Chapter 1899: One-third of the crafting and seven-fold of the natural
The root art works of the Qing Dynasty, such as "Linglong Jade Unicorn", "Phoenix", etc., are even displayed in Dahai Yuyuan to this day.
These works are "30% artificial and 70% natural", showing the charm of Genyi's works at a glance.
After the reform, Genyi also reached a period of vigorous development.
Genyi's creative level has reached a new peak.
Chen Wenzhe can only learn from some modern art, but what he wants to learn is some ancient techniques.
Because there are so many modern tools that modern craftsmen can use, but only the ancients could only make them by hand.
According to archaeological discoveries, ancient people not only used wood, jade, bone, stone, shells and other objects to make decorations, but also used tree roots or bamboo roots to make decorations.
The pinnacle of root carving art must be the Ming and Qing dynasties.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, root carving techniques became more mature.
In the Ming Dynasty, there were the Jinling School represented by Pu Zhongqian, who was famous for his bamboo root carvings, and the Jiading School represented by Zhu He.
Root artists not only use wood and bamboo roots to create ornaments for people to appreciate, but they also carve furniture and other practical items with practical value.
From the "Golden Ancient Pictures", "Peach and Plum Garden Pictures", "Zhaolan Pavilion" and other paintings painted by Qiu Ying, a painter from Suzhou City in the Ming Dynasty, you can see various root carving works of art such as the tree root Taishi chair and tree root walking sticks carefully painted by the artist.
It is recorded in "Wuzazu" written by Xie Zhaozhe in the Ming Dynasty: "Wuzhong used dead wood roots as Zen chairs and built the foundation here."
This proves that the level of root art production in Wudi had already developed at that time.
The Sioux City Museum contains boxwood tables and pen holders from the early Qing Dynasty, which are root carvings created by cleverly using the shape of natural tree roots.
In the early 1900s, the Su City Cultural Management Committee collected several tree-root furniture, one of which was a tree-root chair that was a relic of Mao Pijiang, the fourth son of the late Ming Dynasty.
Mr. Gu Duhuang, a Kunqu opera expert in Shandong Province, has a "Langyu vase" in his home, which is also a fine root carving from the Ming Dynasty.
During the Republic of China, the production and production of root art gradually declined, many artists changed careers or changed careers, and the skill of root carving was on the verge of extinction.
In the late 1970s, root art revived and developed in my country, and there were many artists engaged in root art creation.
After 1980, with the development of Su style bonsai, Suzhou's "root art craze" was driven, and a group of experts and masters engaged in root art creation emerged.
Since the 1st century, in recent years, the tradition of Wu culture has been carried forward in the creation of root art, resulting in a number of root carving art works characterized by precision, detail, elegance and wonder.
For example, "Eagle's Eye Disease with Withered Grass", "Arc Shadow on Cold Pond", "Ancient Vase with Winter Plum Blossoms", "Hydrangea".
There are also some other fine works, such as "True Image", "Ascension", "Avatar", "Style", Wang Liang's "Whirling Arc Shadow", "Alone in the Cold", etc.
All of these have won national and provincial awards, and the "Chinese Sacred Root", which is a treasure in the prosperous times and was named "The No. 1 Ancient Wood" by the Chinese Academy of Forestry, has caused a repercussions in the root carving art world.
"The Sacred Root of China" is an original work by the author and is based on a native tree species that is over a thousand years old - camphor wood.
It has a diameter of 4 meters and a length of 6 meters. It is huge and weighs more than 0 tons. The texture is crisscrossed and the wood is delicate.
It exudes a refreshing fragrance, which means warding off evil spirits, longevity and good luck.
"The Sacred Root of China" is hollow inside and its structure changes like a shadow.
Since 2007, the author has carried out high-pressure washing, polishing and natural air-drying on the basis of maintaining the original shape of the work.
He looks for traces and symbols in the material structure to create, and cuts and carves the raw materials in a targeted manner.
After two years of work, this work was completed on January 1, 2009.
Visitors looking up close or standing in a tree hole will feel the vitality of nature and ancient times.
In terms of the artistic style of this work, what it pursues is not "imagery, quiet, delicate, and elegant", but rough, simple, and vigorous. It can be said to be unique in shape and surprising in creativity.
Such a work should represent the highest level of modern root carving technology.
It can be seen from this work that the creation of root art takes a long time.
From material selection, modeling, conception and production to naming, it takes a year and a half, or even longer, to complete.
The conception of root art creation must focus on protecting the natural form and natural beauty to the greatest extent.
And all traces of man-made artistic re-creation should be hidden in the beauty of nature.
When conceiving, the root material should be comprehensively observed from multiple angles, and the final shape can be finalized only after repeated attempts to figure it out.
The production of root carvings is more troublesome than stone carvings.
Compared with stone carving, wood needs to be processed.
Of course, processing wood is simpler than stone.
However, it can’t be done well without technology.
The production process of root carving can generally be divided into eight steps: degreasing, peeling and cleaning, dehydration and drying, shaping, finishing, quenching, coloring and painting, and naming.
Material selection is the first step in root carving production.
There is certainly nothing to say about boxwood, sandalwood and other root carving treasures, because these materials are all very good.
When making wood carvings, you must choose tree species that are hard, fine, stable, not prone to cracking and deformation, are incorruptible, and can be preserved for a long time.
Boxwood, sandalwood, beech, etc. are all excellent materials for root art modeling.
Dead roots submerged in silt or buried deep in the soil, ancient dark roots formed by hundreds of years of carbonization, are almost as hard as fossils and are excellent materials for root art.
The selection criteria in terms of shape can be summarized into four types: rare, strange, ancient and strange.
Generally, tree roots that grow on plains have sufficient nutrients, grow quickly, and have loose wood fibers, making it difficult to form strange shapes.
There are only roots that grow in harsh environments, such as those that grow in the back of the sun or in the crevices of cliffs and cliffs, and survive strongly after being struck by lightning, fire, ant erosion, stone pressure, people stepping on them, and cutting with knives.
Due to insufficient light, soil, water, and nutrients, it gradually deforms over time. As it ages, it becomes stronger and its shape becomes more unique and powerful. It is an ideal material for root art.
Making root carvings is not a simple matter. There are eight steps, and no step can be omitted. Moreover, each step must be done well and carefully.
Traditional bamboo carving products, generally round carvings, almost all use bamboo roots as the carving material.
Wood carvings use high-quality wood, or the base of the trunk, tree roots and tree galls.
The main reason for selecting materials in this way is to pay attention to the texture and tone of the material, its resistance to corrosion, and its delicate and suitable carving characteristics.
At the same time, the root shape is cleverly used to create while ensuring the integrity of the shape.
Modern root art works are subject to the constraints of "one-third of carving and seven-tenths of nature", which has led some people to regard root-art creation as digging up roots and looking for strange things.
In order to pursue this "seven-percent natural quality", some authors leave their root art works in the open air to be exposed to the sun and rain. If they find it too slow, they use methods such as fire, acid etching, or termite infestation.
When making root art works, the skin of the root material has already been peeled off, and the veins on the bast will gradually fade away over time.
These two characteristics are not enough to explain the "artificial" and "natural" elements of root carving works.