No Form No Conception—Dilemma And Way-Out Of Ink Figure Painting

Article / Weng Zhenxin

It is a indisputable fact that contemporary free-style ink painting is declining while fine brushwork keeps a flourishing tendency. In figure painting, the number of artists engaged in fine brushwork figure painting is far smaller than that of ink figure painters, but they often take up more than half of traditional Chinese painting in national art exhibitions. Moreover, such change  has emerged as early as in 1980s.  Over recent 30 years, the situation that Fine brushwork strengthens yet free brushwork weakens has become more and more obvious.  Although, Chinese art circles have been calling for retrieving and promoting free style in Chinese painting, it still doesn’t work. Even as most of the jury were free-style ink painters, the situation of strong fine brushwork and weak free-style brushwork could still be seen at 11th National Art Exhibition in 2009. Such embarrassing and helpless situation remained on 12th National Art Exhibition. Reasons are various. As a ink figure painter, I used to feel indignant with “unfair treatment” of ink figure painting, but “thinking after pains” , I determine to think and figure out problems on my own creation. There are many problems in fact. In respect of painting composition, I think the deviation on composition awareness and one-sided stress on independent aesthetic significance of brush ink in ink figure painting creation have evolved into an indifference towards contemporary social life and life understanding, as a result, weaken the spiritual quality and character of times.