Horse Painting of Zhenqian Guo
The Combination of Freehand Brush and Bright Colorization
By Yong Wang
The painter from Ningxia, Zhenqian Guo is famous for printmaking and granted with many prizes to the variety. He is also adept at Chinese painting especially the horse painting. According to “Xuanhe Picture Copybook”, horse takes the first place over all animals and stands for the agreeable arrangements in the universe. Zhenqian Guo was born in 1954, a year of horse and probably changed his name from Ai Guo for this end. In ancient days, horse played significant roles in commutes, battle, hunting, rite, Baltic ball game and fell into different categories according to their functions in racing, battle, royal or performance. Along the river of Chinese history, there were many horse painters emerging in one after another generation, particularly in Tang Dynasty. The most well known contemporary painter in horse painting is Beihong Xu. As far as I known, there are numerous horse painters in China who claim themselves as famous horse painters in order to take a place in the art field. In my point of view, the feature of a famous painter is about the unique character built in the artist while a famous horse painter shall have his own style in horse painting. For example, the fat horse by Gan Han, the thin horse by Beihong Xu, the white horse by Jianjun Zhan and the black horse of Haoyi Jia are distinct and different from their alike. Beihong Xu has produced a typical pattern and template of thin horse in contemporary horse painting in China. Though Zhenqian Guo doesn’t confine himself as one of the famous horse painters, I can see the unique style of his horse painting in the combination of freehand brush and bright colorization.
The combination is not only related to ink arrangement and colorizations, it also concerns the image and form in horse painting. Horse is a deified animal since the ancient China and reputed as “dragon horse” and “son of the heaven”. The painting of the animal has gone through changes and developments in their styles and conceptions along the history until today. It reflects the struggling spirit and patriotism of the artists when the functions of horse are diminishing and the implication meaning of which is tending to be emphasized. To this aspect, Zhenqian Guo pays highly attention to the implicit meaning and featured performance of horse to express his pursuit of freedom and personal emotion in the painting.
Taken the example of Zhenqian Guo’s masterpiece, “The Spirit of Helan Mountain-Dragon Horses”, he epitomized the inherent features and images of the horse, performed his imagination towards their image and reflected the vigorous and willful spirit in his mind by means of exaggeration, illusion and artistry. Since he had been visited prairie for several times and painted horse there, the creating of concrete image of horses is mighty easy and has nothing to do with challenge and his spirits. Therefore, he developed a new area for horse painting. Obviously, he is not limited to one pattern, but chooses to open the wings of brushes and let them flying freely over the paper. I had been on the site when he was painting horse. He concentrated on the major contours with a few strikes to produce a tall and fine horse, a vivid picture of swift horse as illustrated in ancient stories, having the bell-shaped eyes, sharp ears, broad nose, long hair, round hoof, flat abdomen and fat haunch. It is an overall comprehension on paper to show the intelligence, nature and wildness of horses in the distinct characters and artistic symbols. The painting is outstanding for the image and forms in the intense contrast of free brush and ink application, especially the long hair and tail across the splendid lines which is as romantic as the long hair of ancient heroes. Some art critics associated Zhenqian Guo’s long hair to his horse paintings as an evidence of his spirit. About his courtesy name of “White & Black”, it might come from the white and black printmaking in his art career. The same principle also works in his ink and washes paintings whichi renders a distinct effect in white and black. He is skillful in ink application to adjust the dark and light effect in different parts of horse, giving a picture of intelligent and flexible atmospheres with disconnected brushes and integrated images.
The second feature of Zhenqian Guo’s horse painting is the bright colorization. He brought his understanding of colorful sunshine into the process of creation, showing the beautiful sight of the horse that is coming from the nature and showering in bright sunshine. This is another example about image and form. When I was watching a video of his horse painting, the application of colorful and reckless spots really stunned me. I took a few seconds to realize that the spots are the bright colors in the mind of the artist. As he has involved in a variety of arts, Chinese painting, printmaking, oil painting, watercolor, sculpture and photography etc., he has a wide range of knowledge and vision in Chinese tradition and art. Those colorful spots scattered around is just like the bright flame illustrating the optimism in his mind. The bright and romantic color is matched with the abstract ink, making an innocent and simple air to reach the elegant realm in aesthetic. He is gaining favor in art circles as he excels among amount of horse painters and develops his own style in horse painting.
(Yong Wang, a council committee of Chinese Artists Association, a researcher and doctorial tutor of Chinese Art Research Institute.)