Jintan folk paper-cutting has a long history, which has been passed down since Ming and Qing Dynasties. Because paper-cutting is mainly to meet the needs of people's feelings and folk customs, it is difficult to preserve its paper works, so it is rare for paper-cutting works to be passed down from generation to generation before the beginning of the 20th century. In recent decades, Jintan folk paper-cutting has experienced a new historical period of development and prosperity. A large number of colorful and lively paper-cut works, like the flowers of folk art, give people the aesthetic enjoyment of life and the enlightenment of artistic creation. The paper-cut artists in Jintan are thinking and summarizing, and they want to launch new actions on traditional folk paper-cuts.
Display of paper engraving results
After nearly 30 years of development, Jintan engraving paper has achieved fruitful results. As early as1978165438+10, 104 pieces of Jintan engraved paper were exhibited in Nanjing Jiangsu Provincial Art Museum for the first time, which won unanimous praise from the art world. The following year, Jiangsu Artists Association sent 23 pieces of carved paper works of Jintan to Norway and Finland for exhibition, which was well received overseas for the first time.
1In June, 1980, China Art Museum held the "Jintan Paper Carving Art Exhibition", which exhibited 130 pieces (more than 220 pieces) for 18 days. It won the audience in the capital with its rich theme content, diverse paper carving skills, grand composition momentum and strong life breath in the south of the Yangtze River, and caused a warm response in the art world. After watching the exhibition, Mr. Chen Shuliang, a famous arts and crafts artist, wrote an inscription: "With hard-working hands, I come from the hometown of carving paper, where wild flowers are in full bloom after the rain and the soil is fragrant before the wind. "This is a compliment to Jintan woodcut paper and a hope for Jintan woodcut paper.
198 1 held the "China Modern Excellent Paper Sculpture Exhibition" in Tokyo, and more than 20 pieces of Jintan paper sculptures were selected for the exhibition, which won favorable comments again. 1In April, 1997, more than 60 pieces of Jintan and 40 pieces of carved paper were selected for the China Folk Art Exhibition in Los Angeles and the 26th American International Art Festival in Houston. Yin, a folk arts and crafts artist, was invited to perform paper-cutting in Houston, USA, and was well received.
From 1980s to the end of 1990s, Jintan carved paper was exhibited in Wuxi, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Changzhou, Shanghai, xi and Beijing. Among them, the paper engraving New Year picture "The Red Lantern" was selected for the 9th and 6th National Art Exhibition, and "Chinese Children Welcome the Olympics" was selected for the 5th National Sports Art Exhibition. In July, 20001,Jintan carved paper was exhibited in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. CCTV and many newspapers at home and abroad enthusiastically introduced the carved paper in Jintan, and spoke highly of the carved paper works full of artistic charm. "All kinds of people are admirable, all made by the God of Jintan".
Over the years, the carved paper works of Jintan have been frequently selected into major exhibitions at home and abroad and won awards. China Art Museum alone has collected more than 20 pieces, which has won a high reputation for Jintan carved paper and China folk art.
There are more than 600 kinds of folk paper sculptures in Jintan, with tens of thousands of works. /kloc-more than 0/000 pieces of printmaking works have been selected and won prizes in exhibitions and competitions at home and abroad, published in various newspapers and collected by art galleries at home and abroad. Jintan paper sculpture artists have been invited to perform live performances abroad, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan for many times, and have been publicized and introduced by the news media, which has had a wide influence. At the same time, Jintan engraving paper also plays a special role in promoting the cultural identity of the Chinese nation, embodying the artistic wisdom of different countries and regions, and promoting cultural exchanges at home and abroad. The media at home and abroad paid great attention to the carved paper of Jintan, praising "all kinds of people are admirable, all from the hands of Jintan God". 199365438+February, Jintan was officially named as "the hometown of paper engraving" by the Ministry of Culture. In March 2007, the People's Government of Jiangsu Province announced that Jintan carved paper was listed as the first batch of intangible cultural heritage in Jiangsu Province. In February 2008, it was listed as the second batch of national intangible cultural heritage projects.
Handcarved paper in Jintan is a must in Jintan. While the paper engraving art in other places has gone from popularity to silence, the paper engraving in Jintan has become a special cultural and artistic form, especially in last year's Sino-French Cultural Year, which caused a sensation in overseas exhibitions. It is said that the carved paper in Jintan originated from unintentional insertion.
Zhang Qin, director of Jintan Paper Carving Research Institute, said that people all over the country are doing everything from paper cutting to paper carving. However, the reason why the carved paper in Jintan is influential and distinctive is that in the 1970s, the art creation group of the local cultural center sent paintings to the exhibition. Because people think that the simple painting skills are not as good as others, and the works are difficult to shine, they decided to change the policy and send a high school student's painting carved on the glass to the exhibition. As a result, being unconventional brought unexpected surprises, and the highlights of being unpopular won a full house. Returning to Jintan with fruitful results, the paper carving shook the local painting world like a whirlwind, forming an atmosphere in the whole city, which was swept away.
In fact, as early as the Sui and Tang Dynasties, carved paper works such as double happiness, door flowers, hall flowers, snuff, shoe flowers, flowers, birds, insects, fish and people's plays were circulated among the people and passed down from generation to generation. At first, ordinary people will conceive their own designs on holidays, and then paste these paper heads on their doorstep by cutting and pasting. In addition, when women are embroidering or knitting, they will also carve a pattern knife on the paper first. Therefore, Jintan carved paper is rooted in local folk art and originated from paper cutting. Its tools and materials are simple and common. As long as you use a pair of scissors and a piece of red paper, you can cut out wonderful works with dexterous hands, which are most loved by the people.
It is said that Jintan engraving paper can be divided into two schools. The traditional paper prints represented by Zhu are simple and elegant in style and varied in patterns. The masterpiece "The Fairy's Birthday" has many characters, which is rare in the world. On the other hand, Zhou Yunhua and Yang are representatives of modern paper sculpture. They use the methods of cutting, carving and tearing, color matching, filling and dyeing, learn from the characteristics of northwest paper-cutting, and integrate painting and decoration techniques, with a fresh and meaningful style. Their masterpieces Wan and Oriental Song and Dance exude a strong flavor of the times. Whether traditional or modern, unlike paper cutting with scissors, paper carving art always abandons prosaic and needs rich imagination and great creative passion.
It turns out that traditional paper-cutting only uses scissors, so it can't cut out large-scale works, and the process is difficult to be fine. Paper is carved with a carving knife, which can not only carve a palm sketch, but also require a masterpiece. For example, in the study of paper plates, all the precious paper plates of Liangshan heroes are 4.6 meters long and need three people to hold them. Width 1 meter. When the whole work is opened, it can fill half the room. This "Liangshan hero" was created by Zhu at the age of 8 1, but Mr. Zhu Lao died at the conception stage of the character series. In order to fulfill his last wish, the seal engraving research institute collectively revised and supplemented it, and then it took four seal engravers seven years to finally complete it. The heroes in the above 108 are all vivid and their lines are unbroken.
Don't think that paper engraving is simple and has no technical content at all. Because they are all made of tissue paper or even rice paper, the most worrying thing about carving is the broken lines caused by knife carving. At first, the sculptor used various techniques such as scribing and pasting, contrast between yin and yang and hollowing out on the glass or wax floor, but sometimes the whole painting could not be cut and dried. If you look closely, you can see the defects of unsmooth lines. Later, folk artists specially made a stereotyped writing, which was made of incense ashes and sheep oil. When carving paper, it will not be as hard and rigid as glass, and it will not melt in summer.
Let Jintan engraving paper go to the world
Last month, after a lapse of 16 years, Jintan was once again named as "the hometown of folk culture and art in China" by the Ministry of Culture because of the influence of paper engraving at home and abroad. Hearing the good news, Yin and Sun Song, as "non-genetic people", breathed a sigh of relief.
15 years ago, Zhu, Yin and Sun were awarded the title of "Folk Arts and Crafts Artists" by UNESCO. Prior to this, the three of them were regarded as representatives of the three generations of Jintan engraving paper. Today, Zhu has traveled by crane, while Yin has retired for many years. Only Sun still insists on visiting the printmaking research institute every day.
When I met Huan Huan, I sat in the courtyard of the ancient residence of Jintan Seal Cutting Research Institute and made a cup of green tea. The hot aroma suddenly overflowed. 12-year-old Yin and Sun, who once served as the deputy director of Jintan Engraving Research Institute, recalled the brief history of the development of Jintan Engraving: from the late Qing Dynasty to before liberation, Jintan Engraving entered a prosperous period, and almost all villages were exposed to Engraving, so Engraving truly reflected the characteristics of folk art from the very beginning, and appeared in the homes of ordinary people in the form of fine embroidery and other pattern cutting, with the engraving style as the matrix. Cover it below and you can thread the needle at will ... 1976 is a landmark year for the climate of Jintan carved paper. Later, it became famous throughout the country as "a flower in the south of the Yangtze River", and the original skill of carving insects finally reached elegance.
As early as 7 years old, Yin studied paper-cutting and carving with his father. His father specializes in making lanterns, colored lights and dragon lanterns. But with the passage of time, he pursued artistic innovation on the basis of inheriting the tradition. Many of his works, created by hollowing out and engraving on blow-molded paper, have aroused great interest from famous people in painting and calligraphy, such as Jiang Feng, and have also had a great influence in paper engraving.
In order to make the ancient flower of art more colorful, Yin made a bold exploration. After hollowing out, he changed the hard engraving on the original glass into a soft engraving. 1978, his "Magnificent Scenery" became the first soft print work exhibited in the national farmers' art exhibition. He also used the methods of cutting, carving and tearing and the methods of color matching, dot filling and dyeing to develop the methods of color painting and carving, which not only reduced the difficulty of production, but also made the work itself more exquisite and greatly improved the creative efficiency.
There is innovation, and there will always be gains. Yin thinks there are many similarities between printmaking and painting. It absorbs the characteristics of sister art such as printmaking, traditional Chinese painting and decorative painting, and also embodies its own expression and artistic language, paying attention to the curve, straight line and sharpness of lines. Compared with the northern prints, Jintan prints are richer and more delicate. His works include Hongyun, Narcissus, Gu Shan Expo and Auld Lang Syne. 1In April, 1997, as a "unique folk art in China", Jintan paper sculpture was exhibited in Los Angeles, USA at the invitation of the Ministry of Culture, and Yin Sui's delegation improvised the paper sculpture at the 26th American International Art Festival in Houston, which was well received.
Influenced by the shoes and window grilles cut by his grandmother and mother, Sun also liked the folk art of paper-cutting and paper carving from an early age. When he joined the army in Shaanxi in his youth, northwest paper-cutting gave him bold artistic influence. 1977 After retiring from the army, he served as the stationmaster of Houyang Township Cultural Station at that time 1 1 year, which was also the "golden age" when he devoted himself to paper-cutting creation. He humbly learned from the older generation of paper-cut artists, and from time to time, he learned useful nutrition from the paper-cut art in other parts of China, learned from others, and integrated it into his own creation. His works are simple in composition, smooth in lines, exaggerated in modeling, and full of rich flavor of Jintan regional life. Sun specializes in the theme of rural life. Some experts say that through the vivid pictures of Sun's works such as Grain Field, Picking Ling, Fishing and Sugarcane Harvest, we can appreciate the economic prosperity brought by the liberation of rural productive forces in the early days of reform and opening up, while the works such as Pastoral, Yangko and Siheyuan make people feel the brand-new farmers in the period of rural economic prosperity.
Hundreds of carved paper works with earthy fragrance created by Sun give people shocking beauty enjoyment with their rough and bold style. They not only won awards frequently in China, but also were selected by the Ministry of Culture to exchange with Japan, France, the United States, Norway, Finland and other countries, and held solo exhibitions in the Netherlands. In 2006, he was awarded the title of "Star of Folk Art in Jiangsu Province".
To Yin and Sun's pride, on the eve of last year's Olympic Games, at Yang's suggestion, they created two sister scrolls, from Athens to Beijing and Chinese Soul Olympic Dream, which were 2.008 meters wide and 29 meters long, respectively, and won great appreciation.
Now, Yin puts more energy into training new people. After retirement, as a primary school teacher, I was invited to set up a paper-cutting training base in Changzhou Chaoyang Kindergarten and teach paper-cutting skills in Lushu Middle School.
Sun was compiled in the cultural center and borrowed from the printmaking research institute. He is one of the members of Changzhou's "mentoring". Cao Yujiao, a young teacher at Baita Primary School, won 9 gold medals and 18 silver prizes in various national printmaking art competitions last year alone.
Under the careful guidance of Yin Hesun, almost all the provincial Hualuogeng Middle School, Jintan No.1 Middle School and township primary and secondary schools have set up paper engraving interest groups and exhibition rooms, and a large number of "small rivers" are showing their sharp corners.
Jintan carved paper into the national museum.
On/0/0 day before the opening of the Beijing Olympic Games, Mr. Yang, a member of China Artists Association, honorary president of Jiangsu Fish Paper Carving Art Research Institute and a famous paper carving artist, received an express mail from Samaranch, honorary president of the International Olympic Committee, from Lausanne, Switzerland. In a special letter, the famous leader of the World Olympic Games expressed his admiration for the people of Jintan and the paper-cut works of Jintan with such warm words as "Collection of Paper-cut Works from Athens to Beijing", which perfectly explained the work you and other artists in Jintan were engaged in when the Olympic Games came. At present, the National Museum has decided to collect Samaranch's special letter praising Jintan people and Jintan's carved paper works.
Samaranch wrote a special letter of thanks.
Professor Chen Jing, Chairman of the Folk Art Branch of China International Writers and Artists Association and Director of the Folk Art Research Center of Nanjing University, interprets the value of Samaranch's special letter in this way: the meaning of these two sentences by President Samaranch has gone far beyond the paper-cut works themselves, indicating that Jintan paper-cut works have been endowed with new connotations in enhancing the soft power of national culture, publicizing China's national culture, communicating the friendship between Chinese and foreign people, and conducting world exchanges. For thousands of years, the people of Jintan have made efforts and contributions to China's paper engraving, and finally they have evidence and returns. This is the first "art gold medal" born outside the Olympic Stadium before the opening of the Beijing Olympic Games. Art is priceless, and the Olympic art gold medal is even more priceless. This is not only the pride of Jintan, but also that of Jiangsu and China!
Become a national "non-legacy"
Jintan is one of the earliest areas in China where paper engraving was popularized. Paper-carved works have always been famous at home and abroad for their novel composition, flexible lines, excellent carving and strong local characteristics in the south of the Yangtze River. Known as "a flower in the south of the Yangtze River", it has been exhibited abroad for many times and exported to five continents. Nearly 100 works have been collected by art galleries and museums at home and abroad. "People can be praised in all aspects, all by the hands of the gods in Jintan." Jintan City was named "Hometown of Paper Carving" by the Ministry of Culture on 1993. Jintan paper sculpture is a unique folk art in China, and was recognized as a national intangible cultural heritage in 2008.
Paper-cut work from Athens to Beijing
From Athens to Beijing is a paper-cut work proposed by Samaranch. In June 2004, Yang, the chairman of Jiangsu Feiyangyu Garment Co., Ltd. and a folk artist in Jintan, organized five folk art lovers, including Yin, She Yunxiang, Tan Weiping and Liu Ming, to create it in their spare time. Yin, who is over 60 years old, inherited the skills of her ancestors and has profound traditional skills in paper cutting and engraving. He developed color engraving paper by cutting, engraving and tearing, and by means of color matching, printing, filling and dyeing. A folk arts and crafts artist awarded by UNESCO as the chief engraver of long scrolls. In order to create this work, Mr. Yang visited Athens, Greece, London, Australia, Sydney, Barcelona, Spain and other places for many times, took photos and collected materials, and revised the manuscript repeatedly with fellow authors, which was completed in February 2007 and lasted for four years. His works are 29 meters long and 2.008 meters wide. It consists of 18 landmark buildings in 8 countries and 22 cities that have hosted previous Olympic Games, gold medals in previous Olympic Games, heads of 8 Olympic Committee presidents, mascots and all sports of the 29th Olympic Games. And interspersed with 2008 doves of peace, vividly showing the founding process of the modern Olympic Games from 1, 896 to 2000. It truly reproduces the glorious course of the Olympic Games and the rich connotation of the Olympic Games, as well as the profoundness and universal inheritance of the Olympic culture. The theme of "Olympic epic, world harmony" is prominent and far-reaching. It has been collected as a "national collection" by the National Museum.
Paper-cut masterpieces are of great significance.
On July 29th, Yin Yiling and Ding Chunyi, experts in the collection of cultural relics from the National Museum who went to Jintan to issue collection certificates to Yang and others, commented on From Athens to Beijing in this way: the theme is distinct, showing history, reflecting the times, magnificent, ingenious, complete in elements, beautifully carved, deeply shocked, and the works have China cultural characteristics. We analyze and treat the Olympic Movement from the perspective of oriental culture. It is the most outstanding and unique masterpiece of all the Olympic theme engraving papers, with extraordinary artistic tension and unique charm, which embodies the universal values of Olympic unity, friendship, progress, harmony, participation and dreams.