31|Zhejiang News Client|Reporter Yu Jiji Photography Wei Zhiyang Boxwood carving is a traditional folk craft category in Zhejiang. Together with Qingtian stone carving and Dongyang wood carving, it is also known as the "Three Carvings of Zhejiang".

2018-05-12 07:31 | Zhejiang News Client | Reporter Yu Jiji Photography Wei Zhiyang

Boxwood carving is a traditional folk craft category in Zhejiang. Together with Qingtian stone carving and Dongyang wood carving, it is also known as the "Three Carvings of Zhejiang". Gao Min is one of the best.

html On May 11, “Building Dreams with Wood·Gao Min’s Boxwood Carving Art Exhibition” opened in the temporary exhibition hall on the second floor of the Zhejiang Provincial Museum, focusing on the boxwood carving works of various styles and categories created by Gao Min, a master of arts and crafts in Zhejiang Province over the past 30 years83 The pieces show in detail the different characteristics of Gao Min's artistic creation in different periods.

30 years is a long time, and it is long enough to do many things.

30 is a very short year, so short that people can only focus on one thing.

Gao Min

No matter how the years change, Gao Min has always been obsessed with carving and worked intensively in the field of boxwood carving. Through his own artistic expression, he combines the persistence and evolution of art at the same time, thus taking an alternative path from his predecessors.

The son of a master, happiness and joy under the halo

Gao Min was born in an artistic family. His father is Gao Gongbo, a master of crafts in the Asia-Pacific region and a master of Chinese arts and crafts. Gao Min. As an epoch-making artist in the history of boxwood carving, Gao Gongbo has been engaged in the creation and research of boxwood carving and tree root carving for more than 40 years. With more than 40 years of carving, he is unique in the arts and crafts world: he not only pioneered the new boxwood carving method of "split carving" Gao Gongbo's boxwood carving works have won many major awards over the years, and because of his outstanding artistic achievements, he was approved by the State Council to enjoy special government subsidies. It can be said that whether in Wenzhou, Zhejiang or even the whole country, Gao Gongbo is a well-known artist with a colorful aura.

's work "Dancing to Clear Shadows"

may be due to the artistic gene flowing in the blood, or it may be that he has been around his father since he was a child. His high-sensitivity blood is destined to have an indissoluble bond with boxwood carving, and he is born to inherit it. His special interest and talent in plastic arts. As a child, he was lively and energetic, and loved painting and clay sculptures. When he was in junior high school, Gao Min became interested in boxwood carving. At that time, my father was the workshop director of the boxwood carving workshop of Yueqing Special Art Carving Factory. He felt that his father was very majestic and it was fun for the workers to carve left and right pieces of boxwood, so he often ran there after school in the afternoon. Watching them carving, sometimes even forgetting to go home for dinner, he was deeply attracted by the unique carving art of boxwood carving. At the age of 15, he picked up a carving knife for the first time...

In 1986, Gao Min graduated from junior high school. Under the influence of regional culture and family atmosphere, he gave up his studies and began to formally learn boxwood carving. Gao Min is a perseverant person. He believes that as long as he works hard, there is nothing he can't do. In our imagination, learning a skill is very difficult. However, Gao Min said that life was quite easy when he first learned boxwood carving: "During the two years when I started learning, my life was very regular, although monotonous. , it’s not boring at all. I always paint alone in the morning, touch human bodies at noon, and do clay sculptures in the evening. I used to like watching TV and movies, but since I learned wood carving, I deeply feel the breadth and depth of this art. There is no end to learning, so I arranged my time in an orderly manner, except for watching movies once at the end of each month. This became a rare 'entertainment' activity for me at that time. "With hard work and understanding, his first work was in the works. It was born in a month, and the joy was accompanied by hardships, which others cannot understand.

's work "Ice and Snow"

My father is great, and the sky for artistic creation is too broad. Maybe my father feels that Gao Min needs some other nutrients. In 1988, Gao Min went to the Zhejiang Institute of Arts and Crafts for a year of training. There, he received expert guidance and his skills improved greatly. After returning, he began to create some abstract things. While inheriting the essence of boxwood carving art, he is also constantly exploring the path of innovation. In 1991, his root carving "Fisher Girl" won an award at the China Root Art Exhibition.It was this work that gave him new thinking about his life path - Gao Min wanted to break out of the worldly barriers and enjoy his imagination. However, in the late 1980s, Yueqing's low-voltage electrical appliance industry began to rise. The huge gap between "making money by machine" and "making money by hand" has begun to show up. The living environment of handicrafts has undergone fundamental changes, and many craftsmen engaged in the arts and crafts industry have moved to the electrical appliance industry.

Faced with all these changes, as the successor of boxwood carving, Gao Min cannot do without his thinking. Has boxwood carving reached its peak? How will the future develop? What impact will the market economy have on this traditional handicraft? A sense of responsibility and mission drives him, making him feel the weight of the burden on his shoulders; at the same time, as his wood carving skills improve and his work creation deepens, Gao Min increasingly feels that self-development requires cultural support, creation and imagination. Your performance requires cultural support, and you need to recharge. As Gao Min himself said: "As long as you want to do it, there is nothing you can't do." In 1994, Gao Min was successfully admitted to the sculpture junior college class of China Academy of Art. During his studies, he worked very hard, got good grades, and was still the class president. His graduation work "Evening Breeze", through appropriately exaggerating the bodies of three women and using rounded lines, outlines the softness of women. His solid skills and spirit of hard work have been highly recognized by experts and professors.

God rewards hard work, hard work and courage promote transformation. The beauty of traditional boxwood carvings is only reflected in its smoothness and fine texture. As for the split carving works of my father Gao Gongbo, not only the external aspects of the tree stems, branches, knots and even the bark are spared, but also the internal beauty of texture, texture and rhythm are fully explored and utilized, turning stone into gold through the Midas touch. Using his unique techniques, he transforms "ugliness" into beauty, turns decay into magic, and turns every "waste" into a vibrant symbol of life.

's work "The Story of Spring"

In Gao Min's words: "My father is a very talented person, and he is my role model." Gao Min is happy to have such a father who needs to look up to, who can inspire and spur him; in artistic creation Shang Gao Min and his father took two completely different paths. He is good at children's and female-themed creations. In the eyes of others, being the son of Master Gao is lucky. However, under the light of the father, the son feels uneasy: in the eyes of others, if the son does well, he gets the glory of his father to some extent, but if he does poorly, he is worthless. Therefore, he understands that it is difficult for a new star to shine under his father's dazzling halo. His artistic career has just begun. If he wants to make a difference, he will naturally have to endure many twists and turns and hardships. He wants to use his works to prove his strength and use his own efforts to get out of his father's dazzling halo.

In the eyes of his father, Gao Min has grown up and matured, and has his own opinions and judgments. There are more and more opportunities for father and son to learn from each other together. Facing his father, who is a "master of Chinese arts and crafts", he would sometimes "talk nonsense" and point out and make random comments about his father's works, but his father would also think carefully about whether to adopt them. Master Gao Gongbo has made many achievements, but when we asked him which work he was most satisfied with over the years, Master Gao replied without hesitation: "It's his son Gao Min." After more than 20 years of down-to-earth work, Gao Min has gained a lot of experience. Harvest: The work "Competition" was selected into the 5th National Sports Art Exhibition, which was the first time in the history of boxwood sculptures to be selected into a national authoritative art exhibition; 22 works including "Good Grandpa" won gold, silver and bronze awards in international and national exhibitions; 23 works including "Songs in the Heart" won gold and silver awards in provincial exhibitions; the work "Whispering Sounds" won the "Tiangong Quality Award" at the first Zhejiang National Folk Arts and Crafts Expo; "Enter Ding Yunlin" won the "Tiangong Quality Award" "Commemorating the 20th Anniversary of Chinese Root Art and the Exhibition of Chinese Root and Stone Art" won the gold medal of the "Liu Kaiqu Root Art Award". His works have also been collected by more than ten countries including France, Japan, and Canada.

's work "Young Childlike Heart"

After more than 20 years of hard work, Gao Min has won many awards - the fifth Zhejiang Province Communist Youth League Spiritual Civilization Construction "Five One Project" selection of new cultural talents, the third level of Zhejiang Province's "New Century 151 Talent Project" Training personnel,

Wenzhou New Century 551 Talent Project training candidate, Wenzhou City's top ten young folk artists, Wenzhou City's outstanding young arts and crafts artists, Yueqing City 's third round of outstanding young professional talents, Yueqing City's top ten young sculptors , and other titles and honors came one after another. Through unremitting efforts, as a young artist, he finally bravely stepped out of the halo, and as a new star, he has begun to shine.

Creative carving, opening up a new field of boxwood carving

From October 2009 to June 2010, Gao Min’s boxwood carving work "Hide and Seek" won the gold medal in the "10th China Arts and Crafts Masters Works Exhibition", and "Laozi Leaving Seclusion" won the third place It won the gold medal at the 2nd China Zhejiang Arts and Crafts Expo, "The Flowers Shy at the Moon" won the gold medal at the 5th China (Putian) Strait Arts and Crafts Expo, and "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea" won the gold medal at the "Hundred Flowers Award", the highest award for Chinese arts and crafts in 2010. In just a few months, a series of national-level gold medals, and the sensitivity of more than 20 years of hard training in artistic creation, research and exploration of new boxwood carving "creative carving" techniques, have finally received the rewards and recognition they deserve.

The work "Hide and Seek"

The inspiration for the "Creative Sculpture" of boxwood carving was highlighted. Gao Min recalled that at the "First China·Zhejiang Arts and Crafts Expo", although his work "Fairy Child Playing with Gourd" won the gold medal, the work's There is no particularly obvious style or innovation in creativity and technique, and many masters immediately gave enthusiastic guidance. After returning from the exhibition, he began to sit back and meditate, re-examining the more than 300 works he had studied and created over the past 20 years. When I look at each piece of work, I feel as if I am reminiscing about each creative thought step by step; the birth of each piece of work not only contains my hard work, but also the crystallization of my wisdom, and accommodates the times. The joy after completing the work. Suddenly, a piece of tree root appeared in my mind, and all the works and contents of my imagination were integrated into this piece of tree root. inspiration! Is it inspiration? That is, on the block-shaped boxwood, it reflects a variety of carving languages ​​and shows a new artistic creation style. It mainly uses Yueqing boxwood carving carving techniques, and combines the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage masterpieces "Zhejiang Three Carvings" (Yueqing Boxwood Carving) Wouldn't it be more artistic value to integrate the most typical techniques of wood carving, Dongyang wood carving, and Qingtian stone carving into your own creative art works?

The emergence of inspiration and the opening of ideas gave him infinite motivation. He pondered the similarities and differences between boxwood carvings, Dongyang wood carvings and Qingtian stone carvings, and explored the commonalities and feasibility of merging their skills: how to create a limited world with limited resources. On the materials, create unlimited artistic space, use a variety of craft techniques, integrate a variety of techniques, and express the highest artistic realm of form beauty, material beauty, and craft beauty?

The famous art master Mr. Pan Tianshou once said: "The permanence of art originates from the permanence of the human heart; the change of art originates from the change of the human heart. The constant must be constant, and the change cannot be changed. This is consciousness. Constant. The way to change is ultimately natural. "Innovation, change, and intention are the pursuit of new artistic thinking. After understanding the essence of the "Zhejiang Three Sculptures" creative techniques and more than 20 years of creative experience, the first " "Creative Sculpture"'s experimental work - "Hide and Seek" came out. In this work, Gao Min used the natural shape of boxwood roots and turned the bottom of the tree root upside down. In the middle of the tree root, a blindfolded child playing hide and seek was used as the theme of the work. He painted it carefully and used density in other parts. The relationship, the relationship between front and back, the relationship between far and near, the relationship between primary and secondary, carve out the interest of children of different shapes playing hide and seek, using the high relief carving technique of Dongyang wood carving, the open carving of Qingtian stone carving, and the fine carving of figures of boxwood carving, making the "Zhejiang Three Carvings" technique The incisiveness of the painting is put to good use on the roots of the boxwood tree. Eight different dynamic, naive and cute children play in the static tree roots to create a naughty, lively, cute and innocent world.After the work was completed, it participated in the "Zhejiang Three Sculptures" Youth Outstanding Works Exhibition held in Dongyang. Chinese arts and crafts masters Lu Guangzheng and Feng Wentu fully affirmed the creativity of the work and said that it was as good as previous boxwood carvings. The form and style are different and worthy of further study.

's work "Whispers Softly"

Master's encouragement and praise further confirmed the goal of his creative research. Therefore, the unique image of another natural boxwood tree brought Gao Min's artistic reverie. Among the roots of a thousand-year-old boxwood tree that resembles Da Ruyi, he applied the traditional theme of the legendary "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea". On the tree roots, the Eight Immortals are boating and roaming on the vast sea, accompanied by wind and waves, chatting and laughing in the wind, and playing flute songs. Accompany. Using potential to create shapes and shapes to capture spirit, their individual personalities, dynamics and expressions are highlighted. The revelation of natural texture makes people feel friendly and trustworthy, and at the same time feel happy and harmonious, as if they are immersed in the scene. When making full use of various carving techniques, the work strives to be 30% artificial and 70% natural. Emphasis is placed on density and density, stillness in movement, and both retraction and relaxation. It not only reflects the charm of various traditional techniques, but also derives interesting artistic effects from winning more with less.

's desire to create becomes more and more comfortable as his works become more successful. Then, in the root of an old boxwood tree that has been growing for nearly 800 years, he took advantage of the unique shape of the material and the concave and convex layout, and boldly used the round carving techniques of Yueqing boxwood carving, the relief carving of Dongyang wood carving, and the hollowing of Qingtian stone carving. The carving techniques are cleverly integrated, taking their most incisive charms and knife skills to infiltrate the concept of imagery into the concrete, and boldly use natural root shapes to express the mysterious deep mountains and old forests, where the steepness of the hills and the depth of the rocks are highlighted. In the middle, I am riding a bull leisurely in the breeze, coming slowly. The expression full of wisdom and open-mindedness is revealing the broad theme connotation in the rigor. The works are hidden and exposed, natural and appropriate, tightly integrating the characters with the mountains, trees and the earth. With the creation of the work "Laozi Leaving Seclusion", his sensitive feelings were closely connected with his soul. He began to pay more attention to activating the spirituality of materials with independent and individual thinking, striving to bring a strong artistic appeal. In the research of "creative sculpture" , he continued to learn and innovate, and thus developed a truly own artistic path in carrying forward traditional handicraft skills.

Passionate about traditional culture and a cultural and creative ambassador

Influenced by his father, Gao Min fell in love with wood carving since he was a child, and later was admitted to the Sculpture Department of the China Academy of Art. He is quite accomplished in infusing modern academic elements into traditional wood carving techniques. But in recent years, Gao Min has devoted a lot of energy to promoting the development of local arts and crafts in Yueqing, because he also has another position - deputy director of the Intangible Culture Protection Center of the Yueqing Cultural Center.

Although his father was worried that his son would spend too much time on affairs and affect his artistic growth, Gao Min never regretted his efforts over the past few years. "Yueqing is the hometown of Chinese folk culture and art. Including boxwood carvings, fine-grained paper and other national intangible cultural heritages, there are more than 30 varieties of folk arts and crafts. The protection and organization of intangible culture has actually inspired I have a lot of inspiration. Over the past few years, I have been seriously creating four or five works every year, and everyone said that I am making progress. "

's work "Competition"

Gao Min has the same enthusiasm for traditional culture as his father. Unlike his father who has called for the establishment of a complete education system to inherit traditional arts and crafts for many years, Gao Min is committed to promoting the industrialization of Yueqing's intangible cultural heritage. "The resources of boxwood are limited, and wood carving requires a certain economic foundation. Only by taking the road of industrialization can it bring income to folk artists and fundamentally solve the problem of inheritance." With Gao Min's efforts and promotion, Yueqing's Folk craftsmen began to actively participate in cultural expos in various places to expand their popularity and accept orders. The previous phenomenon of shutting the door and concentrating solely on craftsmanship, without paying attention to whether the work conforms to market trends, has changed. Nowadays, Yueqing boxwood carvings always appear in large-scale exhibitions with a unified brand image.

inheritance is not about simply taking over the baton from the predecessors, but more about innovating and developing this skill. Since 2014, Gao Min has spent more time on teaching. Yueqing Vocational Secondary School established a boxwood carving major. Gao Min was hired by the school as the art director of the boxwood carving major and taught students on a voluntary basis.

Work "Howling Horses Chasing the Wind"

"Over the past few years, the number of students majoring in boxwood carving has grown from more than 10 at the beginning to more than 240 now." More and more students love boxwood carving, which makes Gao Min Deeply gratified. Nowadays, the boxwood carving major has been rated as the advantageous and characteristic major in Zhejiang Province.

Gao Min said that creation requires personality, but inheritance requires patience. No matter how difficult the road ahead is, he will stick to his original goal and move forward firmly.

It is reported that this art exhibition is the second exhibition of the "Zhejiang Province Arts and Crafts Series Special Exhibition" launched by the Zhejiang Provincial Museum. The exhibition will last until June 24th.