PureInsight | May 31, 2019
[PureInsight.org] The "Worldwide Realistic Oil Painting Competition" was held again this year. According to the introduction of the competition committee, the famous artist professor Zhang Kunlun was still invited as president of the jury at the 5th World Realistic Oil Painting Competition. On February 23, Professor Zhang said in the interview, the competition was a great event to lead the return of human arts. All competitors were walking at the forefront of human art re-blooming. He hoped all oil painters, especially those from mainland would participate actively.
Professor Zhang graduated from the China Academy of Art (formerly Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts). He founded the sculpture major at the Shandong Academy of Art. Then he served as the director of the Institute of Sculpture Art. He had many large sculpture monuments standing in China and North America. Lots of his oil paintings and sculptures have been exhibited worldwide for more than ten years.
"The significance of the New Tang Dynasty Competition"
Professor Zhang has been the judge of all previous New Tang Dynasty Oil Painting Competition. He highly praised the competition organized by NTDTV.
“The New Tang Dynasty oil painting contest provides a platform for the outstanding artists who truly adhere to tradition.” He said, “These people have been ignored under the impact of modern concepts, and the New Tang Dynasty’s competition has served as a platform to show their talents."
Professor Zhang agreed pretty much with the purpose of the New Tang Dynasty competition, which was to ask for the "traditional realistic" style and deliver the "traditional moral concepts."
"Because the traditional art was left by God for human beings, it is the culture and art that human beings should have." He said, "The human body and structure are made by God according to their own appearance. Insisting on “traditional realistic” is to respect humanity themselves.”
The competition emphasizes both skill and connotation
Professor Zhang said, "The skills are very important in realistic figures drawing. You must have good modeling ability, coloring, oil, and pen using experience; plus understand composition skills and overall picture process, etc. It must be a perfect combination of form and content. The ancient people left us valuable experience. No matter you use the classical cover stained, direct painting or your own way, as long as it is good paint, you are welcome!”
Professor Zhang also mentioned that in today's moral corruption and artistic variation, the aim of New Tang Dynasty oil painting competition was to restore the tradition “to lead the return of human arts. It is the only hope to lead the human (oil painting) art to prosperity."
Professor Zhang believed that art was very important to human beings and closely related to the human morality. He said, "It’s said that human art is an accelerator and lubricant for the promotion or decline of social civilization. We can tell how important the art is for human beings. It is the carrier of human goodness and beauty, to inherit human civilization, to carry forward human morality, to cultivate the mind, to pass on good knowledge, to enlighten people's good thoughts, and even to show the beauty of God’s world, plus to lead mankind to a bright future. These are the characteristics and functions of true art."
"In fact, it is also restoring the tradition of mankind." He said that people didn't know that tradition was the guarantee of human survival. "In this sense, the event organized by NTDTV is actually saving humanity. So, it is very great."
The participants are great!
Professor Zhang said that art was an indicator of the human morality, because people's aesthetic taste was related to human ideological realm and morality.
“People with different tastes will look at different art works. Nowadays, young people wear some vests with skull print; and some bad things take the market.” He said, because people now didn’t know what the real art was, many people who engaged in modernism emphasized self and enthusiasm.
"They believe that Impressionism, abstraction, installation art, and conceptual art are 'progress', ... and some people look for inspiration at primitive art, saying 'the more primitive the art; the more modern.' It is ignorance.” He said it was because human beings were in the cycle of formation-stasis-degeneration-destruction. From a big macro perspective, human beings have been destroyed many times. The so-called primitive art was precisely the destroyed art product from the last period of human moral corruption.
"Now people can't distinguish between good and bad. Something terrible can be sold for thousands, tens of thousands or even hundreds of millions Yuan. They are all hyped up. With the corruption of human morality, art is constantly changing. Modern people’s corruption is worse than any period in history.” He said.
He said people who could still stick to the traditional realistic painting in such a social reality is very remarkable.
"If these people can participate in the New Tang Dynasty competition, the competition and their participation will be a bridge for art return and recreating the art boom.” He said, "Now human beings are in a big revolutionary era from darkness to light. Humanity will certainly become better, and human art will bloom once again. These participants are walking in the forefront."
He wished that the realistic oil painters around the world, especially the talented and diligent painters from China mainland come to participate in the competition "to play their historical role and fulfill their historical mission."
Artistic creation is the process of "self-improvement"
Professor Zhang realized from his own artistic creative experience that the artist’s growth process and creative process have been a cultivation process. It was a process of "in the Dao without Cultivating the Dao."
"Life in the universe is hierarchical. When your ideological realm reaches to some level, you can communicate with the life at that level, and you will have that level wisdom." He said, "So a real serious artist is a cultivator, and the creative process is the cultivation process. Even if he does not know which school his cultivation is from, it is already “in the Dao without Cultivating the Dao.'"
“Many people say, 'The writing mirrors the writer; the painting mirrors the artist.' An art work is the appearance of the author's inner world.” He said, “Only dragons and phoenixes can generate dragons and phoenixes. So an artist must be a good person first if he wants to have a nice work; or to be a better person. During the creative process, he must constantly purify himself and return to his congenital purity. "
Such an artist, his work will have a good influence on human beings. It could make people more open-minded and have a more noble personality. Eventually it might raise the level of human civilization.
"Does that mean he is doing the best thing? There is some Chinese saying that “no loss, no gain or good and evil have their consequences. He has accumulated such a great virtue, and his heart is so pure. What is the eternity of his existence? If a life comes from the heaven, he can return to the heaven?" He said, "So, the creative process of a real artist is the process of improving his/her mind. He/she is also paving a beautiful way for the eternity of his/her existence when he/she creates magnificent art in the world. If an artist can recognize this, his/her art is very meaningful."
At the end of the interview, Professor Zhang encouraged the participants to register for the competition. The deadline for registration is July 15th, the contest information is available at this website: https://oilpainting.ntdtv.com.
Translated from http://www.zhengjian.org/node/250029
