Su Huo: Pioneer of Hemp Embroidery

Su Huo, born in Yong 'an, Liuyang,1was born in Changsha on August 24th, 940. Senior Arts and Crafts Artist, Master of Arts and Crafts in Hunan Province, Master of Embroidery in Hunan Province, Member of China Arts and Crafts Association, Vice Chairman of Hunan Arts and Crafts Association. He died at the age of 70 on March 5, 2009 10: 38.

Thick trees, ethereal and elastic branches and speckled leaves are all shrouded in the sense of space of nature. A pile of fallen leaves, piled up in the uneven shadows of trees, some of which were overturned by the wind, so you couldn't help but raise your feet and chase them and reach for them. Unless you see it with your own eyes, it's hard to imagine that such a work is embroidered on summer cloth with hemp thread.

Natural scenery and portraits are the themes that Su Huo is good at expressing. In this work "Pond Path", you can no longer see the needle and thread traces of traditional Xiang embroidery. "Without rules, Fiona Fang is a regulation. Without rules, it is an art." After years of exploration and research, Su Huo began to return to the simplicity and purity of art.

Innovation of Xiang embroidery

Perhaps it was because Suhuo became a monk halfway that he made such a thorough innovation in Hunan embroidery.

Su Huo likes painting since he was a child, but he used to be a professional basketball coach. After various identity changes, he entered the Hunan embroidery industry as a beginner in 1989. At this time, he was already a famous painter, and many of his paintings were hung in the auditorium of Hunan Provincial Party Committee and other places.

After engaging in Xiang embroidery, oil painter Su Huoju put a lot of energy into how to combine oil painting with Xiang embroidery. Difficulties followed.

There are only a few levels of rust in traditional Chinese painting, but there are often countless levels of embroidery in oil painting. How to express the distinctive characteristics of oil painting with needle and thread? Su Huo bought a blank thread and dyed it for twenty or thirty grades. He knows how to mix colors with threads. For example, the mixed embroidery of yellow and blue threads becomes green, while the traditional Xiang embroidery can only use ready-made green threads. He also knows how to use complementary colors to highlight the main body, such as yellow with purple as a foil, rather than just using shades to color.

In embroidery works, embroidery is usually the commander-in-chief of painting, and the stitch method precedes the painting meaning, which opens the difference between embroidery painting and painting. It is also in this thinking that embroidery has developed to nearly 100 kinds of stitches today. When evaluating the quality of embroidery, the difficulty of stitch is often taken as the standard, that is to say, the level of embroidered mother determines the level of the work.

As a painter, Su Huo's thoughts are deeply rooted, but his thinking of painting. In his view, acupuncture, like pen and ink, can only serve works. How do works serve pen and ink? After learning the basic threading method from the embroiderer, he naturally adopted the method of painting as the main method and embroidery as the auxiliary method, and arranged the needling method according to the meaning of painting, so that painting was in charge of embroidery and "embroidery painting" became "painting embroidery".

This difference has not disappeared so far. In the eyes of traditional people, Xiang embroidery is no longer called Xiang embroidery after his innovation.

The Birth of "Hemp Embroidery"

While thinking and technological innovation, Su Huo is also innovating the raw materials of Xiang embroidery.

Liuyang, Su Huo's hometown, is a famous "hometown of summer cloth". Summer cloth is made of ramie, which foreigners call "China grass". "Can you combine summer cloth with twine for embroidery? "Su Huo's whimsy did not stop at imagination because of the sentence" The embroidery on the linen bag is too bad ". He went to Liuyang and bought a large bundle of "summer cloth".

Writing a manuscript on linen can only draw an outline. To this end, he specially made an upright scaffold with adjustable height, and embroidered needles were arranged on both sides.

Su Huo thought the true color of marijuana was similar to that of black people, so he decided to try it by embroidering the bust of former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. In order to show Annan's curly hair, he tried to use the "jumping" stitch that was only used on the stamens before. It was tight when it was loose, and then it was specially treated, so that a curly hair had a fluffy and realistic feeling. He adjusted the acupuncture direction according to the anatomical structure of the facial bones and muscles of the characters, and took pains to deal with the eyes and corners of the mouth. After months of hard work, Annan finally finished it.

Annan on Linen has a deep and peaceful vision, and his strong will and compassion are fully displayed. Later, he embroidered the tiger and Van Gogh's sunflower in the same way, and the feeling of roughness, simplicity and returning to nature was vividly displayed.

Market route

In 2002, Suhuo decided to set up the "Embroidery Garden" in order to let his artistic innovation accept the all-round test of the market.

At that time, Xiang embroidery had already become a "sunset" industry. Xiang embroidery in the market is getting rougher and rougher because of overcharging each other, which makes him worried about the decline of Xiang embroidery because of conservatism.

Because of his business experience, Suhuo is more sensitive to the market than other Hunan embroidery practitioners. He aimed at the portrait production of celebrities, which can also be well combined with his professional knowledge in portrait painting.

Formed an operation mode composed of family human resources: the son is good at computers and is mainly responsible for the e-commerce sales of embroidered garden products; Daughter in the United States, of course, has become the "embroidered garden" of American institutions. At the same time, he also widely used friends at home and abroad to promote his works. Some foreigners will send their photos in disbelief, and when they see embroidery works that are "more realistic than photos", they can't put it down. Since then, there have been more and more foreign orders.

In the face of various market temptations, the road of Soviet goods always adheres to the boutique market route. Although there are more than 20 skilled embroiderers in his "Embroidery Garden", there are only about 30 embroidered works every year, and most of them have been embroidered for more than 4 months, and the best series has been embroidered for more than 8 months.

Although every work was expensive, the market quickly accepted his art. Today, many of his works have become treasures collected by celebrities and royal family members at home and abroad.

Nevertheless, it may be much more difficult for his innovative Xiang embroidery to win artistic recognition in the field of Xiang embroidery than for him to win market recognition.

Memorial master

In the exhibition hall of the "World Handicraft Congress" in Hangzhou, Su Huo sat quietly in the corner, typing a manuscript, which was in sharp contrast with the excitement around him. His quietness is similar to his lonely walking on the road.

It was June 5438+ 10, 2008, and Soho looked healthy and easy-going. When the reporter took out his camera to shoot Annan's works, he came over and said, I'll take an electronic photo for you. This work has a glass frame, and you can reflect light when you hold it. A word has brought us closer. It was in this exhibition that his works won gold, silver and bronze prizes among thousands of entries.

At that time, he was actually very ill.

I learned from my son Su Lu that Su Huo got up early every day and was often busy until one or two at night. After May 2008, he felt unwell, but he still participated in four craft exhibitions nonstop. On June 5438+ 10, 2009, his works won many important awards again at the "China Arts and Crafts Exhibition" held by China Art Museum. At that time, there was a column of "Master" in the revised edition of China Handicrafts, and we planned to launch it grandly. Unexpectedly, the phone was connected and Su Huo had been admitted to the hospital.

After that, I kept in touch with Su Lu and asked about his father's illness. Su Lu said that his father likes China arts and crafts very much. When he recovers, he will definitely appear in your magazine. I didn't realize the seriousness of my master's illness at that time. I just want him to recover as soon as possible. "When will we recover and when will we be interviewed?" Not long ago, when I used to send a text message to Sulu, he replied: My father has passed away.

Before my eyes, I saw the kind face of Master Soho. Before her death, Master always had a dream of promoting Chinese embroidery all over the world. His works are very popular in the United States, Japan, China, Hongkong and Taiwan Province Province, and he plans to take his embroidery from these places to all parts of the world first. I can't help thinking of his plan.

After the master left, the "embroidery garden" left behind will continue to develop by family members and embroidery workers. And his innovative spirit is particularly precious in today's stagnant arts and crafts industry, and it is also a precious wealth for future generations.

In the upcoming fourth "Cultural Heritage Day", commemorating the master is also a blessing for the flourishing development of arts and crafts in China.

works

Annamese

Specification: 56cmx80cm

Material: hemp embroidery

Price: Not for sale

Introduction: Su won the "Hundred Flowers Cup" China Arts and Crafts Gold Award (2005).

Morning in the pine forest

Specification: 97cmx63cm

Material: silk embroidery

Price: 65438+ ten thousand yuan

Features: the picture is smart and full of vitality and interest of nature. His work won the "Hundred Flowers Cup" China Arts and Crafts Excellence Award (2005).

Albert Einstein

Specification: 100cmx96cm

Material: silk embroidery

Price: Not for sale

Features: Einstein's hair, face, arms and clothes are very suitable for flax. Embroider clothes with traditional flowing water method, and embroider arms and hair with flat needles and cross needles; Embroider the face with a face-opening needle. The work is in great contrast with traditional embroidery, which brings strong visual impact, and won the "Hundred Flowers Cup" China Arts and Crafts Gold Award (2008).

polar bear

Specification: 100cmx98cm

Material: silk embroidery

Price: 65438+200,000 yuan

Features: This work uses soft stitches, mixed stitches and cross stitches, and is embroidered on linen with slightly thicker white linen thread. The work is fresh and elegant, showing two white bears lazily enjoying the winter sunshine in the snow. Won the Silver Award of "Hundred Flowers Cup" China Arts and Crafts Boutique (2008).

in the forest

Specification: 108cmx86cm

Material: silk embroidery

Price: 65438+ ten thousand yuan

Features: The quiet and vibrant atmosphere of the forest expressed in the works seems to be coming soon, and people seem to have entered the poetic nature, which has high decorative function and collection value.

sunflower

Specification: 75cmx 100cm

Material: silk embroidery

Price: 60,000 yuan

Features: It is Su Huo's initiative to make oil painting embroidery with China's hemp thread and linen.

Note: This article was published in the "Master" column of China Handicraft magazine in June 2009.