Riding the wind of rebirth

The mounting process is actually the art of paste and water. When Zhou Zhi used a small alcohol stove and a small pot to prepare the starch water, the female host was already getting excited on the side, and her tone was quite surprising.

Zhang Siluo acted as a translator and asked Zhou Zhi what kind of high-end secret medicine it was.

Zhou Zhi smiled and said: "This is starch. The adhesive that is boiled out is actually the paste that the Chinese have used for thousands of years."

The first two of the three works of the old president have been mounted on the wall. Today, only the one "Reasonable Pursuit" is left as a demonstration of the art of mounting.

The work is actually very simple. Spread a piece of poster on the table, then remove the trimmings and other decorations from the original work with the edges cut off. Place the painting on the poster with the center of the painting facing down. Sprinkle it with boiling water and cold water alternately, and roll it with a towel. Roll to remove the debris and adhesive between the painting center and the back frame, and then the back frame can be peeled off.

The back of the old president's calligraphy was mounted on Goryeo paper. This kind of paper had long been listed as tribute during the feudal dynasty of the Central Plains. Since the Tang Dynasty, it had been the paper used for high-end calligraphy and painting in the palace, so Zhou Zhi and Xu Bangda were no strangers to its performance.

However, the female host next to me is a novice. This column is also equivalent to a popular science column about intangible cultural heritage, and many questions arise one after another.

For example, how can paste glue prevent the work from problems such as food deterioration? Another example is that ink can smudge when written on rice paper. Why does it stop smearing after the work is completed and poured with hot and cold water? Dyed?

Zhou Zhi also answered these questions one by one, and also did a popular science on traditional Chinese painting.

The artistic creation of calligraphy and painting in North Korea basically started from the Song and Yuan Dynasties. Until 1945, they copied the art of the Central Plains. Whether it is calligraphy or painting, the style is the same as that of ancient China, especially the 1600s. In the seventh century, if you put the works of Korean painters and Chinese painters together, you can't tell the specific differences in creative styles and techniques between the two.

At that time, North Korea was known as "Little China", and this name did not come from nothing.

Therefore, Zhou Zhi only needs to explain the strokes and meanings of the old president's calligraphy, and explain which characteristics of the knot character can be used to analyze which calligraphy masters the old president has learned from, and what changes he has undergone in himself, and finally formed Current calligraphy style.

Then he talked about the reasons for the "disease" in the work, and changed the topic from the appreciation of calligraphy works to the mounting process. While chatting, he peeled off the cocoon paper on the back of the paper, leaving only the center of the mirror.

In the eyes of outsiders, the old president's work has been horribly damaged. The center of the painting has been torn apart and there are cracks everywhere. Added up, there are no less than dozens of large and small places.

But Zhou Zhi was very relaxed, and he did not engage in alarmism. He just told the host honestly that the damage to the work was not serious and it was very simple to repair.

The host was dumbfounded when he saw the work full of cracks. This is not serious, so what is serious?

Zhou Zhi explained with a smile that although there are many tear marks in this work, in the end they are all new wounds, and the nature of the damage is very simple and purely physical.

Compared with those ancient paintings in China that are thousands of years old, the scars on the body include physical, chemical, and biological scars. Many of them are superimposed and accumulated on each other. Many of them were broken into pieces when they were discovered, and the largest one was no more than the size of a playing card. kind of.

Thousands of years of dust and dirt are still mixed in. Compared with those paintings, the current works of the old president can really only be described as "simple".

While talking, Zhou Zhi began to piece together and repair the heart of the painting. He poured water on the heart of the painting, used the buoyancy of the water to carefully piece the cracks together, and then used cut rice paper strips to overlap the cracks. So that the traces of cracks are no longer visible to the naked eye. This is a delicate job, and it is also a skillful job, which can show the key to the high skill of mounting. Zhou Zhi took a horn skewer to pick and move on the heart of the painting, and the work created a sense of beauty. Not only Xu Bangda nodded repeatedly when he saw it, Even laymen like Minister Jin, Zhang Siluo and the female host can see Zhou Zhi's superb skills and confidence in his technique.

This is like a reverse shot of a cook cutting a cow. When Zhou Zhi repaired the last cracked piece of paper, the original work and the repair paper merged into one under the infiltration of water, and all the cracks in the original work disappeared to the point where they can no longer be seen with the naked eye. After coming out, everyone in the restoration room breathed a sigh of relief and burst into warm applause.

Although there are still paintings on the wall that have been restored to the original state of the two previous works of the old president, people who have not witnessed the restoration process with their own eyes cannot imagine how miraculous and difficult it is.

Zhou Zhi is very familiar with his skills. When everyone listened to his explanation, they had one thought in their mind, that is - this is it? What's so hard about this?

But when I watched him repair the first crack, I couldn't help but have another thought - if it were me, could this crack be so seamless?

After the sense of substitution was generated, looking at the careful restoration, I couldn't help but feel heartbroken. When the last step was completed, everyone not only breathed a sigh of relief, but also had a sense of participation and accomplishment, so the applause was particularly enthusiastic. sincere.

The repair is simple here. Next, you only need to paste the new life paper, brush the work on the wall and wait for it to dry.

Next, Zhou Zhi peeled off the other two pieces of calligraphy from the mounting wall, carefully ironed them with a low-temperature iron until they were absolutely flat, and then began the final decoration, trimming, edge banding, and framing operations.

Because the country attaches great importance to this restoration, and the materials used are very rare, which happens to be Zhou Zhi's strength. The country has spent so much effort, and Zhou Zhi of course has to explain it in detail to make the cost worthwhile.

When I learned that the paper used for mounting this time was found in China in the same year as the paper that was created, it was made by the same workers or even the same person. The decorative brocade border came from the collection of Qianlong's inner palace. It is a cultural relic in itself, and the outer frame is It was made of top-grade hardwood from Hainan Island, and the host couldn't help but stand in awe.

Of course, the restoration effect is also extremely intuitive. When the restoration and mounting of the two pieces of calligraphy are completely completed and hung on the wall, even to a layman, they are great things.

The work is decorated with the "one-color inlaid" technique.

The ears, which are the relatively wide excess parts on the left and right sides of the center of the painting, and the horizon, which are the upper and lower parts of the center of the painting, are all made of brown silk with dark Qianlong pattern orchid intestine pattern.

The strips, that is, the strips where the center of the painting touches the two ears on the horizon and the ground, are made of vermilion Qianlong Eight Answers Wen Gong Brocade.

The frame is made of old purple avocado, with micro carvings of pines, bamboos, plums and orchids on the four corners, which not only enhances the class but does not overwhelm the others.

Luxurious materials and exquisite craftsmanship make today's works completely new and magnificent.

Three days later, when the restoration of "Reasonable Pursuit" was completed, Li Jianxi came over again, accompanied by two ladies.