The traditional Chinese craft of drawing gold, also known as "lacquer painting", is a decorative method of drawing patterns with gold on the surface of lacquerware. The gold painting process often uses black lacquer as the base, and a few use vermilion lacquer. The texture of black lacquer is calm and solemn, and it is most suitable for making utensils and creations. The lacquer gold is bright and bright, and it is used to draw landscapes and vicissitudes, which does not have a resplendent, agile and delicate image.
As early as the Warring States Period, China had mastered the method of using gold on lacquerware. During the Sui and Tang dynasties, my country's gold painting technique was spread to Japan, and had a great influence on the production of Japanese lacquerware. In the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, the skills of various places became more and more mature. "Painting and Decoration Records" written by Huang Cheng in the Ming Dynasty is the only monograph on lacquerware craftsmanship in ancient China that has survived to the present. The quality should be shared. Its writings are based on landscapes, feathers, flowers and fruits, and stories of characters; while the thin hooks are yang, and the sparse lines are yin, or black, or colorful gold statues." Ming Sijia (Wumen Sijia) Zhong Qiu Ying, a famous painter in China, is especially good at making gold-painted lacquer.
Late Qing Dynasty Black Lacquer and Gold "Sui Yangdi Touring Xiyuan" Character Story Pencil Box
The most central part of the panel is a picture of the story of Emperor Sui Yang's visit to Xiyuan. The plot is derived from Luo Guanzhong's "Biography of the Sui and Tang Dynasties". Hundreds of civil and military officials surrounded the emperor in the center, surrounded by pavilions, pavilions and corridors, with high eaves and teeth. In the lower left corner of the picture, there are civil servants and military generals riding tall horses, which is a lively scene. In the gate of Hualou, the palace people gallop out on horses, and the tall horses have different appearances. Open the pencil case, you can see that the inner layer is divided into three parts, and the drawn content is similar to the pattern on the panel. This late-Qing black lacquer and gold pencil case has many figures and scenes, but it is dense and delicate, expressing the aesthetic purpose of Westerners.
Skilled craftsmen in the Ming and Qing Dynasties brought black lacquer and gold painting to the extreme. They put flowers and birds, landscapes, stories of characters, or changes in various decorative patterns into daily utensils, which are subtle, magnificent and magnificent. Some of these treasures, with the opening of new sea routes, traveled across the ocean to reach the other end of the Eurasian continent, allowing European nobles to think about oriental civilization through this oriental craftsmanship. Some of them even embrace classic crafts such as "black lacquer and gold" as the aesthetic standard leading the design of local artisans. Japanese Makie developed under the influence of Chinese gold-painted lacquerware, and continuously improved its artistic level during the development process. It is recorded in relevant ancient books of the Ming Dynasty that it in turn influenced Chinese gold-painted lacquerware. Throughout the long history, we can always find so many stories of mutual learning and continuous progress between cultures. Whenever we discover the connections among them, we can’t help but marvel at the magic of creativity—there are borders between countries, but human beings are boundless. Inspiration can always affect people living in different time and space.
Adhering to the purpose of promoting the modern application of traditional Chinese crafts, the K11 Craft & Guild Foundation team (KCG) is committed to discovering the new meeting point between traditional craft culture and contemporary life, empowering and renewing it, and stimulating the vitality of traditional techniques in the contemporary era.
On September 9, 2022, the immersive digital craft culture exhibition "K11 Voyage de Savoir-Faire" curated by KCG was exhibited at chi K11 Art Museum in Shanghai. The exhibition uses modern technology to restore Chinese traditions, and presents to the audience the scene of the blending of Chinese and Western cultures in the 18th and 19th centuries through digital images.
Probably Marco Polo's description of the gold everywhere in the Pan-Far East started the Europeans' yearning for the Eastern civilization at first, and the opening of new sea routes after the first industrial revolution provided the possibility for further exchanges between the East and the West. Accompanied by Kangxi and Louis XIV's flourishing world, we saw the magnificent and splendid oriental treasures slowly coming along with the warm and humid monsoon. "Leading the upsurge has gradually become the fashion of the times in the European upper class.
Along with the digital scrolls, 14 antique utensils from across the ocean are displayed, demonstrating the exquisite craftsmanship of traditional Chinese black lacquer and gold painting. The exquisite utensils combining Chinese and Western styles are magnificent, allowing the audience to have a glimpse of the influence of "Chinese style" on the artistic life of European aristocrats. Wandering in the exhibition hall to view the scenery, between sitting and lying down, "Sleeping Wanderer" can personally experience the multi-sensory collision of contemporary digital art and Chinese romance. The exhibition will deconstruct the subtleties of black lacquer and gold painting layer by layer, presenting a rich and vivid oriental aesthetics. Standing up and standing up, you can taste the exquisiteness of the orient everywhere; sitting and lying down, you can appreciate the wave that all nations belong to the world.
An 18th Century Black Lacquer Gold Baroque Jewelry Chest
This box combines Baroque style and Chinese style. Among them, the classic representative of the Baroque style – the auxiliary decoration composed of plants, shells, scrolls, overlapping lines and other decorative patterns has become the main body, and the decorations near the innermost circle are painted with various traditional Chinese Bogu patterns. The flower opening on the front depicts a traditional Chinese family scene – under the pavilion and trees, the couple sits on the embroidered pier, the children look happy and content, and the characters are vividly depicted. On the side, pavilions, towers, pavilions and noble life scenes are also painted with the technique of tracing gold. When the cabinet is opened, five layers of drawers can be seen, and the surface of each layer of drawers is decorated with flowers of various colors. The inner wall of the jewelry box is also painted with black lacquer, and the inner wall of the jewelry box door is painted with patterns such as butterflies, bamboo, rocks, flowers, etc., with delicate shapes.
Traditional Chinese craftsmanship has been further extended and developed in contemporary art. The last part of this dream composed of black lacquer and gold is exhibited two sets of contemporary black lacquer and gold works by Weng Jijun and Vincent Qi, as well as a set of digital art collections from Obvious Art, showing the world the application of gold painting in contemporary art and Fuxing.
As time goes by and time changes, this world is fickle, but what is eternal is the understanding and inheritance of ingenuity. Staying true to the original aspiration is the only way to persevere; KCG ’s efforts and persistence at this moment have brought about the stimulation of the Chinese cultural genes of the younger generation; unremittingly promoting cultural exchanges between the East and the West, and spreading the beauty of Chinese culture. The exhibition " K11 Craft Sleeping Tour" at Shanghai Station will be on view until November 13 , 2022 . After the exhibition in Shanghai, the exhibition will tour in other cities and is planned to be exhibited in France.
