painting is average. Calligraphy and painting are related yet separate; there needs to be a constantly fluctuating relationship between these two; it is not unchanging, just as the relationship between Qi Baishi and Huang Binhong is resolved every few decades.
I have continued practicing calligraphy, but the goal is not calligraphy, but rather a state of readiness for painting and copying. Suddenly, a feeling comes over me and I start painting. This can be compared to practicing qi gong, in which you abandon all distracting thoughts, gently and quietly. Even if I do not paint, I need a breathing rhythm. When I do not entirely feel like painting, I copy and doodle, experiencing the subtle changes and turns in the tip of the brush. In short, I do not want to become a calligrapher, as I only write characters for the mental calm they bestow. The way of the brush and ink excludes the confusion and bustle of the external world; I can only embrace reflection and intelligence when I am completely alone, concentrating all my attention on painting.
Painters are half monks; they are not servants of form and they do not let the world disturb them. I have no other daily needs apart from my big rectangular desk and white rice paper.
About the author
Peng Xiancheng
Acting as a member of the Chinese Artists Association, director of its’ Sichuan branch and an artist of the Sichuan Poetry, Calligraphy, and Painting Institute, Peng Xiancheng is rated as a national first-class artist and his paintings are highly acclaimed and collected by distinguished private collectors in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, the United States and Great Britain, including the Prince of Wales. The National Art Gallery, the Shenzhen Art Museum and many important art institutions also have his works in their collections. His work “Western Chamber” was awarded a Silver prize at the 7th Chinese National Art Exhibition in 1989, and his work “Polo” was awarded First prize at the Athletic Art Exhibition. He held a solo exhibition in Hong Kong in 1990 and was invited to the U.S.A for an artistic exchange program under the International Visiting Scholars Project. His publications include “Paintings of Peng Xiancheng” and “Ink-and-Wash Portraits of Peng Xiancheng”.
1 comment
Sasa says:
Feb 15, 2012
Thank you for publishing this article! I am trying to increase my understanding of Chinese Painting so English language resources like this are invaluable. I am also very inspired by the insight and skill of Peng Xiancheng!