? Qi Baishi, the most cattle drifter in history: 57-year-old abandoned his family and career to break into the capital alone

Nowadays, many young people pay attention to Qi Baishi and regard him as a successful model. It can be said that it is a leap from carpenter to master. Qi Baishi grew from a folk craftsman with a very low social status at that time to a generation of artists. This leap is really enviable. Nowadays, people's work and life are very stressful. When Qi Baishi came to Beijing at the age of 57 to work hard, it was not easy to be a stranger, abandon his family and business, and go to Beijing alone, with an authentic Hunan accent. There was once an article saying that the old man Baishi was the northern drift of cattle in history, more inspiring than a thousand Du Lala, and another article said that the old man Baishi was an ant tribe of cattle in history. It can be seen that people have regarded Qi Baishi as a typical example of success through their own hard work. > Carpenter's career > Lay the foundation for artistic creation > On January 1, 1864, Qi Baishi was born in a small village called Xingziwu, south of Xiangtan County, Hunan Province. His nickname was Azhi and his big name was Qi Chunzhi. Carpenter career is the first important stage of Qi Baishi's life. Qi Baishi was a carpenter until he was 27 years old, which laid a good foundation for his later artistic creation. > First of all, Qi Baishi's long carpenter career exposed him to rich folk culture. Folk culture is extensive and profound. Long-term contact made Qi Baishi have a profound understanding of the national cultural spirit contained in it, and it was also the profoundness of Chinese traditional culture that provided rich soil for Qi Baishi's later artistic creation. Qi Baishi's painting theme, content and form are all from the people. > Second, Qi Baishi was born in a poor family, and he walked the streets for a long time, eating hundreds of meals and entering hundreds of doors. Over time, he deeply realized the preferences of ordinary people in China, which provided a very good reference for his artistic creation, both in subject matter and content. > > Qi Baishi > Third, more than ten years of carpentry skills have given him a good grasp of modeling, composition, lines and materials. Qi Baishi is known as the "rich man with 3 lithographs". He likes to collect seals, and he will never have more than 3 lithographs in his life. He has no special requirements for materials in printing, and often grabs a stone and engraves it. He has a famous saying, "Never return the knife". If you go down with a knife, you will always push forward and never reciprocate. The strength in his hand was so great that everyone at the scene was dumbfounded. Zhang Daqian was born in a scholarly family, and Pu Ru was born in a noble family. Only Qi Baishi was born in the folk and grew up in the folk. This ordinary life at the bottom of society makes his painting style completely different from others. > 27 years old > Meet the noble "Shou Sanye" to help > Qi Baishi met a teacher when he was 27 years old, which was another factor of his success. > The old man Baishi has noble people to help him at every important turning point in his life. At the age of 27, Qi Baishi met Hu Qinyuan, the teacher who started his artistic career. He was called Shou Sanye, a very famous rich man and a famous scholar in Xiangtan. One day, Azhi was working as a carpenter for the main customer, and someone told him that Master Shou wanted to see him. Azhi put down his tools and went to see Master Shou, and bowed respectfully. Third Master Shou said that he often heard his neighbors praise him. Today, he saw his woodwork and paintings, and thought he was worth making. Let him have a chat at home after finishing his work. > As agreed, Azhi came to Ya Ji, the home of Shou Sanye, and everyone sang poems, painted pictures, drank and chatted. Master Shou was very happy to see Azhi and asked him if he would like to study painting. Azhi expressed his willingness on the spot. Third Master Shou asked his tutor, a very famous local Chen Shaofan, to teach him for free. In this way, Qi Baishi officially worshipped Hu Qinyuan and Chen Shaofan as teachers. Since then, Qi Baishi has been led by Hu Qinyuan as a professional artist. > After learning from the teacher, the teacher taught seriously and the students studied diligently, and soon Qi Baishi emerged. The teacher also named him Qi Huang, nicknamed "Bai Shishan", so that he had a name for the inscription on the painting. Why are they called "Baishishan people"? Not far from Qi Baishi's home, there is a post station called Baishibao, so it got this name. Later, for the sake of simplicity, it was simply called "Baishi", which is the origin of Qi Baishi's name. > 37 years old > Worship under Wang Xiangqi, the master of Confucian classics > At the age of 37, Qi Baishi met another noble person in his life-a generation of Confucian classics master Wang Xiangqi, whose poetry and prose were considered to be the best in the world at that time. Qi Baishi met Wang Xiangqi under the recommendation of a friend. Wang Xiangqi appreciated Qi Baishi's seal cutting paintings very much, but said nothing about Qi Baishi's poems. Because at this time, most of Qi Baishi's poems were straightforward, and he did not have high cultural attainments. It is precisely because Wang Xiangqi didn't praise his poems that he laid the groundwork for Qi Baishi to study them hard later. > Persuaded by his friends, Qi Baishi finally bowed to Wang Xiangqi, a master of Confucian classics. In fact, Wang Xiangqi did not give specific instructions to Qi Baishi's art, but he expanded his circle of contacts. Qi Baishi made friends with a higher level of characters, which made his vision and mind more open. > 57 years old > Throw away everything and start from scratch > In a blink of an eye, Qi Baishi was 4 years old. It took him eight years to travel five times and five times, and he traveled all over China. Qi Baishi was nearly 5 years old after going out and returning home. He spent another eight years living in his hometown, and came back to study thousands of books after visiting Wan Li Road. However, at that time, Hunan became a battlefield, and with a little money, he unfortunately became the target of bandits, so he came to Beijing to take refuge. Who knows that after he came to Beijing, his paintings could not be sold. As a professional painter, he had to carry out a magnificent reform. After Qi Baishi arrived in Beijing at the age of 57, his paintings were hung in Liulichang, but nobody cared. Both families in Hunan and Beijing depended on him for food, so he followed Chen Shiceng's advice and resolutely reformed. We know that it is difficult for artists to reform in their later years, because they have to break the habits formed over the years. Qi Baishi is throwing away a thousand years and starting from scratch. > There are three points in the reform of declining years: good health; Good traditional skills; We should have new thinking ability. Many people don't want to change, but dare not, for fear that they will become neither fish nor fowl, and they may put their desperate efforts into it. It took Qi Baishi ten years to reform, and ten years later, Qi Baishi founded the school of safflower and ink leaves, which is what we call the school of starting a family. > Red flowers and ink leaves are painted in red and leaves in transparent ink. Qi Baishi formed this distinctive style. Red and ink are of great significance in China's paintings. Red represents the aesthetic taste of folk culture, while ink represents the appreciation interest of literati. Qi Baishi is precisely a clever combination of vulgarity and elegance. After the reform in the declining year, the school of red flowers and ink leaves was founded, and the old man Baishi began to get better and better. It can be said that "the red flowers and ink leaves swept away all the tires, and the ink sea was bright and colorful." > After the founding of New China, the state gave the old man Baishi a high honor and awarded him the title of "People's Artist". > The auction price of Qi Baishi's works will surpass Picasso > Although the development of China's art market in the past 2 years has attracted worldwide attention, there is still a big gap compared with western countries. The sales volume of Qi Baishi, an artist, ranks first in the world, but there are still many problems. No matter how it develops, the art market in China is in the primary stage. > The initial stage of the art market is risky, but there are also many opportunities. The works of first-line masters such as Qi Baishi, Zhang Daqian and Xu Beihong can now buy a very good painting for three or four million yuan. However, Picasso, a western artist of his level, casually painted more than 1 million dollars. Their artistic achievements are actually quite equal, but the price gap is so big. With the prosperity of the art market and China's economy, the price of Qi Baishi's works is likely to exceed Picasso's in the future. Even if we buy the works of second-and third-line artists now, there will be a lot of room for appreciation in the future. > Never invest in contemporary art blindly > Whether we should invest in contemporary art, we should be more calm. In some places, an artist's works suddenly appear and sell for millions or tens of millions at a time. All people with economic minds think this is abnormal. At least, works of art still have a source, a heritage and a source. > Contemporary art is a new section in the art collection in recent years. The most popular period of contemporary art is from 27 to 28. A piece of contemporary art can reach tens of millions, which is beyond everyone's understanding, and it is too expensive. This price has no foundation. As a result, in the past two years, contemporary art has continued to decline. By the first period of this year, including Sotheby's auction in Hong Kong, China has begun to shoot contemporary art one after another. >