Cao Xiwa: (4) Talking about Master Shi Tongjin’s contemporary Zen art from Muxi and Kierkegaard

Zen brushes——

Talking about the contemporary Zen art of Master Tongjin from Muxi and Kierkegaard

(series 4)

Wen Cao Xiwa _p9span 4 _p9span 4 _p9span 4 _strong10span

Master Tongjin, as a contemporary new Zen art leader, an independent individual of modern people, deserves more cultural attention. As a modern practitioner’s established personality, he endows a contemporary artist with the deity of freedom. The gentle blending of these two identities does not necessarily produce a kind of marginal, disadvantaged, and non-mainstream person, but the reality is often complicated and non-linear. It’s actually difficult to be an independent individual in modern society. This is an era of big data. If you don’t pay attention, you will be classified into a group. Master Tongjin tries to be an independent self. For this reason, he has used many names, like Those names are his unfathomable mountains. In fact, a layman has only a few ink spots, stains, or bright spots in his entire life, and he is always poked in his back. The big mountains accidentally render a vast ocean, turning over this mountain, this sea of ​​bitterness, and rushing towards it. That hopes beyond.

Zen Master Tongjin Master

Due to many historical and realistic reasons, the Chinese art circle has formed a strange circle, starting with the 9 major art academies and the national beauty As the end point, the association naturally forms a realistic thread, stringing news, publishing, universities, research institutions, art galleries, galleries, and auction companies, accumulating into the so-called vested interest group of the art industry, which is apparently official and within the system. And the solidification of the mixture has become an interest class in the art industry. For an ordinary art practitioner, it is almost impossible to break this iron net.

Muxi works (this bird, leaf,The wonderful thing is that there is no technical content. If you want to join the master’s landscape, you can’t just poke a little bit)

As a Zen master, painter, and a contemporary artist, Shi Tongjin is a Zen master, a painter, and a contemporary artist. The so-called nine art academies in the art world are naturally non-mainstream. In theory, it is difficult for non-mainstream players to leave the circle, because entering the circle is impossible in the first place. Obviously, there is also an invisible social inequality problem. No one pays attention or everyone does not say it does not mean that there are no victims. Many people have felt this invisible pressure for a long time. Of course, many people are forced to survive the actual needs and choose to break their heads in that interest unprincipledly. Online fly camp and gougou drill camp. On the other hand, Shi Tongjin chose not to enter the circle. He engaged in his own art independently outside the so-called core circle. More precisely, he imitated Muxi. In the end, he chose to be a true Zen. For a pure Zen man, this is also in line with the trend of self-media and non-centeredness in the Internet era.

Tongjin Master's works

Modern society is an open Internet society. Various cultures exist on the Internet in the form of groups and self-media, but most people are becoming more and more. The more you know that it is molecularized and superficial, and that Zen culture and Zen art have gained relative acceptance in society, what is the essence of Zen, Zen culture, and Zen art? It is precisely because of this that modern Zen masters and Master Tongjin’s contemporary new Zen art practice has practical significance. This may be different from Muxi’s social conditions at the time, but it is somewhat the same as Kierkegaard’s situation. They both Only by demanding the truth of independent individual existence and being more truthful with oneself, did Tongjin Master’s path of meditation and pursuit of art stand out. He did not abuse the freedom given to him by the times, and made his contemporary art not only art, but It is an act of nirvana that transcends the Zen-Buddhaization of contemporary art.

Master Tongjin works

Shi Tongjin is a sensitive contemporary enlightened person,He has a self-consciousness to win himself. He pays attention to Muxi's art. With Muxi as his spiritual mentor, he seeks the roots of his art history. "Sit in the clouds, and his self-nature in the lotus pond" (Shi Tongjin Zen poems), he just wants to learn Muxi art and the spirit of Muxi, especially to climb the peak of art like Muxi, and let art consciously unblock reality and reality. The historical path of meditation. In history, there are not only the painting monk Muxi, but also the philosopher Kierkegaard. There are many hermits with different reasons, and the hermits each have their own choices. Kierkegaard finally chose to refuse to socialize, make friends, and not find a job. Of course, he inherited a huge inheritance. Otherwise, he would not have the conditions to concentrate on writing. At the beginning, his writings were not very popular. It is published at its own expense. How easy is it to be a marginalized person with a sense of responsibility and a non-mainstream person? He kept reflecting on himself. However, his thought eventually became one of the theoretical basis of modern existentialism, and was respected as the father of existentialism by later generations. His cultural responsibility was indeed seen and inherited by future generations. Shi Tongjin also chose one of his cultural responsibilities. There is his Buddha and self in meditation and Zen art... As Kierkegaard said: "When we choose, we are molded into a person." .

Tongjin Master's works

Just as the power of coaxing was proposed in the context of the Internet axis, it was designed to solve the problem of the right to speak of the weak at the bottom, which is based on authority or authoritarianism. opponent. In general, the weak at the bottom are always despised by authorities and authoritarians. They are only used to make fun of them. Fortunately, there is now the Internet. Because of this "general problem", there is this universal phenomenon that Internet philosophers are concerned about. Contemporary art chooses to intervene in reality. The critic Li Xianting once said: "The important thing is not art." The problem of art is often not art. When evaluating Shi Tongjin's art, he can't just focus on his art. If he only focuses on art, he might not need to recite Amitabha every day. After Li Xianting finished saying "The important thing is not art", what is the key to art? I'm afraid that's how art can booze, then artfully booze... Buddhism also booze? There was Muxi in ancient times, and Bangyao today. The Buddha said: All Dharma is Dharma.

Tongjin Master's works

It is said thatCats are cursed because of their disrespect to the Buddha, and they suffer from the constant reincarnation of cats and mice. Before the Tang Dynasty, there were no cats in China. Later, because of the introduction of tribute to China, after Wu Zetian ascended the throne, it was strictly forbidden to raise cats. In fact, this is a story about freedom in the East, which is similar to Kierkegaard's sacrifice, except that it is "sacrificed", but to be rescued, the cat needs to cultivate himself. There is a cat in the paintings of the same master from time to time, that is, the cat who is practicing, the sentient beings, or ourselves who have been sinful. The free body must redeem, give up, and receive.

Luoyang Longmen Giant Buddha, this Rusanna Buddha is based on Wu Zhao himself, and Rusana refers to the Buddha.

One day, when talking about Master Shi Tongjin’s art, no one asks who Master Shi Tongjin is? I no longer care about who his teacher or master is, which art school he graduated from, whether he is a member of the Art Association, and whether he has any status as a leader. I no longer ask him what the market price of a one-square-foot painting is, just look at that time. What is the unique artistic language and spiritual method of his paintings? I only like the painting of Master Tong Jin. I just like it. Besides, it has nothing to do with art. At that time, in that realm, art returned to the standard of art. Artists and critics and collectors were just a pure relationship between commenting or collecting, or other relationships were the ring of artists. The art of taking precepts has an eternal golden body. Zen, Buddhism and all dharma are in fact the same way as art, and the avenues are nirvana and silence.

August 21-24, 2021 in Beijing Crescent Palace

August 31-September 19 revised in Crescent Palace