Abstract: As one of the three major schools of traditional Chinese folk paper-cutting, Guangling paper-cutting is known for its vivid composition, expressive power of expression, delicate knife skills, exquisite materials and dyeing, and exquisite packaging production. The craftsmanship is unique and is known as "one of the best Chinese folk arts". It occupies an important position in Chinese paper-cutting. So what are the production techniques of Guangling paper-cutting? What are the characteristics of Guangling paper-cutting art? The following article will introduce to you the artistic features and production techniques of Guangling paper-cutting. Let’s take a look! Guangling County is located at the northern end of Taihang Mountain and the eastern foot of Hengshan Mountain. It is the northeastern gateway of Shanxi Province. As one of the three major schools of Chinese folk paper-cutting, Guangling paper-cutting has been around for more than 3,000 years and is deeply loved by the masses for its bright colors and vivid shapes. In 2008, Guangling paper-cutting was included in the national intangible cultural heritage list. In 2009, Shanxi Guangling paper-cutting was jointly packaged with paper-cutting projects in Henan, Shaanxi and other places that were included in the national intangible cultural heritage list. As a joint application project for Chinese paper-cutting, it successfully passed the approval of UNESCO and was included in the "Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity". Representative List of Tangible Cultural Heritage.
1. Artistic characteristics
Guangling paper-cutting has a profound cultural heritage. It is mainly based on knife carving, supplemented by tailoring. It combines intaglio and yang carving, with delicate knife skills, alternating dark and light colors, cold and warm The contrasting tones, distinctive artistic style, vivid imagination, strong expressiveness, vividness and expressiveness, exquisite materials and dyeing, and exquisite packaging make it unique in the paper-cutting art gallery in the world.
Guangling paper-cutting is a colorful paper-cut made of rice paper carved with a knife and dyed with various colors. It belongs to the North China school among the three major paper-cutting schools in China and is the highlight of the North China school. In addition to the art of paper-cutting* ** Unique characteristics: In addition to being freehand, symbolic, iconic, innovative and fashionable, it also has its own uniqueness:
1. Although it is paper-cut, the production tool is a knife instead of scissors. .
2. High production efficiency. Scissors can only cut one or a few layers at a time, up to a dozen layers, while a knife can carve more than a dozen or dozens of layers at a time, up to about 80 layers at a time.
3. You can use colors freely. You can mix or dye whatever color you want. Fifty to sixty colors can be adjusted, and up to more than 30 colors can be used to dye a work. Therefore, colored paper-cutting can achieve the dual effects of painting and paper-cutting.
4. The bright watercolor of the wine agent can fully penetrate downward, and can achieve the purpose of dyeing the upper one to get several lower ones.
5. When dyeing, the dark color can be placed on top of the light color or the different color blocks will not interfere with each other. The natural smoke dyeing effect can be achieved under the action of alcohol. The engraved lines naturally become the blurred boundaries that interrupt the color during dyeing.
Guangling paper-cutting is divided into various categories in terms of performance themes and content, including the twelve zodiac signs, animals, plants, updates of flowers, birds, insects and fish, facial makeup of costume drama characters, folk myths and legends, folk arts and dances, There are more than 2,000 varieties in 15 categories, including modern heroes and models, natural scenery, tourist landscapes, historical sites, and scenes of work and life. Every piece of Guangling paper-cutting is a beautiful work of art. The fragrance of peonies colors the sky, the proud blooming of plum blossoms, the solitary erectness of bamboos, the elegant fragrance of orchids, the lifelikeness of animals, the physical and spiritual balance of characters, the natural flow of mountains and rivers, the heartfelt depiction of natural scenery, and the organic coherence of historical monuments. etc., supplemented by exquisite coloring and exquisite mounting, it has reached a high artistic level.
The beauty of Guangling paper-cutting lies in the delicate knife skills. For example, every petal, leaf and stamen of a peony flower can be beautifully carved under the artist's scissors, and the combination of inverted and yang engraving is exquisite. Others are supplemented by golden rims, from physical resemblance to spiritual resemblance. For example, in several paper-cut paintings of Guan Gong, the expressions of the characters and horses are natural and lifelike, reflecting extremely high expressive power and artistry. There are also pictures of hundreds of tigers, which use Yang carving to show the shape of hundreds of tigers. The lines are smooth and natural, and each cut and knife shows the skill, which constitutes the artistic conception of gongbi painting. Guangling paper-cutting breaks through the general concept of folk paper-cutting and perfectly combines the skills of paper-cutting and painting. It also uses exquisite materials, bright dyeing, alternating dark and light colors, contrasting cold and warm tones, and clear layers. Some are combined with multiple layers on the basis of realism. It breaks through the traditional flat layers of Chinese paper-cutting, embodies the three-dimensional effect, greatly expands the expression space of paper-cutting art, and has extremely high artistic appeal and appreciation. This is reflected in the depiction of characters and scenery. Prominence can be said to push the art of paper-cutting to a new level, showing the perfect combination of paper-cutting and painting art.
The beauty of Guangling paper-cutting lies in the vivid and atmospheric composition. Generally speaking, it is not difficult to cut a small work, but to completely display a work in a five-foot, eight-foot or even ten-meter-long scroll, composition is very important. The intention is to use the knife first, and with perfect composition, supplemented by knife skills and exquisite coloring, the works have natural lines, alternating density, clear layers, fascinating depictions, bright dyeing, and exquisite mounting, which embodies Extremely high three-dimensional artistry, such as the Baizi Tu, which is mainly incised, embodies vivid expression and exquisite creation. These works are all three-dimensional beautiful flowers, vivid figures, and dynamic landscapes. They are perfect art, an exquisite combination of traditional Chinese painting, oil painting, meticulous painting and paper-cut art. Colorful clouds fly", unique. Guangling paper-cutting has promoted traditional culture, formed a cultural industry, and created the Guangling brand. It is included in the United Nations Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, reflecting the ultimate artistic taste, the best artistic realm, and the supreme artistic style. and supreme artistic value.
When you taste Guangling paper-cutting, you will not only appreciate the paper-cutting, but also experience the successful practice of cultural setting and economic opera. It is of great enlightenment to enter the cultural field in the way of large-market industrial operations and create brands to drive economic development.
2. Production process
Guangling dyed paper-cutting belongs to the "dyed and carved paper" category in paper-cutting. The pattern processing is mainly positive carving, supplemented by negative carving. The carving is exquisite and The shape is realistic and the colors are bright. The formation of a piece of paper-cut requires processes such as design, drawing, smoking or drying, engraving, cutting, and dyeing. The first step in engraving is to start the drawing. When starting the draft on white paper, you should connect the unconnected places in the picture (such as the eyes, mouth and nose of the character, between the eyebrows, and between the character and the scenery) reasonably, and then use an ink pen to trace the drawing, first look at the expected What is the effect of cutting and engraving? In this way, after some careful trimming, the cut and carved works will have better results. If you are skilled in cutting and engraving techniques, you can also cut and engrave directly on the drawing without tracing the ink drawing (but you need to mark the single pencil line into a double line). The second step is to cut the paper and place it under the drawing, then fix it together with staples or paper twist needle thread, and place it on the wax board of the engraving table. When carving, you should carve from the center of the drawing outward, carving the details first, and then carving other places. For example, when carving a character, start with the facial features and clothing lines, gradually work outwards, and finally cut and carve the outer edge. After cutting and carving, remove the fixed nails or threads and use tweezers to slowly uncover the work one by one. The lines are clear, crisp, stretched and smooth, and no burrs or gaps are allowed to be left. In the facial makeup of dramatic characters, hundreds of beards are as thin as spider silk, evenly arranged, continuous, and have deep line penetration.
Color-printed paper-cutting: Colored paper-cutting is made with a single color paper-cut as the outline and various colored papers as the backing. Generally, black or single-color paper cutting is used, and then it is covered face down on the reverse side of the colored paper. Use a pencil to trace the outline of the required part on the electro-optical colored paper (it is better to use various colored rice paper dyed with advertising dyes), and Cut and set aside, then stick the colored paper blocks on the back of the single-color paper-cut according to the required parts. Pay attention to neatness when attaching the colored paper.
Dyeing paper-cutting: that is, colored paper-cutting. The method is to cut and engrave with white paper with good water absorption (preferably raw rice paper), and then render it with advertising colors (this dyeing method can only be dyed once. one piece).
Guangling paper-cutting uses colored paper-cutting dyed with white wine to change the original single-color paper-cutting of red, blue and yellow, forming a unique local folk art. The advantage of mixing raw colors with alcohol and then dyeing is that you can dye more than a dozen sheets at a time, and it only penetrates to the lower layer and does not soak into the surroundings. After one color dries, you can dye another color to avoid color cross-fertilization. . After years of exploration, folk craftsmen add cooking wine to the paint when mixing colors, and add alum when mixing dark colors to keep the color of the window grilles for a long time. When mixing lighter colors, they also add a small amount of rock sugar to increase the brightness of the colors. .
3. Historical inheritance
Guangling paper-cutting has a long history. Its roots can be traced back to King Cheng of Zhou Dynasty who cut the tung leaves into "Gui" shape and presented them to him. His younger brother, Shu Yu, named him King of Tang Dynasty. This tung leaf "Gui" is the earliest paper-cut product that appeared in the land of Sanjin and has a history of more than 3,000 years. According to expert research, the prototype of Guangling paper-cutting can be traced back to the early Tang Dynasty. "The gold-engraved work was popular in Jing customs, and the ribbon-cutting introduced Jin style to people." This is exactly the poet Li Shangyin's true portrayal of Guangling paper-cutting at that time. Its formation was around the Ming Dynasty. The unique style matured during the Daoguang period of the Qing Dynasty, and it was passed down and became the epitome of Shanxi paper-cutting.
Guangling paper-cutting, commonly known as window grilles, evolved from traditional embroidery techniques. In the countryside of Guangling, almost every common person can cut window grilles. When I am busy with crops, once I have some free time, I pick up my scissors and carve out the paper-cut works that have already been formed in my mind. For many years, during the Mid-Autumn Festival and Spring Festival, when local people paint their houses and put on new window paper, in order to add some festive color, many families have to cut window grilles to decorate the windows to express their longing for a better life. Although Guangling's paper-cutting is famous far and wide, she is still like a beautiful girl "hiding in the boudoir" and cannot step out of the curtain to show her unique artistic charm. Before 2006, there were only two workshop-style paper-cutting companies, Zhang Duotang and Gao Qinghong, struggling to maintain the survival and inheritance of Guangling paper-cutting. The inheritance and development of Guangling paper-cutting is difficult and is in danger of being lost.
In 2006, the Guangling County Party Committee and County Government included the paper-cutting industry in the county’s cultural construction plan and the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan”, and took effective measures to increase the discovery, protection and development of paper-cutting art. The intensity of inheritance has made Guangling paper-cutting, a folk art treasure, come to light again.
Zhang Duotang, the fourth generation descendant of the founding family of Guangling paper-cutting, shouldered the heavy responsibility. He took the lead in establishing Guangling Paper-cutting Culture and Art Development Co., Ltd. and built China's only national-level intangible cultural heritage industrial park for paper-cutting. ——China Guangling Paper-cutting Cultural Industrial Park and China’s first Paper-cutting Art Museum. Guangling paper-cutting has gradually formed a complete cultural industry chain from research and development, production, packaging, training, observation and sales. This builds a platform for Guangling paper-cutting to go out of Shanxi and to the world.
In response to the shortage of paper-cutting talents, Guangling County established China's first paper-cutting training school - Datong Guangling Paper-cutting Vocational and Technical School, effectively solving the problem of a shortage of artists. A series of preferential policies have been introduced to encourage and support young people to actively participate in the paper-cutting industry. Guangling paper-cutting training class has trained more than 700 students, laying a talent foundation for the inheritance and development of Guangling paper-cutting art.
With the establishment and growth of paper-cutting art companies such as Qinghong Paper-cutting Company and Huihua Art Development Company, Guangling Paper-cutting has gradually formed product research and development, production, exhibition and sales, talent training, paper-cutting art museum, and paper-cutting. The new cultural industry pattern of the cultural experience park. Driven by the "company + base + farmers" business model, Guangling County has 1,480 households and more than 2,500 farmers engaged in the paper-cutting industry, with an average household income of more than 8,000 yuan. In 2009, Guangling County's paper-cut sales revenue reached 35 million yuan, accounting for 3% of the county's GDP.
In June 2006, "Guangling Paper-cutting" became a registered trademark, and the development of Guangling paper-cutting industry had a protective umbrella. "Good wine is also afraid of deep alleys." In order to let Guangling paper-cutting go out of the house and have greater influence, Guangling paper-cutting has participated in China (Shenzhen) International Cultural Industry Expo, Shanxi (Shanghai) Economic Cooperation Project Promotion Conference, Shanxi (Hong Kong) Investment Fair and Shanxi Province Intangible cultural heritage protection achievements exhibition and other large-scale exhibitions, and extensive folk cultural exchanges with Germany, the United States, Japan, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates and other countries. At the same time, Guangling County, CCTV Tourism TV and Shanxi Satellite TV produced programs such as "Guangling Paper-cutting" and "Guangling Paper-cutting Cultural Industrial Park" respectively, created the "China Guangling Paper-cutting Art" website, and registered a mobile domain name network. It has greatly improved the popularity of Guangling paper-cutting.
The successful holding of the 3rd China·Datong·Guangling International Paper-cutting Art Exhibition in 2007 made Guangling paper-cutting famous at home and abroad. The brand effect of Guangling paper-cutting was highlighted. Guangling County was praised by Eastern and Western artists. The association awarded it the title of "Hometown of International Paper-cutting Art".
In 2010, Guangling paper-cutting finally appeared at the Shanghai World Expo. Through displays, performances and sales, people all over the world have appreciated the artistic charm of Guangling paper-cutting. After the famous scholar Yan Chongnian saw Guangling paper-cutting, he wrote "Guangling paper-cutting shines on the world". The most important thing about art is innovation. Art without innovation lacks vitality. Guangling paper-cutting is moving forward in innovation and exploration. The modern new realistic multi-layer paper-cut developed by Guangling County Huihua Folk Culture and Art Development Co., Ltd. integrates various art forms and greatly expands the expression space of paper-cut art. This innovative form has obtained a national intellectual property patent. The company's carefully designed and produced paper-cut portrait of U.S. President Obama was highly recognized by Obama. Guangling Paper-cut Collection Volume "Eight Major Cultural Brands of Shanxi" won the Special Award, the highest award at the 5th International Paper-cut Art Festival.
Based on market demand, Guangling paper-cutting continues to introduce new ones. The varieties, styles, and specifications have expanded from dozens to thousands. The content has also developed from posting decorations to fashion crafts, tourist souvenirs, and paper-cut scrolls. Art treasures and national-level gifts with ornamental, collection and practical value. In 2009, Guangling Paper-cutting signed an 8 million yuan supply and marketing agreement with Hong Kong Yuhua International Trade Co., Ltd.; at the 6th China International Cultural Industry Expo in 2010, Guangling Paper-cutting not only signed a supply and marketing agreement with Hong Kong Yuhua International Trade Co., Ltd., In addition to signing a subscription contract worth 3.2 million yuan, Beijing Exlen Cultural Development Co., Ltd. also signed letters of intent for cooperation with six gift companies. Guangling paper-cutting has been exported to more than ten countries and regions including Japan, Singapore, Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States.
Relying on Guangling paper-cutting, the construction project of Guangling Modern Paper-cutting Research and Development Center has been listed as a national key promotion project by the Chinese Paper-cutting Art Committee, and the Guangling Paper-cutting Cultural Industrial Park has been listed as one of the eight top quality projects in Datong City and Shanxi Province. The "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" cultural development plan key industrial base construction project, Guangling paper-cutting project was listed as a key export project of China's cultural industry in 2010.
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