People's artist 111 Wei Xiaoming

Wei Xiaoming

Personal profile:

A famous sculptor and painter in China

Professor and doctoral supervisor of Tsinghua University Academy of Fine Arts

Vice Chairman of Beijing Artists Association

Born in Beihai City, Guangxi in 1957

He was admitted to the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts in 1977, and stayed there to teach after graduation

He went to Vienna Academy of Fine Arts in 1986 to study abroad. Received a master's degree

returned to China in 1992 and settled down, and taught at the Central Academy of Fine Arts

Since 23, the Sculpture Department of Tsinghua University Academy of Fine Arts

Interviewers: Zhang Guanqiao, Yang Haopeng, Xu Yunjia (Art Association Y; Wei Xiaoming W)

Y: Hello, Miss Wei. We know that you spent your student days in the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts. Did you study printmaking at that time?

W: No, I studied decoration at that time.

Y: what made you switch from design to sculpture creation?

W: the first reason is that I studied design and binding in the decoration department of the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts. At that time, the decoration major needed a strong painting and modeling ability, so I have been working very hard on the sketching and modeling ability. In 1981, when I was doing my graduation creation, the teachers and the dean of the school read the illustrations of my graduation creation, and felt that my modeling ability or my heavy sense of body shaping in painting was particularly suitable for learning sculpture. Although they were just suggestions, I paid special attention to this suggestion. Later, I went to the northwest to study the ancient traditional sculptures in China and study some traditional works of art deeply.

The second reason is that in 1986, I had the opportunity to get a scholarship from the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, Austria, to study in Europe. At that time, my major was printmaking. When I registered in Europe, I found that the Academy of Fine Arts was only divided into two majors: pure art and design, and the boundaries between the majors were already blurred. Even printmaking, painting and sculpture were all blurred, and they were all included in a pure art major. At the same time, the Academy of Fine Arts in Europe had a good education system, that is, the elective system. Because of these conditions, I contacted and learned a lot of knowledge related to sculpture, which also prompted me to change my creative direction after returning to China.

Wei Xiaoming Art Museum

Y: You just mentioned the education system in Europe. Can you elaborate on it?

W: Europe has a very good education system, that is, the system I introduced to China's domestic Academy of Fine Arts after I returned to China in the 199s, which is called the elective system. Prior to this, there was no elective mechanism in domestic art colleges, and learning sculpture could only be done in the studio of oil painting. However, in Europe at that time, when I got my student ID card after registration and became a full-time student, it meant that I could also become a full-time student in all Austrian federal universities and apply for courses in any university. Just like after I registered in Tsinghua Academy of Fine Arts, I could also apply for a major in Peking University, become a full-time student and take courses in Peking University. The Austrian Academy of Fine Arts has blurred its major and broadened or even liberalized its horizontal major, which has created a good condition for my re-education. At that time, I majored in printmaking, but I studied sculpture and architectural appearance at the same time. Although I didn't get their degrees in sculpture and architecture later, during this process, these courses were within my study plan, which is equivalent to having four majors as professional backgrounds to support my later artistic creation. When I returned to China in 1992, in any academy of fine arts in China, those who studied Chinese painting were engaged in Chinese painting all their lives, and those who studied Chinese painting were divided into freehand brushwork and meticulous brushwork, and those who studied meticulous brushwork were divided into flowers and birds and figures. After you entered this major, you could not enter any studio to study. So after I returned to work, I took the lead in proposing that such an elective system should be established at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. With the concerted efforts of President Jin Shangyi and teachers of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, this college elective system was gradually established in the Central Academy of Fine Arts, and gradually extended to national colleges including Tsinghua Academy of Fine Arts. This is why I, a decoration student, jumped into printmaking and sculpture, all of which are related to this professional background.

Y: did you study abroad as an undergraduate or as a graduate student?

W: graduate student. Another point is that there are only three German-speaking countries in the world, Austria, Germany and Switzerland. There is no distinction between bachelor's degree and master's degree. The threshold for them to enter universities is higher than that of any other country, but you have completed undergraduate education in these countries, so you have no bachelor's degree and a direct master's degree for four years, and this degree is recognized all over the world.

Y: that is to say, they compressed undergraduate and postgraduate education into four years?

W: Right

Y: That means you saved three years and studied for two periods?

W: yes, only these three countries are like this. I went as a graduate student, but after I registered with the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, I could only get two years' study recognition from them. That is to say, I used four years' credits to get two years' credits from them, and I have to finish the remaining two years' credits by myself, so after I finished the remaining two years' credits, I got my master's degree diploma.

Wei Xiaoming Art Museum

Y: Apart from specialties, what other Austrian teaching methods are different from our art teaching system?

W: there are many differences, because they are two different cultures, and their foundations are very different in all aspects. For example, all the students in China Academy of Fine Arts should study the history of art, whether it is the history of China art or the history of western art, they should study it completely and systematically, that is, you must start with the original cave paintings in southern France or northern Spain, and learn it all the time, and you can't miss it. But not in their Academy of Fine Arts. They just choose a fragment of art history and learn a point in depth, which may be romantic or post-impressionist. It is enough to get credits. The year I studied abroad, I was talking about barbizon school, France, and it was over when I finished, so I didn't need to make up all my knowledge of art history. But if you are interested in art history of other genres and periods, you can find any information you need in the library. The art system they have built for hundreds of years, including museums and libraries, is complete and rich, and they have such conditions, which is the first.

in the second aspect, they pay more attention to the horizontal relationship. For example, Vienna Academy of Fine Arts has an interesting course called Comparative Art History, which compares literature, drama, philosophy, psychology and sociology of a period with art history horizontally, so this course is called Comparative Art History. They will speak with characteristics, which is rich and full at one point, which is more interesting. Then the same basic course will not be like our basic course, which is a very free way. Teachers will not be a direct teaching to students, and students will think and study independently to complete their own learning plans. I think this is a better way.

Wei Xiaoming Museum of Art

Y: I really want to be a graduate student. I know there are also graduate students in the department. I don't know how to choose whether to go out or stay here.

W: I think both of them are fine, and both will do. Bao Yan faces several ways, and may be ranked by a comprehensive score. If the class has the strongest comprehensive ability, it will have a chance. There are also students who didn't succeed in graduate studies but have a good major. I sent him abroad through personal efforts, so he graduated directly and went abroad. Whether you stay at home or go abroad, or neither, the premise is that you can continue to engage in artistic creation, which is very important and my expectation for students. If you can persist, after the first and second years, according to the situation of study and creation, you can decide whether to take the postgraduate entrance examination or go abroad. There is no problem, so you don't have to have so many difficult choices. The core of going out to study is exchange and studying in Europe for one year. There are plenty of such opportunities.

there is another way, that is, to do a good job in the society for two or three years, and then go back to school to study, which is also very good. To tell you the truth, there are five master students in my studio at present, and there are a dozen students trained in the past. I will find that the ability and quality of students who come back for graduate studies three to five years after graduation are often higher than those who have never left school. What am I referring to? It refers to the maturity of their thinking and their control over all aspects of life. The things made by students from school to school are ok, but they lack actual combat. Therefore, the school is an advantage, but it is also a disadvantage, because in society, we have to face many difficulties and tempering.

Y: some of them can get a postgraduate degree, and some of them go to the society, but some of them will become craftsmen in society, so how to avoid becoming craftsmen?

W: Students who leave the Higher Academy of Fine Arts usually don't become craftsmen, but they may shake their determination to become artists. I have taught in the Central Academy of Fine Arts for 11 years, and there are 15 students in one class. If you ask these 15 students what each of them will do after graduation, 15 people will categorically say that they will be artists no matter how hard they are. But when I went to the Tsinghua Academy of Fine Arts to ask the same question, half of them didn't know, and the remaining one-third of the students said they would try to be an artist, which was such a small proportion. Maybe it's because Tsinghua Academy of Fine Arts is a comprehensive academy of fine arts. When you enter this school, you can study in the department of ceramics, the department of environmental arts and the department of decoration in minutes. In a design-oriented school, it's easy to make money by drawing a sign, arranging a version or making an effect diagram of environmental arts. Gradually, the belief that you want to engage in art is gone. For example, there are 1 people in our class, only a few people and I are engaged in art, and at the same time, we are regarded as different by our classmates. They think what you do is not good. You engage in pure art, and you have such good design ability. Isn't it good to open a studio? That can make a lot of money. In other words, the concept of students in this school is very different from that of other fine arts colleges.

Y: for example, if you are not determined in the middle, are most of them influenced by material life?

W: for sure, students majoring in design can easily find a job, or work on their own, and have a good life. Students who study pure arts will live in poverty and even loneliness for quite some time, and can withstand these conditions. I quote my story from the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts: At the graduation ceremony, each of us sent a parchment for hundreds of years, on which two sentences were written: "I graduated from the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts on a certain day, and I vowed to continue my career as an artist in my life, no matter how hard it is. If I can't become an artist because of life or irreversible reasons, I promise that I will never destroy the reputation of this school. " This paper has been passed down for two or three hundred years, and we can see how Europeans view academics and art. If I graduate there, I will become a real estate developer in a few years, but I can never say that I graduated from Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. They regard art as sacred and promise not to damage the reputation of the school.

Y: I have read your works, and I am very interested in your works. You are a person who advocates beauty very much, so how is beauty reflected in your works?

W: during my study in Vienna, that is, from the end of 197s to the end of 198s, there was an art school in Vienna, Austria, which was called fantasy realism. Later, I integrated this school and put forward the idea of imaginative realism, which was very different from the objective realism in China. Education in Vienna attaches great importance to imagination. You have modeling ability and shaping ability, but the most important thing is imagination. Look at what I do, which is also concrete and realistic, but I have never used a model once. I do what I imagine in my mind. Do you think the beauty in life is the most beautiful? Sometimes things in life are not as beautiful as you think, because imaginary things have no boundaries, can be reorganized, and can concentrate hundreds of beautiful factors on the concept of beauty, thus creating ideal beauty. At that time, this genre had a great influence on me. Since then, I have continued to create in this way until now. It was not until I built my art museum in Changchun last year that I discovered that I had more than 23 works, large and small, but almost all of them started after I came back from abroad in the 199s. There are many beautiful things, but many people don't express this romantic emotion. Imagine that the creative way of realism can dig out your inner things little by little. This is why I started two years ago, and the school asked me to take a doctor, so I asked the doctor to build a system to study the theory of imaginative realism, which is also our future direction.

Important Works of Wei Xiaoming Art Museum

1993

Beihai

Giant metal sculpture "Tide" (25m high)

1998

Changchun Far East Art Museum

Large outdoor reliefs, round carvings, Indoor soft sculptures, etc.

In 1999, the large bronze sculpture of Tianjin Development Zone Administrative Committee Square, Blue Sublimation, Autumn Rhythm, Golden Age

In 21, the sculpture of Phoenix Theatre in Ningbo

The theme sculpture of Ningbo Medical College, Flying

The sculpture of Ningbo Binjiang Music Square, Xian Xinghai

. From 23 to 25,