向日葵美術館

Sunflower Art Museum was established in November 2019 and is located on the west side of the first floor of Lanshan Building, Fenglin 2nd Road, Yuelu District, Changsha. The museum aims to promote Hunan culture and "collect classics and cultivate new talents" as its goal, so that the master art with collection value can enrich the spiritual and cultural space of the city.

【On display】"Masters Return" Series - "The Scenery is Beyond the Image" Special Exhibition of Calligraphy and Painting by Four Monks in the Early Qing Dynasty

At the end of Ming Dynasty and the beginning of Qing Dynasty, the development stage of dynasty change, Chinese painting and painting thought, with the influence of the times, ushered in another peak of the development of Chinese literati painting: "Four Monks in the Early Qing Dynasty". (Bada Shanren, Shitao, Hongren, Kuncan, hereinafter referred to as "Four Monks"). The four never met each other in their lifetime, but they all had the same identity and background: historical survivors of the changing times, and secluded people who escaped into the world. They used the form of painting to vent or express their feelings about their life experience, to express the pain of the country's demise, and to show the tenacious vitality that did not bow to fate. They contained distinct artistic personalities and their own unique artistic thoughts, which were in contrast to the "Four Wangs" who flaunted the ancient meaning at that time. They observed nature and read the spirit, and broke through the old routine with a new method that combined the subjective and objective, "advocating meaning" and had rules, breaking the barriers of the orthodox painting school's imitation of ancient painting style. They were unique in the painting world at that time and had a profound impact on the Qing Dynasty and even modern and contemporary calligraphy and painting.

Some of the "Four Monks" were from the royal class of the Ming Dynasty, and some were from the common people. However, under the changes of the same external ecological factors, their choice of painting subjects and brush and ink language had obvious epitomes of the social era. They skillfully expressed their thoughts and emotions in their works, and vividly displayed the painful feelings between the conflict between ideals and reality. Therefore, they all had very strong and strong personal feelings, and had profound historical and cultural significance.

The four monks of the Qing Dynasty advocated that painting should "learn from nature", attach importance to the experience of life and the accumulation of practice, and explore the path of inheritance and innovation. Their works are real and have a strong breath of life. Among the four monks' paintings, Bada Shanren is "elegant and handsome, round and cold", his paintings are very individual, romantic and unrestrained, and he gives the picture a profound meaning and personalized expression through symbolic techniques, reaching an unprecedented level of freehand ink and wash flower and bird paintings. Shi Tao "learns from nature and is unrestrained and strange". In his painting work "Painting Sayings of Monk Kugua", he put forward the famous propositions of "borrowing from the past to open the present", "brush and ink should follow the times", and "searching for strange peaks to make drafts", which played a deafening role in the dull painting world at that time. Hongren "has a thousand bottles of fragrance, is simple and quiet", travels between Huangshan and Baiyue, and puts forward the slogan "dare to say that heaven and earth are my teachers". He is an important figure in Anhui's "Xin'an School of Painting". Kuncan’s paintings are “thick and vigorous, plain and profound”, and he is good at landscape painting. He is known as “the two stones” together with Shitao. Their unique painting language, unrestrained attitude towards life, and tireless pursuit of art have had a profound impact on the painting world of the Qing Dynasty and even the history of Chinese painting. The “Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou” in the middle of the Qing Dynasty, the “Haipai” in the late Qing Dynasty, and modern Qi Baishi, Zhang Daqian, and Pan Tiantao were all influenced by them.

The painting art of the four monks may give us some inspiration to think about and appreciate the integration of our times and life, rationality and sensibility, and to express the Chinese painting that should be in this era, so as to better inherit and develop Chinese traditional culture and art, promote the innovation and inheritance of Chinese painting art, and show the unique charm of Chinese culture in the field of contemporary art.

This exhibition includes more than 50 works of different styles from different periods by Bada Shanren, Shitao, Kuncan and Hongren, respectively introducing the unique language of the times and artistic achievements of the four artists, showing not only the lofty aesthetic conception of the four monks, but also the traditional aesthetics of Chinese painting. Let us follow the four monks to feel the inheritance of art and the elegance of the times.