Detailed explanation of "The Founding Ceremony" (picture)

"The Founding Ceremony" depicts the grand occasion of the Tiananmen National Day Ceremony when the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China was established on October 1, 1949. The scene was grand and festive, with Mao Zedong and other central leaders in high spirits and extraordinary bearing. The blue sky and white clouds, the wind and the sun are beautiful, the square is open, the red flag is like a sea, and the Tiananmen Gate Tower is magnificent. In his rigorous realistic depiction, the painter drew on the expression techniques of folk art and traditional meticulous brushwork and heavy colors. The author creates a strong contrast between the blue sky and carpets, red pillars, red lanterns and red flags, and adds to the festive atmosphere of the festival. In the depiction of realistic techniques, the painter also carried out bold artistic processing. For example, the processing of perspective and light and shadow did not strictly follow the sketch requirements in Western realistic paintings. A pillar was subtracted from the right side of the picture. These are all In order to adapt to and strengthen the theme and overall needs of the picture, it is also suitable for the aesthetic taste of the vast number of Chinese readers. It should also be mentioned that these works have a strong decorative lyricism. Some critics believe that it is a "monumental large-scale historical painting rich in decorative meaning."

It is worth mentioning that Dong Xiwen's creative breakthroughs can be seen from the sketch. The first one is a sketch in which, except for Chairman Mao standing sideways near the middle, all other leaders are standing in the left third of the picture, and on the right are the people in the square. This layout of a huge difference between the solid left and the right imaginary follows the general composition rules. It seems to be out of balance. The other is that according to normal visual rules, there should be a big red pillar of the Tiananmen Gate Tower on the right front side of Chairman Mao.

Colleagues in the art world were surprised by Dong Xiwen’s bold composition idea and expressed their appreciation. They believed that the first breakthrough made the leaders and the people in the square more vivid, one real and one virtual, one close and one far, one less and one less. Multiple contrast effects can better highlight the festive atmosphere. The second breakthrough, which everyone thinks is extremely bold, is to "remove" this pillar and the square will look more open. On the contrary, if this pillar is painted, it will look cumbersome.

For the sake of stability, Dong Xiwen also consulted several architects, and everyone expressed their understanding and agreement. The famous architect Liang Sicheng commented: "There is a pillar on the right side of the picture that is not painted... This is a big mistake in architecture, but it is a big success in painting art."

This is The sketch, painted on less than fifteen square inches of card paper, is not much different from the original final composition. The layout of the picture can already show the openness of Tiananmen Square. The outline of the characters is very simple. But the physical characteristics of the leaders of major countries can already be seen. The opinions Dong Xiwen wanted to seek focused on two aspects. The first was about the layout and arrangement of the characters on the screen. In the sketch, except for Chairman Mao standing sideways in the middle of the picture, the other leaders are standing on about one-third of the picture on the left, forming a layout with a huge difference between the real left and the right virtual. Judging from the general rules of composition, it seems to be out of balance. He was particularly worried about what the effect would be after it was turned into a large oil painting. Secondly, in the composition, the span between the two pillars in the middle of Tiananmen Tower is greatly widened, which is also very different from the actual building structure, which may arouse people's criticism. The reason why he wanted to do this kind of composition processing was to show the brightness and openness of Tiananmen Square and the majesty of the mass scene! It puts the national leaders in such a majestic atmosphere, thus embodying the solemn declaration of "The People's Republic of China has been established! The Chinese people have stood up since then!"

A perspective problem is that the Zhengyangmen Gate Tower in the picture is located on the vertical meridian in the picture, which is slightly different from the orientation of the Tiananmen Gate Tower. Dong Xiwen told me that he wanted to draw the Zhengyang Gate Tower in the north-south direction in order to make the square feel open. I don't think this has much effect, but he painted it like this anyway. There are some perspective problems in "The Founding Ceremony", but the fault-finding professor of perspective has not raised any objections. This also shows that Dong Xiwen's creative concept has been understood by everyone, and it is mainly the touching effect of the picture that is convincing. . If the picture looks awkward, it must be blamed on an error in perspective.