Chapter 1605 The style of the fusion period
Because he actually found several painters he was familiar with here - Li Keran, Xu Beihong, Qi Baishi, and Shi Lu.
Especially Shi Lu, An Siyuan seemed to particularly admire the founder of the Chang'an School of Painting, who was later as famous as Li Keran, and seemed to especially like to collect his representative works on modern red historical themes.
In the room that Hou Zhongjin brought him in, Zhou Zhi saw Shi Lu's silk work - "Spring Plum Independence" on the side of the Song and Jin wood carvings and painted Bodhisattva statues placed on the Ming Dynasty huanghuali table. 》.
Ellsworth was born into a prominent family in Manhattan. The love for art is almost innate. When he was four years old, he collected a small Chinese stamp. "He thought the stamp was very beautiful and had a strong exotic flavor," and he fell in love with Eastern art.
Coming from a wealthy family, he showed his talent as a collector and his precocious business acumen from an early age. His mother knows his preferences very well and knows that if she can't find him at home, she can definitely find him "in the trash can near home." Because Ellsworth will rummage through the trash can to see if there is anything interesting in it. ".
Before graduating from high school, Ellsworth wandered around New York thrift stores, purchasing items including Chinese artworks and reselling them to antique stores for profit. With his unique vision, he successfully sold a complete set of snuff bottles to the Montreal Museum through an antique dealer when he was nineteen years old.
He was also very lucky. In 1948, he met the legendary female antique dealer Alice Ponnet, and further got to know heavyweight antique dealers in New York City such as Lu Qinzhai and Dai Runzhai.
Alice Ponnet not only brought Ellsworth into the circle of famous scholars and experts, but also sent Ellsworth to the Far Eastern Language School of Yale University, and followed her to her friend Wang Fangyu, a famous cultural relic collector. The professor learned Chinese language and theoretical knowledge of ancient Chinese painting. The Chinese name An Siyuan was given to him by Professor Wang during his studies.
Winning the favor of Alice Ponnet gave Ellsworth the opportunity to learn about Chinese ceramics, furniture and paintings, and brought him closer to high-end Chinese art. Just like Zhou Zhi passed on a large number of Ming and Qing furniture from Mr. Wang, Ellsworth also passed on many paintings by modern Chinese painters from Pang Nai, among which the paintings of Qi Baishi collected by Pang Nai are the most famous.
In 1979, Ellsworth visited China for the first time and was granted special permission to visit government warehouses, where a large amount of art confiscated over a decade was stored.
In the following years, he visited almost all the state-owned handicraft stores in BJ, Xi'an, Shanghai, Tianjin and other cities at that time to learn and buy Chinese calligraphy and painting. The collection of modern Chinese paintings and calligraphy has expanded rapidly, and it has successively acquired many important representative works of Chinese artists of the 20th century.
A few years ago, Ellsworth donated 471 paintings and calligraphy works from the "Ellsworth Collection Series" to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, thus creating the Metropolitan Museum of Art's "Western Art Gallery" It has the reputation of being the largest collection of modern oriental calligraphy and painting in the country. Ellsworth is also considered to be the first Western collector to systematically collect in this field.
The painting in front of me is Shi Lu's masterpiece. It shows Hongmei's enthusiastic and high-spirited spirit of not being afraid of wind and snow and daring to fight.
Shi Lu is a rare all-rounder in modern times who is good at poetry, calligraphy, painting and printing. This accumulation comes from his accumulation in his youth. When he was a boy, his family owned thousands of hectares of land and more than 100,000 yuan. He collected books and later joined the revolution. Because he admired Shi Tao and Lu Xun, he gave himself the stage name Shi Lu.
Like Van Gogh, he suffered from intermittent schizophrenia. Especially after encountering stress in his later period, his condition became more serious. Therefore, in the eyes of people at the time, he was a mad painter.
But that kind of persistence, stubbornness, wildness, and even crazy spirit is reflected in the paintings, which is an extremely vivid expression.
This work was not donated by Ellsworth, but became his private collection, which shows his love for this painting. "Do children also like this painting?" a voice asked behind Zhou Zhi.
"Oh." Zhou Zhi turned around and found that An Siyuan and Hou Zhongjin had stood behind him at some point: "This is one of my fellow countrymen. He I like to sum up my work with a poem - I am more energetic because of the wind and rain."
"Oh?" An Siyuan's eyes lit up: "This poem is really suitable to describe the soul contained in Mr. Shi's works. Whose poem is this?"
"This is A line from a poem by King Xiangmin of the Song Dynasty, Zhou Zhi said, and then pointed to the statue next to the painting: "He is about a hundred years older than this statue of Bodhisattva."
"I have heard that. Seems like a sad soldier An Siyuan pinched the pipe in his hand: "He opened up the northwest border for the Song Dynasty and once gained the upper hand in the fight against Xixia."
"It was him" Zhou Zhi smiled. Mr. An’s accumulation of traditional Chinese culture is better than that of many of our fellow countrymen, which is really admirable.”
“Many people think that this statue is from the early Song Dynasty, but you don’t think so?”
"Mr. An is trying to compare with me." Zhou Zhi said with a smile: "The early Song Dynasty inherited the legacy of the late Tang Dynasty. Wood carvings emphasized craftsmanship and light decoration. They rarely used methods such as painting and gold application. It began to rise during the Zhenzong period, but At that time, it was mostly used in Taoist statues. ”
"This Bodhisattva statue is painted and gilded. Judging from the craftsmanship, the style of northern statues is outstanding. Combined with the northern minority regime's admiration for Buddhism, I personally think it is more reasonable to push the date back."
"Also, the open face of this Bodhisattva is obviously better than that of the northern one at the same time. The open face and thin face should be the influence of the style brought by the "Southern Works from the North" in the Hangyang area, and it has the style of the fusion period..." Zhou Zhi suddenly thought of one of Ellsworth's deeds: "Mr. An established a business on Hong Kong Island in 1991 The China Cultural Relics and Art Restoration Foundation took the lead in donating money and raised approximately HK$6 million, putting five buildings on the verge of collapse. The ancient houses in Anhui were restored. In 1992, he went to Huangshan, Anhui, and donated money to repair the "Baolun Pavilion", a family ancestral hall built in the Ming Dynasty. Could it be that he purchased it in Anhui at that time? "
Considering that the power of the Jin people had expanded to the Huaihe River during the statue period, this guess is very likely.
Hou Zhongjin praised: "Mr. An, I think Mr. Xiao Zhou's level is good, right?"
Ellsworth nodded: "It is true that I bought this statue in England in the 1990s. I think it is very beautiful."
"But you said these things are indeed related. According to Chinese Traditionally, such exquisite statues should be matched by corresponding Buddhist niches, and the inspiration for Buddhist niches often comes from temples. It was only after I got this statue that I started to pay attention to ancient Chinese architecture, and then I made two donations in 1991 and 1992."
"Wait until 1993. It seems like you and Jesse have taken over.”