This article is transferred from: Nanhai Net
Painting of Tiger Image in Han Meilin Zodiac Art Exhibition.
Bronze sculpture "Enabling Shang Xian" in Han Meilin Zodiac Art Exhibition.
The audience visited the Han Meilin Zodiac Art Exhibition in Haikou Convention and Exhibition Workshop.
Granite monkey statues in Han Meilin Zodiac Art Exhibition.
Han Meilin created the first round of stamps on the 12 Zodiacs, the special stamp of the Year of Guihai.
Han Meilin Zodiac Art Exhibition’s Works on the Image of Cattle.
Wen Hainan Daily reporter An Ying
Figure Hainan Daily reporter Li Tianping
In Han Meilin’s creative career, the zodiac has always been an important proposition. His zodiac creations, with various forms and eclectic materials, have created a unique image of exquisite, lovely, vigorous and powerful, presented charming and personalized artistic creations, and endowed with anthropomorphic emotions and personalities, which have always been loved by people.
On January 22nd, as a highlight of 2022 Hainan Island Spring International Art Exhibition, "Han Meilin Zodiac Art Exhibition" kicked off in Haikou Convention and Exhibition Workshop. On the booth, a variety of works of art related to the Chinese Zodiac collectively appeared, offering visitors a visual feast of blending traditional culture and modern art.
A total of 575 Chinese zodiac works were exhibited in this exhibition, covering painting, calligraphy, sculpture, ceramics, purple sand, wood carving, iron art, folk crafts and other creative types. From the perspective of personality and spirit of the times, Han Meilin’s inheritance and innovation of Chinese zodiac art were explained, so that visitors could experience the colorful and endless culture of Chinese zodiac.
There is great artistic conception in small themes.
The chubby pig with bright colors is naive, holding his chest high, curling his short tail and spreading his front and rear legs as if he were running forward. This is a special stamp of the Year of the Guihai, which was created by Han Meilin in 1983. Han Meilin uses folk paper-cutting and shadow play to decorate patterns, and borrows the elements of hearts to imply a long life, which is full of distinctive folk characteristics.
Up to now, there are four sets of special zodiac stamps designed by Han Meilin, namely, The Year of Guihai in 1983, Ding Younian in 2017, The Year of Jihai in 2019 and The Year of Gengzi in 2020. All four sets of stamps meet the visitors in this exhibition.
Zhou Jianping, Secretary-General of Han Meilin Art Foundation, said that in 2019, Han Meilin once again drew a set of two special zodiac stamps for the Year of the Pig. He once again identified the image of the Zodiac pig in the first stamp as a running shape, which implied the meaning of China’s reform and opening up. At the same time, in the second stamp of the Year of the Sea, there are not only the roles of "mother" and "child", but also the role of "father" to form a "whole family", which embodies the concept of "family portrait" and makes the image characteristics of the zodiac fit the true and profound feelings of home and country.
The cute mouse jumps in the air, and the three mice are happily accompanied by peanuts … In the 2020 Year of the Rat stamp on display, Han Meilin uses the small freehand brushwork of decoration, combined with the rendering techniques of traditional Chinese painting, to show the playful agility of the Zodiac mouse. Through the two pictures of "the mouse opens the sky" and "the mouse bodes well for the year", it creates a warm and happy "family fun" atmosphere, which endows the country with abundant crops and prosperous development.
"Everything is life, and everything is spiritual. Only when the creator has a love and respect for life can the brushwork be full of beautiful meaning. " Zhou Jianping said that after extending the creative vision to the "big world", Han Meilin not only allows visitors to see people and things from paintings, but also life and true feelings.
Show cultural imprint with zodiac creation
Over the years, based on the creative concept of "harmony and unity between man and nature", Han Meilin insisted on absorbing nutrients from Chinese excellent traditional culture and folk art, and integrated into contemporary aesthetic concepts, and achieved innovative breakthroughs in image modeling and cultural characteristics, making the zodiac art not only a narrow sense of twelve animals, but also a unique symbolic meaning given by the creators. At the same time, the symbolism of color is also integrated into it, for example, red symbolizes auspiciousness, white symbolizes purity, and purple symbolizes mystery.
In terms of image modeling, Han Meilin also made bold innovations, making it have China characteristics in value orientation and cultural symbols. For example, the image of the zodiac in ink painting is often supplemented by the traditional auspicious design of China, which not only brings people a beautiful artistic feeling, but also makes people feel a strong cultural atmosphere.
"The ancient national excellent culture is the root, and it has been continuously injecting nutrition into contemporary culture." Han Meilin always felt that the Chinese Zodiac is the mark of every Chinese son and daughter, which is of great significance to the inheritance and protection of Chinese traditional culture. "In the long historical tradition, the zodiac culture has shown great vitality and creativity, and has gradually penetrated into all aspects of people’s lives and become a timeless cultural tradition."
"Zodiac culture is a part of China’s folk culture and a vivid reflection of people’s yearning for a better life." Zhou Jianping said that the 12 Zodiacs written by Han Meilin are lively and interesting, and have become popular cultural symbols. It is full of love for natural life that Han Meilin awakens the common cultural memory and artistic touch of Chinese sons and daughters through the Chinese Zodiac, a cultural symbol shared by the Chinese nation, and the artistic language of "Heaven, Earth, People and Harmony".
Shuttle freely between different art forms
For a long time, Han Meilin has devoted itself to expanding its territory on the fertile ground of art. Skillfully shuttling between different art forms, he pays special attention to the aesthetic needs of the public and the positive expression of the simple, pure and natural life atmosphere while emphasizing the formal aesthetic feeling and visual impact.
Childish and lively, innocent animal expression, frequently jumped under Han Meilin’s brush, making people love. Among them, brush painting combines the effects of traditional ink painting and modern watercolor painting, which has both appropriate exaggerated deformation and peculiar romantic color; It not only contains soaring imagination, but also has strong folk customs.
Han Meilin’s ink painting has distinct personality and strong Mo Yun, showing the modern vitality of image painting. In his many ink paintings of horses, pen and ink walk on the water like a sword, or blow like a gust of wind. A large area of color blocks build a horse’s stalwart body, with a slender head that is docile or neighing, a dense mane tail flowing and elegant, and hooves that fall steadily, keep their feet on the ground, or run in the air to present the beauty of speed and strength.
Han Meilin also extended the tradition of the Zodiac culture to granite, bronze, purple sand, ceramics and other materials with classical flavor, and incorporated the traditional oriental ornamentation and symbols, endowing the traditional artistic language with modernity, so that people can truly understand the spirit of the times while looking back at history. For example, the sculpture "Enabling Shang Xian" has a unique design for the image of "dragon", and its early bronze patterns give people a sense of simplicity, massiness, solemnity and atmosphere.
"Artists should be grounded anytime, anywhere." Han Meilin believes that as a creator, he should devote himself to the creation and guidance of beauty all his life, convey beauty and kindness to the public, impress viewers with the connotation of "great beauty" and tell the story of China well. Over the years, Han Meilin often went deep into the people, leaned down to pay attention to the beautiful moments in life, and excavated rich themes from them, creating a large number of masterpieces. His works are highly praised by art lovers at home and abroad, and some of his excellent works are collected by Beijing Palace Museum, China National Museum, China Art Museum, Russian National Museum, British Museum and Egyptian National Museum. At the same time, Han Meilin was awarded the title of "Artist of Peace" by UNESCO, becoming the first person in China art circle to win this honor.
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