Zhu  Xiaojun

There  are  always  some  names,  which  are  easy  to  impress  us,  such  as   "Tianlian "  –  even  god  would  pity  her  -  the  body  that  the  name  belongs  to,  in  my  imagination  should  contain  tremendous  energy,  gushes  out  at  any  moment.  And  when  I  saw  Liu  Tianlian 's  works,  this  kind  of  deep  impression  was  immediately  confirmed  by  her  extraordinary  imagination,  huge  amount  of  work  and  saturated  color  sense  confirmed.  There  is  no  doubt  that  Liu  Tianlian  has  solid  basic  skills,  distinct  personal  style  and  standpoint,  the  medium  of   "Chinese  Meticulous  Ink  Painting "  she  uses  is  tightly  connected  to  the  hot  word   "tradition ",  after  watching  her  latest  creations,  I  have  a  few  questions  to  discuss  with  Tianlian.

1．From  the  point  of  view  of  the  schema,  as  the  problem  which  contemporary  art  have  solved  before,  using  meticulous  brushwork  as  the  medium  of  expression  once  again,  what  problem  of  the  contemporary  could  be  solved?

2．In  Tianlian’s  creations,  deer,  horse  and  crane  such  common  schemas  in  Chinese  painting  are  employed,  what’s  the  continuity  and  difference  between  the  re-creation  about  traditional  motives  like   "Interrupted  Dream  in  the  Garden ",   "Nezha  Conquers  the  Dragon  King "  and  tradition?

3．What  is  the   "tradition "  that  we  are  trying  to  discover  and  recreate?

These  three  questions  are  not  aiming  at  the  issue  of  Tianlian’s  personal  creation,  they  are  the  common  problems  for  a  lot  artists  who  use   "meticulous  brushwork "  and   "ink "  as  the  media.  I  was  watching  the  internet  show   "U  Can  U  BB "  recently,  in  second  season  three  instructors  always  use  the  lines  in   "Pocket  Monster "  as  the  opening  lines:   "Since  you  have  asked  with  your  heart  and  soul,  we  will  tell  you  with  pity... "  At  the  moment,  this  sentence  jumps  out  from  my  mind.  The  following  is  my  immature  small  thinking  on  these  problems,  spill  some  small  talk  by  Tianlian’s  paintings.

For  the  medium  of   "meticulous  brushwork ",  in  the  days  of  the  generation  of  younger  artists  here,  it  is  only  a   "medium ",  it  does  not  carry  the  responsibility  of  the  grand  narrative  such  as  “inherit  the  tradition,  pioneering  and  innovative”.  For  meticulous  brushwork  artists  featuring  Jiang  Hongwei,  Zhang  Jian,  meticulous  brushwork  is  still  uphold  the  approach  of  “Three  Alum  Nine  Dye”,  adhering  to  the  boundaries  of  the  material  for  brushwork.  In  Liu  Tianlian 's  generation,  the  nutrients  she  absorbs,  besides  the  creative  skills  cultivated  in  college,  more  is  from  the  micro-experience  itself  in  life,  that  is  to  say,  how  to  find  something  useful  under  the  complex  information  flow  at  present  days,  and  internalize  them  into  your  own  value,  and  show  out  vividly  in  the  creation.  Just  as  Croce  said:   "All  history  is  contemporary  history ",  in  fact,  history  also  takes  the  present  life  as  the  reference  system.  This  means  that  the  past  can  only  be  understood  when  it  coincides  with  the  current  field  of  vision.  In  this  sense,  Liu  Tianlian 's  creation  is  just  starting  on  the  basis  of  personal  experience,  she  is  never  a  student  sticking  to   "traditional  ink "  since  her  stage  of  study  Chinese  painting,  the  reason  why  she  has  become  today 's   "Tianlian ",  what  she  has  done,  is  just  sticking  to  her  heart,  in  the  use  of  the  medium  of  “meticulous  brushwork   ",  she  hasn’t  been  fixed  to  a  linear  “descendant”,  however  she  has  made  organic  links  between  tradition  and  presence,  so  that  the  tradition  has  become  a   "think  tank ",  with  today 's  practical  experience  of  life,  she  shows  her  own  field  of  vision  to  the  audience.

"The  saint  has  his  own  taste  for  objects  in  the  nature,  the  sage  opens  his  heart  to  accept  the  nature. "  The  tradition  in  the  theory  of  ink  painting,  is  the  awareness  about  the  nature  when  facing  the  landscape.  Hundreds  of  years  ago,  in  front  of  the  well-known  mountains  and  rivers,  we  experienced  the  emptiness  and  bleakness,  peace  and  stillness,  in  the  landscape  painting  we  can  place  our  ideal;  today,  we  take  a  look  at  the  creation  of  Tianlian,  she  uses  the  traditional  medium  of  Chinese  meticulous  brushwork,  to  create  the  poems  of  current  secular  life  –  the  theme  such  as   "Jamming "  and   "Mirror  Image "  is  the  understanding  starting  from  her  current  life,  creation  is  actually  the  deep  emotional  comfort  for  Tianlian.

Back  to  the  question  itself:  what  is  our  true  tradition?

For  Chinese  traditional  ink  painting,  there  was  the  view  of   "painting  writes  the  shape,  the  shape  of  the  object  is  not  to  be  changed "  at  first,  soon,  Fan  Kuan  gave  the  statement  that   "rather  than  learning  from  the  object,  it’s  better  to  listen  to  the  heart ",  in  Ming  Dynasty  Dong  Qichang  said:   "Put  the  charm  before  the  nature ".  Therefore,  the   "tradition "  we  try  to  pursue,  is  in  fact  the  philosophy  of  the  unity  of  man  and  nature,  is  every  present  life  moment.  In  this  sense,  the  painting  of  Tianlian,  whether  it’s  like  Chinese  painting  or  not,  belonging  to  meticulous  brushwork  or  not,  it  is  not  important.