Ren Jianguo's ink painting ＂Mountain City Twilight＂ was sold for 3.105 million yuan in 2022 Yongle Spring Auction

 Auction Information     |      未知    |    2023-06-17 17:16
For the Chinese art community, Ren Jianguo is a name that is both unfamiliar and familiar. Strange is that friends who have entered the art circle since the 1990s can only vaguely hear the stories and legends of this alumnus from the older generation of artists and professors of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. He has shown his head in the painting world since he was in his twenties. He has a strong painting ability, and has his own unique understanding of Chinese painting and modern consciousness of picture composition. In particular, in 1987, he crossed the ocean to open his own legendary life, Since then, the art world can only occasionally hear mysterious information about him through gatherings of some elderly people in the art academy. He is very prominent among the painters of the "post-50s" generation. Since the early 1980s, he has become a member of the China Artists Association, the Beijing Artists Association, and the Beijing Fine Brush Heavy Color Painting Association. These titles had very hard academic content in that era, especially for a young painter in his early 20s, which almost won the top prize. In 1985, the fifth issue of China's most authoritative "Fine Arts" magazine published a column introducing Ren Jianguo's creations and artistic achievements; His works have been published many times in the Academy Journal of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, an authoritative academic magazine. In the 1980s, Ren Jianguo participated in the "Sixth National Art Exhibition" in 1984, the highest standard at that time, and in 1985, he participated in the famous "Chinese Youth in Progress" exhibition in the exhibition history. Two groups of ink and wash works were permanently collected by the National Art Museum of China, the highest hall of Chinese art. It can be said that before taking office as a young painter in 1987, he achieved all the achievements and honors that could be obtained as a young painter.

Ren Jianguo's "The Restaurant We Open"
eighty-two × 82cm silk fine brushstroke heavy color 1985
Collection of Chinese Art Museum
 
Ren Jianguo's "Nine Elders Planting Bud Grains"
18.8cm x 15.5cm silk fine brushstroke heavy color 1984
Collection of Chinese Art Museum

Ren Jianguo's legendary life has endowed him with rich life experiences and cultural insights. He has a strong interest in traditional culture, a deep and complete collection system for antiques, and decades of experience in playing with and researching them. This has given him a direct experience of "antiquity", and his spiritual world is also deeply influenced by ancient artifacts. He combines collectors and painters, laying the foundation for Ren Jianguo's artistic creation with a sense of antiquity. In the past decade, Ren Jianguo has shifted from modern meticulous writing in his youth to a "new freehand style" that combines "abstraction" and "expressiveness". The so-called "new freehand brushwork" originates from the "freehand brushwork concept" of ancient Chinese "literati painting", which emphasizes brushwork and the painter's spiritual freedom, and has a "scholar style". On the other hand, it is not limited by conventions and incorporates various new painting methods that are consistent with the painter's temperament. In the past decade since the founding of the People's Republic of China, Ren's new works have formed a distinct feature of "ancient meaning and modern charm", showcasing vitality on the basis of tradition, creating a unique and innovative approach.
 
Ren Jianguo's "Winter Goes and Spring Comes Again"
one hundred and twenty-three × 234cm Paper Color 2016
 
Ren Jianguo's "The West Wind Rises in the Light Boat Valley"
sixty-eight × 137cm Paper Color 2021

At the just passed 2022 Yongle Spring Auction, Ren Jianguo's work "Mountain City Twilight", written in the summer of Bingshen year (2016), sold for 3.15 million yuan, attracting attention and praise in the collection industry. The Twilight in the Mountain City "is one of the outstanding works in the modern freehand brushwork series created by Ren Jianguo in the past decade, which emphasizes the" traditionalism "of spirit and ink, image and artistic conception. The work is a landscape painting created by an artist who went to Xiangxi to sketch in 2014 and was inspired by the impression of the mountain city. In order to create this magnificent landscape work, Ren Jianguo has completed many exquisite sketches in the local area, carefully observed the topography and structural characteristics of the local mountains, the echo relationship between the pedestrian lines formed by small bridges and pedestrians and the mountain trend, and the interaction between the pavilion and the river, cruise ships. Ren Jianguo skillfully combined these vivid on-site feelings with the natural expression of Chinese painting lines, Between the abstract formal vocabulary and the straightforward writing that lies between cursive writing, the towering grandeur of the mountains and the powerful buildings are combined to form a conceptual expression. The "cursive" feature of this painting is based on the "ancient style" of writing, and the ancient style is also used to update the system. Based on the ancient landscape artistic conception, the composition is integrated with the skeleton of modern Landscape painting. The muscles and bones are connected, and there are strokes and ink, breaking through the existing framework of landscape expression in contemporary Chinese painting. The unrestrained brushwork and free and lively brushwork condense into the "morale" of "Ren's landscape", Among them, there is a sense of the Southern Song Dynasty Zen painting and the improvisation of literati painting in the late Yuan Dynasty. The painting "Twilight in the Mountain City" reflects the smooth process of Ren Jianguo's painting language from "the pen follows the heart" and "creating the environment based on the heart" to "using the straight strokes" and "Ren Yun imaging". His brushwork is as confident as the sword dance of ancient people, playing with ink in a frenzy, forming a unique atmosphere.
 
Ren Jianguo's "Twilight in the Mountain City"
one hundred and twenty-three × 234cm Paper Color 2016
Transaction price: 3.105 million yuan
Yongle Auction 2022 Spring Auction

As Shi Tao said, "If you can't follow the law, you must follow the law". Chinese painting and ink painting need a painter's own experience, dare to affirm your own understanding, and explore the contemporary law in the certainty of knowing and doing without leakage. Ren Jianguo's Chinese painting "is both ancient and modern", integrating abstract and expressive landscapes with modern literati paintings, is detached and self consistent, and has a sense of moving from ancient times to modern times. The ups and downs of life in Sydney and Beijing, as well as the diverse cultural experiences, allow Ren Jianguo's art to be free from the interference of the mixed reality of the art world, free from formality, and explore the "Ren Law" again. As a poem inscribed in Ren Jianguo's painting states, 'Living in the wind and forest valleys for a long time, one cannot know how many autumn seasons are outside the world.' Perhaps he can embark on a different path of originality.


Ren Jianguo's Sketches
 

Ren Jianguo, a famous painter and collector, was born in February 1957 in Beijing
 
Since the early 1980s, he has been a member of China Artists Association, Beijing Artists Association, and Beijing Fine Brush Heavy Color Painting Association
 
one thousand nine hundred and seventy-seven
 
Graduated from Beijing Art School
 
one thousand nine hundred and seventy-eight
 
Admitted to Chinese painting Department of Central Academy of Fine Arts
 
one thousand nine hundred and eighty-two
 
Graduated from university and obtained the Bachelor of Arts degree issued by Central Academy of Fine Arts
 
In 1985, the fifth issue of the Fine Arts magazine published a column introducing his creations and artistic achievements
 
In 1985, he won the commendation of Beijing literature and art workers, and once worked as an art reporter and editor of Guangming Daily
 
Created and lived in Sydney and Beijing since 1987