改革开放，为秀洲农民画走出国门，构筑起跨文化交流的桥梁。这次斐济画展并非秀洲农民画“国际首秀”，自诞生之日起，秀洲农民画就开始了环球之旅。秀洲农民画记录着这片土地上的故事，向世界描画中国的“美丽新农村”。

　　被喻为南太平洋“蓝宝石”的岛国斐济，最近吹起一阵浓浓的“中国风”。来自嘉兴的秀洲农民画展“五色土的浪漫”亮相斐济中国文化中心，40幅画卷一一展现了插秧、养蚕、种桑、逛庙会、踏白船等乡村场景，前来观展的斐济市民、当地艺术家以及华人仿佛一脚踏进了中国的秀丽江南。

　　开幕式上，随行的秀洲农民画家代表缪惠新，在现场支起画架作画。随着他最后一笔落下，一位梳着麻花辫的淳朴姑娘跃然纸上。这幅名为《三姐》的画作于2017年在中国美术馆展出，这次来到斐济办展，他重现了这幅经典之作。

　　缪惠新在现场作画时，斐济教育遗产艺术部部长罗西·阿克巴女士走到画桌前，邀请缪惠新替她也画一幅农民画像，还打趣地说“要画成中国女人的样子”。

　　“秀洲风格”这样形成

　　在中国的艺术史上，农民画是最独特的画种之一。画风自成一派，自由夸张、色彩艳丽、乡土气息浓厚，并且具有强烈的时代感和鲜明的地域色彩。农民画可以说是一种在农村土生土长的民间艺术，它来自农村，完全由农民创作，以农村生活与农村风俗为主要题材，记录着农民生活中的所见所闻。

　　嘉兴秀洲区位于浙江省北部，地处杭嘉湖平原，河道纵横，水草丰茂。历史悠久的马家浜文化和源远流长的运河文化，丰富多彩的乡风民俗和民间技艺，滋养着秀洲人民对美、对艺术的感知。

　　上世纪80年代，全国掀起一阵农民画热潮，各地涌现了不少优秀画乡，与嘉兴秀洲邻近的上海金山就是著名画乡之一。1983年，20多名来自秀洲农村的美术爱好者，前往上海金山参观学习农民画。在金山，他们不仅学习了农民画的绘画技巧，还萌发了无限的创作灵感。回到秀洲后，这些青年画家立刻拿起画笔，把秀洲的山山水水、农忙生活画了下来。

　　虽然在发展初期受到了金山农民画的影响，但秀洲农村的绘画爱好者们在不断探索中形成了独特的“秀洲风格”。金山农民画的主要创作群体是曾从事刺绣工作的女性，她们从剪纸、刺绣、漆绘、灶头画等民间艺术中锤炼技巧，绘制的作品画面清丽、线条流畅，独具女性的柔和气质和江南水乡风韵。秀洲农民画家以农村青年为主，并且受到蓝印花布、雕花糕模、泥塑蚕猫等本地民间技艺的影响。秀洲区文化馆副馆长杨海萍说：“秀洲农民画更有青年人的蓬勃朝气，色彩运用更大胆，人物线条更夸张，情感表达更奔放。”

　　领军人物原来是他

　　秀洲农民画艺术之旅的启航，离不开一个人——缪惠新。

　　缪惠新是秀洲农民画的领军人物。他自1983年开始创作农民画，他的作品不仅是记录农村生活的民间画，也是阐述中国元素的现代艺术。他曾多次赴德国、澳大利亚、日本、瑞典等国家交流展出，近100幅作品被中国美术馆、美国波特兰博物馆及中外友人、收藏家收藏。1998年，缪惠新被美国《时代周刊》杂志评为“亚洲十位艺术家”之一。

　　然而在正式拿起画笔之前，缪惠新的手里握着的是镰刀和锄头。

　　1959年，缪惠新出生在嘉兴秀洲油车港镇栖真村的一户农家，祖祖辈辈都是依水而生、靠天吃饭的农民。在日复一日的劳作中，缪惠新度过了少年时代，也在秀洲的绿水黑土间萌生了对绘画的喜爱。他自己攒钱买来画具、颜料，自学绘画，白天在地里忙活，晚上就在灯下创作，一有灵感就立刻下笔作画，连旧报纸上都涂满了颜料。

　　1983年，中国举办了首届“中国农民画画展”，缪惠新凭借农民画作品《乡情》一举成名。从《乡情》《七牛图》开始，缪惠新笔耕不辍，每年至少创作30幅作品，家乡的亲友、山水、草木、动物都是他眼中最好的题材，他说“恨不得把眼前的生活，都入了画中。”

　　上世纪90年代，缪惠新和他的作品第一次走出国门。令人颇为感动的是，缪惠新“海外首秀”之所以能够得以举办，缘起于和一位英国友人长达八年的跨洋之约。1987年，缪惠新的首次个人画展在北京举办。在那次画展上，一位英国人主动找到缪惠新，要替他在国外办展。1993年，两人重遇，英国友人再一次提出了当初的约定，他说，“如果你相信我，就让我带走你的画”。1995年，在这位英国朋友的努力下，缪惠新的作品带着中国农村的泥土芬芳亮相法国。自此，缪惠新的海外之旅不断增添新的目的地。

　　因频繁的出访与跨文化交流，缪惠新被不少海外媒体誉称为“东方毕加索”。对于这个盛名，缪惠新却并不在意：“这是别人给我的‘帽子’，但我不想做‘东方毕加索’，我想做‘中国缪惠新’。”

　　缪惠新说自己不仅想做好传承，更想突破传统农民画的框架，让农民画不再是单纯地记录农村生活，而是要向现代艺术靠近。中国美术家协会副主席、浙江省文联主席许江评价道，缪惠新是东方现代绘画中他最喜欢的画家之一。

　　“金名片”走出国门

　　与陕西户县、上海金山、山东日照等传统画乡相比，秀洲起步较晚，但幸运的是，秀洲抓住了改革开放这一前所未有的机遇，走到了中国农民画梯队的前列。缪惠新感慨道，“中国改革开放，让农民从土地上解放出来。种地之余，开始表达自己内心的喜好和情感。”

　　秀洲农民画的草创，离不开缪惠新等第一代画家的苦心经营；而农民画的蓬勃发展，离不开源源不断的新生力量。30多年的岁月流淌，秀洲农民画家从最初的8人发展到如今的100多人，储备画乡新秀2000余人，个人画室8个。越来越多的美术爱好者加入到农民画的创作行列之中，队伍不断壮大，优秀作品也纷纷涌现。

　　据秀洲区文化馆不完全统计，迄今为止，已有近1000幅作品先后斩获国家级和省市级奖项，400多幅作品被中国美术馆、中央美院等国家展馆收藏。

　　2005年起，部分学校自编教材开设农民画课程；2018年，《我学秀洲农民画》编撰完成，农民画课程正式走入校园，为农民画的传承注入了新鲜活力。

　　改革开放，为秀洲农民画走出国门构筑起了跨文化交流的桥梁。这次斐济画展并非秀洲农民画的“国际首秀”，自诞生之日起，秀洲农民画早就开始了环球之旅。

　　上世纪八九十年代，秀洲有将近100多位农民画家、300多幅农民画作品不断走出国门，展出地遍及美国、德国、日本、瑞士、挪威等国家。农民画俨然成了秀洲民间文化的“金名片”。

　　2004年，中法建交40周年之际，秀洲绘制的8件巨幅农民画作品参加了在巴黎举行的“中国文化年”彩车大游行。2006年，英国伦敦举办了“寻梦浙江——中国浙江古镇风情摄影图片展、浙江秀洲农民画展”。2009年，应德中友好协会邀请，“秀洲农民画展”来到德国卡尔斯鲁厄。2015年，“美丽浙江——浙江农风渔俗画展”在捷克举行。

　　今年7月初，应芬兰伊马特拉市市长罗斯莱卡·凯·尤哈尼邀请，30幅秀洲农民画作品赴芬兰举办“中国秀洲现代民间绘画艺术展”。离开芬兰后，秀洲农民画继续漂洋过海，横跨欧亚大陆，来到了位于南太平洋上的斐济。

　　越是民族的，越是世界的。围绕“一带一路”倡议，秀洲农民画迎来了跨文化交流的新契机。用生活作笔，以热爱为墨，秀洲农民画正记录着这片土地上的故事，正记录着人与自然的和谐，正向世界描绘着中国的“美丽新农村”。

Romance of  the Five Colors of Earth: Xiuzhou Farmers' Paintings, a 15-day exhibition commencing at the Chinese Culture Center of Fiji on July 24, 2019, brought the elegant beauty of a Chinese water town into the island country reputed as "the sapphire of South Pacific".

At the opening ceremony, Miao Huixin, representing the rural painters from Xiuzhou in northern Zhejiang, wowed the visitors by reproducing his representative work, , first unveiled at an exhibition in the National Art Museum of China in 2017. Miao is from Xiuzhou, a 500-square-kilometer district of Jiaxing, a central city in northern Zhejiang. The district is sandwiched on two sides respectively by Shanghai to the east and Hangzhou to the west.

An interesting episode of the opening ceremony was contributed by Hon. Rosy Akbar, Minister for Education, Heritage, Arts of Fiji. She went up to the stage and invited Miao Huixin to make a portrait of her. She insisted that Miao should create her image that "looks like a Chinese woman".

The exhibition in Fiji repeated the success of an exhibition of 30 works by Xiuzhou artists in Imatra, a town and municipality in eastern Finland, in early July of this year.

Farmers’ painting is one of the most unique forms in the painting art family of China, standing out for its distinctive freestyle in "local flavor" motifs demonstrating strong regional features, and vibrant color schemes. Dating back to the mid-20th century, this vibrating variation of Chinese art is deeply rooted in the country’s rural lifestyle, invented and practiced actively by rural residents only. According to some scholars, the prototype of the art form falls into the "wall painting" category, more often than not improvised by laborers engaged in farm work. In its earlier stage, paintings were mostly created to motivate agricultural productivity against the scarcity caused by the so-called three-year-long Great Famine in the early 1960s.

The farmers’ painting gets inspiration from various traditional Chinese arts including paper-cutting, embroidery, shadow play, etc. Decades of exploratory practice has blossomed into a mature style characteristic of full, robust composition, and bold, flamboyant colors so strong that almost spill out of the frame. Such a style also reflects the straight-forward disposition of farmers, their fierce passion for life, and wild imagination that breaks all clichés of traditional Chinese painting.

That "art originates from life" precisely defines this down-to-earth art. The farmers’ painting of the 1970s demonstrated more realism than before. The style of farmers’ painting leaned toward politics from the 1970s to the early 1980s, but gradually broke away from political motifs towards the end of the 20th century, and developed into what it is today in the new Chinese social climate of reform and openness.

The farmers’ painting of Xiuzhou has its unique features derived from the region’s long-time prosperity and the Grand Canal culture that has nurtured the region for more than one thousand years. People in Xiuzhou are born with an eye for aesthetic beauty. The 1980s saw the rise of Xiuzhou’s first generation of painting enthusiasts. They visited and learned from their rural counterpart artists based in neighboring Jinshan, Shanghai. They came back with basic skills and the determination to create a unique "Xiuzhou style". Women with experiences in embroidery have played a big part in such innovation, and young art enthusiasts have brought youthful vigor into the vibrant scenes of Xiuzhou farmers’ painting.

"Young people tend to be more imaginative and unrestrained when it comes to expressing their feelings," emphasizes Yang Haiping, Deputy Director of Xiuzhou Culture Center.

One cannot talk about Xiuzhou farmers’ painting without mentioning Miao Huixin, whose three decades of exploration has contributed a magnificent chapter to Xiuzhou farmers’ painting as a self-contained art form. His artworks have been displayed in a dozen countries including Japan and Sweden, and have found their way into private and public collections all over the world. He was rated in 1998 by TIME (Asia) magazine as one of the "Top 10 Artists in Asia" for his great achievements in such a unique art form.

Born in Qizhen Village in Youchegang Town, Xiuzhou in 1959, Miao Huixin never got a chance to hone his skills in a standard art school. The turning point came in 1983, when he shot to fame at the first China Farmers’ Painting Exhibition.

His works made their debut overseas in the 1990s. With the recommendation and arrangements by a British friend he made at a solo exhibition in Beijing in 1987, Miao Huixin landed in France with his works permeated with the fragrance of Chinese soil, in 1995. The debut opened up a whole new world to him, and the influence of Western art further enriched his creation.

"I was mentioned by the Western media as 'Picasso from China'. I never take such a title seriously, because I want only to be myself. I’d rather be called 'Miao Huixin from China'", says the artist.