Chinese mural art is an important part of the art with Chinese national characteristics and an important vein in the development of art in New China. The ancient Silk Road gave birth to Chinese traditional murals and formed the exchange and prosperity of mural art along the "the Belt and Road". Inspired by the "the Belt and Road" initiative, the mural art committee of China Artists Association, in cooperation with Xinjiang kuci Research Institute, held the first "Silk Road traditional mural art seminar" in 2015, sounding the clarion call of the times for the mural research of the "the Belt and Road". Subsequently, the mural art committee of China Artists Association, Sichuan Academy of fine arts and Chongqing Artists Association jointly held the "second mural forum of countries along the the Belt and Road" at Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts in 2016. Recently, "the third 'the Belt and Road' mural Forum - research and Exhibition on the reproduction and restoration of traditional murals" came to Sichuan Academy of fine arts again, bringing together 200 mural reproduction and restoration works from Dunhuang Research Institute, Kucha Research Institute, Shaanxi History Museum, Yongle Palace mural Protection Institute, restoration research Institute of Central Academy of fine arts, Liu Haisu Art College of Jiangsu Institute of technology, and Sichuan Academy of fine arts, It comprehensively presents the latest achievements of the research on the reproduction and restoration of traditional Chinese murals.

In this exhibition, there are not only the copy works of the older generation of famous artists such as Dong Xiwen, Wu Guanzhong, Liu Wenxi, Huang Yongyu, fan jin'ao, Lin fan, Duan Wenjie, Du Xianqing, but also a large number of fine works copied and restored by young and middle-aged artists. In the works, we can see not only the traditional methods with "objective copying", "sorting copying" and "restoring copying" as the basic procedures, but also the effective attempts of "innovative copying" and "exploratory copying" by using the latest scientific and technological achievements. With a brand-new visual presentation and multi-channel communication mode, the exhibition allows the Millennium murals to go out of caves and temples, into the exhibition hall, into the public, realize the ideal of art serving the society, and activate the cultural and aesthetic values of traditional murals.

The purpose of this forum and exhibition is to "take root in China", "strengthen cultural confidence", "inherit the Chinese context" and "carry forward the Chinese spirit", explore the paths and methods of traditional mural reproduction and restoration research, exchange the latest achievements and experiences, build an exchange platform between research institutions and art colleges, and jointly promote the great prosperity and development of traditional mural art along the "the Belt and Road".

Mountains and forests are opened by the blue thread of the road

The reproduction and restoration of traditional murals began in the 1940s. In May, 1941, during the war of resistance against Japan, in order to explore the artistic origin of Chinese painting, draw rich artistic nutrition from ancient murals, inherit and revitalize the traditional culture of the Chinese nation, Zhang Daqian, who taught at Chengdu Nanhong Art College (the predecessor of Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts), together with his wife Yang Wanjun, his second son Zhang Zhixin and dozens of students, came to Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes after a long journey. It took two years and seven months for Zhang Daqian to complete the numbering of 309 caves, becoming the first person to number the Mogao Grottoes. He copied 276 Dunhuang murals, making a positive contribution to the preservation of cultural heritage. Zhang Daqian conducted fruitful research on Dunhuang grotto art, pioneered the study of Dunhuang murals in the painting circle, introduced the extensive and profound oriental art and Dunhuang grotto murals to the world, and played an inestimable role in promoting the understanding and popularization of Chinese art in the world. The "white paintings" preserved in Zhang Daqian's Dunhuang reproductions are of great value for the study of mural powder. According to Zhang Zhixin, "he also invited Tibetan painters to Dunhuang to assist in copying work in Xining, Qinghai Province. In order to respect the achievements of others' labor and be responsible for the copied works, Zhang Daqian marked the name of the painter on each painting. Therefore, many of his copied murals were marked with the words' the same painting of a monk '."

The development and rise of "Dunhuang Studies" awakened and stimulated the national pride and patriotic enthusiasm of Chinese people at the critical juncture of national survival. As a result, it has become the spiritual source for many painters to study mural art one after another. The painters represented by Zhang Daqian, duanwenjie, Shi Weixiang, ouyanglin, Li qiqiong, etc. in the long process of more than a century, they worked hard and devoted themselves to research and vigorously publicize, which gradually established a complete and scientific system for the replication and restoration of Dunhuang murals.

Looking around the exhibition hall, Dong Xiwen's copy of the Dunhuang mural Mogao Grottoes "cave 428 of the Northern Zhou Dynasty" attracted attention. This work was copied in 1944. It has both the charm of freehand brushwork and the delicacy of fine brushwork. Dong Xiwen emphasized his absolute loyalty to the spirit of the original, and tried to achieve the original color state when copying. This fully shows his unique understanding and deep understanding of the color of Dunhuang murals, as well as his pioneering exploration for the color research of Dunhuang murals. What is more valuable is that the breadth and depth of traditional murals nourish Dong Xiwen's dedication to art with Chinese national characteristics, and greatly enhance and strengthen his confidence and determination to explore the nationalization of oil painting, which is inseparable from his later becoming an advocate and practitioner of "Chinese style of oil painting".

Rooted in tradition and activated innovation

Today, under the guidance of national strategy and the support of strong national strength, more research institutions and art colleges have invested in the research of reproduction and restoration of traditional murals. The rapid progress of science and technology, the continuous improvement of research level and the exploration and application of new materials and new techniques have not only ushered in an unprecedented prosperity of the research of reproduction and restoration of traditional murals, but also gave birth to a large number of people who dared to try Actively explore the new forces of murals.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the outstanding works represented by the murals of the capital airport illuminated a new situation in the development of contemporary murals. Nezha naohai by Zhang Ding and others, water splashing Festival - hymn of life by Yuan Yunsheng, biography of white snake by Li Huaji and Quan Zhenghuan, song of the forest by Zhu Danian, folk dance by Zhang Guofan, Bashan SHUSHUI by Yuan Yunfu, spring sky by Xiao Huixiang and other excellent works have become classics and benchmarks of mural creation since the founding of new China. In the past 40 years from this period to the present, mural paintings have continuously emerged. Among them, Hou Yimin and Deng Shu's "flowers bloom", Liu Bingjiang's "creation · harvest · joy", Tang Xiaohe and Cheng Li's "Chu Music", sun Jingbo's "Mongolian national hero", Wang Yingsheng's "hope of Mongolian Grassland", Tang Hui's "giant of world history", Li linzhuo's "charm of tea", Sun Tao's "range rover in the North Sea" and other works have become symbols of the continuous string songs and passing down of firewood in Chinese murals.

In the 21st century, the rapid development of urban construction has continuously expanded the public sphere, and the improvement of people's aesthetic needs has provided a broader space for contemporary mural creation. Contemporary murals innovate in inheritance, develop in innovation, inherit Chinese aesthetic characteristics, show Chinese aesthetic style, and commit to the creative transformation and innovative development of traditional culture.

In today's research on the reproduction and restoration of traditional murals, professional institutions and art colleges have generally used the latest achievements of contemporary science and technology to establish a relatively complete contemporary scientific research system. Due to the irreversibility of mural restoration, computer simulation restoration and replication data analysis are particularly important. The wide application of modern data acquisition technology has formed operating procedures from field investigation, data acquisition, data processing, information storage to network application, and established corresponding normative standards and technical parameter indicators, thus providing a more scientific theoretical basis for the replication and restoration of traditional murals. The application of new materials and technologies has greatly expanded the space and dimension of mural reproduction and restoration research. For example, the use of new aviation honeycomb panel has the advantages of large surface, high strength, light weight, good flatness and simple installation, which provides convenience for the subsequent storage, installation, transportation and exhibition of copied works. Thanks to the high-definition mural software processing data, researchers have obtained clearer image information than in the past at the mural scene, making the mural more accurate in detail description and coloring, and realizing the true restoration of the mural.

The continuous renewal of the protection concept and the effective support of scientific and technological means have also led to the gradual development of traditional mural protection from "guard type" protection and "rescue" protection to "preventive" protection, thus greatly enhancing the effectiveness of mural protection. For example, the murals in the tomb of Han Xiu in the Tang Dynasty excavated in 2014 used high-tech means to move the music and dance, landscape and rosefinch as a whole, and the rest were uncovered and retrieved in traditional ways, avoiding the artificial destruction of tomb robbers and the natural damage caused by the long-term humidity of the tomb. The reproduction and restoration of traditional murals in a larger scope, in a larger number, and more accurately, make them become the "new fixed foundation" of the regeneration of traditional murals, and it is also one of the effective measures to "prevent" the protection of traditional murals.

We have reason to believe that Chinese mural art will usher in a more prosperous tomorrow. (author: Huangshan, director of the Department of Chinese painting of Sichuan Academy of fine arts, member of the mural art committee of the Chinese Artists Association)