丹青志 长城魂——《长城秋韵》创作谈

         Dan Zhi "autumn" the Great Wall Spirit -- on the creation of the Great Wall

　　长城秋韵（中国画）

　　王明明 李小可 庄小雷 徐卫国

　　作为人类重要的文明古迹，长城是古代中国不同朝代，为抵御塞北游牧部落联盟的侵袭，而修筑的规模浩大的军事工程。自春秋战国时期至明代，整个长城横跨十个省、东西绵延上万华里，因此又被称为“万里长城”。上下两千年，纵横十万里。对中国人来说，长城不仅是民族智慧的结晶，更是中华民族精神的象征，体现着坚不可摧、永存于世的伟大意志和力量，其形象已成为中华民族的名片。中国画《长城秋韵》，旨在展示长城厚重的中华文明历史内蕴、坚韧不拔的民族精神，彰显人类自强不息的生存理念。

　　“中华文明历史题材美术创作工程”之“万里长城”选题，由北京画院来创作完成——院长王明明牵头，画家李小可、徐卫国和我组成创作组。之所以由北京画院来承担这一主题，是因为它拥有独特优势和资源传统：一方面，作为新中国成立最早的专业绘画创作机构，北京画院在过去近七十年间有着深厚的重大历史题材美术创作传统，新中国成立初期就集体创作过《东风吹遍百花开》《十三陵水库》《首都之春》等经典作品；另一方面，凭借靠近元明清历史古迹的地利之便，北京画院的画家长期对八达岭、居庸关、金山岭、故宫等历史古迹进行采风、写生，积累了丰富的创作经验。

　　在近几年国家的重要节庆活动中，北京画院多次接受创作“长城”题材画作任务，形成一个集体合作的模式——2008年北京奥运会开幕式文艺表演中，使用的长城形象元素，就是由北京画院画家们所创制；2015年在“纪念中国人民抗日战争暨世界反法西斯战争胜利70周年”北京阅兵式上，北京画院画家再一次集体创作了以万里长城为主题的巨幅山水，悬挂在天安门城楼上……在此次“万里长城”题材创作中，四位画家均是北京画院的代表性艺术家，他们曾多次合作绘制巨幅作品，有着很好的默契。

　　创作前期，主要是构思酝酿。与以往创作相比，此次创作有固定的画题要求和尺幅限制，这既需要选择另外一种特殊的时间、特殊的地点来表现这个特殊的主题，同时还要考虑到当前的时代主题和民众的审美趣味，这对艺术家们而言是一次全新的挑战。创作组也感到了责任的重大和不小的压力，选择什么样的形式，如何表现出中华民族不屈不挠的精神、中华民族的气质和尊严，都要凭借形式和形象的创造。

　　为了更准确地表达画作的主题，画家们多次赴长城开展实地写生，大量搜集关于长城的图文资料，包括前人创作的长城主题名作和李可染、白雪石等名家笔下的长城写生素材，并对这些素材进行认真的研究与筛选——对不同地点、不同季节长城所在的地貌特点，以及不同区段长城关隘和城墙建筑特点进行研究等，从而保证兼顾文献性与艺术性。在此基础上，创作组反复开会研讨，提出想法，设计图纸，不断地推翻重来，力求从章法布排到细节处理，都能饱满地表现主题。最初，创作组的构思是以春天为基调，来表现长城的壮丽和秀美，但初稿完成后发觉不能很好地表现长城的庄严与肃穆，于是决定选用秋天的季节来进行表现——金秋的颜色代表了收获，秋季的长城，不正是中华文明五千年历史积淀、硕果累累的形象代表吗？

　　构思意向明确之后，创作组议定作品的画面立意，要与毛泽东诗词《沁园春·雪》的宏大辽阔境界相一致。画面以长城为主体，这意味着长城近景的主体城楼，要占据画面的显要位置，并有合适的高度和大小。画家们创作了十几幅草图，经过对比和筛选，最后确定长城主体城楼高度在画面三分之一处，太高则无法表现中景、远景山川的辽阔苍茫，太低则不能体现长城的气势，同时对远近城楼的大小关系做了适当调整——太大则显不出山体的巍峨雄壮，太小则弱化了长城的主题。对于山脉的布局衔接，画家们并没有把山水的结构、造型、层次设计得很繁复，而是注重其整体感。构图上，也要避开当前流行的巨幅创作太满、过繁、细碎的弊端，强调用“虚”，追求空灵与开阔。创作组根据以往的创作经验，参考傅抱石与关山月合作的《江山如此多娇》的表现手法，在突出主景的同时大胆使用大面积留白，突出层峦叠嶂的层次，刻画出云雾缭绕之感，展示出山水画的意境与气派，使画面远看有气势，近看更丰富、有内容。这样大面积的留白与整片山体相互穿插，并统一在一起，画面就呈现出一种完整、雄强与干净，而不是琐碎与孱弱。同时，中国画讲究虚实相生，“计白当黑”，大面积的留白，不仅抬升了整体画面的空灵之感，还能触动观者的无尽遐想。思路确定后，在前期十几幅草稿的基础上，画家又重新完成了小样墨稿，定稿后才进行作品的大幅创作。

　　创作中，四位画家有分工也有合作，并各有侧重——李小可强调笔的线性，他用笔大气、线条硬朗，又不拘泥于细节，于是由他负责勾画山峦的石纹与结构，搭建起画面的骨架。在此基础上，我负责体面皴擦和细部处理，我力求用笔沉稳，将细节关系处理得恰到好处；徐卫国配合画树、夹叶以及对云的处理和渲染。王明明对画作的整体效果进行总体把控，并负责上色，勾画远山，烘托雪山的气氛。正是在彼此的协调把控中，使得不尽相同的风格互相生发，达到了协调统一的效果。

　　作品完成后，做最后的细节处理也花去了画家很多的精力。远取势、近取质。不论是石纹结构，还是近处山石上的红叶与配草，画家们都画得非常严谨；在画面虚实处理上，画家们也尽求能够激活山体间的关系，使它们彼此掩映与衔接。同时，画家们以反复的皴擦点染，增强画面笔墨的醇厚效果，这种笔墨效果恰如其分地表达出长城雄浑、沉静、伟岸的气质。“大音希声，大象无形”，这种近乎沉静的醇厚，无声诉说着万里长城千年的历史沧桑与厚重的文化积淀。

　　巍峨的万里长城，是中华民族的脊梁。其气度，正与中华民族自强不息、厚德载物的精神内蕴相一致。此次对“万里长城”精神的表现，体现了创作者在主题性与艺术性、文献性与审美性上互参互融的思考，希望能为重大历史题材美术创作带来启示。

来源：人民网

  Dan Zhi "autumn" the Great Wall Spirit -- on the creation of the Great Wall

As an important human civilization heritage, the Great Wall is the ancient Chinese in different dynasties, to resist northern nomadic tribes allied invasion, and the construction of a large-scale military engineering. Since the spring and Autumn period to the Ming Dynasty, the the Great Wall across ten provinces, stretches thousands of Li, it is also known as "the Great Wall". Two thousand years up and down, one hundred thousand miles across. For Chinese people, the Great Wall is not only the crystallization of national wisdom, but also the symbol of Chinese national spirit. It embodies the great will and strength of impregnable and perpetuation, and its image has become the card of Chinese nation. Chinese painting "the Great Wall autumn", aims to show the the Great Wall heavy Chinese civilization connotation, firm and indomitable national spirit, highlighting the human survival idea of unremitting self-improvement.

"The Chinese civilization history of art creation" of the "the Great Wall" topic, by Beijing painting to create complete - led President Wang Mingming, painter Li Xiaoke, Xu Weiguo and I compose group. The reason for the Beijing Academy for this topic, because it has unique advantages and traditional resources: on the one hand, as a professional painting creation mechanism Chinese earliest, Beijing painting has a profound historical theme creation tradition in the past seventy years, the new China inception collective creation "east wind all flowers open" "Ming Dynasty Tombs" reservoir "capital of spring" and other classic works; on the other hand, with close to the Yuan Ming and Qing Dynasties historical sites location, Beijing painting painter long-term in Badaling, Juyongguan, the Imperial Palace and other historical monuments of Jinshanling, folk songs, painting, has accumulated rich experience in the creation.

In recent years, important festivals in the country, many accept the creation of Beijing painting "the Great Wall" theme painting task -- the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing formed a collective opening ceremony theatrical performances, the Great Wall by image elements, is created by Beijing painting artists; in 2015 to commemorate the China people's Anti Japanese war 70th anniversary and the world anti fascist war "Beijing parade, Beijing painter once again created a huge collective landscape in the Great Wall as the theme, hanging on the rostrum of Tiananmen...... In the "the Great Wall" theme, four artists are representative of the Beijing Academy of painting artists, they have repeatedly drawn huge cooperation works, has a very good understanding.

In the early stage of creation, the main idea was conceiving. Compared with the previous works, the creation of a fixed size limit and painting requirements, which not only need to choose another special time and special location to the performance of this special theme, while also taking into account the current theme of the times and people's aesthetic tastes, this is a new challenge for artists. The creative group also felt the great and small pressure of responsibility. What form should be chosen, how to show the indomitable spirit of the Chinese nation and the temperament and dignity of the Chinese nation, we must rely on the creation of form and image.

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In order to more accurately express the theme of the painting, the artists invited to the Great Wall to carry out field sketching, collect a lot of information about the the Great Wall, including the creation of the predecessors of the Great Wall theme and Li Keran, Bai Xueshi and other famous works under the pen of the Great Wall painting material, and research and careful screening of geomorphic features of different locations, different seasons of the Great Wall for these materials, and different sections of the Great Wall and the city wall building pass characteristics were studied, so as to balance the literature and art of guarantee. On this basis, the creative group repeatedly held discussions, put forward ideas, design drawings, constantly overturn the heavy ones, and strive to arrange the theme from the layout to the details. Initially, the creative team was conceived in the spring for the tone, to show the magnificent and beautiful the Great Wall, but after the completion of the first draft that can not be a very good performance of the the Great Wall solemn and solemn, and decided to use the fall season to show - autumn colors represent the autumn harvest, the the Great Wall, is not representative of Chinese civilization five thousand years of history, fruitful?

After the conception of intentions clear, creative group agreed art conception, to be consistent with Mao Zedong's poetry "Snow" huge realm. The picture takes the the Great Wall as the main body, which means that the main city tower of the near view of the Great Wall should occupy the prominent position of the picture and have the right height and size. Creative artists ten sketch, through comparison and selection, finally determine the the Great Wall of the main tower in 1/3 at the height of the picture is too high, can not show the vast expanse of mountains and rivers, the vision is too low, cannot reflect the momentum of the the Great Wall, the tower size is far too big to do the appropriate adjustment is not significant a mountain towering majestic, too small to weaken the theme of the Great Wall. For the layout of the mountains, the artists have not designed the structure, the shape and the level of the mountains and rivers complex, but pay attention to their sense of integrity. On the basis of the composition, we should also avoid the current popular, overcrowded, overcrowded and delicate defects, and call for the "empty" and the pursuit of empty and open. The creation of the group according to the previous experience of creation, Fu Baoshi and GuanShanYue cooperation "reference land so" expression, at the same time in the main highlight the bold use of large area space, highlighting the hierarchical portray layer upon layer of peaks and knolls, misty feeling, show the meaning and style of landscape painting, make the picture look a momentum. In richer, content. Such a large area of white and the whole of the mountains interspersed, and unified together, the picture presents a complete end.