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俯瞰克拉玛依大地的鸿雁
A Wild Goose Overlooking the Land of Karamay
In my hometown, Karamay, Xinjiang, where the Wuer River has the world-famous “Devil City” and the desert populus euphratica, it is a mysterious space, like a heavy metal modern symphony, telling an earth-shattering tale of ancient and modern times, where this tribe descended from the Mongolian Hulbat. It is also a Mongolian warrior tribe who fought all the way back to the motherland – and yet, I am particularly mentioning is the initiative of Mr. Yang Xiaoyang, president of China National Academy of Painting. Under the leadership of the “Belt and Road National Art Project,” the world’s artists are firmly linked together. Mr. Yang Xiaoyang’s so called “freehand brushwork” art — it is bound to have a profound impact on the world of art, both now and in the future.
Moreover, once again, Chinese artists and American artists are still grateful for the diversity of their cultures. In my hometown, Karamay, Xinjiang, along the riverbanks of the Wuer River, there is the world-famous “Devil’s City” and the self-improvement desert poplar, where the drill tower and the poplar are intertwined, and the intersection is lined with brilliance, which is really a mysterious space, like a modern symphony of heavy metal. It seemed to me this mysterious place always tells the earth-shattering story of ancient and modern times, where a tribe of descendants of the Mongol Huerbats lived, and it was also the Mongol warrior tribe that returned to the motherland all the way back to fight for the motherland.
Fortunately, the “May Sino-US International Art Festival” — which was jointly organized by the Karamay government, the National Academy of Painting of China, and the American Artists Association once again presented this mysterious “holy place” to the world. When Mr. Yang Xiaoyang, the president of the Chinese National Painting, wrote four powerful words “Desert Hero” on this land, Chinese and American artists began a desert sketching journey that they had never had in their lives.
They came from Yale University, Princeton University, Columbia University, Brown University, Rhode Island College of Art, The Academy of Fine Arts of Chicago, Maryland’s School of Art, New York College of Art, Pace University School of Art, National Academy of Art and Design, New Jersey Sculpture Park and other first-class artists in the United States and famous Chinese artists all over from China. There is no doubt in my mind that this is an honor for the city of Karamay and artists, and this “honor” is like a wild goose overlooking Karamay, spanning time and space, forever twinkling.
When the artists walked into the yurt, they were attracted by the strong and powerful dance posture of the Mongolian dancers who sang and danced with hada, and a passionate accordion played a song “HongYan (Wild Goose)” with the warmest passion of the steppe, along with the sound of the Mongolian youth affectionately storming with emotion, which made me tear up, where in the United States artists have experienced such an emotional storm. Can’t help but dance into the dancing floors and become a “Mongolian warrior”.
I appreciated Mongolian dance because it is so closely integrated with the art of painting. This body language and painting language — are combined into a movement and trembling, and this movement is continuous, and this sense of movement in painting is determined by the direction of color and line, the combination of all of art forms.
Definitely, we often say to look for a sense of form into the painting, and this sense of form also reflects the decorative characteristics of painting. In my oil painting “Impressions of the Return of China – Mongolia to the East”, it is my hometown Karamay that gives me a lot of inspiration.
My hometown Karamay also reminds me of my childhood, my life as a teenager, my father, a veteran military doctor of the Chinese Anti-Japanese War Army, a respected surgeon and obstetrics and gynecology doctor, saved lives and helped the injured. In Karamay, my father’s patients included many nationalities, such as Han Chinese, Mongolians, and Hasaks, and Karamay is a multi-ethnic family. In my memory, my father worked day and night. My mother worked day and night, and in addition to work, she had to pay more attention to the four children. I remember that family with their characteristic enthusiasm, and they often traveled long distances in the vast snow fields in the winter, and sometimes they did not even have to get off their horses when they came to my house, and they threw sacks containing gifts. Then the snow disappeared without a trace…… my father’s patients and friends had sent our family all kinds of wild animals, there were wild boars, there were wild geese, and what impressed me the most was the wild goose with beautiful feathers, and it was this kind of wild goose that helped us in those three years of natural disasters, so that my sister named her daughter Hongyan (wild goose).
The Mongols praise the wild goose because the wild goose symbolizes the messenger of emotions and the spirit of perseverance, the Mongolian long tune is a chant to the heavens, and the hongyan is the elf who can listen to the Mongolian long tune, and the moving and hoarse voice wild goose echoes in the poplar forest of the Karamay Grand Canyon.
I remembered that in May of that year, Chinese and American artists really experienced the Mongolian bonfire party in the “Devil’s City”, the red mountain peak was engraved in the deep blue sky, and the Mongolian costume dance steps made us feel the Chinese nation again and again as a great multi-ethnic community, and the multi-ethnic cultural integration also made our national culture radiate a different brilliance.
I also remembered my father often mentioned my grandfather, a kind old man who is good at helping others, the strange thing is that he is actually a red hair. People outside the township call him “Mr. Red Hair”, my father fondly recalled that it was the “Red Hair” old man with a strong body, in Yangluo district of the city of Wuhan carrying water to send to thousands of households, supporting the family. Additionally my grandfather also helped my father, third son, also the only child to finish private school. The father’s good hand made me marvel…
Today, it seems that the “desert hero” really portrays the true connotation of the beautiful city of Karamay, and in my long volume of the oil painting “Karamay People”, I made for the Karamay Art Museum, I also tried my best to reveal the lofty position of the “desert hero” in my heart, my fathers dedicated their lives to the petroleum workers in northwestern desert of China. In that part of China, the bold words of “where there is oil is my home” also took root in the hearts of our second generation of oil people, even if I am far away from the United States, separated with the thousands of mountains and rivers of Karamay, I will never forget the home in my heart, and the relatives in my hometown make me unforgettable, because there are too many unforgettable stories there.
Karamay’s culture is very diverse and rich, and there are many outstanding artists, all of whom enthusiastically express the good life with their paint brushes. Karamay artists are persistent and focused, and they don’t have to look ahead for life. They are all professional art creators, and the creative studio provided by the government has made American artists envious, and here I am also especially grateful to this land that nurtured me, and also to my enlightenment teachers Mr. Xu Liang and Mr. Zhou Jian, who are still tireless in their creation and hard work and have achieved remarkable achievements. I would also like to give special thanks to the Karamay city leaders, and to my friends, family who have always supported me. They gave me so much support and confidence.
The responsibility of art is not only to depict the reality of natural existence, also, what is important is the conviction of faith and the exploration and innovation of the multiple possibilities that contribute to this conviction, which reminds me of my graduate supervisor, Professor of Oil Painting at the Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts, Mr. Kan Beixin corrected one of the views when he was guiding me in the graduate students, and he said, “You should change the creation of beautiful forms to the discovery of beautiful forms.”
Today I am extremely grateful for Mr. Beixin’s guidance and teaching, which is a kind of broad mind of a great artist and the tolerance and humility of Chinese culture. Each artist of different eras holds the aesthetic consciousness of different eras, the Chinese culture of five thousand years has an incomparable spirit of tolerance, which avoids a kind of “clarity” that is really no longer the surface of a thing that actually exists, but arises from the interconnection and movement inherent in this ideal thing.
Today Karamay has become a pearl in the desert, shining and shining. The entrepreneurial spirit of our fathers will always be the source of inspiration for us to forge ahead, and this spirit has also become sunshine and air and has accompanied us forever…
Thanks!
Zhou Yong | May, 2022