Yu Xining's Flower And Bird Painting Art Research

Yu Xining is a great contemporary outstanding artists and art educators of China. Born in Weifang, a famous historical and cultural city, nurtured by the art atmosphere of his hometown influenced by initiate teachers Ding Dongzhai and Liu Zhidong, Yu began the study of painting.At the age of 20, he traveled to the south and studied at Shanghai Xinhua Academy of Arts, and started the road of pursuing comprehensive studies on poetry, calligraphy, painting and sealing under the guidance of various famous art experts such as Huang Binhong, Pan Tianshou. Based on the traditional Chinese painting, Yu Xining imitated the ancients in a large scale. He learned a lot from the fine brushwork of Song dynasty to the ink painting of Yuan dynasty, from Bai Yang and Qing Tenga to Nan Tian, Xin Luo and modern experts with Shanghai's style. At the same time of learning from the ancients, Yu also paid special attention to the nature. He went through the life deeply and experienced it by himself. Meanwhile, in order to make his works more fresh and vivid, he observed the nature and made a large number of sketches.Yu Xining has been engaged in art for more than 70 years. The stages of the creation of the flower and bird painting can be divided into the early period, the development period, the maturation period and the sublimation period. From 1928, when he became one student of Ding Dongzhai, Liu Zhidong and the other teachers, to the eve of the founding of new China, these 20 years is the early stage of his art, during which Yulaid a sound foundation for his future artistic creationsmainly by copying the ancients'works, and learning flower and bird painting by scenery-based creations. The nearly 30 years from 1949 to the end of the Great Cultural Revolution is the development period of Yu's art career. He made more independent productions in the early period of the new China, and went to the East China Academy of Arts to pursue the study of arts history from Yu Jianhua.Paintings of this period is a combination of fine brushwork and freehand brushwork and is characterized with elegance, brightness, vigorousness and unconventionality. However, creation was forbidden during the Great Cultural Revolution. The period from the end of the Great Cultural Revolution to the early 90's is the maturation period of Yu's flower and bird painting art. He mainly painted the plum blossom and also covered something else. He created a series of giant paintings of flower and bird. His painting style also changed from elegance to magnificence; his ink style changed from unconventionality to forcefulness. The maturation period began from the early 90's. Due to the limitations of the body, he changed his painting style and began to use complex product in ink, his ink style was more vigorous, but the color was much more clear and pure, thus showing the feature of "old and young".In the mid 1980s, Yu Xining Mid-80, Yu Xining summed up his artistic propositions as "talent and virtue should be improved at anytime, and the three souls should be one" and used it as the motto of the art career. These two sentences, which seems so brief and short, contains an artist's deep understanding of life and art."Talent and virtue should be improved at anytime" talks about daily improvement within and beyond the paintings, including the improvements of artistic talent and moral character. "and the three souls should be one" means the artists should pursuing the integration of the soul of painting, the soul of person and the soul of country. Improving one's talent and virtue is the basis and prerequisite of realizing the integration of three souls. And the integration of three souls is the final result of improving one's talent and virtue. Furthermore, the improvement of one's talent and virtue is an artist's foundation of conducting himself. And the integration of three souls is the life realm that an artist should have. "Talent and virtue should be improved at anytime, and the three souls should be one" is the core of Yu Xining's painting thought, showing his yearning and pursuit on the endless road of art. The harmony of poetry, calligraphy, painting and sealing is also a significant part of Yu's painting thought. He emphasized that Chinese artists should pay attention to the collaborative development of poetry, calligraphy, painting and sealing and poetry, calligraphy, painting and sealing should be integrated in Chinese painting, for which he also engraved a stamp reading "Yu Xining pursues the harmony of poetry, calligraphy, painting and sealing" to express his artistic ideas and artistic pursuits.Yu Xining wasone of the most successful representative of expressive flower and bird painting of 20th century. His noble personality, superb drawing skills and profound cultural accumulation givehis works fresh vitality and strong appeal, which embodies his art accomplishment. Study on the art of Yu's flower and bird painting has important implications on contemporary Chinese painting especially flower and bird painting.We can find the law of Chinese painting artdevelopmentfrom his long art careerto guide our steps in the future. And from his rich artistic ideas, we also can find a way to solve today's problems of Chinese painting, so as to give lessons and inspiration for later generations.