Tianjin People's Fine Arts Publishing House "Contemporary Famous Artists Series-Xiong Bin"
Interview with artists in the cover magazine of Shanghai ARTFACE magazine.
Interview with TVS-2 "Art Appreciation" of China Southern TV Station.
People's Daily Global Times 20 13 was selected as the "Florence Contemporary Art Biennale" in Italy.
20 12 "17th Guangzhou Art Fair" Exhibition Guangzhou Baiyun International Conference Center
20 12 "West Tacheng Wharf Exhibition of Pearl River New Town" Guangzhou Pearl River New Town
20 12 "dancing colors-the first joint exhibition of professional oil paintings in Zizitang"
Guangzhou zizaitang
2065438+02 "2065438+02 China Contemporary Oil Painting Landscape Joint Exhibition" RSD Three-person roving exhibition of professional oil painters (the eighth time) Shanghai Huisheng Art Center.
20 12 "preacher" RSD combined roving exhibition RSD professional oil painters three-person roving exhibition
(Seventh) Zhuhai Daxiangshan Art Museum
20 12 "New China Aestheticism Professional Oil Painters Joint Exhibition" RSD Professional Oil Painters Tripartite Touring Exhibition (6th) Baiyun International Convention Center Art Fair.
20 12 "Perfect, Beautiful and Pure" RSD Three-person Tour Exhibition of Professional Oil Painters (5th) Guangzhou Huineng Pavilion Contemporary Art Space
20 1 1 Year "Lao Zi Return" RSD Three-person roving exhibition of professional oil painters (the fourth time) 16 Guangzhou Art Fair
20 1 1 year "Lao zi returns" RSD three-person roving exhibition of professional oil painters (the third time), Hui Jing New Town, Guangzhou.
20 1 1 Year "National Rhyme and Soul" RSD Three-person Tour Exhibition of Professional Oil Painters (Second) Art Guangdong Information Times
20 1 1 Year "Different Circumstances" RSD Three-person Tour Exhibition of Professional Oil Painters (the first time) Dongguan Oasis Contemporary Art Space
20 10 "Art and Charity Walk Together" The First Collectors' Exhibition of Guangdong Lions Club Guangdong Disabled Persons' Federation
Xiong bin
It has been more than 20 years since I left home to study art, and before I know it, I will be forty years old. I'm getting older, but I'm more and more confused about real life! The more I think about it, the more I feel that my inner values are divorced from social values, so I often feel that my dreams are full, and the reality is very skinny and embarrassing. This kind of confusion lasted until a sleepless night in 2008, when I inadvertently watched a CD that was idle at home. I didn't expect this CD to rekindle my inner flame. I don't know if this is providence or my fate with traditional culture has arrived. After watching this movie, I made up my mind to devote myself to the research and creation of Chinese painting. This interview film, which impressed me deeply, is called "Harmony to Save the Crisis", which is a documentary of Chen Dahui, a former host of CCTV, interviewing the old wizard Kong Jing. Later, I learned that this public service documentary not only had a great influence on me who was lost in my life at that time, but also affected many people from all walks of life and different classes.
In the past two years, while concentrating on painting, I also strengthened my study of Chinese studies by listening to CDs of traditional culture. With the study and in-depth understanding of traditional culture, I realized that I had taken many detours during my growth. More aware of the inner confusion and misunderstanding of traditional culture of three generations. Why is such a good culture not recognized in my generation? Of course, there are historical reasons and the influence of modern international culture. Nowadays, the contemporary art circle is mixed with dragons and snakes, with mixed works and hype everywhere. Doing your own thing is extremely limited. Only from the beginning of "being poor, being alone" can we relearn the teachings of the ancient sages, recite the Disciples' Rules, read the Analects of Confucius, and start from ourselves, family and friends around us. After a period of time, I really realized a little bit of the truth that Buddhism said "the environment turns at will". First of all, many friends who love traditional culture are naturally attracted to them, and their families and relatives have changed because of this ancient culture. Most obviously, their creative inspiration has also begun to be influenced by traditional culture. Confucius, an ancient sage, said that "taking Tao as the aim, relying on morality, relying on benevolence, swimming in righteousness and swimming in art" is the last one. Looking back, I have studied painting art for more than ten years, and the pursuit of art is accompanied by the pursuit of profit, while ignoring the dependence on benevolence, not to mention "virtue" and "Tao". After re-studying the traditional culture, we began to re-examine and reflect on China's traditional aesthetics, and found a lot of inspiration for oil painting in the traditional Chinese painting schema. For example, the creation of China's landscape painting "A benevolent Leshan, a wise man enjoys water" was inspired by Confucius' free translation of "A benevolent Leshan, a wise man enjoys water". There is still a distance between these inner thoughts and the formation of works. Many unsatisfactory places need to be improved in the future.
I am grateful and lucky to be able to form a RSD combination with senior professional oil painters Liu Nian and Yang Yongzhi in the circle. Although the forms of expression of the three of us are completely different, we all have a common desire, to express our works with China's aesthetic concept, and to carry forward the traditional culture with the national touring exhibition of China oil paintings. Through several exhibitions of immature theme works, we have been constantly concerned and suggested by friends from all walks of life, which has given us great inspiration and encouragement. At the same time, we also deeply feel that our understanding of traditional culture is not deep enough. This is an exploratory attempt, and there are bound to be many obstacles in the future. As long as we stick to tradition, learn from tradition, carry forward tradition and make use of tradition, I believe we will achieve our own success.
China lacks real professional oil painters.
Xiong Bin 2008
In recent years, I have been wandering in the domestic oil painting art circle and talked with some domestic oil painters about the phenomenon in the circle. Through communication, I know that most painters want their works to be appreciated and collected by collectors, and I don't know how many painters there are in China, or how many really make a living by painting oil paintings. According to my understanding, there are fewer people who can really afford or consume oil painting art than those who really paint oil painting. An immature trading market must have its abnormal market rules. Have you noticed that sky-high prices have appeared in an auction in the art market? All the contracted artists' exhibitions in a gallery have been sold, and there have been four kings, the Songzhuang painter's standard cultural and creative industrial park after 70' s, 80' s and even 90' s, and the Beijing 798 Gallery Art Zone has been promoted in Shanghai, Guangzhou and even the whole country, which has been fueled by the media. An event that was originally an individual phenomenon has just evolved into a new national artistic and cultural industry revolution. If this revolution can really drive or activate the consumption of China art, it will be a blessing for the oil painting circle. At least this year, there are a large number of children studying painting and art all over the country, and they will work by painting for a living in the future, and they are also quite good freelancers. However, this congenitally deficient industry has started to be severely weak and the market has collapsed. According to marketing theory, it lacks mass base. Undeniably, the people of China have become rich in recent years, and the country has been able to stand up. It is hard to find a continuous GDP growth of 8% in the world. Economic growth has gone up, so has the loss of environmental protection, energy conservation and emission reduction, and the fine traditions of China, such as morality and ethics. It may not take a generation to solve the problem of existence, but it takes more time to sublimate the value of life than to establish the value of existence. Back to the phenomenon of art circle, when people have money to buy a house that doesn't necessarily belong to them, they will struggle desperately and spend tens or even hundreds of thousands to buy an oil painting to hang on the wall. This essential change from material consumption to spiritual consumption is unrealistic without ten or twenty years.
Facing the present situation, as a painter, how to recognize the form, when it comes to this, we have to think about the law of the American art market that I told Cai Chufu, an American Chinese professional oil painter.
According to Cai Lao, the American oil painting market can be roughly divided into five levels, which are very regular, mutually influential, mutually restrictive and non-intrusive.
The first category is line drawings bought by street stalls, which are equivalent to decorative handicrafts. The market is huge. Many Americans rent houses. Every time they move to a new house, they hang oil paintings in the living room, bedroom and bathroom. Usually it will be replaced in a year or so, and it will not be seen for the longest three years. This kind of oil painting mainly imitates the world famous paintings, and the price is not high. This kind of works accounts for about 60% of the total market. Most of these painters are amateur painters or export paintings made abroad, such as China.
The second category is the original oil paintings sold by small and medium-sized galleries. These galleries won't be famous, but the paintings are not bad. They will sign contracts with local professional painters to cooperate in the form of annual salary or agency sales. The selling price is several times higher than that of line drawing. This kind of works accounts for about 20% of the total market. The main consumers are senior white-collar workers and lawyers. They often visit a gallery and buy the works of their favorite artists for a long time. Painters who specialize in painting for this kind of gallery all take painting as their profession. Most of them are good at painting according to the preferences of gallery guests, and their prices and sales are relatively stable. They won't change much for more than ten years, and their income is naturally stable for no special reason.
The third category is some galleries with a certain brand and reputation. Most of the painters they represent have a certain reputation, or they have a certain academic style. This kind of gallery often invites some professional curators to hold various exhibitions for the artists they have signed, and do various media publicity for them to edit and edit art reviews. This kind of customers are often mature oil painting collectors, and they often appear at auctions to buy them. This kind of works accounts for about 65,438+00% of the total oil painting market in the United States. It can be said that these three types of characteristic painters are based on market demand and paint according to customers' needs, but the levels and prices are different.
The fourth category is oil paintings left over from American tradition. Some families collect works left over by generations, which are exchanged in the market with various stories. Many of them are the world famous paintings, and their stories and collectors' stories are increasing. These works are definitely a powerful manifestation of collectors' wealth. The number of such works may account for less than 10% of the total, but their value often accounts for more than 50% of the total sales.
The other category is different from the previous category. Artists sponsored by various folk art funds or government art funds often find it difficult to get their works accepted by the public, and it is also difficult for collectors to pay the bill. They are prospective and experimental. They will write an application plan before each large-scale creation, and these artists can only seek government funding to paint.
As far as American oil painting market share is concerned, China has a different system from the beginning. Living painters with high turnover who are active in the auction market are mainly monopolized by professors from various fine arts institutes and so-called artists in the institutions such as the Fine Arts Association and the Painting Academy. Although China's economy has changed from a planned economy to a market economy, the oil painting industry system in China's art world still stays in the past. Generally, the formation of painters takes several months of college entrance examination. After several months of formulaic teaching, I was admitted to several national fine arts colleges. After four years of undergraduate study, most of them were assigned to middle schools as art teachers. If I want to continue painting, I need to go to graduate school. I am lucky to have the opportunity to stay in school after finishing my master's degree. If the teacher who painted my work is satisfied, I will have the opportunity to participate in the exhibition sponsored by the local artists association. From the municipal level to the provincial level and then to the national level, I will participate in each level three times. The artists who are responsible for the selection are mostly painters who have the right to speak in the local system. The number of winners each time is limited. Most of the winners are relatives, students or friends of these experts. After receiving these honors, you can basically get honors in the painter's resume file. After attending several exhibitions, you won't feel empty, but at this time, the works of artists with craftsmanship have not been tested by collectors. Many painters who have painted for many years have never sold their works at first, but the exhibitions selected in the system are determined by the consciousness of a few judges. From this process, there is almost no communication between the painter and the market (oil painting consumers), and a few customers who buy oil paintings can only watch the painter's resume consumption. Buyers often don't really appreciate the work and its value, but more blindly take investment as the main purpose, and finally have to flinch from oil painting because it is difficult to realize it.
As an imported art, oil painting has a history of nearly a hundred years in China, and its unique Chinese charm has been formed through the efforts of several generations. However, due to historical reasons, the use of politics, and the use of art speculators, professional painters seldom have the consciousness of serving the public in China.