The art of modern China 9780520953437, 9780520271067, 9780520238145

Table of contents :
Frontmatter
Acknowledgments (page ix)
Map (page xii)
Introduction (page xiii)
1 Chinese Art in the Age of Imperialism: The Opium War to the Treaty of Shimonoseki, 1842-1895 (page 1)
2 Art in the Creation of a New Nation: The Overthrow of the Qing and the Early Republic, 1895-1920 (page 27)
3 Art in the New Culture of the 1920s (page 47)
4 Modern Art in the 1930s (page 73)
5 The Golden Age of Guohua in the 1930s (page 93)
6 Art in Wartime, 1937-1949 (page 115)
7 Western-Style Art under Mao, 1949-1966 (page 139)
8 Ink Painting, Lianhuanhua, and Woodcuts under Mao, 1949-1966 (page 161)
9 Art of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, 1966-1976 (page 183)
10 Art after Mao, 1976-1989 (page 201)
11 Alternative Chinas: Hong Kong and Taiwan (page 225)
12 No U-Turn: Chinese Art after 1989 (page 257)
13 The New Millennium, and the Chinese Century (page 279)
Glossary and List of Characters (page 297)
Major Events in Modern Chinese Art (page 309)
Notes (page 327)
Selected Bibliography (page 345)
Index (page 355)

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On LH UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley Los Angeles London

Off A AHMANSON: FINE ARTSMURPHY IMPRINT

THE AHMANSON FOUNDATION has endowed this imprint

to honor the memory of

FRANKLIN D MURPHY who for half a century served arts and letters, beauty and learning, in equal measure by shaping

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The Art of Modern China

i

On LH UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley Los Angeles London

Modern China

The publisher gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the Art Endowment Fund of the University of California Press Foundation, which was established by a major gift from the Ahmanson Foundation. The publisher also gratefully acknowledges the generous contributions to this book provided by the following individuals and organizations. James H. Andrews Carolyn Hsu-Balcer & René Balcer Barclay & Sharon Simpson Laurie & David Ying

Arts & Humanities, The Ohio State University University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu. University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California

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Cover images, from left: Fang Lijun, Series 7, No. 2; Ren Xiong, Self-portrait; Chen Yanning, New Doctor in the Fishing Village

‘To our parents

Shi Weijin and Shen Mi James P. and Catharine A. Andrews for their inspiration and encouragement

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Acknowledgments / ix

Map / xii Introduction / xiii 1. Chinese Art in the Age of Imperialism: The Opium War to the Treaty of Shimonoseki, 1842-1895 / 1

2. Art in the Creation of a New Nation: The Overthrow of the Qing and the Early Republic, 1895-1920 / 27

3. Artin the New Culture of the 1920s / 47

4 Modern Artin the1930s / 73 5 ‘The Golden Age of Guohua in the 1930s / 93

6 Artin Wartime, 1937-1949 / 115 7 Western-Style Art under Mao, 1949-1966 / 139 8 Ink Painting, Lianhuanhua, and Woodcuts under Mao, 1949-1966 / 161 9 Art of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, 1966-1976 / 183

10 Art after Mao, 1976-1989 / 201 11. Alternative Chinas: Hong Kong and Taiwan / 225 12. No U-Turn: Chinese Art after 1989 / 257 13. The New Millennium, and the Chinese Century? / 279 Glossary and List of Characters / 297 Major Events in Modern Chinese Art / 309

Notes / 327 Selected Bibliography / 345

Index / 355

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Acknowledgments

A book of this scope could never have been accomplished without the help and kindness of too many people—artists, colleagues, friends, students, and family—scattered in too many places, over too long a time, for us to name them all. We are immensely grateful to everyone who has sustained us on this fascinating and unpredictable journey. We would like to thank the curators, librarians, archivists, and collectors we have visited, the art historians who have lent us support and advice, and the artists who have patiently responded to our many requests for help.

We owe scholarly debts to a great many individuals. In Shanghai we would like to extend our warmest thanks to curators Shan Guolin, Zhong Yinglan, Li Weikun, Lin Lizhong, Chen Kelun, their former colleague Zheng Wei, and the late directors Ma Chengyuan and Wang Qingzheng of the Shanghai Museum. Chen Xianxing and Liang Ying of the Shanghai Library have been extraordinarily helpful. At the Shanghai Calligraphy and Painting Publishing House and Duoyunxuan we particularly appreciate the help of Lu Fusheng, Zhu Junbo, Huang Jian, Qi Lan, Xu Ke, and Mao Ziliang, and at Shanghai People’s Fine Arts Publishing House that of Gong Jixian, Deng Ming, Bao Yufei, Ha Qiongwen, He Youzhi, and Zhao Guohui. Lorenz Heibling of Shangart has been very generous with documentary materials. At Pictorial Shanghai, Zhao Songhua has provided essential help, as have the staff members of the Shanghai Museum of History, the Shanghai Municipal Archives, and the Shanghai Art Museum.

In Beijing our friends and teachers from the Central Academy of Fine Arts—Pan Gongkai, Xu Bing, Xue Yongnian, Shao Dazhen, Jin Shangyi, Zhan Jianjun, Pang Tao, Lin Gang, Yin Jinan, Zhao Li, Wang Huangsheng, Lin Yan, and Jiang Wen— have assisted us significantly over the years. Shan Guogiang and Yu Hui of the ix

Palace Museum, as well as their colleagues in the depart- The sabbatical year we spent in Tokyo in 2003-2004 was ments of Painting and Calligraphy and Conservation, have too wonderful for words, and we cannot sufficiently thank been particularly helpful. At the National Art Museum our friends Hiromitsu Kobayashi of Sophia University and of China (NAMOC, formerly the Chinese National Art — Keiko Kobayashi, gifted textile artist, for their extraordiGallery), we would like to thank Fan Dian, Liu Xiling, nary help, hospitality, and friendship. In Kyoto, Nishigami Zhang Qing, Xu Hong, and Zheng Zuoliang. At the for- Minoru and Kure Motoyuki of the Kyoto National Museum mer Museum of Revolutionary History (now the National generously arranged our viewings in the Kansai region. We Museum of China), we are grateful to Chen Liisheng, Li are also grateful to Ogawa Hiromitsu and Itakura Masaaki Rencai, Huang Gaogian, Pan Qing, and Yang Yan. In addi- _ of the Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia (Toy6 bunka tion, we would like to thank Liao Jingwen, Xu Fangfang, kenkyujo) of Tokyo University for their great help. Ajioka and the staff of the Xu Beihong Memorial Museum; Shui —_-Yoshindo of the Shoto Museum of Art, Shibuya, Yumino Tianzhong, Lang Shaojun, Liu Xiaochun, and Gu Sen of Takayuki of the Osaka Municipal Museum, Kawada the Chinese National Academy of Arts in Beijing; Chen = Masayuki of the Kuboso Memorial Museum in Izumi, Ruilin of Tsinghua University College of Arts; Weng Lingof = and Furuhashi Kenzo of the Kampokan Museum in Shiga Beijing Center for the Arts; and Zhu Qingsheng of Peking have been generous in showing their collections. We are

University. also grateful for the help of Furuichi Yasuko of the Japan

In Nanjing Ma Hongzhen of the Jiangsu Provincial Art Foundation, the staff of the National Research Institute for Gallery; Wan Xinhua and the staff of the Nanjing Provincial | Cultural Properties, Tokyo, and the library of the Museum Museum; and Song Yulin, Xiao Ping, Xu Lei, and the — of Contemporary Art, Tokyo. late Song Wenzhi and Ya Ming of the Jiangsu Provincial We are grateful to our colleagues in Europe for giving us Painting Institute provided great help. We have enjoyed the the opportunity to see their collections. At Leiden University advice and assistance of Chen Beixin, Cheng Zhen, and —_ our work was made possible by Oliver Moore, Francesca dal Peng De of Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts; Luo Zhongli and Lago, and Stefan Landsberger, and at Heidelberg University Feng Bin of Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts in Chongqing; — by Barbara Mittler. Uta Rahman-Steinert of the Museum Li Huanming, A Ge, and Xu Kuang of the Sichuan Artists of Asian Art, Berlin (Museum ftir Asiatische Kunst, Berlin); Association in Chengdu; Lin Mu of Sichuan University; | Adele Schlombs of the Museum of East Asian Art, Cologne Zhou Chunya of the Chengdu Painting Institute; Chen (Museum ftir Ostasiatische Kunst in Cologne); Jan Stuart

Ying of Guangzhou Museum of Art; Huang Zhuan and and Clarissa von Spee of the British Museum; and Eric Li Weiming of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts; — Lefebvre of the Musée Cernuschi in Paris have been generYang Xiaoyan of Zhongshan University; Pi Daojian of — ous with their collections. John Finlay in Paris and Lucie South China Normal University; Dong Xiaoming and Yan — Ollivova in Prague were particularly kind. Shancun of the Shenzhen Painting Institute; Le Zhenwei at Our intellectual debts to our mentors are incalculable, the He Xiangning Art Museum, Shenzhen; and Lu Hong of and we are deeply grateful for the teaching and inspira-

the Shenzhen Art Museum. tion of James Cahill, Ellen Johnston Laing, Ralph Croizier, Our great thanks go to Christina Chu, Szeto Yuen-kit, | and Michael Sullivan. Howard and Mary Ann Rogers have and Maria Mok of the Hong Kong Museum of Art; May- helped us more than anyone else knows. Finally, we are ching Kao, Peter Lam, and Harold Mok of the Chinese immensely grateful for the scholarly support and friendUniversity of Hong Kong; Johnson Tsong-zung Chang and ship of Richard Vinograd, Jerome Silbergeld, Ginger Hsu, the staff of Hanart TZ; Claire Hsu and the staff of the Asia Julia White, Joseph Chang, Maxwell Hearn, Joan Lebold Art Archive, Hong Kong; Chou Kung-hsin, Wang Yao- Cohen and Jerome A. Cohen, Joshua Fogel, Joan Judge, Jay ting, and Ho Clvuan-hsin of the Palace Museum, Taipei; Levenson, Shengtian Zheng, Wen-hsin Yeh, Xiaomei Chen, and Yen Chuan-ying, Shih Shou-chien, and the staff of the Scarlett Jang, Marsha Weidner, Wu Hung, Michael Knight, Institute of History and Philology, as well as Wang Cheng- Katharine Burnett, Myroslava Mudrak, Christopher Reed, hua and Lai Yu-chih of the Institute of Modern History, at Patricia Berger, Sarah Fraser, Hong Zaixin, Jason Kuo, Gao Academia Sinica, Taipei. We have enjoyed the warm hospi- = Minglu, Melissa Chiu, Rita Wong, Elinor Pearlstein, Josh

tality and scholarly support of Chiang Po-hsin of National Yiu, Anita Chung, Felicity Lufkin, Richard King, Peter Tainan University of the Arts; Huang Kuang-nan, former — Sturman, Hui-shu Lee, Tamaki Maeda, Aida Yuen Wong, director of the National Museum of History; Ho Chen- Mark Haxtausen, Wu Yi, and Shen Row'er. It is always an kuang of Artist Magazine; and the staff of the National edifying delight to talk about Chinese art with our friend

Taiwan Museum of Art in Taichung. Arnold Chang, as well as with Zhang Hong. This book owes x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

much to Jane Debevoise for her steady friendship and con- — Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, the Chiang stant collegial support. We are no less appreciative of the © Ching-kuo Foundation, the Ohio State University, the Uniwork of many friends and colleagues whose work we have versity of California, San Diego, Ohio University, the East not explicitly mentioned here. Any merit in our book is — Asian Studies Center at Stanford University, the Sterling indebted to our fellow scholars who labor to chart thisnew — Clark Professorship at Williams College, and the Hulsewéscholarly field, but its flaws must remain our own. Wazniewski Professorship at the University of Leiden. We would also like to thank our past and present gradu- We would like to particularly thank Christine Verzar, ate students for their help, particularly Zhang Rui, Tongyun Mark Fullerton, Andrew Shelton, and Lisa Florman at Ohio Yin, Lesley Ma, Ying Chua, Su-hsing Lin, Zhou Yan, Wei State, and Norman Bryson, Grant Kester, Jack Greenstein, Lin, Eliza Ho, Christina Burke Mathison, Walter B. Davis, Paul Pickowicz, Joseph Esherick, Yingjin Zhang, and WaiMayumi Kamata, Yanfei Zhu, Yang Wang, Bonnie Mei-lan _ lim Yip at University of California, San Diego, for past and

Yeung, and Michael Ku. present support and encouragement. At home our work has also been greatly facilitated by To Deborah Kirshman and the University of California the energetic and effective support of our past and pres- —_ Press we would like to express our gratitude for unwavering

ent librarians at Ohio State University: Susan Wyngaard, faith in our project, and for enormous patience in the face Maureen Donovan, Amanda Gluibizzi, Guoging Li, and — of what must have seemed like endless delays. Our great Miroljub Ruzic; and by James Chen and Victoria Chu of thanks as well to Kari Dalgren and Eric Schmidt for seeing

the University of California-San Diego. the book through the review, editing, and production proWe are immensely grateful to friends and family mem- _ cess; to Dave Peattie and Amy Smith Bell for editing; and to bers who have contributed financially to the publication of | Nicole Hayward for her thoughtful and appealing design.

this volume, particularly Laurie and David Ying, James H. We dedicate this book to our parents, for whom the Andrews, Carolyn Hsu-Balcer, and René Balcer. The Ohio enterprise of education has always been so important. We State University and the University of California, San Diego, — would also like to express our fond appreciation to our chilhave provided further publication subventions. Our research dren, Ted, Sophia, Alex, and Andy, and our siblings, Gary, has been made possible by the support of the Fulbright Pro- Susan, Jim, Luyi, and Marian, for sharing our family life gram (Japan), the Social Science Research Council, the with the art of modern China.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi

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ntroduction

What is modern Chinese art? In the twenty-first century, as skyscrapers rose over its major cities, China was embraced by the international art world. Many of its internationally oriented artists work in video, digital photography, installation art, and performance, constantly exploring the potential that new technologies offer them. Others experiment with old technologies—ink on paper, prints from wood, oil on canvas, or bamboo and wire. Yet for most, artistic connections to the universal, the international, the global, the central, the present are counterbalanced by ties to the personal, the national, the local, the peripheral, and the past. Further tensions among these identities conspire to break down simple polarities and to subject the individual artist to the pull of a web of aesthetic, social, and economic forces. Which strands in this net make modern Chinese art “modern”? And which make it Chinese? These are essentialist questions that a postmodern society may someday leave

behind, but they have comprised the fundamental concepts around which the art of twentieth-century China has revolved. A hundred years ago, when China's last imperial

dynasty was overthrown, Chinese art was a simple concept—its highest achievement could be seen in landscape paintings and calligraphy rendered in ink on paper or silk. Within a decade of that event, however, in pursuit of a new Republican culture, projects to modernize society and culture began to challenge such definitions. From this point, the question of what role the modern and the traditional (and how each should be defined) should play in constructing a new culture for China became crucial. In each period, and to some degree in each region, such tensions have operated in slightly different ways. This book, which begins with the establishment by Western powers of semicolonial treaty port towns on China's coast, traces the variety of ways xiii

contemporary aspirations and traditional attachments Republic of China. Chapter 7 focuses on the ideologihave intersected to create the art world of modern China. cal justifications for “revolutionary art” in the writings of Chapter 1 focuses on the impact of new patronage, both = Mao Zedong, the implementation of socialist realism as the domestic and foreign, new technologies of photography guiding style of art, and the institutionalization of Western and lithography, and new cultural concerns on the develop- — forms—most notably oil painting but also sculpture and ment of styles of Chinese painting (gwohua) and calligraphy — architecture—as official art. This period is characterized in treaty port Shanghai between 1842 and 1895. Chapter 2, by an economic and cultural isolation from the Western which begins with Chinas defeat by Japan in 1895, examines — world, the banning of modernism and traditionalism, and the introduction of Western art and models of art educa- — the development of novel native forms. The ideologically tion to China in the first two decades of the twentieth cen- — motivated and politically enforced transformation of guotury. This era, which spanned both the Xinhai Revolution — Awa (Chinese painting), Hanhuanhua (serial picture illustraof 1911, when the Qing emperor was deposed, and the New tion), and woodblock prints under the Communist regime Culture movement of the late 1910s, which sought to build — between 1949 and 1966 is the subject of chapter 8. Chapthe foundations for a modern civilization, saw the return ter 9 focuses on the art produced under the most extreme of the first wave of artists from study abroad. It was also a form of Maoism during the Cultural Revolution, from 1966 period of vigorous criticism of the China of the past, includ- to 1976, and the unexpected effects of the rustication moveing its art, and an intensive focus on Western-style paint- |= ment, when millions of idealistic young people were sent ing (xihua—that is, oil painting, watercolors, and drawing) to the countryside, on the subsequent generation of artists. within newly formulated theoretical structures and insti- | After the death of Communist leader Mao Zedong in 1976, tutions of art. Chapter 3 addresses the theoretical, organi- a gradual reopening to the West began as well as a relaxation zational, and artistic responses by Chinese painters to the — of central controls on the economy and culture. A wave of wholesale Westernization of the New Culture movement. attempts to repair the damage of the Cultural Revolution Many of the most influential voices in support of traditional — followed. Chapter 10 focuses on the rejection of socialist Chinese art in the 1920s were foreign-educated, and the are- —_ utopianism. By the mid-198o0s a generation of young art-

nas in which they contended were the modern institutions _ ists, inspired by policies advocating an “open door,” broke

of college, exhibition, journal, and art society. through the stifling walls of conservatism to escape socialThe next two chapters follow the debates of the 1920s to _ist realism and express their own concerns in a new lantheir conclusion. In chapter 4 we turn our attention to the — guage. This period ended with the exuberant China/Avantflourishing of a cosmopolitan modernist art in the 1930s and Garde exhibition of February 1989 and the catastrophic

briefly examine the radical art societies that supported it. Tiananmen Massacre of June 4, 1989. Among its practitioners were advocates of modern oil paint- Chapter 11 takes a digression into the art of two foring, woodblock prints, and graphic design in an up-to-date mer colonial territories, the previously British Hong Kong European manner. Chapter 5 provides an account of the con- (1842-1997) and Japanese Taiwan (1895-1945), examining temporaneous flourishing of traditionalist ink painting, an _ similarities and differences in their colonial and postcolonial artist-led movement that came to the forefront of a collective experiences. In the 1980s these two “alternative Chinas” proeffort to build the new Chinese nation and its culture during —_ vided artistic models urgently sought by mainland artists to the Nanjing Decade (1927-37). The 1930s also saw the first —_— replace their Maoist art of the previous decades, but by the

broad public access to treasures of the imperial collection in 1990s postmodernism brought them into a new relationship exhibitions that exposed guo/ua artists to previously little- |= with mainland China and with the international art world. known techniques and compositions and inspired an innova- Returning in chapter 12 to the mainland, and the period tive renaissance of ink painting. The dazzling art world of the between 1989 and 2000, the aesthetic and political strug1930s fell dark with the Japanese invasion of 1937. Chapter 6 gles of China’s modern and postmodern art movements are looks at the efforts of artists to save their nation and to sur- —- viewed against the background of a socialist realist recent vive creatively during the eight-year war with Japan (1937— _— past. Over the course of the decade, relaxation of interna45) and the four-year civil war between the nationalists and _ tional travel restrictions and sales of art created a truly open

the Communists. The dispersal of artists from the metro- door for individuals and groups of artists to move beyond politan coastal regions, where China’s modern art world had what was possible domestically. Chapter 13 concentrates on developed, to inland territories had a strong impact on both the first decade of the twenty-first century, which is not yet the geographical reach of modern art and artistic concepts. history. Focusing on the rapid and systematic changes that Six chapters comprise a brief history of art in the People’s have profoundly transformed the art world in China, the

xiv INTRODUCTION

chapter discusses new exhibition structures, particularly events. For this reason artistic, social, and political moveinternational biennials; new economic structures, especially | ments are sometimes inseparable, and we have presented the domestic auction houses and private galleries; and new _art of modern China in the context of its times. classes of patrons, both domestic and foreign, that are con- Many of the aesthetic or theoretical questions raised tributing to the creation of an unprecedented environment —_a hundred years ago, or on the more recent path toward

for art and artists. China’s modernization, have not yet been completely

Although visual art rarely moves in lockstep with politi- | answered. Yet perhaps the need to do so is past—a funcal events, or even at exactly the same pace as other forms = damental goal of the twentieth-century reformers, China's of cultural expression, in twentieth-century China the rela- return to the international stage, has now been realized. tionship between art and its social, economic, and politi- | China's artists may therefore face the greatest challenge of cal environment has been particularly complicated and all. They have fulfilled the twentieth century’s historical burintimate. In particular, the sense of social responsibility felt | den of restoring China's cultural stature in the world, but by many twentieth-century Chinese artists, which was in — what will be their mission in the twenty-first century? We part inherited from the Confucian tradition, led them to ——s must conclude this volume without knowing the answer to respond with both art and social activism to contemporary _ this question.

INTRODUCTION XV

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Inese Art in the se of Imperialism

The Opium War to the Treaty of Shimonoseki, 1842-1895

INTRODUCTION

When did China, with its long history of artistic, cultural, economic, and political development, enter the modern era? When and how did its art become modern? There are many different answers to this question, depending on which of the various definitions of the term “modern” one chooses. Some factors considered harbingers of modernity, such as the dissemination of printing and literacy, the development of a highly commercialized society, or participation in intercontinental maritime trade, may already be found in Ming dynasty China (1368-1644). In the middle of the nineteenth century, however, a series of international and domestic events brought China face-to-face with the entire modernizing world on foreign terms, rather than its own. The opening of treaty ports served to catalyze China's natural cultural and economic evolution, yielding rapid and dramatic development in commerce in these cities. In 1842 the Treaty of Nanking concluded the three-year Opium War between Britain and the declining Qing dynasty and forced open five Chinese ports—Shanghai, Ningbo, Fuzhou, Xiamen (Amoy), and Guangzhou (Canton)—to both international trade and foreign residence. Over the subsequent half century, colonial powers, which came to include not only Britain but also France, the United States, and Japan, acquired trading rights in almost one hundred Chinese cities and towns. At the same time, the foreign powers won by force monetary reparations from the Qing dynasty government. Beyond free trade, they extracted from the court privileges to govern the treaty port territories by the laws and customs of their native countries. On September 24, 1846, the British established the first of what would be called the foreign concessions to provide a special residential area for foreigners. In a few years they

1

were joined by French traders who settled in concessions to _ safety. A rebel group, the Small Sword Society, took advanthe south of the Yangjing Canal (now Yan’an East Road) and _ tage of the disorder to seize sections of the Chinese city of the Americans to the north of Suzhou Creek (also called the = Shanghai in September of 1853. In 1860, Taiping depreda-

Wusong River). An extraterritorial administration called the tions throughout the prosperous provinces of Jiangsu and Shanghai Municipal Council was established in 1854. Such Zhejiang brought a new wave of officials, rich merchants, semicolonial status was maintained in the nineteenth cen- —_ and even lower middle-class citizens to Shanghai. Only in tury through impressive military hardware and in the faceof 1864 did the Chinese general Zeng Guofan, with assistance the extreme weakness of Chinas national government. These — from Anglo-French troops, suppress the rebellion. infringements to China’ national sovereignty led thought- It has been estimated that the population of China fell ful officials and intellectuals to examine alternatives to the from about 410 million in 1850 to about 350 million in 1873. unsuccessful political, economic, and educational policies | Many formerly important trade centers, which relied on then in effect. Although they were unable to save the last —_ inland transportation networks disrupted by the war, sufdynasty from its own corruption and incompetence, they fered severely. The flight of so many people and so much laid the intellectual groundwork for Chinas moderniza- wealth to treaty port Shanghai yielded a major economic tion in the twentieth century. The treaty port period, which — and cultural shift. By the end of the nineteenth century, lasted from 1842 to 1946, brought a great expansion of trade the city, which enjoyed easy access by water to both China's with the West and also within Asia. Japan, opened to com- inland cities and the Pacific Ocean, emerged as China's merce by Admiral Matthew C. Perry's expedition in 1853, new mercantile hub. By the turn of the twentieth century, soon became one of China's most active trading partners. Shanghai's population, which numbered about 230,000 at With trade came elements of foreign technology, thought, — the end of the Opium War, had grown to a million, mainly religion, and culture. The rapid commercial and cultural rise | Chinese, residents. With this concentration of population of one of the five original treaty ports, Shanghai, which grew — and money, it soon became China's artistic center as well. from small city to modern metropolis, was a key factor in Such massive shifts in cultural geography, while not fre-

the creation of China’s modern art world. quent, had occurred repeatedly during the course of China's Perhaps even more significant than the lure of for- long history. Throughout the previous Ming dynasty, for eign trade was a domestic war, the thirteen-year Taiping | example, the canal city of Suzhou, a center of silk and cotRebellion (1851-1864), which particularly terrorized the citi- | ton production, had served as China’s artistic, cultural, and zens of China's prosperous Yangzi River delta. The troops of | economic center. The art and culture of Suzhou, at the heart the Qing imperial government repeatedly failed to subdue __ of the Jiangnan (“south of the [Yangzi] river”) region, served the murderous depredations of the anti-Manchu Taiping —_ as a cultural foil to the political dominance of the two sucarmy, led by Hong Xiuquan, the self-proclaimed younger _ cessive capitals to the north, first Nanjing and subsequently brother of Jesus Christ and ruler of the Heavenly Kingdom Beijing. Later critics wrote of the contrast between literati of Great Peace. Hong Xiuquan, after learning something __ painting of Suzhou and court painting of the capitals. about Christianity from missionary tracts, sought to cre- The political center moved decisively north in 1644, with ate a new regime based on his eccentric interpretation of the overthrow of the Ming emperors and the establishment Old Testament Protestantism. He located his new govern- — of the Manchu Qing dynasty. The Manchus, who were ment at Nanjing in 1853, the year in which his army took not ethnically Chinese, incorporated not only the norththe old southern capital and decimated the beautiful city of | eastern Manchu homeland of the imperial house into the Suzhou, China’s Venice. His attempt to conquer China took — Chinese empire but also the northern and western lands of his troops north to the Manchu capital at Beijing and west — other non-Chinese peoples and nations, such as Tibetans to Jiangxi. Loss of life and property in the middle andlower — and Uighurs. Changes the Qing made in administration of

Yangzi River valley was enormous. the salt monopoly produced transformations in the south As battles were fought to take and retake territory in as well. The transportation node for shipping and taxation, China's heartland, cities and towns were repeatedly put the Yangzi River city of Yangzhou, enjoyed an economic under siege and plundered by the contending armies. boom based on the imperial salt monopoly, and with wealth Needless to say, the constant warfare disrupted most normal — came culture to the burgeoning city. Salt merchants coneconomic activity and trade. Destruction and looting dis- structed extravagant garden estates and spent fortunes on persed art collections and private libraries. Refugees, includ- — art and other cultural pursuits. By the eighteenth century, ing many of China's wealthiest and most cultured fami- | Yangzhou had rivaled or surpassed Suzhou, Nanjing, and lies, poured into the foreign concessions of Shanghai for Beijing as an artistic center. 2 CHINESE ART IN THE AGE OF IMPERIALISM

of Chinese and foreign business practices, an array of goods

THE SHANGHAI SCHOOL for purchase by domestic and international markets, and Each economic or cultural center had its own founda- the possibility of untold riches to be won. Magnificent bank tions—Suzhouss agricultural wealth, Yangzhou's state salt buildings in the Renaissance manner, like the Hong Kong monopoly, Nanjing and Beijing the power and resources of | and Shanghai Bank, built in 1874, transformed the waterthe court. What was new about Shanghai was its unique front. The Chinese customs house, built with traditional situation as a treaty port, or its semicolonial status. Ideally frame construction, upturned eaves, and tile roofs in 1857, located for both domestic Chinese commerce and inter- — was soon dwarfed, and in 1891 was demolished and replaced national trade, with convenient access to both the Grand __ by a red brick structure in the European manner. Canal and the Pacific Ocean, not far from still-prosperous During the second half of the nineteenth century, artists Suzhou, Shanghai became the primary node for mercan- _ flocked to Shanghai as refugees and to seek the patronage of tile exchange both within China and between Chinese wealthy entrepreneurs with an interest in art. They hailed merchants and those in foreign countries. The extraterrito- from all over China, and like their patrons were most often rial rights extracted by the foreign powers from the Qing _ natives of the towns and cities of the adjacent provinces of regime yielded a hybrid city, governed according to the laws Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui. They brought with them of Western countries but inhabited mainly by Chinese. local styles and conventions, and sometimes continued to Foreign merchants dramatically expanded ocean and find particular favor in the new metropolis with collectors river shipping, and by the 1850s foreign ships crowded from their own native places. By the twentieth century, the Huangpu river port to unload imports of opium, fab- —_ however, it was recognized that Shanghai had developed its ric, and cotton thread for the Chinese market, and take on own school of painting, one that combined the traditional such exports as silver, silk, and tea. Despite the vast for- skills of local areas with novel elements that aimed to please tunes that were made in China, foreign traders never real- _ the new collectors in Shanghai.

ized their most optimistic dreams of marketing the prod- Artists who flourished in the formative period of ucts of Europe’s modern industries to every Chinese citizen. | Shanghai painting, the 1840s and 1850s, were mainly birdNevertheless, European material culture, brought by trad- and-flower painters who worked in a manner clearly related ers and missionaries, became increasingly familiar to urban _to major schools of Ming and early Qing painting, but they

Chinese. often used stronger, brighter colors and more naturalistic By 1876 more than two hundred foreign companies oper- images. Zhang Xiong (1803-1886), for example, established ated in Shanghai. Foreign and domestic capital poured into _ his fame in his native city of Jiaxing, Zhejiang, before movthe city. After the first British bank, the Oriental Banking _ing to the city in 1862. He painted in an elegant manner that Corporation, set up an office in Shanghai in 1848, many _ appealed to literati taste [fig. 1.1].' others followed. British merchants opened five additional banks from the 1850s through 1870s; the French two in 1860 and 1899; American and German investors joined the British

to open the Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation (now HSBC) in 1865; and four Japanese banks were opened between 1880 and 1895. The early twentieth century saw the

first American bank, International Banking Corporation (later acquired by National City Bank of New York), open in 1902, followed by American Express in 1918. Belgian and

Netherlandish financial institutions appeared in the early years of the century. Chinese bankers, both those who ran the traditional gianzhuang, or money shops, and those in the modern banking sector, also flocked to the city. By rapidly gathering capital from all parts of the country and the world, Shanghai soon became the biggest financial center in China and East Asia. The influx of capital and entrepreneurial spirit in the 1.4 Zhang Xiong (1803-1886), Narcissus and Rock, 1851, one leaf from second half of the nineteenth century began to transform an eight-leaf album, Flowers, ink and color on gold-flecked paper, 27.8

Shanghai into an industrial metropolis, offering a hybrid x 32.8 cm, Osaka Municipal Museum CHINESE ART IN THE AGE OF IMPERIALISM 3

xl er a ~

\: 7ine SE uee ya

$' nt) arn oh

cee Sa eas by oy pee ci “a ae Peer eae ee . ging

1899/1900), eae &. 1.2 Zhu Cheng (1826-

and Flowering Branch, 1881, album leaf, ink and colors on silk, Hashimoto collec-

tion, Shoto Museum

The literati aesthetic in painting, which developed most —_ Xiong (1823-1857) also sought his acquaintance. These three vigorously among scholar-painters of Jiangnan between the — Zhejiang painters, who shared the same given name, were fourteenth and seventeenth centuries, was codified in early _ later lauded as the great painting talents of their age—the seventeenth-century criticism by Dong Qichang (1555-1636) Three Xiong. They, along with Wang Li (1813-1879), laid the

and other scholar-painters. Although the history of wen- foundations for Shanghai school painting. renhua (literati painting) extends from the eleventh century Zhang Xiong moved to Shanghai during the Taiping to the twentieth, and its practice was diverse, in the ideal — Rebellion, where he soon became known as one of the it favored self-expressive brushwork over form-likeness, | two most important painters in the city. Not only was his exploited the subtle qualities of ink rather than superficially | fame known far and wide, but he taught a large number appealing color or compositions, rejected narrative in favor — of students who became well known in Shanghai, the core of suggestion, and maintained the principle that the act of | of whom, like Zhu Xiong and his much younger brother painting was for private enjoyment or self-cultivation, not = Zhu Cheng (1826-1899/1900), were fellow sojourners from sale. Essential, as well, was the assumption that a painter was —_— Jiaxing. He produced an instruction manual for painting,

a scholar who was also talented in calligraphy and poetry, Zhang Zixiang ketu huagao, and also encouraged his stuand whose best work would excel in all three areas. Subtle = dent Chao Xun (1852-1917) to republish the first volume references to the revered attainments of previous masters of of the illustrious seventeenth-century Mustard Seed Garden poetry, painting, and calligraphy continually enriched the = Manual of Painting (1888) using newly imported litho-

shared vocabulary of literati painting. graphic methods. Both texts became extremely popular as Zhang Xiong was an excellent exemplar of this way — models for aspiring painters in the late nineteenth and early of life and art. An enthusiast of lyric poetry, he was well —_ twentieth centuries.

educated in music and particularly in the refined south- Opening of China's ports in 1843 and soon after those ern kungu opera. His elegant studio in Jiaxing was filled of Japan led to a rapid increase in inter-Asian cultural with antique bronzes and paintings, and his reputation was — exchange. According to an account dated 1857, Zhang such that aspiring artists sought his instruction. His slightly | Xiong’s fame had “gone beyond the ocean.” His work was older Jiaxing compatriot Zhu Xiong (1801-1864) was his _ avidly sought by Japanese collectors, some of whom visited

pupil, and the brilliant native of nearby Xiaoshan Ren him in Shanghai, and his painting manual was published 4 CHINESE ART IN THE AGE OF IMPERIALISM

in Japan during his lifetime. Zhang Xiong is pictured in

late Qing writings as a conservative, seeking to preserve the AGG if classical heritage, working in a style developed from those fi ; la & fh

of earlier masters such as Zhou Zhimian (active circa 1580— Ss 5 % - J

: & Yih roe —

1610) of the Ming dynasty and Yun Shouping (1633-1690) or + 2 SS) = 1 bi, Pil >. Jiang Tingxi (1669-1732) of earlier in his own Qing dynasty. & 3 3 wt i fe ad | Sa Indeed, his work, which is restrained and well ordered while i 4A fe rf > +3 ft n

still possessing an air of gentle relaxation, satisfies the high- WE So ree = 7 a

est standards of literati painting in all but one way—he used ek Ce 3 ‘i a “~ 4

dazzling color that had an immediate appeal to his patrons. HL iojgt A f *

Thus, at its very start, Shanghai painting began to subtly dt 7% 2 & | JS |

deviate from the literati-painting aesthetic. “s GS 4h ik .: . if Z| py) | Zhang Xiong’s many disciples responded more directly BR iO & 2 % {| av / to the new environment in which they worked. Zhu Cheng v rei A — | i /* learned from both Zhang Xiong and the more flamboy- r LF 2 \ /-_ ZB TT NO ant Wang Li, developing an appealing, and sometimes Jee! ‘ LG a ‘ rather sweet, personal style that became all the rage among B Coed > | / S =/f, » Shanghai merchants. His bird-and-flower painting was typ- 3 Dh \ 2 x — | . SY, Sy

ical of the new art: clear, sharp compositions, bright col- id] ele ty Y) @ “f\ £ ors, and auspicious themes, as in this work of 1881, with its ‘> af Hi ~ TH], . Si crisp ink contrasting with the bright, opaque color applied ms i & Ay | \ : ra Pe /

. wt a | \

thickly to the surface of the highly sized silk [fig. 1.2]. Bb * Dp) \¥

Ren Xiong and His Legacy Ne it y/, i" © \

One of the most innovative Chinese artists of the nine- ‘ 2 4s teenth century was the short-lived Ren Xiong.’ Although Be? .

his artistic career spanned little more than a decade, the leg- te fo \T |

acy of his unconventional personality and artistic brilliance, iP % ; ) so evident in both his surviving paintings and his wood- - WF fe / block prints, were powerful influences on the formation of 8 % | ‘il the new figure-painting style of the Shanghai school. Born Py

in modest circumstances in the Zhejiang city of Xiaoshan, x A } wo”. :

Ren Xiong studied a mixture of elite literary arts and practi- / | cal skills, including poetry and the classics, along with por- . | trait painting, archery, wrestling, and horseback riding. He . :

was befriended by men of higher social and economic sta- —_— . \ = 1 tus, some of whom served in his early career as his patrons, S a; X Soy

and at their introduction married the daughter of a promi- ™ / nent Suzhou literatus. Friends wrote that he was straightforward, curious, and principled; he was a connoisseur of

tea, could chant and compose poetry, and knew ancient 1.3 Ren Xiong (1823-1857), Self-portrait, undated, hanging scroll, ink philosophy. He was so passionate about music that he could = 470 color on paper, 177.4 x 78.5 cm, Palace Museum, Beijing

not only play but also carve a seven-stringed zither (gin) from paulownia wood and cast a flute from iron. In those Over the course of his brief career, Ren Xiong painted a troubled times, he was recruited into the Qing military by | number of striking and unusual compositions, but the most friends who served as officials in the anti-Taiping effort. powerful of all is an undated self-portrait probably executed Although records are incomplete, there are suggestions that during the final year or two of his life [fig. 1.3]. While using he served for a time as a military draftsman, making maps the technical vocabulary he had inherited as a painter of and charts, during efforts to retake the city of Nanjing from —_ portraits and figures, he renders his own life-size image in

the Taipings in about 1854. an arrestingly confrontational way. The artist’s intent gaze, CHINESE ART IN THE AGE OF IMPERIALISM 5

staring out from an emaciated face, meets ours with deadly —_—s reputation and success but, even more poignantly, his disil-

seriousness. His shoulders and folded hands are at rest but —_ [usionment with the very standards of virtue that were his suggest latent energy, his entire body poised with the vigor _ birthright.

of a martial artist. Yet his long fingernails,Inathefashion favored : vast world—what lies before my eyes?

by artists and literati, speak to a higher social status than I smile and bow and go around flattering people to

that offlower the, paintings workman orXiong, farmer. F‘ ; sibs extend connections Like the by Zhang Ren Xiong’s he tee but aware of water-based what affairs? self-portrait is painted with ink and pigments

; In the great confusion, what is there to hold on to and rely on? His exposed shoulder, neck, and face are carefully outlined nae [...] What is more pitiful is that even though the

on the soft absorbent paper favored by artists of his period.

with thick and thin strokes of ink, shaded with very dry,

' mirror [shows] my tones black eyebrows diluted ink,exchanged and then[for tinted with flesh in covering the mostmy cae aie white] and worldly dust

ea . white hea

naturalistic manner known to artists of his time. The blue eee

stubble of his shaven forehead and hollow recession of his aa I am still like a racing steed without plans. sunken cheeks are slightly darkened; his protruding clavicle, acon . . What is even more of a pitiable impediment is that cheekbones, and shoulder are left pale, creating an effect pate the historians have not recorded even a single,

of reflected light. The powerful three-dimensionality of

lightareword me [.juxtaposed ..| his face and uppereetorso quite about intentionally

ae When I calculate back to my youth, I did not start with an extremely bold but strongly abstracted depiction we out thinking this way.

ofep hisI white blue tunic, the and ancients soft shoes.to The highly examples pas reliedpants, on depicting display

ea ne [for emulation]. . :eccentric [But]seventeenth-century who is the ignorant one? of: the painter Chen ee ae ae ted Who isfigure the virtuous sage?: artificial manner in which Ren Xiong painted the fabric of

his garments is an art historical reference to the painting ;

Hongshou, whose great originality had revitalized China's figure-painting tradition two centuries earlier, and who was Ren Xiong was best known for figure painting and for

a native of the neighboring town of Zhuji. The bold, angu- —— the remarkable ways in which he synthesized themes from lar outline strokes, each accompanied by a schematic band _history, mythology, folk religion, and literature as well as his of gray shading, further energize the already highly charged __ truly extraordinary reinterpretations of old themes. In the

image. In purely formal terms, the painting is a powerful hierarchy of Chinese painting criticism of Ren Xiong’s day, statement of self. Although Ren Xiong’s self-portrait identi- _ portrait painting was regarded as a low-class functional skill. fies with Chen Hongshou, the immediacy of the figure’s nat- Landscapes and flowers in a less representational style were uralistic features and facial expression speak to the present. considered to be more self-expressive and thus comprised Ren Xiong’s talent at calligraphy and literature aredem- —_ art of a higher aesthetic level. Ren Xiong’s early training was

onstrated in the long poetic lament he inscribed on the _ essentially that of a folk painter, but he brilliantly combined painting. The text speaks of disappointment and disillu- | the conventions of that tradition with the more elevated arts sionment, a man of ambitious temperament looking back that he learned in the company and collections of his elite at his failures rather than his successes. The intensity of his _ friends and patrons. Although landscapes comprise a compersonality, so evident in the constantly changing paint- _ paratively small part of Ren Xiong’s body of work, his surings that came from his brush, emerges in a howl of frustra- _—- viving paintings in that genre are remarkable. One of the tion from this painted figure. Despite the passion behind — most brilliant is 7e Ten Myriads, which Ren Xiong painted his words, however, he remains vague, or perhaps discreet, with vivid blue and green mineral pigments on a ground about the specific causes of his angst. The undated text does __ of gold leaf. The landscape imagery glows like gemstones not reveal its purpose: Did Ren Xiong paint this picture in in a golden setting, but despite its highly decorative quala moment of anger, to purge his soul of an unstated worldly _ ity achieves a breathtaking pictorial power. The tumbling pain? Or, suffering from acute tuberculosis, did he write for waterfalls in the leaf illustrated here, rendered in a closely the future, recording the despair and self-awareness of one —_— cropped view [fig. 1.4], cascade into the viewer's space in a

dying much too young? surprising way. At the same time, the fine, even outlines, the The very modern sense of alienation that one senses in _ carefully delineated and filled-in foliage, and the schematic the portrait itself is echoed in the inscription, where Ren _ shading of the rocks would be immediately recognizable to

Xiong laments not only his sense of failure in pursuit of an art lover as referring to the style of Ren Xiong’s seven6 CHINESE ART IN THE AGE OF IMPERIALISM

Y x ae Gold-covered paper was used for fan paintings in the

oe a \\ Oa * wealthy commercial city of Suzhou during the sixteenth ‘> 7 a S\N century, but gold leaf as a ground for painting was not very

a Nw TOL VON) common until two centuries later, after the opening of the is sO SY Sad I treaty ports. Use of gold leaf was not rare in nineteenth-

is vA 1. ; in Racin i wh ; ;

~ Yr ‘) rc ae mc N\N iia century Japanese art, particularly among artists of the Rimpa _ se alaaalf pan cag | ry ¥ ge school. Active trade within Asia facilitated by the opening

eRe eA ak WAlataS LS ! ; , oe ve Aes \e AV epg fey oa models and decorative objects an artistically ambitious art-

Ee Shale RY Neg 2 Vi |) ROD of ports to international trade expanded the range of artistic

=} es ad | | t 45 g s y s g ; - Z ‘as 4 4@ ’ ; se . .

Rk sn Val a Wat Nn ist such as Ren Xiong might have seen, likely bringing some

Pee Me Ne) AE a knowledge of Japanese and European imagery.

f yy ja . Probably the most important surviving commission of i yr Us Ren Xiong’s career was his 120-leaf album painted a few

Ae re‘ 4eiAVS ::; : ; aAe f 4\ eee s . >. aA

:‘' Lebmeee ao) to eee ele)” A ‘ aie Ae MeN

! ee ta, cf 4 q aot years earlier in collaboration with his friend and patron Yao ee BO Ss RN aL’ : Xie (1805-1864), at whose home in Ningbo he lived while

Mae teal | |

{hoe mao ti ee eS ) completing the work. Ren Xiong designed and rendered the

7 mn iy BY see Beet oy "

ffi 1 MMe Bas he Eas eh Nat illustrations in the album over a two-month period in the 5 4 4 wall i] fy WAY winter of 1850 and 1851. The images are based on phrases

( VR a ey or couplets from Yao Xie's poetry. Today the paintings are

eames be) | ele ey, mounted as ten twelve-leaf albums and are organized by

general theme. The extraordinary variety of subject matter

| |Xiong , 7 and approachMyriad suggests a with familiarity with classical Chinese 1.4 Ren (1823-1857), Valleys Contending PP 85 if Ciisaeae-andated: one leat fein the fenclearclbilan PhecTen painting and modern folk art, as well as with Japanese and Myriads, ink and mineral color on gold paper, 26.3 x 20.5 cm, Western art, alchough no documents survive that enable us

Palace Museum, Beijing to know precisely what objects he may have studied. One of the loveliest paintings in the album depicts a hummingbird seen through a bamboo curtain on a late summer day

period. 4 Lax! —

teenth-century idol, Chen Hongshou. The emotional and _[fig. 1.5]. This view, which would have been surprising to decorative power of the work is thus mediated by a more — Chinese viewers accustomed to the standard conventions intellectual response, as one marvels at both the subtle simi- of Chinese bird-and-flower painting, seems to emphasize larities and the dramatic differences between this work and

that of its stylistic antecedent. The boldness of these land- er? , 5 scapes makes this one of the most original albums of the — iil

A line of calligraphy on each of the ten leaves begins with ree the word “ten thousand” or “myriad”—for example, Myriad al it

Valleys with Contending Streams, Myriad Bamboo in Misty tn. FEE z Rain, and Myriad Scepters Worshiping Heaven, which gives pos we ts the album its title. It was painted for a Suzhou collector and Necgae ——3 22 gs

. . . rs ms *) F 2 i- = aS

See es SSS ae ee >

bears inscriptions dated 1856 by close friends of the artist, ut \ / Zz including the painter Zhou Xian. Zhou Xian refers not to E tf iP Ate, 5S ae its style, however, but to the early origins of the theme. In =f ners Bah is isi. ~ FZ — oO fA his account the Yuan literatus Ni Zan (1306-1374), famous Sead WA y/ SeAe we NG, See —_

; . . monochromatic Ne re st hy images, Fe mspainted Bez aAwork Fidby3this = ey. : *| HZ wsi foe } : ?= for F his;calm, Ot ee 1 oth. a ke

orcs ; F yee Bak (. ae = &Nd a =-R

friend’s face might be, the figure’s plain white robe com- " (OY 2 See, = t

° . . . < . a + : ee a, a ws, . 7; ; :ae, Estao &4 ae os | oe Chen Hongshou. This contrast between linear outline and ie DFS, Bak & coloristic modeling is further accentuated by Hu Yuan’s frase Teese

addition of the powerfully composed old pine tree, rendered ae eS & mite largely in strokes of thick gray ink, that dominates the cen- oe el > WESC, tral part of the picture. While towering overhead, the soft > SY ae we a ae textures also provide a formal contrast to the crispness of re Boas hoe > \ 7 (6 the figural image. All elements of the collaboration work law ke G Ts together to emphasize the thoughtful and highly naturalistic if 57 < 4)

‘ P hs F ; LS at? ~e) to — , * . * . ; LPNS 7 < N ; Fy 8 “al ity, the pine, and clasping his hands elegantly over the knee Fj ~ \Y ¥5 a Bi 2 mien of the young artist, seated under a symbol of longev- Wy — WW >. Fs gave A

‘ : , AS LE ff er IS INE\ TS Lil @

of his mannered robe. Painter, calligrapher, and patron, iA Lh ee AL aS ! )\ nee,

* A 4 ’ Z — A iy \ ‘ . wrote the elegant inscription at right, and Gao Yong was so pa Gao Yong was a frequent portrait subject for Ren Yi, but Pe eF lei Pr , 4G VE ( 30K

no other paintings are so filled with tension and life as this 7 mR) WO

work from the first decade of his Shanghai period. Hu Yuan an \ a

j \ 4 oe

pleased with the work that, a year or two later, he showed it — / | AA

.A second Oy. Ral ‘ J & ~ YY > Nae sna the inscription at left. Sy. — ae iN Ne Soe ome painting of 1877, Five Successful Sons, demon- LAF. ‘ et i Cees agi: strates Ren interest foreshortening a Bt ae . ; Yi’s : Py (rein; Western ‘ QDeffects as {ofyf = 5 ‘SeNgseer _sSes; and perspective as well as a newly naturalistic focus on the IGS, ms ~ ul oan a

—F asus . re ; ; ,

Se , yy) —s elements into the styles of Ren Xun and Ren Xiong in a fSBS ee ee .innovative way. i= GSSne f highly ofae t wa fan, =*old.,paintings. . ,e ‘ By1the 1880s he had ay aeao. SS 3Ik opportunity to study Drak

tg oe / 7 ' ’ ~ . AN" ae : : : ; — ae Sr aa 7, ; P . 5 > ‘ a _— "e — se ~~ ’ 1 e

oF, | Pr re Pane 2 “ As his fame in artistic circles grew, Ren Yi had greater

eS dy TY. .° ; become interested in another seventeenth-century style, that

, he aa } 5 of Zhu Da (Bada Shanren, 1626-1705), that was essentially ae Ae hnet S| wasnt = ‘Ag the polar opposite of his previous manner. Zhu Da’s icon-

> iy 3A BO i & oclastic bird-and-flower painting in the “boneless” or inkPh et) “7 ff TEA: wash manner conveys form and volume without the use of

AVL he 7 oP a) es CTA + +. Z 2 . 4 : Ath S ROR PACER A ass Pty). Yi began to bring elements executed in the boneless man-

NAT BN. ie : , F ji - 5. ~ 4 ;

GL Aaa Ont So eek ee outlines. Rather than leaving behind his previous style, Ren

e's rt cy . —— st . NN ' . e * * * | | * hi TWAS ees \ NSP => 3 — ~~ ner into his outline paintings. One notable example is his

;J'aa...

|‘7,8 Se > Y| Ly, GH Three of 1882, ~ AN \ avKnights GAsErrant 1183 seisin,which : the bandit’s donkey is

AW 4 AN ies brilliantly depicted with the loose, boneless wash that Bada N ae x ; es * most frequently employed for flowers, birds, and even fish,

Ss eS EF ; ; eS“Sh et ,SRO 4 tt :ee : ; : ee

OL f’ > (ee fa 4 rather than with the outline technique usually employed for bel eyeieS dyWG ainting 1.9] \ See Wy. Gs , horses —/ f Pp[fig. § §- 1-9].

SS Jas Sk =e) Like Five Successful Sons, this is a quasi-historical nar-

aS mS a “] ‘ Al?rative that had long made its into the popular RSS =" ef AM AA}! tion, appearing commonly in way performances of localtradiopera Es “J+ .

;

“Sa Ve. - == Fare Even more powerful, however, in this strikingly odd : ane N mh hie composition, is the psychological effect of the novel placeS4\4 ; oy ment of the figures. The bold Curly Beard, astride a donkey

-. a ee) ‘ oe

3 ‘WA v4) )/ —'% 4 ar front left, twists his body vigorously in space to meet the ut \ ie ; L LJ 4 Ry 2 gaze of the half-hidden hero, Li Jing, who peers out through os )} ‘ — ed a screen of branches. This theatrical placement of figures

|Pe Shige! “Wi ie Ao gEHtei=: ee ne sd es

An interest in epigraphic effects in calligraphy and plex assemblage of separate elements of color and vegetapainting was not new—the Hangzhou calligrapher and tion is conceptually parallel to the intricate arrangement painter of the seventeenth century Jin Nong (1687-1764) of strokes within a character and of characters within the wrote in a manner that was closely related to his own inter- — bounded rectangle or square of the seal format and is felt est in archaic scripts. In the nineteenth century, however, _ by seal-lovers to fill the painting with the flavor of archaic

this scholarly interest spread to other art forms, including — inscriptions. In this painting from a twelve-leaf album, painting, and became impetus for experimental trends. An Zhao Zhiqian has depicted the rather unusual subject of important precursor of Wu Changshi was Zhao Zhigian poppies, experimenting with color, matching the veins in (1829-1884), a fellow Zhejiang artist, born in Kuaiji, near each flower to the softer, lighter tone of the petal, and mixShaoxing.’? From a merchant background, Zhao Zhigian __ ing greens and yellows in a complex way not often seen in studied relentlessly, even during the perils of the Taiping earlier flower painting. He renders the folds and bends of Rebellion, to achieve his goal of becoming an official. He the leaves, petals, and stalks with careful observation, but was a talented seal-carver and calligrapher as well as an —_at the same time he pulls back from naturalism, creating

enthusiast of ancient scripts. startling contrasts by painting a few leaves in dark gray ink, The Zhao Zhigian album leaf reproduced here, dated even highlighting them with fine, gold lines, and carefully 1859, is a work of his early maturity, painted when he — managing the intense blankness of the paper left in reserve worked in Hangzhou as an aide to a prominent scholar- _ between the twisting and turning blossoms. With its powerofficial, Miao Zi (1807-1860), his intellectual mentor, dur- _ ful calligraphy and subtle ink washes, this work recalls liteing his period of study for the civil service examination rati painting, but the unassertive restraint of that tradition system. In this period Zhao Zhigian’s creative exploration is quite confidently subordinated here to Zhao’s dazzling and reinvention of archaeological models were also at their —_ vision of the bright flowers. height [fig. 1.20]. The inscriptions on Zhao’s paintings are Whether or not the innovations in Zhao Zhigian’s paintoften works of art in themselves. In this case, with great —_ ing were stimulated by the changes in material life gradually design flair, he has titled the work in large, bold characters, | brought about by international trade, including importaat upper right, and then shifted into a smaller, more casual _ tion of the “Western red” or carmine that he uses for the script for the text and signature that follow to the left. His pink poppies, or best viewed as the almost accidental prodwriting is plump and his characters rather horizontal, all —_ ucts of individual genius, by the end of the nineteenth centraits of the Han and Six dynasties scripts so thoroughly — tury Zhao Zhiqian’s work was recognized by ardent foladmired by adherents of the “stele school” of calligraphy. lowers as highly original. Two examples of his seal carving Less obvious, but important to the epigraphic aesthetic, attest to his creativity in this art. The first, carved in 1859 is the striking balance between areas of substance and areas _ for prominent fellow seal enthusiast Ding Wenwei, renders of void, or painted surfaces and blank paper. The com- the three characters of Ding’s name in intaglio [fig. 1.18b]. 22 CHINESE ART IN THE AGE OF IMPERIALISM

The intentionally naive manner leaves the strokes of the iron ia knife particularly evident in the single character at right: Te Ding JT. The second, a larger and more formal work of g VFe : 1871 standard small script, strokes is a connoisseut’s seal aly iS Jae ; carvedininthe relief with the fine seal curvilinear of a Tang TADS a8 pa

dynasty stele [fig. 1.18c]. A ot comes Despite their great differences in style and motif, the Re a if En

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rt in the Creation of a New Nation i

The Overthrow of the Qing and the Early Republic, 1895-1920

One of the most important artistic developments in twentieth-century China was the adoption of Western artistic practices. Xiyanghua (Occidental painting)—by which was meant drawing, watercolors, gouache, and oil painting—perceived as novel and exotic in earlier centuries, came to be considered a functional necessity by the early twentieth century. The establishment of a new educational system in the waning days of the Qing

dynasty and the development of modern forms of art education led to fundamental changes in the purposes and meaning of art. As we will see in later chapters, oil painting became an essential part of the mainstream as a result of this new institutional support. This chapter explores the institutional origins of the diverse ways Chinese artists engaged with cosmopolitan cultural forms in the early twentieth century. Jesuit missionaries, including Matteo Ricci, had introduced Western paintings and prints to China in the late sixteenth century. Although these objects and the murals in the newly constructed churches were of interest to curious Chinese, the practice of oil painting had little impact on Chinese artists in that period. A new wave of missionary activity in the eighteenth century brought the Italian priest-painter Guiseppe Castiglione (1688-1766), along with several colleagues, to the court of the Qianlong emperor, where he enjoyed great favor for his ability to render in a lifelike manner the emperor, the harem, and even the highly prized imperial warhorses. Castiglione, known in Chinese as Lang Shining, pleased the court by painting in Chinese mineral pigments on a ground of Chinese silk. His naturalism was emulated by fellow court artists, and such elements as architectural perspective even spread into popular woodblock prints. Castiglione and his colleagues, however, largely abandoned European oils and canvas in favor of Chinese formats and mediums for their work at court.

27

With the development of European ports in Portuguese —_ all but the most narrow-minded—in only a quarter of a Macao, British Hong Kong, and Canton (Guangzhou), — century, by adopting Western science and culture, a small Chinese artisans were hired and trained to make export — island country had acquired the military might to defeat paintings, for the first time producing large numbers of — East Asia’s major power. Japan's victory, in the opinion of images painted in oil on canvas. Not intended for a local — prominent Chinese, resulted from its embrace of all forms audience, however, the influence of these works on the of advanced foreign technology and science, and their dismainstream Chinese art world of the day was fairly insig- | semination through modern schools. Within the Qing govnificant. A dramatic change occurred by the end of the — ernment even conservative officials such as Zhang Zhidong nineteenth century, when, as we have seen, the threat of — (1827-1909), Yuan Shikai (1859-1916), and Liu Kunyi (1830— European and Japanese colonial ambitions so alarmed both 1902) joined reformist political thinkers like Kang Youwei the Chinese imperial court and the Confucian administra- (1858-1927) [fig. 2.1], Liang Qichao (1873-1929), and Yan tive elite that an active program of military modernization — Fu (1854-1921) to emphasize the need to save the nation was embraced by influential figures in government. New through education. Calls for reform could no longer be ideas to strengthen the empire emerged from Chinese ofh- _ ignored.

cialdom, and many proposals took account of the techno- In 1898, Kang Youwei attracted the attention of the logical tools by which Western nations had achieved their — youthful Guangxu emperor (1871-1908) by his proposals for

colonial aims. It was in this urgent practical context that — thorough institutional and educational reforms modeled Western art, as a part of the intellectual world of scienceand on those of Japan, Germany, and even czarist Russia. With technology, percolated into the mainstream of Chinese cul- — _Kang’s advice the young emperor, who had studied foreign ture. In 1912 the Republic of China's new minister of edu- —_— languages and become an enthusiast of “Western studies”

cation, Cai Yuanpei (1868-1940), began promoting his the- himself, promulgated a series of radical reforms between ory of aesthetic education (meiyu). Recently returned from — June and September of 1898. ‘The earliest and most longfour years of study in Germany, Cai’s understanding of art's _ lasting elements of the Hundred Days Reform—the estabenormous philosophical and ethical importance encom- lishment of a national school system of primary, higher, passed art in Western techniques and thus greatly expanded military, and technical schools, and revision of the civil serthe role of Western artistic forms in Chinese society and vice examination system—would soon have profound social

education. and intellectual results. In 1905 the Confucian civil service examination system, which had for more than a millenART AND LATE QING REFORMS IN EDUCATION nium examined aspiring officials in the canon of literary, As early as the 1860s, Western-style drawing was required in historical, poetic, and philosophical classics, would be comthe government-run college of Western studies, the Tong- _ pletely abolished in favor of more practical curricula of the wenguan, in Shanghai. How-to-draw books were translated “new learning.” Unfortunately, by the fall of 1898 the well-

into Chinese during the 1870s and 1880s at the Jiangnan intentioned political reforms had so offended the self-interArsenal, and various other such primers appeared in the est and privilege of the Manchu aristocracy and the court late nineteenth century. The purpose of learning Western that the powerful empress dowager Cixi moved to unseat art was clearly functional. The preface to The Engineers and — the Guangxu emperor. She arrested and executed reform-

Machinists’ Drawing Book, which was rendered into Chi- __ ist leaders, placed the emperor under permanent house nese by John Fryer (1839-1896) in 1872, opined, “drawing _—_ arrest, and ruled as regent until her death ten years later. is the beginning and the foundation of making machines.”' | Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao escaped to Japan, where Despite efforts to introduce Western technology to China, they wrote and published even more urgent proposals for however, progress was slow and erratic, as conservatism and — China's future course.

self-interest on the part of both the court and the elite hin- The court's self-serving decision to suppress political dered reforms within the Chinese governmental structure. reform ultimately yielded the complete overthrow of the The stunning military victory of Japan over China in 1894 Qing empire a decade later. Revolutionary movements

marked a turning point. began to develop, with the regime's opponents working When the Sino-Japanese War concluded in 1895 with the both within China and in exile. Some activists found safe Treaty of Shimonoseki, the weak Chinese state signed away haven in nearby Japan, where they continued their organiterritorial rights to the island of Taiwan, which remained a zational work. For those abroad, exposure to foreign ways of Japanese colony until 1945, and agreed to pay large indem- _life and thought, and particularly growing awareness of connities to Japan. ‘The lesson of this defeat was obvious to stitutional and democratic ways of governance, fueled their 28 ART IN THE CREATION OF A NEW NATION

government. The Qing dynasty formally ended with the boy-emperor Puyi’s abdication on February 12, 1912.

4 465 Although the empress dowager’s 1898 coup d’état post—) poned needed political, fiscal, and military reforms, the ed-

FY ucational innovations decreed in the Hundred Days Reform

# Xp a y; 4. were implemented Chinese and had profound on art, astwenon society as a whole.effects The first decade of the

j +. tieth century saw Chinese educators, encouraged by the \@ Qing court’s belated understanding of the need for modye Ae as ernization, embark upon a two-tiered program of educaomy tional development. First, modern schools were established a to teach Western learning, and through an agreement with

> (> the Japanese government, Japanese teachers were dispatched

ee yA to schools throughout China. Second, some Chinese stu-

+. wo) dents were provided with government scholarships to study

1 ( 4% abroad, and others were strongly encouraged to do so at

ji bis & (4 their own expense. E Several new schools, including a Western-style military © j and technical school that trained young men in such practi-

oe 4 & cal subjects as mining and railway construction were estabLa vik “Z = lished immediately. In 1902, however, a more comprehen-

ies A ‘ sive system of modern schools, based on those in Japan and oo | the West,awas initiated. Totuhua further(drawing the aims and of science and Ai) : technology, subject called painting) 4 aK ; td was required at allcould levels of the the nation curriculum. In the belief late that only education save from annihilation,

ae Qing educational reformers also began implementing a sysFE f (> tem of normal schools that would exponentially accelerate +5 | the spread of modern knowledge by training teachers. ‘The %® first school—Sanjiang Normal Academy (Sanjiang shifan es i fo ¥ chuanxisuo), later renamed the Liangjiang Normal School

bs j (Liangjiang shifan xuetang)—was established in Nanjing si | H in 1902 to train middle and high school teachers in the K fu provinces of Anhui, Jiangxi, and Jiangsu. The famous poet ~~ 4 \> FE| and educational reformer Chen Sanli (1853-1937) the je scholar-official-artist Li Ruiging (1867-1920) were and successive heads of the school, which trained many intellectuals,

2.1 Kang Youwei (1858-1927), artists, and teachers active in the early twentieth century. Calligraphy, undated, hanging scroll, In 1906, Liangjiang Normal School and the other major Ink on paper, 152 x 41cm, Palace teacher’s college of the time, Beiyang Normal School in

MUSEUM: PENNS Baoding, near Beijing, added painting and crafts to their teacher-training programs. Liangjiang Normal School’s cur-

riculum was based on that of the Tokyo Higher Normal revolutionary zeal. The Revolutionary Alliance, founded by — School and employed almost a dozen Japanese faculty memSun Yat-sen and others in Tokyo in 1905, formed a revolu- _ bers, along with some Chinese teachers and interpreters. tionary network that stimulated armed uprisings. It culmi- Thus, along with courses in education, the required curnated in the Xinhai Revolution, named after the Chinese —_ riculum in the art department included courses in paintcalendrical cycle for the year 1911, and which dates its begin- ing and handicrafts, with elective courses in music and culning to October to of that year. By the end of 1911, fifteen ture. What was called “painting” was neither traditional provinces had declared independence from the Manchu — Chinese painting nor Western fine arts but practical skills ART IN THE CREATION OF A NEW NATION 29

in both Western and Chinese painting, representational

om drawing in an Occidental manner, deemed the most sciai & ‘ entific useful, predominated. Two graduated classes of by art 1910 students, and a total of sixty-nine young men, a and formed the core personnel for the new art education in

pen @ °. °. .

=% : ‘ China, gradually replacing Japanese instructors who taught 4 € vr = the first generation of students in the new normal schools. & i In the early twentieth century, therefore, the normal school | & system played a key role in dissemination of Western conee oe cepts of art among China's future leaders and throughout

; _a . ? > > : = J LJ : . .w. FP. -" -i “ ae J the public school system.’ < — iy Study Abroad in the Late Qing (1896-1911)

' - ———— ——x +.> wv . ‘important > . component : A secondtues and equally of the push to

>é:Tie 7Fai Pyey 4 :-aa. i= .. Bs : ls ee EH prog g ae d : Rey Vor * ie, os ” . ; : er) oa , vy rh ate o. > < an us . 3 ‘ ’ ay ; , a é ~ mie Ve modernize Chinese education was the promotion of study | TR ee me abroad. The earliest programs to send students to foreign

— — a oF countries, such as the group sent to the United States from

ei ier ty a ‘ eee ;ieosSR ‘hys se ~ z F ee » ae ee . ° : i. ti : se ccs ; ;

AE fs bat. = . a yim d ao 1870 to 1882, enjoyed the full support of neither the bureau-

i et orn iy Sh oe: 9 cracy nor the court. Yet after Japan’s 1894-95 victory in re : Neale ! bar the Sino-Japanese War, a Western-style education became AS Sly S e rags not only acceptable but increasingly necessary. The Meiji ts Noait vat dB ae Ya : government’ decision to open its schools to foreign stu-

|:>2& hd & Bere f(y | “aera 'a| \;(alee ee eae . w ‘a iver» -4. ra dic) lt: Pos 7 F; oe . *=aeo i 2~ . :. . . . >rip, ; .Os . aYY . : ae A 4

vs 4 2 ae : dents met with substantial interest in China, and the first

\ , 4 rs ee bt ’ Hy \ dtl group of thirteen Chinese students went to Japan in 1896.°

ee 3 1) tt: "aaa By 1906 more than seven thousand Chinese students were | > rl he sd ava — : . enrolled in Japanese schools and universities. While art stu-

| 2 ; ., ee dents represented a tiny minority, between 1905 and 1920

1) | a. guint ce i ~ forty-five Chinese students enrolled in the highly selective SIR & : th -_ Tokyo School of Fine Arts; thirty more followed in the next

bec. beparticular Rene eeimportance decade.’for the art world in the late : _, Of

* ——e QingeSgeneration of Japan-educated students were Li Shutong (1879-1940) [fig. 2.3], Chen Hengque (also known 2.2 Xiao Junxian (1865-1949), Pine and Cypress, Eternal Spring, as Chen Shizeng; 1876-1923), Lu Xun (1881-1937), and Gao

1925, ink and color on paper, 133.5 x 66.4 cm, Collection of Jianfu (1879-1951). Chinese students in Japan followed sev-

Michael Yun-wen shih, Tainan eral patterns. The brightest and most highly disciplined matriculated into degree programs in the best state-run schools, some of them even surpassing their Japanese classin drawing: rendering of light, volume, and perspective. | mates in academic achievement. Chen Hengque, who gradCrafts included skills suitable for a teacher, such as carving uated in 1909 from Tokyo Higher Normal School, and Li bamboo and wood, pouring plaster casts, molding clay, and Shutong, who graduated in 1911 from Tokyo School of Fine making paper cuts, papier-maché, and origami. Director Arts, were such students. Not all of this group completed Li Ruiqing, like many other school leaders in the period, their course of study, however. The lure of modern science had visited Japan to survey its educational system and used _and technology gave way in some cases to a fascination with Japanese textbooks in his school. In a small gesture of resis- _ literature, the arts, or politics, leading some talented young tance to all-out cultural Westernization, however, he hired people to return home without completing their degrees a traditional Chinese painter, Xiao Junxian (1865-1949) [fig. but with new missions in life. Lu Xun, who gave up his 2.2], to work in this modern school, side-by-side with the medical studies for the career of an educator, writer, curamany Japanese instructors who taught such Western sub- _ tor, and editor, was typical of this group. Still others, such as jects as chemistry. Although the school thus offered classes Gao Jianfu and his brother Gao Qifeng (1889-1933), did not 30 ART IN THE CREATION OF A NEW NATION

v , ee

ws mm: the post of minister of education in the newly established nf : ' bn ons . provisional Republican government. Throughout his career,

. de PTY eke! | ) whether as head of the ministry of education or at the helm

nf “ : of Peking University or finally at Academia Sinica, he vigordh te ee, ously promoted both art and science. Perhaps most signifi¥ =- 3 a cant for the art world of the early years of the Republic was | ry re) “a Cai Yuanpei’s conviction, based on his study of aesthetics,

art was more than a functional skill. of 1912, . i | “4«a BaNloe>| iy In that a particularly influential policy statement if e BEE he advocated what he called “aesthetic education” (meiyu),

‘ | ies sy along with four other subjects (universal military education, | utilitarian education, moral education, and education for a

. a m worldview), clearly separating the study of art from utilirp tarianism and providing a philosophical basis for training ‘ young people in the fine arts.’ Cai claimed the authority of German philosopher Immanuel Kant for his philosophical premises. After a second period of study in Europe in the mid-1910s, Cai returned to deliver an even more pointed

speech in 1917, “On Replacing Religion with Aesthetic Education,” in which he argued the importance of aesthetic

education to freeing the minds of China's citizenry from selfishness and hatred.°

2.3 Li Shutong (1879-1940), Self-portrait, 1911, oil on canvas, Although there was more than one factor that led to 60.6 x 45.5 cm, The University Art Museum, Tokyo University the reevaluation of the importance of art within the new

are social and economic world of early Republican China, Cai Yuanpeis efforts on behalf of aesthetic education may have

enroll in formal degree programs but instead studied at pri- turned the tide, giving artists and teachers the theoretical vate schools, at individual ateliers, or completely informally. —_ justification they needed for pursuing the fine arts. Cai An even greater number of students and educators visited | argued that China's people needed a highly developed aesJapan only briefly, simply to see with their own eyes the art __ thetic sensibility and the detachment it produced for the of contemporary Japan and the great modernization that —_ nation to function as a modern country. He believed that

had taken place since the Meiji restoration. Regardless of love of beauty could eliminate greed and prejudice. Thus, the degree of earnestness or focus with which young artists —_ learning to appreciate art would spur the development of pursued formal education in Japan, they collectively formed — a new way of perceiving reality, and this new perception the core of China's new art world upon their return. could transform Chinese society. Committed to the ethical Recognition of the flawed nature of the traditional value of art for both the spiritual well-being of the individConfucian educational system in preparing citizens fora _ ual and the harmony of society, he went so far as to advocate modern nation became so great that even the classically edu- _ the superiority of aesthetics over religion. The logical steps

cated official Cai Yuanpei, who earned the highest degree to implementing this educational policy included establish(jinshi) in the imperial civil service examination, embarked — ing museums and exhibitions as well as introducing an art for further study in Germany in 1907, at the age of thirty- curriculum to institutions of higher learning. With art elenine. As an educational administrator, Cai Yuanpei may vated to the realm of the sacred, it was no longer a tool but have had the most powerful impact on the development of — a core humanistic activity. Chinese art in the twentieth century of any individual. THE ARTS AND NEW LEARNING

From Utilitarianism to Idealism: One of China’s foremost early art educators, Li Shutong, Cai Yuanpei and Aesthetic Education began his studies in Shanghai at the Nanyang Public School Profoundly patriotic and idealistic, Cai Yuanpei (1868—- (Nanyang gongxue; now Shanghai Jiaotong University) in 1940) cut short his studies of philosophy, psychology, and —_ 1901, studying under Cai Yuanpei. This school had been art history at the University of Leipzig in 1911 to take up established by the industrialist Sheng Xuanhuai (1844-1916) ART IN THE CREATION OF A NEW NATION 31

and North American missionary educator John C. Ferguson — Shutong had learned abroad in those years. His curriculum (1866-1945) even before the Hundred Days reforms. Li was widely emulated, and such practices as xiesheng (a classi-

Shutong then entered the Western painting department cal term that literally means “painting life”), which included of the prestigious Tokyo School of Fine Arts in 1906. The — drawing and plein air painting, were adopted by instructors French-trained oil painting professor and aristocrat Kuroda _at other schools. Seiki (1866-1924), who advocated plein air painting and Li Shutong threw himself wholeheartedly into inculcatencouraged up-to-date impressionist and postimpressionist ing his students with the modern Western cultural practices styles, was at the height of his influence in Tokyo during he had absorbed in Japan. To the surprise of his colleagues, Li Shutong’s student years. In 1896, Kuroda, then a profes- he abandoned teaching in 1918 to become a Buddhist monk, sor at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, established a loosely adopting the religious name Hongyi fashi. In his brief six structured painting club called the White Horse Society years in the classroom, however, Li Shutong powerfully (Hakubakai) to promote a rebellion against the nineteenth- _ influenced a generation of innovative artists, musicians, and century academic styles that dominated Western art in Meiji | graphic designers. Japan. The Hakubakai held exhibitions, edited publications, For the Cantonese painter Gao Jianfu, engagement with and organized like-minded artists for fifteen years, until its Japan took a rather different form and ultimately yielded disbanding in 1911. Based on what little evidence survives a new style of Chinese ink and color painting referred to today of Li Shutong’s early oil painting, his sympathies were — as the Lingnan school.’ Gao had, at the age of fourteen, in the modern camp. In 1911 he graduated from the Western —_ apprenticed himself to the well-known local flower painter, painting department of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, one — Ju Lian, in Panyu, Guangdong, now part of the modern of the first two Chinese students to complete its program. — city of Guangzhou. Ju Lian excelled at refined painting Graduating students in his department were required to in the “boneless” manner, rendering objects with delicate leave small graduation self-portraits at the school. Despite color rather than outlines, and also taught his pupils various standardization in size, the varied styles of the self-images | methods of puddling water, dry pigment, and paint on the convey well the young artists’ aspirations to artistic and per- surface of the damp silk to create vivid, accidental effects. sonal individuality. Li’s self-portrait of 1911 is rendered ina These techniques were called zhuangshui and zhuangfen beautifully colored pointillist style [fig. 2.3], an up-to-date (infusing water and infusing powder). It was under Ju Lian’s manner transmitted from Paris to Tokyo and mastered by __ instruction that Gao Jianfu thoroughly mastered a highly

the young Chinese artist with surprising rapidity. detailed and naturalistic manner of painting and also where Li Shutong returned to a China on the verge of revolu- he met his lifetime friend, Chen Shuren, who would go tion. Even constitutionalists like Liang Qichao had begun on to become an official and diplomat in the Republican calling for overthrow of the incompetent Manchu regime, — government.

which soon occurred. Thus, after acquiring knowledge of In 1903, Gao Jianfu left Ju Lian’s atelier, where he had modern Western art and culture in Japan asa subject of the studied for eleven years, and enrolled at a college in the Qing empire, Li Shutong returned to teach citizens of the — nearby Portuguese colony of Macao. He began earnestly new Chinese Republic. In 1912 he was hired by the director studying Western art and later recalled learning charcoal of the Zhejiang First Normal College, Jing Hengyi (1877— — sketching from a French painter. A four-panel work on 1939), who was himself a graduate of Tokyo Higher Normal silk—Flowers, Melon, Fish, and Insects—of 1905, while lyri-

School, to establish a department of arts and crafts at the — cal and unassuming at first glance, is truly a virtuoso perHangzhou school. Li Shutong took the opportunity to insti-. — formance in the techniques Gao Jianfu had mastered in Ju tutionalize many Western practices that were completely —— Lian’s studio [fig. 2.4]. It is distinguished by the controlled

new to China, such as drawing plaster casts of famous use of accidental effects, particularly sprinkling dry pigEuropean sculptures, painting outdoors, and, in 1913, draw- ment into water puddled directly on the highly sized silk ing from nude models. While pursuit of technical mastery or infusing clean water into wet pigment, combined with was thus assumed as a goal of art education, Lis teaching the highly naturalistic rendering of plants and insects. After took his students far beyond the functional requirements of two years of study Gao began working as a teacher himself, Qing dynasty drawing and painting instruction intoarealm — and a Japanese colleague, Yamamoto Baigai, who tutored that prized creativity and self-expression. This approach to _ him in the Japanese language, urged him to go abroad for art, and to art pedagogy, closely coincided with the views _ further study. of Cai Yuanpei, whose 1912 speech articulated so persua- Around 1905, Gao wrote one of his earliest surviving thesively and so appropriately what foreign graduates like Li _oretical statements, “On Painting.” In keeping with concepts 32 ART IN THE CREATION OF A NEW NATION

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In the following year, Gao Jianfu traveled to Tokyo. It is | — ll unclear where he studied, or if he enrolled in a school at all, 4) - \y | ‘A -

although some biographies claim that he joined oil paint- \ eee if. Oe ing societies such as the Hakubakai and the Meiji Painting MN we : ye yy

Society. It is evident from the changes that took place in his tag oe ink painting style over the subsequent decade that he was :

strongly influenced by nihonga, a modern Japanese form of ES aa a painting that is informed by eighteenth- and nineteenth- ' } ind

century European naturalism. i

A syncretic manner of Japanese painting had appeared in sh . —

Kyoto in a highly decorative form even before Japan began 4 — modernizing, and it was this manner that most appealed to + papal

Gao Jianfu and his talented younger brother, Gao Qifeng, —— 4 who soon joined him in Japan. Gao Qifeng studied in Japan , BZ with a well-known Tanaka Raish6 (1868| | |by ow nihonga 2.5 Gao painter, Qifeng (1889-1933), Spring Rain 1940), and thereafter specialized in delicate and lyrical paint- 5 wijiow Pond undated. han pine cea ink ings of animals, birds, and flowers. His hazy Spring Rain by and color on paper, 180 x 100 cm, Shanghai

the Willow Pond [fig. 2.5] is thoroughly imbued with the Museum ART IN THE CREATION OF A NEW NATION 33

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ing scroll, ink and color on paper, 177 x 91.5 cm, Hong Kong Museum P . . vitae of Art Tee, che taez ih +srpts aad lay E - , ; Ad lini 7 ry i: M :

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OR TT Ta calf TTS scroll, ink and color on

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. } ie Boston

Museum of Fine Arts,

34

lyrical charm of contemporary Japanese painting. Monkeys — modern paintings, including those of the most important and Snowy Pine, a favorite subject of Kyoto school painters, | Lingnan school painters—Chen Shuren, Gao Qifeng, and is so skillfully executed that its technique seems to vanish in Gao Jianfu—along with some of the earliest art historical

the face of its immediate romantic appeal [fig. 2.6]. and theoretical essays to appear in a modern journal. Many In the years after the Gao brothers returned from Japan, of the articles urged the reform of art and further develGao Jianfu’s compositions, in contrast to the emotional — opment of art education. ‘The publishing firm, which sold restraint of his brother’s work, became bolder, his brush- _ reproductions of works by the Gao brothers and other artstrokes larger and more forceful, and Western elements, ists, remained in operation until 1918. The Gao brothers such as foreshortening, perspective, and light and shade, fill were also important for their work as teachers. Over the his work with power and drama. His ink paintings were course of his career, Gao Jianfu taught both in his private so strongly imbued with effects normally associated with studio, Spring Slumber Studio (Chunshui huayuan) and at Western art that his contemporaries considered him a repre- numerous Western-style schools, including, in the 1930s, sentative of the “eclectic” (zhezhong) style. A notable exam- National Central University, in Nanjing. Gao Qifeng, ple of the type most strongly criticized by conservative ink = who was a particularly popular teacher, trained more than painters, Flying in the Rain, painted somewhat later, in 1932, a thousand students at his private studio. They, their coldeploys the hazy ink and romantic effects of color developed league Chen Shuren [fig. 2.8], and their many followers crewithin nihonga landscape painting to express his wonder at ated what was called the Lingnan style, a label that refers to mechanical flight [fig. 2.7]. In his own mind this modern- their home region, “south of the mountains.” ized version of Chinese painting was a form of revolution- The theoretical hallmark of the Lingnan school was Gao ary art that paralleled his commitment to radical political Jianfu’s formulation of a theory of “new national paint-

change. ing” (xin guohua) as an “art to save the nation.” He came to While in Japan, Gao Jianfu, his brother Gao Qifeng, believe, after his experiences in Japan, that rather than simand their friend Chen Shuren converted to the Republican _ ply abandoning Chinese painting, synthesizing Chinese and

cause. Gao Jianfu joined the Chinese Revolutionary foreign art was necessary to revolutionize national paintAlliance (Tongmenghui) in 1906 and became a loyal fol- ing. Realism and subjectivity should be combined, subject lower of the anti-Manchu cause and of its leader, Sun Yat- matter updated, and yet spiritual resonance and expressive sen, who would briefly serve as president and who is con- brushwork must be maintained as part of Chinese paintsidered the father of the Chinese Republic. On orders of — ing’s national identity. In his attempts to leave behind the the Revolutionary Alliance, the Gao brothers returned to delicate brushwork of his master, Ju Lian, he sometimes Guangzhou in 1908 to form a revolutionary cell. Gao Jianfu. — adopted the bold strokes more commonly seen in nihonga was involved in a political assassination group that targeted _ painting. Fag/e, of 1929, representative of his mature style, Manchu officials and is believed to have organized bomb _is one of anumber of patriotic paintings he produced in the construction, using art shops and his ceramics factory as | new manner to represent the power of the Chinese Republic front organizations. In September of 1911 the Qing governor and its people [fig. 2.9]. Gao’s depiction of the fierce bird of Guangdong, Feng Shan, was blown up along with about of prey—with its foreshortening and contrasts of light and a dozen other Manchus. A young painter recruited into the shade, rich ink tones, and naturalistic effect—is a very sucRevolutionary Alliance by Gao Jianfu was later credited cessful example of the synthesis of Eastern and Western art

with carrying the fatal bomb. that he so powerfully advocated. It is typical of the Lingnan Gao Jianfu took part in one of the armed uprisings school. that brought down the Qing government, but once the A rather different approach to synthesis of foreign and Republic was established, he declined to serve as governor Chinese styles may be found in the painting of Chen of Guangdong and instead turned his attention to a revo- = Hengque during the 1910s. Chen Hengque (often called lution in art. In 1912 he and his two brothers opened the Chen Shizeng), whose scholarly father and grandfather Aesthetic Bookstore in Shanghai, which published over the — were deeply involved in building the new educational sysnext year seventeen issues of a beautifully produced picto- — tem, entered the Jiangnan Military and Technical School rial journal, 7he True Record, that promoted their political (Jiangnan lushi xuetang) in Nanjing in 1898. Upon graduaand artistic ideals. The journal was, in the words of the art tion in 1902, Chen Hengque traveled to Japan, where after historian Ralph Croizier, “a combination of news, social — studying Japanese at the government-run language school, and political commentary, ‘modern knowledge, and infor- he majored in natural history at the Tokyo Higher Normal

mation about art.”* It reproduced both modern and pre- — School. He returned to China in 1909 and embarked on ART IN THE CREATION OF A NEW NATION 35

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2.9 Gao jJianfu (1879-1951), Eagle, 1929, hanging scroll, ink and 2.10 Chen Hengque (1876-1923), Viewing Paintings, 1918, hanging color on paper, 167 x 83 cm, Chinese University of Hongkong Art scroll, ink and color on paper, 87.7 x 46.6 cm, Palace Museum, Beijing Museum

a lifelong career as a teacher, beginning at the Nantong an enthusiasm for the “epigraphic” aesthetic and for bold, Normal School, not far from Shanghai. Among his writings — simple, direct, compositions. During this period Chen of the time was a 1911 translation from the Japanese that |= Hengque contributed illustrations and articles about Westintroduced trends in contemporary French painting. ern art to Pacific Monthly (Taipingyangbao) for which his While disseminating modern learning to the future friend Li Shutong served as editor. Like many talented forteachers under his guidance, Chen Hengque took the eign graduates, Chen accepted a governmental position in opportunity to study Chinese painting, calligraphy, and Beijing soon after establishment of the new Republican capseal carving informally with Wu Changshi, who had moved ital there, and in 1913 he became an editor in the Ministry of permanently to Shanghai not long before [see figs. 1.19 and = Education. He painted an amusing thirty-four-leaf album 1.22]. Chen Hengque’s painting never resembled that of — entitled Beijing Customs during his early years in Beijing,

the older master, but it is evident that the two men shared 1914 and 1915, which appeared in the newspaper and was 36 ART IN THE CREATION OF A NEW NATION

later called China's first modern cartoon (manhua). Begin- more distant edge longer than the nearer one, to present a ning in 1915, Chen concurrently taught natural history at _ larger surface for the loving description of the exhibition’ two schools, Beijing Women’s Normal School and Beijing — treasures—a long handscroll, much darkened by age, several Women’s Higher Normal School, while also teaching paint- —_ albums of painting and calligraphy, and on the rear wall two ing at Beijing Higher Normal School. The art courses he —_ powerful examples of landscape painting.

taught at Beijing Higher Normal included lectures on the Although Chen Hengque did not paint in a style we

history of Chinese painting. associate with Western realism, he nevertheless responded to A 1918 painting by Chen Hengque, Viewing Paintings | Cai Yuanpei’s mandate. The artist recorded a contemporary [fig. 2.10], demonstrates the sense of civic duty shared by scene to which he was an eyewitness rather than painting many artists of the time, and the work itself engages in images from his imagination, as was more common praccultural advocacy at multiple levels. In subject matter this _ tice among literati painters. Carefully chosen details and a casual painting represents ways art might serve modern soci- — composition crowded with jostling spectators successfully

ety and participate in public life. According to the artist's | convey the contemporary and public nature of the event. inscription, Viewing Paintings records a benefit exhibition ‘The quasi-documentary quality of the work is made even held in Beijing early in 1918 to raise funds for flood vic- — more convincing by thoughtful variation of physical types tims. This kind of philanthropy flourished throughout the — among the exhibition viewers, which include foreigners and Republican period, both because of the strong civic com- — women. The places of honor are reserved for the exhibition's mitment of many artists and because they saw that the gov- _ offerings: treasures of ancient painting carefully placed ona ernment was unable to provide necessary relief for the many — white tablecloth in the painting’s center and soaring above natural disasters that befell China's impoverished rural pop- __— the viewers’ heads on the back wall. Despite its naive qual-

ulation. Art could, at the most fundamental material level, ity, the specificity of Chen Hengque’s figure drawings was contribute to the lives and welfare of China’s populace. immediately recognized as something new, and his rejection Furthermore, Cai Yuanpei’s emphasis on aesthetic educa- —_ in such work of the lofty poetic themes of traditional literati tion and social responsibility encouraged a feeling that pri- painting was seen as modern. Here, both in his execution vate collectors had a duty to share their art with the public. | and in the subject he depicts, old habits of painting and According to the artist's inscription, six hundred or seven looking are redirected for modern purposes. hundred paintings from major Beijing collections were displayed on a daily rotation at the Central Park exhibition SHANGHAI ART ACADEMY: THE FIRST DECADE site. The exhibition depicted in Looking at Paintings served — We have seen official sponsorship of Western artistic forms the public in several ways—besides the obvious opportu- __ in the late Qing dynasty for very practical purposes—those nity it presented to artists and collectors to study works they —_ of science and technology. Another functional use of oil may never before have seen, it gave any ticket-purchaser, painting that flourished, particularly in Shanghai in the regardless of social background, the opportunity to learn _late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, was purely

from these rarely accessible works. commercial: illusionistic backdrop painting for purposes of The painting thus bears witness to an admirable and entertainment. Frequently used in fashionable photo stuuncommon event in the Beijing art world and preserves its dios to allow the sitter to choose the interior décor in which likeness for posterity. Despite whatever drawing skills Chen he or she preferred to be portrayed, backdrop paintings were Hengque may have acquired as a student of natural history, —_ also increasingly in demand by new theaters and even cinthere are few traces of Western realism in this rather eclec- | ema companies. One of the first places to teach oil painting tic work. The boneless wash of Shanghai school painting —_ in twentieth-century China was a small school run between depicts the padded winter jackets of the viewers, but Chen 1910 and 1923 by Zhou Xiang (1871-1933). As a child, Zhou largely avoids shading, chiaroscuro, or architectural perspec- himself had studied figure painting with Qian Hui’an tive. The only exception is his dramatic use of a darkened [see fig. 1.14], his uncle by marriage, and then, according floor plane instead of the blank paper on which figures in to some accounts, had learned oil painting from a teacher Chinese paintings usually stand. This Western element, — at the Tushanwan Painting Atelier. In 1911 he held a threehowever, serves less to define the interior space, which is | month-long Backdrop Painting Program (Bujing chuanxi accomplished by the overlapping of figures, than to illumi- suo) that offered the hope of a career in Western-style comnate the art works on display by its contrasting tone. The — mercial art to its students. artist employs the age-old Chinese convention of reverse Whether dissatisfied with Zhou Xiang’s old-fashioned perspective in which the table is sharply tilted in space, its instruction and painting style or simply filled with ambiART IN THE CREATION OF A NEW NATION 37

tions of their own, his students Wu Shiguang (1885—?), Yang , Se ee a ee | —_—

Xingxing, Xia Jiankang, and Liu Haisu (1896-1994), along , a with their friend Wang Yachen (1894-1983), decided in the ) fall of 1912 to open a competing school, the forerunner of En @

the Shanghai Art Academy, which they named Shanghai : Drawing, Painting, and Art School (Shanghai tuhua mei- : shu yuan). Wu Shiguang led the effort and provided ini- ae tial funding; subsequently, Liu Haisu’s father invested in be | their enterprise. These modest efforts created China's earli- (Wey ) est, if quite unsystematic, art schools. Although Shanghai Art Academy would be significant in decades to come, its

abroad. | ’ a Pp )

programs were rather ineffective at first, and it was most ! | \ : important as a place where aspiring artists met before going | 4 On January 28, 1913, the new school advertised its course j i i = yy offerings as Western painting and Western-style photog- : , Ad ¥ 4 se

¥»

raphy, copper-plate printmaking, and English-language 4 ol ig ee

instruction. The school operated, according to its notice, f ‘ e iy

from a house at No. 8 Zapu Road in the American settle- } in yi: fi b.-

ment at Hongkou. When it formally opened in March, , | a ; ‘

with a skeletal faculty, it provided a two-year undergradu- 7 F pS ate program and a one-year accelerated course. At the same s: | i . time, the school offered a correspondence program based on 2.11 Jiang Xin (1894-1939), Self-Portrait, 1918, oil on canvas, Euro-American models. In 1914 successful commercial art- 60.6 x 45.5 cm, The University Art Museum, Tokyo University

ists Zhang Yuguang (1885-1968), Xu Yongging (1880-1953), of the Arts Shen Bochen (1889-1920), and Chen Baoyi (1893-1945) were recruited to join the faculty roster. In August, Zhang Yuguang took over the academy directorship, a post he held the curriculum of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, had been for five years before resigning in the spring of 1919 to pur- — approved by the regional authorities. Students on campus sue stage design and other interests. The school moved at __ were taken on field trips to paint outdoors and instructed by least four times in its first two years, and 75 percent of the means of models in class. A 1918 publication illustrated the 894 students to register between 1913 and 1918 were corre- school’s exhibition of student work, which included some

spondence students. Moreover, of those who actually stud- drawings of plaster casts. The administration had shifted ied on campus, only seventy-one stayed long enough to __ repeatedly over this first decade but from this time mainreceive a degree or certificate. In its first five years, the very _ tained a stable structure. By 1919, Liu Haisu became direcsmall staff advertised an ambitious curriculum thatincluded tor and devoted the remainder of his career to the school. watercolor landscapes and figures, pencil drawing, oil paint- The faculty roster tells us a good deal about the changing ing, cartoons (/uajihua, literally, “funny pictures”), charcoal —_ nature of the Shanghai Art Academy and of the infancy of drawing, female beauties in watercolor, pen and ink, brush = Western-style art in China. As of 1918, the faculty was still painting, and “national essence painting” (guocuihua). fairly conservatively trained, emerging from a background Instruction in Chinese painting was, however, either lack- in commercial or religious art. Director Zhang Yuguang was ing or minimal, and most other lessons involved imitating a commercial artist who previously taught painting at the

copybooks.” Chinese YMCA. Academic dean Ding Song (1891-1969) Although the correspondence school remained akey part —_ had studied with Zhou Xiang. Instructor Chen Baoyi had of the operation, by the fall of 1918 the faculty had grown to _ studied with both Zhang Yuguang and Zhou Xiang, while about a dozen teachers. In January of 1917 the school tooka_ _ instructor Xu Yongqing learned painting and drawing at the crucial turn by the hiring of Jiang Xin (1894-1939), a fresh Tushanwan Atelier, the art training and production center

graduate of the oil painting department of Tokyo School established by Jesuit missionaries in 1867 at their Xujiahui of Fine Arts, to take charge of revising the curriculum [fig. (Ziccawei) orphanage. According to Ding Song, the Jesuit 2.11]. By March the school’s new program, based in part on school taught portraiture, watercolors, oils, charcoal, and 38 ART IN THE CREATION OF A NEW NATION

pencil drawing. Copying model books was an important — when funds became available, the school’s two departments part of the learning process and was codified in 1907 by __ be expanded by adding calligraphy to the Chinese painting two Tushanwan publications: A Primer of Painting (Huishi — program and sculpture to Western painting. By the early qianshuo) and Copybook for Pencil Drawing (Qianbi lianxi 1920s the faculty included teachers trained in Japan, includ-

huatie). ing Chen Hengque, and oil painters trained in Europe and This workshop approach to teaching art, along with its the United States, such as Wu Fading (1883-1924) and Li practicality, was the only model for many would-be Western Yishi (1886-1942). painters in the first two decades of the twentieth century. When named chancellor of Peking University in 1916, Artists Zhang Yuguang, Ding Song, Xu Yongging, and — Cai Yuanpei assumed another influential position in which Shen Bochen all made their marks as commercial artists he could experiment with the implementation of his ideals. in Shanghai’s burgeoning modern publishing industry. Xu _—In 1918 he established an extracurricular institute within the Yongqing, whose strength was in watercolor painting, was university, the Painting Methods Research Society (Huafa selected by Commercial Press as artist for a series of rather — yanjiuhui), which instructed students and engaged in cersweet cover designs for the first volume of the new Ladies tain scholarly debates on the future of Chinese art that set Journal (Funii zazhi) that depicted young women engaged the agenda for the nation as a whole. Speeches delivered in a variety of modern activities, including easel painting. at the autumn matriculation ceremony suggest that Cai’s His art academy colleague Shen Bochen became the most goals were to encourage the modernization and revitalizafamous cartoonist of the early twentieth century, publish- tion of Chinese art by absorbing into it the best elements ing his political satires in the new popular press. In 1918, — of Western art. Throughout his career as an educational after visiting Japan, he founded a Chinese version of the — administrator, he also encouraged freedom of expression venerable humor magazine Puck, which he called Shanghai and intellectual debate, strongly supporting artists and art Puck. The history of the Shanghai Art Academy was thus —_ educators who advocated a range of different approaches to inextricably tied to Shanghai’s booming modern publish- — improve Chinese art and culture. Among the instructors ing industry and its need for commercial art. Chen Baoyi, _ he hired in 1918 to teach at the Painting Methods Research by contrast, left the Shanghai Art Academy faculty to study — Society were the iconoclastic young Xu Beihong and Chen at Tokyo School of Fine Arts between 1916 and 1921. He — Hengque, already well established as an educator in Beijing. would become one voice among those who brought modern Xu Beihong, who had spent six months in Japan in

Western fine art practices to the Shanghai art world. 1917, delivered an impassioned speech as the school year Proud of its birth in the first year of the new Republic, — began in the fall of 1918. He soundly condemned the dire the Shanghai Art Academy played, over the course of its state in which Chinese art then found itself. Perhaps influfifty-year existence (1912-52), a vital role in the development — enced by seeing in Tokyo the exquisite academic drawof both fine and commercial art in China. Nevertheless, asa ing and oil history paintings of artists he met, such as the privately financed institution in an uncertain economicand — French-trained oil painting professor Nakamura Fusetsu, political environment, the school encountered serious chal- Xu Beihong declared with hyperbole that as world civilizalenges. Between 1911 and 1927, the warlord period, China _ tion progressed, Chinese painting was the sole example of had six presidents and twenty-eight national governments. _—_art that had fallen into decline. With this extreme state of The Shanghai Art Academy archives are filled with submis- decadence, he claimed, no Chinese art (meishu) deserved sions to the frequently changing governmental authorities | the name “art,” and no one in China took art seriously. seeking certification of its course offerings and degrees. He spoke on behalf of his colleagues at the new Painting Methods Research Society, saying that they aimed to save

ART AND THE NEW CULTURE MOVEMENT Chinese art by leading it onto the right track. Cai Yuanpei’s mission to institute aesthetic education took The following year, in far more measured and rational an important step forward when he was able to establish — terms, Cai Yuanpei described his goals for the new institute. the Beijing Art School in 1918, China's first such govern- — Published in the university's monthly journal in October

ment-funded institution of learning. The school had only — 1919, this talk had impact far beyond the walls of the two departments, painting and design, and aimed to train research institute itself. Cai Yuanpei encouraged the practeachers who would bring art and aesthetic education tice of drawing from life, urged abandonment of both the into the curriculum as well as designers who would raise careless ink play of the literati and the moribund copying the quality of China’s manufactured goods. Cai Yuanpei’s _ of the artisan painters and praised the spirit of Western sciencouraging speech at the opening ceremony suggested that — ence. Arguing that Western artists from the Renaissance to ART IN THE CREATION OF A NEW NATION 39

the Rococo had readily adopted the best elements of Asian = te er

art, he stated his hopes that Chinese painters would simi- | —

larly absorb the strengths of Western realistic painting. Xu ~ a | 7 Beihong’s ink and color paintings of 1918 and 1919 are so Fh ee skilled and naturalistic that they resemble the paintings | —

made by the Italian missionary Guiseppe Castiglione for the ogi G3 . oh Ree we y ae

eighteenth-century Chinese emperor. Yet Cai urged much Be ear P i ‘es ¢ os i more than technique. With some sympathy he analyzed the = | am. hb yee , A .

habits of mind that might lead Chinese artists to copying > j A oY : ir rather than creativity and exhorted students both to break 7 Veco N/ free and to work hard: “Although beauty largely depends V3 - -_ .

upon talent, skill requires practice.” a S AY | - :

Cai Yuanpei’s theories of education, and particularly the ~ Le i ie moral value of aesthetic education, continued to resonate. ~ a ——— ere,

In 1918, in the first issue of the Shanghai Art School’s jour- eo te a *

nal Art (Meishu), Liu Haisu wrote: “The way to save the ae —_

nation must be to promote aesthetic education, using it to 2.12 Guan Liang (1901-1986), Cutting Firewood at West Mountain, inspire people's loftiness and purity of spirit and to compre- —_1927, oil on canvas, 46.7 x 53.2 cm, National Art Museum of China,

hend the real beauty of nature.” Reformist officials within — Beijing the provincial educational administration supported establishment of an art research society in Shanghai, which spon- _— from abroad in greater numbers during the 1920s, the acad-

sored lectures by artists who had studied abroad, includ- | emy’s instructional quality improved, and the curricuing Tokyo School of Fine Arts professor Isshi Hakutei, then = lum became more coherent. A more systematic approach returning from Europe, and two Shanghai Art Academy __ became increasingly possible as more Chinese artists studied professors with recent experience in Japan, painter and __ in Japan. In July 1919 the second issue of the academy’s joursculptor Jiang Xin and oil painter Wang Yachen. Liu Haisu _ nal ran a number of features introducing foreign art and art spent several months in Japan in 1919, traveling to Tokyo —_ education to its Chinese readers.'’ The most detailed reports and Kyoto, and attending the opening of the Imperial Art — discussed art education in Japan and were clearly intended Academy. “Now,” according to Cai Yuanpei, “[Liu Haisu] __ to serve as references for advanced art education as it was has a certain authority in Shanghai.”'® Based on the few sur- _ established in China. Over the course of the next several viving examples, it appears that Liu’s earliest painting was years the Shanghai Art Academy and most other Chinese inspired by turn-of-the-century Euro-American commercial — art programs implemented a pedagogical structure almost

art.'' His trip to Japan, however, opened his eyes to a new identical to that of the Japanese.

artistic world. A number of artists with close ties to the Shanghai Art In the fall of 1920 the Shanghai Art Academy was Academy studied at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts between restructured to better realize its mission of achieving the 1913 and 1922. Besides Jiang Xin and Wang Yachen, other standards of a Western art school. Liu Haisu, who was able _ influential figures to study at the Tokyo school and settle in to compensate for his lack of an advanced degree with his | Shanghai were Chen Baoyi and Ding Yanyong (1902-1978), innate administrative talent, educational ambition, and = who graduated in 1925.'* Japanese-trained Guan Liang entrepreneurial zeal, was now director. Called at that time — (1901-1986) joined the Shanghai Art Academy staff in 1923 the Shanghai School of Fine Arts (Shanghai meishu xue- [fig. 2.12]. As government officials and civic-minded citixiao), it offered degrees in Western painting (xiyanghua) and zens actively pursued an agenda of modernization, firsthand teacher training. Coeducation, an innovation sought by Cai _ experience of formal art education in Japan flowed back to Yuanpei, was introduced in that year, with young men and — China in multiple ways; the institutional structures associwomen mixed in the various classes. Of the eighteen fac- —_ ated with the practice of art in China were in a state of conulty members, one oil painting professor, the American- _ stant development. Of greatest interest to students and proeducated Zhou Shujing, was female.'* Among the female _fessors alike, however, was up-to-date knowledge of Western students was Wu Shuyang (1901-1966), daughter of school __ art, and that required firsthand experience at the source of founder Wu Shiguang, who would go on to become an — modern Western art: Paris. Even those with degrees from art professor herself. As Chinese students began to return — Japan would, if they could, go abroad again to France. 40 ART IN THE CREATION OF A NEW NATION

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2.13 Liu Haisu (1896-1994), Qianmen, 1922, oil on canvas, 64 x 80 cm, National Art Museum of China, Beijing

Many artists in this period aspired to nothing less than __ oil painting, Qsanmen (Front gate), is an image of the old the creation of a cosmopolitan art world in China as sophis- imperial gate directly to the south of Tiananmen, a juxtapoticated and vibrant as that of Paris. But the fragmentation of __ sition of the old architecture of the imperial city and the new China's government during the warlord period and the con- buildings in central Beijing [fig. 2.13]. Alchough influenced stant turnover of administrations left China's cultural world — by Cezanne, Liu Haisu was particularly inspired by Vincent largely unsupported by governmental authorities. This situ- | Van Gogh, whom he perceived as a rebel genius, and he ation left ample room for individual and group activities | began painting Chinese subjects with the thick, bold brushand may have, contrary to expectation, played a positive strokes associated with the manner of the European master. role in the growing pluralism and diversity of China's art _In this period he began using the term pantu, or “renegade,”

world. This manifested itself particularly in Beijing and to label those, like Van Gogh, who he believed possessed Shanghai, with the growth of art schools and art societies, such individualistic creative genius. The American-educated

along with a boom in publishing. writer Hu Shi (1891-1962), who promoted development of Destruction of so many works of art and so much prop- _ literature in the colloquial language, was to Liu Haisu literaerty in the warlord battles of the 1910s and 1920s coupled _ture’s renegade, and by the mid-1920s Liu had adopted “art's with the Japanese bombing of the 1930s left little evidence renegade” as his own penname. At the same time, Liu began for us to analyze the degree to which artists succeeded in —_ experimenting in ink painting. His early ink paintings were achieving their modernizing aims. A small number of early often more ambitious in composition than successful in exeworks by the largely self-taught director of the Shanghai — cution. Nevertheless, they remain important because they

Art Academy, Liu Haisu, survive. He held an exhibition in so well exemplify general trends of the period, including Beijing in January of 1922, and during the same trip painted rejection of the Qing court orthodoxy of the Four Wangs a work that is in his most typical postimpressionist style. His (after its seventeenth-century progenitors) and enthusiART IN THE CREATION OF A NEW NATION 41

sat! “ as

* Pare oe 0) RAH iime » 4 At fs ee tay % + ~*~ & ie VES & aaiHy p iw 3 4h * TE4% KLE DS we kt | 4«Ae UREN SSG 4#7 ' aay 3 J ee AP “x ie ee ¥) 4. +r eres f Z ah aA op A ix

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hy ha ; : : ee. LASS yi iF e Spree iy =fERNwe EN ;

4: oy ee Gemne a | ie . e =. Y/ \ : urged by the modernizers.

’ tal al>.i; Awkward write articles and political treatises in this newly develop7. |*AN attempts were made throughout the 1910s ? ialDN = ‘ Se) ing style. Lu Xun published his first and most famous shortto eh : oat : . 7 wo ue ui story in the vernacular in 1918, “The Diary of a Madman,”

, eee \, ‘i which harshly satirized the failings of traditional Confucian

/ : ' society. Pathbreaking for its brilliant use of language as well | aa as its content, the publication of this work was also Zhou \ Shuren’s first use of the pseudonym Lu Xun, by which he is

ee f « known today. Although Lu Xun’s brilliance as a writer may Pinch Es —=, have been unequaled, he was certainly not unique in his a \ diagnosis of the fundamental sources of China's weakness— b its Confucian ideology. Debates raged over how, or how } much, to change Chinese culture. Many of Lu Xun’s fellow . reformers believed that to achieve modernization, China must be Westernized and the old ideas, ethics, and culture from its feudal past completely rejected. Chen Duxiu (1879-1942), editor of the influential journal New Youth, published this Darwinian opinion in 1916: “To build a new, Westernized country and a new, Westernized society, so that we can survive in this competitive world, we must solve the basic problem of importing from the West the very founda-

tion of the new society. ... We must get rid of the old to achieve the new.” As the historian Hao Chang has written of the new intel" — lectuals: “The scope of their moral iconoclasm is perhaps ap nu peinne (1895-1953), Sound of the ete (Portrait el Jlang unique in the modern world; no other historical civilization Eine) Cee SIL CANN AS IS = Se eI eSDCION Ss MEMNON outside the West undergoing modern transformation has Museum, Beijing

witnessed such a phoenix-like impulse to see its own cultural tradition so completely negated.”'® The New Culture move-

ART IN THE CREATION OF A NEW NATION 43

. . . “Yo¢ :

eas : v a on a) ‘8 . Pe ee . }

ment went far beyond the ideas of the nineteenth-century (e Yn we

reformers, many of whom had thought that Western science oy a 8 & % 4 ite - 4 and technology could be grafted onto the existing Chinese ey AA A a 4 & g ye rh iG culture. Modernization, the new generation argued, urgently Ke if g 3 i Ag 5 ‘| 93 $ u

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required that the old ideas, ethics, and culture from China's zz 4 if = 3 i fs + % feudal past be replaced by those from Western democracies. wy a 4 % 45, pa i 4 & | e

Such politically divergent personalities as Chen Duxiu, Z W by 4g i : fi xe _&, 4 who would later become a founder of the Chinese Com- Hr # reestab% =i) x # os 4 z \4FE aa munist Party, and Kang Youwei, who advocated : [tb

.hci * pcs . if]17¥; -xi g‘ 3a= v4

lishing the imperial system with a Confucian constitution,

agreed that China's old art had no place in modern China. + . ae ra In 1919, in an editorial response to a letter by the scholar at $4 ses oy if Lu Cheng published in New Youth, Chen Duxiu called for rae ga & &é

a thorough revolution in Chinese art.” Particularly critical a ji as re

ae au Gm i a : ¢ é 2 Ps Ba) : Jo. ae . . . ° . Sf os a 4 r. = os ot i ——s

of the orthodox painting of the Qing period, he argued that a cy | | a ks a 2 this style had a seriously damaging influence, its artists sat- Re ae. a oe isfied to imitate or copy ancient paintings, with no creative Af ye! . *

. ° es . bs staph . . ae KR, _—. . = S 4h.

elements of their own. In his view the Four Wang man- yt 3 Pe a. ner was the most serious barrier to importing Western real- ae ‘%) st am * & ism and reforming Chinesewith painting and fervor shouldthat therefore faFL peemie See F 4te be abandoned.'* He advocated particular ut RACYi:de a _¥

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Chinese art should be revolutionized with the realism of na 5 a * ee e Ae roma a bé

~ é $ - og 3) tn oe a SF ==y + wht ate , a

Western art. A year later Chen Duxiu wrote a definition of ae he ;. Say Fas : Pa the New Culture movement in which he stipulated that the = iM i ay —_ _- E Se 8 4 @ new art should play an active role in the education of soci- ig A Ae = ome an

. ; ae 2 ae Se ee ast ME

ety, that it should apply the realistic methods of Western st = . ~ SZ ygee | a art, and that it should be a creative rather than imitative art. : < © ote Fle 33 Writing a preface to his own collection catalog in 1918, ES oe , e ae + be Kang Youwei similarly urged a turn toward Western realism, ic ws > 2 AK or back to the art of China’s Tang and Song periods, when e2 Bae ie 7 25

< d sy 2 ; . 43 ; . " SK my EZ We

, 19 a ~ E- ae ROT, ae

realism rather than self-expression was the goal of art. w= x a ~ 6 These views were very much in keeping with those insti- eh a TR or OR

tuted as part of the new educational system—that Western n 4 A it * #6) x Faw” art, which was characterized by the ability to depict reality, = te mh x a & % x was essential to China’s modernization. Against this back- “i = a a a th th py Ed

4 » A ha yh x. # ne i K wo h g

ground, even the most subtle works in the literati manner ee A AR a were banished to the quiet private studios of their schol-

; Shanghai Museum

arly practitioners. An example from 1910, Lodge in Green ae oa aaa a aes rite unoreeu MenntaliisGyter

Ben, 1910, hanging Gu scroll, ink on paper, 57.4 x 29.4 cm, Mountains after Xu Ben, by the Suzhou, ucollector-painter | he

Linshi (1865-1930), depicts an empty mountain dwelling beside a rushing stream [fig. 2.17]. The artist’s accompanying poem, at center, describes autumnal breezes soughing _— different kind of aesthetic satisfaction—enjoyment of the through pine branches as though accompanied by the mel- _—_ abstract qualities of ink on paper—the subtle contrasts of

p part p y ary P &

ancholy tones of the seven-stringed zither. pale dry ink and rich wet wash, moist black dots of distant The pleasure of the work is in part poetic, and in the foliage and feathery dry strokes of pine needles. The gentle imagination of the viewer—suggesting the auditory plea- contrasts of blank paper and ink texture create the subtle sure of music and wind, the visual enjoyment of a clear visual drama of the work. The artist further writes that he stream and verdant mountains, as well as the physical is painting in the style of Xu Ben, a fourteenth-century litdelight of crisp breezes in the mountain forest. The paint- —_ eratus. The gentle striation of “hemp fiber” texture strokes ing itself assists in these mental wanderings but brings a — on the mountain, as well as the horizontal repeated dots, are ae ART IN THE CREATION OF A NEW NATION

references to this antique inspiration, but the gently asym- by the end of the 1910s the very vocabulary of art in the metrical composition and soft brushwork is very much Gu —_— Chinese language had changed. The term meishu was coined

Linshi’s own. In 1910 the artist’s like-minded friend Wu _in nineteenth-century Japan as part of a new way of thinkChangshi praised Gu in his inscription on the mounting — ing about and practicing art. It is a literal translation of above the painting, while other friends and a later student, — the French beaux-arts and is usually rendered in English as Wu Hufan, similarly marvel at Gu’s creative reinterpretation “fine arts.” A group of scholars in Shanghai, including the of the classical art of the Yuan dynasty. The beautiful brush- _— painter-scholar Huang Binhong, compiled a compendium work and quiet, contemplative mood of this work were of — of important art texts they called Meishu congshu (A comno interest, however, to men like Chen Duxiu, who sought __ pendium of the fine arts), the first installment of which was

revolutionary action. published in 1906. Although their goal may be viewed as a In May of 1919 students in Beijing learned that China, conservative one, to preserve knowledge of China’s premodwhich was a member of the victorious alliance that ended ern artistic traditions, they modernized the scope of the texts World War I, had agreed to the Versailles Peace Treaty, which by including three-dimensional arts and other subjects that transferred Germany's colonial territories in Shandong to might be considered “art” in the West but were not highly Japan instead of returning them. Outraged that China’s gov- —s valued _ by premodern Chinese aesthetic canons. This was ernment would accept such second-class status, they held —_an early attempt, predating the New Culture movement, to massive demonstrations on May 4 in protest of the gov- __ present the documents of Chinas art history and system of ernments weakness and vowed to fundamentally change aesthetic values in a manner that acknowledged, or perhaps their nation. For this reason, the New Culture movement, — even competed with, those of the modern West and Japan. which lasted for a decade beginning around 1916, is often “The term meishu was in common currency in China by 1912, called the May Fourth movement. In light of the totalistic | when the Shanghai Art Academy took its name. Its school attack on “tradition” that intellectuals of the period consid- —_— journal, initiated in 1918, was called Meishu.

ered essential for China's modernization and the emphasis In the context of the national reconstruction movements on establishing Western-style schools, it is not surprising to —_ of the late Qing and the early Republic, from approximately

find the almost complete domination of Western painting 1900 to 1920, the development of art became an integral part in the curriculum for Chinas modern school system dur- _ of the building of a new educational system. Western-style ing the first decade of the new Republic. The Shanghai Art —_ art and art education were strong currents within the wave Academy was typical: despite its advertisement of a well- | of modernization that washed back to China from Japan. rounded curriculum, it offered no Chinese painting major = Would China's own traditions of painting survive? Should

until 1923. they? Or did modernization require total Westernization? Western practices of art and art education, often asinter- At the beginning of the 1920s, these questions remained to preted in Meiji Japan, became the new standard. Indeed, be answered.

ART IN THE CREATION OF A NEW NATION 45

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7 ‘ Vs A Sat ~ | Baishi : aS ; 2 : 3-2 Qi Baishi rh ee cles isles PCa) Ns fs “4 tx me! « (1864-1957), Lotus Miscellaneous Paintings in an evangated Format, 1922, = ; 7 t Mi [= a > -. oy, Pond, 1924, hang-

one leaf from an album of ON ink and color on _\}-—f t | ly . Bs ‘ = 4 . ing scroll, ink and

paper, 35.9 x 9.8 cm, Shanghai Museum -- HH t es ‘fj -- x | color on paper, 182 W Be emamdaiang? EE x 96 cm, Shanghai Museum

of a miniature hanging scroll, is accompanied by an inscrip- —_ introduction to Beijing society by Chen Hengque, and his

tion by Yao Mangfu, the artist’s colleague at the Beijing painting style became much freer and more direct as a result

Women’s Normal School [fig. 3.1]. of Chen's encouragement. Chen Hengque was also responsible for discovering and Work in Qi Baishi’s new manner was shown in the Sinoestablishing the career of the artist Qi Huang (usually called = Japanese joint exhibitions of the early 1920s, where it was Qi Baishi; 1864-1957), who would become far more influ- _ enthusiastically received by Japanese collectors. This success ential than Chen himself as a painter. Qi Baishi was a native established Qi Baishi’s international reputation and, in a of Hunan, where the Chen family had lived during the off- _— pattern that would become increasingly significant, acclaim cial careers of Chen Hengque’s father and grandfather, and — abroad earned Qi Baishi respect at home, thus overcoming the two men thus spoke a similar local dialect. A profes- | many of the prejudices within the traditionalist art world, sional painter of humble origins, Qi Huang began his career — which tended to favor men of elevated family backgrounds as a craftsman rather than fine artist but worked hard to _ and classical educations. Qi Baishi would later be appointed acquire mastery of painting, calligraphy, and seal carving. as a painting professor, despite lacking a modern diploma. While selling his paintings and seal carvings at the art and Qi Baishi painted prolifically and experimented in all antique market in Beijing’s Liulichang district, he attracted — subjects, including landscapes, but was particularly famous the attention of the younger Chen Hengque. Chen, himself — for his paintings of shrimp, fish, crabs, and birds. Like a seal carver and calligrapher, was charmed by the simplic- | Chen Hengque, he painted whatever simple, mundane subity, straightforwardness, and authenticity of Qi Baishi’s seal —_ ject might catch his eye. A hanging scroll painting of 1924, carving, and urged him to realize this epigraphic aesthetic in Lotus Pond [fig. 3.2] is typical of his work of the period. It his painting. Qi Baishi became widely known only after his — depicts a subject that is visually and emotionally powerful ART IN THE NEW CULTURE OF THE 19205 49

but not conventionally beautiful—the dry, wind-battered ee, _ ad leaves and seed pods of the autumnal lotus. His work pos- ta wa — ° rr sesses a childlike daring that is at once primitive and mod- — él ih ee ern. This painting shows evidence of the artist’s debt to ear- aE +: | Vee Pe |

lier masters (such as Zhu Da, Shitao, and Wu Changshi), re Ly a ‘ : but Qi achieved a distinctive style that captured a vibrant ES Zz: ™ | “"”. 4 impression of his chosen subject.° His originality of vision - _ 2 re ‘a tm UR) in) Hid

and directness of approach stimulated many younger artists. 2 = = = 20 ee bs

po: | Phe.

Traditionalist Painting Societies in Beijing: The National a = aa a &

Essence Movement —— “ i a oy eer

The reaction against the wholesale Westernization of Sa = P Chinese art, of which Chen Hengque’s work may be the Beet, e : mae most theoretically sophisticated, became increasingly pop \ = oe oh > \

important in the 1920s. It is sometimes called the National $ ¢ e7 aye coe em" 1 NN

Essence (guocui) movement by association with a cultur- é | Fra’ ¥ “i oe : | ally nationalistic journal of the late Qing period, Guocui . 4s A chee 7 a |

xuebao (National essence journal). The absence of Chinese ¢ fh) eee pr as ‘ painting from the academic curriculum particularly con- Vo ot te AS.

cerned those worried about the survival of China’s cultural ie i re, ge? dit ei heritage, and private individuals began to organize to cor- Ft oe S = s ." rect this deficiency. In 1920, Beijing painters, including Jin - - re et Se OFS

Cheng (1878-1926), whose collection was a subject of Chen aa _£ 4 or i ae

Hengque’s Viewing Paintings [see fig. 2.10], launched the Fae Be Chinese Painting Research Society. The society met weekly ; al : le : at Central Park to provide instruction in painting, callig- ~ Fc a # -. raphy, and connoisseurship, and to serve as a casual forum i a | 74 Kg. ss | for the development of the theory and practice of Chinese is ce < Ox AS ss painting. The society ultimately reached a membership of i saitier 3.4 Wang Zhen (1867-

f 7 inscriptions by Wu

1938), Fate, 1922, pair of hanging scrolls with

&:|8

| - paper, eachShanghai 120 x 61cm, Duoyunxuan,

Changshi, ink and color on

of Wang Yiting, as painter, poet, and calligrapher, and tothe — (Japanese: Zen) masters is conveyed powerfully and directly

sympathy of Wu Changshi, as his inscriptional respondent. _ by his inscription and painted image. The painting itself It is likely that this charming collaboration was conceived offers a compelling contrast between wild motion and calm. in the context of the many charitable activities in which the — The Indian monk, who is conventionally depicted in a frontwo men were involved. Also in 1922, with Wang Zhen’s tal manner, or occasionally in profile, is instead rendered as help, the Sino-Japanese Art Society (Zhong-Ri meishu xie- though seen from behind. Although Bodhidharma is still hui) was established. Between 1922 and 1931, Wang Zhen __ recognizable by his heavy beard, the unexpected perspecorganized five joint exhibitions in Shanghai, Nagasaki, and tive startles the viewer, potentially yielding a flash of Chan Tokyo. In 1930 he founded the Sino-Japanese Art Colleagues enlightenment, or at very least, a more thoughtful examinaAssociation (Zhong-Ri yishu tongzhihui) and organized tion of this iconic religious teacher. Wang Zhen rendered several groups of Chinese artists to visit Japan to participate his Bodhidharma with comparatively few strokes, which are

in the exhibitions."’ largely obscured by layers of semi-opaque red pigment, and In the last few years of his life, particularly following the thus form a bold pyramidal shape that dominates the lower 1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria, Wang retired from half of the scroll. his Japanese business connections and turned his attention The figure seems to sit perfectly still on a straw medexclusively to art, philanthropy, and Buddhist practice. One —_itation mat placed parallel to the painting’s lower edge, of the most original of his late works is the 1934 painting of | which establishes a stable base for the entire composition. the red-robed Chan Buddhist patriarch Bodhidharma [fig. | The viewer approaches the Buddhist sage as might all other 3.5]. Wang Zhen’s vision of this most venerated of Chan seekers of understanding who wished to study with the ART IN THE NEW CULTURE OF THE 1920S 53

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3.5 Wang Zhen (1867-1938), Bodhidharma 3.6 Huang Binhong (1865-1955), A Pair of Facing the Wall, 1934, hanging scroll, ink Landscapes, 1922, pair of hanging scrolls, and color on paper, 137.8 x 34 cm, Kuboso ink and color on paper, each 172 x 21cm,

Memorial Museum of Arts, Izumi Collection of Michael Yun-wen Shih, Tainan

master—viewing the same cliff, the same back, the same cultural leaders, reform meant not the elimination of elite impenetrable meditation. The formal contrast between the __ traditional culture but instead the sharing of this privileged quick, energetic, even frenetic execution of the cliffand the — knowledge with the public. Thus the traditionalist defendcareful constraint of the figure echoes Wang Zhen’s calli- ers of Chinese painting used modern means for collective

graphic text: action and to disseminate their views—art societies; mod; oS affacing fs ern publishing, including periodicals, books, After the wall for nine years, he leaves hisreproduction Nias

shadow on the stone. ; One must know that reckless action cannot compare

albums, and encyclopedic series; and art exhibitions, both domestic and international. Finally, they began to involve

with stillness. ; ; ry

hes os themselves actively in art education and in the establish-

i an ment of Chinese art history as a modern discipline.

Writing and painting with reverence, | realize this.

This painting, in addition to its proselytizing function, | CHINESE PAINTING thus served as a part of Wang Zhen’s religious practice and 'N THE MODERN SCHOOL CURRICULUM

as document of his spiritual progress. In its formative period the Shanghai Art Academy taught During the 1920s and 1930s, with the advocacy of only Western-style drawing, painting, and watercolors, Chinese painting enthusiasts like Wang Zhen, at least aiming to train artists for the new internationally oriented eighty-five major Chinese painting societies were estab- — forms of commercial art developing in the treaty port city. lished, the majority of which were active in Beijing and According to surviving records, all eleven of the regular facShanghai. Many groups published journals in support of —— ulty members in 1918 taught Western-style painting, while their calling. Of particular importance to both the prac- _ only one offered any Chinese painting instruction. Between tice of Chinese painting and the development of Chinese the school’s founding and 1918, all of the regular graduates art history were specialized publications that culled and — majored in Western-style painting. Among the 666 correreprinted theoretical and historical texts of Chinese art spondence school students, only 36 studied Chinese paintfrom traditional sources. The most influential of these was ing. By contrast, when the Beijing Art School was estabMeishu congshu, which eventually published 120 fascicles lished in 1918, its painting department offered instruction and remains an essential source for scholars today. With the — in both Western and Chinese painting, as did a number increased popularity of photography and the availability of | of other Beijing schools in the early 1920s. In the fall of collotype printing, good reproductions of Chinese art also 1922 the Shanghai Art Academy was granted only provibecame available to artists, collectors, and students. sional accreditation by local educational authorities because

Artist and art historian Huang Binhong (1865-1955) of its failure to offer a full curriculum in Chinese painttook as his mission in life research on China’s national art — ing. To comply with the new policies, which increasingly and the popularization of traditional Chinese culture. His emphasized Chinese (or national) Studies (gwoxue) as well favorite period of Chinese painting was the late Ming and _—_as Western learning, the Shanghai Art Academy thus estabearly Qing (late sixteenth to early eighteenth centuries), and lished a Chinese painting (gwohua) major in 1923 and finally his own painting of the time recreates the slightly abstract gave Chinese painting equal status in a curriculum previstyles of late Ming literati painters without directly copy- _—_ ously dedicated to Western-style art.

ing their compositions [fig. 3.6]. Of the many editorial Pan Tianshou (1897-1971), an independent-minded projects on which Huang Binhong worked, The Glories | admirer of Wu Changshi, was hired at Shanghai Art Acadof Cathay (Shenzhou guoguang ji; 1908-1912), one of the — emy to teach ink painting in that year. The school yearbook first publications in China of large-scale reproductions of | of May 1925 proudly illustrates both the Chinese painting Chinese painting and calligraphy, was particularly impor- | department and a life drawing class in the Western painttant. Among the earliest of a burgeoning number of publi- —_ ing department. The proportion of students studying Chications on Chinese art that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, nese painting at the school gradually increased: of the 1927 it provided the visual imagery to support increasing inter- school graduates, sixteen majored in Western painting and est in China's artistic heritage. Pictorial newspapers such ten in Chinese painting. By 1931 one half of the school’s as Pei-yang Pictorial News (Beiyang huabao) in Tianjin and thirty faculty members were in the guohua department. Pictorial Shanghai also began publishing photographs of | When Cai Yuanpei established the National West Lake Art art objects in prominent private collections, and antiqui- | Academy (later called National Hangzhou Art Academy) ties gradually became a part of the new culture dissemi- — in March of 1928, Chinese painting was set up as a major nated through the modern publishing industry. For some within the Painting Department, along with Western-style ART IN THE NEW CULTURE OF THE 19205 55

painting. The European-oriented school also had depart- _ intellectual movements of the time, a new approach based ments of sculpture and design and a research institute of — on his synthesis of readings in classical Chinese, Japanese, painting. At the first exhibition of the West Lake Art Acad- — and European languages. Of particular interest was his emy, held in the same year, eleven students showed work in __ belief that Chinese art had moved through four stages:

Chinese media. functional, ritual, religious, and literary. The final period in Western art history was introduced in the modern Zheng Chang's art history encompassed Chinese painting Chinese educational system as part of the project to explain — from the Song through the Qing dynasties and gave a posithe meaning and value of Western-style art. Numerous text- _ tive evaluation to the later centuries of Chinese painting, books on the subject were translated or written. Only in the thus implicitly arguing against the most extreme rhetoric of 1920s, however, were Chinese art history classes for the first the New Culture radicals. Zheng Chang’s book, when pub-

time integrated into the modern curriculum. This body of lished in 1929, was considered an exemplary text by modknowledge proved extremely important both in legitimizing ern educators of the period, including Cai Yuanpei, then a the continued practice of Chinese painting and in establish- _ trustee of the Shanghai Art Academy. ing art history as a modern discipline.'? Chen Hengque, in The establishment of a modern, Western-style art hishis position of Chinese painting professor at Beijing Higher tory, along with a new art historical canon for Chinese art, Normal School, was one of the first modern educators to was an important step in relegitimization of China’s native begin teaching Chinese art history. Using materials from his _ traditions of painting. Over the course of the 1920s, more own studies in Japan, he supplemented the school’s Western _ schools began teaching Chinese painting and, along with it,

art history curriculum with an outline of Chinese paint- | Chinese art history, employing the historical framework first ing based on a Japanese history of Chinese art, Shina kaiga developed in Japan and subsequently modified by Chinese shi, by Nakamura Fusetsu and Oga Seiun. Soon after Chen writers on the basis of China’s rich heritage of art historical Hengque’s untimely death in 1923, his student Yu Jianhua _and critical writing. As Chinese painters sought to find their

compiled his previous year’s class notes and published place in the modern world, they expanded the art world them as one of the first textbooks written in modern col- __ to the point that something quite unprecedented was creloquial Chinese (baihua) on the history of Chinese paint- | ated—a realm based on fresh audiences, new patrons, and ing. Similarly, in Shanghai, Pan Tianshou added Chinese art —_ novel venues. They moved into the modern schools and also

history as a component of the new curriculum in Chinese out into the international market. By the end of the 1920s painting. By 1925, using his translation of the same Japanese ink painters had succeeded in saving Chinese painting by textbook, he began offering a new class on the history of creating a place for it within China's modern institutions

Chinese painting at the Shanghai Art Academy. of art. In 1924 an art historian recently returned from Japan, Teng Gu (1901-1941), became the first professor of art his- The Heavenly Horse Society tory at the Shanghai Art Academy, and in 1926 he published — A unique organization, in the context of the rapidly changthe first original Chinese art history text authored (rather ing and open environment created in the Shanghai art world, than translated) in modern China. In 1929, Teng Gu began —_— was the Heavenly Horse Society (Tianmahui).'? Founded his doctoral studies in Berlin and thereafter shifted his art by teachers and graduates of the Shanghai Art Academy in historical approach, with a new periodization based primar- 1919, the society contributed to the development of modern ily on stylistic analysis. He was strongly influenced by the oil painting, design, and photography of the 1920s in sigmethodology of the art historian Heinrich Wolfflin (1847- nificant measure. Equally important, however, was its rec1945), who had earlier taught in Berlin. Although Teng — ognition of ink painters as members and exhibitors. Its patGu's work is influential today, the histories translated from __ terns of publication, exhibition, and organization were as

Japanese were more important in their own time. crucially important to the survival and health of guohua as Another seminal publication in the formation of the _ solidifying oil painting’s position in the core of the new art new discipline of Chinese art history was written by Zheng world. The first Tianmahui exhibition, held December 20— Chang (also known as Zheng Wuchang), head of the art 29, 1919, in Shanghai, included about two hundred works division of one of China’s major modern publishing houses, and was divided into four categories: Chinese painting, synthe Zhonghua Publishing Company in Shanghai.’ Zheng _cretic (zhezhong) painting, design, and Western painting. Chang emerged later, in the 1930s and 1940s, as a particu- Shanghai Art Academy instructors Liu Haisu, Jiang Xin, larly talented ink painter in his own right. His art histori- | and cartoonist/graphic designer Ding Song served as jurors cal periodization links the history of painting to social and for the Western-style works. The Chinese painting section 56 ART IN THE NEW CULTURE OF THE 19205

was selected by some of the most prominent men in Shang- Art theory and criticism increasingly made reference to the hai, including Shanghai school masters Wu Changshi and _ nation, and as a symbol of the nation ink painting often fea-

Wang Zhen. tured in public discourse.

Chinese paintings by Wu Changshi and Wu Shujuan, As the political and military situation in Jiangsu provsyncretic paintings by Gao Jianfu, and Western paintings by ince, around Shanghai, deteriorated in the mid-1920s, the Shanghai Art Academy instructors Jiang Xin, Wang Jiyuan, §_Tianmahui faced increasing difficulty in maintaining its Wang Yachen, and Chen Guoliang impressed critics of the — exhibition schedule. Tianmahui organizer and Shanghai time. Wu Changshi brought epigraphic taste and Shanghai = Art Academy professor Jiang Xin undertook further study school painting into the twentieth century [see figs. 1.19 and in France from 1920 to 1927. Liu Haisu took over as chief 1.22], while Gao Jianfu was a proponent of “new guohua” —_ administrator of the Tianmahui. Despite all efforts, how[see fig. 2.7]. Wu Shujuan (Wu Xingfen, 1853-1930), an ever, the frequency of Tianmahui exhibitions shifted from elderly female landscape painter, painted large and powerful _ twice a year to once every two years. By contrast, the success landscape paintings and served as a mentor to some younger of the increasingly frequent and ambitious Sino-Japanese female artists. In 1919 her paintings were reproduced on joint exhibitions of ink painting in the early 1920s gave the cover of twelve issues of Ladies Journal (Funii zazhi), a Chinese artists reasons for optimism about contemporary publication of Shanghai’s Commercial Press, and were fre- —_ art. Tianmahui juror Wang Zhen, one of the most active fig-

quently sold in charity benefit exhibitions." ures in Sino-Japanese cultural exchanges in the early 1920s, The second Tianmahui exhibition of July 1920 consisted advocated even greater efforts to increase the size, quality, of four galleries equally divided between guohuaand Western —_ and inclusiveness of works shown in the Tianmahui exhi-

art. Again, major exhibitors in Chinese painting were Wu _bitions. He particularly urged planners to see beyond the Changshi, Wang Zhen, and Gao Jianfu. Wang Yachen, — art world of Shanghai, by expanding the Tianmahui exhiChen Guoliang, Yu Jifan, Li Chaoshi (recently returned __ bitions to include artists from all over China, to increase from France), Jiang Xin, and Liu Haisu showed Western the number of works exhibited, and to think in terms of art. The third exhibition, held early in 1921, expanded to a national audience in order to attract viewers who might six galleries and was still equally divided between Chinese travel from long distances to see the exhibition. painting and Western painting. One journalist wrote that Implicit in Wang Zhen's suggestions was the idea that the works on display were representative of the current situ- — the Tianmahui event might lead to a national exhibition. ation of “our nation.” It was reported that the national flag —_ Indeed, as early as 1922, Cai Yuanpei and Liu Haisu had and the club crest, designed by Zhang Chenbo, were dis- | made such a proposal to the educational authorities. By played, and the society’s manifesto, which committed the —_1927 the Tianmahui exhibition had expanded to include Tianmahui to a policy of making art public (yishu gongkai — works by modernist artists living abroad, such as Chang zhuyi), was posted in the gallery. As time passed, the num- Yu (Sanyu, 1901-1966) [fig. 3.7], a few works by foreign ber of important artists whose work was exhibited in the —_ artists, and a section on art photography.'’ Development society's exhibitions grew. The fourth exhibition, in 1921, in Shanghai of pictorial newspapers and richly illustrated included Western painting by Li Shutong, work that may _ pictorial magazines, of which the most notable was Young have been painted before 1918, when he left secular life. Kang | Companion (Liangyou), provided a publication venue for Youwei visited the fifth exhibition in 1922, which showed the new art and traditional art alike. Young Companion, two galleries of ink paintings and four of oils. In contrast to = which somewhat resembles the later American periodical his more commonly cited criticism of Chinese painting, he — Life magazine in its format, echoed the curatorial approach wrote favorable comments in the visitors book about both of the Tianmahui by publishing many examples of art phoits innovation and its transmission of tradition. The year tography on its pages. 1922, the publication date of Chen Hengque’s book on lite- Through their extensive social and professional networks, rati painting, seems to have marked a watershed for guohua. including the worlds of education and publishing, the Proponents of Western art awakened to the incompleteness Tianmahui organizers greatly expanded the reach of art into of their program and made room in the newly developing —_ urban society. Tolerance and support of foreign-educated oil Chinese art world for their Chinese painting colleagues. An painters for their colleagues who specialized in ink painting organizer of the sixth Tianmahui exhibition, Wang Jiyuan —_ was all the more important in light of the celebrity status

(a Shanghai Art Academy oil painting professor), quoted — the group enjoyed. As a privately organized and financed jury member Wang Zhen as praising the quality of work in —_art society, the Tianmahui relied on a web of intersecting which the spirit of guocui (national essence) fills the paper. social and artistic networks to create a flourishing artistic ART IN THE NEW CULTURE OF THE 19205 57

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structure during a period of great political instability. Many of the talented individuals associated with the group worked THE BEGINNING OF A NATIONAL in a variety of modern arts and cultural enterprises, ranging ARCHITECTURAL STYLE

from journalistic writing to photography, drawing, and fine = The tomb of revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen in the hills arts oil painting. The Tianmahui held its last exhibition in outside Nanjing is one of the most impressive artistic man1928, as the warlord era drew to a close. The structure of the ifestations of the national dreams of the Guomindang modern Chinese art world that they defined through their _ political party and the new Republican government estabexhibitions became the standard and was reflected quite lished by China's first president and his followers in 1912.

directly in the First National Art Exhibition of 1929. Constructed on thirty acres of mountain forest, the Sun In the 1920s, as traditionalists recognized the necessity of | Yat-sen Mausoleum transformed a vista of awesome beauty

modernization, and reformers increasingly understood the into a massive and inspiring temple to the spirit, in both value of China’s own cultural past, a rich cross-fertilization the religious and political sense, of the man who is usually between the Western-style and Chinese artists developed. considered to be the founder of the modern Chinese nation The diverse group of thoughtful and ambitious artists who [fig. 3.8]. Its dedication ceremony, in 1931, marked a high came together under the auspices of the Tianmahui shared a _ point in the political and cultural aspirations of the territocommon goal of promoting the development of the best of _rially reunified Republic of China. Chinese art. They thus laid the groundwork for the golden In the years leading up to this moment, Western political age of modernist art in the 1930s as well as the traditional- philosophies of various kinds, from anarchism to Marxism, ist revival, which brought forth innovation in the old forms _ offered ideas that brought hope of a new social order. Yet the

of Chinese painting. Their activities came to a close with fervent dreams of patriotic idealists that a reformed China the establishment of the new Nanjing government in 1928, — might join the world of nations as equal members were often

when it appeared that the new nation was finally ready dashed on the battlefields of contending warlords. As early to bring peace and prosperity to its citizens at home and _as 1916, military leader Yuan Shikai attempted to hijack the

redeem the nation’s reputation abroad. revolution and declare himself emperor. The 1917 Bolshevik 58 ART IN THE NEW CULTURE OF THE 19205

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3.8 Mausoleum of Sun Yat-sen, Nanjing, completed 1931, design by Lu Yanzhi, photo by the authors

Revolution in Russia brought Communism to the fore- Zhu Yuanzhang (1328-1398), the first emperor of the Ming front as a potential solution to China’s problems, and by — dynasty, who was much admired in Republican China. As a 1921 a small group of men whom it inspired had established military strategist, Zhu was credited with expelling the prethe Chinese Communist Party in the French concession of | ceding Mongol regime, and as a leader, he had established Shanghai. Soon after, Sun Yat-sen, leader of the Nationalist = China's last successful dynasty to be ruled by Han Chinese. Party and an admirer of Vladimir Lenin, accepted the assis- _ Parallels between the building of his post-Mongol capital at tance of the Soviet Union in his effort to reunite Chinaand —- Nanjing in 1368 and the post-Manchu national government expel imperialism. From 1923 until his death in 1925, Sun initiated by Sun Yat-sen were made symbolically explicit by sought, by military and diplomatic means, to bring the ter- _ the siting of Sun’s tomb. China's first president was thus to

ritory fragmented by warlords back together. be buried in a quasi-imperial style. Late in 1924, Sun made a final attempt to reunify his war- The selection committee held an international competorn country by journeying from his base in Guangzhou, via __ tition to identify the architect for Sun’s mausoleum and Japan, to the northern capital of Beijing. It was there that from forty entries chose the design of a Chinese graduate he died on March 12, 1925, leaving reunification unaccom- of Cornell University, Li Yanzhi (1894-1929). Lii had lived plished but willing an inspiring set of political theories to in Paris as a child, attended high school in Beijing, lived his followers in the party. His final instruction was that he briefly in Washington, and upon graduation had worked should be entombed on the Purple Hills outside Nanjing, for two years in New York. The selection committee conthe city he chose as China's capital. His wish stimulated one _ sisted of a civil engineer, Ling Hongxing, who was president of the most significant architectural commissions of the era of Nanyang University in Shanghai; Li Jinfa (1900-1976), and the codification of a new nationalist vision of Chinese — a French-educated sculptor who taught at the Shanghai public construction. ‘The day after Sun’s death, acommittee Art Academy; Wang Yiting, an ink painter, businessman, was formed to plan his tomb, which was to be called a ding, Buddhist, and loyal supporter of Sun Yat-sen; and Emil the same term used for an imperial mausoleum. The mau- Busch, a German architect then working in Shanghai. The soleum site would be to the east of the imperial tomb of | committee instructed entrants that they should prepare a ART IN THE NEW CULTURE OF THE 19205 59

plan in the classical Chinese style but with distinctive and — made it impossible to begin construction in the militarily monumental features.'* It was also to be constructed of mar- _—_— contested city of Nanjing, it was finally dedicated six years

ble and reinforced concrete, and to have room for the cer- after his death. A second commission awarded to Lii Yanzhi,

emonial assembly of fifty thousand citizens. the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Auditorium in the NationalistEducated in the beaux arts tradition that dominated ruled city of Guangzhou, which exemplified the same blend American architecture schools of the time, and then trained of Western architectural principles and Chinese motifs, was further in the New York office of Henry Murphy while the — constructed more quickly. Echoing the syncretic nature of firm designed the Jinling Women’s College in Nanjing, Li —_— the building itself, the Guangdong government purchased Yanzhi artfully combined the most satisfying elements of paintings, Eagles, White Horse, and Lion, from the Lingnan

classical European architecture with certain Chinese forms school artist and former anti-Manchu revolutionary Gao in his plan for the mausoleum. Entered through a series of | Qifeng for display in the octagonal hall in Guangzhou.” gates and approached from a long entrance walkway, the — Unfortunately, the architect Lii Yanzhi himself died at the monument is approached through what resemble the ritual age of thirty-five, before either structure was complete. gate and spirit path of an imperial tomb. Quite distinc- This style of modern public building, derived from a Sinotive, however, is the magnificent staircase that conspicu- Western hybrid that American architect Henry Murphy, ously ascends the hillside. The staircase—too feet wide and __ one of its early practitioners, called “adaptive architecture,”

550 feet long, punctuated by massive landings capable of | became the hallmark of official architectural commissions accommodating crowds of citizens as they might gather — of the Republican period. It would be replicated decades for commemorative services—offers the space for an open _later in structures such as the National Palace Museum in spectacle. The most sacred parts of the complex, the sac- _— Taipei. rificial hall and tomb itself, were conceived by architect Lii in terms that combine Chinese imperial architecture THE 19205 GENERATION RETURN FROM ABROAD with forms found in the cities of Europe and America. Lits = The new movements in art and architecture of the Repubdesign shares distinctive features with Napoleon’s tomb in _lican era took place in an atmosphere of rising Nationalist Paris and Ulysses Grant’s tomb in New York, particularly sentiments and increasing concern over the plight of China's the sunken placement for Sun Yat-sen’s sarcophagus. There _ people. Artists who returned from education abroad became are also explicit references to the Lincoln Memorial (com- __ key figures in the debates that characterized the 1910s and pleted 1922), which was under construction during Li's early 1920s. Li Yanzhi, who returned to China in 1921, may studies in the United States, in the sculptural arrangement be considered a younger member of that well-educated gen-

of the sacrificial hall.” eration. A second large cohort of students traveled to the In a further parallel to the design of the Lincoln Memo- —_— United States, Europe, and Japan at the end of World War I,

rial, Sun’s political writings were engraved on the walls. a large number of them with government sponsorship, and Juror Wang Yiting wrote in rejecting a competing submis- many of them to France. As might be expected, some of sion: “It is in the ancient Chinese style, but it seems not — the students who traveled overseas for college engaged to correspond to Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s thought of combining — themselves not only, or even primarily, with their studies China with the West.”’° By contrast, Lit Yanzhi’s more cos- but instead threw themselves into the cultural and politimopolitan design—which combines the axial plans of Chi- cal currents that swirled through Europe between the wars. nese and Western classical architecture; the upturned eaves = Future Communist leaders such as Zhou Enlai and Deng and dougong bracketing of Chinese buildings with marble | Xiaoping were radicalized by their difficult experiences as and modern reinforced concrete; the multibay Chinese foreign students in France. Among the pathbreaking artists structure of visible columns with the proportions of Euro- — who spent an extended period in France were Lin Fengpean classical architecture—created a particular kind of | mian (1900-1991), who grew up in a rural village near the public space, one praised as “open monumentality,” and led southern metropolis of Guangzhou, and Xu Beihong (1895— to evaluations that the design for the Sun Yat-sen Mauso- 1953), from Yixing in Jiangsu province, near Shanghai. Both leum (or Zhongshan Ling) was “extremely close to...Sun’s —_ returned home just as the new Nationalist government was

character and spirit in both its form and quality.””' taking shape. With the establishment of the Nanjing govThe Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum remains one of the most — ernment in 1928, which promised to end the warlord strife, imposing sites of Republican period architecture. Although — came the far greater possibilities for artistic development Sun’s failure to conclude the peace agreement before he died —_ offered by a peaceful society.

60 ART IN THE NEW CULTURE OF THE 19205

forty-two of his paintings, twenty-eight in traditional

Lin Fengmian Chinese materials and fourteen in oil, at the Exhibition of Lin Fengmian, who returned to China with his young Ancient and Modern Chinese Art in Strasbourg. ‘The single French wife in 1926, had spent his formative years in Paris | example of his work reproduced in the catalog, a somber and Berlin, and soon became the most influential advocatein — ink-and-color painting of predatory cats entitled Will to China of modernist French and German styles of oil paint- —- Live, reflects the artist’s engagement with the pessimistic ing and new patterns of art education. Born toacraftsman’s —_ philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer. A similar tone perfamily in Meixian, Guangdong, and trained to paint by his vaded the exhibited work that Lin’s colleagues found most father, Lin attended the new-style high school established in | memorable, a large expressionistic oil entitled Groping, in the county seat after the revolution, graduating in 1918. The — which he depicted truth-seekers such as Homer, Dante, following year, Lin and a few of his close high school friends | Hugo, Michelangelo, Ibsen, Galileo, Goethe, Jesus, and won scholarships to Europe on the government work-study —_Tolstoy.** The Strasbourg exhibition was one of Lin Feng-

program. Landing in Marseille early in 1920, Lin worked first = mian’s first major undertakings as artist-curator, and it as a sign painter but soon settled at the Dijon Art College borrowed 485 works by 26 artists, including pieces by Xu to study oil painting. In September of 1920, with an intro- —_ Beihong, Liu Jipiao, Wang Daizhi, and the woman painter duction from Ovide Yencesse (1869-1947), the director of | Fang Junbi, from Chinese artists and collectors in Europe. the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Dijon, Lin Fengmian moved to Cai Yuanpei, then living in Strasbourg, served as honorary Paris to become a pupil of Fernand Cormon (1845-1924), an chair; he wrote a preface for the catalog that identified the oil painting professor at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts through — Phoebus Society and the Work-Study Art Club as the exhiwhose private atelier had passed many well-known artists, _ bition’s organizers and described its contents as including including Henri de Toulouse Lautrec, Emile Bernard, and —_ antiques, Western-style works, and Chinese-style art that Vincent Van Gogh. During those years Lin Fengmian and _had absorbed Western aspects. fellow art students Liu Jipiao (1900-1992), Lin Wenzheng The melancholic strand evident in Lin Fengmian’s art, (1903-1990), Wang Daizhi (dates unknown), and Wu Dayu undoubtedly a product of both his own temperament and (1903-1988) established an art club in Paris they called the the environment of Weimar Germany, was deepened by his Phoebus Society. Completing his tutelage under Cormon personal experiences, which included first the death of his in 1923, Lin Fengmian and his close friend Lin Wenzheng _ father and then, tragically, after only a year of marriage the

moved to Berlin for a year of further study. death his young German wife, Elise von Roda, and their Although much of Lin Fengmian’s oil painting shows — newborn infant in the fall of 1924. Lin Fengmian’s acute similarities to that of French cubists such as Ferdinand Leger = awareness of human sorrow seemed not to hamper but to (1881-1955), Andre Derain (1880-1954), or Robert Delaunay _ fuel his art. Perhaps typical of his revolutionary generation, (1885-1941), in Berlin his work began to take on a strongly he retained passion and a certain degree of optimism for expressionistic quality and was often filled with a profound _ the larger mission of improving China through art. He was sense of angst or even melancholy. Bold, rapid execution — soon involved in organizing another Chinese art exhibiand an emotional tone became hallmarks of his personal tion of ambitious scope, the Chinese submission to the 1925 style. His works of this period survive only in poor repro- —- /ternational Exposition of Modern Decorative and Industrial ductions, but they suggest a deep engagement not only with — Arts in Paris. Despite the increasingly unstable situation of French painting but also with that of Germany, as the envi- — the Chinese government, which withdrew promised funds ronment and culture of Berlin permanently transformed his in the midst of its civil war, Lin rallied his friends in France, art. Similarities have been noted between Lin Fengmian’s _ including art historian Lin Wenzheng, painter Wang Daizhi, work of this time, such as Berliner Café and Nude, with its and architect/designer Liu Jipiao, to the cause and created black outlines and vivid color, and that of Erich Heckel, — an extravagantly decorated exhibition space celebrating the Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, and Emil Nolde, as well as more — Republic of China.” generally with innovations of the other German expression- From this time forward the four friends would take ist artists associated with The Bridge in Dresden and The — modern art education as a common mission. The combinaBlue Rider in Munich.*? It was also in this period that Lin’s _ tion of idealism and competence with which Lin Fengmian belief in the possibility of merging Chinese painting and —_ approached both these projects, as well as the quality of his

European modernism developed. painting, strongly impressed Cai Yuanpei. Cai urged him Upon returning to France in 1924, Lin Fengmian showed to return to China, and in early 1926 Lin was appointed

ART IN THE NEW CULTURE OF THE 19205 61

director of the Beijing National Art School, an institution CO a a Cai had founded eight years earlier. Lin soon recruited his Ser! 4 . Cx. - = friend from Dijon, André Claudot (1892-1982), to help him * i 4 ~ eve co at aa

implement a modern art curriculum but also engaged the co | a ) 22 ose j elderly ink painter Qi Baishi, whose simple, sometimes . ae $ * ’ Joey Tie whimsical paintings immediately struck a chord with artists 7” ee’ 4 ‘+ 7 6 ' and collectors of modernist sensibility. Institution-building | 7 7a ; 4 . | proved particularly difficult during the warlord period, and "y : e,

Lin infell Beijing for little more beforeFengmian the Beijing worked government to the Manchurian war- sfthan i, a year . be vi; \ 4 ‘

lord, Zhang Zuolin. In the summer of 1927, Lin Fengmian i Ca Ry

joined Lu Xun and the many colleagues who had moved to . 4 NA > ‘> ae o. }

the south. With establishment of the new national govern- \ ’ \ , Mf * tae ment in Nanjing in 1927, Cai Yuanpei became head of its : NS “sg 7 , University Council (Daxueyuan), an institution established eo >. “ \ ay sie tay

to implement and supervise a centralized plan for higher | j |

education. In Nanjing, for example, Fourth Yat-sen University was founded in the fallNational of 1927, as a j ior Sun . : de } | merger of eight schools, including a campus used by the / 7 : =| Z asst nwa an Liangjiang Normal School in the late Qing dynasty. In 1928 : » | eo “= %

it was renamed National Central University and became | .

one of the nation’s major institutions of higher learning. Sis Webavd Gags-4980) The Enaaos silonieimeesnawlost: from the Young Companion's series of contemporary paintings by

National Hangzhou Art Academy Chinese artists, section Il, Occidental, no. 5 (1932) Cai Yuanpei recruited Lin Fengmian to join him in 1927 as head of the University Council’s Art Education Committee

and served as his mentor throughout the Nanjing decade —_ personal commitment to modernist art, which he realized (1927-37). At the end of 1927, under Cai’s leadership, the | both through his example and through his hiring decisions, Art Education Committee approved two important initia- | dominated the Hangzhou academy for the subsequent two tives: (1) to establish a national art school, and (2) to hold decades and remained an inspiration for faculty and stua national art exhibition. Lin Fengmian and his colleagues dents in the late twentieth century who sought to overturn from Paris, Lin Wenzheng and Wang Daizhi, were asked socialist-realist artistic canons. to take charge of the former, and the scenic Southern Song The new national art academy opened in the spring of capital city of Hangzhou was selected as the location of the 1928 with about seventy students and thirty instructors. school. The school mission was to train specialized artistic | Lin Fengmian was director, his friend Lin Wenzheng was talent, to lead what they called “the art movement,” and to — dean and art history professor, and a well-balanced mix promote social aesthetic education (shehui meiyu). Its motto _ of faculty taught in four visual art departments: Western

would be: “introduce Western art, organize Chinese art, painting, Chinese painting, design, and sculpture. The harmonize Chinese and Western art, and create the art of | French-trained modernist Wu Dayu (1903-1988) headed our time.” Above all, it rejected traditionalism. Thus, with the Western painting department [fig. 3.9]. Pan Tianshou, Lin Fengmian’s help, in 1928 Cai Yuanpei realized an impor- —_ an independent-minded admirer of Wu Changshi, directed

tant part of his educational agenda with the founding of the = gwohua instruction. Western painting professors were— National West Lake Art Academy (later named the National like Cai Weilian (1904-1939), Fang Ganmin (1906-1984), Hangzhou Art Academy), on the shores of West Lake, one and Li Chaoshi (1894-1971)—trained in France or—like of China’s most poetic sites. Cai handpicked Lin Fengmian | Wang Yuezhi (1894-1937)—in Tokyo. The majority of the to be director and by doing so created an institution in design department's faculty, including Sun Fuxi (1898-1962) which devotion to creative freedom and to the pursuit of | and Tao Yuanqing (1893-1929), were trained in Japan, but innovation within the most contemporary of cosmopoli- department chair Liu Jipiao and Lei Guiyuan (1908-1989) tan trends would dominate the curriculum. Lin Fengmian’s _ had studied in France. Sculpture department chair Li Jinfa

62 ART IN THE NEW CULTURE OF THE 19205

had also studied in France. Several foreign instructors of the . A

visual arts were engaged, including the French painter (and “+ . —_ al anarchist) André Claudot, who would head the research A \ » 4 department; a Japanese artist, Saito Kaz6 (1887-1955), who Sy

taught design; along with Russian and British instructors. ~ } " ulty members. Wang Daizhi was appointed as the school’s Z .

The music department employed many other European fac-

representative in Europe in charge of purchasing plaster

casts, books, and art supplies. & » % The school offered a five-year program: two years of fun- “"" \ i

damental training followed by three years more for the > “~~ ‘4 ® F

undergraduate degree. ‘The student enrollment rose to eighty ¥ . in the fall of 1928, and at that time the two painting depart- # - ” ments were merged into one. In this somewhat controversial j As - :

plan, all painting students would be exposed to both West- ‘

ern and Chinese painting. Lin Fengmian himself pursued ‘ j

with little fanfare in this period a personal and self-expressive ba + hybrid mode of painting in the traditional Chinese media. “N eas,

One rare surviving work from this period, his Autumn Out- I ; ing, was acquired by his friend Fang Junbi (1898-1986) after >» %

an exhibition in Belgium in 1930 and is now in Boston.”°

Painted in loose strokes of ink and watercolor on Chinese |

silk and mounted as a hanging scroll, it suggests a melan- fF choly narrative. The mysterious identities of the horsemen he depicted and the allusive nature of their journey give it

an introspective tone that is characteristic of much of Lin é' Fengmian’ss work. This painting is very similar in imagery ‘’ and format to his now lost Horse Drinking in an Autumn Stream from the 1925 Paris show. Lin Fengmian’s easy famil- 3-10 Lin Fengmian (1900-1991), Composition, ca. 1934, oil on canvas, iarity with human and animal anatomy, such devices of per- _'05t: from Meishu zazhi [Studio] No.2 (February 1934)

spective as foreshortening and hazy atmosphere, his richly patterned surface of light and shade, and the implication of an unstated narrative all make the work essentially Western umental oils—his Humanity of 1927 and Suffering of 1929 — in its artistic conception, even if painted in traditional mate- appear in poor black and white reproductions to represent rials. This series foreshadows Lin's synthesis of Eastern and — human figures writhing in agony. Striking and psychologiWestern artistic conventions that emerged in a particularly cally powerful, they reportedly provoked unwanted atten-

distinctive form in the 1940s. tion from the authorities, who read into them a message critIn addition to promoting modern Chinese art through _ ical of the new regime. Lin’s more formalist oil, Composition, formal pedagogy, Lin Fengmian, Lin Wenzheng, and Li _ published in 1934, is typical of his cubist approach and is Puyuan worked to further the public display and dissem- the only surviving illustration to suggest the intensity of his ination of art. On August 18, 1928, the three established _ palette [fig. 3.10]. The period between establishment of the the Arc Movement Society, a group “founded on absolute —_ academy in 1928 and abandonment of its campus in the face

friendship, and uniting the new power of the art world.” It of Japanese invasion in 1937 saw an extraordinarily rapid aimed “to focus effort on the ‘art movement, and promote —_ absorption and development of modernist European art in the renaissance of Eastern art.”*’ They published a journal = China. Unfortunately, no work from the Hangzhou studios called Apollo, and began organizing the first of four exhibi- _is known to have survived the Second World War. One pubtions, one of which would be held in Japan. The first show _ lished example by Lin Fengmian’s colleague Fang Ganmin, a took place in Shanghai in 1929 and displayed both recent 1933 painting of nudes in a style related to synthetic cubism works and those brought from abroad. Lin Fengmian’s mon- _[fig. 3.11], may be typical of the era.

ART IN THE NEW CULTURE OF THE 19205 63

(4) sculpture; (5) architecture; (6) arts and crafts; and (7) art

ne photography. While the exhibition had an extremely impor-

: tant function in presenting and canonizing a range of differ-

} : ent styles and artists, almost as important was the effect of = a ~ - the organizational process on the art world of the day. a. ~ The complicated collaborations and negotiations beFZ “4 D>. tween artists of different beliefs and backgrounds who af tr , served on the organizational committees stimulated a great : deal of debate about art and certainly catalyzed future artis, : Pa tic developments. Indeed, the almost immediate prolifera! tion of small art societies that promoted everything from a © surrealism to traditionalist ink painting, photography to

| , woodblock prints, throughout the 1930s seem to reflect 5 , the stimulus of this extraordinary national cultural effort. yu | Reaching an audience that was not only domestic but also ee f , international was another ambition of the organizers. The

sill yy, é educational ideals that lay behind Cai Yuanpei’s promotion via : < of art were thus combined with an increasingly nationalis| f vi tic desire for international recognition of China's cultural | stature. Success in mounting the exhibition, despite all the - Ny impediments encountered by its organizers, required a great é 2 deal of individual work as well as a temporary subordina-

tion of individual or group interests to the common goal.

|} ’ Vigorous differences of opinion about what constituted the & >? right direction for modern art were temporarily laid aside.

aa One could argue that the ardent commitment of China's ’ art world to realizing the long-delayed national exhibition, and the mediation of Cai Yuanpei, Wang Zhen, and other

” | civic and cultural leaders, brought forth a process in which

/ « these artist-citizens and their government, however briefly, were as one.

Cai Yuanpei himself took on the role of exhibition sscack Se ea pitti GOOISLAGEA MEISTER AUIPAN HOS CeiLONLEATE director in 1927, while Lin Wenzheng was appointed exhi-

vas, lost, from Meishu zazhi [Studio] No.2 (February 1934) bition secretary. Planning proceeded throughout the year, and in the fall of 1928, to expand the international significance of the event, an invitation was issued to Japanese artists to participate in the exhibition. With help from their

The First National Art Exhibition of 1929 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Japanese sent an excellent Planning for China's first national art exhibition was the __ selection of eighty-two oil paintings by their most imporsecond major item in Cai Yuanpeis program for art and _ tant Western-style artists to the exhibition. As Cai Yuanpei education at the beginning of the Nanjing decade. First pro- _ later wrote: posed to the government as early as 1922 by Cai Yuanpei and

Shanghai Art College director Liu Haisu, it was only with Horizontally [the 1929 National Fine Arts Exhibition] Cai Yuanpei’s appointment as China’s highest educational included works from the Japanese Imperial Fine Arts authority in June of 1927 that it became possible to imple- Academy, the Nikakai [Second division society], the ment his aspiration. The ambitious exhibition, held April Shun’yokai [Spring Sun Society], and the Kokugakai 10-30, 1929, demonstrated the range and accomplishments [National Painting Society], as well as recent works of Chinese artists of the early Republican era. Artworks by European and American artists living in Shangwere shown in seven categories: (1) painting and calligra- hai. Vertically it also displayed the ancient art works phy; (2) epigraphy and seal carving; (3) Western painting; loaned by private collectors, as well as masterpieces 64 ART IN THE NEW CULTURE OF THE 1920S

by recently deceased artists, all of which were rotated their own modernist curatorial view at the Arc Movement ona daily basis. These works were all displayed as ref- Society exhibition in Shanghai, held soon after the national

erence works. Therefore, we can say that this exhi- exhibition.” bition included all that should be included, without As finally published in 1930 by Youzheng Book Com-

limitation.*® pany, the catalog’s selection of oil paintings by Lin Fengmian and his colleagues at the National Art College in The list of Chinese exhibition organizers initially pro- | Hangzhou, most notably Cai Weilian, Wu Dayu, and Li vided to the Japanese included men who came from Chinas — Puyuan, exemplify the new cubist or expressionist tendenmost important arts and educational institutions. Besides cies many of them had absorbed in Europe. By contrast, the the core organizers Cai Yuanpei, Lin Wenzheng, and Lin Shanghai Art Academy, represented by Wang Jiyuan (1893Fengmian, and their many colleagues at the National Art 1975), Jiang Xin, Wang Yachen, Li Yishi, and Liu Haisu, was College in Hangzhou, they included representatives from | dominated by impressionist and postimpressionist tendenmajor Shanghai publishers, such as Shenbao, Liangyou, and _ cies most closely associated with Japanese oil painting of the Youzheng and educators from as far north as Beijing and as period. Jiang Xin, for example, whose 1917 graduation selffar south as Guangzhou.”? Among them were the Beijing _ portrait from the Tokyo School of Fine Arts was in a postink painter Qi Baishi, who taught at Beijing Art School dur- impressionist manner [see fig. 2.11], here exhibited a realing Lin's directorship; architect Lit Yanzhi, recorded as an ist portrait sculpture of his friend, the writer Shao Xunmei

employee of the University Council; Liu Haisu, who was — (1906-1968) [fig. 3.12]. Further development of Wang about to depart for Europe; and Wang Zhen. Although the _Jiyuan’s postimpressionist style may be seen in a painting of initial plan included only painting, sculpture, architecture, 1932 that survived in the collection of an art-loving Japanese and arts and crafts, by the time of the opening, both its — diplomat [fig. 3.13]. modernist and traditionalist scopes had been expanded, thus including photography on the one hand and callig-

raphy, epigraphy, and seal carving on the other. A previ- . ously unstated subdivision between Chinese painting and Western painting also became a conspicuous feature of the

organizational plan. \% ‘ “Stes A restructuring of the national government in 1928 led b i ee Sap to Cai Yuanpei’s resignation from the University Council > Kaas ts and reassignment of administrative duties to staff of the new sa | a wm, © ‘

Ministry of Education. Responsibility for the exhibition, a .. . previously centered at the academy in Hangzhou, changed _ ~ i in early 1929, and the exhibition was moved from Nanjing a a , -_ (where it had been planned for National Central University a x : and Jinling University) to the New Mass Education Hall — 4 , _— (Xin puyu tang), a former orphanage in Shanghai's Chinese ee

city. From this point in the organizing process, mem- aes bers of the Shanghai artistic elite, particularly leaders of Ms

the Tianmahui, who had developed an excellent national P au ae

network over their previous decade of curating exhibi- # or. Pepe ~ Mas Pr ., tions, played a significant role in exhibition implementa- erent eae Rg ae eat & a x

tion. Lin Fengmian and Lin Wenzheng remained involved, i - - "aie ee oe with Lin Fengmian exhibiting his expressionist oil painting g ‘ares =< eats > Contribution and accepting responsibility for managing the = —— aggro ra " om

exhibition site. The curatorial plan was expanded to reflect “ee a ae BR atta , the somewhat less avant-garde tastes of the Shanghai cul- Se raieg ee : 2 tural elite as well as of traditionalist groups in the North and -? ee iz | - Wy thus became a broader and more inclusive, if somewhat less 3.42 Jiang Xin (1894-1939), Portrait of Shao Xunmei, before artistically progressive, snapshot of China's artistic field in 1929, sculpture, from Funii zazhi (Ladies Journal), vol. 15, no. 7

1929. Lin Fengmian and his Hangzhou colleagues presented (1929), p. 61 ART IN THE NEW CULTURE OF THE 1920S 65

' ra)= ~ ae , EES = a — 33 4

~~ veos | —~/ cy ) a ie he; Air " |

4y Bs i. 3.13 Wang Jiyuan wha a ; (1893-1975), Hangzhou oo es ee

Lakeside, 1932, oil on can- | , . _

vas, 50.4 x 71.2 cm, Kyoto Ge P #* .

National Museum (Suma * - ae Ps: —$§$——— . =

Collection) — | a

The selection of oil paintings for the First National Art in the early 1920s, and the elder Li at the Glasgow School exhibition stimulated a particularly lively debate that was of Fine Arts (class of 1916); both had absorbed a conservaplayed out in the press during the course of the exhibition. tive form of academic realism. Xu Zhimo, serving as the The Japanese section of the show was accompanied bya cata- —_journal’s editor-in-chief, passionately defended modernist log published in Tokyo that illustrated all eighty-two Japanese freedom of artistic expression, a position backed by most oil paintings. From Nakamura Fusetsu’s academic history of the exhibition jurors. This vigorous epistolary exchange painting to Wada Eisaku’s (1874-1959) postimpressionism, | among the two friends and their colleagues was to be one of and finally to the intense and brightly colored expressionist the most vividly remembered aspects of the show. The pubworks of Satomi Katsuz6 (1895-1981), it presented a range _lic spectacle stirred interest in the exhibition and probably of oil painting styles then practiced in Japan’s art academies. _ also helped sell the newspaper in which it was published. Although the merits of these different Japanese styles do not —_— This position statement was not just a publicity gimmick, seem to have been explored in much depth by the Chinese however, for it marked Xu Beihong’s unshakable dedication art journalists who reported on them, a heated debate about __to realism on the one hand and, with Xu Zhimo as its repEuropean and Chinese oil painting styles enlivened the pages _ resentative, the Shanghai cultural community's support for of the exhibition’s newspaper, Art Exhibition (Meizhan), | modernism on the other. which was published every three days during the show.

The first bombshell, an article entitled “I Am Perplexed,” Liu Haisu and the Nude Model Controversy was launched against modern painting by Xu Beihong, an —_ Liu Haisu, the Shanghai Art Academy’s youthful direc-

oil painting professor at National Central University in tor, had himself stimulated uproar in the art world only Nanjing. The British-educated romantic poet Xu Zhimo _a_ few years earlier. Largely self-taught after having taken (1897-1931) returned fire in “I Too Am ‘Perplexed,’” thus —_ a course in backdrop painting at the school run by Zhou initiating a public debate between two cultural-world Xiang, Liu had traveled to Japan in 1919 in the company celebrities.*! The article by Xu Beihong, who did not show __ of Japanese-speaking colleagues to see exhibitions of the his work in the exhibition, castigated the representatives | Nihon Bijutsuin and the Nikakai. The trip was a profound of modern painting, specifically Cezanne, Matisse, and experience for Liu, who drew inspiration from the Japanese Bonnard, to argue in favor of realism. An article by Xu’s col- _ artists’ rejection of academicism. He thereafter came to see league at National Central University, Li Yishi (1886-1942), his own mission as artist, theorist, and art educator of over-

supported Xu’s position. Xu Beihong and Li Yishihad both turning the status quo. With his rather limited access to studied in Europe—Xu at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris, | European traditions, Liu formed his own artistic rebellion

66 ART IN THE NEW CULTURE OF THE 19205

around the works of Vincent Van Gogh, whom he admired _ the educational use of models but only the sale of pornograas an uncompromising hero, and the seventeenth-century —_ phy. However, his publicity campaign attracted the attention monk-painter Shitao, who claimed in his writings to reject. of an ambitious young official, Jiang Huaisu, who was con-

all previous methods and paint in his own style. cerned about the Shanghai sex trade and was committed to Late in 1921, Liu Haisu visited Cai Yuanpei in Beijing improving public morality. Jiang responded with outrage to and early in 1922 he rendered one of Beijing’s landmarks, — Liu Haisu’s comments defending the pedagogical use of the

Qianmen, in oil, in the style of Vincent Van Gogh [see nude and demanded legal action against him from the profig. 2.13]. This work marks the fruition of the new trends __ vincial authorities. The battle between Liu Haisu and Jiang he had observed in Japan, specifically a shift in his painting | Huaisu was played out on the pages of Shanghai newspapers from the slick, illustrator’s style he had learned in the com- and in official channels for the remainder of the academic mercial art world of Shanghai to one based more on con- __ year, a period during which the military victories of the wartemporary fine art models. In 1925, Liu published an article — lord Sun Chuanfang brought Shanghai under his control.

in praise of Van Gogh, labeling the Dutch master “yishu Although the European pedagogical practices of the pantu,” which may be translated as “art renegade” or “trai- Shanghai Art Academy enjoyed strong support from the tor to art.” He came to identify himself with Van Gogh's educational establishment, Jiang Huaisu found the warlord individualism to such a degree that he began signing and — sympathetic to his demands for public morality. By July publishing his work under the sobriquet “Art Renegade.” of 1926, Sun Chuanfang had rejected all Liu Haisu’s arguIn 1920 the Shanghai Art Academy adopted the practice — ments and ordered the academy to cease using nude modof drawing from nude female models that was common in __ els. The French authorities had agreed to enforce the ban. European academies. The pedagogical necessity of life draw- — Liu Haisu, faced with the warlord threat to close his school,

ing for students of Western art and anatomy was widely — acquiesced. Fortunately for the Shanghai Art Academy, over

accepted among modern art educators with experience the subsequent year the warlord was defeated by the nationabroad.** Both Zhejiang Normal School and the Shanghai alist army's Northern Expedition. Cai Yuanpei, a strong supArt Academy itself already taught from male models at this —_ porter of Liu Haisu’s work as an art educator, returned from time. By 1926 several newer schools in Shanghai, including Europe to administer China’s universities. The nude paint-

China Arts College (Zhonghua yida), Shanghai Arts Col- ing controversy, in which political authorities attempted to lege (Shanghai yishu daxue), and Shenzhou Girl’s School interfere in a mainstream curriculum, garnered Liu Haisu also taught life drawing. What may have distinguished the = and the Shanghai Art Academy substantial support within Shanghai Art Academy during these years was notso much __ reformist circles. Even though one might conclude that he this practice as Liu Haisu’s public promotion of its nude _had stimulated, if not manufactured, the crisis by his prodrawing courses, which were prominently advertised in vocative statements and actions, and had been defeated, Shanghai’s leading newspapers. In June of 1925 a new liter- from this time forward, Liu Haisu became identified as the ary and entertainment tabloid, Shanghai huabao (Pictorial |= man who stood up to the warlord in defense of the nude. Shanghai), which employed several artists with close ties to Painting the nude, considered by most twentieth-century the Shanghai Art Academy, published on the front page of art educators to be essential basic training in technique and its inaugural issue the photograph of a nude model posing — anatomy, became a symbol of the West, of the modern, and

for Shanghai Art Academy students.** of freedom. Not surprisingly, it featured as a prominent The Shanghai Art Academy was at that time located on theme in the catalog of the 1929 National Exhibition. the edge of the French concession, and although it naturally The Shanghai Art Academy, which employed many sought certification of its degrees from the Chinese authori- —_—foreign-trained artists and enjoyed the financial and moral

ties, it enjoyed a certain degree of protection from Chinese support of important educational and social leaders such as law by the extraterritorial power of the foreign government. Cai Yuanpei, Huang Yanpei (1878-1965), and Wang Zhen, On September 8, 1925, Liu Haisu sent a letter of complaint — was the most influential art school of the period. Despite to the Jiangsu provincial authorities who administered the the association of Liu Haisu’s name with the nude, his surChinese city of Shanghai, objecting toa ban on nude mod- _ viving body of work consists primarily of landscape paintels, at the same time publishing a copy in the newspaper. __ ings. It was the postimpressionist style practiced and taught Two weeks later, he gave a radio address on the same topic. | by so many Shanghai Art Academy faculty members that

Liu’s letter to the educational authorities initially had the permeated the Shanghai art world in the 1920s and 1930s desired results—they responded that they had not banned _ and from there was disseminated throughout China.

ART IN THE NEW CULTURE OF THE 19205 67

trained designer Chen Zhifo (1896-1962) was hired in 1930,

Xu Beihong and in 1934 and 1935 Xu hired two of his students who had Lin Fengmian and Liu Haisu were two of a triumvirate returned from study in Europe, Lii Sibai (1905-1973) and of pioneers in Western-style art and pedagogy in China. Wu Zuoren (1908-1997). In the same two years art historian Xu Beihong, the third, returned permanently to China in Fu Baoshi and art historically minded guohua painter Zhang 1927 and accepted a post teaching at the South China Arts Dagian (1899-1983) were hired under his direction. In oil Academy, a small school organized by his dramatist friends _ painting he sought to implement a European academic curTian Han (1898-1968) and Ouyang Yuqian (1889-1962). The riculum, with classes devoted to drawing plaster casts, live following year, he took a concurrent position as head of the — models, still-life painting, and copying old masterpieces. painting section in the art major of the College of Education — Experimentation in ink painting yielded some uniquely conat the newly constituted National Central University in ceived syntheses of classicizing and Westernizing tendencies. Nanjing. This appointment, to which he would eventually Xu’s own major efforts of the period included several hisdevote his exclusive attention, placed him in a department _ tory paintings based on historical tales from China’s classical built on the much modernized and expanded foundations of past. He worked on a monumental oil, Tian Heng and His the old Liangjiang Normal School. In strong contrast to the —_—s00 Retainers, throughout the period of the first national art

modernist or postimpressionist orientations of the Hangzhou __ exhibition but did not finish it in time to exhibit. Indeed, and Shanghai schools, the painting program developed at _ its final form must be viewed as a confrontational response National Central University and identified with Xu Beihong _ to the generally modernist tone of the oil paintings in that had a French academic orientation. Xu Beihong particularly exhibition [fig. 3.15]. His allegorical painting, set in the third advocated art that was, in his terminology, realistic (xieshi). | century BCE, suggests multiple acts of self-sacrificial loyFor that reason he believed that all oil painting should be _alty. Defeated leader Tian Heng bids farewell to his followbased on drawing and that Chinese painting should also be —_ ers, whom he endeavors to protect at the cost of his own

modernized according to the same principles. life. Soon after his suicide, however, ensue those of his two Many beautiful academic studies from life that Xu ren- _ trusted lieutenants and finally all five hundred retainers fall dered as preparation for his paintings in oil and ink sur- —_ upon their swords in testimony to their faithfulness to their vive. During his fifteen years on the faculty in Nanjing, — leader, country, and cause. In depicting this historical tale,

Xu Beihong put great effort into recruiting like-minded Xu deploys the vocabulary of European academic painting colleagues to teach. In 1929 he hired European-trained oil — but substitutes for biblical or Greco-Roman themes a classipainter Pan Yuliang (1895-1977) [fig. 3.14] and syncreticink cal iconography now based on China's own past. painters Gao Jianfu, Zhang Shuqi (1890-1957), and Wang As a champion of “new guohua,” Xu recruited its senior Caibai (1886-1940). Academic oil painter Li Yishi served as theorist and practitioner, Gao Jianfu, to teach at National chair of the art education division in 1929. The Japanese- Central University along with younger ink artists such as Jiang Zhaohe (1904-1986). His colleague, the bird-and-

: flower painter Zhang Shugi, developed a new way of using

eS ty | ee a Dis opaque pigments without outline that acquired a distincwat \ a = ; the goals of the art department in Nanjing, but one that val-

al S| i* = J tes ae tively modern flavor. A Sino-Western synthesis was one of

rs pe * am |e 2 is iS ued naturalism or realism rather than modernism. Indeed, by * ehaeieal kc ed wert =i] as wal . the end of the 1930s, many of the artists working in guohua

ee. hk) a ee ae © had begun to share certain stylistic features, which included

ee ‘ +n: ae iy - * | Pax ; a Western touches in the modeling of volume and light and . a | i ie ‘a : ; S is Pe | shade, and preference for watercolor-like washes over outline

| a 4 y : \ - ik” | : or Chinese-style texture strokes. The distinctive style devel: ~~ 7k ea eas ee | oped at National Central University would become most Bac. ae HES { ae mm. i § recognizable during the war years, as we will see in chapter 4.

3 | tt: es } | ) Rob In the years between the first national art exhibition a Es ee ee e) of 1929 and the second, of 1937, held in Nanjing on the 3.14 Pan Yuliang (1895-1977) and her oil painting of a skull, 1929 pho- eve of the Sino-Japanese War, Chinas three major aft protograph by Lang Jingshan, from Shanghai huabao, no. 505 (September grams developed distinctive identities and approaches to

9, 1929) modernizing art that characterized the mainstream of the

68 ART IN THE NEW CULTURE OF THE 1920S

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3.15 Xu Beihong (1895-1953), Tian Heng and His 500 Retainers, 1928-30, oil on canvas, 197 x 349 cm, Xu Beihong Memorial Museum, Beijing

Republican period. They were not the only arts institutions Another well-respected private art school in the Jiangnan of their time, however, and these were not the only artistic region was the Suzhou Art Academy, founded in 1922 by Yan concerns to be aired. Indeed, their graduates, along with |= Wenliang in the scenic center of the canal city of Suzhou. artists returned from abroad, established their own schools —_ During its thirty-year existence, the school trained many art and programs that produced a remarkable pluralism, if not teachers and some influential artists. Yan Wenliang himself

a boom, in art during the 1930s. studied in France between 1928 and 1932, shipping back to China more than four hundred plaster casts of important

THE BURGEONING OF ART EDUCATION classical European sculptures and more than ten thousand Among the large number of art schools and programs estab- art books. From this time on, the Suzhou Art Academy was

lished during the 1920s was the New China Arts Acad- renowned for the quality of its facilities. During the Antiemy (Xinhua yizhuan; later called New China Arts Col- Japanese War the school moved to the foreign concessions lege), which was founded in December of 1926 after a of Shanghai and after 1945 operated from both campuses schism within the faculty and student body briefly closed —_ until the school closed in 1952. Ardent about teaching and the Shanghai Art Academy. Initially employing many fac- _ blessed with longevity, Yan continued to informally mentor ulty members who had resigned from the latter institution, and encourage art students at his home in Shanghai even and closely following its curriculum, the academy gradu- — during the Cultural Revolution. ally expanded, with an emphasis on Western and Chinese The Guangzhou Municipal Art School dates its birth to painting as well as teacher training. Tokyo School of Fine the same year, 1922, when Hu Gentian, a graduate of the Arts graduate Wang Yachen returned from travels in Europe — Tokyo School of Fine Arts, and Feng Gangbai, who had in 1930 to help administer the school, which he directed studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, were appointed until the seizure of Shanghai's foreign concessions by the __ to establish the new school. Oil painters themselves, they Japanese in 1941. The school campus was demolished during began by setting up the Western-style painting department the Japanese invasion in November of 1937, but the faculty —_ and five years later, in 1927, added an ink painting depart-

reconstituted what could be saved of the library holdings — ment and a teacher training program. The school was perand plaster casts at a six-classroom site in the French conces- manently closed following the Japanese invasion in 1938, sion. New China Art Academy thus survived until the end _ but in the course of the decade and a half of its existence, it

of Shanghai's “orphan island” period. trained many prominent Cantonese artists. ART IN THE NEW CULTURE OF THE 19205 69

Besides the art schools already discussed, the 1920s saw _ to the northeast of the foreign concessions. The Shanghai the burgeoning of private studios and small art programs = municipal government would build its offices and new culrun by artists trained in modern schools in China or abroad _ tural institutions in this region in the 1930s. His photoge-

who sought to disseminate their newly earned knowledge nic European-style studio represented to his art world coland technical skill according to their own curricular ideas. A leagues the epitome of the modern, foreign artistic milieu private studio that enjoyed a particularly high reputation in and was a source of fascination to the mass media as well Shanghai was the Yiyuan (formally registered as the Yiyuan _as to the film industry, which used it as a filming location. Painting Research Institute), established by oil painter Wang Unfortunately, Jiangwan was a site of particularly fierce Jiyuan, along with the Tokyo- and Paris-trained sculptor fighting during the brief Shanghai war of 1932, and the stuJiang Xin, the Japan-trained Zhu Qizhan (1892-1996), and _ dio and all its contents were destroyed. the female ink painter Li Qiujun. The institute provided its Private studios trained many talented students who fifteen graduate students with courses on oil painting, draw- _ either went on to study abroad or to enroll in formal degree ing, and watercolors and also invited fifteen senior fellows, | programs in China. One of the most gifted to emerge from including Pan Yuliang, Ni Yide, Chen Chengbo (Chen such tutelage was Chen Baoyi’s pupil, and the subject of Cheng-po), Zhang Xuan, Fang Ganmin, Chen Shuren, one of his surviving portraits, Guan Zilan (Violet Kwan; and Li Zuhan, to work freely in the studio, which became 1903-1986). After graduating from China College of Arts famous for its open and liberal atmosphere. Wang Jiyuan in 1927, she followed her mentor’s footsteps by undertaking and Jiang Xin taught classes at the well-appointed five-story further study in Japan. There she was encouraged by Chen studio building they shared in the French concession. The — Baoyis teacher, Fujishima Takeji, and held a well-reviewed Yiyuan organized several formal exhibitions and publisheda solo show in Tokyo early in her stay. Her painting was also journal, Yiywan, which was edited by Wang Yachen.*’ accepted for exhibition in the Fourteenth Nikakai, the first The White Goose Painting Club (Bai’e huahui) was time a female Chinese artist had been so honored. Upon her established by four Shanghai artist friends—Pan Sitong, return to Shanghai, she was hired to teach at China College Chen Qiucao, Fang Xuehu, and Du Xueou—in 1924 to of Arts and held a large and well-publicized solo show in provide instruction in Western-style art for working adults 1930. and amateurs. Among those who passed through its doors Guan Zilan’s pure colors and thick pigment are typical of were future Communist organizers such as Jiang Feng and _ the Fauvist styles popular in Tokyo in the 1920s and 1930s. Ai Qing. Although the clubhouse was destroyed in battles = An oil painting she exhibited in 1930, Portrait of Miss L, of the 1932 war, the program continued to operate until | now cataloged as Portrait of a Girl [fig. 3.16], is clearly influWorld War I, providing a free atmosphere for the devel- enced by the styles of Henri Matisse and Yasui Sotar6. In opment of many alternative trends in the Shanghai art — the works of Matisse, elements such as oriental robes, furworld. The Aurora Art Club and China College of Arts, niture, or fans would be attributed to Japonisme. Chinese both established by Chen Baoyi in the 1920s, transmitted — costumes and chairs, when appearing in Japanese paintings up-to-date Japanese styles of oil painting. The influential of the day, as they did, might suggest chinoiserie. Yet these Chen Baoyi had studied in Zhou Xiang’s backdrop paint- —_ same elements in a Chinese oil painting might be read quite ing class in 1911 and then gone to Japan. Upon his return __ differently by a Chinese spectator. Miss L is actually garbed to China in 1914, he became one of the first Shanghai Art in the latest Shanghai fashion, with a high Mandarin collar Academy faculty members with experience abroad. In 1916 and a stylishly short haircut similar to one the artist herhe went once again to Japan, where he first attended the pri- self sported in 1928. She wears a vest, as did Guan Zilan vate Kawabata Painting School before formally enrolling at at her exhibition opening in 1930, and a brightly colored the Tokyo School of Fine Arts under the oil painting profes- — gipao, the sheath dress that was a la mode in Republican

sor Fujishima Takeji. Shanghai. These elements of costume are thus either part of Chen Baoyi graduated from the oil painting department _ daily life or high modern style for the Chinese oil painter. in 1921, returning to Shanghai to establish the Aurora Art — The exotic element would not be Miss Ls oriental garb but Club (Chenguang meishuhui). In 1925, following the gradu- instead the vivid color with which it is rendered and the ation of Ding Yanyong from the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, | Occidentalizing lapdog, since pets (whether real or a stuffed the two established a private school in Shanghai grandly replica) were not considered suitable attributes for sitters in named the China College of Arts (Zhonghua yishu daxue). _ traditional Chinese portraits.

Chen Baoyi settled not in the foreign concessions but in The 1920s saw the return to China of artists who had Jiangwan, the newly developing Chinese-administered area studied in Japan and Europe, the establishment of the 70 ART IN THE NEW CULTURE OF THE 19205

‘,

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gathered together to construct a new edifice and initi- quo that had been drafted by Ni Yide, was published in ate a new era. This movement is like the Fauves, who Yishu xunkan. Expressing a nationalistic longing for China's appeared in the French art world in 1905, aiming to ancient greatness that was shared by most young people of break the bonds of tradition, smash the fetters of the the time, Ni declares the group's independence from the academic school, and create a free and independent existing art world and states their commitment to a pure world. Their goal is to research pure art in order to painting, unrestrained by past conventions or the demands

open a new road for the Chinese art world.’ of naturalism: The first exhibition of the Storm Society was finally held The atmosphere around us is stultifying; mundanity October 9-16, 1932, at the China Society for Study of the and vulgarity completely surround us. Arts (Zhonghua xueyishe) on Route Victor Emmanuel III The dabbing of countless dullards, the clamour (now Shaoxing Road) in the French concession.* Works of myopic minds. were exhibited in a variety of styles that reflected modern- Where has the genius of our antiquity gone? ist modes then current in Europe, from postimpressionism Where has the glory of our ancient history gone? and Fauvism to cubism and the more avant-garde surreal- Our entire art world today is decadent and diseased. ism. At the same time, the “Storm Society Manifesto,” an We can no longer tolerate this compromising climate. iconoclastic and militant statement of disdain for the status We cannot simply allow [art] to die.

MODERN ART IN THE 19305 77

Let us arise! Ni Yide enthusiastically advocated more up-to-date modes. With passion like a whirlwind but reason like steel, He began to realize these aspirations in his own steadily let us create a world at the intersection of our more abstract painting, creating his cubist-inspired paint-

color, line, and form! ing Summer in 1932 [see fig. 4.3]. Others in this stylistically We recognize that painting is not an imitation of diverse group strove harder to push against the boundarnature, and is not a dead repetition of a skeletal ies of representation. Pang Xunqin himself experimented

form. with work he called “decorations,” fragmented images of

We want to use our very lives to nakedly express our urban life. Some of them may be read as commentaries on

straightforward spirit. the alienating nature of modern society, but they are often We believe that art is never the slave of religion, nor in a surrealistic style. His powerful surrealistic painting

is it an explication of literature. Composition (Goutu) (see fig. 4.1], shown in the third Storm We want to freely, synthetically, construct a Society exhibition, depicts figures of a robot and a Chinese

world of pure plastic form. peasant girl, as though joined in dehumanizing bondage We are disgusted by all old forms, old color, and to industrial machinery. Other works, including Such Js revolted by all mundane low-class skill; Paris (fig. 4.6] and Such Is Shanghai superficially celebrate We want to use new techniques to express the spirit the moneyed life of urban leisure but negate its purported

of the new age. pleasure by the hardness and vacuity of the human faces. In the twentieth century, European art manifested a Pang Xungin later told his daughter that these works were

new atmosphere. stimulated by his revulsion against the overwhelmingly crass ‘The passionate voice of the Fauves, the distorted emphasis on money that he found in Shanghai society after forms of the Cubists, the shock of Dadaism, the his return from Paris.

dreamscapes of Surrealism. [. . . ] The Storm Society awarded its only exhibition prize The twentieth-century Chinese art world must bring to a female artist, Qiu Ti (1906-1958), who had painted a

forth a new atmosphere. highly stylized still life with red leaves and green flowers

Let us rise up! for the second exhibition. The painting, published in 1933, With passion like a whirlwind but reason like steel, apparently drew enough criticism from the realist camp that

let us create a world at the intersection of our Ni Yide felt compelled to defend it in an article published

color, line, and form!” the following year. Qiu Ti (originally named Qiu Bizhen, pseudonym Schudy) had graduated from the Shanghai Art Ni stresses that the purity of their modernist artistic mis- | Academy’s three-year oil painting program in 1928, then

sion is never subordinate to the literary text, and despite studied for three years in Tokyo, and finally returned to the the leftist sympathies of some members of the group, the Shanghai Arc Academy as a graduate student in 1931. She statement is silent on the society's social function. The art- — went on, in the third exhibition, to show a crisply painted ists wrote elsewhere of their passion for art—“painting is modern still life [fig. 4.7]. The painting explores her interest our life, and our life is our painting’—and of their militant in the formal beauty of everyday objects, many of which, mandate: “Carrying the mission of the New Art, fiercely __ like the percolator and thermos bottle, are products of modpushing forward without cease, this is the spirit needed by — ern industrial manufacture.'' She and Pang Xungin were warriors of the Art Revolution. It is with this spirit that the | soon married and for the duration of its existence made the

fellows of the Storm Society fight on.”" Storm Society their common mission. The Storm Society exhibitions featured works inspired Although the Storm Society was to a great degree by almost everything then popular in Europe: Fauvism, inspired by the school of Paris and devoted to “art for art’s cubism, symbolism, expressionism, futurism, abstraction- sake” rather than to social causes, the hardships suffered by ism, and surrealism. Special features reproducing their new — China’s people in this period began to appear as subjects paintings were published in mass-media pictorial magazines in Pang Xunqin’s art. His Son of the Earth of 1934, inspired such as Liangyou (Young companion), Shidai (Modern by the Jiangnan famine of that year, depicts a dying child miscellany), and in Shanghai newspapers, thus dissemi- | accompanied by his parents in a Pieta-like composition. nating the modernist images widely [fig. 4.5]. Some of the ‘The finished painting, a large oil, was shown in the third published works, including Ni Yide’s landscapes, initially | Storm Society exhibition but was destroyed by the artist at resembled the postimpressionist styles popular in Japanand the beginning of the Cultural Revolution along with his shown at the 1929 national exhibition, but in his writings, Composition. 78 MODERN ART IN THE 19305

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color on paper, destroyed 1937 cm, Collection of Pang Jun, Taipei 79

Chinese Independent Art Association

A group of modernist artists who first came together in

Japan pushed even further than did the Storm Society into ) » , * nonobjective styles. Planning for the Chinese Independent » - x ’ Art Association (Zhonghua duli meishu xiehui) was initi- , & f ' ated in Tokyo in 1934 by a group of Cantonese students, €, * “4 two of whom (Liang Xihong and Li Zhongsheng) had been | on members of the Storm Society.’ The decade when these

Chinese students studied in Japan saw waves of European ij 9 | 4 , modernist movements such as Dadaism, constructivism, | | ; A er and surrealism pour into Japan and the formation of many é ae avant-garde art groups. In 1930 some young Japanese artists : pe |

determined to hew a new artistic path by forming an art ty , group that would be independent of any preexisting soci- | | eties. The artists of the Independent Art Association, as they ) called themselves, expressed in their manifesto great dissat- |

isfaction with the situation of the Japanese art world and \\ 4 , % announced their ambition: to study new art, to bring fresh \ " y >

air into the Japanese art world, and to create “anew era i ~ + of art.” They enthusiastically advocated modern European Besos » , bose

art, including surrealism, cubism, and constructivism and . held their first group exhibition in January of 1931 in Tokyo. a2 Zio nou 1912-2003), SOOT TBA OU On Gales S27 eC) : 2 Guangzhou Municipal Art Museum The establishment of the Chinese Independent Art Society

must have been inspired by these Japanese colleagues’ acts. Indeed, some members of the Japanese Independent Art Association, such as Satomi Katsuz6 (1895-1981), were a Frenchman named Andre Bessin. The Cantonese soon

teachers of the Chinese students. rejoined their colleagues in Guangzhou, where they reorgaEven before the Chinese society was formally estab- nized the association. lished, the young artists organized a show, Jen Chinese The Chinese Independent Art Association held its first Painters in Japan, at the Tokyod6 Gallery in Jimboéch6. — exhibition at the Guangzhou Education Center between Held from July 31 to August 14, 1934, it included the works March 16 and 25, 1935. Most of the thirty paintings on disof Zhao Shou, Li Zhongsheng, Su Wonong, Li Dongping, _ play manifested modernist tendencies—most notably, those

Fang Rending, Liang Xihong, Bai Sha, Huang Langping, of surrealism. Some artists active in Guangzhou who were Zeng Yi, and Yang Yinfang, many of whom were then stu- not members of the group, including their former teachdents at Nihon University or the Tokyo School of Fine Arts. — ers Ding Yanyong and Guan Liang, also participated in this The works they exhibited were mainly fauvist, cubist, and show, as did a few of their Japanese colleagues. In his 1948 surrealist. At the end of the year, during the process of orga- = memoir, Liang Xihong wrote in a historical vein that the nizing the painting society, Liang Xihong and Zeng Ming = Chinese Independent Art Association was inspired by the also opened an atelier called the China Independent Art various schools of modern art and accepted new ideoloInstitute, which attracted more than a dozen fellow partici- gies, new subject matter, and new methods. Li Dongping pants. Although many members of the Chinese Indepen- — embraced the spirit of the Neo-Fauvists, advocating extreme dent Art Association returned to China in late 1934, before | modernism and freedom; Zhao Shou’s paintings attempted their first official meeting, the society was formally estab- to transcend reality through surrealism or abstraction lished on January 10, 1935, at a Cantonese restaurant called _[fig. 4.8];'’ Zeng Ming wished to capture in his painting Sansuiro in Hibiya. At this carefully selected site, exactly a classical beauty; while all the other artists sought new five years earlier, the Japanese Independent Artists Associ- _ artistic paths in their desire to pursue their own individual ation had been established and it was here that the new _ inclinations. society drafted its manifesto. The members involved were As is the case for the artists of the Storm Society, most Liang Xihong, Zhao Shou, Li Dongping, Zeng Ming, and ~~ works of the period by the Chinese Independent Art

80 MODERN ART IN THE 19305

Society painters were lost to the fires of war and devasta- ronment.” Liang Xihong served as editor of the magazines tion of social upheaval. The only examples known to sur- = New Art (Xin meishu) and Studio (Meishu zazhi), tirelessly vive are a few works by Zhao Shou, including some pieces —_ explaining modern Western art to Chinese readers. Zeng he exhibited in their group shows. Zhao Shou met mem- — Ming and Li Dongping edited and published an art jourbers of the Storm Society as early as 1931, when he trav- nal, Modern Art (Xiandai meishu). In 1935, Zeng Ming pubeled to Shanghai after his graduation from the Guangzhou _lished in Tokyo a volume of reproductions called Famous Municipal Art School. Increasingly interested in modern Modern Paintings of the World. art, in 1933 Zhao Shou went to Japan, where his period of The Chinese Independent Art Association held its secstudy at Nihon University corresponded with the introduc- —_ ond exhibition in October 1935 at the site of the first and tion of surrealism among Japanese avant-garde artists. He _ last Storm Society exhibition in Shanghai, the China Society was strongly influenced by his teacher, Satomi Katsuz6, for Study of the Arts. Among its sixty exhibited works was and classmates, becoming an enthusiastic admirer of Pablo — Zhao Shou’s vivid painting Lets Jump. The influential pictoPicasso and the Spanish artist Salvador Dali. Thus, when rial magazine Modern Miscellany (Shidai) published photos Liang Xihong and his fellow artists sought to organize the of their works on the same page as a report of the fourth Chinese Independent Art Association in 1934, Zhao became exhibition of the Storm Society, thus linking the two groups one of its most active members. He exhibited five works, in the public mind. During this time Liang Xihong opened including Color, in their first group show, Ten Chinese the Independent Painting Research Institute on Lafayette Painters in Japan. He showed Color again, along with a Road, in the French concession of Shanghai, a few blocks number of other works, at the first exhibition of the group from their exhibition site. Following the second exhibiin Guangzhou in 1935. Zhao Shou was particularly engaged —_ tion, however, this group, like their Shanghai friends of the with surrealism because of his belief in its capacity to repre- | Storm Society, never again organized a group exhibition. sent a “nonrealistic reality,” one with its source in the imagi- The following year, on the eve of the Japanese invasion, nation rather than in visual experience. His early paintings — both groups disbanded. were always executed with very bright pigments, large brush To the artists of the Independent Art Association as well strokes, clear forms, and powerful, thick outlines. His strik- as those of the Storm Society, modernism was a synonym ing colors may have been inspired by the vivid and startling for individuality. The four exhibitions of the Storm Society hues of teacher, Satomi, but are more reminiscent of folk art and the two shows of the Independent Art Association held in their simplicity and purity. Zhao Shou was silent forfour —_in succession between 1932 and 1935 brought great excitedecades until the Guangzhou Art Museum held an exhibi- ~~ ment to the Chinese art world but had not yet converted a tion of early Cantonese oil painters in 1993; his conception sufficiently large segment of the wider society to their modof painting was incompatible with post-1949 requirements. ernist viewpoint. China at the time still lacked internal facIn May 1935 the Chinese Independent Art Association tors, most critically the support of patrons and collectors, published a four-page newspaper entitled /ndependent Art for the growth of modern art. On the one hand, with its in which appeared their manifesto. They advocated most short history of Western-style art, China had not experistrongly freedom and independence of creation and claimed enced the course of development from realism to nonobjecto be a movement for “pure art.” With a particular salute _ tive art that had occurred in the art world of Europe. On to the French Societé des Artistes Independents, established the other hand, traditional values in art remained strong, fifty-two years earlier, and with admiration for [esprit nou- and even some intellectuals, who were presumed to be the veau, they praised tolerance of all new approaches and acceptors of new ideas, resisted modern art. Furthermore, “isms.” They further hoped that the independent and free — the introduction of modernism’s most extremely nonsubmission system for their exhibitions would establish a objective forms corresponded with a period of national more creative atmosphere in China and might help Chinese crisis. Artists in twentieth-century China were considered art catch up with the best of international art. As part of to be part of the intellectual elite. Despite radical critique this project, the Chinese Independent Art Association also of China's Confucian legacy, the strong consciousness of tried to disseminate knowledge about the most up-to-date _ social responsibility that prevailed among premodern litemodern Western art through articles and translations. Zeng _rati remained deeply imbedded in the minds and hearts of Ming, Li Dongping, and Liang Xihong contributed essays the new educated class. They thus took up the task of resto a special issue on surrealism for the Shanghai journal — cuing their nation from the peril of foreign invasion. With Yifeng (Art wind) that introduced Dali and appealed to art- the outbreak of war in 1937, celebrations of the individual ists to free themselves from “the constraints of their envi- | imagination became an unacceptable luxury. MODERN ART IN THE 19305 81

art and society.’ With five friends who called themselves

THE MODERN WOODCUT MOVEMENT the Morning Flower Society, he published between 1928 An avant-garde art form that is closely related by its icono- —_ and _1930 five volumes of foreign woodcuts, which ranged

clasm and idealism to modernist oil painting is the Modern in style from the English art nouveau illustrator Aubrey Woodcut movement (Xinxing banhua yundong). Indeed, Beardsley (1872-1898) to Russian constructivism.'® many of the young artists who adopted this practice trained Between 1930 and 1933, with the help of his Japanese first as oil painters before discovering the extraordinary friend Uchiyama Kanz6 (1885—1959), proprietor of the Uchivisual power of the black and white print. Equally impor- — yama Bookstore on North Sichuan Road in Shanghai, Lu tant to many of those who gravitated to the woodcut was —_ Xun organized several foreign woodcut exhibitions.’ The its potential for public service through its reproducibility. first show, German, Russian, and French Woodblock Prints, Woodcut artists initially shared with modernist oil paint- — which was held at a Japanese union hall near the Uchiyama ers their pursuit of individual creativity and self-expression. | Bookstore in October 1930, attracted more than four hunThey diverged, however, when the printmakers began — dred visitors in two days.'* In June of 1932, Lu Xun orgaemploying this striking new form of art to express their nized the German Woodcut Exhibition at the Shanghai Ger-

social and political concerns." man Bookstore (called Yinhuan Bookstore in Chinese). Lu Xun (1881-1936), usually considered the father of | Another two-day exhibition, Modern Artists’ Woodcuts, Chinas modern woodcut movement, was not primarily a — which included twenty-six prints from Germany, nineteen visual artist but a brilliant writer, sensitive editor, and charis- prints from Russia, and seven by Czech, Dutch, Hungarmatic teacher. First trained in practical science at the School ian, and Arab artists, was held in October of 1933. During of Mining and Railways in Nanjing beginning in 1898, and _ the exhibition period Lu Xun also gave lectures to young from 1902 to 1909 in medical and literary studies in Japan, | woodblock printmakers. In December of the same year, he he became convinced that the spiritually liberating character organized at the YMCA an exhibition, Russian and French of modern literature and art made these humanistic endeav- Woodcut Illustrations, which showed ten Russian woodcuts ors as crucial to the modernization of China as science and _ and thirty reproductions of French works.” medicine. Although he is best known for his contribution By the early 1930s Lu Xun had become increasingly interto Chinese literature, Lu Xun was appointed by Cai Yuanpei —_ ested in left-wing art and political theory. In 1930 he sponto a position at the Ministry of Education in Beijing in 1912, sored the printing of a ten-panel woodcut series by Carl where his portfolio of responsibilities included art and exhi- Meffert (1903-1989) entitled Cement.*® The literary work bitions. Throughout his life he enjoyed a passion for col- _ it illustrated, by Fyodor V. Gladkov (1883-1958), was first lecting antique rubbings, European and Japanese prints, issued in 1925 and published in English translation in 1929 and Chinese books and letter papers. Lu Xun’s idiosyncratic and is considered to be one of the earliest Soviet “proletarart and book collection ranged from Han dynasty rubbings _ ian novels.” Lu Xun’s preface recounts with approval this to European and Japanese prints, Chinese books and let- — Russian tale of development from desolation to industrial ter papers, and even ink paintings by such friends as Chen _ prosperity, but at the same time expresses aesthetic admiraHengque. This global view of the arts parallels the synthe- _ tion for the young German artist’s range of prints on this sis of foreign and Chinese styles in his own fiction, which — and other topics. Lu Xun’s reprint sought high aesthetic is extremely individualistic, totally Chinese, and yet fully quality rather than mass distribution; it was a limited edi-

modern in an international sense. tion collotype on high-quality Chinese xuan paper. In 1926, following a crackdown on student demonstra- In order to commemorate his young collaborator, Rou tions in which one of his students was killed, Lu Xun de- Shi (1902-1931), who was executed after a Nationalist sweep parted for the south, first teaching in Xiamen (Amoy) and of Communist sympathizers, Lu Xun published a print of then in Guangzhou (Canton). By 1927 he had settled in the German Expressionist woman artist Kathe Kollwitz Shanghai. There, in the last decade of his life, Lu Xun took (1867-1945), The Sacrifice, in the first issue of the literature as one of his missions the promotion of European art, par- journal Beidou in 1931.7' He personally sponsored a numticularly art that seemed to deal with problems similar to _ ber of other publications, including in 1936 a high-quality those faced by China. In 1929 he translated a history of anthology of the prints of Kollwitz, for which he and Amermodern European art and subsequently organized anumber _ ican journalist Agnes Smedley wrote the introductory texts. of events at which young artists had the opportunity to view — Although sympathetic to the Communist Party, by temperhis collection of European woodcuts and hear his views on — ament and intellectual inclination he was no more likely the potential importance of this art for improving Chinas _ to have accepted the Stalinist artistic doctrines it promoted 82 MODERN ART IN THE 19305

after his death than he was to have supported the anti- —_///ustrations of the 48 Immortals of 1854, artists of the 1930s Communist dictatorship of Chiang Kai-shek in his lifetime. dispensed with the division of labor that had characterized By the summer of 1931, Lu Xun had successfully stim- | Chinese printing since at least Ming times. Whereas Ren ulated interest in woodcuts by his publications and lec- = Xiong turned his paintings over to a highly skilled friend tures. After the Nationalist crackdown of early 1931, how- for carving on pear-wood blocks, the twentieth-century ever, Lu Xun lived in semiseclusion in the Japanese district printmakers learned to carve and print their own blocks. of Shanghai, only able to continue his cultural work under — An additional distinction between the work of the 1930s the cover of his relationships with trusted friends like — and that of earlier times is that artists of the modern woodUchiyama.** It was under these difficult circumstances cut generally printed with European oil-based printing inks that Lu Xun gave birth to the modern Chinese woodcut rather than traditional water-based inks. movement by organizing his Woodcut Training Class from The modern woodcut in the 1930s was thus a form of art August 17 to 22, 1931. A frequent visitor to the Uchiyama that, from its inception, fully synthesized the cosmopoliBookstore, Lu Xun happened to drop by just as the fam- _ tan aspirations of its practitioners with the particularities of ily’s younger brother, Kakichi, on holiday in Shanghai, was __ their Chinese situation. Although surviving evidence may showing some homework prints by his elementary school — be incomplete, one of the earliest modern artists to prostudents to his older brother Kanz6. Excited by what he — mote the woodcut was Li Shutong. He was remembered saw, Lu Xun asked the young man to teach a brief course by his students at the Zhejiang First Normal College in on printmaking to Chinese artists.** With help from his |= Hangzhou, in which he established a Western-style art curcontacts in left-wing organizations, thirteen students were —_ riculum modeled on that of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, recruited for the woodcut training class, which was held ata for having exhibited European prints and student printJapanese school in Shanghai.** Lu Xun lectured on the his- | making projects during the 1910s.*° However, it was not tory of prints in his collection, from wkiyo-e to the German _ until two decades later that the modern woodcut began to Expressionists, and Uchiyama, with Lu Xun by his side as flourish in China. The intellectual ferment of the late 1920s translator, lectured on and demonstrated the practical art of that produced the artistic radicals of the Storm Society and

making woodcuts. the Chinese Independent Art Association also brought the Most of the students, drawn from public and private art | woodcut movement into existence. Thus, during the last schools and clubs in the Shanghai-Hangzhou area, would decade of his life, Lu Xun strove to encourage visual artpursue careers as printmakers and teachers and formed the _ists to realize the same cosmopolitan originality that he procore around which later developments in woodcut art devel- —— moted in literature in the visual arts. Unlike the more foroped in China.” Eventually they spread their enthusiasm for —_ malistic work of the oil painters, the activist, socially critical

this new art to the different parts of China from which they stance that Lu Xun took in fiction found pictorial exprescame—Guangdong, Sichuan, and Zhejiang—thus seeding sion in some of the prints by the young converts to this new the development of important centers of printmaking over _ art. In particular, the social distress conveyed in European the subsequent decade. While the young artists inspired by expressionist prints seemed to parallel the circumstances in Lu Xun in the late 1920s and early 1930s were excited by which Chinese artists found themselves. As writer and editheir belief that the art of the woodcut was Western, mod- _ tor, Lu Xun was thoroughly committed to the potential of ern, and completely new, Lu Xun himself would have been printing to create a new culture and enlighten the people. more than aware of the connections that might be made _Thus, at the same time that he appreciated the aesthetic and between modern woodcuts and those of China's past. For emotional effectiveness of the bold, raw woodcut images, he almost a millennium, the most elegant imperial encyclope- _ recognized the social utility of the woodcut as a medium of dias, the state-sanctioned religious canons, poetry antholo- social activism. Lu Xun stressed the importance of both art gies, and the classics of history and philosophy, as well as and activism, encouraging his followers to disseminate the cheap popular how-to books, medical manuals, dramas, sto- new prints through exhibitions and publications.

ries, and elementary textbooks were xylographically repro- The new print movement spread first in Shanghai, duced and then distributed throughout the Chinese empire. as graduates of Lu Xun’s woodcut class, along with their In one respect the students’ ahistorical view of the new _ friends, organized new printmaking clubs. Chen Tiegeng, woodcut movement was correct—the artists of the mod- from the academy in Hangzhou, had collaborated with

ern woodcut movement in China initiated significant Jiang Feng and other friends to establish the Shanghai changes in the practice of making prints. In contrast to the —_ Eighteen Art Society in 1930. In 1932 he joined with several

production of Ren Xiong’s brilliant Drinking Cards with fellow Cantonese at the New China Art Academy, includMODERN ART IN THE 19305 83

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terrified demonstrators flee in chaos. The artist, later known — masses. The new art must accept this mission as it moves by his pseudonym of Jiang Feng, gave Lu Xun several anti- forward.”~’ The exhibition included roughly a hundred oils, government, anti-Japanese prints during this period. Other —_ cartoons, gouaches, and woodcuts as well as a collection of

early works, such as Hu Yichuan’s Jo the Front, of 1932, fifty or sixty German prints assembled by Lu Xun and a reflect both the stylistic boldness and the emotional inten- |= German friend. Lu Xun purchased ten prints at the exhibisity of the prints of this period [fig. 4.12]. Hu Yichuan (1910- tion, of which the two reproduced here by Jiang Feng and 2000), like Chen Tiegeng, attended the Hangzhou West — Hu Yichuan may be examples.

Lake National Arts Academy, where he studied under the Shortly after their exhibition, Jiang Feng and several French oil painter André Claudot. An organizer of theinflu- friends in the Spring Earth Society, including Li Xiushi, ential Eighteen Art Society, in 1930 Hu joined the League of © Huang Shanding, and Ai Qing, were arrested and spent the Left-Wing Artists, and by 1931 he was closely involved with next several years in jail, temporarily leaving the develop-

Lu Xun and the Woodcut Movement. Even though he did ment of Chinese printmaking to their friends. Such difficulnot participate in Lu Xun’s summer course, Hu was expelled _ ties seem to have intensified the young printmakers’ resolve, from the Hangzhou academy for his political work in 1932, and the movement flowered despite, or perhaps because of,

whereupon he moved to Shanghai. the Nationalist government's attempts to stamp out politiHu Yichuan’s print was exhibited in mid-June of 1932 cal dissent. Lu Xun was particularly thoughtful about correat an exhibition held by the Eighteen Art Society’s suc- — sponding with these young activists in jail between 1932 and cessor, the Spring Earth Painting Research Center, at the —_ 1935. He not only mentored young artists in the classroom Shanghai YMCA. Among the club’s other members were setting but exchanged letters with a great many others, Lu Xun’s students Jiang Feng, Huang Shanding, and Li providing advice, criticism, and occasionally even money Xiushi as well as Shanghai Art Academy student Zheng to poor art students. Chen Yangiao and Zheng Yefu, for Yefu. The leftist group’s manifesto was as militant as those example, were not members of his class but corresponded of the modern painters but more collectively and didacti- with him often, as did Luo Qingzhen (1904-1942). After his cally oriented: “Modern art must follow a new road, must graduation in 1931 from Shanghai's private New China Art serve a new society, must become a powerful tool for edu- = Academy, Luo returned to Guangdong to work as a teacher. cating the masses, informing the masses, and organizing the He sent Lu Xun many prints and a woodcut journal he pubMODERN ART IN THE 1930S 85

BES UBIO, , a sometimes translated as the Wooden Bell Society), was

| aa eet =: y established at the West Lake National Art Academy in 3 SN February of 1933. Member Li Qun recalled that they chose : eee a derogatory name to distinguish themselves, artists of

c ny — | z larger purpose, from the “clever” students at the school. The

ra ee , ® rl Eighteen Art Society, with such members as Hu Yichuan,

hie ay: . a had by this time been disbanded, but the younger artists at

j ! | oy ve Shee, _—~e the academy were all familiar with their work. Amid their

\ 3 5 3 en > earnest emulation of the school of Paris in postimpression-

a (f Ar : f 7, ist, fauvist, or cubist oil paintings, the contemporary wood-

71 y on eS v) i; cut emerged in the minds of these art students as a more " }y) | ee pee oo meaningful form of art. Two months later, they held their AM ike VE PN © Shoe 4 ae E. first exhibition in one of the academy classrooms. ‘The cata-

: V4 ae Bah aa) log was handmade—each artist printed 120 copies of his or

p: \\ ; “9 bs p c= : her woodcut, which the group bound together with wire. Age oe p\ =), 7 RS : The catalog preface concludes: “Using wood to make this

i ikon phe =. iu = ic = - bell, we clearly know that it won't sound if it is struck; but at

GP Ree HN — = en oe the very least, we hope that it will someday ring out a gigan-

| | tic noise.”** The group held Mother another exhibition, with a large 4.13 Chen Tiegeng (1908-1969), and Child, 1933, ;; eondeut ee se riers. Indian WeaHaite-ol 4 tieae), Va catalog, in June, but on October 10 three of its key organizXun Memorial, Shanghai ers, Li Qun (1912-2012), Cao Bai (1914-2007), and Ye Luo (1912-1979), were arrested. Rushing into the void, but with lished at his school and stayed in close touch with his net- — a name that speaks of their danger, the Unnamed Woodcut work of Shanghai friends until he joined the war effort in — Society published their catalog in October of 1934, explic-

1937. itly seeking to perpetuate the work of earlier groups. The

Because of the frequent arrests of the Shanghai and = Uchiyama Bookstore distributed their compilations and Hangzhou leftist printmakers, political suppression of their played a major role in encouraging the movement. organizations, and political and financial difficulties, one The movement began to move into the mainstream as print club succeeded another with dizzying rapidity. The — young artists resolutely continued to publish and organize. names of the core members of the Shanghai-Hangzhou — Popular magazines, such as Young Companion (Liangyou), print movement remain fairly consistent, however. The | Modern Miscellany (Shidai), Art and Life (Meishu shengMK Society (a name written in the European alphabet, not huo), and Literature (Wenxue) began to reproduce the new characters, but presumably taken from the Romanized form _ prints, thus giving them an institutional legitimacy that they

of the Chinese word for woodcut, muke) was established had previously lacked. In 1934 Lu Xun published twentyat the Shanghai Art Academy in 1932. It included talented —_ four prints, many of them socially critical, in his anthology members of other groups in its exhibitions, artists such as Woodcut Progress (Muke jicheng), a project that aimed to Hu Yichuan, Chen Tiegeng, Zheng Yefu, Xia Peng, Chen document and promote developments in the new woodYanqiao, and He Baitao, and thus expanded the woodcut — cut movement. Although these prints were varied in subject group to a membership of about fifty or sixty young art- — matter, a number reflected sympathy for the downtrodden ists. Lu Xun attended the last of their four exhibitions, held — by depicting the painful lives of urban factory workers or on the Shanghai Art Academy campus at Caishi Road in rural peasants, or in this example by Zhang Wang (1916October 1933. Lu Xun particularly admired Chen Tiegeng’s 1992), Head Wound, police brutality against a social activist Mother and Child (also published as Waiting) [fig. 4.13], [fig. 4.14]. which represented the impoverished family of a rickshaw Lu Xun expressed despair in 1934 after the fierce political puller Chen had befriended as part of his labor activism. | crackdown had all but eliminated the Shanghai print moveNevertheless, the group was destroyed by the arrest of four — ment. In June, however, the most sustained and creative of of its members, including Hu Yichuan, and the seizure as_ — the woodcut groups, the Modern Woodcut Society, was evidence of the group’s prints, equipment, and supplies. established in the less tightly controlled city of Guangzhou. A third important student woodcut group, the Dumb Building on the solid foundations established by the first Bell Woodcut Research Society (Muling muke yanjiuhui; generation of Lu Xun’s print students, the Guangzhou 86 MODERN ART IN THE 19305

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zhou group's activities in this period is its biweekly journal : | hi ~ : Modern Prints, of which eighteen numbers were issued in eS \ ews 1935 and 1936. Except the first issue, all were hand-printed, 4 Ae) vy usually in editions of fifty copies. Although the military, social, and economic problems that affected China during

this period are frequent themes for art in Guangzhou, as 4.a6 Li Hua (1907-1994), China, Roar! 1936, woodcut, 23 x 16.5 in Li Huas China, Roar! [fig. 4.16], they are clearly not the cm, in Modern Woodcut, vol. 14 (1936), Lu Xun Memorial, Shanghai

MODERN ART IN THE 19305 87

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4.17 Li Hua (1907-1994), Drizzle, 1935, polychromatic wood- 4.18 Lai Shaogi (1915-2000), Breaking Out! 1936, cover of Modern cut, 15.9 x 12.4 cm, from the series The Suburbs in Spring, Woodcut, vol. 16 (1936), woodcut, 11.2 x10 cm, Lu Xun Memorial,

Lu Xun Memorial, Shanghai Shanghai

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only concerns of the young artists. Li Hua himself pub- | , = ™ lished solo albums of landscapes [fig. 4.17] and of Picasso- = Es “ esque polychromatic nudes, and for a time organized an Dit Sg asi ¥j NE active collaboration with a printmaking groupa in LZ ~— > ns ~— c . ZeJapan, - 5 ijJF; >— the White and Black Society. Li Hua was remarkable for FS vy Ff A Co me ~~AZZ S ~Nna 2a’~ Le

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of which became critical to the development of the move- i an Nee ye’ #4 7) BIA ‘ ment after Lu Xun’s death of tuberculosis late in 1936. lp TS Lie high i= a ae We Outstanding among his colleagues’ works are those of Lai PEP SS ‘yj fe fa | /; A ‘i a ’

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Shaogi (1915-2000) [fig. 4.18] and Tang Yingwei (b. eee 1915)(ee a ue eee) f, PAN 4 ty) eS WEY ee NSCR? ge i ee) (fig. 4.19], which reflect concerns as varied as new poetry, Po ar V/A ‘ |/e jy f, 4, is Pea OT Wig

folk social:ills, invasion, experiment AS |4 ? art, i 19 »and* military NA 2 ANandat ee, oe Aé/ WA :lp, Zff. ’i/:4 | MY y Zig\ yj with diverse styles. > (a AT f/4 ; a FZ society if / ¥ called : " bbCw vs Ma Kn,VEZ Z pS bnFk= A roughly contemporary northern woodcut Jit \ WA

. ** . . . ee : . eo if ; "i “i UZ : N 3 t | Fig a es ‘ tn

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i) . . eo : If );' )zemow “4160“SS a4 Py, YS, J ' .WZ \] 5 r Guangzhou group:contributed works. This Beijing-(f ye , y 0\ AM CARA

organized a national woodcut show in 1935, to which the Af MSN CET Mal. G4

: : ,~ ; / yfe *s sfJj N,“ Vy ::yi: °. .:8ra 4 — 4 \ r. yf ,

based group was developed in 1933 and 1934 with a socially } aogier 28. Po | VA me" y 7

broad spectrum of artists from colleges, the publishing | Ve ge a CE x 4

industry, and the theater as well as self-taught amateurs. f! 3) F mw - ‘iy A as =| Ws The I: how, the first of itsofscale and and visibility, waswas heldheld Iff4atNSN, ZSDe iF NE ke Bo 1e large show, the first its scale visibility, Sk abe NYSZ the Taimiao (the modern Workers Cultural Palace) in Bei- Z a ~ we = Bien ‘ ©

2 a A =r oe

jing, and then traveled to Tianjin, Jinan, Taiyuan, Hankou, ee. ew te | Shanghai, and other cities, bringing the new woodcut move- Kaas he vinoweh bare comand Mase wouneuvaction iat ment to public attention all over the nation. By mutual over of Woodcut World, vol. 4 (1936), 26.4 x 19.3 cm, Lu Xun

agreement, the Modern Woodcut Society in Guangzhou Memorial, Shanghai 88 MODERN ART IN THE 1930S

took responsibility for the second national print exhibition, fessional designers who prospered and took pride in their to be held in 1936. It opened on July 5, 1936, with six hun- careers.”! dred prints, at Guangzhou’s Provincial Library. Using the This is not the place to tell the entire history of modern postal service for shipping, a practice that would continue = commercial art in China, nor even the full story of book to serve the printmakers in later years, the exhibition then = and magazine cover design in the twentieth century, but traveled to more than two dozen cities, large and small. Lu some aspects of its development are so closely related to Xun visited the show in Shanghai on October 8, 1936, only those of the modernist oil painters and printmakers that

eleven days before he died. they warrant mention. Shanghai emerged as the center of Lu Xun believed, above all, that artists should create an China's commercial art world in the late nineteenth century, art of their own time. Although a strong believer in cre- — when the introduction of photolithographic printing made ative autonomy, he evoked in his 1929 preface to Itagaki —_ possible the large-scale production of such entertainment Takao’s History of Modern Art Alois Riegel’s kunstwollen— _ publications as Dianshizhai huabao. Early lithographically the artist's will to form—arguing that the great artist, | produced or typeset books, even translations, tended to be “even the genius, is nothing but the executor, the supreme — ornamented only with some variation of the traditional calfulfillment of the kunstwollen of his nation and age.”*? In _ligraphic label pasted on a blue paper or cloth wrapper. By this light he recognized the potential of art to crystallize the turn of the century, however, Western-style book covthe desires of the human spirit, to influence the populace, — ers with complex Victorian designs became common. As and to propagate the social change he believed was needed. = Shanghai’s Commercial Press and its competitors began At the same time, the artworks left from this tumultuous _ publishing more periodicals, fiction, and textbooks, ornate period offer the viewer an insight into what China’s people —_ covers, some of which show the influence of art nouveau, were experiencing. Himself a master at crafting prose, Lu appeared. Commercial Press's magazine of current affairs Xun recognized that no text can say more so quickly, or = Eastern Miscellany (Dongfang zazhi), established in 1904, with such genuine expression as a single, well-chosen wood- which was stapled in the Western fashion, commissioned

cut print. more strident cover designs and cartoons to suit its more worldly aims. For Ladies Journal (Funii zazhi), however, in

MODERN DESIGN its founding year, the press selected charming color lithoThis chapter has emphasized the modernist inclinations — graphs of young women by Tushanwan atelier graduate and of certain artists who emerged in the exuberantly plural- | sometime Shanghai art school instructor Xu Yonggqing. istic golden age of the 1930s. It is striking, particularly in The rise of more creative modern cover designs is usucontrast to the situation in neighboring Japan, to consider _ ally attributed to the New Culture Movement of the late the extraordinarily small number of authentic oil paintings — 1910s and 1920s, particularly to the circle around Lu Xun. from the 1930s that survived the forty difficult years that In the practice of design, Lu Xun was himself a talented followed their creation, disrupted as they were by the wars — amateur, and his effort to promote good design was signifbetween 1937 and 1949 and then the suppression of bour- cant. He sought a modern look, which in many cases found geois art by the Communists between 1949 and 1979. As its roots in Japan, but he also began advocating the use of we look at mass media and high culture publications of the _ native imagery so as to create a particularly Chinese style. Republican period, however, we find that, particularly in | He designed the cover for a collection of short stories by Shanghai editions, a modernism that may be recognized | Gao Changhong in 1926. In keeping with the title of the as such by the Western eye was indeed widespread. In the book, the decorative image he created for Exploration of the 1930s the magazines in which the exhibitions of the Storm Heart (fig. 4.20] relies on motifs from his collection of Han Society and the Chinese Independent Art Association were —_ and Six dynasties rubbings to suggest something of a mysreported— Young Companion, Modern Miscellany, and Arts terious inner life. The carefully conceived surface that inteand Life—carried advertisements, typography, photogra- _ grates reserve space into the design creates strong, expressive phy, and even cartoons created in the Western modernist —_ contrasts. idiom. The large quantity and variety of the surviving two- Lu Xun’s most important work in design may have been dimensional imagery testifies to the existence in Shanghai of — as an editor and patron. Committed to the visual intega truly cosmopolitan visual culture in which the most up- rity of the book as an object, he sought effective modern to-date aspects of international design were quickly spread. designs for the covers of those that he edited. In Beijing in The development of a mature modernist design vocabu- —_—_1924 he met a young oil painter, Tao Yuanqing (1893-1929), lary may be associated as well with the appearance of pro- — who came from the same hometown of Shaoxing. Lu Xun MODERN ART IN THE 19305 89

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\ ea ho nS, = aee si es, ae. at4Priel 4.20 LuXun(1881eich? ;fT a Hy, ; HB for Hometown, 1936), cover design for | ek, > te ) Gk. am Re stories by Xu

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Exploration of Changhong, the Heart, r,¢ Mi aT tye! es Ts,.f ihe ie ebmAe; .xWhe) 4 ar | Jjby a Oinwen, text by Gao aEvya Lu Xun,edited pub-

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edited by Lu fr, aet" ££ , SeYe tf Book lishedCompany, by Beixin ; sa ay ohXun, a Book Apub‘ Dr AS lished by Beixin ee 7 ith. Company, Beijing, 1926, 4 4 Be. Rg re. m - ; ve 1926, 20 x 14cm,

20.5 x 14cm, Lu Xun ~ > Wee Wigset 7 —4 : Lu Xun Memorial, Memorial, Shanghai ¥ = \——— Shanghai first asked him to try his hand at creating a new-style cover deserved fame for these designs and was hired to teach in design for his own translation of Kuriyagawa Hakuson’s the design department of the new academy in Hangzhou Symbol of Depression.°* The example that is reproduced here, in 1928. Tragically, he contracted typhoid and died in also for a project edited by Lu Xun, is the 1926 cover fora | Hangzhou on August 6, 1929, at the age of thirty-six. An book of short stories, Hometown, by Tao's fellow townsman artist with an even greater impact on modernist Chinese Xu Qinwen [fig. 4.21]. Lu Xun and the designers he liked design was Taos younger colleague, Qian Juntao (1906were strongly influenced by the boldness and simplicity of | 1998), who was blessed with both talent and longevity. Lu Japanese design, but Lu Xun constantly urged them to seek = Xun met Qian Juntao in 1927, when Lu Xun paid a call

Chinese character in their work. on editor Zhang Xichen at the Kaiming Book Company in Tao had earlier worked at Eastern Times (Shibao), where, | Shanghai. Qian Juntao admired and emulated the design through Ge Gongzhen, he met and was able to study the — of Tao Yuanging, but Lu Xun urged him to develop his family collection of the newspaper's magnate Di Chuging. — own style. Soon after the initial meeting, he invited the two He also studied the antique paintings and Japanese and young designers to his home to see the antique rubbings Indian designs owned by the Shibao subsidiary, Youzheng _ that had inspired his own design of the previous year. Qian Book Company. Later, at Shanghai Arts Normal School, he was thoroughly steeped in Japanese principles of design. He studied Western painting with Li Shutong’s disciple Feng had only recently graduated from Shanghai Arts Normal Zikai and the Japanese-trained Chen Baoyi. He thus was School (Yishu shifan xuexiao), where he studied with three considered knowledgeable in Chinese painting, Oriental — of Li Shutong’s disciples—Wu Mengfei, Liu Zhiping, and patterns, and Western painting. Tao Yuanging based the — Feng Zikai (1898—1975)—in the fields of design, music, and bold image that appears on Xu Qinwen’s book on his own painting. His early work, very Japanese in composition, oil painting, Big Red Robe. It was inspired by a female char- theme, and feeling, often took flora and fauna as its motifs. acter in local Shaoxing drama posed as though about to — Around 1929, however, a new interest in modern typogtake her own life. Her head raised in sorrowful defiance, raphy and lettering as well as Western styles and themes she demonstrates her strength through upright posture and —_ comes to the fore. For Great Love (Weida de lianai) of 1930, valiant gesture. The swordplay is borrowed from a Peking _he first adopts strongly cubist forms over which he diagoopera pose, while the bright blue, red, and white of the robe _ nally superimposes the title, a Chinese version of art deco conveys a sense of antiquity while simultaneously creatinga lettering [fig. 4.22]. A student of Esperanto, Qian Juntao powerful harmony of design. Tao Yuanqing achieved well- was particularly creative and playful in his use of language 90 MODERN ART IN THE 1930S

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Love, 1930, 20 3 eS mee — m= = (Wenxue), vol. 2, x 13.7 cm, pub- € | Van ae . = ~ 4 70.1(1934), pubBook Company, eetfe bees a, lished Book Company, lished by Kaiming S“= (LA eC & by Shenghuo Shanghai 7Al =::(2, Pe &a& # ¥ $ Shanghai and lettering in the 1930s, and many of his later works take = monthly Literature (Wenxue) clearly aimed at a contempo-

text as the primary elements in a sleek modern design. rary international look [fig. 4.23]. By the mid-1930s, China's Chen Zhifo (1896-1962) was one of China’s earliest pro- designers were expected by Shanghai publishers to be fully fessionally trained graphic designers. The first foreign stu- up to date. The versatile Chen adopted here an abstract dent of design to matriculate at the Tokyo School of Fine design in the modernist aesthetic of the Russian, European, Arts, his stay in Tokyo from 1919 to 1923 overlapped those of | and Japanese publications that inspired the journal’s cosmooil painters Chen Baoyi, Guan Liang, Ni Yide, Wang Yachen, __ politan authors. As one of the earliest professional practi-

and Ding Yanyong.*’ He was also close to Li Shutong’s _ tioners and educators of modern design, Chen Zhifo’s work student, Feng Zikai, with whom he shared an interest in —_ had a very strong impact on Chinese culture in the 1920s design. He returned home in 1923 to a society in need of — and 1930s. In later life, after commercial publishing was good design but as yet unprepared to support it. He ful- — abolished by the Communist authorities, he devoted much filled some commissions for Lu Xun and various progressive — of his effort to the exquisitely detailed bird-and-flower publications, explored modern typography, and published _ paintings for which he is best known today. several textbooks on design. He taught design at a series of In these few works we examine what might be considschools in Shanghai while at the same time running Chinas ered an elite form of Chinese high modernism. Although first private atelier, Shangmei Design Studio, to train mod- _ these artists produced designs for sale, thus making them ern fabric designers. He also taught briefly at Guangzhou — commercial artists, they were primarily book designers, Municipal Art School in 1929 before, in 1931, accepting Xu — and _ their work was commissioned by patrons in the literBeihong’s invitation to join the faculty at National Central ary, cultural, and educational realms rather than the broader University in Nanjing. In addition, between 1925 and 1935 commodity culture. But even operating at the level of high he was particularly prolific as a designer of books and jour- _—_—_ culture, the book, as a mass-produced object, was not the

nals for major publishing houses, creating the magazine same as a singular modernist oil painting, which existed in covers for the prominent publications Eastern Miscellany, only one place at a time. By creating these beautiful objects, Short Story Monthly, and Literature, among many others. by increasing the expressive power and sensory pleasure of His body of work well illustrates the stylistic changes to be reading and owning a book, they contributed to beautifyfound throughout the industry, developing from art nou- ing the material world through which their fellow citizens

veau to art deco to geometric abstraction. passed every day and to rendering the modernist agendas of Chen’s bold 1934 cover for the progressive literary | New Culture writers even more compelling. MODERN ART IN THE 19305 91

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The Golden Age of Guohua In the 1930s i

The establishment of a new government in the old southern capital of Nanjing in 1928 concluded the constant military strife of the 1910s and 1920s. The optimism inspired by the end of the warlord era was accompanied by ambitious dreams among intellectuals and politicians of a new fluorescence of China’s culture and creation of a cosmopolitan Chinese art. For a time, individual and civic concerns converged around the prospect of building the nation, both improving China domestically and achieving a position of respect among the family of nations. Private initiatives were met with public support; public works were facilitated by private donations. For many artists of the 1930s, aspirations as creative individuals and a sense of duty to the needs of their society and

nation were never completely separate. Thus patriotism among ink painters might also manifest itself as cultural nationalism. This chapter examines some of the ways in which China's artistic traditions were reexamined and promoted in the name of the newly strengthened and unified Republic, how guo/ua (literally national painting, or Chinese painting) was developed domestically and what it meant when displayed abroad, as well as the function of exhibitions of premodern art in furthering the goals of contemporary Chinese painters.’ Finally, we consider how architectural design and construction served and symbolized the new Chinese state. Along with all cultural pursuits, the visual arts, and especially the revitalized practice of guohua, flourished during the comparatively peaceful Nanjing decade. In previous years, leading figures in the world of Chinese painting made progress in their struggle to protect this traditional art against the wholesale Westernization so vigorously advocated in the New Culture movement. In the 1920s educators and artists sympathetic to guohua overcame great obstacles to create a secure place for Chinese painting in 93

the Westernizing curriculum of art education. Building on prints. In his catalog preface Cai Yuanpei, whose talented this success, in the 1930s a new generation of guohua art- European-educated daughter Weilian was now an oil paintists sought to move beyond simple preservation of Chinese _ ing professor, expressed hope for further growth of Western-

painting to transform it into a fundamental driving force style art, but he acknowledged that Chinese painting in the construction of China’s modern culture. With the — remained the mainstream. The continued vitality of the trasupport and encouragement of the new Republican govern- ditional art of painting in the context of the cultural, educament, artists became actors in culturally nationalistic per- tional, and social ferment following the 1911 revolution was formances of a self-consciously Chinese art suitable for the not to be assumed. The continued importance of oil paint-

world stage. ing within the educational system, and the steady growth of In this regard the National Art Exhibition of 1929 looked the idea that Western art was superior to Chinese, limited to the future as much as to the past. Of the 287 modern the role art schools might play in supporting native artisChinese works published in its catalog, 192 (roughly two- _ tic practices. Thus in the 1930s a large network of impasthirds) were guohua paintings [fig. 5.1]. There were only _ sioned individuals, and the private painting societies they forty-six oils, twenty-nine photographs, and no woodblock __ organized, played the most powerful role in preserving, promoting, and stimulating innovation in Chinese painting.’

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fe is BAG 4 SES 8 One of the longest-lasting Chinese painting groups, the * ee rae Y a LG Lake Society, traced its origins to the private organiza-

* if oe 44 & FECE: | © tion founded by Jin Cheng in Beijing in 1920 under the Se t ; : : : | Pi ant ; name Chinese Painting Research Society. This earlier group

oh@) fhied s *5" . v2 . . oa a ‘ . > el = Re Aa iy , Se GL SS NT a 7 “ee : XS Bi , aie ‘ ae :

2p ge © __ from recruitment to Beijing of many talented officials and

ae oe = educators who interacted there with the old Manchu elite. A Pa eee fy Jin Cheng’s death in 1926 occurred on the eve of a shift in Ss! ma i political power to the south, however, leaving behind a far ‘Wee “ee i Vee less dynamic cultural world in Beijing. Over the following a CG par ee i pik decade, focus on mastering techniques of the past seem to

Set oe, es 4 have gradually turned the Beijing art world against theoa ie el ae retical positions that might support substantial innovation io. yUae Chinese painting, and particularly against syncretic SE 4 aS 2te within yen. Si@¢@— forms of art. Among the many painters in the group, those

“oy Se Le ls — > . | ie + . . > ee we a . i ft 5 Pt eee . F a *L Je.

“i, ies = a 5 | pants | who focused on preserving China's traditions rather than

~ ~. m« 1&al~ iseee e ** °. . , Qa a ™M

ca ame! cay op es te ft \. creatively exploring the possibilities they offered for contem-

=~, | X F > — ae porary art produced increasingly repetitive works. Although = BR See vi Ts such a trend has led to the label “conservative” being applied a: WE cksasc _ to the Beijing school, conservatism was far from the univera © \ a se = XE sal attitude within the Lake Society.° Xiao Sun (1883-1944),

. ’ oe 2 aw \“ i a 7 = em ie capo i “is aa 3 re ae : ae x, Pe p play.

a a a iden for example, sought to revive and further develop the rather =) sed ee i idiosyncratic brushwork and highly abstract style of the sev-

vy AN Rang poe enteenth-century Anhui painter Mei Qing. His work has a ee ee” —t al boldness of composition that suits it to exhibition display, as

ae ee Ty ay one may see in his submission to the 1929 national exhibi-

ie) A ~SR AG VAN xb aise ES I> were . ; :;;‘ BD Peet | pe. ea) ; ree at ae : ae SS SIE: tion or by a similar work painted in 1932 [fig. 5.4]. 4 en es Soe wie sy, The Hushe may have been the best organized art group

BAe, ae “3 a in China in the late 1920s and was well-represented in the

, SSNS ae eae ig?Re ayeAe ve Hi 1929 National Art LOR Exhibition. The catalog includes, in ace Sa os INR SL is ; SRB Re STEN IRS addition to works by Jin family members ki u ce } bas fees Fe te ba ter ao. , eae ie oe y y and other well-

RN LAS a} oe Atria ears NEE ye NF a . . e e: ay Dee a) Tee VF. known Hushe participants, almost two dozen artists imme-

Bice See aee ; \sorte Ame ae: A.) ON ees pee } yf Cota = ) : Rape eat ena AF : .

Te Sik aaa me = diately identifiable as Lake Soci isans by thei f Fg hd) Say Pes 4a i ane iately identifiable as Lake Society partisans by their use o be hah ae ‘Ve MSSeas oN sobriquets Aiea ey ote SeeinAthebycharacter b . di . hu. h hBy “Lh ” BthehLake Lk eg ET&REE ending 1930

7 ) eee" pie: Bae aS a3 a Society had moved to establish a more national profile that

i } f | e ae a ase encompassed north and south. Northern talents included

We Weieee eee OSG AW: | Hu Peiheng (1891-1962) and Chen Shaomei Sy (imme SV ere si was ;(1909-1954) sud (| See aa a Pyyr [fig. 5.5]. Because the= Beijing-based Jin family originally

Werepnt. ges .Ae | ay aa i esYai .;

" rece ae A eae from Zhejiang, it had close ties to the Shanghai art world. | ASS eee 7a list of compiled in of 1930 showsWang that two of and the eeBee eA. A \\\i,membership eight members the board trustees, Yiting

Za

tal as j i . . Ss , ee P . : : oe

5.3. Puru (P’u Hsin-yi; i) ee Ne Pang Yuanji, were Shanghai residents of Zhejiang ances-

1896-1963), A Village | try. Three others, all natives of the south—Fang Ruo from inthe Summer Time, Ti Zhejiang, Sun Runyu from Jiangsu, and Wang Yongquan

1939, hanging scroll, "4 me . . . Ss fae ; ea sae 3 : — from Anhui—lived in Tianjin. Only three, Jin Cheng’s

paper, 124% 319¢m, So MB daughter Wang Jin Zhang, Yang pay and He Sui, actually Collection of Michael 8; hy * hae resided in Beijing. The twenty-six-person advisory board

Yun-wen Shih, Tainan See _ : included, along with Manchu prince Puru (P’u Hsin-yii; 96 THE GOLDEN AGE OF GUOHUA IN THE 1930S

suc . |

f Zhejiang

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1911 and 1947, produced A Collectanea of the Arts (Meishu Danlin, and other painting friends." Among the many congshu), a compilation of primary sources that remains an = members who joined them were Yu Jianhua, Wang Geyi, essential art historical resource today. He continued to work Xie Zhiguang, Wang Yiting, and Zhang Daqian as well for the Shenzhou guoguang publishing house until it closed | as women artists such as Wu Qingxia (1910-2008) and Li in 1924. Although an enormously productive contributor to Qiujun (1899-1971). Although all members were expected the literature on Chinese painting, Huang Binhong was far to share a passion for Chinese painting, membership was from alone in his art historical pursuits. In the mid-1920s, not limited to painters of a single region or lineage and, like for example, an influential group called the Wind Society the Lake Society, the Bee Painting Society included women. (Xunshe)—comprised of Shanghai-based elders, Beijing | The society sponsored lectures on guohua, published a journotables, and younger talents—came together in Shanghai nal called Bee Journal and other occasional publications, around the publication Dingyi, which featured reproduc- such as Paintings by Modern Masters (Dangdai mingjia hua-

tions and commentary on Chinese antiquities. hai). It had an elaborate written charter and a published The 1929 national exhibition in Shanghai and its cata~ |= members list, held formal monthly meetings, and orgalog offered a venue for antiquarians in its large “reference” — nized an annual exhibition. The club, where members could

section, which was particularly strong in its rotating dis- gather at their leisure, collected antique paintings and calligplays of premodern paintings and objects from private col- _—_— raphy for study. The Shanghai-based Bee Painting Society,

lections. Beginning in 1929, the newly established Palace like the Beijing-based Lake Society, utilized a modern orgaMuseum also took up the publication cause, presenting _ nizational structure, with exhibitions and publications to to the public what we might call a virtual museum of art —_— promote its activities. objects.” From national day in 1929 (held on October 10) The activities of gvohua artists and collectors in the 1920s until April 25, 1936, the museum published Palace Museum to maintain Chinese painting as a living art and to collect Weekly (Gugong zhoukan), a large-format weekly periodi- —_ and research antiquities provided the foundation for a new cal that reproduced objects from the museum's collection development in the 1930s, when guohua was mobilized as a in collotype, and soon it published similar series dedicated part of the construction of a new national identity. In 1930 only to paintings and calligraphy.'® These reproductions retired official, calligrapher, and collector Ye Gongchuo made classical paintings available to aspiring artists, even enlisted the help of Huang Binhong and art critic Lu Danlin

those who possessed no art collections of their own. to organize a new guohua group, the Chinese Painting Society, which would serve as an authoritative national and

THE CHINESE PAINTING SOCIETY modern organization. The group was founded on the existThe national exhibition of 1929, by bringing artists and art —_ ing network of the Bee Painting Society painters but built educators from diverse backgrounds together to plan and __ on it. The opening statement of the new group—*“Guohua implement the work of its various organizational commit- Artists must Unite” (Guohuajia jiying lianhe)—was drafted tees, made evident the potential that cooperative effort held — by Lu Danlin and published in one of the last issues of Bee for fruitful developments in the Chinese art world. Among —_ Journal.”

the many initiatives catalyzed by this massive project was The Chinese Painting Society ran a regular program of the creation of new painting societies with increasingly exhibitions and published a professional journal that prodiverse points of view. Many of them, regardless of artis- | moted theoretical and technical examination of the princitic viewpoint, were built on open and civic-minded foun- _ ples of Chinese painting from both a domestic and internadations and laid claim to patriotic or culturally nationalis- _ tional perspective as well as a series of reproduction albums,

tic values. In 1929 a group of prominent guohua painters including Modern Chinese Painting (Xiandai zhongguo based in Shanghai, many of whom had served as organizers huaji). The society also promoted networking among artof the National Art Exhibition, established the Bee Painting _ ists. The journal essays often possessed a culturally nation-

Society (Mifeng huashe)."' In selecting their name, they alistic tone. Such heartfelt reflections on the situation of intended to demonstrate the collective industriousness of their art and their land were increasingly welcome in govthe members, who would work together selflessly to har- ernment circles in the 1930s, particularly as Japan's territorial vest the best essence of Chinese art, and like the bees, turn incursions became more and more worrying. The journal it into a product to be enjoyed by others. The name thus _also had a practical side: publishing members’ price lists, spoke to their altruism, cooperative spirit, and productivity. including those of Huang Binhong, Yu Jianhua, and lesser The organizers, led by Zheng Wuchang, included painters, both male and female. Members of the society Zhang Shanzi, He Tianjian, Li Zuhan, Qian Shoutie, Lu were also, over the course of its twenty-year existence, fre98 THE GOLDEN AGE OF GUOHUA IN THE 1930S

quently involved in organizing submissions to exhibitions —_ new art societies and publishing houses. Some artists pre-

abroad. ferred to sell directly from their homes, relying on family Far more ideological than any society that preceded it, | members for any assistance they might need, and certain the group’s first manifesto begins by deploring the “decrepit —_ transactions were conducted entirely by mail.

state” of the Chinese art world, which it compares unfa- The Chinese Painting Society explicitly declared itself to vorably with those of the West, the “civilized countries” of be more than a social club; it was a systematic organization Europe and America. Manifesto author Lu Danlin asserted — that would, in modern professional terms, unite and prothat all promote traditional culture to display their national mote artists. Despite the group's primary emphasis on percharacter and to develop among their people a sense of har- petuating China’s traditions, however, these Shanghai-based mony. China—beset in recent decades by civil war, military artists claimed an explicitly modern self-identification. For coups, and constant political crises—had failed, in his opin- them, tradition was not simply inherited but was something ion, to do so, and asa result, the international world consid- to be constantly reconsidered and redefined in their roles ered Japanese art to be representative of Asia asa whole. Lu —_as Chinese artists working in a contemporary international Danlin thus viewed lack of support for traditional cultureas context. With this in mind, they looked not only to the a failure of national policy on both the domestic and inter- _ past but also to the present. Perhaps most important, they national fronts, diminishing the Chinese nation in the eyes —_ advocated innovation within tradition and found precedent

of its own citizens and those of other countries. for innovation not only in the contemporary West but also Adopting an aesthetic point of view that had been domi- —_ in China’s past. Although they certainly did not oppose the nant in China for a millennium, but that paralleled modern _ virtue of copying old paintings as a method of technical and Western values, the Chinese Painting Society was founded — compositional training, some denigrated those tradition-

on the principle that painting was a site where the most _alists who might display straightforward copies as though elevated aspects of human nature might be lodged. Chinese they were art. painting’s expression of the genius and subjective feelings of Huang Binhong, although one of the oldest artists in its makers resembles in some ways, noted Lu, the symbol- the Chinese Calligraphy Society, was also one of the most ist art of their own day. In this he implicitly criticized the | adventurous in his stylistic explorations. Already in his late idea that only realistic art that presents an objective image of sixties when he helped organize the new society, its mission reality can be modern and socially progressive. Instead, he perfectly corresponded with the activities that had comargued for the value of spiritual and subjective values inher- _ prised his life’s work. He reflected in the inaugural issue of

ent in China’s literati painting tradition. Guohua yuekan that Chinese scholars needed to reexamine The Chinese Painting Society thus defined its mission as: themselves rather than focus on the strengths of others and “(1) to develop the age-old art of China; (2) to publicize it that they could not maintain the honor of their tradition abroad and thus raise China’s international stature; and (3) to without studying it earnestly. For this reason, his calling in plan for artists’ financial security and mutual assistance.”'* _life was to conduct research on “the national essence” and In all three contexts the modern practices of exhibition, to popularize traditional Chinese culture.’? Huang was also publication, and sales were crucial. Nearly all exhibitions, instrumental in organizing like-minded scholars into sociwhether domestic or abroad, were composed of objects that __ eties. In addition to those already mentioned, he was one could be purchased, both facilitating the dissemination of of the initiators, along with Wang Yiting, Wu Daigiu, and art into the hands of collectors and museums and provid- —_ others, of the Shanghai Chinese Painting and Calligraphy ing financial support for artists. In addition, the society —_ Preservation Society (Shanghai Zhongguo shuhua baocunestablished price lists for its members and validated them hui) in 1929, which aimed, like the slightly later Chinese through published testimonials of its most senior and well- Painting Society, to preserve the national essence and prorespected artists. In this period, however, artists also began mote art. publishing their own price lists without the social mediation Huang seems to have thrown himself into the project of their elders. Such notices appeared in the journal of the of realizing in the present the values of the past. His own Chinese Painting Society, Guohua yuekan (Chinese painting —_ painting of the 1920s demonstrated his enthusiasm for and

monthly), as well as in newspapers and popular magazines | competence in the styles of Dong Qichang and the Four of the day. Based on the contact addresses that appear in the | Wangs, but as he approached the age of seventy he began advertisements, many venues for selling paintings existed | to move beyond the precision and comparative tidiness of

outside the formal exhibition setting. The old art and fan __ this earlier manner into a far more self-expressive mode shops continued to play a role in marketing art but so did —_ of painting. This paralleled his increasing interest in early THE GOLDEN AGE OF GUOHUA IN THE 19305 99

he suggests an appreciation of the aesthetically and ideologi-

gh ads. ‘ ‘ > ae gtegeeeERee, ; aes - 78 aay cally more appealing painters believed to be anti-Manchu agnne i ze Ming loyalists such as Shitao and Kuncan in addition to

co aA i, oae rhe Cheng Sui. Although this painting is dedicated to a pri-

Gwe 2a ee oc ‘ ‘ : fot eg ee , ; , ,

SLi iiioaipre ile a i a 3 i vate individual, the boldness of the dark and light contrasts ; &. >a rBdPaar KE aN gives it a compositional strength as readily suitable to exhi-

aye | aang Sy a bition as to private display. Perhaps most important, Huang ey ce- UR ee r, Binhong achieves a synthesis of past conventions with con-

BP TEL SAS LR a VR NY Se ; : : a Aa ;

ey A Ny | at TN es os temporary expressive concerns in an innovative, personal ‘y1G \) iy is one proof successful innovation within tradiakOS difoh EEibSe aSPN Ss3astyle. SETIttion was stillthat possible.

ria> FORE RS. MY P sty fir d AY : x . Painting ays PySociety ~ . . . gained ;.2 i tein ate . ¥ pAipOnce established, theBe Chinese pose ae! eh Sa i 2 est me) wy =e wk ee pcan, 7) OF: NE ds strong support from a younger generation of artists, some

Sep Ne ee = oe ; ae ae : . as = wy ene are a ? ie AS ae - al ! F Nee) ; . : : ;

gy. > ae Ze ay i me ee OS of whom assumed administrative responsibilities for its coneo wa ue 8s ae ORT ' 7a tinued growth. For some, the collegial experience of paint-

eae a 2: em ea a TO URS NS : ale ‘ : : ee ‘ OBE fe ARES. es a < RS ie Mag » ing, examining and discussing antique paintings, exhib-

SS SS aa” Le wae iting their art, and publishing theoretical essays seems to BEN, Acto OSthrd 5 er, h ielded thwhich Its for which th iety’ i 3 StestesSee (came itd the ea. ee ‘ for aS2a i) :| eS, Se al ave yielded results the society’s organizers hee, - aes ie ae BSE Ns hoped—the appearance of original, strongly personal styles a si aE that %ee ¥ os SoGFat aemy. < mg eemay ae &.exemplify ASS pan the Ceepower Wet gsand ; . ;subtlety 7 awe . to . be found

ae ae nde ae SNL ALL ay pont, aier a rte. Wie fea a ae within China’s multiple traditions of painting. Pex SeSshot eeeSiw ig eT Nee. LE. .Hesche |TENN Ne gees A a) TIT es caysCN %. Like Huang EAN, Binhong, theDa much younger Tianjian ie efor ::; GE en Se ae SY Ty (1891-1977) was very active in traditionalist theoretical cirf“ae oeRhee : as a ica, cles asOR well as ina painting. As early as Sm aese” aan ais, : founded SS a PR Ve ueanions bs1920, slrPainting .he>and °Society °a friend . :in. 7 Gat SE the Xishan Calligraphy and ly ea Seige pita ico Meee ah aa Cee ET = —————— their native Wuxi, Jiangsu, to which they invited painters

oe ~~ mS . : 7 :

ae : ,

yard of their lodgings at the Master of the Nets Garden in \ "i Suzhou, where they also kept a pet tiger. Modern publish- 7 ing, at both popular and professional levels, promoted vari- | . : Y \y ,

artists. \ \

ous aspects of the Chinese Painting Society's goals, includ- / ing study of classical paintings and classical painting theory, | J a elevation of the status of guohua, and promotion of the pro- ie 3 fessional careers and economic status of individual guohua (\ Qian Shoutie was a mainstay of the organizational and ' = €

administrative structure of the Chinese Painting Society. "(eR He also played an extremely important role in the artis- . tic exchanges between Chinese and Japanese traditionalist ws

painters. A charismatic figure, he developed a very close per- = —_ = sonal friendship with the Kyoto nihonga painter Hashimoto Kansetsu during the 1930s and thus facilitated connections between Japanese artists and antiquarians and his Shanghai

colleagues. Hashimoto continued to visit Qian after war eg. zisne selsn Gao eeaySeeey, broke out between their two nations in 1937. The allegation fod Heneine cero ini and colorenteapel of collaboration with the enemy is likely one of the reasons 130 x 49 cm, Palace Museum, Beijing Qian was hounded to death during the Cultural Revolution. Zheng Wuchang (1894-1952), an artist and editor who

was especially important in both the Chinese Painting Soci- he assumed directorship of the art department, and 1932, ety and its precursor, the Bee Painting Society, was also when he resigned to establish his own printing business, known as a writer under the name Zheng Chang. Educated — he compiled and edited a number of important books for between 1910 and 1915 at a modern-style middle school in Zhonghua. They included one of the best histories of ChiHangzhou, Zheng was a classmate of Xu Zhimo and Yu __nese painting published up to that time, his Complete HisDafu, both of whom became famous poets. His art teacher, tory of Chinese Painting (Zhongguo huaxue quanshi, 1929), Jiang Danshu, was a graduate of the Liangjiang Normal along with illustrated anthologies of Chinese, European, School. After studying at a normal school in Beijing, Zheng — and world painting.” worked from 1918 to 1922 as an elementary school principal Zheng’s twenty-five-year career as a serious painter and private family tutor in his home region. In 1922, how- began during his time at Zhonghua [see fig. 6.24]. In 1925 ever, he moved to Shanghai and began a ten-year career at _he joined the antiquarian Wind Society and in the same the Zhonghua Book Company, an important educational year, before founding the Bee Painting Society, he particand cultural publishing firm where his high school litera- — ipated in the Friends of Winter Society, which included ture teacher had also taken a position. Between 1924, when notable artists from all over China, such as calligrapher Yu 102 THE GOLDEN AGE OF GUOHUA IN THE 19305

Youren, painters Jing Hengyi, He Xiangning, Chen Shuren, Most artists who came to prominence in the 1930s were Gao Jianfu, and Huang Binhong, along with Zhang Daqian __ born before the 1911 revolution but educated as citizens of and Li Qiujun. When in 1934 the Chinese Painting Society the new Republic, and many were filled with a sense of civic established its journal, Guohua yuekan, it was edited by responsibility toward building a new nation. This goal was Zheng Wuchang and He Tianjian. Other literary talents, largely frustrated during the warlord era but reemerged including Huang Binhong, Lu Danlin, Wang Yachen, and after the establishment of the Nanjing government in 1928. Xie Haiyan, also contributed to the editorial work. One of — As they wrestled during this period with the meaning of Zheng’s most significant contributions to the journal is his Chinese painting in the modern world, many came to realarticle, “The Responsibilities That Modern Chinese Painters ize that their art not only defined them as individuals but Should Fulfill,” which urged his colleagues to recognize that —_ that their practice of guohua also defined them as Chinese.

Chinese painting had a higher purpose, both national and _In this light, artists of the Chinese Painting Society began international, and to see its mission not in personal terms to argue that Chinese painters had a responsibility to the

but at the higher level of cultural construction. nation. “China is now lagging behind other countries in all ways,

military, political, and economic,” he wrote. “The only THE REVIVAL OF LANDSCAPE PAINTING

thing about which we can be proud is our culture. Paint- = The new class of patrons that emerged in treaty port ing holds a very important position in our traditional cul- Shanghai in the nineteenth century often preferred anecture, but since the beginning of the modern era, our people —_—_ dotal figure paintings or auspicious bird-and-flower paint-

have been unsatisfied with the political and economic situ- ings to landscapes. By the early twentieth century, artists ation, and further doubt that our painting is as good as that ~——- who had studied in Meiji Japan similarly adopted the sub-

of other [cultures]... . If one values painting in the history jects of figures and animals that were so popular in the of human culture, then one should realize that the func- —— Japanese art world. May Fourth cultural reformers specifition of painting is not only to give people enjoyment. Mod- _cally identified the orthodox landscape style of the late Qing ern Chinese painters should not, therefore, treat painting as court atelier as a moribund art to be overthrown. These and just an object of personal amusement but should also carry _ other factors conspired to deprive the millennium-old art of

out the mission of cultural construction and cultural pres- landscape painting of its prestige in the Chinese art world ervation.”** Zheng Wuchang retained this sense of mission — and even threatened its very survival. Yet central to the and remained active in the activities of the Chinese Paint- efforts of the Lake Society, Chinese Painting Society, and ing Society until it was disbanded under the Communist _ other revivalist groups was an assumption that the landscape government.” After the war he was a founder of the Shang- —— would remain the central genre of Chinese painting. The art hai Art and Tea Society (Shanghai meishu chahui), a large —_historical publications of the late 1920s provided historical and active group that was instrumental in the editing and —_ support for this viewpoint, that this genre of art should not publishing of the important reference book, 1947 Yearbook of be considered narrowly—as the face of Qing dynasty court

Chinese Art.** He died by suicide in 1952 during the Three- painting—but instead, from the monumental landscape

Anti Five-Anti Campaign. paintings of the Northern Song dynasty to the literati paintThe Chinese Painting Society enjoyed support fromsome — ings of the Yuan, China's landscape art, in all its richness of Shanghai's wealthiest and most socially privileged circles, | and complexity, was the very foundation of Chinas greatest but did not limit its membership to the elite. The key factor _ artistic tradition. Indeed, to the degree that one accepted behind the society's significance was the artistic caliber of its _ literati painting theory, landscape painting preserved traces membership, which included many of the nation’s best ink — of both the minds and the hands, the brilliant philosophipainters. The society brought together artists of quite dif- cal, moral, intellectual, and creative spirits of the great men

ferent regional, social, and educational backgrounds, men (and occasionally women) of China's past. In the culturand women committed in common to raising the quality of ally nationalistic tenor of the Nanjing decade, traditional Chinese ink painting, to the pursuit of innovation, and to _arts were often deployed in support of the state. If Chinese disseminating its best possibilities as widely as possible. The —_ painting (guo/ua) were identified with the nation, and with

group did not limit the scope of its artistic approach but the cultural identity of the Chinese people, landscape paintaccepted colleagues of the various different schools of paint- | ing might be seen as a symbol of China herself. The ethiing that proliferated in the 1930s. Its administrators were, in _ cal, social, and aesthetic prestige that adhered to premodern succession, Qian Shoutie, He Tianjian, and, on the eve of _ literati painting was thus revived in this new patriotic form.

the Japanese invasion, Wang Yachen.” Some of the most prominent landscapists to emerge in THE GOLDEN AGE OF GUOHUA IN THE 19305 103

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ited in the Second National Art Exhibition, 1937 — Tainan

the 1920s and 1930s had direct connections with the elite —_ historical erudition as well as stylistic innovation [fig. 5.9].

Suzhou tradition of literati painting, although this was not Having settled in the French concession of Shanghai, Wu sufficient to revive landscape painting. Wu Hufan (1894— — Hufan was both a staunch defender of China's traditional 1968), scion of a prominent Suzhou family, was the grand- _ artistic practices and a man of the modern world. This son of nineteenth-century official, collector, calligrapher, painting is characteristic of the personal style he developed and seal carver Wu Dacheng. He studied painting with Gu —_in the 1930s, which combined the exquisitely restrained Linshi [see fig. 2.17] as a young man, but then developed his and subtle brushwork of Yuan literati painting with a lush own style based on his explorations of antique painting tra- color scheme that lends the work a more immediate sensory ditions from his family collection. His 1936 Fantastic Peaks appeal. amidst Clouds, in the Style of Zhao Yong (ca. 1290-1360) is Almost a generation older than his friend Wu Hufan, painted in a modified version of the courtly Tang and Song — Feng Chaoran (1882-1954), who also settled on Songshan dynasty blue-green manner and demonstrates the artist’s art_ = Lu in the French concession, made similar contributions to 104 THE GOLDEN AGE OF GUOHUA IN THE 1930S

the survival and development of landscape painting. One est Chinese painting departments in a modern school, and such example is his Clearing after Snow, of 1925, on which — a number of school graduates became well-known painters.

he wrote of being inspired by seeing a Xu Ben painting of By the mid-1920s some female artists were invited to join similar title [fig. 5.10]. Like Wu, Feng Chaoran strives in this _ painting societies. The Lake Society included many women, work to create a strong composition without compromising beginning with Jin Cheng’s daughter Wang Jin Zhang (Jin the subtle brushwork characteristic of the literati tradition. Taotao), and many more exhibited in the 1929 national exhiBy the 1940s these two artists had risen to the apogee of the bition. The Plain Moon (Suyue) Painting Society, formed Shanghai art market, restoring the art of landscape paint- — by Yang Yi in 1925 at his home near the small south gate of ing not only to its position of prestige but also to one of a ~—— Shanghai's old city, had as members many prominent male more tangible value. These are only two of the many land- _ artists, such as Wang Yiting, as well as Yang Xueyao and scape painters to emerge in the 1920s and 1930s, but they Yang Xuejiu, daughters of the founding headmaster of East are among those most important to reviving this venerable City Girls School, and Gu Fei, sister of its poetry instructor.

form of art. Yang Xuejiu was one of a number of women who exhib-

ited in the first National Arc Exhibition [see fig. 5.1]. Her WOMEN’S PAINTING AND CALLIGRAPHY SOCIETY handsome, well-composed landscape was painted in 1923 on Some elite Chinese families in premodern times had per- __ the occasion of a trip to Beijing with her father. The landmitted their daughters to study alongside their sons within scape bears inscriptions by both Wang Yiting, her mentor in the family, but it was not until the early twentieth century —_ painting, and Yang Yi, organizer of the Plain Moon art socithat it became possible for reform-minded families to edu- ety and author of Haishang molin, the most important biocate their daughters at modern schools outside the home. _ graphical treatise on Shanghai painters. ‘This monumental

Although much of the discourse about women’s education image, with its abstract, almost ornamental, sprinkling of in the 1910s and 1920s focused on the importance to the __ blunt black dots over the mountainous composition, shows nation of educating China's future mothers, girls became _ strong traces of the style of her teacher Wang Yiting, but interested in politics and by the 1920s the idea of the career the work, as is sometimes typical of a younger painter, is woman also began to appear. With the active encourage- = more ambitious, complex, precise, and coherently planned ment of Cai Yuanpei, some institutions of higher education than many of her mentor's casual paintings of the period. such as Peking University and the Shanghai Art Academy The work is further enlivened by details that might claim

began accepting female students in 1920. to have been observed rather than imagined—her fine-line Art education followed a similar pattern. Some women ___ rendering of a watchtower, gate, and zigzagging section of in premodern times had learned to paint at home, just as the Great Wall. Not yet the symbol of China's national identheir sisters had learned to read or write poetry. In the last _ tity that it has become today, the Great Wall seems to have

quarter of the nineteenth century, for example, Ren Bonian stood out as a topographic feature of the northern landtaught his young daughter Ren Xia to paint, and she was _ scape that was striking to the eyes of a southern visitor to said to have perfectly emulated his style. Most modern the then-capital of Beijing. By the time the painting was schools taught Western drawing and perspective, and not exhibited in 1929, Yang Xuejiu’s father had died and China's Chinese painting, but one of the early private girls schools _ political center had relocated to Nanjing. The powerful in Shanghai, the East City Girls School (Chengdong nii- image thus holds multiple layers of nostalgia. xiao), which was established around the time of the Yang Xuejiu was one of the female guohua painters who Hundred Days Reform in the late Qing, taught Chinese played an important role in the education of women artpainting as part of its regular curriculum.*® The Japan- ists. She inherited her father’s position as director of the educated founder, Yang Bomin (1874-1924), was a grand- East City Girls School following his premature death in son of the famous Shanghai-school master Zhu Cheng [see 1924. One of a group of female exhibitors in the National fig. 1.2], from whom he had learned to paint bamboo and Art Exhibition in 1929 to be featured in the Ladies Journal orchids and to love painting. Yang hired an impressive ros- _ review of the event, she became in 1934 one of the six found-

ter of instructors, men such as educator Huang Yanpei, art- ers of the Women’s Calligraphy and Painting Society. All ist Li Shutong, novelist and journalist Bao Tianxiao, and _ six organizers came from prominent artistic or cultural poet Gu Foying. It was not unusual in the initial period of | backgrounds, and many belonged to the Chinese Painting female education for families such as the Huangs and the _ Society, but they did not normally move in the same social Gus to enroll both mothers and daughters in school at the circles. The family of Yang Xuejiu, for example, had a comsame time. It is said that Yang established one of the earli- _ paratively long history of residence in the old Chinese city. THE GOLDEN AGE OF GUOHUA IN THE 19305 105

Li Qiujun [fig. 5.11] was from a Ningbo banking family but —_ promised to give women, or at least urban women, unprec-

lived in the foreign concessions. Feng Wenfeng, a calligra- | edented opportunities. At the same time, the nature of trapher, oil painter, and photographer as well as women’s edu- _ ditional Chinese brushwork required years of practice, and cator, had recently moved to Shanghai from Hong Kong. most of these ink painters supplemented their Western-style Chen Xiaocui (1907-1968), a poet, translator, and painter, educations by studying with an older master of their tradiwas the daughter of a famous popular novelist in Hangzhou. _tionalist art. Yang Xuejiu learned from her father but was Gu Qingyao (1901-1979) was the granddaughter of scholar- clearly influenced by Wang Yiting and Wu Changshi as well. painter Gu Yun, thus a member of a venerable Suzhou gen- Chen Xiaocui studied with Feng Chaoran. Both Li Qiujun try family that collected classical painting. Gu Fei (1907— ~~ and Chen Xiaocui had older brothers who also painted, and 2008) was born to a prominent family in Nanhui, Pudong, —- Li Qiujun sought tutelage from the distinguished female and studied painting at East City Girls School, where her —_ painter Wu Shujuan (1853-1930). Gu Fei later studied with brother taught for a time.’’ The society they established to | Huang Binhong, and Lu Xiaoman with He Tianjian. This encourage female artists, like the earlier Bee Society and the — cohort of educated women thus was inspired to carry forChinese Painting Society, brought together members from —_ ward the mission into the next generation, developing a varied backgrounds who were united in their common range of Chinese painting styles and traditions and bringlove of Chinese painting and calligraphy. In so doing, they = ing them into the education of the next generation of established new artistic and social networks that helped to young men and women. Two of these female artists, Yang develop the position of women in the art world and, like the — Xuejiu and Feng Wenfeng, directed girls schools. Many othChinese Painting Society, promote artists and the practice ers taught painting at modern schools in Shanghai. Some,

of traditional painting. such as Gu Qingyao, even became sufficiently famous to The Chinese Women’s Calligraphy and Painting Society _ establish private studios that recorded master-disciple relawas founded and held its first exhibition in 1934 [fig. 5.12]; tionships of a quasi-traditional kind. Like the societies that by 1937, on the eve of the Japanese invasion, it had enrolled came before them, the group published an occasional jour-

around 150 members and garnered substantial media nal and held annual exhibitions. The journal was edited attention. The founders were already veterans of the new —_ by Gu Qingyao and Chen Xiaocui. Li Qiujun allowed her

art world, and many were members of earlier traditionalist | home to be used as a staging area for exhibitions, which groups. Li Qiujun exhibited, as well, with Western-style were held at the Ningbo Native Place Society gallery. Some painters in the Tianmahui. She and female oil painter Pan _ of the artists in the group began advertising their price lists Yuliang were organizers of the Yiyuan group in 1927, cen- _ in journals and newspapers.

tered on Shanghai Art Academy faculty. The new society Like the members of the Chinese Painting Society was soon joined by a number of other female painters who —_and other traditionalist groups, the members of the Chihad achieved prominence through their talent and cul- — nese Women’s Calligraphy and Painting Society were selftural activism, including Wu Qingxia (1910-2008), from conscious of a cultural mission in preserving and promoting Changzhou, who was highly skilled at figure painting in | Chinese art. For them art was a form of personal expresthe late Ming manner [fig. 5.13]; Lu Xiaoman (1903-1965), sion, a demonstration of their knowledge, skill, and feeling; notorious for her love affair and marriage to the romantic — a marker of membership in a particular segment of society; poet Xu Zhimo; Zhou Lianxia, as famous for her writing and for some members it brought income, either through and her social life as for her painting; Pang Zuoyu, a niece __ sales or through a profession as an art teacher. By virtue of of the prominent collector Pang Yuanji; Bao Yahui; and its “essentially Chinese” character, in the context of China’s

others. national emergency of the 1930s, art was displayed as a stateMost of these women, born shortly before or after 1900, ment of patriotism and national pride. For all of these purbenefitted from the modern-style education that became _ poses, the apparatus of modern publicity, advertising, and available to women in the early twentieth century. Founder — display were brought to bear on the project of preserving Li Qiujun attended the prestigious Wuben School for Girls _a traditional form of art. By the time of the Japanese invaand Yang Xuejiu the East City Girls School. Feng Wenfeng sion in 1937, women in Chinas urban centers were thor(also known as Flora Fong) studied abroad. Gu Fei attended —_ oughly integrated into the fabric of Chinese art and culture.

first a normal school in Pudong (across the river from |= Members of the Chinese Women's Calligraphy and PaintShanghai proper) before enrolling at the East City Girls ing Society continued to paint, often for the sake of friendSchool. The growing belief that marshalling the talents of ship rather than display, throughout the war years, and the men and women alike was important to modernizing China _ society was briefly revived before the Communist victory in 106 THE GOLDEN AGE OF GUOHUA IN THE 1930S

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~~=P= %ni=!i-“4 Oe . Sd ‘ f |ay,; |>‘ ; : ) y, ie Bm t -? po | apa “pn —¥=e. A 2 &. ‘oag =. to study the brushwork of the old masters firsthand stimu- sy aN ; \ : a aR y

lated new conceptual and technical insights. =N .) ‘ at ve |

Treasures of China’s past were well received by inter- . a) vi or A | |

national audiences, but it was significant that in the 1930s be: NX a a ‘ We

European audiences also engaged with contemporary : PS = e ~ ink painting. Liu Haisu participated in organizing the : aw ~ —N

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Exhibition of Contemporary Chinese Painters at the Kunst- ” fg Sa te 4 verein Frankfurt in 1931. It showed roughly one hundred — gl lieth “ig paintings including twenty-three by Liu himself. A short g44. xu Beihong demonstrating Chinese painting in Moscow, 1935

catalog text by W. Y. Ting (Ding Wenyuan) distinguishes between the different styles of ink painting exhibited. The majority were of the “literati school” but the “antiquat- —_ anda crisis of innovation.”** Xu Beihong wrote in the cating style” (which consciously holds to antique models), — alog that the exhibition demonstrates the “Renaissance of the “school of the middle way” (which approaches natu- Chinese art.” A number of works from the exhibition, which

ralism and unites Chinese and European styles), and the — subsequently toured to Milan, Moscow, and Leningrad, “Southern school” (which sought ties to masters of the early entered the French national collection. In its enthusiastic Qing dynasty) were also represented. Liu Haisu considered _ public reception, it achieved many of the organizers’ goals. himself a member of the literati school, which in his defini- The Chinese Contemporary Painting exhibition, held in tion abandoned all color, using only the tones of dilute ink Berlin from January 20 through March 4, 1934, was larger, for artistic expression. While we might not necessarily adopt — with 297 modern works, and was extremely successful with such labels for the various trends in Chinese painting of the _ both its audiences and German critics. Apparently initiated time, it is significant that the Chinese organizers sought to —_— by William Cohn and Liu Haisu, the German-speaking Cai present to European audiences a pluralistic framework that | Yuanpei assisted in the effort, Ye Gongchuo facilitated the

would show Chinese ink painting to be every bit as richand project by obtaining forty-five thousand dollars in funds diverse as European oil painting. While Liu Haisu at one from the Chinese government, and Gao Qifeng, who died point saw this modern Chinese art exhibition in explicitly before the opening, played a key organizational role. Wu comparative terms, in competition with a modern Japanese — Hufan was asked to select the works, which he borrowed painting show that opened in Dusseldorf on the same day, from private collections and artists, and supplemented from nevertheless, he and other writers emphasized to their Euro- his own holdings.*’ The show later traveled to Hamburg, pean readers an ongoing two-way exchange between China —- Dresden, Bonn, Amsterdam, and several other European and the West. China began absorbing European illusion- cities with continued success.°° The Chinese government ism as early as the sixteenth century, they emphasized, while presented the State Museum of Berlin with a gift of works Europe imported not only the decorative arts and chinoise- from the exhibition to establish a permanent installation of rie but also, through its engagement with East Asian prints | modern Chinese painting.*’ After seeing the exhibition in in the nineteenth century, the very foundations of modern- — The Hague in 1937, a Dutch reviewer praised the “good taste

ist painting.* and insight” of the organizers, while another recognized “an Between 1933 and 1935 alone there were at least seventeen art which draws on European elements without surrenderexhibitions of twentieth-century ink painting in Europe. ing its own individual character.”** Two years after Liu Haisu’s show, Xu Beihong and André Dezarrois organized an exhibition of modern Chinese ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN PLANNING painting at the Jeu de Paume in Paris [fig. 5.14]. Opening in The remaking of China as a nation that was modern but May, the exhibition included 191 modern works by such art- that remained culturally strong on its own terms may be ists as Liu Haisu, Lin Fengmian, Huang Binhong, and Pan _— most evident in the public architectural and city-planning Tianshou. In the catalog’s preface the French writer Paul —_ programs of the Republican period. Chinese political leadValéry expressed sympathy and understanding of its aims, | ers and administrators who had studied abroad struggled describing artists emerging from “an environment of ruins —_ with the issues involved in modernizing a traditional urban THE GOLDEN AGE OF GUOHUA IN THE 193058 109

fabric. Westernizing trends promoted by such urban plan- resembling those of Paris and Washington, D.C.*? The new ners as Sun Ke (Sun Yat-sen’s American-educated son) led Zhongshan (Sun Yat-sen) Road completely surrounded to demolition of Guangzhou’s eight-hundred-year-old city _ both the foreign concessions and the old city like a beltway. wall in 1920 in order to construct broad boulevards for con- — ‘The new road connected the new and old parts of the city venient transportation. Yet an international architectural plan, but conceptually its encirclement of the foreign conmovement of the early twentieth century that was built on — cessions contained their further expansion and suggested the beaux arts style began to emphasize the value of indig- —_ the certainty of their eventual return to Chinese sovereignty. enous architectural forms. Foreign architects working in Of greatest significance to the topic of this chapter is the China, most notably the American Henry K. Murphy, and — complex of new civic buildings constructed in Jiangwan a host of younger Chinese colleagues successfully advo- between 1929 and 1937. With selection of the design by cated construction of modern architecture with Chinese — Lii Yanzhi for the Nanjing mausoleum of Sun Yat-sen, by

characteristics. the late 1920s the Nationalist government had settled on On the basis of his speeches and publications in the an architectural model in which the modern Chinese state late 1910s and early 1920s, Sun Yat-sen is often credited for might be represented by a new form of architecture. In this

modernization plans put into effect after his death. In his hybrid, or in the terminology of Henry Murphy, “adap1920 plan The Internationalization of China (and in his1922_ _ tive architecture,” the principles of early twentieth-century Chinese text, Jianguo fangliie shiye jihua |Strategy to build = Euro-American public architecture were modified to create

the nation and plan for industry]), Sun Yat-sen suggested = modern Chinese architectural forms. While the roofs and the creation of three deep-water international ports. Inaddi- | ornamentation might resemble traditional Chinese architection to the northern and southern harbors in Tianjin and _ ture, such buildings were usually constructed using up-toGuangzhou, Shanghai was to be one of two possible sites date international techniques and fireproof materials. They for a port in the Yangzi delta region. Two years after Sun _ adhere closely to the same conventions of beaux arts archiYat-sen’s death, in June of 1927, the Republican government tecture that yielded the Lincoln and Jefferson monuments established the Shanghai Special Municipal Government, in Washington, D.C., and many American college camwhich reported directly to the central Nanjing government. —_ puses and public buildings constructed in the early twenAlmost exactly two years later, in July of 1929, this govern- _ tieth century.

ment passed the Greater Shanghai Plan, inspired by Sun Soon after the Greater Shanghai Plan was approved,

Yat-sen’s Strategy to Build the Nation. the architect Dong Dayou (1899-1973) went to work on Although Shanghai was of great importance to the new __ the planning committee for the new city. A graduate of Nationalist government both economically and politically, | Tsinghua University Architecture School in Beijing, he had the Chinese government did not actually control major studied in the United States for six years, graduating from areas of the city, which were still separately governed as the the University of Minnesota. Along with the late Lit Yanzhi, French and the international concessions. The formerly | Dong Dayou was one of the first generation of professionally walled Chinese city in the southern part of Shanghai, which trained architects in China, and he worked with Murphy Sun Yat-sen referred to as the “native city,” while close to on the design of a cemetery for heroes of the revolution the river, was too densely populated for further develop- —_— at Linggusi, adjacent to the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum.*° In ment. It was thus decided to build a new Shanghai city to 1929 he headed the Chinese Architectural Association and the north of the concessions, in the Jiangwan area near the — was named director of the architectural office of the New Huangpu River and its intersection with the Yangzi River. | Shanghai City Central District Construction Committee. The southern and western parts of Jiangwan were connected — In October 1929 a competition was held for design of the to the existing urban areas, including the northern edge of | new municipal government building. Alchough the jury the International Settlement and its Chinese suburbs. A site awarded first prize to architect Zhao Chen (1898-1978) in of about 1.8 square miles was cleared for the political center. February 1930, the authorities set aside the winning plan The Greater Shanghai Plan included three major areas: in favor of a final version by Dong Dayou that synthesized the political, commercial, and residential. The existing old the strong points of the top three submissions. As finally city and the concessions were considered the commercial —_ approved, the concept of the municipal government builddistricts, while west and south of the concessions were to _ ing was in the classical Chinese palace style, or what Dong be developed as residential areas. Spacious axial boulevards | Dayou referred to as the Chinese Renaissance style. It would radiate from the civic center, intersected by con- — would resemble a Chinese post-and-lintel structure with a centric rings of roads, in a dramatic beaux arts urban plan _hipped and gabled tile roof and coffered interior ceilings. 110 THE GOLDEN AGE OF GUOHUA IN THE 1930S

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6.23. Pan Tianshou (1898-1971), Black Chicken, 1948, hanging scroll, ink and color on paper, 68 x 136.5 cm, Pan Tianshou Memorial, Hangzhou

by the work of Wu Changshi, his interest in the early Qing

THE END OF WORLD WAR I individualist painter Zhu Da and his familiarity with the AND THE CHINESE CIVIL WAR European modernism practiced by his colleagues in the With the Japanese surrender to the Allies in August of | academy merged with his own slightly pessimistic mood 1945, the eight-year international war came to a conclu- to produce works that might equally well be called modsion. Institutions and families began moving back to the _ ernist as traditionalist. Yet if concern for bold formal orgacoast. In August of 1945 the Ministry of Education reestab- nization and an alienated mood suggest modern painting, lished the original Hangzhou and Beijing schools, appoint- —_— Pan’s idiosyncratic execution with brush, ink, and (on occa-

ing Xu Beihong director of the northern school. After the _ sion) hands imbues his art with the subtle astringency of the school was reestablished, it accepted middle-school students _ seventeenth-century literati-painting aesthetic [fig. 6.23].

into a five-year program, with majors in painting, sculp- Indeed, work such as this fulfills the promise of literati ture, design, ceramics, and music. Xu retained professors _ painting about which Chen Hengque had written so paslike Jiang Zhaohe, whose style suited his reformist agenda, _ sionately a quarter century earlier. With this finger painting and he hired others, like Li Keran, whom he had known in and others like it from 1948, Pan began a two-decade period

Chongging. of remarkable artistic achievement.

Ink painter Pan Tianshou (1898-1971) took the position Efforts to revive the arts achieved some success in prosof director of the National Academy in 1945. The original perous and well-developed areas. The foreign concessions campus of the Hangzhou Academy had been destroyed, but —_ of Shanghai had been returned to Chinese control after the in 1946, led by Pan Tianshou, it returned to a new location —_ war, an achievement long sought by its Chinese residents

in its native city. Former director Lin Fengmian accepted and the Nationalist government. The Chinese Painting Pan's invitation to resume his position as an oil painting — Society, the Women’s Calligraphy and Painting Society, and

professor. Pan was forced out of the directorship in 1947, a number of artistic organizations resumed activity. Zheng however, and was replaced by a more fervent supporter of | Wuchang, who had remained in the city throughout the the Guomindang, Wang Rizhang, who led the school until —_ war, responded to the return of peace with original works the end of the civil war in 1949. It was during this period of of exceptional beauty and power. The monumental central political frustration, when Pan returned to a prolific sched- _ peak of his 1948 Gazing at the Waterfall [fig. 6.24] may sug-

ule of creating art, that a breakthrough into his most dis- _ gest the imposing strength of Northern Song dynasty painttinctive and original style of painting occurred. His lifetime ing (960-1125), the blue distant peaks evoke the manner study of the epigraphic style of painting, as characterized — of the seventeenth-century monk painter Shitao, and the

134 ART IN WARTIME

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, “4 eee re Ur ies \y~ jae: aA Fe Sy = SO Le /j Jor|)\_ >||.——"> z ae ANS a\ = 2S» -=wf 7, = SNE FR FF, soremmmma é WZ te = NWS 2AY 4TS | 7\\ ae yy, li= ax, a>>3a ;SS NSA \\ |Ze Zo ‘ Beas) Yl er 4| ypy “Sa Ww iW 4 W if ae jj : ow) AS 3 y “4 , NES BY 1h iM == ——" i {) ZSNote S SZ aim |\\\\\cae a Siw- econ INese “esstlalee FA a-anay | fw 6.25. Li Hua (1907A/ ilON Hf1Ve / aN RAZ keHim In!, |y.hos I Am 1946, woodcut, EZ ye / Yyyf | ey 32.5 cm, Gift of21.5 Prof.x |\\\ Wen \ Ts X| || || A | £BG , LEE Yj Yj / ifMy] i) f/ and Mrs.Picker Theodore RAY es OSS Ti fYY ff Herman, Art ji| \Se 7 " (Za SS Wij Yy Wf WY,| My Wf hy // /}i i} Gallery, Colgate NNUdAL it \ ee shUU fy | ae Y f |Wy iY iy \he : mil aiaY]Vy, LAL A)/ H|

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mL ae eet eT relaxed brushwork is reminiscent of the Ming dynasty mas-

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i ay a — FS 2B INS ters of Suzhou. The foundations of erudition and originality

| ex , Waa S ll Wh | Zheng demonstrates in 1948 might promise a bright future * Lia * y Me) An ow yy SSN | for Chinese painting in the newly peaceful country.

ime tf cP! te. +| :«6, . -SiN * = |‘i.ova | . . | we | rey se .

ae Wz nlf ; Theo ) I | The hopes of the art world to resume the interrupted

| Hatiy rit os : a SP TH | development of the 1930s were, however, never fulfilled.

| D \ 40 yt ‘ae | A ceasefire between the Nationalist government and the re UN tf | ' wig Ke Communists expired in June 1946, initiating a three-year \ d | : > |e y civil war. Communist troops began to expand into north-

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ee CN Sy, (Sy i fa | ern areas formerly controlled by the Japanese. The govern-

R aa! —_—= ~ we aot em ment, although equipped with vastly superior military hard: Xd ] Se, las => ware and larger troop strength, suffered surprising losses.

| \ q “le z He I At the same time, the Nationalist administration’s takeover : f \ | i ae 275 /| of Japanese businesses and property was marred by inef: | :>el) || ma\e 2 | peON /} fectiveness and theft, leading to seriousThe economic disrupBill tions and loss of public confidence. corruption and

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= § Soe ge | \\ tip Gi y | incompetence displayed after the war began to alienate the

ES | |= he rig Sr y || urban population that had been the Nationalist governz ou = Ta "mil =| ment’s key support. Most damaging, the national treasury, om 4 m Ce : I able to cover only one third of its expenses with income, — ee aoc ,Se a financed the remainder by printing money. The result was a oe ————_«__io—— oo. |)

= hyperinflation that made reconstruction almost impossible.

6.26. Yang Keyang (1914-2010), The Professor Sells His Books, The civil war reached its turning point at the end of 1948, 1947, woodcut, 21.8 x 16.2 cm, Gift of Prof. and Mrs. Theodore when the underequipped Communist troops won control

H A tive llery, Col followed | | , -by do UTIsPicker re eave W\eongarenc eiey of Manchuria, Beijingsacha and Tianjin, and then quickly seized Jiangsu and Anhui. By early 1949 it was evident that the Communists would win the war. Printmakers, whose informal national network remained

136 ART IN WARTIME

NeFo Ta ee pipe theoo woodblock created between and 1949 tend =) 2CO pgs htsfarofmore O prints hngs Pom refined Srey ; than1945 Ee.) BiSeer TERE5 ASS LE to be technically the work of the early

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Vi; ce ams age eae pn afc thirties. As artists from the Communist and Nationalist terOF | Be ranted a) | ET it ritories came together, the contrast between the optimistic

Ne ail ey AMe Yan’anMT prints, which the most positive ieee coalways uolife,represented SE feel EN go ee es a aspects of an idyllic rural and theoN dark pessimism of aries eee Pee ote aecrds urban printmakers seem to foretell the results of the civil war. fe een: in R ecnderse meee gle Li Hua, who had held several solo shows of prints and

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saat Seria i SER} abe ae So eee From this point his work shows no traces of his modernist ap ha eer n-ne Sabana aa ee Sah experiments of the 1930s; rather, it tends to be powerfully

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an 52 Ro, get Seemineneerses 2. 1)". sane naturalistic and readable. Yang Keyang (1914-2010), comshah at?aeybetel |72 7OAger. f Say, >ey:SSsees : tee 7,in —= ‘etSells4His° Books, . ° .depicts °* a Pk Dreier is eer REE menting on inflation 7he Professor nat a Vinten Py Kus: co OT teed gia, teoge fe relinquishing aare ae sik - oeof his a trade ‘ aster iYPe DIM ce Siee) ice SE a broken-spirited SaraiRRss iss Se Lee Gane£father koe | the. tools

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CSO a Tey aE Y Ph ie PERI LATS i= to feed his family, a reflection on the waste of human talent

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epee speSAN ee ene OG Vee Begovernment. ee bee a Zheng MiceWuchang Wacebecame bas EER SEce PE© et egks fl Ye sg isaffected with their Pie Se cenees gee sine e\\o% known humorously as Cabbage Zheng for his frequent

Pere eae eS Ia oe a” depictions of the mundane Chinese vegetable, works that

Bicnronn ees ee cm? EK. were sometimes accompanied by ironic comments on the

Eager pg Ae: pee eee incredible cost of buying the simplest staples in an era of

wildly devaluing currency. Such images, and such loss of aoe 1919-1982), seal me) Peuggisii TS OO HEUE, confidence in the Nationalist authorities, set the scene for

31.2 x 22 cm, China International Exhibition Agency Pe A ; ; . cad the Communists’ surprisingly quick victory in the civil war.

A 1949 woodcut by Shi Lu (1919-1982), a Communist vetstrong, continued to promote their art and its social con- __ eran of the civil war, brings a very different and perhaps, to cerns. Prints of the late 1940s thus seem to represent, and __ the urban elite, more threatening sensibility to his celebraperhaps even lead, public opinion. A large exhibition held _ tion of the Communist victory. A peasant mob claims the in Shanghai in September 1946 showed 916 woodcuts pro- mansion of a landlord on behalf of the masses, to whom it duced during the war; exhibitions were held frequently over —_ will belong under the new system [fig. 6.27].

the next few years, with both political and artistic aims. The lives of all those who survived the eight-year war Themes common in prewar Shanghai, such as the persecu-. — with Japan and suffered the dislocations of three years of

tion of protesters by the authorities, remained lamentably civil war were forever altered by the experiences of hardrelevant [fig. 6.25]. The pervasive topic of corruption is viv- ship and uncertainty. Whether in exile abroad, in the

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idly exposed in the prints of Li Hua (1907-1994), one of the — Nationalist-controlled territories of western China, in occuleaders of the wartime and postwar print movement. China _ pied Shanghai or Beijing, in the Communist base at Yan’an, in Black and White, published in New York, with a preface b or in the declining cities of postwar China, a sense of dut Pearl Buck, displayed for an international audience not only _ to the fragile nation emerged as an ethical necessity. The vic-

the best of wartime prints but also many new ones expos- _ tory of the Communists in the civil war would profoundly ing deficiencies in government policies.*° For the most part, —_ affect how artists pursued this ideal.

ART IN WARTIME 137

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Western-Style Art under Mao 1949-1966

Mao Zedong’s military strategy of gradually strangling China's cities by surrounding them with his peasant armies succeeded when Beijing surrendered peacefully to the People’s Liberation Army on January 31, 1949 [fig. 7.1]. In the months leading up to this moment, underground party members in the art schools had quietly begun building support for the insurgency. Beiping Art Academy student Hou Yimin (b. 1932), for example, solicited from his professors strikingly designed handbills that praised peace and welcomed the liberating army. Although the Nationalist government was prepared to evacuate university professors to Taiwan, most art professors remained behind. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA AND ITS NEW ART

As major cities were liberated, Communist cadres well indoctrinated in the principles of Mao Zedong’s “Yan’an Talks on Literature and Art” moved in with the army and

assumed control of cultural and educational institutions. In March a military group experienced in making propaganda for the Anti-Japanese War effort and for the social projects of the Communist party took control of the National Beiping Arts College. Among its leaders were printmaker Jiang Feng (1910-1982), poet Ai Qing (19101996), the art theorist and sculptor Wang Zhaowen (1909-2004), and the composer Li Huanzhi (1910-2000). Based on promises made by the Communist leadership before liberation, Xu Beihong (1895-1953) was retained as director and the academy faculty remained on salary. The school would soon be renamed Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), with a calligraphic logo written by Mao Zedong himself. Academy artists would now be subject to the direction of the Communist party and, like all of China’s artists, their lives would begin a dramatic and sometimes painful transformation. 139

a i. standards. Fourth, the contents and forms of old literature

ey a Ee : | Ts and art were to be remolded. Fifth, artists and art leaders

< a > oon a $ a must consider the needs of the whole nation in their art, not — a = a ~ > a es individual concerns. The specific ideological and stylistic wee .* fccch} to te eee 7 5 mandates articulated over the duration of a two-week meetoe) ia if " rere tee 1D —_=™ ing would have great significance for future arts policies.

ae eS | Pe “ . of Veteran printmaker and Communist art leader Jiang

me q ae ae = Feng (1910-1982) outlined in urgent terms the agenda for te i teen he — wT the art world: to quickly train many new art cadres, to

fe gaene me, 4 ys a+ a remold folk artists and guohua artists to serve the workers,

eon yy ane & 4) bP wie, peasants, and soldiers, and, by means of modern printing

Bae Heyy Yas \ hea. ee technology, to issue large quantities of art for the masses. B . ie “. jae) A es A oo yen The ultimate goal was to replace the vast market for unac“Turtal el fe “i . E t wie he, -" aa ceptable older types of art with mass distribution of new

a Whe a > printed matter made to the Communist party's specifica: Se eet gil = tions. Although this absolute rejection of traditional art by BK Bran fi. 2 bs ino, F + China’s cultural authorities was later criticized as extremist,

= A bi OR ue t = a. is S it determined a overall direction sy Chinese visual cul-

Poe ture woulda in the postio49 || OWis ss4csre,— |} . Ny Ss The policies the Communist party put inperiod. place in 1949

— 8 = ae accelerated the internationalizing trend already evident

eS af %, te i ee | in the prewar period but guided it along a narrow path.

to } ~o » SM oS e By its centralizing strategy, which eliminated the possibilee Pe Meme! 2Te ity of dissent, the party mortally weakened certain forms

74 Ye Qianyu (1907-1995), The Liberation of Beijing, 1959, ink of traditional art—particularly the classical guohua paintand color on paper, 197 x 130 cm, new year's picture, National ing so successfully revived by such masters as He Tianjian,

Museum of China, Beijing Zheng Wuchang, and Wu Hufan in the 1930s and 1940s— and replaced them with new forms, particularly academic By the time the Communists lowered the Nationalist and realist oil painting. Although the protests of traditionflag over the presidential palace at Nanjing on April 23, alists were briefly acknowledged, in actuality Chinese art 1949, the Chiang Kai-shek government had already fled to and art education, like every other aspect of Chinese life, Taiwan, an island province reclaimed by China in 1945 after from architecture to automobiles to apparel, would gradfifty years of Japanese rule. The People’s Liberation Army ually abandon certain premodern aesthetics, traditional continued its unrelenting advance, marching into Shanghai —_ techniques, and artistic forms as China sought to become on May 27, 1949, and taking Guangzhou on October 14. a modern nation. Even before territorial control was complete, the process of At the 1949 meeting, Jiang Feng stated what Zhou Enlai remaking China's economy, government, society, and cul- —_ did not: that all artists, regardless of previous political afhli-

tural institutions according to a new Communist frame- _ ation, were required to study the policies of the Communist work began. The new political and social roles required for _ party. He praised the accomplishments of Communist art-

art were announced at the All-China Congress of Literary ists in the War of Liberation as models for all art workers and Arts Workers held in Beiping (now Beijing) from July 2 nationwide. A concurrent exhibition of work by about three

to 19, 1949. hundred artists was held in Beijing, and later shown in the

Political leader Zhou Enlai presented the government prewar art centers of Shanghai and Hangzhou, to demonplan for arts and culture. First, he stated, literary and strate how Communist artistic policies were put into pracart workers from all parts of China and all backgrounds, __ tice. Outline and flat-color painting, a new style derived in Communists and non-Communists alike, must work part from northern Chinese folk art, was considered most together. Second, following the principles laid out by Mao suitable for the didactic purposes to which art would now Zedong in his 1942 Yan’an Talks, artists were to serve the be put. Easily readable woodblock prints were also appropeople, especially the workers, peasants, and soldiers. Third, _ priate to this new party-approved manner [see figs. 6.22 and popularization was to take precedence over raising of artistic 6.27]. Other genres in which the Communist artists worked 140 WESTERN-STYLE ART UNDER MAO

included serial picture stories (ianhuanhua), wall paintings, ( ESN ze A —) et political cartoons, pictorial magazines, and propaganda fly- , ’ ir yen? vt th j NT se uy ’

vain ) LI_ | era, serve the national reconstruction. In short, the new arts policy required that artwork ar

ers. Oil painting and sculpture could also, in the postwar pecan 2 ti 1 “ } nay a Whey ¥, +

should be educational and should take its contents from ! J -. . a 2 life. It should serve the people, inspire their political en- > 26 "5 om | ‘Sle . ~

lightenment, and encourage the peoples enthusiasm for > & a es a at . labor. Of particular of significance was the party’s emphasis ,tE a f| .4 “ fy in SN | sa iN oe

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7-4 Dong Xiwen (1914-1973), Inaugural Ceremony for the New Nation, 1952-1953, oil on canvas, 230 x 400 cm, poster version of 1954, Collection of Yang Peiming

was painted for the museum display in 1952 and 1953, Zhou Enlai stands Lin Boqu, the secretary general of the before Chinese artists were familiar with Soviet methods of | new government. The varied appearances and dress of the brushwork, color, and composition. Rather like Lin Gang’s new leaders emphasize the diverse range of party and non-

gouache nianhua design of the same year, it uses Western party centers of power they represent, all envisioned as pigments to suggest the bright, flat tones of the Chinese —_ cooperately serving the new nation.

folk art aesthetic and further emphasizes motifs of Chinese After receiving a positive appraisal from Mao Zedong palace architecture such as lanterns and ornate woodwork. and the party leadership in the fall of 1953, Dong Xiwen’s Dong Xiwen, like Luo Gongliu, had attended the Hangzhou The Inaugural Ceremony for the New Nation was reproduced National Art Academy. Unlike his older colleague, however, as a poster and published in many newspapers and magahe was not a veteran of the Communist army but had spent —__zines to celebrate the fourth anniversary of the establishmost of the wartime period in Sichuan. While Communist — ment of the People’s Republic of China. A monumental hisParty veteran Luo Gongliu painted an event significant to _ tory painting in the grand European tradition, it became the party’s internal history, Dong Xiwen, who had lived in —_an icon of the new Chinese nation, and for artists, of the the Nationalist-controlled areas during the war, created a __ nation’s new art. Distinctively Chinese motifs, such as red

work of significance to the entire reunified nation. lanterns, silk carpet, porcelain flowerpots, and palatial setInaugural Ceremony for the New Nation depicts Mao __ ting, all rendered in black outlines and bright colors, earned Zedong standing atop Tiananmen (The Gate of Heavenly the work nativist praise as an example of “the Sinicization of

Peace at the south of the old imperial palace) as he oil painting.” One might say that the painting succeeded on announced the formation of the People’s Republic of China _all counts in realizing the aspirations of the new Chinese art and its new government on October 1, 1949. Mao is set off —_ as they were understood in 1952.

from his colleagues in a triangular space created by cross- Most Chinese who had lived through the warlord era, ing diagonal lines of vanishing-point recession. From the the Japanese occupation, the civil war, and the economic lower right, following the converging lines of the silken collapse of the late 1940s wished for nothing more urgently carpet, marble parapet, iron railing, broad boulevard, and than the establishment of a peaceful society and stable govcrowds of flag-waving citizens, the viewer's eye is led toward — ernment. Many were extremely hopeful about China's pros-

a yellow-roofed gate at the eastern end of the square and __ pects under the newly unified government of the People’s comes to rest on Mao himself. Scudding clouds in the blue — Republic of China and quite enthusiastically sought to folsky travel in the same direction, leaving open only the halo- —_ low the instructions they believed would rebuild the nation. like blue patch around Mao’s head. From the middle left, | Dong Xiwen was an ardent non-Communist supporter of our eye runs over the faces of the six vice-chairmen of the — the new government and typical of many idealists from Central People’s Government, across the old palace’s mar- the cultural world. Even before the Communist victory, ble bridges, toward the high-flying flag of the new People’s he designed a flyer, “The Liberation Army Is the People’s Republic and the Qianmen Gate to the south. Over the Savior,” in preparation for the People’s Liberation Army heads of the multitudes assembled on the square circle five entry into Beijing, and he joined the new nianhua move-

doves of peace. ment with a picture celebrating the liberation of Beijing.

Flanking Mao, the figures in the front row proceed The fate of Dong Xiwen’s Inaugural Ceremony for the New from the uniformed figure of General Zhu De, head of — Nation illustrates the difficulties faced by even the most the People’s Liberation Army, at left, to Gao Gang, head _loyal and dedicated of artists as they sought to serve the of the northeastern provinces, at far right. Between them _ nation amid constantly shifting standards and policies. are ranged the imposing image of Liu Shaogi, in a tidy The relatively inconspicuous dark-haired man appearing blue Sun Yat-sen—style uniform; Madame Song Qingling, immediately to Mao Zedong’s left in the painting was Gao the widow of Sun Yat-sen, wearing a long gipao; the elderly Gang, Mao's longtime ally and successful economic adminand slightly rumpled Li Jishen, with hat in hands; and the istrator. He was appointed chairman of the State Planning bearded Zhang Lan, wearing a long scholar's robe. Premier Council and moved from the northeast to Beijing in 1953, and Foreign Minister Zhou Enlai, behind Zhu De, is prom- _just as the painting began to receive positive attention. Soon inent in the second row, and beside him is barely visible the after, Gao Gang met an unhappy and rather mysterious fate, distinctive jaw of Dong Biwu, who headed the Politicaland — quietly accused of disloyalty in early 1954, then purged from

Legal Committee of the new government. To the right and — government, and finally dead by suicide. With /naugural behind Madame Song is Guo Moruo, head of the govern- — Ceremony for the New Nation scheduled for showing at the ments Culture and Education Committee. Finally, behind Second National Arc Exhibition of 1955, Dong Xiwen was 144 WESTERN-STYLE ART UNDER MAO

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Ge : ree SS. : ea — SS “ 7.5 Dong Xiwen (1914-1973), Inaugural Ceremony for the New Nation, oil on canvas, 230 x 400 cm, revised ca. 1955 and 1967, National Museum of China, Beijing

asked to correct the painting, to remove the offender from the required changes. Finally, after che Cultural Revolution, his official position and from history itself. A slightly easier authorities decreed that Dong’s original iconography should proposition than the Stalinist practice of removing people — be hung in the museum with Liu Shaogi, Gao Gang, and from photographs, Dong revised the intricately balanced — Lin Boqu replaced. The original version no longer existed, so painting by replacing Gao Gang with a potted chrysanthe- _ the 1972 copy was revised to add figures it had never previmum, adding two microphones that shifted the center of ously possessed, thus creating a fifth version. The intervening balance somewhat to the right, and removing a cloud to __ rise of Soviet socialist realism is evident in the square jaw and open up the sky. A new poster was issued of the revised ver- rectangular haircut of the new Gao Gang. This copy with sion and the /naugural Ceremony for the New Nation contin- _ its restored iconographic program is the version most often ued to enjoy its iconic status. Dong Xiwen’s construction of published today under Dong’s name, rather than his original the visual history of new China's birth had thus been caught _ version [fig. 7.4], which exists only in poster reproduction. up in what would be the first major internal Communist Party purge of the post-1949 era; it would not be the last. THE MONUMENT TO THE PEOPLE'S HEROES Eventually the composition’s fate would parallel that of the — These few examples of oil painting illustrate the adaption of nation it symbolized, suffering five revisions at the hands of | academic European modes of painting to the new ideologi-

if 3

four artists. cal needs of the Chinese Communist Party and government Two versions of the canvas survive today. One, Dong’s __ in the period before widespread adoption of Soviet models original, was revised a third time by the artist himself under for art and architecture. A similarly significant effort, but the immense pressure of the Cultural Revolution [fig. 7.5]. in architectural and sculptural form, the Monument to the Dong removed the disgraced Liu Shaogi, moving Dong People’s Heroes was erected between 1952 and 1958 to the Biwu to the front row to fill his space. In 1972, while termi- south of Tiananmen at roughly the spot where the national nally ill with cancer, Dong Xiwen was ordered to rework the _ flag flies in Dong Xiwen’s /naugural Ceremony for the New painting yet a fourth time, to remove Lin Boqu (1885-1960), Nation. Constructed of granite with inset marble panels of the white-haired gentlemen at far left. He declined, and two ___ relief sculpture, it rises on a two-tiered platform to a height younger artists from CAFA, Zhao Yu and Jin Shangyi, were — of almost 125 feet [fig. 7.6]. As intended, it has become a enlisted to make an exact copy of the iconic painting with — potent symbol of patriotic martyrdom and at the same time WESTERN-STYLE ART UNDER MAO 145

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7-6 Monument to the People’s Heroes as peel SF t x , ] ~ - | ce —— " Shanghai Art Print (Shanghai huapian) Press and reor- : ganized as the New Year’s Picture and Propaganda Poster Editorial Department of the new Shanghai People’s Fine 741 Qian Daxin (b. 1922), Strive for Greater Harvests, Devote Arts Publishing House. The team was primarily comprised Them to Socialism, 1958, poster, gouache on paper, 110 x 80 of two complementary groups of artists—commercial art- cm, Shanghai People's Fine Arts Publishing House ists who worked in advertising agencies and design studios

before 1949 and art school graduates of the late 1940s or —— ments. The best known of the Shanghai propaganda poster early 1950s. They merged the colorful and decorative cal- artists is Ha Qiongwen (b. 1925). His 1959 poster Long Live endar print (ywefenpai or cabi, rubbed charcoal and water- = Chairman Mao, prepared to celebrate the tenth anniversary color) techniques of the pre-1949 commercial art world with —_ of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, may be the highly skilled academic figure painting of the art school the most famous poster design in all of China [fig. 7.12].

graduates. They were prolific: the Shanghai team published It was issued in a total printing of more than 2.5 million more than two thousand different poster designs, issued — copies. Ha Qiongwen was born in Beijing and studied oil in more than forty million prints, between 1954 and 1966; painting in the National Central University art department, Beijing People’s Fine Arts Publishing House published more _ first in Chongging and after the war in Nanjing. Upon his than five hundred poster designs and printed twenty-eight — graduation in 1949, he joined the People’s Liberation Army million copies between 1951 and 1959; and Tianjin Fine Arts and became an art teacher in the East China Military and Publishing House published 267 varieties of posters in 16.8 Political Academy. When Ha Qiongwen moved to the pro-

million copies. paganda poster department of East China People’s Art Press, Despite a paper shortage, the peak of propaganda poster _ he became the major figure in the studio.

production was during the Great Leap Forward period According to the artist’s recollection, in conceiving Long [fig. 7.11]. New designs were shaped in a few hours and Live Chairman Mao, he first tried to paint a celebratory sent directly to the printing factory, where the entire pro- _ scene based on his memory of the happy faces he saw at the cess was monitored by editors on press. Posters of partic- 1959 May Day parade at People’s Plaza in Shanghai, but was

ular importance could be produced in about ten hours, unsatisfied with his drafts. Finally, as Ha Qiongwen gazed starting from conception and design to final printing. The — out the window of his studio, he found his inspiration. The poster thus became an almost instantaneous expression of _ publishing house, like many new institutions established by

party policy, reflecting the smallest changes in the think- | the Communists in Shanghai, then occupied an old maning of the leadership almost as quickly as did official state- sion in the French concession, and the ornamental trees that 152 WESTERN-STYLE ART UNDER MAO

More than ten million copies of his posters were released during his thirty-seven-year career as a propaganda poster

_ designer. With institutionalization of the specialties of nianhua, propaganda pictures, and serial picture stories within

4 the publishing houses, and the near elimination of products of the pre-1949 mass media, the visual environment that

: surrounded every Chinese at home, at work, and at leisure : . was n= remade in a way that transformed both ideology and

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bh Py ay ae OF REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY preparation for celebration the tenth anniversary of yNf a 4: *theInPeople’s Republic of China, aofmassive construction proj. 2 x ’ ect was undertaken in the capital in 1958 and 1959. What F | P : } were labeled the “Ten Great Buildings”—the Great Hall y ‘\ { of the People [see fig. 7.6], the Museum of Revolutionary *, \ %/ ‘ : \ History, the National Museum of History, the Chinese

oh | Le y.. P% ie People’s Revolutionary Military Museum, the National » a > te, e* . . “4 Agricultural Exhibition Hall, the Nationalities Cultural xt — ap? > ‘ ¢ © 43 ‘ Palace, the Beijing Train Station, the Worker’s Stadium, : — Y (i - the Nationalities Hotel, and the Overseas Chinese Hotel—

x. . iis were constructed in Beijing in a range of Soviet, European, 72 Ha Oiongwen (b. 1925), Long Live Chairman Mao, 1959, and “adaptive” styles, many making use of such fireproof gouache on paper printed as poster, 110 x 80 cm, Shanghai materials as stone or reinforced concrete, with exterior col-

People’s Fine Arts Publishing House umns and plazas in a Western manner but courtyards and upturned tiled roofs of the Chinese tradition."” The Great still bloomed in its garden had exactly the upbeat tone he _ Hall of the People, the Museum of Revolutionary History, sought. He thereupon painted a young woman surrounded _—_and the National Museum of History were erected directly by pink blossoms, holding her young daughter on her __ to the east and west of the Monument to the People’s Heroes shoulder. Ha Qiongwen wanted to emphasize the Chinese — at Tiananmen Square. Other new buildings, including the character of the woman, so he garbed her in a black vel- = Chinese National Art Gallery, were constructed soon after. vet gipao, or Chinese gown, ornamented with a brooch and These monumental structures at the heart of the capipearl earrings. The authorities, eager to disseminate such tal spoke to China's people and to any foreign visitors of an optimistic image in the wake of the disastrous failure | China's emergence as a modern state. Didactic content of the Great Leap Forward, had Ha Qiongwen's Long Live __ installed within would organize and codify the history of Chairman Mao hung in public buildings all over China— _ the revolution, and the works of art would encourage patriin schools, factories, and military bases. It was even repro- _otism by creating a visual narrative of events. Thus, creatduced in a large format and hung from the tenth story ofthe —_ ing decorations and historical paintings for the Great Hall No. 1 Department Store on Nanjing Road in Shanghai. The — of the People, the Museum of Revolutionary History, and same image was used five years later by the China Women’s the Military Museum gave China’s post-1949 generation League as the cover for the foreign editions of their jour- of oil painters, today referred to as the third generation, nal and for that occasion switched the title of the poster to —- the opportunity for which they had been trained to serve.

“Long Live Peace.” China’ leading artists were commissioned to create large In a telling coincidence, Ha Qiongwen’s career as an paintings, decorations, and sculptures for the new buildartist exactly spanned the years when Chinese propaganda __ ings in three campaigns conducted between 1958 and 1965. posters, as a genre, flourished. He went to work in the pro- —_— Artists trained by Maksimov or in the USSR painted for the

paganda poster studio of East China People’s Art Press in | new museums historical displays in what would become the 1955, the year after its establishment, and retired in 1992, most prestigious works of the era. The works commissioned the year the propaganda poster department was abolished. _ for the project also show that socialist realism was dissemiWESTERN-STYLE ART UNDER MAO 153

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nated beyond those artists who had direct contact with a a typical subject in 1961, martyrdom for the Communist

Soviet teacher. cause, in Unyielding Heroism [fig. 7.13]. After his study in

Maksimov students such as Jin Shangyi, Zhan Jianjun, Leningrad, Quan Shanshi’s use of color was much more and He Kongde, along with graduates of the Repin Art vivid and powerful than that of most oil painters trained Institute, including the Hangzhou oil painter Quan Shanshi — in China. Based on sketching trips he made to Hunan and (b. 1930), created heroic images that monumentalize their Jiangxi in preparation for the project, he depicted peassubjects. Typical of the socialist-realist manner are their ele- | ant revolutionaries as they fought to establish Commuvated horizon lines, elaborately posed figures, and new way _ nist Soviets in south-central China in the 1920s. The rising of painting the human form: powerful and muscular, with — sun behind them and the high horizon line are intended strong eyebrows and squared jaws. Quan Shanshi painted to suggest the eventual victory of the Communist troops, 154 WESTERN-STYLE ART UNDER MAO

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7.14 Cai Liang (1932-1995), The Torchlight Parade in Yan’an, 1959, oil on canvas, 164 x 375 cm, National Museum of China, Beijing

despite the Nationalist army’s mandate to eradicate every Communist.

CAPA graduate Cai Liang (1932-1995), then working in Xi'an, painted a far more cheerful victory image, The ion

Torchlight Parade in Yanan, in 1959. In his job assignment ‘ , Cai Liang had the opportunity study local customs former Communist base area intonorthern Shaanxi, andinhethe Y gb © creatively reconstructs the costumes and music of a celebra- . J oe tion following the Japanese surrender on August I5, 1945 _* [fig. 7.14]. Led by a grinning boy, a procession of soldiers | 7 and peasants, side by side, trumpet victory with torches raised high. The artist has rendered the exhilarated men and women, old and young, in a dramatic perspective that

diminishes to the distant streaks of torchlight on the Yan’an j hills. Silhouetted against the evening sky is the nine-story brick pagoda that became a landmark of the Communist revolution. Cai Liang had studied at CAFA from 1950 to

1955. He had undoubtedly seen the Russian exhibition when P =~

it showed in Beijing, but he did not directly study with a ‘ ii 4

Soviet teacher, and his adoption of the new style may repre- #46 jin Shaneyi(b.1858)cMaaZedondutthe December sent the dissemination of socialist realism into the broader Meeting, 1961, oil on canvas, 158 x 134 cm, National Museum

Chinese art world. of China, Beijing There was no shortage of Mao images when the museum

display finally opened on June 29, 1961. Jin Shangyi (b. Communists and the Nationalists. Yet supplementing this 1938), the strongest portraitist of the Maksimov class, narrative of Mao’s military and ideological contributions deploys the elevated perspective and artificial light of social- to formation of the new nation was acknowledgment of ist realism to represent Mao Zedong as China’s courageous __ the historical role played by Liu Shaoqi, who became new revolutionary leader in his 1961 painting Mao Zedong at the China's second head-of-state in 1959. Following the realist December Meeting |fig. 7.15]. The work was suitable to the _ style of the nineteenth-century Russian Wanderers school, display by virtue of its historical context, a crucial party | Maksimov graduate Hou Yimin (b. 1930) renders an image meeting in 1947 at the height of the civil war between the of Liu Shaogi as he leads a coal miner’s strike at Anyuan in WESTERN-STYLE ART UNDER MAO 155

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1922. Hou Yimin’s 1961 painting Liu Shaogi and the Anyuan in the same period to Sinicize (minzu/ua) oil painting was Coal Miners [fig. 7.16] further extended historical defini- | Chairman Mao Standing with People of Asia, Africa, and

tions of the Chinese revolution beyond the rural and mili- Latin America, by Wu Biduan (b. 1926) and Jin Shangyi. tary subject matter so dear to Mao by encompassing the _They returned to the “outline and flat color” manner of new

more orthodox Marxist theme of industrial workers. nianhua, while still deploying the representational skills The economic and technological assistance rendered by honed during their instruction by Soviet teachers [fig. 7.18]. the USSR during the second five-year plan obscuredaback- Like a draft for a new nianhua, one of the several surviving

stage diplomatic drama that developed following Stalin's versions of this work was actually painted in gouache on death in 1953. Particularly after Nikita Khrushchev initi- paper. Wu Biduan was a CAPA faculty member who had ated his de-Stalinization program in 1956, Mao believed the studied in the USSR from 1956 to 1959. The work was probUSSR had strayed from the path of orthodox Communism _ ably inspired in part by frieze-like Soviet compositions such and into revisionism. Against Soviet advice he beganimple- — as Awakening, an oil painting by A. A. Mylnikov that was mentation of the People’s Commune system and the Great exhibited in Beijing in 1957, which depicts the peoples of Leap Forward to more rapidly achieve Communism in Africa, the Middle East, and the Americas marching together China. Soviet skepticism, Mao's intransigence, and Khrush- __ with raised fists. First published after the Sino-Soviet split chevss blunt and arrogant personality led to increasing Sino- of 1960, however, Wu and Jin’s painting is most important Soviet tension. The ideological dispute was brought to a _ for its political theme—claims to Chinas leadership of the head in the summer of 1960, when the USSR withdrew Third World at a time of extreme international isolation. every Soviet expert in China. Overnight, praise for Soviet The period between 1957 and 1961 in China was cata-

models became politically incorrect. clysmic. In the spring of 1956, Mao Zedong launched the Party theorists emphasized the value of national forms Hundred Flowers campaign, in which all China’s citizens in art. In the oil painting Mao Zedong in Mount Jinggang, were required to voice their opinions for further improvethe director of the history painting project, Luo Gongliu, ment of their nation. Many people, rather naively taking experimented with replacing Soviet methods and motifs their instructions at face value, made criticisms of specific with Chinese ones [fig. 7.17]. Thus, rather than the squared __ policies or individual administrators. Mao and the party strokes of Russian oil painting, Luo created his vision of — leadership responded with a vicious campaign to assert Mao at a turning point in the Communist fight by using — greater control over ideological discipline. The followstriations and stippling to suggest the texture strokes and _ing year, the carefully recorded comments of the Hundred dots of Chinese ink painting technique, implicitly declaring | Flowers meetings were brought forth as evidence to target this work to exemplify a “national style.” Another attempt _ party officials who had been criticized, citizens who voiced 156 WESTERN-STYLE ART UNDER MAO

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7:17. Luo Gongliu (1916-2004), Mao Zedong at Mount Jinggang, 1961, oil on canvas, 150 x 220 cm, National Museum of China, Beijing

criticism, or in some cases both. Mao suggested that per- }

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haps 5 percent of the population were rightists. Many work

units adopted 5 percent as their quota. The campaign rap- a?

idly spread to include anyone who defended a person under ” f Pr : »

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wrong place at the wrong time. The world of oil painting ON" Pre —

was hard hit. Jiang Feng, the national administrator who ‘ + | , a ' had promoted oil painting's development most fervently, . Zz. =“ | was declared the number one rightist in the art world at the + J} te | end of July 1957, removed from his positions, expelled from si { — the CCP, and sent to perform hard labor. Yan Han defended

Jiang Feng and was soon labeled “number two rightist” in . the national art world. Representatives from the Maksimov class had spoken 748 Wu Biduan (b. 1926) and Jin Shangyi (b. 1938), out to request continued institutional support for the high- Chairman Mao Standing with People of Asia, Africa, and level development of oil painting. Their spokesmen—Qin Latin America, 1961, oil on canvas, 143 x 156 cm, National

Zheng, He Kongde, Wang Liugiu, and Yan Han—were Art Museum of China, Beijing labeled rightists. Yu Yunjie from Shanghai was labeled a rightist in absentia by his Shanghai work unit. Their rightist labeled rightists. Their works were not published in the designations were credited to the quotas of their home work graduation anthology and they were not invited to particiunits, thus saving others from condemnation. If calculated _ pate in the history painting project. He Kongde was someseparately, more than 20 percent of the carefully selected | what protected by the military, but even the most fortunate and politically reliable members of the Maksimov class were __ of rightists suffered indignities and would experience even WESTERN-STYLE ART UNDER MAO 157

openly acknowledged [fig. 7.19]. Jiang Feng’s international-

ist goal of remolding the aesthetic tastes of China's people

> was largely accomplished, even if he himself was removed

— from the scene. ~~ Gap . As a result of the failures of the Great Leap Forward,

: _ which were a well-known secret within the upper reaches S ; of the government, Mao was unwillingly forced to yield as — government leader in the summer of 1959 and was replaced

. | by Liu Shaoqi. Following the Three Year Natural Disaster, as

ik ‘~~, the famines of the period between 1959 and 1961 were called, x the hard-line political, economic, and cultural policies of

the Great Leap Forward were briefly relaxed. A period of pluralism in the arts ensued, particularly in traditional arts (see chapter 8). Young socialist-realist oil painters began pro-

sas Cuil cenl5 35) ane Ald SIMI CINE TS GEA ducing optimistic and slightly sweet work that exalted the vas,220 % 932.cm, déstioved inthe Cultural Revolution period people rather than glorifying the nation’s leaders and their history. Four Girls, painted by Wen Bao (b. 1938) in 1962, worse harm during the Cultural Revolution. Some rightists depicts happy peasant girls who have put down their farm were sent for labor reform to remote prison farms, and their _ tools to rest, a lyrical vision of the leisure after farm labor

spouses and children were denied normal rights to school- rather than its hardship [fig. 7.20]. This work is rendered ing, employment, and housing. It is estimated that about with the same painterly brushwork her teachers at the CAFA half a million people were declared rightists. All have now might use for their history paintings. /n Front of Tiananmen, been declared innocent, many of them posthumously. by Sun Zixi (b. 1929), adopts a Sinicized style related to the With his opposition either intimidated or out of the way, —_ outline and flat-color manner to render a diverse crowd of Mao launched several ill-fated initiatives. On the domestic sightseers posing for their pictures in front of the architecfront he overturned the second five-year plan in favor of tural symbol of the Chinese nation [fig. 7.21]. Painted on his Great Leap Forward. The slogan for all endeavors was _ the fifteenth anniversary of the PRC, it is political in its set“more, faster, better, thriftier.” In industry Mao’s slogan ting as well as in the popularizing quality of its multiethnic was “Surpass Great Britain’s industrial production within —_and occupationally diverse figures. Nevertheless, it too strays

fifteen years.” To fully realize Communism in agriculture, far from the “thematic” political paintings of the previous about 99 percent of Chinas peasants were communized by _ period and instead focuses on a moment of leisure enjoyed 1959. Artists traveled to rural villages to help the peasants by the ordinary working men and women of new China.

paint colorful murals and returned to the cities to design An extraordinary broadening of works deemed perpropaganda posters depicting abundant harvests. When bad —— missible for exhibition occurred in the early 1960s, after weather led instead to crop failures, malnutrition, and even = Mao temporarily retired. The exhibition held at the newly

starvation, the central government continued for atime to constructed Chinese National Art Gallery in Beijing to report the glorious success of Great Leap Forward policies. | commemorate the twentieth anniversary of his Yan’an Artists working on the history painting project in Beijing | Talks showed art produced between 1942 and 1962, but it received supplementary food rations in those years of short- included _ apolitical paintings by non-Communist artists age, and indeed the project served partially as a means of from the pre-1949 era, including Dong Xiwen’s decorative mediating the extreme hardship of Chinas creative elite. Kazak Herdswoman [see fig. 6.14] and Chang Shuhong’s As a result of the withdrawal of Soviet experts, the sec- Thunder Throughout the Land (see fig. 6.5], along with the ond Russian expert’s painting class, scheduled to be con- —_— more overtly political works by Communist veterans. Even

ducted by A. A. Myl’nikov, was cancelled, and the stu- more telling, in December 1962 and April 1963 a solo show dents instead were trained by Luo Gongliu [see fig. 7.17]. of the paintings of Lin Fengmian was held in Shanghai and Despite the sometimes cataclysmic political events that fol- —_ Beijing. This was a remarkable turnabout in light of Lin’s

lowed the Soviet experts’ departure from China, the styles complete marginalization after 1949 and can have had no of Russian and Soviet art, and particularly socialist realism, political justification other than to moderate the extremist were already so thoroughly absorbed that they remained cultural policies of the previous period. the mainstream, even when Soviet sources were no longer This chapter has described the creation under the gov158 WESTERN-STYLE ART UNDER MAO

ee ee oy ery ~% iw & 4 rd Pie theo he, ee ; ‘ a ¢ » ; * ’ R t re | Aa +. ie ‘ i»ts. Lee le eae < 38 — Se ge at “ee. :ei ; Wik at ; | National Art Academy in 1946 and instead sought instruc- y oe tors committed to the reform of Chinese painting. One of p< ‘ : the faculty members he hired, Jiang Zhaohe (1904-1986), ~

had impressed him ink withpaintings large-scale, lit, and ~-ss>.\\ highly naturalistic [seedramatically fig. 6.17]. Although

Jiang’s wartime painting, especially his most famous | a \" a

Refugees, was dark and gloomy, his style was easily modified we ;

to reflect the optimism of the socialist-realist manner. His | ; gf ‘A ne cheerful images of happy children, often placed with sym- J ’ = / - | e bols of peace, were both politically appropriate a ‘ss %and y recog- "we a s/f = nizably Chinese, and were selected as gifts for China's diplo- 1 / tg fo ) matic endeavors overseas. Jiang Zhaohe's style served as the ~ |e ! ; basis on which a new guohua figural style developed at the ; =. v - a

Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, one sometimes ye a.

called the Beijing school. 8.1 Li Qi (1928-2009), Mao Zedong Visiting the Entire Nation, 1960, One notable socialist realist to emerge from this milieu ink and color on paper, 197 x 117.5 cm, National Art Museum of China,

was Li Qi (1928-2009). Born only a few years after his par- _—Beijing

ents joined the Communist Party, Li was taken by them to Yanan when he was nine, and he grew up at the cen- ditional convention. His basic technique, however, does not ter of the revolution. As a young adolescent he attended — come from traditional painting but from the conventions of Mao's 1942 talks on literature and art, and by all indications academic drawing, Western watercolors, and Soviet socialist he was a devout follower of Mao and the party. After lib- —_ realism. Although influenced by Jiang Zhaohe in technique, eration, Li was appointed to serve as an assistant to Jiang —_ Li Qi adopts a heroic Soviet-style perspective, with Mao ele-

Feng and the party administrators of the Central Academy vated, as though gazing genially down on the viewer. The of Fine Arts. He won a Ministry of Culture prize for one _ artist has artfully chosen to garb Mao in urban dress, givof his new nianhua. His slightly later portrait, Mao Zedong ing him an air of authority but softening this impression Visiting the Entire Nation, was inspired by his 1959 experi- | somewhat by the loose wrinkles of the white shirt, its casuence of witnessing Mao visit the construction site for the —_ ally open collar, and the straw farmer's hat Mao holds in his Ming tombs reservoir during the Great Leap Forward. The — hand—all of which serve to establish a connection with the mass adulation displayed as the workers swarmed fora view — working people of China. Mao Zedong’s ruddy good health of Mao suggested the artist’s theme, in which Mao’s power _ and cheerful expression are extremely reassuring, and this

is humanized with a common touch [fg. 8.1]. 1960 work by a true believer has become an almost sacred In placing the leader’s image against a blank background, —_ image of the founding father of new China.

and outlining it with black ink, Li Qi explicitly follows a tra- The young artists in Hangzhou developed a slightly INK PAINTING, LIANHUANHUA, AND WOODCUTS UNDER MAO 163

different style. Unlike the academy in Beijing, where the ig itce ae pre-1949 director, Xu Beihong, already stressed the neces- Oe ee Peed f eis S a

sity of academic drawing as the basis for a reformed guo- en ON I ee

hua, the academy director who supervised the move back ee of Sichuan to Hangzhou warmost wascommitted Pan Tianshou, ; a A... afrom bird-and-flower painter andafter one the of the {7* ar? . ES

advocates of traditional brushwork in guohua. He was not i \ ~

permitted to teach after 1949; instead, freshly graduated —\ JUS Cine _&

instructors were charged with developing a guo/ua practice ita suitable to the new era. Between 1953 and 1955 thirty-nine ‘© Si

graduates, all well practiced in “drawing from life” and in ¥ a the ideological underpinnings of the new art, were kept on 4 as instructors. Some of the most talented, including two 1953 | , if. eraduates—Zhou Changeu (1929-1986) and Fang Zengxian mM (b. 1931)—-were assigned to the newly reestablished guohua = = division, where they set about drawing modern figures from q i

life with Chinese tools. In theme, they sought an ideal 4i

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translated from Soviet theory as the dianxing, or “typical.” rN 3

In execution, they replaced the outline-and-flat-color man- tee y Me b ner of the new nianhua with ink lines of varying widths and a *s eae!

richly applied ink textures. These two young painters were ia

instrumental in developing the “Zhe style,” as the manner oS Va . developed at Hangzhou (in Zhejiang province) came to ‘g Sy @

be known, and profoundly affected the practice ofwhich Chinese painting. dfsubsequent oe ie 1 ‘f ro yu re Zhou Changgu's Two Lambs, of 1954, represents a Tibetan " Mo

herdgirl in Gannan, in southern Gansu province, leaning te

pensively on a simple fence [fig. 8.2]. This work is an early y

example of the Mao period depiction of the national minor- ) ities, a general theme that has remained very popular among dex Thantthaneanaaaecioeer ie Lembeaaeatink artists and critics. The reasons for this are complex but are stekcolaronnapee.76.4.¢39.4/em. NatignalArk Museuin

based at least partly in larger historical circumstances. The of China, Beijing weakness of the Chinese government in the nineteenth cen-

tury, and extending through the Republican period, SinoJapanese War, and Civil Wars, weakened the central gov- _least in part, on the ideals of ethnic self-determination for ernment’s control over many parts of the Chinese empire, | Han Chinese. Yet the great Chinese empires of the past, including the border regions that had been brought under from Tang to Qing, as well as powerful states of the presQing dynasty rule during the eighteenth century. From the ent, including the Soviet Union, were multiethnic. The earliest days of the Republic, reestablishing territorial con- —_ twentieth-century governments of China were thus faced trol over the full extent of the Qing empire was an expected —_ with resolving the contradictions between two essentially result of China's reunification. In the War of Liberation the — incompatible ideologies: a Han nationalism based on ethPeople’s Liberation Army took as its mandate the task of _ nicity and patriotic pride in a new government capable of bringing all of that territory, its people, and its substantial — reunifying their fractured country. Of the two, the latter was natural resources back under the unified government of the more difficult to achieve, but nurturing it became essential

new PRC. to any regime. Thus, during the Mao years, the party tried

By 1954 the new government considered Buddhist Tibet to educate the majority Han Chinese that their non-Han and predominantly Muslim Xinjiang to have been liber- —_ brethren, now referred to as the national minorities, were ated and began the process of integrating them into the _ legitimately their fellow-citizens. At the same time, educaCommunist state. The modern nationalism that had led to _ tional policies were introduced to teach the minorities how overthrow of the Manchu regime in 1911 was founded, at they might contribute to the nation as citizens of the PRC. 164 INK PAINTING, LIANHUANHUA, AND WOOQDCUTS UNDER MAO

Scenes like Two Lambs that suggested the successful paci- tented national minorities—was a core component of the fication of the frontiers were politically welcome. From a _ new official art. While close examination of the painting,

purely creative perspective, however, the opportunity to particularly when it is compared with those of Ren Bonian travel to exotic and beautiful locales rather than the usual — or Pan Tianshou, may reveal technical imperfections, Two factories and farms was a welcome adventure to artists. | Lambs was truly innovative in its concept and composiRegardless of the political agenda that may have provided tion. The work was criticized by some party officials for its travel funding, it was an exciting creative challenge to paint sensory charm, but it won first prize in the 1955 Moscow the Tibetan highlands or the Central Asian deserts, and International Youth Show, an honor that provided internato study the Tibetans, Uighurs, Mongols, or Kazaks, with tional legitimacy to the new Zhe figure-painting style. their colorful costumes and striking physiognomies. The Zhou Changgu's colleague and fellow graduate of the Tibetan girl at center, in her youth and innocence, embod- class of 1953, Fang Zengxian (b. 1931), instead rendered more ies the nation’s dreams and hopes for the future, a potential — orthodox subjects from the worker-peasant-soldier canon of reflected by the tiny lambs at her feet that are the explicit | approved Maoist subjects. Every Grain Is Hard Work, which

theme of the painting. Formally, the ground plane is so _is formally similar to Two Lambs, depicts a frugal and hardsharply tilted that the horizon line behind the figure can- — working peasant picking up the last grains of rice after the not be seen, but the large flock of sheep extending behind harvest. When exhibited in 1955, this work garnered the arther and beyond the picture plane create an assumed van- _ ist substantial favorable attention. By 1964, when he painted ishing point, as in Western conventions of perspective. In Telling a Red Tale, Fang had developed his compositional, a typical socialist-realist device, the large figure is elevated _perspectival, and figural skills even further, while continuing on the picture plane, just as are the heroic warriors of Quan —_ to emphasize the Zhe school ink techniques of varied and Shanshi [see fig. 7.13]. Depicted as anatomically correctly as expressive outlines and deep, rich washes [fig. 8.3]. In the the artist found possible, the girl’s thoughtful concentration —_ upper part of the composition a group of peasants, old and as she nibbles on a blade of grass provides the psychologi- young, recedes sharply in an inverted U-shaped formation, cal interest in the story. In contrast to earlier Chinese figure —_ a virtuoso demonstration of the artist's mastery of Western paintings, particularly those depicting female figures, the __ principles of perspective. These figures comprise the attenTibetan girl’s hands and bare feet are evident, accentuating tive audience for a farm boy, depicted with his back to the the Western perspective and revealing her thoughts almost viewer, who is the main character. The eye-catching young as expressively as her face. The painting's compositional man, his silhouette emphasized by a strong outline, uses his structure, which is new to Chinese figure painting, is based —_—ihoe as a stage prop to narrate and act out his revolutionary ona recession that describes the arc of a reversed C-shape in story. The overall composition, and particularly the three-

space, culminating with the two foreground lambs. dimensional organization of the figures, comes from the At the same time, however, many elements of this paint- | Western academic tradition and is completely unlike anying come directly out of recent Chinese tradition and par- _ thing in Chinese art of the past. The artist does not depict ticularly the Shanghai school style as carried on within the the heroic story itself, but instead describes the widespread pre-1949 academy in Hangzhou. Indeed, Zhou Changgu, enthusiasm for tales of revolutionary valor among all memPang Zengxian, and their other young colleagues reluctantly bers of society, including the least educated. Very much a acknowledged the technical facility of Pan Tianshou and the — work of the post—Great Leap Forward period in its focus on old teachers in the department, even if they looked downon __ the small pleasures of ordinary people and its lack of overt them for their inability to paint anything but plants, birds, _ political subject matter, it nevertheless suggests the people's and fish. Qualities this work shares with earlier Chinese (and the artist's own) loyalty to the regime and its version of painting include the vertical format, the blank white back- history. Compositionally and thematically, this is one of the ground, the moist strokes of ink, and even the romantic most original works of the period, while at the same time sweetness of the exotic scene. Zhou Changgu’s uid render- _—_— upholding the principles of socialist realism.

ing of the linear drapery folds in the girl's white garment Quite significantly, in the mid-1950s the departments suggest the painting of Ren Yi [see fig. 1.12], as does the where Zhou Changgu, Fang Zengxian, and Jiang Zhaohe layered wash with which he executed her black skirt [see | taught were not called guohua (national painting) departfig. 1.11]. The slow and powerful lines of the fence createan = ments, but instead were labeled by the more neutral term, epigraphic structure to the space, suggestive of the paint- — color-and-ink painting (caimohua), thus removing the ing of Wu Changshi [see fig. 1.22].* Choice of politically ideologically charged term “national” from its association significant subject matter—in this case, the theme of con- with ink and Chinese paper. So named, the academic proINK PAINTING, LIANHUANHUA, AND WOODCUTS UNDER MAO 165

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" Bee SCY The overall composition of this work is believed to have ; = Be been designed by Qian Songyan (1899-1985), a senior tra-

8.7 Jiangsu Institute of Chinese Painting, People’s Commune Dining ditionalist landscape painter, but it was jointly executed by Hall (Free Food for All), 1958, ink and color on paper, 146 x 96 cm, MK a team of ten collaborators, who ranged from younger spe-

Lau Collection, Hong Kong cialists in figure painting to older literati-style landscapists. Fuu Baoshi, th the group’s director, wrote the inscription. Qian

real places, only widely possible for artists in a time of peace Songyan, an art teacher who had exhibited his ink paintand prosperity, became a major inspiration for new images ings in the 1929 National Art Exhibition, had launched a and styles beginning in the early 1950s. Establishment — new career with his move from Wuxi to Nanjing in 1957. of regional and local branches of the Chinese Artists | Unlike some of his contemporaries, he threw himself wholeAssociation further encouraged artists in regional centers to _— heartedly into the task of remaking his own art and helpremold Chinese painting through close observation of the — ing his younger colleagues develop their own technical relationship between nature and human activity. During the skill. Merging nontraditional elements into the more conGreat Leap Forward of 1958, Jiangsu artists working with — ventional guohua he had practiced up until that point and Fu Baoshi developed a unique regional style. Remarkably, stimulated by the opportunity to travel, he found it possible they were also able to achieve a form of communal pro- _to create inspiring scenes of new China that captured the duction. One early example of their collaboration, Peoples imaginations of his fellow citizens. Unfortunately, the illCommune Dining Hall (Free Food for All), combines exqui- conceived economic policy celebrated in People's Commune sitely restrained and subtle washes of ink and color with Dining Hall (Free Food for All) [see fig. 8.7] and Fields in complicated and rather fussy details of observed human — Changshu [fig. 8.8] was followed by terrible famines eupheactivity [fig. 8.7].° The 1958 painting by members of the — mistically labeled the Three Years of Natural Disasters. Jiangsu Institute of Chinese Painting, which depictsanewly | Although shortages, many exacerbated by fatally flawed collectivized rural village, was particularly praised by party distribution policies, were obvious even in major cities, the

administrators in Beijing. scale of this largely human-made catastrophe, with its death

er ieee ve: e :; ‘Hisanssule-soe

Using Western principles of vanishing-point perspective toll in excess of thirty million souls, was kept secret from 170 INK PAINTING, LIANHUANHUA, AND WOODCUTS UNDER MAO

te a. ~ pa _ @ — opportunity to use brushwork, perspective, and color suit-

*" ai bors Agents OMe gee s _ able to more classical tastes. Following a traditional prac-

tale et: Se dah, ee — 3 tice for auspicious paintings (but one far less frequently a ap OB “ = -@ _ seen in this period) his title, Fields in Changshu, may also a eee ene! ee * oR be heard as a homophonic good wish: “fields always ripe” eo ; : ee eras Y ws % (changshu).’ Filled with traditional elements, this work was ge ht * gba pa , k * ; : nonetheless sufficiently new in style and theme to serve as

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ete, ae - »% proof that guohua could be remolded and could serve the :ee,ryAEsee sae pero Se nation.

7. eee a Beginning around 1953, guohua artists who showed some

ss a Pome Fae 2% “ “sg _ promise of bringing new life into landscape or bird-and-

i a a = “pet: Ee — ar flower painting were organized to sketch from nature in the

4 = 4 — ae ae oS #8 nearby countryside or in remote scenic areas. The Beijing

ecisaaaal ee ~~ artists Li Keran and Zhang Ding, the Hangzhou painter Pan

: —< ee eee ame: 4 Tianshou, and the Xi’an artists Shi Lu and Zhao Wangyun . (aera ~~ _—sare only a few of the other well-known ink painters who rd ie e Es: a -_-were treated to long sketching trips in the mid-1950s and hare 9 C. ‘ a early 1960s at government expense, and whose subsequent ye jt tnd . =: = ~—s work was powerfully affected by their experiences drawing

él ~ - oe , from nature in far-flung parts of the country. In addition

eh pets pe EN RY “ See to familiarizing the artists with sights and people of a larger

| Rtas a a . . cote ene maton: and providing a with excellent Spyies to alli OC esr ee oe Sy experiment with empirically based compositions, the art-

! | | , epee ists from one locale met those from another, and successful ni Fin * ; | innovations rapidly spread.

ra In 1953 as the new year's painting movement was brought

oat 3 to a close, an earnest and unassuming instructor at the Cen8.8 Qian Songyan (1899-1985), Fields in Changshu, 1963, ink and color tral Academy of Fine Arts, Li Keran (1907-1989), began

on paper, 53 x 36 cm, National Art Museum of China, Beijing advocating the development of a new ink landscape painting based in plein air drawing. Li, who had studied at both

the Shanghai Art Academy and the West Lake National China's public.® Artists kept in the dark, and thus deceived, | Art Academy, had exhibited a modernist oil landscape in willingly provided the propaganda that hid the govern- the 1937 National Art Exhibition and during the war had

ment’s mistakes. dedicated substantial time to designing propaganda for the While Fu Baoshi had a gift for composition, of all his _anti-Japanese resistance effort. In his wartime exile, howcolleagues Qian was considered to have the best eye for ever, he returned to the practice of ink painting. Hired by choosing a view or site, and the best ear for choosing a title. | Xu Beihong to teach watercolor painting in Beijing after the His 1963 bird's-eye view of the network of canals around _Japanese surrender, Li began studying with two elder artists Changshu, with green fields stretching from the painting's _ then in Beijing, Qi Baishi and Huang Binhong. With Qi he bottom to top, is an extraordinary transformation of Chinese shared a love of rich, wet, textures of xieyi brushwork. In the

painting—one intended to depict in an original form the landscape painting of Huang, who was then suffering from dramatic effects of new agricultural policies [fig. 8.8]. From _ severe cataracts, he saw what were, to his healthy eyes, dra-

his vantage point atop Mount Yu in Changshu, he saw the matic and intense contrasts of dark and light. previously fragmented farm land that was now cultivated Having earned praise for his 1952 nianhua, Model Workers collectively as a vast geometric grid of irrigation canals and at Beihai Park, in 1954 Li Keran set forth, along with two ereen fields. No traditional texture strokes could render this Beijing colleagues, Zhang Ding and Luo Ming, on a fivevision—land that had been so thoroughly leveled and crops — month sketching and painting trip to the Fuchun River that were so lush. Qian thus chose an aerial perspective that —_ region of Zhejiang, Mount Huang in Anhui, as well as the would bring out the irregular geometry of the fields, but in _ cities of Hangzhou, Shaoxing, Wuxi, Suzhou, Shanghai, and rendering the waterways and architectural elements found — Shaoxing. Constantly painting and discussing their progress INK PAINTING, LIANHUANHUA, AND WOODCUTS UNDER MAO 171

at remolding they returned to Beijing a large ll een ‘; wie body of workguohua, and a theoretical position fromwith which to justify a4 Ft&fe

their practice. In thea moderate preface toposition their exhibition later inabout the ce4 year, they adopted in the debates realism and Westernization. For them, successfully modifying traditional techniques to reflect current reality was their goal as guohua painters. To explain their exhibition, they wrote:

Among [our] most important [problems] were how to use traditional techniques and how to develop them further. If the question was whether we simply reject traditional techniques, thus using Chinese tools and foreign techniques to do ink sketches, or whether we use completely traditional techniques, thus mak-

ing conventionalized descriptions of modern scenes < om — ea and things, it would be simple. But it is not so sim- ~ a Oe ae ee

ple if we intend to develop further the excellent parts : ie i - co i ing recent reality, and to blend modern foreign tech- i | ar fs Fa |

of [our] tradition, to make them suitable for reflect- fe Sag navi y "ie g

niques into traditional styles, so as to enrich their | 3 expressive power. The difficulty really is not whether [we] have attained theoretical clarity; it is that we | must attain a concrete resolution in practice.* ! | . 3

Wt |

Li Keran’s paintings of the “real” Chinese landscape "TE af “ became more and more lyrical over the following decade. = anf 7 “7 fh ode BE His personal breakthrough came after an exhibition of = a —, - Re ] FOPRSN Bee

what would fascinate him thereafter: the potential of light. on —= a ae? He began to incorporate intense contrasts of dark ink and

white paper into his landscape painting, thus creating works 8-9 |! Keran (1907-1989), Ten Thousand Mountains Bathed in has

that were compositionally powerful in a Western manner pats de ica ia ce laa but, with their complex washes and lines, texturally sub- aorasetay tle in a Chinese way. His exploration of the optical effects of reflected light provided new ways of organizing space in —_ with the launching of the Hundred Flowers campaign in Chinese painting. Work such as Spring in Jiangnan, of 1962, 1956, Zhou Enlai and other high officials called for a more explored aerial landscape views of the region in which he — open-minded attitude toward preserving the national heri-

had grown up. By 1964 the artist began applying his dra- tage. Zhou approved a proposal initiated by Ye Gongchuo matic use of illumination to mental images, experimenting — and Beijing bird-and-flower painter Chen Banding to estabin Ten Thousand Mountains Bathed in Red (fig. 8.9] with the _lish institutes of Chinese painting in Beijing and Shanghai."

poetic lyrics of Mao Zedong as pictorial inspiration.? Such Localities such as Nanjing and Xi'an soon followed. Fu themes gave artists an aesthetic license normally impossible Baoshi would head the Jiangsu Institute of Chinese Painting within the socialist-realist genre. Here, as in a Song dynasty and Shi Lu the Chinese Painting Research Studio of the painting, a massive central peak supports a tumbling water- Xi’an branch of the Chinese Artists Association. fall. In Li’s painting, however, it is the striking use of subtly In Beijing, Qi Baishi was appointed honorary direcplaced axes of illumination that give the densely textured — tor and Ye Gongchuo director. A great many of the artists

painting its power and its modern feeling. appointed to the new Beijing Institute of Chinese Painting By 1955 more overt official support for revival of tradi- had been members of the Lake Society during the Republican tional Chinese art began to emerge in the context ofa grow- _ period. Preparations for the Institute for Chinese Painting in ing cultural nationalism, and the works of some traditional- | Shanghai were organized by Communist veteran Lai Shaogi ist artists were shown in national exhibitions. In conjunction —_ and extended beyond the city of Shanghai to encompass art172 INK PAINTING, LIANHUANHUA, AND WOODCUTS UNDER MAO

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Fengmian (1900-1991). Lin had long expressed his hope of : = I caida > developing forms of modern art that were distinctively Asian. —_ ‘\~ rs | a During World War II, he gave up the practice of oil painting x

almost entirely and instead painted in an unorthodox mix- ——=

ture of ink, gouache, water color, Chinese painting color, and ~_ ame wets a

even, in his late years, acrylic, on square sheets of paper. Often . he used a thick paper that was normally used for window

panes, rather painting paper, and applied pigment to |ink |, ; : 8.13 Lin than Fengmian (1900-1991), Autumn Colors, undated,

both sides, creating texture. | Kong — thus s _ and color onunusual paper, 71 effects x 71cm, of M.depth K. Lauand Collection, Hong

Lin Fengmian’s surviving works from the Mao years document his participation in field trips to paint peasants and iron workers, but they are more Cubist than gentle cultural nationalism to be understood in his idealisrealist and were unsuitable from the party's point of view _ tic goals for art, his landscape subject matter, and his official (fig. 8.12]. Following the departure of his wife and daughter position as a painter at the Shanghai Institute of Chinese

from China in 1956, the introverted and somewhat melan- Painting were sufficient license to exhibit his work in the choly quality of his landscapes, birds, and figures deepened comparatively liberal atmosphere of late 1962 and early 1963.

(fig. 8.13]. Autumnal scenes, his most common landscape It is at the intersection of three policies—reviving the theme, were particularly suitable to his dark effects of ink _ national tradition, remolding guohua, and encouraging local and pigment. His works, although suggestive of a universal — cultural developments—that two major revolutionary landrealm rather than a specific one, nevertheless seem to have __ scapes in ink were commissioned for the new edifices on been inspired by the scenery in the Hangzhou and Shanghai = Tiananmen Square. ‘The first landscape reproduced here was areas, where Lin Fengmian lived for most of his life. The — painted for the Museum of the Chinese Revolution by Shi Lu (1919-1982), a Communist war veteran working in Xian [fig. 8.14]. For the Beijing history painting project he was assigned to depict Mao Zedong in 1947, when the military

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‘ ag ) Fighting in Northern Shaanxi, aT ¢ ' f 1959, ink and color on paper,

ae =Museum 238 x 216 cm, National ’7 “tn. of China, Beijing

walking stick on which he leaned, but one official thought —_ ing, covering the surface of the paper and leading our eye

the line of the knotted stick looked as though Mao were __ back to a distant, heroic horizon. Shi Lu’s application of

bound in chains, and Shi Lu removed it.’” bright color, in contrast to the blacks and grays of his ink, Inspired as a young man by the iconoclastic writings of | along with his slightly wild landscape brushwork and huge the seventeenth-century individualist painter Shitao (1642— _ scale, gives the painting a powerful presence when hung in 1707), as well as by the equally sharp observations of the __ its original position, high on the wall of the large gallery. social critic and novelist Lu Xun, he adopted the name Shi That an ink landscape such as this might become a suitable Lu when joining the Communist army. When he returned __ subject for a historical display was a significant shift in ofh-

to guohua painting in the 1950s, he sought, like his idol cial policy. Shitao, to develop new brushwork to depict new scenes that For the grand staircase of the Great Hall of the People, would be free of the traces of past masters. In one accountof — across Tiananmen Square from the Museum of the Chinese

the development of this composition, Shi Lu described an Revolution, Fu Baoshi (1904-1964), from Nanjing, and epiphany triggered by gazing at stains on a bathroom wall. = Guan Shanyue (1912-2000), from Guangzhou, were comThe liberation from convention suggested by these acciden- — missioned to illustrate a poem written by Mao Zedong tal dribbles are an appropriate metaphor, as the artist does — in 1936 [fig. 8.15]. From early times Chinese artists had indeed use bold, irregular outline strokes of his own devis- responded to poetry, both ancient and contemporary, in INK PAINTING, LIANHUANHUA, AND WOODCUTS UNDER MAO 175

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A Pa aaa, ory Na = So . we 8.15 Fu Baoshi (1904-1964) and Guan ie SS ~~ ee Shanyue (1912-2000), This Land So Rich in = “A wo Se a Beauty, 1959, ink and color on paper, 550 x — he, = — goo cm, Great Hall of the People, Beijing = a

their paintings, just as Chinese poets exchanged lines that | poem “Ode to Snow.”” Multiple versions of the preliminary echoed one another's rhyme patterns or imagery. A simi- — draft for this panoramic vision survive, some presumably larly rich dialogue between poetry and painting survived brushed as the artists received suggestions from the political into modern times. Largely a form of private expression, — and cultural leadership. In the end, Guan Shanyue painted it had briefly been codified in Song dynasty imperial prac- — the Great Wall and the distant snowy mountains, while Fu tice, when a poem composed or transcribed by the emperor — Baoshi rendered the panoramic middle distance, including might serve as a subject for painting by one of his court the river view that leads the eye to the right, toward the glopainters. As an art historian, Fu Baoshi was certainly aware __ rious rising sun. Guan Shanyue’s bold mountains cross Fu of this imperial practice as well as the far more extensive — Baoshi’s more restrained valleys to unify the depiction of exchanges among individual artists and writers over the cen- _all of China’s majestic features. One of the largest Chinese turies. In the 1940s Fu frequently composed paintings in ink paintings of the era, 5.5 meters by 9 meters, it became a his distinctive style that were inspired by phrases from such _ favorite venue for photographs of visiting dignitaries.'° This classical Chinese poets of the Tang and Song periods, or by |= monumental, horizontal, framed picture for permanent writings or paintings of the seventeenth-century artists he — display in a public building confirms the possibility that admired. An artist whose style was completely unsuited to — guo/ua could serve the national agenda. In general theme socialist realism, Fu undertook a rather daring experiment |= and composition one is reminded of the powerful images

after 1949. of Mount Puji created by pro-military Japanese ink painter Probably through his friendship with poet, scholar, and == Yokoyama Taikan during World War II. Like the building in Communist administrator Guo Moruo, who occasionally which it was hung [see fig. 7.6], 7his Land So Rich in Beauty exchanged poems with Mao Zedong, Fu Baoshi obtained was essentially Western in its nationalistic conception and copies of a number of Mao’s as-yet-unpublished poems.’ —_ format, if recognizably Chinese in its content and style, and In February of 1950 he began to apply the same interpretive _ fulfills much the same function as a monumental European strategies that had inspired his earlier work to the poetry —_ or American oil painting of the nineteenth century. of China’s new leader, creating paintings inspired by Mao The gradual expansion of politically acceptable forms Zedong’s poems. One such work was exhibited in the First — of art to encompass not only works painted in traditional

National Guohua Exhibition of 1953.'* guohua mediums on historical or socialist-realist themes but In July of 1959, Fu Baoshi was summoned to Beijing to —_ also romantic and even poetic landscapes was a response to

create art for the new Great Hall in what would prove tobe _ forces within the art world and in the larger political envithe most politically significant work of his career. Painted |= ronment. During the Hundred Flowers campaign many collaboratively with a senior disciple of Gao Jianfu, the — guohua painters spoke out in criticism of the hard-line culCantonese artist Guan Shanyue, the painting 7his Land So tural policies of the early PRC period. Although many of Rich in Beauty (Jiangshan ruci duojiao) was based on Mao's them were declared rightists, some of their complaints were 176 INK PAINTING, LIANHUANHUA, AND WOODCUTS UNDER MAO

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Pa ‘7iF| ae BY Ay a Ys ¥ at y “2g) a we KR i a4wy Teal .~ ? ! i, | cD wae, iFEys«' ieiti; :

as os snot? SO dier-artist originally assigned as a farm laborer, rather like

‘» fl ave’ ee yo. Sa ye those depicted in Zhan Jianjun’s painting [see fig. 7.8], he mm A - 4 yy 3 Yh went was soon transferred to the Beidahuang Pictorial publish-

‘ : pe v \" q] Ns. ing house. There he and his supervisor, Zhang Zuoliang, ie “SA i \ began producing prints depicting the beauties of the north | f ee AVS. ern wilds and the success of the settlers in bringing it to ecoNE a - , aa nomic productivity. Extremely lyrical and appealing, many Cm L— f [-av-.. of them nonetheless conveyed important political messages. — ee SE fe a.“ Chao Mei’s Black Soil Steppe of 1960, for example, depicts

8.19 Li Huanmin (b. 1930), First Steps on the Golden Road, the work of tractor-riding settlers in opening this land near 1963, polychromatic woodblock print, 54.3 x 40 cm, Collection the Soviet border to agriculture [fig. 8.20]. The beauty of

of the Artist the natural environment invites settlers to join them on the

frontier, the machines testify to the equipment provided by Sun Zixi’s rendering of tourists at Tiananmen. Like Fang the state, and the vast expanse of land to future agricultural Zengxian’s Telling a Red Tale [see fig. 8.3], it utilizesasharply _ productivity. Created as it was on the eve of the great famtilted ground plane on which the figures descend to create __ine, it describes a promise of prosperity that would remain a heroic composition. As are many other works of the Mao unfulfilled. period, it is a “thematic” work—by virtue of its title, it carries a heavy burden of political subject matter. In this case,

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fourteen years after establishment of the PRC, and after a

series of armed conflicts in Tibet, the artist has depicted its aye a 1°

citizens as happy and prosperous farmers. ‘The carving tech- Se et ee ee Fi

niques, and in particular the artist's decisions about where a gow x i a Rae Ye he oe to carve the block away completely and where to leave thin Rel uc se) (eo

slices of wood, serve to represent such naturalistic phenom- , Beri et tes, ee Se ena as strands of flying hair, and aid in creating the sense of [iiiieaiymangaehagene , LF, tieet a dynamic progress that was considered so appealing by his Sy AHR yy 4. ‘ephat, $ bay)

contemporaries. Li Huanmin used opaque oil-based print- . Ae S Ce ap Pe

ing pigments, so that the bright golden sheaves of wheat Pda » i

serve as a brilliant backdrop for the figures and animals, Foe who are outlined in black. Technically, this is a very Western

print, even if the subject matter is of contemporary Chinese { concern. A somewhat less dominant but still notable trend of the 8-20 Chao Mei (b. 1931), Black Soil Steppe, 1960, polychromatic wood-

period was the revival of traditional water-based pigments, PIO“ print, 36.2 x 26.4 cm, Collection of the Artist shuiyin muke, to replace the oil-based printing inks used by

most modernist and Communist artists. Li Hua’s waterbased print series of 1935 [see fig. 4.17] was a rare early exper-

iment in this technique. With the greater political emphasis in the era of Sino-Soviet tension on indigenous styles, some examples of shuiyin muke were highly praised for returnINK PAINTING, LIANHUANHUA, AND WOODCUTS UNDER MAO 181

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rt of the Great Proletarian ultural Revolution

1966-1976

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, formally launched by Mao Zedong on May 16, 1966, and ended by Mao’s death on September 9, 1976, had profound and permanent effects on the arts. It was extraordinarily destructive in many ways, yet over its ten-year duration consolidated Maoist artistic trends, creating a visual legacy that survived even after its political policies had been reversed. In simplest terms, we may divide the period in two, as defined by its producers. The first period, which lasted from 1966 to 1968, was that of Red Guard art, and the second period, from about 1970 to 1976, was defined by worker-peasant-soldier art. From the perspective of what was lost, this period conclusively broke the transmission of China's traditional art of ink painting, which was endangered by the forces of Westernization in the preceding Republican period and then further attacked in the early years of the People’s Republic of China. During the Cultural Revolution the inherited aesthetics and intensely self-expressive

techniques of these elite traditions were, along with their practitioners, almost completely discredited. China's art historical heritage was replaced by one engineered for the purpose—a form of socialist realism that was modified in accord with narrow definitions of Chinese folk taste yet that remained, regardless of whether executed in oil or ink, essentially Western in its conception. This systematic remaking of the nation’s visual aesthetic was accelerated as an unprecedented number of young people were recruited into the visual and performing arts, yielding an extremely large and strong cohort of Chinese artists, almost all of whom were trained in the uniform and often bombastic official style designed to represent China as a highly centralized socialist state.

183

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9.1 Shen Yaoding ‘e; eZ ed ‘g NS > 3 — ee 2 (b.1941), Live a7 |“Ze ae WY 4 eS,| \SG the Victory ofLong Chairman; Bi ieNz x

sees a ' ; res : \ i. e \ of oN ~ 1968, gouacheon ry. Fy je v4 Ve Pe) ey = ear paper, 84cm cm, SC fee |ace ae Harvart TZx 178 Galery

The benignly named Cultural Revolution, initiated |= mer Shanghai movie actress, became the leading authority from the spheres of drama, literature, and the arts, was in in the arts and a key figure politically. The image she cultireality a bitter political struggle in which the seventy-two- _ vated is admirably depicted in this 1968 painting, her revoyear-old Mao reclaimed his dominant position in the party _lutionary credentials suggested by what were in effect her and on the political stage from those he considered his — costume and props—a military uniform and a copy of The rivals. The most prominent colleague to support his proj- _—-Little Red Book. In the lead-up to the Cultural Revolution, ect was Minister of Defense Lin Biao, famous for leading in February 1966, Jiang Qing held a conference on milithe Communist army in its successful sweep across China _ tary arts and literature that was dedicated to praise for Mao that ended the civil war against the Nationalists in 1949. By | Zedong Thought. Besides contributing to canonization of stressing ideology, in contrast to the more practical goals of | Mao's every word, at this time she singled out a work of officials concerned about China's desperate economy, Lin sculpture to illuminate Maoist ideology. Biao helped develop the cult of personality around Mao The Rent Collection Courtyard (fig. 9.2], a life-size terrathat was a hallmark of the Cultural Revolution. He is cred- —_ cotta diorama depicting the alleged brutality of a Sichuanese

ited with editing the pocket-size Quotations from Chairman _ \andlord, was to be the first of the Cultural Revolution’s Mao Zedong, known in English as The Little Red Book, an canonical set of model revolutionary art works. The Rent ideological tool that functioned as a kind of Maoist cate- — Collection Courtyard, comprised of 114 life-size clay figures, chism and would be a required possession of every Chinese. was created in 1965 by sculptors from the Sichuan Academy As head of the People’s Liberation Army, Lin Biao was even- —_ of Fine Arts and the Landlord’s Courtyard of Oppression tually named second-in-command and written into the — Exhibition Hall, and is still exhibited in Dayi county, west constitution as Mao’s chosen successor. This group portrait | of Chengdu, Sichuan, in the large complex where landlord of Cultural Revolution leaders by a new graduate of the — Liu Wencai formerly dwelled. One of the multiple subCentral Drama Academy, Shen Yaoding (b. 1941), begins, sequent versions was exhibited in the Forbidden City in from right, with Lin Biao, followed by Mao Zedong, Kang Beijing, while a fiberglass set was even sent on tour abroad Sheng, Zhou Enlai, Chen Boda, and finally, at left, Mao’s in the 1980s.* Like many of the dramas that Jiang Qing can-

wife Jiang Qing [fig. 9.1]. onized and promoted, the basic theme of this work was the Many historians consider the Cultural Revolution to _ evildoing of the oppressing class before liberation.

have begun with a published attack on a well-received On May 16 the Central Committee of the Chinese

Peking opera first performed five years earlier. The drama, |= Communist Party issued a document authored in part by Hai Rui Dismissed from Office, by Wu Han, a historianand Mao that criticized party leaders Liu Shaoqi and Deng deputy mayor of Beijing, takes as its subject the unjust | Xiaoping for “having let all of the ox-demons and snakedemotion of a Ming dynasty official. It was sharply rein- spirits out of their cages,” for “stufing up our newspapers, terpreted in the fall of 1965 by the Shanghai journalist Yao broadcasts, periodicals, books, textbooks, performances, Wenyuan as an attack on Mao and the party. During the —_ works of literature, and art, films, plays, operas, art, music, Cultural Revolution, praise or condemnation of works of | dance, and so forth,” and for refusing to accept the leadart for their real or imagined allegorical significance reached — ership of the proletariat. The purge of high Communist unparalleled extremes.' Mao’s last wife, Jiang Qing, a for- —_ Party officials loyal to Liu and Deng began with dismissal

184 ART OF THE GREAT PROLETARIAN CULTURAL REVOLUTION

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mented its patriotic ideals with the cold cruelty of an urban “1 | \ Ss youth gang. Many art students, as in the examples presented . % x

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efforts that formed the Cultural Revolution’s visual image— Tee (4 i) billboards, broadsh 1and tabloids. theeSSO fa OE posters, billboards, broadsheets, tabloids.Destroy Destroy the Pe ale? Old World; Establish the New World, by activists from the _ — iB) } > j % ; , a ak te ' mse . : : a \ ~ . i e ne i ; nr. . WYAB) — | aA Jt )\ ee =2‘’ eer) . >,f—~~ _ Tas “4 * .~.=L‘ fag

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9.12 Tang Xiaohe (b. 1941), Follow Closely Our Great Leader Chairman Mao, Ride the Wind, Cleave the Waves, Fearlessly Forge Ahead, 1972, oil on canvas, 188 x 290 cm, formerly Collection of the Artist

were to be avoided; Maoss flesh should be modeled in red _ painting program at the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts [see and other warm tones. Conspicuous displays of brushwork _ figs. 8.4 and 9.13]; from Guangzhou, Wu Qizhong, a gradu-

should be avoided, and Mao's face should be smooth. The ate of the Guangzhou Academy of Arts; from Shenyang, entire composition should be bright, and should be illumi- | Xu Yong, a professor at the Lu Xun Academy of Art; and nated in such a way as to imply that Mao himself was the from Beijing, Zhou Sicong, a graduate of the guohua figureprimary source of light. If Mao were in the center ofagroup _ painting program of the Chinese Academy of Fine Arts. of people, all efforts should be made to illuminate surfaces Faulty sections of a work painted in permanent ink on that faced him. In this way, slogans such as “Chairman Mao _ paper could not be overpainted, as they might be in an oil Is the Red Sun in Our Hearts” could be made visible. painting. The correctors were thus required to make new Organizing the guohua section of the exhibition, which paintings based on the amateurs’ compositions. The late was held the following year, was more difficult. Localauthor- = Zhou Sicong recalled her assignment to fix a painting by ities generally believed that gwohua was part of the so-called — a worker in a shoe factory. The worker attempted to depict Four Olds to be eradicated by the Cultural Revolution. Yet, the actress of a “model” opera trying on her new ballet slipafter Gao Jingde received explicit authorization from Wang _ pers at the factory. The theme was appealing to authorities Mantian to permit guohua painting, he was able to persuade _at all levels: it flattered Jiang Qing and her Model Theatrical

local art circles to submit such works. As was the case with Works, and also documented the contribution the artoil painting, a Painting Correction Group was assembled _ist’s shoe factory was making to the Cultural Revolution. to assist with preparations for the exhibition. It, like the | Unfortunately, the subject was difficult for an amateur to oil painting group, consisted of academically trained guohua paint with any semblance of anatomical accuracy. Zhou painters from each of China's major regions, including: from completely repainted the work, based on the worker's comHangzhou, Fang Zengxian, a guohua fgure-painting profes- position, and it was exhibited under the worker's name. sor at the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts [see fig. 8.3]; from The emphasis on rusticated urban youth in the 1972 Xi'an, Liu Wenxi (b. 1933), a graduate of the guohua figure- exhibition left the final group of paintings with compara-

ART OF THE GREAT PROLETARIAN CULTURAL REVOLUTION 193

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9.13inLiu Wenxi (b.ink 1933), Newe a Spring Yan‘an, 1972, and color on Chinese paper, 243 x 178.5 cm, ex. Chinese International Exhibition

+ —_—_

Agency, Beijing

tively few portraits of Chairman Mao. He Kongde's por- _ exhibited. Typical of the guohua of this period were works trait of Mao, The Gutian Meeting, was prominently hungin such as Liu Wenxi’s New Spring in Yanan, painted in 1972 the main room of the gallery. A monumental work by the __[fig. 9.13]. Liu Wenxi, a Xi'an artist who had been two young Wuhan professional Tang Xiaohe depicted Mao on _ classes ahead of Gao Jingde in art school, had developed the occasion of his famous 1965 swim in the Yangzi River | an unmistakable style of figure painting characterized by near Wuhan [fig. 9.12]. This work combined several char- strong outlines and bold colors. In this commission the artacteristics considered desirable by Cultural Revolution ist emphasizes the close connections between the region of authorities. It lauded Mao's youthful health (whether factu- his own residence and the revolutionary heritage of Mao ally accurate or not) and was so successful within the cat- | Zedong. The work appears to document a happy reunion egory of Mao images that it became a mandatory decoration — between Chairman Mao and the now liberated peasants of for Chinese swimming pools. It also fell into the category of the area around Yan’an. Themes of the wartime Communist revolutionary paintings of local subjects, by taking atheme base at Yan’an were considered part of the regional territory specific to the artists’ own home locale and thus demon- _ of the Xi’an artists, and the work thus combines two desirstrating the loyalty of the people of Hubei Province, which —_ able subjects: the portrait of Chairman Mao and a scene had been the site of the Wuhan disturbance in 1967, to Mao based on the artist’s life experience.

and the Cultural Revolution. Multiplied by China's thirty Trained in the ink-and-color socialist-realist figureprovinces and cities, such local testimonials became a major —_ painting program that had come to dominate Chinese paint-

visual and propaganda statement. ing at the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts at Hangzhou, From 1973, portraits of Mao by guo/ua artists were also Liu Wenxi went on to develop a personal style more closely 194 ART OF THE GREAT PROLETARIAN CULTURAL REVOLUTION

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a a arsSiu art Guard 9.14 Shen (b. 1948), Standing ty ts7 |WhO for Jiawei Our Great Fatherland, “a ant? —™* . 1974, Oil on Canvas, 189 x 158 cm,

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related to the crisp new year’s picture aesthetic than to the —_ Enlai, stepped up her personal involvement with the visual self-expressive aspirations of Shanghai and Hangzhou ink arts. She personally inspected the gallery before the opening painters. His guvohua figures are carefully modeled with rich of the exhibition, which she had not done for the 1972 exhi-

flesh tones and achieve a pronounced three-dimensionality bition, and she reportedly spent most of one night studyas well as the theatricality required by Jiang Qing. The gar- _ing the display. The Politburo attended the opening, giving ments are less heavily shaded than they might be in an oil — unprecedented political importance to the event. Official painting but gesture and volume are well conveyed by thick | emphasis remained on paintings executed by amateurs, black outlines. Although principles of Western perspective = many of whom were rusticated urban youth facing perdominate, the background is paler and plainer than it might manent careers as peasants or factory laborers. Shen Jiawei

be in an oil painting. Liu was, in the heyday of this style, (b. 1948), a sent-down urban youth from Zhejiang, exhibone of Chinas most technically competent socialist-realist ited a painting depicting the heroic activities in his new

guohua figure painters. home in Heilongjiang, near the Siberian border. His story The next major exhibition was held in October of 1974. — would be typical of other such young artists, if it were not at the China Art Gallery, in celebration of the twenty-fifth for the sensational short-term success it brought him. Shen anniversary of the People’s Republic. Jiang Qing, then _Jiawei’s painting, Standing Guard for Our Great Fatherland, involved in a power struggle with the cancer-stricken Zhou _ reportedly won Jiang Qing’s enthusiastic approval [fig. 9.14]. ART OF THE GREAT PROLETARIAN CULTURAL REVOLUTION 195

Because Shen had been assigned to a military in en TRA 7 : . rhfarm SLAM

The Great Northern Wilderness (Beidahuang), he was con- =- 2 * > 5 SSihon les ‘ iene sidered a soldier rather than a peasant. Born in 1948 in ia iy Bs NG RS BR a pe : © aang Jiaxing, Zhejiang, he was one of the four hundred thousand = | i y Re Bie Noah ee REE iddle school graduates sent to farm in Heilongjiang. He BGR os ee a if 4d mB He eat was assigned to a regiment of the Heilongjiang Production oa ie fe cf i aif f . i is} A ESET and Construction Corps that had its headquarters in ase 4k ie i ! } if J Ni i } ‘ee Pa % aa

a 5 oe eld. wy iF - ay igs le A 4 Pht ge Raa

Jiamusi. His farm, with a population of ten thousand or Pe vA ay pride a AEN

twenty thousand demobilized soldiers, rightists, and rus- ie Bi oy ‘A " vy, igh ig tN a

ticated urban youth, was located in the eastern corner of A: Wee! | ¥ 6 ' i i t ib fin Heilongjiang, an area of border conflicts with the Soviet : \, aN Pk ’ ah a yr t i sf + is tpn

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Union, near the Muling River. Among the many young peo- Re \ #4 He i | G Hh : if ( hi on, a ple in Heilongjiang were some who had aspired to enter art ie : X an: a ef ny Ae , (pF. , Aik academies before the colleges were closed. With the national og ae "a hi it lf 3 4 oy: f ce Beh i leadership's decision to sponsor art exhibitions, the authori- ult is tae } Se ip it A, x65 My ties in Heilongjiang, like those elsewhere, began organizing 3 if hg pe i aay i ‘ a 4 Uiged painters. Hao Boyi, a young oil painter and printmaker, was : € Li Tp lie rf} 4 by bie fi assigned to find and supervise the young soldier-artists. In } ii . iy a ale ‘, i fi 4 4 f r 1971 he began ordering a select group of young farmers to | fk hs * bic tg) 4 M) : ‘i a4 iif

attend an art creation class in Jiamusi. | Mh ih a. | : py th i] ; Hao Boyi taught woodcuts in the local Beidahuang style 2 ie “a an h Ha at) gh We [see fig. 8.20], and some of his pupils excelled at printmak- a{.\b a a i bai F £ Mi,

ing. Students who wished to work in other media experi- ie? Ys 2 mented and taught one another. The program continued for . ~ if at =

the next five years, with artists dividing their time between , : mm, Re ‘9

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artwork in Jiamusi and manual labor on their farms. re. ; : ao a 3

Heilongjiang prints were shown in most major exhibi- J3 2 re ff. “* a he tions of the 1970s, and many were published anonymously a 7 , e a ¥, if Sa in Chinese Literature and other magazines for distribution | + ony a ae a om abroad. Shen Jiawei entered the group in 1973 and pro- eee —_ — duced his vision of a heroic border guard during the next 9.15 Shi Lu (1919-1982), Mount Hua, 1972, hanging scroll, ink year. The leading national art magazine of the late Cultural on paper, 147.5 x 87 cm, Collection of Cemac Ltd., Edmonton Revolution period, Zhejiang-based Art Materials, published

an article in which Shen elaborated on his creative process.'’ in artistic and literary works can be and should be loftier, He wrote that the theme of his painting was suggested by — more intense, more concentrated, more typical, and more a widely heard patriotic song of the period. While partici- ideal than ordinary actual life, thus it will be more univerpating in a class for amateur artists in 1973, he was given an __ sal.”'* Shen also claimed the required inspiration from study opportunity to visit the Ussuri River and to climb awatch- of the Model Theatrical Works, which emphasized heroic tower where soldiers monitored the Sino-Soviet border. The characters. One soldier was made more prominent by folspectacular natural scenery reinforced the importance of the —_ lowing the suggestions of classmates to place him against an

soldiers’ patriotic duty. empty sky. His height was emphasized by lowering the railUpon his return to the military camp, Shen's sketch of ing and by aligning the soldier’s head and feet with the lines the scene was approved by local authorities, who also gave _ of architectural recession.

him permission to collect further material during a future This construction indeed exemplifies one of Jiang Qing’s visit to the site. His composition, Shen wrote, in the rhetori- _ revolutionary aesthetic principles: the “three prominences” cal manner required at the time, was guided further by prin- (san tuchu). As discussed in Art Materials in 1973, the three ciples of Chairman Mao, such as: “Our requirement is the — prominences required that in figures artists emphasize the unification of politics and art, the unification of contents _ positive; in positive figures they emphasize the heroic; and in and form, the unification of revolutionary political contents heroic characters they emphasize the central figure.'” What and the most perfect artistic form,” and “the life reflected | Shen did not write until many years later was his extreme 196 ART OF THE GREAT PROLETARIAN CULTURAL REVOLUTION

dissatisfaction with the alteration made to his painting in Wee / i > ae é> E

Beijing by the Painting Correction Group, whose repre- N y en . \" | aa on sentatives repainted the main characters’ faces in the “red, a Vitae af ‘ bright, and shining” manner. Because he was singled out " ; \, :f >< s sf \. 4 for praise by Jiang Qing, Shen Jiawei’s experience was in | > . - ~ . “hay : some ways similarontothe thatbasis of Liu Chunhua. Rocketed to ya national attention of his first major painting, ‘4 p= ‘ : ‘| \wy >) Ww (\ 2) he ™

Shen Jiawei was an overnight celebrity—at least until two oe \ ee Zi

years later, when Mao died, Jiang Qing was arrested, and Rs ae, 3 | eo ion Pf ‘

everything began to change. i is io" ae ry Ab \ At around the time of the first visit of Henry Kissinger ee Par) ha N \ % to China in 1971, Zhou Enlai began advocating the redeco- y ee Nes yy i

ration of hotels and train stations with traditional paint- a , MS ‘| ings to welcome foreign visitors to China. For purposes of ae . 2 aa yi a

both foreign exchange and international reputation, he fur- - a ad , . J : >

ther advocated exporting traditional-style Chinese paint- Ne ep ings for sale. Many old guohua painters were released from be. ee " : their imprisonment in 1972 and allowed to paint landscapes a Sy. ibd ail

for export. Among the many who joyfully contributed were > te ; A Suet

Shi Lu (1919-1982) [fig. 9.15], Li Keran, Yan Han, and Wu er > ii Zuoren, until they were severely criticized in a 1974 Black | hin '— Painting exhibition, aimed against the policies of the ailing ao i Zhou Enlai. This art was, however briefly seen, a bright spot “sid Pe vane tb. 1945), New Doctor in the mSHuig

of diversity amid stylistic uniformity. Village, 1974, ol on Palas; 138.2 x 98.3 cm, National Art During the last five years of the Cultural Revolution,

Museum of China, Beijing

both styles and subject matter became increasingly rigid. > Creativity often was expressed by clever manipulations of & allowable subject matter. Artworks were theatrical in both Per % composition and rendering, with specific reference to the a. , Pa stylistic principles Jiang Qing demanded forsubject. her Model Theatrical Works. Mao remained an appropriate ey 4 ) Increasingly, however, a painting would garner greater suc- paw ee cess if it placed Mao at a plausible historical event in the art- (Zz, 4 3s - % ys ' x ve =

ist’s own province. Workers-peasants-soldiers were the most }

common subject matter, and they too were best depicted De \

from a local perspective. Finally, revolutionary women - , ee A ol became a subject of unprecedented quantity and impor- te a> = ™ Z

tance. In response to Mao’s slogan that women hold up Lo: “‘< f ws € . half the sky, and Jiang Qing’s ardent espousal of feminism, % N L AD \. | young artists made a point of depicting the admirable con- _.f A a oe

tributions of female sent-down youth. 1 & ; ~~ )

New Doctor in the Fishing Village by Chen Yanning V- 4 Pak wa SH (b. 1945) was not only expertly painted in the new theatrical 7 | wy) ¥ 0 style but fulfilled many of these same thematic criteria— 4h mm" - .

it depicted a female sent-down youth working in a revo- os ‘ (5 > pal lutionary new profession, as a barefoot doctor, and places eo ¥ bf | a

her in a recognizable local environment—the semitropical >3 i + 4 _*

home province of the Cantonese artist [fig. 9.16]. Also in man Vand Zitouareecaase) New Soidienor hewine 1972 the slightly older fellow Cantonese, guohua painter 1972, ink and color on Chinese paper, 131 x 94 cm, National Yang Zhiguang (b. 1930), rendered a similar concept on Art Museum of China, Beijing ART OF THE GREAT PROLETARIAN CULTURAL REVOLUTION 197

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9.18 Xu Kuang (b. 1938), Brera; 2 Ree va. 1a"ht. } pin? he TAU ral ay hed 4 o~ LS cy " Baro ft Ay ‘Me PirAya‘e ry : vy+? ; . ES i " pias. ’ Mga)ye is Se sae MES ae Si 4

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paper as New Soldier of the Mine |fig. 9.17]. The Sichuanese _ of its propaganda images engraved them in the minds of the

woodblock printmaker Xu Kuang (b. 1938) was able to ide- young, and so provided memories and motifs for postmodalize the lives of girls sent-down to the Tibetan plateau with — ern appropriation by adult artists many years later. his lyrical Poems on the Grassland of 1975 (fig. 9.18]. As we At an equally basic level, far more young people were see from these images, and may find on the covers of pro- _ given serious art instruction in provincial workshops, as the paganda magazines of the period, the ideal female of the — authorities sought to develop a cohort of worker-peasantCultural Revolution period was garbed in an androgynous __ soldier artists to implement the visual program of the Cularmy uniform secured by a broad leather belt. Her round __ tural Revolution. They became artists, and many have gone face and apple-red cheeks demonstrated her healthy life of | on to devote their lives to this calling. This intensive onrural labor; her bobbed hair, her practicality and lack of — the-job training included designing posters or comic books,

vanity. organizing propaganda displays, and executing huge billChina has undergone many catastrophes in the modern __ boards and murals. ‘These propaganda displays were usually era. It is possible that the Cultural Revolution, which was large, site-specific, ad hoc creations executed in a short time more comprehensive in scope than any that preceded it— frame and with limited materials. It therefore may not be extending geographically from Tibet to the Siberian border —_ surprising that when artists of this generation turned their and socially to every class of people—ranks as one of the _ attention to installation art in the 1990s, their work was worst. Although its spiritual and ideological legacy remain _ extraordinary in scale and power.

to be fully explored, some of its most durable effects on Yet other factors were at play. The artists who would art are readily apparent. Condemnation of the Four Olds _ lead the rise of Chinese art to international recognition was the final blow that severed China’s lingering ties to elite (Xu Bing, Gu Wenda, and Huang Yong Ping, for example) traditional art. Indeed, the complete dominance of Maoist — were invariably members of the sent-down youth genera-

art, which had its roots in Western (including Soviet) aca- | tion—those who had most benefited by the high-quality demic, commercial, and propaganda imagery, shifted the — primary and secondary urban educational system of the aesthetic ground on which Chinese art would henceforth 1950s and 1960s; those who were exhorted to self-sacrificing be practiced. It may be argued that China's emergence on idealism in their most impressionable adolescent years; and the global art scene in the late twentieth century was facili- | then were sent not to college but to fend for themselves tated by the country’s complete casting off of the past. At —_as laborers in the most difficult physical and psychological the most obvious and perhaps superficial level, the ubiquity — circumstances. Those who emerged from this trial by fire 198 ART OF THE GREAT PROLETARIAN CULTURAL REVOLUTION

have powerful intellectual independence, strength of char- _ rapid changes they would experience as China abandoned acter, and stamina, to say nothing of mastery of a range of its Cultural Revolution xenophobia and sought to become practical knowledge, from the most primitive survival skills | recognized as an equal among nations. The generation that of farming to building and repairing machines.*? Their followed them was thus primed for the uninhibited absorpresourcefulness and adaptability prepared them well for the _ tion of Western art and culture in the post-Mao era.

ART OF THE GREAT PROLETARIAN CULTURAL REVOLUTION 199

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The Cultural Revolution ended with the death of its architect, Mao Zedong, on September 9, 1976. Bypassing men and women of greater talent or ambition, such as Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Qing, Mao named as his successor an inconspicuous follower named Hua Guofeng, whom he had promoted to a position in Beijing at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. Hua loyally maintained many of Mao's policies and personnel but also collaborated with the leader of China's military, Marshall Ye Jianying, and head of the Secret Service, Wang Dongxin, to block any possibility of a coup by associates of Mao’s ambitious wife. Later called the Gang of Four, Cultural Revolution leaders Jiang Qing, Zhang Chungqiao, Yao Wenyuan, and Wang Hongwen were arrested on October 6, 1976. The Cultural Revolution itself was denounced by the party central committee in 1977. By the time the quartet were put on trial in the fall of 1980, the excesses of the movement had been blamed entirely on their evil scheming. The 1976 national exhibition, scheduled for the fall, was postponed until February 18, 1977, when it opened in Beijing with the unwieldy but politically explicit title, National Art Exhibition to Ardently Celebrate Comrade Hua Guofengs Appointment as Central Party Chairman and Chairman of the Central Military Committee and Ardently Celebrate the Great Victory of Smashing the “Gang of Four’s” Plot to Usurp the Party and Take Power.

Six months later a similar exhibition celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the People’s Liberation Army. Portraits of worthy political leaders dominated both events. ART OF THE HUA GUOFENG INTERREGNUM

Arrest of the Gang of Four and the hope it promised for relaxation of their irrational ideological requirements was greeted with jubilation by almost all artists, as by 201

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"= . -uc < P: ; i . a : *] * « * eee * Coe ized as a classic of so-called scar art. Oey: £ : of power. Exhibited in Sichuan in the fall of 1979, Cheng & ne, Conglin’s work went on to win a prize in the Fifth National wy > Sa ‘ y . prt eo |

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wounds. The varying directions in which they look sug- a or gest that each is lost in his or her own doubts as they await

what may be a final suicidal defense of their territory. Two | |

Banded | ae wear 10.4 Gao Xiaohua (b. 1955),of Why?, 1978, ofpathe armbands identifying them with theoil | 3on canvas, 108 x 136 cm, ) young & &ifymen National Art Museum China, Beijing Rebel Faction. The figure at right looks intently in the direc-

tion from which attack will come, his machine gun ready by his side. The unhappy gaze of his bandaged companion, —_ fourth classmate, head down, leans listlessly against the tree rifle ready on his shoulder, fastens on the eyes of the viewer. at the center of their base, smoking and playing solitaire. Their injured female comrade lies prone on the sidewalk, | Cheng Conglin adopts the typical elevated perspective of covered with a red banner that reveals part of the vicious __ socialist realism; Gao Xiaohua skillfully uses an overhead slogan “Attack with a pen but defend with a weapon,” pro- —- viewpoint, like an omniscient narrator, to expose their moted among the Red Guard by Jiang Qing in 1967. Their tragic folly.

ART AFTER MAO 205

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10.5 Luo Zhongli (b. 1948),227 3 J |x‘th Wu . we. Father, 1980, oil on canvas, : (e “. 154 cm, National Art Museum of China, Beijing

Gao Xiaohua was the son of a military officer anda mili- have possessed. Why? was canonized by its publication in tary doctor. As a child, he would visit his mother at work the official journal Meishu in July 1979, at the height of the and recalls his horror at seeing her hospital filled with casu- — campaign to expose crimes of the Gang of Four. alties of the Red Guard battles. In 1970 he began to work In the early post-Mao period, realistic techniques were alongside his father at a military camp and later became a _ _ the preferred means of conveying the artists’ ideas. However, soldier himself, working as a staff artist and photographer — many young artists working within the academies sought to before his admission to art school. This work was begun leave behind the artificiality of socialist realism and replace in the summer of 1978. The great accuracy with which he __ it with something more truthful. A remarkable experiment depicts the machine gun in the foreground suggests afamil- of this sort was undertaken by Sichuan Academy of Fine iarity with weapons that few artists of his generation would Arts student Luo Zhongli (b. 1948) in 1980 [fig. 10.5]. In all

206 ART AFTER MAO

superficial ways his subject, an aged peasant depicted in a ,

generally sympathetic tone, is in harmony with the Yan’an | Talks, but in actuality Father is a sharp challenge to social- Se ist realism. Immediately recognizable to foreign observ- = . ers was that Luo had been inspired in his composition by , ‘é the enormous scale and photorealism of American painter ha

Chuck Close. Luo captures the compelling power of Close’s , _

ambiguity, but his means of achieving it is quite different. | — Unlike Close’s cold postmodernism, which aimed both in * | its imagery and in its mechanical touch to remove all sense } of personal emotion from his works, Luo’s ambiguity is of

the narrative kind. His Father, with its finely detailed execution, clearly has some sort of story to tell—yet the meaning Pp, of its iconographic details and the very plot of its story are

left unclear. Equally unsettling is the novelty of its combina- ‘ tion of subject and format. A huge portrait of this sort had fl hk | : been limited, during the Cultural Revolution, to images of supreme leader Mao Zedong. Was Luo Zhongli suggesting that a wrinkled old peasant was as important as Mao himself? Was he the nation’s true father? Chinese Communist doctrine, based in rural revolution, might permit this understanding, but in Cultural Revolution terms this was sacrilege.

While Luo Zhongli’s project was encouraged by his a

teachers, its potentially subversive qualities were readily recognized by the old revolutionary cadre in charge of art 10.6 Chen Danging (b. 1953), Going to Town Il, one of the in Sichuan. He noted that there was nothing about this Tibetan Series, 1980, oil on canvas, 78.2 x 54.5 cm, Collection

old man to distinguish him from a peasant of prelibera- SEMEN tion times. Certainly to artists of Luo’s generation, this was exactly the point: in contrast to the idealized images in the in Tibet, where he became fascinated by the local people as socialist-realist canon, many of the peasants they had actu- _ subjects for art. ally seen as sent-down youth were poor, weary, and wor- In a series of ten small paintings from this early period ried, and still did not know the happiness they had been Chen Dangqing eschewed the artificiality of socialist realism promised. In a final compromise the young artist accepted and instead adopted a more matter of fact, almost ethnohis superior’s suggestion to add a ballpoint pen behind the graphic, approach to his subjects [fig. 10.6]. His work was ear of the old man, instantly transforming him into a liter- highly admired in academic circles for its technical virtuate beneficiary of socialist education. Soon after, the work _ ousity. Like that of Luo Zhongli, Chen's subject matter had was sent to the National Youth Exhibition in Beijing, where = many precedents in earlier art of the PRC. Li Huanmin’s

it won a medal. 1963 image of pretty Tibetan women at harvest time is only The disillusioned youth of the sent-down generation, | one example of the celebration of the well-being of the who had worked side-by-side with the peasants, were ina —_—national minorities under communism. By contrast, howposition to depict the people of China’s countryside with — ever, Chen Danqing’s neutrality or even ambiguity in the an accuracy their elders could not imagine. Shanghai-born _ face of a theme with such potential for politically charged Chen Danging (b. 1953), who spent five years in a village in interpretation aligned his work with that of the new generasouthern Jiangxi, developed a rather different kind of sub- _ tion. Chen’s unsmiling figures, who possess no evident conject matter toward the end of the Cultural Revolution. Self- nection with modern Chinese life, were striking to Chinese taught as a painter, Chen had learned to draw and paintina — viewers in the context of early post—Cultural Revolution art. classical European style related to those of older friends such = Chen Dangqing serves as the final example here of a talented

as Chen Yifei in Shanghai and was accepted directly into young artist who sought to overturn the artificiality of the eraduate study at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1978. | Cultural Revolution aesthetic and seek authenticity in new During the late Cultural Revolution, Chen Danging lived forms of realism.

ART AFTER MAO 207

formal beauty and self-expression. Its paintings were small,

UNOFFICIAL ART (1979-1981) painted on paper trimmed to fit in the hand-made painting The innovations of this new generation of artists revivified boxes they carried, and usually focused on natural scenery Chinese official art, and in particular figurative oil paint- or architectural monuments of old Beijing. Needless to say, ing, with a new concern for politically acceptable subjects of | in the Cultural Revolution context they would have been everyday life. At the same time, however, some young artists | deemed a product of petty bourgeois mentality, but the working outside the official art establishment were prepared _ group later garnered sufficient support to hold an officially to push much harder against the idea of art as propaganda. approved exhibition at the Huafangzhai in Beihai Park in The five years following the death of Lin Biao was a period —_July of 1979. in which, for most Chinese, the rigid controls over behav- As Hua Guofeng's power waned in early 1979, a few couior and speech became unmoored from any comprehensible —_ rageous Beijing arts administrators were willing to take the revolutionary purpose. Life became increasingly oppressive _ risk of encouraging the display of apolitical art. In Shanghai and bleak, particularly for the young. Spies were every- the official art world had not yet relaxed, but apolitical art where, hoping for some small personal benefit in exchange _ exhibitions were organized and shown in spaces beneath the for reporting the suspicious deeds of their neighbors or fel- radar of the party arts administrators. Several were orgalow workers. In the midst of this emptiness, and despite nized by young staff members of district workers cultural all peril, lonely individuals began secretly congregating into _palaces.* On March 25, 1978, the Luwan District Cultural small groups of artists and poets, who collectively developed Palace in Shanghai displayed an apolitical show of three a mental world very much at odds with the surrounding —_ hundred oils, watercolors, guohua, and prints, protecting society. Because they operated underground, in quiet resis- _itself against criticism with the title “Meishu xizuo zhan” tance to the oppression of the totalitarian regime, most of (art studies display), which suggested that the work conthese loosely organized groups melted away during the post- _ sisted of preliminary renderings and therefore should be

Mao thaw in the 1980s and have been forgotten. judged only by technical, not ideological standards. At conOne typical example is a group that later called them- __ siderable risk, but to very positive public response, the orgaselves the No Names, a loose collection of young artists who _nizers even showed works by artists whose condemnations began painting together around 1973 in the parks of Beijing. by prior political movements had not yet been reversed. The artists came from diverse class backgrounds, different The year 1979 dawned with a wave of political rehabilitawork units, and various pre-existing circles of friends. Most _ tions and accompanying exhibitions of nonpolitical subject were middle school graduates who had been assigned to jobs matter. At the lunar new year in February, a Beijing group as laborers in one of the various work units in Beijing. A| of midcareer artists, which later called itself the Oil Painting few had learned the basics of painting from artist-parents as Research Association, exhibited the oil landscapes and still

children. Others had demonstrated sufficient artistic talent lifes of forty oil painters, including both distinguished in their factories to be sent to attend special classes for ama- senior artists like Lin Gang, Jin Shangyi, Zhan Jianjun, and teur artists. Many in the group attended the Black Painting |= Wu Guanzhong, and emerging younger painters like Zhong Exhibition of February, 1974, eager to see what sort of cre- Ming, in the New Spring Painting exhibition. Revolutionary ativity might be found in works that had so provoked Jiang _ printmaker Jiang Feng, himself a former rightist, wrote an Qing’s condemnation. Their primary study of art came, enthusiastic preface in praise of creativity, freedom of expreshowever, from banned books that were passed from hand to sion, painting clubs, and the revival of the art market. Also

hand, and, perhaps most importantly, their plein air prac- in February 1979, a dozen artists, many from the Shanghai tice and mutual encouragement. ‘Their first exhibition, a | Drama Academy, held a Twelve-Man Painting Show at the secret, unofficial, and probably illegal display of the works = Huangpu District Children’s Palace in Shanghai. The show of about a dozen members, was held at the home of partici- was notable for its experimental and modernist styles.

pant Zhang Wei (b. 1954) in late 1974.’ Old artists who had suffered so much abuse during the For none of them did the political status quo of the = Cultural Revolution could perhaps be excused for relaxing Cultural Revolution offer a happy future, and so they cre- their political vigilance and returning to the lyrical styles ated an alternative world outside its boundaries. Notably, of their youths. The party establishment found it more they completely rejected the Maoist doctrine that art should difficult to accept, however, that young artists, born and serve politics. Indeed, the unifying quality of their art, and _ raised in New China, might reject its culture. A few elders its larger significance in the context of its time, was its com- who still retained the idealism that had led them into the plete avoidance of political subject matter and its pursuit of |= Communist Party when they were young defended creativ-

208 ART AFTER MAO

ity and freedom over party doctrine. The first No Name

exhibition, which opened on July 7, 1979, was approved by = Beijing Artists Association administrator and former rightist x 4 \ Liu Xun, who had only recently been released from jail and + a rehabilitated, over the vigorous opposition of his colleagues.

Liu’s open-mindedness would be tested in 1979, when - Raine

a newly formed group of artists and writers, the Stars -_ : f.. (Xingxing), led by Huang Rui (b. 1952) and Ma Desheng Teg } AT (b. 1952), asked him to exhibit their work. Many partici- Ay : SRR pants in the Stars exhibition—including Huang Rui, Ma age Ro) Desheng, Zhong A’cheng (b. 1949), Wang Keping (b. 1949), F ‘: ™ &a:

Yan Li (b. 1954), and Li Yongcun (b. 1948)—were writers who were seriously involved with the short-lived expression z

of popular opinion at Democracy Wall, the publishing of im Pie underground journals, and the poetry recitals then taking *

place in unsupervised Beijing parks. Their commitment to | art was matched by a keen sense of political mission. No |

longer simply landscapes and flower paintings, _ and would touch ~ a their workapolitical advocated individual freedom on such taboo subjects as nudity, sex, and political democ-

racy. It would also introduce a range of heretofore banned . modernist styles, including abstraction and surrealism. '

Their works, and the ways in which they were presented, RE CR ECTORS RC CR eee would become provocations to party hard-liners and even cm, Collection of the Artist seem to challenge the system itself. As the brief liberalization that accompanied Deng Xiaoping’s rise to power began Despite its unapproved status, the exhibition began surto wane, and approval for an exhibition did not arrive, the prisingly well. On the first day Jiang Feng, now head of politically sensitive young artists felt they could not afford — the Chinese Artists Association (CAA), and Yu Feng, who

to wait. was deputy director of the Chinese National Art Gallery On September 27-1979; they hung their exhibition on and deputy party secretary of the CAA, both visited and the fence and from the trees outside the Chinese National expressed approval; Jiang Feng agreed, moreover, to allow

Art Gallery. The scheduled timing was provocative—it the artists to store the work in the Chinese National Art would correspond with the October 1 celebration of the thir- Gallery at night. Liu Xun sympathetically discussed the tieth anniversary of the People’s Republic of China as well as work with the artists, only suggesting that it might have the hanging of the final selections for the Fifth National Art looked better if they had waited until it could be hung in Exhibition within the official gallery itself. Accompanied the gallery. These senior arts administrators, who had all sufby handmade exhibition posters, object labels, exhibitors’ fered from artistic and personal suppression under both the badges, and mimeographically produced exhibition tick- Nationalists and the Communists, were doubly appreciaets, the young artists hung more than 150 works by 23 art- tive of the courage and ambition of the young unofhcial ists, including woodcuts, oils, pencil drawings, guohua, and _ artists and showed no concern for the personal danger they wooden sculptures, on a 40-meter-long stretch of fence and might incur by backing them. Nevertheless, by the second in the garden east of the gallery. A few of the works were day the police had arrived, apparently dispatched by the extremely political. Wang Keping’s Silent, one of twenty- Beijing Municipal Communist Party Committee. Sculptor

eight sculptures he showed, protests the stifling of free Wang Keping, painter Huang Rui, and printmaker Ma speech that characterized public life of the time and seems Desheng successfully argued for the legality of their activity, to foretell the ideologically based suppression that the show and the work remained on view later in the day when facitself would suffer [fig. 10.7]. Ma Desheng’s woodcut, on ulty and students of the Central Academy of Fine Arts came

the other hand, depicting arms stretched to heaven above to see it. By the morning of the third day, September 29, simple Beijing dwellings, suggests the unfulfilled yearning the park had been completely sealed off by police and the

of Beijing's ordinary citizens. works confiscated. Liu Xun hustled the young artists inside ART AFTER MAO 209

ical mission—it provoked soul-searching and serious ideological controversy at the 1979 meeting of the National Congress of Literary and Art Workers. Formerly hard-line art theorist Zhou Yang, transformed into a liberal by the Cultural Revolution, supported the Stars. Screenwriter Xia Yan criticized them. Finally, with the support of the senior arts administrators, the show reopened in the official gallery at Beihai Park in November 1979, and a second Stars show was held at the National Art Gallery a year later. The 1980 second show, personally supported by Jiang Feng, made the group even more notorious because of Wang Keping’s sensational birchwood sculpture /do/ [fig. 10.8]. While many ofhcials, including even Jiang Feng himself, were sympathetic to Wang’s attack on idolatry, a direct attack on Mao himself was not yet permitted. Despite the artist’s protestations that the sculpture was not intended as a portrait of Mao Zedong, and that it was not even a good likeness, to nearly all viewers it seemed like a satirical image of the dictator in the guise of

a plump Buddhist icon.

Although the three leaders of the Stars—Huang Rui,

| Ma Desheng, and Wang Keping—were invited to join the

z official Beijing Artists Association in 1980, a cultural crackdown that began not long after their exhibition, and that 10.8 Wang Keping {b. 1949), Idol, 1979, wood, 57 x 30 x would later be formalized as the Anti-Spiritual Pollution campaign, would declare them personae non gratae. The

15 cm, Collection of the Artist :

three left China to pursue their artistic careers in France the National Art Gallery to avoid bloodshed.* He agreed to —_— and Japan. Nevertheless, their advocacy for freedom of artis-

arrange an indoor exhibition later in the fall. tic expression had a strong impact on the Chinese art world. Egged on by their friends in the underground journals, Indeed, the efforts of unofficial artists to demonstrate what however, that evening the Stars artists decided that free- was possible in the context of a society reopening to the outdom of artistic expression was a matter they could not sim- side world was a historic one. As outsiders, and with little ply drop. They posted a notice on Democracy Wall seek- to lose in the art world, their efforts to reject the Cultural ing an apology from the city authorities and local police for Revolution’s impact on art and on private lives went further infringing upon their rights. When their demands met with than official artists might dare to venture. Many in the ofhno response by 9:00 a.m. on October 1, they launched their cial art world agreed with their call for freedom, and over protest march. A group of about seven hundred artists and __ the course of the next fifteen years, officials and official arttheir supporters set out from Democracy Wall, on the west ists would push such freedoms into the open. side of Beijing, toward Tiananmen Square. Ma Desheng, legs crippled by polio, led the procession on crutches. POLITICAL CONTENTS OR FORMAL BEAUTY? Although police blocked their attempt to cross the square, The bombastic, artificially sweet form of socialist realism that they eventually arrived at the Municipal Party Commit- was developed as the official art of the Cultural Revolution tee offices, directly to the east of the square. Ma Desheng, was rejected by the official art world, along with its bloodHuang Rui, and writer friends stood atop the staircase to _—_ shed and psychological trauma, but difficulties remained in deliver orations. Foreign journalists and diplomats swarmed — determining the correct forward course. Wu Guanzhong around the scene, which was published in newspapers and —_— (1919-2010), a teacher at the Central Academy of Arts and magazines worldwide. Wang Keping later noted with much — Crafts (CAAC) who worked in both oils and ink, stepped glee that the foreign press corps neglected to report the __ into the controversy over appropriate subject matter in 1979.

National Day speech by Marshall Ye Jianying. Wu, a 1942 graduate of the National Academy in wartime This seemingly spontaneous display of art at an unap- __ exile, studied with Lin Fengmian and Pan Tianshou before proved outdoor exhibition succeeded in the group’s polit- | undertaking three years of further study in Paris. Despite

210 ART AFTER MAO

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r a§Ga We 'PeTs ).. ; eev: 4.\by > : . i, 4 A af y ‘ 10.9 Yuan Yunsheng

v7 4hsP, —F (b.Mural 1937),painting, Water me)ey Mt '|~ i Splashing Festival, ae 4aewee ow 1979, C . .=: acrylic oncm, Canvas, 340 . | =i — x 2100 former Pen | dining room, Beijing _ioie baad = pi International Airport

his great hopes for new China when he returned in1950, he —_Yunsheng (b. 1937), painted in a quasi-art nouveau idiom. found it difficult to accommodate his modernist styles to Yuan chose to illustrate a holiday of the minority Dai people those of the new regime. His work was exhibited occasion- —_ in China’s Yunnan province. For the purpose he painted in ally in the early 1960s liberalization, but it was not until the — an elongated figural style that is at least partially inspired by 1980s that Wu's semiabstract modernist style of ink painting the highly decorative works of Gustav Klimt and Amedeo began to receive some recognition in China [fig. 10.13]. In Modigliani. Within a year, as Chinas cultural world began 1979 he published the first of a series of articles in the off- __ to tighten, the social appropriateness of Yuan’s composi-

cial art journal Meishu that ignited battles within the art tion, in which young men and women frolic in the nude, world over formalism and abstraction. Over several years | was questioned. Despite a spirited defense by Jiang Feng, Wu argued in print that formal beauty was the most essen- _ the offending section of the mural was soon boarded up. tial element in art, and that artistic form should not be — Nevertheless, the decorative style characterized by Yuan’s determined by externally dictated subject matter. This wasa —_ airport murals was used by muralists and sculptors in public controversial ideological position that implicitly challenged art for the subsequent two decades. Mao’s Yan’an Talks. Opposition to the theoretical primacy A related linear and decorative style was used by a few of socialist realism thus began to emerge as a debate about —_ graduates of the CAAC similarly engaged in overthrow-

the relationship between form and content. ing socialist realism. Wang Huaiqing (b. 1944) conceived National Day, October 1, 1979, saw the opening of a his oil Bole in allegorical terms, as a confirmation of Deng public art project at the refurbished Beijing International — Xiaoping’s appreciation of the value of China’s intellectual airport. Over the previous year the walls had been deco- _ class, and thus did not stray too far in content from accepted rated with murals by faculty of the Central Academy of Arts — definitions of official art [fig. 10.10]. The story refers to and Crafts. The mural subjects were for the most part taken —_a_ horse trainer recorded in histories of the Zhou dynasty from Chinese folk stories or festivals, as might befita project. | who was known for his ability to recognize the excellence intended to welcome foreign visitors to China. The CAAC, in a potential steed that was not apparent to anyone else. originally cofounded by Pang Xungin, was dedicated to — With the exoneration of China's rightists and other political design rather than high art or propaganda, and it pioneered _ prisoners, and their return to positions of influence, Deng various new decorative styles and media in the post-1976 | Xiaoping was considered to be a friend of China’s educated period that were considered suitable to its mission in the people, their Bole. Although this painting, offering praise to applied arts. In practice, some of the new works very much the leader, is “thematic,” it was certainly not socialist realresembled the art nouveau styles that had been popular in _ ist in style. Beyond the decorative linearity of his figure and the 1920s and 1930s, which had been eliminated as part of — horse, Wang emphasizes the beauty of surface by using gold

the socialist-realist developments of the 1950s. foil under his black background. Even if inspired by Gustav Among the airport murals, the most famous, or perhaps —_ Klimt, it was a daring innovation in Chinese oil painting notorious, was Water-Splashing Festival [fig. 10.9] by Yuan _ of the day.

ART AFTER MAO 211

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—_—,*+eSi}, braga SeFY - it10.15 / r Wu ie tShanzhuan A mJ t ; at * “a Shen t , (b.1960), Big Character — 1986, ae Posters (Redmedia Humorsite Series), : , —| ’— mixed spe; ; ), — Sees ; cific installation atfor theMass art= ist's studio, Institute ;

Culture, Zhoushan

Ys ' — —_

;

. . . : cc ee ” a

(fig. 10.15].? Fragments of political slogans about “class,”

“movement, and “consciousness,” exhortations to physical hn lee

fitness and public sanitation, and a label reading “sea mail, . — are juxtaposed that withthewarnings aboutispossible announcements running water shut off. flooding, On top — or a, Le i> of all is a scribbled notice of a failed rendezvous, all the more

poignant for its mundanity: “Old Wang, I’ve gone home.” ln rrrnme Interest in installation art and performance art was com- - . - — . .

ve . . Pa _ ; a] —

mon to many of the New Wave movement's artists. In May da —* —— 1986, Zhang Peili and Geng Jianyi, both skilled painters ;, we y BE . ’ aa

who had graduated from the Zhejiang Academy, organized ) sae / a group called the Pool Society (Chishe) that was based on a rejection of the supremacy of easel painting and an advo-

cacy of an organic link between painting, performance, pho- 10.16 Zhang Peili (b. 1957), X? Series, No. 4, 1987, oil on canvas, 80 x

tography, and the environment. One of the Pool Society’s 100 cm, private collection most famous projects, Master Yangs Shadow Boxing Series, of

June 1, 1986, involved a midnight installation on the walls —_ image of surgical gloves marked with meaningless numbered

around the art academy of twelve gigantic paper cutouts of pointing lines [fig. 10.16].'° Geng Jianyi created a series of the standard moves of the meditation-exercise taijichuan. large grimacing heads that became icons of the New Wave The site, near the West Lake, is the sort of place where one = movement [fig. 10.17]. The expansion of permissible subject would find real people, mostly elderly, gathering early in — matter in the mid- and late 1980s is immediately evident the morning to perform shadow boxing exercises. Less lei- if one contrasts this painting with Luo Zhongli’s Father, surely passersby would enter the artists’ artificial world as | which had created such a stir in 1979 because of its ambiguthey rode their bicycles to work. The cutout figures pos- _ ity [fig. 10.5]. sess some of the ghostliness of George Segal’s life-size plaster A strict household registration system, enforced by

renderings of mundane human activity. rationing of food to local residents, remained in effect in the According to the artists, the point of this harmless assault 1980s—a Chinese citizen was expected to live in the locaon the bastion of art was its very meaninglessness. They car- tion to which he or she was assigned. Many graduates of ried this approach into their painting. The following year, the Zhejiang Academy were sent back to their hometowns Zhang Peili, who had spent many childhood hours in the rather than to major art centers upon graduation. Some, hospital where his parents worked, painted a superrealist probably correctly, viewed these job assignments as punish-

ART AFTER MAO 217

+ a texts by Taiwanese authors. The long-castigated principles of modernism had barely reemerged, but as early as 1986,

Huang suggested in print that his group be considered

, > i ~~) = postmodern.”

~ 4 Of importance to theby development of recent : } if Ww Chinese artcritical was the establishment various party orga’ | nizations of new art journals intended to foster innovagee “25% tion and to introduce world art to China. Although such

7 | installations as the ’85 New Space, organized by the Pool \ ' & , ws } / j Society, were completely temporary, they were canon-

~~ J ized as young editors competed to publish photographs of ’ the activity and to give slides to foreign writers. The new

journals included the Wuhan-based magazine Art Trends, teary bene Hany! eld o2) THe Seeond SIGN NOS og idetall), established by the provincial Federation of Literary and

Beltre Poet erie oal Gree caeou brent ser see Arts Workers in January 1985, and the flashy weekly Fine Art News (Zhongguo meishu bao), established in June by ment for going too far ahead of the official art world in the Arts Research Institute of the Ministry of Culture in pursuit of innovation. Huang Yongping, who graduated in _ Beijing. Equally important, the young critics hired by the 1982, at the beginning of the Anti—Spiritual Pollution move- _ party art journal Meishu determined to use their influential ment, was assigned to work as a middle school teacher. An _ official platform to change both art criticism and contemunintended effect of such exile, however, was the dissemi- _ porary art. From 1986 to 1989 they made a point of publishnation of iconoclastic ambitions throughout China. Huang

painting than had transpired at urgent the artattack schoolonwith a series fo ia Yongping launched an even more the art of eee ee c—| ee

of automatic paintings from the mid-1980s. He began to = 7 | execute works based solely on instructions from a roulette f ivisiys.@,: |

wheel marked with signs from the Book of Changes. He then Bl 7 Bee rt & ant 4 ’

organized local colleagues to show in a group called Xiamen Rone Ah & ie ) 4 i . Bo) Dada; they burned all their works in a fiery anti-art display a GF oD | UKAM pee \ ati” ‘ i

after their first exhibition. ii eT d ae: wt A subsequent exhibition, immediately closed by the et ee authorities for violating its preapproved plan, was comprised _s i Ee ae i Nee a entirely of found objects. Perhaps reaching an extreme, in ~ Paseah S “OF BPs

1987 Huang created a performance piece/installation enti- Aare eed a tled A History of Chinese Painting and A Concise History ‘. ep —_— S of Modern Painting Washed in a Washing Machine for Two ¥ =) _ Minutes [fig. 10.18]. The former text was by Wang Bomin, a a eT the senior art historian at the Zhejiang Academy; the latter, roe a translation of a book on Western art, by Herbert Reed." on Sear , While Huang’s pile of paper pulp would seem to castigate J shit

art history and the ambitions of those who create it, it is | also a self-reflective comment on the art historical moment : in which he found himself—neither in old China nor in ra

the modern West. Of course, none of these actions were a

completely new in the history of world art, but the par- t ——_ ae ticular moment in Chinese art history in which they were

carried out made them momentous. This was not only an 10.18 betel voneptie (b. 1954), A History of Chinese Painting

ee: ; : ; and A Concise History of Modern Painting Washed in a Washing

era of rethinking the making of art, but also, with an influx RisHINeTOr AiO MINES tone DapeRoUIt. apeouoo cht of foreign books, of the theory of art as well. By this time destroyed, recreated by the artist in 1993, Collection of the

Huang was fascinated by Dada, which he had studied in Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

218 ART AFTER MAO

easiness ter e RESET fescipatsosnsanecwes insane |

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of July 1987. A wave of student demonstrations broke out aguewenn™ Seems TI) y

at the end of 1986, followed by a crackdown, and it was not Sq —— until the end of 1988 that political and economic circum- ; rae oT Ld om iat = 9 wey

stances made resumption of the preparations possible. By —._——— .—— rome — a | ln oD

that time a committee of editors, critics, and artists led by = 4 . “J F al i

Gao Minglu and Li Xianting had succeeded in raising suf- _ | : ; Pip | ME sn oo. mr ar. ficient funds from public work units and private entrepree _ OE Se a. *5 ee Se r} a

neurs to rent the National Art Gallery. ee to © a 4 f yD. China/Avant-Garde (Zhongguo xiandai yishu zhan) ee L¥ Dg . i: Se seas dS)

opened on February 5, 1989, at the Chinese National Art ; one i ) «= | Gallery, the most prestigious site for official art exhibi- | =a if ee” U _—

tions, almost thirty years after the building, one of the Ten — — Great Buildings of 1959, was completed [fig. 10.21]. In all, & 2

293 works by 186 artists were installed. Art history student 10.21 Opening of China/Avant-Garde (Chinese Modern Art Exhibition), February 5, Hou Hanru (b. 1963), who was fluent in French, coined 1989, Chinese National Art Gallery (now National Art Museum of China), Beijing

ART AFTER MAO 221

aly Yr sts, SetC :.: Waele - My

” Te ~~ also permitted him to stand in front of or on top of his Vp SSSS SELLE SES LP IL PIP IH ui painting in a perfect camouflage. He had painted at center a A iinesococScS2 SOSOSS RUS SSK TDM break in the fence, suggesting the possibility of escape from

‘i SoCo SSSI SES ON [EOS EOLA ; artists, sa as well as the Ray scosossoos SSS ee OSS pecan the bonds that constrained China's NYO SSSI CK IN ET SCO OCA ons oe ; : a. si SAAS SSS ae \2 veleretete ee) inevitable injuries they might suffer in wriggling through

ISSIR OO Ke ST OK? 1) : IveS385 SoS OSLER IP OLE (LOSSfromSOSA 7 SSO SSSI SUR BSC SOS SO his MFA degree(OM in folk artOE the Central;Academy of {SSIS SOS PKS RIN . ‘ : aIMSS Sew SKE rastSSS SOO SOLER NIK Fine Arts in 1987, displayed Chichu, a large installation that SOOO V9)With OSS Nefootprints RA | ! pro” i was constructed of papercuts. cut-out

See ae SP a ean eS ; ; ;

EN SSSSSOOS SOS CCS ae. Ky OSS eee the ragged gap. Lu Shengzhong (b. 1952), who had received

SS SS ar a &

| ceeding from the Hoor and up the wall, it resembled a dia-

a Se a aeS! ee slassic Saale SS SF SS

SS bo ees aaa gram from a mysterious Daoist ritual text but appears to ere ee reennare trace an uncertain psychological and physical journey. The

EEE I classical Chinese term used for the title refers to taking tiny,

== hesitant steps in the face of an obstacle. —_ = jose € most notorious aspect of the exhibition occurre

three hours after the opening, when one of the artists, Xiao 10.22 Gu Xiong (b. 1953), Fence, 1988, oil on canvas, 102 x 406 cm, Lu (b. 1958), fired a gun into her installation, converting

Pp p iS

Collection of the Artist it into a performance piece [fig. 10.23]. This action, in a

gallery filled with spectators, did not have prior approval, of Ronald Reagan, brought forth a Thermos of hot water — and the show was immediately closed by the police. The

and began washing his feet in the Reagan foot basin. The foreign media enthusiastically reported the suppression of Sichuanese artist Zhang Nian (b. 1964), a recent graduate the artistic event. Vigorous negotiations by the curatorial of the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts, sat henlike on team succeeded in reopening the gallery, although it was a large nest, eggs scattered around him, and began his per- temporarily closed for a second time after a bomb threat was formance, “Brooding,’ wearing a placard around his neck: phoned in. Xiao Lu and her coconspirator were arrested— “[Theoretical] discussion is prohibited during the incuba- he immediately and she after turning herself in—but with tion period, to avoid disturbing the next generation.” return of the “borrowed” gun and the intervention of variGu Xiong (b. 1953) came to the exhibition hall in cos- ous Beijing officials, they were released. From the perspectume, converting his painting installation, Fence, a multi- _ tive of the international art world to whom this event hoped anel mural-scale oil painting that resembled an enlarged to speak, the exhibition may have seemed somewhat lackin stretch of chain-link fencing, into a performance [fig. 10.22]. curatorial structure, and its galleries more like a happenThe artist wore a white jumpsuit painted with the same pat- _ ing than an art exhibition. Nevertheless, it was a successful tern, which made him look like some sort of convict but _ retrospective of the alternatives that had been developed to

|

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Lh reyes > Tee

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gag ) =

10.23 Xiao Lu (b. 1958) "

firing a gun at her installa- _ 4 tion, Dialogue, February S, ot

Gallery (now National Art

1989, Chinese National Art Museum of China), Beijing

222 ART AFTER MAO

the mainstream of official art and demonstrated the nature ae c.. ; eee 3

of the New Wave art movement and the state of mind of its si Lo ee artists. A few foreign gallery owners recognized the historic HAH H AT WA (Ni nature of the event and purchased works from the price list TA is : a é HATA Ht i Hh Hi

offered by the curatorial committee. The majority of works Hie HV TTVTTNNHANHNTITA INI stayed in China, initially in the hands of the entrepreneur By meng, [oy

who had helped fund the event. | " aan +S

Only two months after the close of China/Avant-Garde, rer es ‘ * ee | former party secretary Hu Yaobang suddenly died of a stroke. | A. ‘\ oa

Hu had been one of Deng Xiaoping’s close allies in the lib- 4, Ales t Ree a Gs

eralization and rationalization of personnel practices—in Tree # {= 1% 2 1978 and 1979 he had carried out the rehabilitation of right- oe Bl .

ists and people condemned by the Cultural Revolution. | He hadlater devised theinto plan by which youngwithin people would move positions of educated responsibility the| Pw e pe = I Ve

ty, p ~~, © 2 he j %

administration. Hu had risen alongside Deng to the highest j nae NS| eae a rsayy position in the nation, general secretary of the Communist v “¢ oe re Party, and formed part of an administrative troika consist- Ce OD @ Gee Wing in RTS,

ing of Deng, as head of the military committee, and Zhao ‘ { “pre j ‘>

Ziyang, as premier. Huthree Yaobang considered bethe the aC. < 4 a) ie" | most liberal of the andwas was belovedtoof intellecer 4ae: ‘,rie tual class. In 1986 he was removed from his post, blamed io-aa Statue-er ihe Goddéesor Dembtracvat Tiananmen for student demonstrations in favor of democratic reform Square, Beijing, May 1989, photo by Toshio Sakai/AFP/ and against government corruption. It was widely rumored Getty Images in the early months of 1989 that he would soon return to office, and his death was a crushing disappointment. With a public outpouring very similar to the spontane- | Goddess of Democracy from Styrofoam and plaster, wheelous demonstration in memory of Zhou Enlai in 1976, Bei- ing her onto the square directly opposite the Tiananmen jing citizens covered the Monument to the People’s Heroes _ portrait of Mao Zedong [fig. 10.24]. The eighty-five-yearin Tiananmen Square with wreaths and flowers. The Cen- —_ old Deng Xiaoping, given alarmist reports of civic rebellion tral Academy of Fine Arts supplied a portrait. Not wishing by conservative advisers, made the fateful decision on the to repeat the Gang of Four’s brutal suppression of commu- _ evening of June 3, 1989, to move troops against the demonnal mourning, when high pressure hoses had been used to strators. By dawn on June 4, gunfire had emptied the square heartlessly destroy the wreaths to Zhou Enlai and mourn- and filled nearby hospitals with casualties. The Goddess of ers had been arrested, the public was permitted to express | Democracy had been crushed under the treads of tanks. their sorrow for Hu Yaobang. However, the demonstrations | Hundreds of people died in the crackdown, which is now that broke out after his death did not subside but began — known as the Tiananmen Massacre. to demand the same things sought by those of 1986. For six weeks Tiananmen Square was filled by protestors and hunger strikers. Eventually almost everyone in the cultural world who was physically capable of marching joined the demonstrations. Some elderly artists, like Li Keran, instead donated paintings to be sold as a benefit for the movement against corruption and for democracy. Despite warnings from the government to stop, the citizenry became more and more enthusiastic. After declaration of martial law on May 19, tanks moved into the city from the suburbs, but no one in the city could conceive that the People’s Liberation Army would ever harm the peo-

ple. CAFA’s sculpture department created a monumental

ART AFTER MAO 223

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Al | |

ternative Chinas

Hong Kong and Taiwan

‘Two island territories, the British colony of Hong Kong and the Nationalist-controlled island of Taiwan, both remained outside the control of the People’s Republic of China

during the second half of the twentieth century. In 1949 both territories saw waves of refugees from China’s new Communist government, bringing serious challenges to their societies and infrastructures but also stimulating culture and art. During the thirty years when relations with China were cut off or restricted, between 1949 and 1979, art in these two regions developed largely independently of that on the mainland.

When China reopened, therefore, the first place many mainland artists turned was to these two alternative versions of Chinese culture. Taiwan and Hong Kong are different in many fundamental ways, from spoken dialect to colonial history. Nevertheless, they shared a common historical characteristic: lengthy and thorough subjugation to colonial rule and between 1949 and 1979 acommon cultural orientation to Western Europe and the United States. It was their position in relationship to the West (that is, the nonCommunist world) rather than the East (the Communist bloc) that brought their art worlds into alignment with one another by the 1970s and made possible the significant role they played in the modernization of mainland China’s art world in the 1980s. Hong Kong, located southeast of Guangzhou in the Pearl River delta, was taken from China by Britain in 1841 and became a British crown colony. Expanding from the island of Hong Kong, Britain acquired the Kowloon peninsula, on the opposite side of the deep water harbor, in 1860. Finally, in 1898 an additional annex, known as the New Territories, was leased from China for ninety-nine years. The UK thus governed Hong Kong continuously for more than 150 years, its control only broken for four years during the Japanese occupation of World War II. When the New Territories lease expired 225

c. | ‘

i y ie- — — ,

a a i i ss tt

11.1 Attributed to Youqua (active 1840-1880s), Whampoa, ca. 1850, oil on canvas, 78.3 x 144.3 cm, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem

in 1997, all parts of the colony were returned to China on decades photography was widespread, with Queens Road in the condition that the rights and freedoms of its people be | Hong Kong alone boasting more than twenty photo studios maintained for a period of fifty years, or until 2047. by the 1870s. By the end of the nineteenth century, photogThe art of nineteenth-century Hong Kong is essentially raphy had made the hand-painted souvenirs obsolete.’

that of Guangdong, the Chinese province to which it had In the late nineteenth century, Hong Kong began to previously belonged. Hong Kong art in the Qing dynasty take on the role of safe harbor for Chinese dissidents and had particularly strong ties to that of Guangzhou (Canton), —_ revolutionaries. It attracted reformers who criticized the a port that began serving British trade in the sixteenth and Qing regime, and was a site where the Chinese mass media seventeenth centuries, and Macau, administered by Por- could operate relatively freely, publishing political cartoons tugal since the late sixteenth century. In these ports there — directed against the Qing government (if not against the developed a good market for “export paintings’—trealistic | crown). Notable examples were those by He Jianshi (1877— images in oil or watercolor of local life and scenery that were 1915), who collaborated with Gao Jianfu (1879-1951), Gao marketed primarily as souvenirs. Lam Qua (Guan Qiao- Qifeng (1889-1933), and Pan Dawei (1881-1929) to publish chang; 1802-ca. 1860), for example, was well-known among — Current Affairs Pictorial (Shishi huabao) and later established

nineteenth-century New Englanders in the China trade for = Everyman’ Pictorial (Pinmin huabao). After the 1911 revoluhis portraits.’ The third generation in a familial lineage of — tion most of the refugees exiled in Hong Kong returned painters, he ran a workshop with several dozen assistantsand — to China but were soon replaced by a stream of new exiles apprentices.” He is believed to have opened a studio in Hong _ traveling in the opposite direction—Qing dynasty loyalists Kong in 1846. Youqua (active 1840s—1880s), who ran the Yee- who fled to the colony. These former officials brought main-

hing Art Shop in Guangzhou and Hong Kong, marketed stream late Qing art with them. Among them was Feng landscapes, flower paintings, and harbor views, such as this Shihan (1875-1950), a translator who had been trained at the image of the the port at Huangpu (Whampoa) in Guang- — Beiyang Academy in Tianjin. Feng excelled particularly in zhou [fig. 11.1]. Photography was introduced to Chinaalmost seal script calligraphy and in bamboo painting, arts that he as soon as it was invented, and workshop painters began __ taught his precocious daughter Feng Wenfeng (Flora Fong; using photos as a tool to expedite their work. Within a few — 1900-1961). Young Flora studied oil painting, photography,

226 ALTERNATIVE CHINAS

sculpture, and music in Italy, and by the age of fifteen was XE. , Bs he

quite well known in art and educational circles. In 1919 she i, AY he 3 ear a. / Zz.

established the Xiangjiang Girls Calligraphy and Painting Mee etc. BOL i - ree Oh ey ea

School, which was the only art school in Hong Kong until Re F Ne nee ‘er jaa ~y fe the mid-1920s. She went on to become a founding mem- Ds a Ba das. fe tl : ee

ber of the Chinese Women’s Painting and Calligraphy Se | > are —

Association in 1934 in Shanghai, often exhibiting calligra- ky ig ae SN dee

phy in archaic styles.* fast SRE aa Sofo‘hee : j b 3i HONG KONG ART OF THE 1920S AND 1930S he —/ AE oe fon

Artists were attracted by the prosperity of Hong Kong in ef ig) ae : the 1920s, and between 1925 and 1937 more than a dozen Z fo rs wage eects a

privately run art schools and studios, large and small, were Be LG a :

established in Hong Kong by Chinese who had studied y, oe = in modern schools in China or abroad.’ One of the most Der emer x ‘i influential was Laiching (Lijin) Art Academy, established by ¥ oY 2 ¥ 2 tna = Bao Shaoyou (1892-1985), a Cantonese who was born and Va eat e =

educated primarily in Japan, where he learned the lyrical ag) zk Se —

ink painting style of his teacher at the Kyoto Art. School, a Xi aS eeaaeeter.SS

Kikuchi Hobun (1862-1918). Yamamoto Shunkyo and As aN a ‘ 4 a3 oe SS ~ ee

Takeuchi Seihd, who so profoundly influenced Gao Qifeng, ne “ = Ses =: were also on the faculty in those years. Bao was sufficiently Pay ae a a i

skilled in Japanese painting to win an award in 1916 at the ook S eee , official Bunten exhibition. In 1927, at the invitation of Gao ‘ i) > =i ie ; >

Jianfu, he returned to China to teach, but in 1928 he opened iy arie ‘ — a ee at his own art school in Hong Kong. Over the next decade he Koo % ia SES Ain,

achieved impressive results: of the fifty-seven works repre- Re ee = a senting Hong Kong in the Second National Art Exhibition Sas. RS tS Pinte Bas. a : of 1937, forty-eight were by Bao Shaoyou and his students. my ; waa ais A ARS i a 4

His work, in a modified Japanese style, is typical of the | - | ae Lingnan school at its most lyrical [fig. 11.2]. a2 Bae SueOyeU 1892-1985), TWO EEC SHOW,

Boe: ; 1957, hanging scroll, ink and color on paper, Hong Kong

The debates on how to reform Chinese art that domi- Te nated the larger Chinese art world in the mid-1920s also swept into Hong Kong. In 1926 the Hong Kong branch

of the Guangdong Association for the Study of Chinese A number of Western-style Chinese artists from the Paintings was founded by Pan Dawei, Deng Erya (1884- mainland and from overseas were also attracted to Hong 1954), and Wong Po-yeh (Huang Banruo; 1901-1968).° In Kong during the late 1920s and 1930s. Their work as a whole 1927 the Calligraphy, Painting, and Literature Society, with seems to bear traces of the British colonial world in which which Gao Qifeng, who lived in nearby Guangzhou, would _ they lived—with emphasis on watercolor painting and fairly be involved, was established. These organizations repre- _ realistic figurative oils—in contrast to the slightly more consented the two opposing viewpoints in the guohua world _ tinental styles practiced in Shanghai. In 1932 the pioneering of 1920s Guangdong—one advocating a mainstream tradi- commercial artist in Shanghai, Xu Yongqing, whose style had tional Chinese painting and the other the more Westernized been fashionable in Shanghai in the 1910s, moved to Hong

style of the Lingnan school. In social and artistic practice, | Kong to open a studio to teach watercolors and drawing. if not in discursive position, however, many artists were | One might speculate that his conservative style was more active in both groups. Guohua in Hong Kong during the — welcome in Hong Kong than in Shanghai, where modernist first half of the twentieth century should be seen as a part trends in design had become fashionable by this time. of the larger sphere of Cantonese painting that centered on In this period Cantonese oil painters who returned from

Guangzhou. English-speaking countries abroad to settle in Hong Kong ALTERNATIVE CHINAS 227

ee —— se a ie Se any ee x Sor gs

x,

ree Palisa > TR —_— igo ie

a ae, als. ‘ ee Ye a § 3 e = SS gh os | RE Son Sc a a ie aE eek ae 11.3 Li Tiefu (1869-1952), [a ESS eI Rpg fi ee RA OS a ee Sie ae way i Guangzhou Academy Sees:eo ash ~ ) RS first, in 1930, and in 1931 he, Luis Chan, and others orgati _ , Jog t % y a . | sf nized the Qinghua Art Club, the first of many such groups ak oR \y Nfour ‘. iYyears | i in which they would Yu Ben studied for I ¥ieae»ey Nid in Toronto withinvolve J. W. themselves. Beatty, a Canadian impres-

. Ze my) sionist, mastering an academic style with some flavor of the somaya ; 4 ‘ Canadian Group of Seven. Upon his move to Hong Kong ry , , = in 1935, Yu Ben established a studio with Li Bing [fig. 11.4]. a 4 . ) : eS He would return to Guangzhou in 1956, while Li Bing left

H ee» ae

i cig A for Canada.®

ae } Mies : Art in Hong Kong on the eve of the Japanese invasion om — hl ea A did not have a particularly distinctive character. It would

yi — say : a = — 3 . al be decades before the most original of this generation of tee a ee ek “Sl oS Hong Kong artists, Luis Chan, would develop his own 41.4 Yu Ben (1905-1995), The Unemployed, 1941, oil on canvas, 50.5 x quite striking personal style. Perhaps also the most deeply

61 cm, National Art Museum of China, Beijing rooted in Hong Kong, Chan, who moved to Hong Kong from Panama as a small child, never lived anywhere else. He

also worked in the academic style typical of early twenti- _ was self-taught, learning to paint by taking a correspondence eth-century North American and British painting. Li Tiefu' — course on British watercolor painting while employed in a (Lee Y. Tien; 1869-1952), a skilled portraitist who had passed _law firm in Hong Kong. He soon became known as a skilled most of his life in Canada and the United States, lived — watercolorist and during the 1930s helped establish a number in Kowloon from 1932 until the Japanese invaded Hong _ of art societies. By 1960 he was even recognized in Britain, Kong in 1941 [fig. 11.3].’ In art he was a follower of William the colonial center of power, for what was by that time a Merritt Chase and John Singer Sargent and an admirer of conservative style. In the 1970s, however, he developed an the brushwork of Velasquez. In politics he was a strong sup- entirely idiosyncratic mode of surrealist painting in which porter of Sun Yat-sen and even served as executive secre- imagery from his subconscious—scenery, figures, fish, TV tary of the New York branch of the revolutionary Alliance shows, sailboats, advertisements, Hong Kong landmarks— Society from 1909 to 1911. Li Tiefu was therefore welcomed _ floated together in startling ways. Building from smears of back to China by the PRC government at the end of his life. pigment, often daubed on Chinese paper, his vision poured Three very active Western-style painters in the 1930s were _ forth in brilliantly exuberant color. His paintings are so perLi Bing (1903-1994), Yu Ben (Yee Bon; 1905-1995), and Luis sonal, and so located in his own physical and aesthetic enviChan (Chen Fushan; 1905-1995). Li Bing and Yu Ben were ronment, that his art has been universally hailed as one that Guangdong born but grew up in Canada, where they stud- —_—s may represent qualities unique to Hong Kong [fig. 11.5].

228 ALTERNATIVE CHINAS

¢ “ Li y tote = ) I ye Sf er x. a Te

te ms CaM y Visi Se were accustomed to working in the mass media of semico-

f re ‘ > te Sec lonial Shanghai, where they had freedom to express their

Sani) er .

he ey - > = opinions about Chinese society and politics, resented or eh ~~ - vag even feared the press censorship of the increasingly righta ae % sod, wing Nationalist regime. Surrealist painter and printmaker

a : a | AB, , . )

M a=) ——% Huang Xinbo [see fig. 6.19] and other modernist colleagues, ity , | 4 a ala a oa such as Zhang Guangyu and Liao Bingxiong, established ; Bis s Ay d . re : | the Yan Ken (Human; renjian) Painting Society in Hong ya R woe i ee TR es Kong in ee of 19470" These years were Huang Xinbo’s ea ‘3 ea 1a%4 eis th eee most proufe as an on Baie’ A steady stream of colleagues

a'sii%4 reese eee TEMA RED from the mainland, including some who were underground , eee CLT RATE: BRSES ? * Communists, joined them in Hong Kong over the follow11.6 Deng Fen (1892-1963), Zhong Kui Snatches Little ing year to implement a range of publication and exhibition Demons, 1926, hanging scroll, ink and color on paper, 123.5 activities, including new art supplements for the newspapers

Ree CM AOS Kons MUSEUC OE Dagongbao (Ta Kung Pao), Sing Tao Daily, and Wenhuibao (Wen Wei Po), as well as books of contemporary art and car-

cartoonists and commercial artists, including Ye Qianyu, toons and reproductions of the work of foreign artists. The Zhang Guangyu, Zhang Zhengyu, Lu Shaofei, Ding Cong, society broke up after many of the artists left in 1949 or 1950 Huang Miaozi, Yu Feng, Hu Kao, Te Wei, Chen Yan- to take up positions in China. Huang Xinbo was unable qiao, Lu Zhiyang, and Li Binghong. The organizers noted __ to continue the surrealist pursuits of his Hong Kong years an attendance that exceeded thirty thousand viewers over —_ under the new government. the brief four-day event, with prominent visitors including Edgar Snow and Sun Yat-sen’s widow, Song Qingling. ART OF THE 1950S AND 19605 Similarly, the Hong Kong branch of the All-China Wood- The primary direction of migration, however, was into cut Circles Resistance Association, organized by Tang Ying- | Hong Kong from China, swelling the population by about wei, held a memorial exhibition in May 1940 to commemo- 750,000 new residents of all economic levels. Wealthy famirate Lu Xun, with an anthology and a subsequent traveling —_ lies, many of whom had built their fortunes in the former

exhibition. treaty port of Shanghai, began moving their assets out of The more traditionally oriented Chinese painting | China to settle in Hong Kong. Some Nationalist governgroups also responded to the crisis. In February of 1940, ment officials in flight from the Communists permanently

230 ALTERNATIVE CHINAS

Vis any “ fb ve Cras had developed in China in the 1930s. In Shanghai she had

j ie #. ee , taught painting and history at Xizhen Women’s Middle snake ‘ + E Sa “ee School and in 1934 helped organize the Chinese Women’s loads Netz oe , Calligraphy and Painting Association [fig. 11.7]. She brought

f ee ee to Hong Kong a painting style rooted in that of the Suzhou ie ‘ ; literati tradition. Gu Qingyao was joined in Hong Kong by gn Wie another core member of the Chinese Women’s Calligraphy

Re i uae S, Api : and Painting Association, Hou Biyi. Most advanced art B qin z 4g rm education was conducted privately in 1950s Hong Kong, vi Brae / OF 2 but when the colony’s first formal art major was established

api 3) Vs at New Asia College in 1958, Gu Qingyao was appointed an ais witpies ae instructor.

ae | In the absence of more formal structures artistic Pe j85 activity, many new art clubs and groups were for established

ela i sf in the 1950s. Some, like the Free China Calligraphy and ie ne 4 ic Painting Association, established in 1955, brought together

/ ates» i eiihie > ink painters who shared anti-Communist political beliefs.

ei gy a - ‘ The Bingshen Art Club, founded in 1956 by Chao Shao-an

pore 3 Che . (Zhao Shao’ang; 1905-1998), Yang Shanshen, Bao Shaoyou,

oe , e PN Li Yanshan, Huang Banruo and others, also organized exhiBis r: me y bitions and catalogs largely devoted to Cantonese painting. a ae mene . \ The Chinese Art Club (Xianggang zhongguo meishuhui), ee aes eS established in 1956, was perhaps most influential of the a f ! — ld. groups within the evolving colonial society. It was neutral : wi E f Q Ae politically, at least in relationship to China, but was orig-

a ji as inallyos. conceived as anmabaere alternative to the Hongi Kong Art ta@ieten thant | aN : ; , cee ee NS oe Club, which showed only oils and watercolors, mainly by

nae — eS British colonial artists. The cultural agenda of the Chinese _ ray Art Club received support from the colonial authorities, and lee - the British Council began financing their annual exhibition eae ~~ “i | and journal. In 1956 the British Council further collaborated == | with the Chinese Art Club to send a traveling exhibition of

41.7. Gu Qingyao (1896-1978), Travelling Chinese painting to various cities in Southeast Asia.” By in Snow, undated, hanging scroll, ink 1958 it was formally registered with the Hong Kong govern-

and color on paper, exhibited in the ment, had two hundred members, and also became part of

Eyeenatcna Ee Munem the Hong Kong Arts Festival—an event established by the British Council in 1955.

resettled in the colony, while others took temporary ref- Among artists active in organizing Hong Kong art sociuge before moving to Taiwan or to another country. Many _eties were Chao Shao-an and Lui Shou-kwan (Lii Shoukun;

residents of nearby areas of Guangdong who did not sup- 1919-1975), both of whom worked in the Lingnan style port the new government also moved to Hong Kong. Thus, — (although Lui would soon make a radical change). Chao for the first ten or fifteen years after establishment of the — studied with Gao Qifeng in Guangzhou and in 1925 estabPeople’s Republic of China, the Hong Kong art world saw _ lished his own design studio, the Lingnan Printing House both the influx of fellow Cantonese artists, whose work — (Lingnan zhibansuo). In 1927 he assumed a teaching post was generally in tune with their own, and new arrivals who at Foshan Municipal Art School, where Bao Shaoyou also brought with them trends from the art worlds of Shanghai, _ briefly taught, but in 1930 opened his private studio, the

Nanjing, and Beijing. Lingnan Academy (Lingnan huayuan) in Guangzhou. He The guohua painter Gu Qingyao (Koo Tsin-yaw; 1896— _ held solo shows in 1934 in Nanjing, Tianjin, and Beijing, 1978), who moved to Hong Kong from Shanghai in 1950, — and was appointed chair of the Chinese painting departwas a good representative of the traditionalist art world that = ment at Guangzhou Municipal Art School in 1937. The war ALTERNATIVE CHINAS 231

yop >er Bis + 4 ( modernists. Chao himself frequently collaborated with

"4 ei | artists of different schools and artistic backgrounds. The ” the ¥ ensured its survival into the late twentieth century. With , ” “ | growing prosperity in the 1960s and 1970s, the Lingnan ye. 74, “o- } school, by that time in its third generation, continued to ! & * flourish.

y" | Yr" —=» enduring appeal of this manner of painting in Hong Kong

A ar ‘ ee ;

=~" > ve re With the international decline of colonialism following

+ Say 4 World War II, of theHong British empire also began to wane. To “ . Nae so 4r \’ maintain control Kong under these circumstances, vf +e ae OY of the colony.a By the latter half of the 1950s, the British \ iiae(i jects s Britain required thoughtful policy toward the Chinese sub-

‘er “ 7 : x J government in Hong Kong had begun to cultivate among

3 “® mY y ha its residents a form of civic pride—the idea that Hong Kong

‘ \ Y. 4 . : was a special place and that they therefore enjoyed a unique

” 1" i | i ; Hong Kong identity. Over the course of the 1960s many ~~ j } , he came to accept this cultural status. Hong Kong identity had oR! Ad several ramifications—it served to invest those who felt it » je with a greater stake in the colony's success—and it divorced } HY i dé is Hong Kong Chinese from an attachment to Communist

a

or. as ] pa :nh y China. supporting of a 1960s Hong Kong cula tural Directly consciousness in thethe lategrowth 1950s and were new

Ti lf f { educational and cultural institutions, with their promo-

ey 5 y y E tion of local culture and art. Then, from March to October ‘eR \y th 1967, a Communist-inspired campaign of leftist riots and rs = 4 } terrifying violence further alienated the Hong Kong public ,L . m| ' ;Ty (4 ifrom thetemples, Chineseand regime. The Red Guard’s desecration of graves, family records on the mainland, along

~ yi M4 et with the Cultural Revolution’s more general attacks on art, } rn gift music, and traditional culture, further severed Hong Kong’s

} ties to present-day China. The conjunction of these two fac41.8 Chao Shao-an (Zhao Shao’ang; 1905-1998), Banana tors, Britain’s encouragement of a positive feeling for Hong Tree, 1969, hanging scroll, ink and color on paper, 184.8 x Kong and China’s actions to inspire fear, brought Hong 87.1 cm, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Collection of Kong into a special cultural space.

Master ENaomiae=an The development of a distinctive modern Hong Kong art may be, at least in part, associated with the establishment of an academic program in fine arts at New Asia College in the

broke out almost immediately, whereupon he moved to _late 1950s and the introduction of art into higher education.

Hong Kong. Although a private Hong Kong Art Academy and other With Hong Kong’s occupation, Chao Shao-an fled to _ schools and studios had appeared earlier in the decade, this Macao, then eventually went to Chongging to teach at the — program, which would become the Fine Arts Department relocated National Central University and National Art — at Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) in 1963, was Academy. He reopened his Lingnan Academy in Hong one of the most influential long-term educational developKong after the war, in 1948. Chao himself was a faithful ments. Among its other strengths, such as study of classical transmitter of the Lingnan school, his bird-and-flower Chinese art, it was significant in its first two decades as a painting inheriting the manner of Gao Jianfu's teacher, Ju —_— locus for development of a new abstract form of ink paintLian, and his puddled pigment (zhuangshui and zhuangfen) ing that became particularly identified with Hong Kong the methods of the Gao brothers, but he was well traveled culture. New Asia College itself was established on October and not provincial in outlook [fig. 11.8]. Although most of 10, 1949, by the historian Qian Mu and other mainland his students also worked in the Lingnan style, some became immigrants. In January 1957, Ding Yanyong (1902-1978) 232 ALTERNATIVE CHINAS

and Chen Shiwen (1907-1984) were hired to establish an

art program at the school, with an explicit mandate to bal- ps : ance technical training with education aimed at philosoph- Za

ical and aesthetic cultivation.’ The program taught both a NY guohua and Western painting and by 1959 had become a full i ie four-year major, with design added. The first four teachers Ja) xh

were the Japan-educated Ding and French-educated Chen, / v fc

teaching oil painting, as well as the Suzhou-born guohua y 4 a ~% Se painter Wang Jigian (C. C. Wang; 1907-2003) and the seal ? a8 is > ae carver Zeng Kerui. In the first years of the program, it orga- : oo 7 # i

nized an exhibition of Masterpieces of Ancient Chinese > % | a ? Painting and a solo show of the contemporary abstract oil 7 j Per , .

painter Zao Wou-ki (Zhao Wuji; b. 1921), then living in T / y

would later play. ae : ~ Ding Yanyong, who was born near Guangzhou, had ~~ ! |

Paris, which foreshadowed the significant role its art gallery A j A} a

substantial experience as an art administrator by the time $ f he joined New Asia College. Japan-trained, having stud- 2 ¥* I ‘f

ied at the Kawabata Painting Academy and then, from 1921 ig 4) j f to 1925, at the prestigious Tokyo School of Fine Arts, he 65 C™ 4 ti

was also well informed about art education. Ding’s own ‘ Va ia approach to art had been strongly affected by viewing an ¢ ‘/ exhibition of modern French painting when a student in : ¢ 4 Tokyo. His early oils, which were exhibited in Tokyo in / wa

1924, were often Fauvist, with bright-colored, slightly exag- | Me -_":

gerated shapes and free brushwork." & aE After teaching in Shanghai for several years, in 1928 Ding @ ‘

Yanyong moved to Guangzhou to set up the Guangzhou | 7 J E Municipal Art Museum and teach Western painting at ee t My | ft > &

Guangzhou Municipal Art School. During this period he —

began to collect Chinese paintings, especially those of Zhu 11.9 Ding Yanyong (1902-1978), Magpies, Plum Blossoms, Da, Shitao, and Jin Nong, the effects of which are visible and Rock, 1967, hanging scroll, ink on paper, 139 x 70 cm,

in his own later work. In 1932 he returned to Shanghai to HOS CONE MUS CH Nau NE

teach at New China Art College, and during the war he taught at the National Art Academy in Chongging. In 1945 Ding—along with Guan Liang, Lin Fengmian, Wu Dayu,

Pang Ganmin, Pang Xungin, Ni Yide, and Li Zhongsheng formed another small art club with ink painters Lui Shou(Li Chun-chen; 1912—1984)— exhibited oil paintings in the kwan and Chao Shao-an, the Seven Man Art Club, in 1957. Chinese Modern Painting Exhibition (Zhongguo xiandai | At New Asia College, from 1957 to 1978, Ding taught waterhuihua zhan) organized by Zao Wouki in Chongqing. The colors, oil painting, and Chinese bird-and-flower painting, merging of tradition and modernism in his work was par- _—_as_well as Chinese art history and theory. His own later alleled by his social activities. After the war he organized work was inspired by Zhu Da, a loose, free, and somewhat the Nine Person Art Society in Shanghai, which included abstract ink painting, with exaggerated and distorted forms, modernist oil painters and traditionalist ink painters: Chen that had absorbed some Fauvist principles [fig. 11.9]. Ding Shiwen, Guan Liang, Ni Yide, Zhou Bichu, Tang Yun, Zhu achieved his own synthesis of modernism and the literati

Qizhan, Qian Ding, and Song Zhong. tradition. Ding returned to the south in 1946 to become director C. C. Wang (Wang Chi-ch’ien; Wang Jigian), another of of Guangdong Provincial Art School. On October 14, 1949, the four initial instructors, was from a very different backhe moved to Hong Kong, where he supported himself as ground, one more similar to that of Gu Qingyao. Scion of a middle school teacher and by giving private lessons. He _an elite Suzhou family, he began studying painting with Gu ALTERNATIVE CHINAS 233

Sa BF anaemia : of fortunate accident, Wang began substituting rough ink ss ake (as on Sore a irs Veena ‘ dabs made with crumpled paper for the refined outlines

= | ba , and washes of traditional landscape painting. Rather as he Rk ay might correct the inadequate efforts of a painting student, " Ta 2 ; he responded visually and kinesthetically to these blotches, . a adding his elegant texture strokes and washes until a coher-

e lee , sie ‘he | ent landscape ptm Ch? a . 11.10]." Boemerged a | 15from the fragmentary patterns “ae 5 SCR ieTRSB, [fig.

“ia oes aa x yee eae Many sources of information on modernism were avail-

gi oe ia al Nae Pe ) : He: ed? a Men able in the late 1950s, but few were as direct as those brought

ns PY, Ae. “! ~ ee a a be returned to China when the lease on the New Territories + Lys . a = < ses SR. : C. expired in 1997. This decision created for Hong Kong res-

. AES g =i JN 4 ; idents a particular postcolonial situation—Hong Kongers yee a> By See ae. * F would be handed back to a country that in 1984 clearly ét m oe ae Sy _ i ‘ lacked the legal protections, rational economic framework, ,o cart ee a, 3 ee :~ and personal freedom to which they were accustomed. The Oe Ms a F Sing wet a fragility of the Hong Kong identity, which was based most oe ~ a SE ie Ls Sa fundamentally on the assumption of Hong Kong’s stability,

pone. i 8 , a: was revealed.

e . a * nk ys - Although an outward migration began immediately, the “SNE Ltt, oe te most dramatic expression of local concern about the hand-

z WW é 4: Let a ak over took place five years later, following the June 4, 1989,

hia " ao: —" massacre in Beijing. The terror the Cultural Revolution

x es ma | au = : riots had inspired was revived in the minds of the people of

a “ “Se = Hong Kong, who entered an unprecedented period of polit=. Se See ical and civic activism. Direct elections for the Legislative

of Art : : ;

41.16 Huang Zhongfane (Harold Wong: Council were phased in beginning in 1991. In 1995 the Hong b. 1943), Layered Clouds and Folded Peaks, Kong Arts Development Council was established, making 2000, hanging scroll, ink and color on paper, public funding available for experimental or innovative BBS S232 Gal SIElSONL ERS MUGEN forms of art. As relations between China and Hong Kong became more closely interlinked in the lead-up to 1997, Hong Kong’s now endangered local character became a pupil came from collectors’ lineages—Wong is the son of | matter of widespread anxiety. The public response to Tsang collector Huang Baoxi (Wong Pao Hsie) and Gu the grand- = Tsou Choi (Zeng Zaocai; 1921-2007) in the 1990s is telldaughter of famous painter and collector Gu Yun. Both __ ing. An eccentric graffiti artist who called himself “King of were powerfully affected by their exposure to masterpieces | Kowloon,” in the 1990s Tsang covered public property with of early Chinese painting, and each developed an eye for — writing in which he reclaimed from Britain his expropriclassical styles while living in a modern metropolitan set- —_ ated_patrimony.'’ Although more naive than postmodern, ting: Gu in Republican-era Shanghai and Wong in post- —_—_ Tsang and his activities were celebrated as though they were

war Hong Kong. European educated, Wong did not pur- _ performance art or public art, in large part because they so sue a conventional career, but ran a gallery in Hong Kong acutely reflected universal concerns of the time [fig. 11.17]. between 1977 and 1990 that specialized in fine classical Elevated to the status of local hero by art critics and the Chinese paintings. Since then he has devoted himself to his media, his quixotic obsession with the injustices of the past own painting." His commitment to experimenting within spoke to fears for the future in a way that few elite artists the traditional bounds of guohua are almost unique in con- _could.

temporary painting [fig. 11.16]. Events that were entirely external—decisions made in 238 ALTERNATIVE CHINAS

ag asf1,¢ee1dD Loy in2 B& _ae . Lhe by a -x. ie; io onae aa ‘|

ve A fA —_— , J - ay Ait -- ary Z i 4 i ‘Lagat FS Ra PROG .ayy Tal re bay # : (ra) a 4? .*cs¢+“Qa ’ a> . 6)£WAY 4 “ a 4 — ; Sek eeYs oF 6x A 3 P

°— , qe wx \ . do, S) J ele . E 2S ¢ Lea; q a | “gy ?

11.17. Tsang Tsou Choi (Zeng Zaocai; 1921-2007), A 11.18 Tsang Tak Ping (Zeng Deping: b. 1959), Hello! Hong KongCalligraphic Inscription by the “King of Kowloon,” ink graffiti, Part 3, 1996, temporary site specific mixed-media installation,

undated, exhibited January 2008, Telford Plaza, Kowloon Hong Kong

Beijing or London, Washington, D.C., or Moscow—pro- —- Cantonese culture and its relationship to Hong Kong's colo-

duced a major change in the mentality of Hong Kong’s nial and nautical past. Along with a faintly audible sound citizenry. For artists, these changes paralleled world art track of a melancholy aria, photographs preserved in glass trends, particularly the shift in the artistic mainstream from __ bottles, a papier-maché boat, and other objects connected modernism to postmodernism. The younger generation of — materially to Hong Kong’s past and present culture filled the Hong Kong-—born artists brought back from their studies space. Transparencies of the construction of Hong Kong’s

overseas an engagement with new media and new artis- waterfront were projected onto the fragile boat [fig. 11.18], tic concerns and also an orientation that was often explic- along with images of peeling walls and old advertisements.”* itly social and political. Such an activist orientation led to —- Nostalgia for fast-disappearing traditional performance arts the establishment of Para/Site in 1996 as the first artist-run and crafts may not be unique to Hong Kong, but in 1996 exhibition space in Hong Kong devoted to installation and |= Hong Kong’s position in relationship to its past and future performance art, along with publication, conferences, and —_ was. The resonances of this work thus were particularly other activities. Among the artists who founded Para/Site | meaningful in its time and space. were Tsang Tak Ping (Zeng Deping; b. 1959), a professor Phoebe Man violates taboos of public display in her at Hong Kong Polytechnic, and Phoebe Ching Ying Man Beautiful Flowers of 1996. Seeming to be a sea of sculptured (Wen Jingying; b. 1969). Their first exhibition of site-spe- blossoms, further inspection of the installation found the cific works, in a rented space in an old commercial neigh- _ petals to be sanitary napkins and the center to be eggshells borhood, reflected both upon the local neighborhood _ painted red [fig. 11.19]. Although this work, by its references and upon Hong Kong’s moment in history. Tsang’s work, to menstruation and reproduction, is less specific to its Hello! Hong Kong—Part 3, which used bamboo and galva- _locale, the motif of red eggshells refers to the hundred-day nized steel to partially construct a temporary stage for per- —_—_ celebration of a baby’s birth in southern Chinese custom

formance of Cantonese opera, spoke directly to the local _and is thus a culturally specific reference. The performance ALTERNATIVE CHINAS 239

4 ’ | a ins ~ ; :é | >4 -,3 | y : 4 ' 44 ieet,¥ Lg Se : = f. t | -_ ) mw. | / a, = ee ) ,5 aa?|a°j.Nil, ~ a - ae. 4 enamel -

f|;}

—e * 23 ad : F r 3 |

11.19 Phoebe Ching Ying Man (Wen Jingying; b. 1969), Beautiful Flowers (detail), 1996, 11.20 Ho Siu-kee (He Zhaoji; b. 1964), Walking on Two Balls, installation with sanitary napkins, colored eggshells, and chair with light bulb, dimensions 1995, installation with video, flip book, and two wooden

variable, Collection of the Artist balls, Collection of the Artist

xe

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11.21 Wilson Ka-ho Shieh (Shi Jiahao; b. 1970), Victoria City, 2006, ink and watercolor on silk, 71 x 95 cm, private collection, Hong Kong

art of Ho Siu-kee (He Zhaoji; b. 1964) focused on the body the Japanese colonial administration was prone to applyfrom a significantly different perspective. In his 1995 video _ ing racist distinctions to the Chinese and aboriginal inhabithe presents himself attempting to walk on two large sculp- —_ ants of Taiwan in the same way that white colonizers might tured balls [fig. 11.20]. His work challenges the way the body — denigrate nonwhite subject peoples. Following a number has learned to move and to see by temporarily disabling it. of fierce rebellions against the Japanese military in the first In its temporal context, however, it was also interpreted by decade or two after 1895, however, by 1920 the island had many viewers in an allegorical way. For many of these art- —_ been brought under civilian control. Given the assumpists in the uncertain period immediately before and after tion of racial and cultural superiority, Japan energetically the retrocession, exhibition of postmodern art that explored endeavored to bring modern civilization, as it existed in the local concerns, and was conceived in Western installation | homeland, to its new territory. Art was one of its symbols. and performance modes, was a way of distancing themselves The Chinese residents of Taiwan had migrated primarfrom a Chinese identity they could not yet comprehend or __ ily from Fujian and other coastal areas of southern China.

accept. Their art and literature, at the time they were annexed by Beginning in 2001, also with funding from the Hong _ Japan, was a reflection of styles popular in Fujian and to a Kong Arts Development Council, Hong Kong—now lesser degree in coastal Guangdong, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu. known as the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region As the colonizing power launched a long-term program to (SAR) of the PRC—began organizing its own submission — completely replace Chinese culture with that of its own, this to the Venice Biennale. In 2005, for example, Chan Yuk- _ preexisting Chinese art was systematically left out. Indeed, keung (Chen Yugiang; b. 1959), then a curator-critic-artist when the Japanese began instituting a modern educational associated with Para/Site, represented Hong Kong with the system in Taiwan, it was entirely based on their own eduinstallation Empty City, Inverted, Suspended. The struggle cational, cultural, and linguistic norms.'? Chinese culture with artistic and cultural identity has remained a power- __ was relegated to the position of an exotic, primitive motif. ful theme in postretrocession Hong Kong, particularly as The Japanese written language replaced Chinese, and young a younger generation of native Hong Kong artists emerge. Taiwanese took Japanese names. Taiwan would be made Wilson Ka-ho Shieh (Shi Jiahao, b. 1970), for example, cre- modern and Japanese at the same time. As early as 1911, ated paintings of Victoria City, the old name for downtown Taiwanese students began enrolling in Taipei's Japanese Hong Kong. His work personifies the city’s major architec- | School (Kokugo gakk6), an institution set up for the pritural landmarks, which were constructed by companies of | mary purpose of educating the children of Japanese colodifferent nationalities in different periods and styles, as eth- _ nists in the island’s capital. One of the earliest Chinese artnically varied women wear garments that cleverly refer to _—ists to graduate was sculptor Huang Tushui (1895—1930), their architectural motifs [fig. 11.21]. The images are fully | who studied in the teacher training program from 1911 to comprehensible only to those with intimate familiarity with 1915 and then at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts. He exhibHong Kong as a place and also knowledgeable about the _ited his academic sculptures repeatedly in Tokyo’s Imperial history of its urban development. To take only one example, Art Exhibition beginning with the Second Teiten in 1920. I. M. Peis Bank of China building, commissioned by the | Other important Taiwanese educated in this school were government of the People’s Republic of China, was com- __ oil painters Chen Cheng-po (Chen Chengbo; 1895-1947) pleted in 1989. Hsieh has played with its triangular motifs [see fig. 4.4], who graduated in 1917; Kuo Po-chuan (Guo and elegant lines in his graceful female figure, but signifies Bochuan) in 1921; Liao Chi-chun (Liao Jichun; 1902-1976) her ethnicity by the triangle of her coolie hat. The language —_ in 1922; and Li Shih-chiao (Li Shiqiao) in 1929.

of exoticism is applied equally to all those who erected A great many Japanese teachers were dispatched to iconic architectural monuments in the former colony. Taiwan to run the Japanese school system, and Japanese artists soon began exhibiting their work in Taiwan. These COLONIAL AND POSTCOLONIAL ART OF TAIWAN Western-style (yéga) and Japanese-style (nihonga) painters The island of Taiwan, located seventy-five miles off the coast would determine the direction of Taiwanese art. The first of Fujian province, was ceded to Japan in 1895 following tour of duty in Taiwan for watercolorist Ichikawa Kinichiréd the Qing dynasty’s defeat in the Sino-Japanese War. Taiwan (1871-1945) began in 1907, with his dispatch to the new colthus had a distinctive colonial history: unlike the colonial — ony as an army translator. By 1909 he had begun teaching parts of Asia that fell under the control of European pow- __ art at the Japanese School in Taipei and eventually became ers, it was subjugated by another Asian nation. This did not _ one of the longest-serving art teachers during Taiwan’s coloameliorate Taiwan's colonial experience; on the contrary, nial period (1909-16 and 1924-32). He was reasonably well ALTERNATIVE CHINAS 241

4 . . 7 \— A) Sy — ¢ RY eas, _ “Ry ? «ite, Pee ‘cigs ae : FY

Vee. NR ee

11.22 Kuo Hsueh-hu (Guo Xuehu; aa AWA ih 4g SE sag 2 : ? :

1908-2012), Atthe | eae lg tosh Yuanshan, 1928, inkSideof andcoloron” § ,OMB 3 ay tet Be \

silk, 94.3 x 175 cm, selected for the oS ve Wi he SAS

Second Taiwan Exhibition, ae.ee Fa ie : ; | Taipei FinePainting Arts Museum = ee connected in the Tokyo art world, having exhibited in both — exhibition, thirty-seven were by Japanese painters and only the Meiji Art Society exhibitions and in the official Bunten. three by young Taiwanese. Of these, Kuo Hsueh-hu (Guo

Some of Ishikawa’s students thus went on to the Tokyo Xuehu, 1908-2012) [fig. 11.22], Lin Yushan (1907-2004), School of Fine Arts and successful careers as oil painters. and the female painter Chen Chin (Chen Jin; 1907-1998) Graduates of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts who taught in were all born and educated in the colonial period and thereTaiwan, such as nihonga painter Gohara Koté (1887-196s) fore might represent the new Taiwanese colonial subject. At and oil painter Shiotsuki Toho (1885-1954; 1921-1945 in the time of the exhibition, 1927, Lin Yushan was already Taiwan), played a similarly important role in mentoring — studying at the Kawabata Art School in Tokyo. ‘The year young artists and determining the direction of Taiwan's art. before, Chen Chin had enrolled at the Tokyo Women’s Art In early twentieth-century Japan, official exhibitions, | School, the first Taiwanese girl to be admitted. She painted particularly the Bunten (the Ministry of Education Fine — figures extremely beautifully in a nihonga style typical of Arts exhibition) and the Teiten (the Imperial Fine Arts exhi- | Tokyo School of Fine Arts graduates. Nibonga, while not bition), were the primary venues in which an artist might limited to a simple, easily definable manner, was usually establish a reputation.*? With Taiwan's stabilization a need _ painted with great precision on silk with water-based pigwas seen to establish a parallel system for the benefit of colo- = ments. What made it distinctively modern, while at the nials on the island. Thus for a decade, between 1927 and same time Japanese, was its highly selective synthesis of 1936, an annual Taiwan Fine Arts exhibition (Taiwan bijutsu. —_— certain representational conventions of Western and Asian

tenrankai, or Taiten) was held every October to demon- _ painting. A two-panel folding screen Chen Chin exhibited strate the progress made in developing Taiwan's colonial in the 1934 Teiten is typical. culture. One of the most significant features of the first all- The figures are large in scale, even monumental, as they island exhibition, which codified the acceptable forms ofart = might be in a nineteenth-century European portrait, and for the colonized Taiwanese, was its complete exclusion of are rendered with anatomical accuracy and faithful attenChinese painting. The exhibition structure was set up with — tion to observed details of attributes (such as musical two categories for painting, Oriental-style painting (toyégaz) —_ instruments) and ornamentation (including jewelry, draped

and Western-style painting (sezydga).*' “Oriental-style paint- fabric, and inlaid mother-of-pearl). Vanishing-point pering” was almost identical to what would be called “zihonga” _ spective is suggested in the angled ends of the lacquered (Japanese painting) if exhibited in Tokyo. The purpose of bench, but the flesh of the female figures, rendered in outthe name change was apparently conciliatory—to open the _line and evenly toned pigment, is intentionally flat, creating exhibition to the local Chinese population—but in practice —_a striking contrast between costume and body. Moreover, the jury admitted only Taiwanese who had worked in the __ the figures are set against a blank background, an East Asian Japanese style. It also suggested that Japan’s destiny was to _ pictorial convention often seen in nihonga. A striking touch

lead the other, “backward” peoples of Asia.” in this synthesis of the modern and traditional, Chinese and Of the forty works of toydga exhibited in the first Taiwan —_ Japanese, is the contrast between the red high heels of one 242 ALTERNATIVE CHINAS

ic, . — 7 =9 ’ , te

au -mUCtC j a f=

‘i

@.a>> ae Ava “a B. l, ;Te me.

i "y oe4- A,Pad ji4 4 ne 11.23 Chen Chin (Chen Jin; 1907-1998), x a0 J mats | Instrumental Ensemble, 1934, folding :?Rs e screen, color on silk, 200 x 177 cm,

selected for the Fifteenth Teiten, Japan, Collection of the Artist's family.

stylish musician and the Chinese slippers of her companion. tured the local color of Taiwan in his watercolors. A numThus, the work is completely Japanese in style and format, ber of Taiwanese oil painters were recognized in the First only referring to the artist's own heritage in details of cos- — _Taiten. They included Liao Chi-chun, Chen Cheng-po, tume and furniture [fig. 11.23]. Both landscape painter Kuo — and Yang Shanlang, all three of whom were then studyHsueh-hu and figure painter Chen Chin were promoted in ing in Japan; local color was also much in evidence in their the colonial art world by nihonga painter Gohara Kot6, who work [fig. 11.24]. Chen Cheng-po was the first Taiwanese

worked in Taiwan from 1919 to 1936. oil painter to show in the Imperial Exhibition, in 1926. In Japanese colonists and local Taiwanese alike were encour-

aged by Tokyo critics to develop a distinctively Taiwanese ‘ dn ms > Hei .- : a hall

way of painting, but selection criteria for the official exhibi- Be va ag

tions limited this distinctiveness to subject matter and not ” style. In a lecture delivered in Taipei in 1925, the director

of the Tokyo School of of Fine Arts,tastes,” Masaki Naohiko, spoke 2 aie eloquently on the virtues “exotic which he associ1 . :ol: ;3°a re id a” ated with the cultured citizens of a superior race.*’ Critical it fiom ~ ay BA. ff , . a "4

enthusiasm for exoticism in art (similar to European Ori- 4 dalle id war , a entalism, butlocal herecolor.* focused entirely within theconveyed Orient) |led | * a.ie— * to a focus on Painting subjects that eederr . aesey 6 ~"ntake eS ia a * hy) 3 | Tea syncretic blend of Chinese brushwork with Western effects

Bie oJ ie A Rhy a, le ) of light and shade and a romantic sense of drama. He

WS ,: 3 a ae: May : ¥ devoted himself to landscape paintings that were assumed : , ee ere aS een ee to represent real places, but as they grew less and less specific “, 4 ad, _F . we | ie oe over time, they were received as icons of the Chinese homee 5 oh ae wg aes Snel aoe land to which all mainlanders sought to return.

bs _ a — Huang Junbi became chair of the Art Department at

“ a 4 ee Tye SK Taiwan Provincial Normal College when he moved to Tai-

Pew, é _ “me / He Y “# ey, wan in 1949, a school that in 1967 was renamed National f eis ae i , me ! ‘i : We j e Taiwan Normal University. Up until his retirement in 1971, EB Sas 1S he tee os ls nga : Huang taught several generations of students at Taiwan's

os Yo Ah eS i ; best art program and executed commissions for a variety of Ee -_* age Vea ss high-level private and institutional patrons [fig. 11.28]. His ig yy | an Stee ay blunt brushwork and generalized landscape imagery was fag Gh : 4 —a extremely influential among graduates of Taiwan Normal. me a LA i: : In contrast, Puru, the second major figure among the distintk oe ieee Oe , a guished mainland immigrants, was influential for the pre-

ng ae a © te ee : \\t . Uf. cision and discipline of his brushwork [fig. 11.29]. A cousin

aj £ CS Lo ; Ae of the last Qing emperor, Puru (also known as P’u Hsin-yii Sa S ry a ; or Pu Xinyu) was traditionally educated in calligraphy and AY Vib \ : . classical literature, especially poetry, but then studied at a

yy) ) modern school in Beijing and in Berlin after World War : ; f P : | I. It is not known with whom he studied painting, but his ee royal heritage certainly provided access both to instruction

11.28 Huang Junbi (Huang Chun-pi; 1898-1991), and to opportunities to study high-quality early paintings, Landscape, 1947, hanging scroll, ink and color on paper, and his primary inspiration was the comparatively fine and

Collection of Michael Yun-wen Shih, Tainan ae oe + . naturalistic painting of the Tang and Song dynasties. In

these early years, Puru joined the Xuannan huashe, a group Art Academy professor to stridently denigrate Japanese art _—_ of art-loving Beijing luminaries, including Chen Hengque,

and all Taiwanese who painted in the Japanese style. The | Yao Hua, Shen Yinmo, and Liang Qichao, who met at the issue of whether what was formerly called téyéga could be —_ home of Yu Shaosong south of the Xuanwu Gate in Beijing. considered Chinese painting provided a constant source —_—In 1924, Puru met the young Zhang Dagian, a traditionalist of debate that surrounded the provincial exhibition; for a artist with whom his name would later be linked, in Beijing, time two categories of guohua were exhibited, the second of | and in 1926 he held his first solo exhibition in Beijing’s Centhem essentially téydga. In the 1980s the latter was renamed __ tral Park. Puru’s work was included in the contemporary jiaocaihua (glue-and-pigment painting) in reference to its Chinese painting exhibition in Berlin in 1933. He taught at 246 ALTERNATIVE CHINAS

| in the central part of the island, in the vocabulary of classi-

24 i ; cal painting. 4 | 4 eo ht Fi In a truly remarkable saga, more than sixteen thouts i. P set ee sand crates of precious art treasures were removed from the i ie # : ‘ fs ane 4 Palace Museum in Beijing for safekeeping before the SinoBi j, 2 : et ' 2 | 4 Japanese War. Eighty of them were sent to the London exhiBa + Ey ¥ | “ : a : a bition in 1935-1936 and returned. They were kept first in . : Oe. | ie : a Nanjing, but after the war broke out they were shipped in

vy mas: pa ‘fussing 3s various stages on a perilous journey inland to Chongqing.

, a Ai 4nlke 4 et Pee Then, survived the eight-year war with Japan intact, ee.me ‘i. :Fg thehaving collection was believed to be endangered by the civil My ‘ 2 é | te yl war. In 1948, as part of the Nationalist government's deci‘i ‘ ‘. , aN . #5 oe) sion to withdraw to Taiwan, it planned to move the impeyee yi ‘Q > + me sa oa rial treasures once again. In the end, only about 20 percent ee ¥ 8 oe , ~» e yy oY a of the collection was actually shipped to Taiwan, with the

eh ae 3 i $ a3 4 a remainder safely returned to Beijing's Palace Museum, but eit?wa Suist at ie « .r italid: ‘ ‘ what was taken included some of the greatestFor works of art, Lid are a including masterpieces of Chinese painting. a decade oe ‘ mal 2 Le O:.. Ae * the curators cared for them in two warehouses of the Taiwan Ae: amt. 7% 4 % et + | Sugar Company in central Taiwan, with a small exhibition

Begs x ae 3 a Fi yj hall only built in Taizhong with U.S. funding in 1957. + ey au _— : 2 i" 3 ie In 1961 and 1962 a major exhibition of works from the

ST eA . ,

\ va mr! A (oe Palace Collection was sent on a tour of major museums in

3 | ay E ek: ab i aid ae le fj the United States.*° This beautifully selected exhibition not

a te EE TOs Se 7 only stimulated interest in the field, but its accompanying

*\ Ree Re ye scholarly projects, most notably photographing the entire \ tek collection for teaching purposes, made it feasible for the first fe ae " ay time in the United States to study and teach Chinese art his-

| , tory with stylistic and visual analysis as sophisticated as that

11.29 Puru (P’u Hsin-yli; 1896-1963), Mountains in . ;

Aerie Sach bees i neces a practiced in the more fully developed fields of European art CallocHonoR Michael Vantwen Shih lainan history. Another significant result of the exhibition's success was a matching grant to the Republic of China's government by the United States Agency for International Development

the Beijing Arc Academy and after the war briefly also atthe = (USAID) to construct a museum for the collection. From

National Art Academy in Hangzhou. this time it was evident that return to the mainland would Puru was thus a well-established traditionalist artist | not happen soon, and the authorities in Taiwan set about before his migration to Taiwan in 1949. He joined Huang — defining Taiwan's new ideological position. Because the Junbi at the Provincial Normal College as well as continu- = Republic of China claimed to represent the true China, ing his private teaching. He worked in both the gongbi __ research and dissemination of knowledge about these clas(outline) style for figures and birds-and-flowers and a deli- _sics of premodern Chinese art were an important project, as cately textured landscape mode inspired by Song painting. | was promotion of high-quality contemporary painting in In 1958 and again in 1962 he taught for a time at the New the traditionalist mode. Asia College in Hong Kong. Among his students in Taiwan Zhang Daqian (Chang Dai-chien; 1899-1983), one of was Chiang Chao-shen (Jiang Zhaoshen; 1925-1997), who the most technically skilled and versatile of the traditional mastered the refined landscape techniques of his teacher _ painters to leave the mainland, conducted a twenty-five-year but then supplemented this background with study of the flirtation with the Nationalist government before finally National Palace Museum collection, where he worked asa —_ making the decision to settle on the island in 1976. By the curator and deputy-director. The most important innova- time he did, he had become a local cultural icon. After 1949, tion of Anhui-born Chiang Chao-shen was to render the = Chang visited Taiwan, settled briefly in Hong Kong, and actual landscape of Taiwan, particularly the dramatic peaks then finally, in 1953, established a long-term residence in ALTERNATIVE CHINAS 247

"2 Pie ne

ers ings at the newly constructed National Palace Museum in

— a In 1971 Zhang Dagian exhibited his new mode of ink—— B and-color painting at Hong Kong’s City Hall Art Gallery

and Museum. By this time he had developed a spontaneous

, style of painting that seems to have been equally inspired by

“3 i his creative reading of Tang dynasty art texts (a description , } x of a master of splashed ink, in particular) and his encounters

| with abstract expressionist painting. It was certainly appre-

Jelistemaots ; : ciated by audiences familiar with contemporary Western

a - 5 f : art for its spontaneity and abstraction. Despite the resem7 ot 7 | blance between some of his works of the late 1960s and ie» A , al

bo» - 11.33 Landscape, Chuang Che 1966, (Zhuang | — ar —

Ne ic ee 8) . 3 . Caan wae ee > EAS a tn cae Tiere a aerate |;4 i ’ ae) « -» ey we 1 ‘p % ha ie ’ ~,

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fil F< AR LL? FRTN ANE es, ‘ ai AI: LE lh ° a Bene | Hedy ye oa, a ee) Pie

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fi PE ea . ® ie a OM , é . eae) as éal4£uib: rei hee eo a? ;>4 ae i Bay ce MR = 4 :

So an Tae Mang oe eeENON eas : 2. :). eed SARS BLN ie = a CPE hy sat Mhaa > vie Oe Kr, = Nee nt y a. ES ag wh ri = nos cae a SEY 7 : ‘4 Se ae Toa et raat ar Beer tai, ' : see neFESO ek a ry a WPS i, ad TISPSOSSSESISOS OS

a ate ie :#. a ede AfeesPes erm” PE at , , ' ae gee Age Tac kig a dt.’ SES, : Pi i ay Pot “ / . rt 4 ‘ a * >

oe he cx592 eta PU CY te Biioe a it -. ae —— a, $$ = s) ) rer ewe ee Teereer an aa Slee

Ney ae ag : —ire. : ee .“oto % _—— oe l ee 2 i , 4 "~ i ia : i eel & -Ver “Se,Pa : »* aa* _oe™«, .es Psee. =~¢oe wc ’>!

, ‘a dgaadwee” »* y*” 7 i: -' ef iP “1 Fi , aaFP

11.42 Michael Lin (Lin Minghong; b. 1964), Georgia Street Plaza, 23.01-02.05.10, 2010, painted on metal, 1,158 x 1,646 cm, at Vancouver Art Gallery, Collection of the Artist

they shared certain general characteristics. Both societies had _its to the People’s Republic of China. In general, however, been very dramatically changed by their colonial experiences. by 1990 artists in Hong Kong and Taiwan inhabited an art At the same time, their practical separation from China, par- world that was cut off culturally, psychologically, and, to ticularly between 1949 and the 1980s, had produced a cul- some extent, ethnically from that of the mainland. It would tural and psychological separation as well. A few artists with only be with China's reopening in 1993 that certain inter-

strong emotional, personal, or family ties on the mainland, nationally oriented artists from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and such as Liu Kuo-sung and C. C. Wang, began frequent vis- China would begin to share the common space of global art.

ALTERNATIVE CHINAS 255

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No U-Turn

Chinese Art after 1989

The June 4, 1989, massacre at Tiananmen Square was a turning point in the political life of China and had an equally profound impact on the country’s art and artists. Immediately subjected to strong political pressure, the Chinese art world entered a strangely quiet period. ‘The art historian Francesca dal Lago has described it as a period of “sobering up” after “nearly a decade of cultural intoxication.”' Hard-line party the-

orists enforced this inward turn by targeting the New Wave, and its culmination in the February 1989 China/Avant-Garde exhibition, as part of the ideological deviancy that had led to the demonstrations. The logo designed by Nanjing artist Yang Zhilin (b. 1956) for the 1989 exhibition, a No U-Turn sign, was prescient [see fig. 10.21]. Few

members of the cultural world, despite threats and cajoling, could be persuaded to support a return to leftist cultural policy. Officials who were ordered to investigate participants in the demonstration reported that they had failed to find any evidence. No one, for example, seems to have noticed who constructed the very large Goddess of Democracy on the very small campus of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. This searing experience marked the end of official art. In the period immediately after June 4, many Chinese artists avoided participation in official art exhibitions. Many others left China. Those who remained in China withdrew into their own private realms, where they continued to produce art, with no thought for public display, publication, or collective discussion. Between 1989 and 1992 the entire society was under such severe political pressure that art went underground and, in its isolated setting, found certain kinds of freedom. Ironically, because of widespread noncooperation with the government's attempted cultural crackdown, artists operated in a realm of social isolation that might be characterized as low pressure. They could not exhibit, but they continued to work for themselves and for the approval of trusted friends. During 257

:rn eeaaeoa . —S |t :a +m’Ain . 7 ORO) 3hee an :=D

asTohale BE : = 233 Sewer Wee Vile aM 12.2 Xu Bing aietice Lead 1% —\ BRAS

oii ab “oe YY BAAR :

——msgs: ee j ‘ - , 4 2, -~ \Se c~ eo AS eens TON (b. 1955), Ghosts , FF, Hat Leos \5'Oh e ANeat STARS Pounding the Wall, areacceS west 'eS n ’ EA \. noone a 7media SSS 1990-91, mixed ee es installation,

=2ee— ’ SSElvehjem - ete Sa 3,200 Museum x 1,500 cm, at

-— Palit ARE ob eS

= = of Art, University of

aia

Wisconsin, Madison

ase aT /4ff..*™ ; eral eer ee a rE oT > . . ee * Z. — =e == ~ Pe i ~ °. ft toe

il ff ee entered stone, while in the same process stone became ’ AaS At.=.UTiat part of myself.

Pie at > tj ~~ A publication blackout, which remains effective in

et ’ . 7, — ae . * ° : :or, ,¥&eal maeub ~ : "P =, a . .,. ~ . .P ..~ 3 . & } = SS . . e ° *

‘Vy Ko 6, —t ~ | China today, was imposed on writing or publicly speaking ran " L\A 2 5 | of the events of June 4. Young oil painting faculty, trained

;=

— aw p> Px» — by socialist-realist professors in their representational tech-

aX | : - niques but too young to have any memory of the ideals of

She gee so high socialism, began their careers in this oppressive atmoe PF ie, aapbtay ae sphere and devoted their art not to the nation or the peo-

a >. = ; ple but to very personal reflections on themselves and their

af: ae| gs g y .F‘‘ “a a ' ) ~ ta times, most often in the form of technically polished depic-

> ” ae tions of their ennui. Indeed, one of the dominant trends

oe Pe =, - , of the 1990s was the abandonment of “important subject

ee [> ~——s matter” and a turn to the concerns of everyday life. Liu

ua bs: Pt eee Xiaodong (b. 1963), then teaching at the Central Academ

: a “a of Fine Arts Middle School, depicted the various activities ~ «l : = that young men of the period, his friends, devised to waste ’ time: drinking, eating, or bathing. Rarely do his characters a actually seem to have any fun. The work of Yu Hong (b.

es os. " 1966) from this time has a dreamlike quality, often depicting

, a stylishly dressed young women, some recognizable as self12.3 Sui Jianguo (b. 1956), Structure series, 1992-1994, steel, stone, Portralts, Hoating inexplicably in the air [fig. 12.4].

dimensions variable, Collection of the Artist Even sharper trends appeared outside Beijing. Wang Guangyi (b. 1955), then teaching in Wuhan, began a series

of postmodern reflections on politics and commerce, his

NO U-TURN 259

ee j ¥. =VS !'+

Lam ‘ s . Pe yo

= » TFel ‘\ y iee , : —— t~ pa 1 e

— ie Ly is yeae.TS. eeap‘GOaitgs. aRe;i Soe uyiuva _~ Sas. re tht gS > 4° a — ng cally trained artists, but their time at the East Village was : Ly i W om | devoted to challenging the aesthetic and social boundaries ae i ~ SG ) of the established art world. Rong Rong documented the 7 : Su activities and art of East Village artists, along with captur3 ing startling images of the changing life of the capital in

ee : , ; ; ; ; :

two series, Wedding Gowns and Ruins. In the performance 12.22 Shi Hui (b. 1955), Nets, 1994-1995, threads, paper pulp, xuan piece 7o Add One Meter to An Unknown Mountain, naked paper, wood, lights, 90 x 90 x 15 cm x 24, Collection of the Artist East Village artists identified themselves by name, weighed

272 NO U-TURN

aw ake || Da : a 4a ~~, P % ‘a - te 3 Pe * ihe ee ’

_ ~~ ‘ ;ee. * a “a A “ ; 2, ’ ' , : j ’-™: >ey af > = ¥ ™) 4; - . NW

a , Abiaks ri “Stet D abs ee’ ae . ts :RETIN Yi lak? esee=e - ad

12.23 Zhang Huan (b. 1965), To Add One Meter to An Unknown Mountain, performance at Miaofeng Mountain, Beijing, May 22, 1995

themselves, and then piled their bare bodies one atop the other to a height of about a meter [fig. 12.23]. Exploring the limits of the self, some of the East Village artists conducted masochistic performances with their own bodies. In a solo

3 | —— — . 28 . . : oo on

performance by Zhang Huan, 12 Square Meters, the artist | . covered himself in honey and sat for an hour in the fly- ; ; .

ridden East Village public lavatory. : es

Performance art could also be quite political in the mid- = = — _ = 1990s and might even be performed, under cover of dark- ? ) a == ness, in the most public of places. Song Dong’s Breathing, ! ~ o

in which he repeatedly exhaled on a patch of the wintry . pavement of Tiananmen Square until he had covered it sae with ice, challenges the aura of this symbolic political space +.

: oiw.e Whee , i. Y ih.3 |2’». .BS 5 pa ~¢“

[fig. 12.24]. The word for “to exhale,” tugi, may also be used

figuratively as “to express opinions.” The June 4 massacre wR AL wy was then, and For remains today,of prohibited as amovement topic of public discourse. witnesses the student the i_aay | : ittie» }

. * > * TT a a ee a = = _

square was haunted with disappointment and tragic memo- : ries. The meaningless results of Song Dong’s comically ear- = , nest efforts evoke a certain hopelessness. —— — — Similarly, the plight of impoverished migrant laborers — a

~e . i ~~, ui : —_ —- _— a :

who were building the new infrastructure of 1990s China gs ™ — —

has been a constant theme in art of the 1990s and new mil- oe ; lennium. Zhu Fadong (b. 1962), in an absurdist engagement 2 with this social problem, used his own body to personify —, « “' ~~ the countless unemployed or underemployed workers who : e 5) * none ° e e work. Carrying a briefcase and wearing a blue Mao suit, he parts, 120 x 180 cm each, The Uli Sigg Collection

NO U-TURN 273

walked of Beijing for two with a notice =e attachedthe to streets his back: “This person is weeks for sale, price nego-a: BS ; |

from Kunming in 1994. ; cer : a The physical pace of urban development in China during tS . ‘ the 1990s proceeded with a speed that was more than many f |

inhabitants could psychologically bear. After decades of . SaaS ii ;

political struggle and economic stagnation, the general state | , : HL a | of Chinese housing in the 1990s was dire, and most people ) ep PE.

were eager to move out of cramped and dilapidated quar- i ? a aT ters into new apartments. [he speed of urban deconstruc- oo \ i f tion was astonishing, however, and almost everyone had the » i. va 4 j experience of finding neighborhoods they had known all Se ie j their lives suddenly converted into totally unfamiliar land- 4 re

scapes. Overnight whole sections of cities were razed, streets a 'y 7 & relocated, and all landmarks obliterated. People were sud- Ma tn } \ ae * | denly strangers in their own urban environment. Artists P23, , Y = confronted the rebuilding of China's cities from a variety a a — ‘. of points of view, ranging from the emotional confusion of - a

individuals to the social effects of mass relocation. Siting his : a. =. performance in front of a high-rise that was under construc- Pak tats 54 a : tion, in 1995, Lin Yilin, for example, built a cinderblock wall ag de . 2

in the middle of a busy Guangzhou Street. “ rhs 2 A number of Beijing artists also intervened artistically in 7 the devastating urban destruction they witnessed but could fate Aine 0 (b. 1963), Dialogue, 1998, photograph, not prevent. Between 1995 and 1998, Zhang Dali (b. 1963) PONG ENOL Gert et spray-painted more than two thousand caricatures of himself on walls all over Beijing. His project resonated with the profound distress and nostalgia that many Beijing residents felt for the old courtyard houses that gave the city its char-

acter, and a sense of powerlessness in the face of the pro- > > found spatial and aesthetic changes imposed on the people = by city bureaucrats. Zhang’s graffiti would often appear after yy,

workmen had, seemingly randomly, marked the word chai (demolish) on a building's wall. One of his most formally

striking photographs places a corner of the yellow-tiled — Forbidden City in the hole in a partially demolished wall } [fig. 12.25]. He wrote of his series: “I firmly believe people a >. |

are the products of their environment, and changes in the m L 1 —— environment actively alter the nature of the people.”’ 42.26 Zhang Peili (b. 1957), Water: Standard Pronunciation, Ci A significant development in artistic practice in the Hai (Sea of Words), 1992, video, Collection of the Artist

1990s was the appearance of photography and video as independent art forms. They had been used in the 1980s to document performances, and the boundaries between these — most brilliantly absurd political works of the time is his 1992

three arts are not always clear, but in the 1990s more artists | video Water, in which he comments on the common culwere recognized for work intended to be experienced only ture of China's state-run media [fig. 12.26]. For this proas a photograph or film. Zhang Peili (b. 1957), for exam- — duction he hired Xing Zhibin, the well-known newscaster ple, began to move away from painting during the cultural | who was seen by the Chinese public as the face and voice hiatus of the post-Tiananmen massacre period. One of his of the authorities: they knew her as the person who read

274 NO U-TURN

ét

) cu = || :: |

ar |14)2]bee SS ”"

Ava E by ee " y= KA SNA i 0:7 | “ft aS =e ) , Le => WomrsiypNanind iy smoking? |) \

| 4 oS d 3 at 3 yee. ey 1 i . mt

12.27 Yang Fudong (b. 1964), City Lights, 2000, photographs ne

(video stills), Collection of the Artist * , | F7 ; MN, }

the latest party proclamations on the evening news.* Zhang . |

Peili employed this announcer, posed and dressed just as she -— =.

appeared on CCTV, to read a long entry, “Water,” from the — a authoritative Chinese dictionary, in Cihai (Sea of Words). 12.28 Zhao Bandi (b. 1966), Zhao Bandi and Panda Kitty, 1999, photoParticularly in the context of the leftist domination of the graph, dimensions variable, Collection of the Artist

media that followed June 4, the sight of this mouthpiece of the party on the screen initially raised ominous expectations

in the minds of its Chinese viewers. When she unexpectedly themes [fig. 12.28]. Taking the form of a public service filled their ears with words that were completely without poster, Zhao Bandi and Xiong Maomi help one another meaning, however, they were convulsed with laughter. This productively consider many distressing problems; unemis a brilliant piece in which the artist confronts government ployment, violence, drugs, smoking, product counterfeiting, censorship by conveying his meaning ina literally meaning- | and AIDS, as well issues of civic morality and public safety.

less form. When work of this avant-garde artist is shown in an art gal-

Many videos and photographs of the mid-1990s ex- _lery, these photographs may be read as ironic parodies of the ploited the absurdities in urban life that resulted from the mass media, rather like the work of Zhou Tiehai. The Zhao uneven pace of development to comment on current social — Bandi character earnestly protects his panda from the perissues. Video artist Yang Fudong (b. 1964) devoted anum- _ ils of modern society, and Maomi reciprocates, even saving ber of ironic projects to the new urban class that appeared in = Zhao Bandi from suicide. The public relations value of the the 1990s: smartly dressed white-collar office workers, whom Chinese panda, a national zoological treasure, makes Maomi he portrays as disoriented characters in a brand-new “post- _a_ precious stand-in for the Chinese everyman but, rather socialist” space [fig. 12.27]. City Lights of 2000 makes superb _like a ventriloquist, Zhao Bandi uses his toy panda to make psychological use of odd contrasts in setting—the solidly childlike observations an adult could not straightforwardly constructed architectural edifices of 1920s and 1930s capital- utter. This series is gentle rather than cynical in its humor, ist Shanghai, the run-down traces of Maoist neglect, andthe —_ and rather like Jeff Koons’s Big Puppy, is found lovable by the

surprising suddenness of new apartment and office towers _ public despite its ironic intentions. Zhao Bandi and Panda of the late 1990s. At the same time, superficial similarities Kitty is so cute and its simple dialogue so disarming that the between present and past are invoked by his references to the = Shanghai Municipal government allowed its photographs to look of Shanghai and Hollywood films of the 1930s. be mounted on advertising panels at the Shanghai Airport, Performance artist Zhao Bandi (b. 1966) plays himself as where with cynicism not immediately evident, they successa character in a series of humorous photographs in which _ fully masqueraded as public service posters.

he and his stuffed panda, Panda Kitty (Xiong Maomi), In the 1990s new media began to succeed in its struggle exchange edifying remarks, bilingually, on current social to gain recognition in the Chinese art world and interna-

NO U-TURN 275

P . — = : tionally. Seeing the abandonment of traditional mediums as an opportunity to attain new expressive possibilities, ink

7 artists also experimented outside conventional formats, sub-

| — jects, and styles. Particularly inspired by such overseas art= ists as Zhao Wuji (Zao Wou-ki) and Liu Kuo-sung (Liu

, Es Guosong), who lectured in China in the 1980s and early 1990s, as well as by Gu Wenda’s work of the 1980s, ink art-

fe ists sought to create a modernist revolution in China's indigenous artistic medium. Ink art had played a role, even if

cm, Collection of the Artist , id fae "

12.29 Wang Dongling (b. 1945), Qian Kun, ink on paper, 69 x 69 comparatively small, in the 1989 China/Avant-Garde exhibi-

tion. By the 1990s, encouraged by critic Pi Daojian, a group of abstract ink artists were grouped together as pioneers of “experimental ink art.” By 1998 they had achieved some rec-

ognition both domestically and abroad and were featured in the Second Shanghai Biennale in 1998, in A Century in Crisis, a major exhibition of modern Chinese art held at the

are 7 Bais Guggenheim Museum in New York and Bilbao, Spain, in

- cea 1998, and in Jnside Out in New York and San Francisco.” a “7 The calligrapher Wang Dongling (b. 1945), strongly influ4 " enced by Japanese modernism, seeks to imbue his work with

a : = = mia! Ape 4 the powe Bort — and design fig. ID): ee

J one ROSE eR (b. 1959) is less interested in the purely formal properties of

4 ee eae 3 92 seesini>thebe ; : ; bist if ay og Boss Aee ee 2 ink and more expressive capabilities of his illusionism - ESR rs “a [fig. 12.30]. He describes his goal as to stimulate the subcon: Sw : ie scious and create an alternative spiritual world, a contrast - ma eS s to the rapidly changing environment in which his viewers

-: a actually live, with its disturbing problems of pollution, cor-

Bese = ruption, terrorism, epidemics, and war. Zhang's ink pursues

4 a e 4 the image of cosmic truth.

. = aa j Other artists, in search of cultural identity in the global ay pe ae artistic context, adopt the materials of traditional Chinese

4 Za . : gs eet S painting and calligraphy to represent the purity and sensi3 si a pa see eo a tivity of the indigenous ink aesthetic. Some expand beyond

“—— iy. ieee oe . = the two-dimensional format of the calligraphy and painting

i ail tradition into new media. Qiu Zhijie (b. 1969), intensely hi his Re engaged in the materiality of his project, applies a decon-

ee structionist approach to the idea of calligraphy in a work

3 that was at once a performance piece, a video, and a work of art on paper [fig. 12.31]. Assignment No. 1: Copying the “Orchid Pavilion Preface” a Thousand Times began with a cal-

ligraphic exercise—copying a famous text believed to represent the hand of the patriarch of Chinese calligraphy, Wang 12.30 Zhang Yu (b. 1959), Light of Spirit Series (No. 49): The Xizhi. Qi Zhijie reused the same paper over and over, evenFloating Sphere, 1996, ink on paper, 178 x 96 cm, Collection of tually transforming this venerable calligraphic model into

the Artist an illegible sea of black ink.

Artists of the 1990s in China turned for subject matter to a range of social and political issues, from the individual to the social, economic, political, and cultural. Painful examinations of the raw human body, images of China’s unfortunate

276 NO U-TURN

sé ait az i mit eh “ at i + Hit euperauous people,” ee dea of the icons of socialf ; ‘ : ‘ A ‘ ‘ : : ‘ ft as i 7 é 4 és 4 iat a : ist on — ~ Maoism, exploration of common —

: se = e ‘4 + a 4 7 : ih i 2 . me 5 A i fe & memOnes. ironic analyses of one caleiite, troubling i : at } 4 qi ae ri re rs Bs ®. at & * é es reflection on urban reconstruction, and occasional engageé + ‘ > be : : t i ‘ 4 : i he ot 4 ‘ i x an ments with the burden of Chinese tradition emerge among Rd “uF ®y aa ak ’ : ei gi SUR = ee z the many themes of Chinese art today.'? The formal and Segeidl, ME cal Ma God | A a oF i ¢ int # technical experiments of the 1980s, which brought installa-

: ¢ y a4 i tere vs y : 4 : . : 3 y : . ‘ 5 | tion art, video art, and performance art, among other new ee ve ege 4 es Ae i} 4 . tee es e expressive means, into their vocabulary led to a reconfigura; Aas Le oor ‘ ‘ Sie “ees Pao tap & ae tion of the mental world of artists and curators. In the 1990s

Le ae ea ‘'e et y Bone a . 9 & ; categorization by medium, such as oil, ink, or woodcut, SSC H 3 pe pt ERE eae . ae oe was challenged, and by the new millennium, official exhi-

ERP ESP RS Lee ee COLI eee: ee eee i Bi t thi Hee CREE wat y RY ge PSEA eg EG bitions, such as the Shanghai Biennale, began to reflect this change. New media were officially accepted as part of the

boi i : ! x t ‘ ' ; : .s ie hee : % aay 2000 Shanghai Biennale, and from this time on, exhibitions 2 3 . ; t # aot ¢ % : ae 3 a4 See eae have incorporated both new media and new concepts. The rEag 2 4 ae: e : : RE eh Ree 5 aoe: conceptual developments of the 1990s broke through into a ee # é : ¥, ] ne : : " i ae i f : or. more mature understanding of postmodernism on the part of ete Seas * .? : i + $2 : vy BR pee both the artists and the new generation of curators and arts

clit hen anil administrators in China. At the same time, the extraordinary changes in China's physical, social, and economic environment provide constant subject matter for artistic commentary and representation. The intention signaled by a “No U-Turn” sign hung outside the 1989 China/Avant-Garde show was finally realized, many years later, as a result of the persistent hard work of

. — — artists during the past two decades, beginning with those a bie rd a hou in the naderground between 1989 = 1992. Propaganda fy) ee \ A and formalism have both been left behind, and postmodern 2 : ? . approaches are part of the mainstream. Social commentary ae \ (Pa a has emerged as a constant element of China's contempo-

42.31 Qiu Zhijie (b. 1969), Assignment No. 1: Copying the rary art. As the then-young artists and curators of the 1980s

“Orchid Pavilion Preface” a Thousand Times, 1990-95, had hoped, China has joined the international art world. At video and photograph, ink, calligraphic text on rice paper, the end of the millennium, as they so boldly proclaimed in

Collection of Hanart, TZ Gallery, Hong Kong 1989, there was no turning back:

NO U-TURN Zi)

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=; , .; = Y}=» ™?=" ge -—_~ ~ ei, — 7 " ¥&2 “\\ “- ;FR: R . ioe ) ee!

(we LN , : YY, ye - 13.15 Zhong Biao (b. 1968), Collection of the Artist

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13.16 Yin Xiuzhen (b. 1963), Making Cities, 2005, mixed-media installation at Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, Collection of the Artist

Qe In the 1990siiss Chinese art was introduced to audiences DN Baie we) Mcatine et ok ; LW & a : . abroad tireugn its participation in eu and thematic

wey < chy ay iy oo exhibitions outside China. In China’s biennial decade, the

(Hy a “4 20008, exhibitions on an international model were institurh . 1 ; £ 4 tionalized as part of the internal workings of the Chinese vy 8 Dia = art world and attracted foreign artists, critics, and curators

a a at =|= | ea:7 Sz, =J{ at iid

13.22 Li Jin (b. 1958), Delicious (detail), 2006, ink and color on paper, 38 x 82.5 cm, Collection of the Artist

ss ; :

| '* |

13.23 Li Huayi (b. 1948), Dragon amidst Mountain Ridge, 2006-2009, six-panel screen with hanging scroll in front, ink and color on paper, each panel: 185.5 x 93 cm, nanging scroll: 205.3 x 109.5 cm, Collection

of Akiko Yamazaki and Jerry Yang | Sal a |

tae ool, a ,r 3Trkor

| hy ‘nae? : red » ySe a wee NN le atten afer.

' Me gy : 7 a ” eet y gh tee hela ty ' ai? |yeag le : a fina { inCig rey 4, Se me eeJ be vii) An area

vi” 4 ‘ ew NS, i:.]™i n> hyA‘hs RAS V's. ie te ee ‘a A / . ‘% " “a! al : \y | je wee’ by hs ' . ‘Tha 1 ae xe ue re ’ = Sie 4 , ‘ ' iv '% i. j : Pd va we ; A Sa ee

ae ee UN hes NIMES Le WE PPR : cet ‘ rate 4 RCIA isl," PTR LN LS.

é .. : .‘*,: : a: i! oe ii 1 th 7 Wy ya Abs Bd by ney : ai e$. ;_=~s ba OM ae bh) ah Peak anes = . Mod oe ee Ye gS tos oi ; fe NG ae os zt Shae \ 1 | \ 4.4! > 13.24 Pan Gongkai (b. 1947), Snow Melt, 2010, ink painting printed on canvas, with animation projected, 300 x 2,000 cm, the Central Academy of Fine Arts Museum

world attention in the context of China's rising economic T ee ite ES)\ 2x

. . . . ‘ ‘ ) be | 1> -— AS — —— — —_

stature has been internationally oriented art. A significant “4 uP Ss Ap 9 Rae a’

segment of the Chinese art scene, its ink artists, despite their a - \ A AVES tabs Ss —~

unflagging popularity at home, has largely escaped notice ge Te be ) y Sap 1 overseas [fig. 13.22]. Although at domestic auction, if one ae BS +) % eA

i. |iti 3. e’ ZY .: ~-FF. — ‘. f*h~~ ~ a ek : a

includes firms in small cities, guohua brings overall sales ~ ) 4 f rt henth figures as large as those for oil painting, with a few con- BY | Ne a a “a

, : : - Tr Ae ye So

spicuous examples [fig. 13.23], it remains of little interest to = 1 ee observers outside. The most interesting guo/ua artists follow mn DY Mes

neither a completely traditional path nor emulate the avant- , 2 a’ garde, but engage with contemporary conceptual, aesthetic, 7, - sae a *

- : i cools es "ae ys wy eh of

and social issues from their own perspective. eee =< #4

. . . . oo ' c —— ) .. .F. ;oe - A. 1 ‘ie7*n. — id ;'

Ink painter Pan Gongkai (b. 1947), resisting critical con- 7h, ON ge demnations that guwohua has marginalized itself by a back- | Spleen Pee ae Bi Ne oh : aor ~ = : bad sticks [fig. 13.25]. By this means he creates the impression Bai Big er. |

of a landscape painting by the absence of painted image Ps us, 4 .

within charred outlines. He then loosely mounts the trans- r | ;

ee . . 2 . ; ~ a

lucent paper, with its blackened quasi-outlines, over a sim- - oie ie} f

ple, rather routine ink-painted landscape, which renders the } ow + es ; underlayer hazy and creates surprisingly harmonious juxta- —— $ ies

positions of form, texture, and hue. Perhaps most impor- "4 a , tant, Wang’s work demonstrates the ambiguity of the con- i a. ae i temporary artist’s relationship to painting conventions of “VS: Ll the past: his obsession with the landscape composition "7, an = 7 "

‘ ; : + See , ure: . . . . . . ‘aT cd” ,

while he laboriously destroys it. - a \ oe “a The iconoclastic Cai Guogiang (b. 1957), who has lived Se ee —4ng , ™% ~ fe

abroad for a quarter century, now constantly returns to con- a” nie i ‘ ay ' 7 =e. ° & cerns that have dominated Chinese thought and aesthetic imei mea” Ci theory for more than a millennium, particularly such philo- et aa | ‘% sophical questions as the relationship between human- ——. ~ amt > .

. . . : : oy * Tae

it

Sacosmos. an 13.25Recent Wang _Tiande kind and nature or between nature andalthe 3 e (b. ae eer d acl series Sf &in1960), Digital_No.o8_HLo6, works fromee an ae extensive which Cai produces del- ES sea saat: icate abstract images by igniting gunpowder on a paper ss = ra on paper, 177 x 39.5cm, ground have begun to suggest landscapes, vegetation, and SSSI Collection of the Artist THE NEW MILLENNIUM, AND THE CHINESE CENTURY? 295

+s : | i rs ; ‘ a oy

ai gags Cae | a ie .

« . ee, ~~ . ae aal a “~ee aF ae ge’’ * ‘ ne : —~

i pb * , oy e 5ir_—_— » oom q a = , elRe Pe ot! ? +b at Pe> my

13.26 Cai Guogiang (b. 1957), A Certain Lunar Eclipse: Project for Humankind No. 2, 1991, gunpowder and ink on paper, mounted on wood as sevenpanel screen, 200 x 595 cm, private collection, Hong Kong

other natural forms. The artist himself compares his pale reformers have been realized. Artists, art museums, art puband restrained compositions to literati painting but leaves lications, and art education of an international caliber may it to the viewer to consider the significance of an aesthetic — now be found within China's own borders. In the new milparallel that is created by replacing ink with explosive pow- —_lennium the pluralistic art world Cai Yuanpei envisioned

der [fig. 13.26]. almost a century earlier has begun to emerge, with artists It is much too early to speculate whether the pres- — working in all media and in a range of styles. Perhaps most ent epoch will in the end be China’s century on the world — important for the revolutionaries who led Chinese culture stage, or how its art may choose (or not) to engage with out of its imperial past, modern Chinese art has diversified this nationalistic aspiration. What we can say, looking back, and matured, joining, as they so ardently sought to do, the is that many of the hopes and dreams of Chinas modern _ international mainstream.

296 THE NEW MILLENNIUM, AND THE CHINESE CENTURY?

Glossary and List of Characters

Ai Qing aaa bunjinga XA Ai Weiwei SCTRAR Bunkyudo SORES

Ai Zhongxin SCE Bunten BG:

Anhui LEB Byddoin FS be Anji aa]

Anyuan epi cabi {RSs Cai Dizhi SEIU SZ Bai Sha Ht Cai Guogiang SS [ak GR

baihua Aik Cai Liang BR baiwen Hx Cai Ruohong Bey WT.

Bao Shaoyou iif Cai Weilian SA

Bao Tianxiao BRE Cai Yuanpei FTC Bao Yahui fig lth Cai Zhaochu HAG 4)

Beidahuang ACK caimohua eS Et

Beidou E+ Cao Bai 4a Beihai ACY Cao Cao aR

Beijing last Chan, Luis (Chen [age ey ee Beiping yizhuan AEF ae Fushan)

Beiyang At Chan Yuk Keung Be SiR

Beiyang huabao ACE aK (Chen Yuqiang)

bingshen Py HA Chang Dai-chien (see

bogu fey Zhang Daqian)

Bujing chuanxi suo Ai se RE! Ar Chang Hao (Zhang Hao) kid

297

Chang Shu-chi (see Chiang Ching-kuo (Jiang HES [a] Chang Shuhong ih ey Chiang Kai-shek (Jiang EIT Aa

Zhang Shuqi) Jingguo)

Chang Tsong-zung (Zhang ihe BE {— Jieshi)

Songren) Chuang Che (Zhuang Zhe) we HA

Chang Yu (Sanyu) tt Chuangi (By Changming i HY Chunshui caotang eile FEE Changshu TaN Chunshui huayuan Artie es Be

Chao Mei Se NH Cihai igi Chao Shao-an (Zhao Shao’ang) ii /> En Cixi 2a hs

Chen BaoyiaeItCT —Cui Conghua Chen Beixin Xiuwen HEM ee du |]

Chen Boda BAH Cui Yingying FE RS Chen Cheng-po (Chen Se PERE Chengbo) Dagongbao (Ta Kung Pao) KA #R

Chen Chieh-jen (Chen Jieren) Nie AR Dashanzi KA LL-F Chen Chih-chi (Chen Zhigi) DRA HL Daxueyuan KE be Chen Chin (Chen Jin) BRE Dayi RE Chen Danging RATS Dangdai mingjia huahai TATA Fe ae

Chen Duxiu Sey 5 Deyuelou (aA te Chen Guoliang (Chen SR els BREIBEYL) Deng Erya OS AE

Xiaojiang) Deng Fen Obay Chen Hengque (Chen Shizeng) TS (Se BIT YS!) Deng Shi op At Chen Hongshou ae HE See Deng Xiaoping Bb /|\-F Chen Hui-Chiao (Chen Peel Di Baoxian (Di Chuging, VRS GEA, Huigiao) Di Pingzi) Chen Jiu RIL DianchiBK-EF) iEUte Chen Qiucao BRK Fie Dianshizhai BLA Chen Sanli Si WZ. Dianshizhai huabao Ba Beat Fe

Chen Shaomei BR 2 dianxing ea Chen Shaoxiong BR EE Ding Cong THe

Chen Shiwen bE MC Ding Song ys Chen Shuren sett A Ding Wenwei | SCR Chen Tiegeng Si SEL Ding Wenyuan F306 Chen Xiaocui SR BR)Tae Ding Yanyong Ti Chen Yanning Dingyi Wel fal Chen Yangiao ei) Dong Biwu TEE ASIEN Chen Yifei SI HE Dong Dayou A AK Chen Yiming SR EL AA Dong Qichang a EL Chen Zhen SR Fr Dong Xiwen Tt Hi SC

Chen Zhifo i aa dongfang RIT Chenguang meishuhui RICK & Dongfang zazhi RT ME es

Cheng Conglin RE BE Dongwu daxue RR KS

Cheng Sui Bi 18s Dou Yujun Af ey Chengdong niixiao PERL ABS dougong SL Bk

Chichupe:7Du DuWenlan Jian RH fe Chishe RL SCI Chiang Chao-shen (Jiang iLIK HA Du Xueou = ls Zhaoshen) Du Yuesheng AE

298 GLOSSARY AND LIST OF CHARACTERS

Duan Ganging Bae a Goutu ia | Dunhuang EG AEE Gu Dexin KAS or Duoyunxuan Gu Fei We Gu Kaizhi eats

Duan Pingyou BCFA Gu Bingxin WIA SE

Fahaisi TALE Gu Linshi Wee Fan Tingzuo VIE Gu Qingyao (Koo Tsin Yaw) bepee

Pang Ganmin Fy ie RR Gu Wenda PE Fang Junbi Fa 7 Gu Xiong eases

Pang Lijun 7 BAS Gu Yuan HTL Fang Rending FASE gudao ia Fang Ruo a Gugong zhoukan NC es HT

Fang Xuehu Fy tis Guhuan jinyushe Tre BAL

Fang Zengxian Gutian Fei Dawei EKA GuwuAree chenliesuo Bae Pr

Feiyingge huabao HG? Fal he Guxiangshi Th ty 2

Feng Boyi 15 TEE Guan Liang Hal EL

Feng Chaoran SHIA Guan Shanyue Ba LUA Feng Fasi IEE Guan Zilan Fa =a bel Feng Gangbai 5 sig] Guang Tingbo Jie EHF)

Feng Mengbo WGK Guangxu JOR Feng Shan JA Guangzhou (Canton) ee Ph

Feng Shihan NS Hil BE gui oS Feng Wenfeng SCTE Guo Morou SBT RAG Feng Zhongtie He ee guocui ak Feng Zikai ie tet Guocui xuebao Be a ee

Foshan (fi LU guohua apes Poziling (ii F-4H Guohua yuekan pdt AT

Fu Baoshi (A Guohuajia jiying lianhe el Ee IE DG

Fu Lei (EE Guoli Hangzhou yishu Be] WZ TIN SRT BY SE RS

Fuchun te zhuanke xuexiao Fujishima Takeji [a Guomindang Yl Pe Funti zazhi wit 2x Mees guoxue ei Futen WeAa he Guoxue congshu at ee Fuzhou Ha Qiongwen Bl SC

Gao Changhong rey be AL Ha Shaofu he > FA

Gao fe Hai Gao Gang Hongryray. HaiBo RuiHAE HEFYC tg

Gao Jianfu ry Al] 42 Haishang molin He _E ASK Gao Jingde ry Ail Haishang tijinguan shuhuahui je} Fi eM Gao Minglu ey 4 Us Haishang/Shanghai Hg E/E Ya

Gao Qifeng ryreySLI Hakubakai Ae Gao Xiaohua / NE Hanjian RT Gao Yong fay es Hankou ye]

Ge Gongzhen BONS Hao BoyiKeIHFF 5 Geng Jianyi HE Haowangjiao Gohara Koté BB we Hashimoto Kansetsu tg ANE S

gongbi T= He Baitao AF tee

GLOSSARY AND LIST OF CHARACTERS 299

He Jiaying {ny Bee Huang Yongping Bt 7K HK

He Jianshi Any full J Huang Zhongfang (Harold Be (HFT

He {n] 4L HeKongde Sui Any hisWong) Huangpu

elt

He Tianjian BAKE Huishi gianshuo Ay AS he He Xiangning 1A] A et

He Youzhi BRE Ichikawa Kinichir6 Ay JI eK — Bs

Hengshan LL Itagaki Takao ATE EME Hengyang fi Ba

Ho Siu-kee (He Zhaoji) {ny JERE Jilong FRE Hong Kong Arts Jinan Pe Pe Hong Xiuquan PEASE Jia Youfu TAR hong-guang-liang AL IC Jiade 7a te Hongkou Jiajin AR iAir Hongniang EA AL UR Jiaxing Ba

Hou Biyi eee Jianguo fangliie shiye jihua EE RTT IS PES eT el

Hou Hanru eae Jiang Baoling AS ES BY

Hou Yimin RIKER Jiang Biwei A oe Hsia Yang (Xia Yang) ka Ba Jiang Danshu EPS

Hu Kao vibes Jiang Feng LS Hu Peiheng 1) Ah ey Jiang Huaisu ZARA

Hu Yaobang EFS Jiang Qing ale Hu Yichuan ‘JI Jiang Tingxi RED Hu Yuan (Hu Gongshou) ie (BAAS) Jiang Xin (Jiang Xiaojian) 7 Ler UL) RS)

Humen Aa Jiang Zhaohe IRAN Hushe iH ek Jiangnan iL FA Hua Guofeng aife [ak SE Jiangsu iT ik

Hua Junwu HE TEA Jiangwan iL Hua Shan a [| Jiangxi iT py Huafa yanjiuhui HE WTE jiaocaihua Bee ae Huafangzhai arAh ioe Jimbéch6 Jiefang ribao AHI ETS A huagao ee huajihua Ta AG Jin Cheng IM Hualonggiao ae ESNong Jin Fengsun IER huapian et Jin EE Jee Huaxue yuekan an A Ti Jin Shangyi Br fe ald Huang Binhong te AML Jingangpo Ee lil B Huang Jie Te I Jin Xunhua Seidl Huang Junbi (Huang De AS BE Jinling oT ba

Chun-pi) jinshi WE

Huang Langping THR Pe jinshiareeel oneal Huang Miaozi ae I jinyu Huang Naiyuan pe Ui Jing Hengyi AE

Huang Rui oe i Jiuhuatang JURE EE Huang Shanding oe LL xe Jiuwang ribao IT. AA Huang Tushui ma 7K Ju Ming (Zhu Ming) AN Huang Xinbo TH BT IN Ju Lian abe Huang Yanpei ey juren IN 300 GLOSSARY AND LIST OF CHARACTERS

jue Bt LiPee Huanmin AEN BR Juelanshe et Li Huanzhi ZETA. Li Jishen ZS PE aR

Kaiguo dadian Be ee] AC Hh Li Jin AEF

Kaiming Le] BY] Li Jinfa aE i aE Kang Sheng EAE Li Jing 2 ME Kang Youwel BEA ZS Li Keran 2 FY] Be Kangxi eras Li Kuchan 2 TE AH Kangzhan FILE Li Meishu 2 PEARY Kawabata Ryishi J a T- Li Puyuan EE bal Kawai Senré 7a (1 BB Li Qi ETA Kikuchi Hébun gy SC Li Qiujun RA

Kokugakai pe a Li Qun TIT Kokugo gakk6 ae ee EBS Li Ruiging Tins

komin LiLiShan 2 (1 Kong BojiFS 4L{4é Shaoyan IDS Kosugi Héan /|NAZTBL HS Li Shih-chiao (Li Shigiao) > [UAE

Kuaiji eis Li Shutong (Hongyi fashi) ZB] (54 — YS Fi)

Kuncan Baus Li Tiefu (Lee Y. Tien) age

Kunming PeHi HALiLiXianting Weizhuang kunqu Ee, TRTRE. RE

Kuo Hsueh-hu (Guo Xuehu) = # S234] Li Xiushi aS FS

Kuo Po-chuan (Guo Bochuan) #541]]| Li Xu zai) Kuriyagawa Hakuson et) AAT Li Yanshan =F LL

Kuroda Seiki Hype Li Yishi ZEB E Kusakabe Meikaku Hh eS My fis Li Yinquan 2 EU aR Li Yinghao ZL

Lai Chusheng RFE AE Li Yongcun ZE IK AF Lai Chunchun (Jun T. Lai) REA AE Li Zhongsheng (Li Chun-chen) 4° 4f4E

Lai Shaogi RED EL Li Zongren za Laiching (Lijin) Bt Li Zuhan tit

Lan Ping BASE Lishui Fejit Lang Jingshan BS LY lianhuanhua Lang Shining (Guiseppe E25 Leas lianhuanhuabao iH Eee ee

Castiglione) Liang Baibo BAW Lao She EE Liang Juhui REE laosanjie 6 — Jz Liang Qichao RE EH

Lee Mingwei (Li Mingwei) 2 AA Se Liang Sicheng RB ak

Lee Teng-hui (Li Denghui) OS Liang Xihong Rye Lei Guiyuan Ju Liangjiang shifan xuetang PAL Bi sh

Li Bin 2ET Liangyou (Young companion) FA

Li Bing 2S Se Liao Bingxiong Bik ot Li Binghong AUK Liao Chi-chun (Liao Jichun) /tHe4¢

Li Chaoshi cha Liexian jiupai BAY ALLS

Li Dongping 2 oR Lin Biao PZ Li Honggang 2 AT Hil Lin Fengmian PA FARLELS Li Hua ZEIE Lin Gang 7 fa Li Huayi aE Lin Huiyin Pst Al

GLOSSARY AND LIST OF CHARACTERS 301

Lin Minghong (Michael Lin) PHA SA, Lii Yanzhi AER

Lin Tianmiao PRAT Lui Shou-kwan (Lii Shoukun) Ei aette

Lin Wenzheng PR MCSE Luo Gongliu AE LAN

Lin Yilin PK— FR Luo Qingzhen Aish

Lin Yong PIE Luo Zhongli AEA Lin Yushan PKB. LL

Ling Hongxun EUR AN Ma DaIBei Linggusi Se ASF Ma Desheng @st Lingnan 4a Fl Ma Liuming Ig7\ 4H Lingnan huayuan Sard ae bi Man Ching Ying (Phoebe Mine

lingzhi Ee manhua (2Aa at | Liu Bei | (ffi Manyunge Liu Chunhua Sl) HE Mao Dun AS Lingnan zhibansuo 48 py LAAT Man, Wen Jingying)

Liu Dezhai $i (BE Mao Zedong E72 HR Liu Haisu Sl) Hy BR Masaki Naohiko IEARAE

Liu I) BA ee Meimeishu Qing MEH Liu Jipiao Jian’an $i) FEA Kitt

Liu Kaiqii I] Be AS Meishu congshu RRS

Liu Kunyi $3] 311 — Meishu shenghuo ATE

Liu Kuo-sung (Liu Guosong) "| BA #8 Meishu xizuo zhan FT AE

Liu Lun 22 Meishu zazhi Se ry eis Liu Shaogi #3 “ay MeixianRA ME Liu Wei all 4 meiyu Liu Wencai BI SOK Meizhan Ke Liu Wenxi sl) SC Py Mengjue honglou ie "et KL He

Liu Xian 22) Unb Mifeng huashe Ae NEE SB

Liu Xiaodong 32) /|\ OR Miao Zi AERE Liu Xun capa Miaoli THR Liu Yulian FH Minzuhua Peet

Liu Zhiping AF Mo Pu5A SIS Liu Zijian aa) 5I Moganshan Ly

Liulichang Ft Hes has Muban hua TN Fi Lu Bodu me {Ea Muke jicheng ANZ AC FE Lu Danfeng jee PPP Muke yishu AXA EM

Lu Danlin Pas PAK Muling muke yanjiuhui TIRES AR AAS BE

Lu Hongji RUBE Muromachi 23 Ay

Lu Meiniang in AE Lu Shaofei DAR Nagao Uzan Fe FERN AZ Lu Xiaoman fas /|\ es Nakamura Fusetsu HAS ANSP Lu Xinhua Brae Nanguo yishu xueyuan FA Bd shy 2 Be Lu Xun (Zhou Shuren) RSI (fail teh A) Nanhui Fa Re

Luwan i Nanyang ral+ Lii Cheng rr Yel Nanyang gongxue PATE

Lu Zhiyang ae EE Nanking (Nanjing) Fal Bt

LiiQingzhong Fengzi ae Ni Yide (LEA Lii ro SE HP Ni Zan iis Lii Shengzhong ra BA Nihon Bijutsuin AAR be

Lui Sibai mT nihonga A Ae 302 GLOSSARY AND LIST OF CHARACTERS

Nikakai eS gianzhuang SSH nianhua oF at gin a Nie OuSn fhYh llyQin QinTianjin Song RANE AEH Ningbo Qin Wenmei RL

Oga Seiun /)\ fea = Qin Zheng1A ile Omura Seigai A Pa BE Qing Ouyang Yugian lik ET Qiu Ti (Qiu Bizhen) irese (By) Qiu Zhijie ES Pan Boyin HH Be Quan Shanshi @ WA

Pan Dawei Pi TE tall Pan Jiajun HAC a Ren Xiong (Ren Weichang) fEHE (TAR)

Pan Gongkai iAsolh Rehe aaa]

Pan Sitong eran fal Ren Xun (Ee Pan Tianshou WitKae (KA) Ren Yi (Ren Bonian) AEM (E(B 4E) Pan Yuliang it AK. Rimpa FAI pantu PGE Rong Junli RIA YT. Panxi BER Rong Rong oR OR Panyu Ry Rongbaozhai RET ET Pang Xunqin ER Rou Shi RAY Pang Yuanji RE UE

Pang Zuoyu ig Ac Sait6 Kaz6 Ba Re TE — Pei, I. M. (Bei Yuming) Aa Sy san tuchu =3eH Peng Bin BY Satomi Katsuz6 EAL DL IES ak

Peiwenzhai shuhuapu Ain SCF a et ie Sanjiang shifan chuanxisuo STAN SE ! Py

Peng Zheniewe PURFTF ee Pi Daojian BSseiyoga Sesshi Toys

Pinghuashe AECL Shaanxi pi oR3PY Pingjin tH shanjianzhuang FE Pingmin huabao Fat ek Shanyin LL Re Pu Hua 7aTGR Shang Shengbo EYRE fal 42H Pudong Shanghai Puru (P’u Hsin-yii; Pu Xinyu) Yin (Geb a) Shanghai huabao mpeioaete sy Puyi HE Age Shanghai manhua CRS Shanghai meishu zhuanke ERBESE TT SOR] AE BS

Qi Baishi AR AA xuexiao gilin PC Shanghai tuhua meishuyuan —_E-78F ff] BSE PGE gipao ie Shanghai wenxian baocun hui _EvARSCRRPR TF

Qian Daxin eK WT Shanghai yishu daxue ERRATA

Qian Ding bs he Shanghai Zhongguo shuhua = _EVARFP BPR AE

Qian Hui’an Be Te baocunhui Qian Juntao Be A a Shao Dazhen FIST fri

Qian Mu ie Shao Xunmei ARYA IE Qian Shoutie JS 5 Shaoxing saty Bill Qian Songyan TPS a shehui meiyu ‘LRA Qian Xiaodai TSE SER Shexian Bees

Qianbi lianxi huatie yy EE BR Ey a Mh Shen Bochen YCAH He

Qianlong iy Bae Shen JiaweiCSE ARTS Qianmen alia Shen Yaoding KE GLOSSARY AND LIST OF CHARACTERS 303

Shen Yaoyi eae Sun Yat-sen (Sun Zhongshan) {AiG (FAA LL)

Shen Yigian ie Sun Zixi TRUIA Shen Yinmo ARK

Shen Yuan ay ie Tabata Yukito ray Se A

Shenbao HA he Tai erzhuang appa Shenzhou Ae PL taijiquan AZ

Shenzhou guoguangji At) D| ba] SG GE Taimeng huahui AR

Sheng Xuanhuai Be er BR Taimiao ACA Shengzhan 44 VE Taipingyang bao AV ER Shi Hui es Taiwan bijutsu tenrankai ASE EBS (AE)

Shi Lu A (Taiten) Shidai REAR Taiwan sotokufu bijutsu RBM ETRE ES Shimizu Toshio THK BK tenrankai

Shina kaiga shi 3 Ab Ae ee SE Taiyang Aika

Shishi huabao [pgeameneey Taiyuan ASE

Shitao Ay ik taiping KF Shieh Ka Ho (Shi Jiahao, RE Takeuchi Seihd AT APTS

Wilson Shieh) Tanaka Raisho LE] FP We a Shinkyo et Tang Xiaohe E/)AN Shiotsuki Toho BA PRA Tang Yihe FRR shuimohui IKE Tang Yijing ke eetA Shun’yokai 4a Tang Yingwei Fe Sing Tao (Xingdao) Fe iy Tang Yun Be Song Bingheng AFA Tao Yuanging baa) 7 bt

Song Dong He HR Taohuawu BkAES

Song Haidong AS HER Tateishi Tetsuomi WAT a Ea Song Meiling (Soong May-ling) He te Te Wei Fp AE

Song Qingling AR BEER Teiten ai }BE Song Zhong AC HE Teng Gu Be Fel Song Zhongyuan AC EDC Tian Han HH i Songlingang PSK fed Tian Heng HA 7 Songshan Lu my LL ES Tiananmen 7 ea

songshu PS Bet Tianmahui RAS Su Wonong ik Tokyod6 Ea tianzhen RAL Su Wu ATEN OR an Et Suyue RA toyoga Ret Suzhou 1 Tongmenghui suan iF.fig Tongwenguan SC fra] HE Suanhanwei Bg FE hash Tongxiao ain}

suanpan a Tsang Tak Ping (Zeng Deping, [548-7 Sui Jianguo es ea Kith Tsang Tak Ping)

Sun Chuanfang Aa TT Tsang Tsou Choi (Zeng Pet AT: EY

Sun Fuxi Afi BE Zaocai) Sun Jingbo FRR WK Tsinghua (Qinghua) THe

Sun Liang AR tuhua Sun Runyu fail tuqi ect| Sun Ke SRE Tsong Pu (Zhuang Pu) a7

Sun Wukong FATA aS Tushanwan ELL Pe 304 GLOSSARY AND LIST OF CHARACTERS

Uchiyama Kakichi Ay see Weihaiwei GEE

Uchiyama Kanzo A LL sei Wen ne Wen TaoBao iit da

Van Lau (Wen Lou) Ba. Wen Yiduo [x] —-& Wen Zhengming Ma HY Wada Eisaku AY LD BEA Wenhuibao (Wen Wei Po) SCHERR

Wan Laiming Sy ee ES Weng Fen oa

Wan Man (Maryn Varbanov) 4) Weng Rulan SS 7c a Wang Caibai {ERA wenrenhuad XA Wang Chuantao FABRE Wenrenhua de jiazhi MAIN (Be

Wang Daizhi ba Bee Wenshiguan St SE A

Wang Donglin EAR Wenxing MAE Wang Dongxin FESR BM Wenxue Me

Wang Geyi EAM RS Wenyi xinchao Mee

Wang Guangyi EJ Fe Wo Zha iia Wang Hongwen HEM Wong Pao Hsie (Huang Baoxi) Ht #7 HE

Wang Huaiqing “FBR Be Wong Po-yeh (Huang Banruo) tHhK/7 Wang Jigian (C. C. Wang) E48 Wong Wucius (Wang Wuxie) FE 1/5

Wang Jiyuan FPR ig Wu The Wang Jian ES Wu Biduan tL sig Wang Jianwei TEER Wu Changshi (Wu Junging) Ath (fei) Wang Jin Zhang (Jin Taotao)

Beijing Train Station. distance sketching journey.

December 12: The Hong Kong Modern Literature September: The Shanghai Art Technical School is

and Art Association is founded. established.

1959. March 10: The Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts October: Romanian artist Eugen Popa begins teachis established, based on the South China Art Acad- ing a two-year oil painting training course at ZAFA.

emy; Hu Yichuan is the director. November 12: The Beidahuang (Great Northern April 17: Liu Shaogi is elected chairman of the Wasteland) art exhibition opens in Beijing.

People’s Republic of China. The Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts is established, July 2-August 16: An expanded meeting of the based on the Xi'an Art Technical School. Politburo (July 2-August 1) and the Eighth Plenum 1961 June 2: The Chinese Artists Association conference

of the Eighth Central Committee (August 2-16) on the creation of revolutionary history paintings is

convenes at Lushan, in Jiangxi, to examine prob- held.

lems stemming the Great Leap Forward een ae . omfrom December 19: An exhibition of Chinesebut Revolutionis turned by into a critique 1931-1949 of “right opportunWaod ne ene ake MeMao ary Woodcuts, opens in Beijing. ism.” Minister of Defense Peng Dehuai and other J gon aan, ys

key officials were condemned as an anti-party clique 1962 May: The Chinese National Art Gallery opens, with

ce . . . . ”

and dismissed. The Chinese Communist Party then Liu Kaiqu as inaugural director. launches an “anti-right opportunism campaign May 23: The Third National Art Exhibition opens within the party, condemning more than ten thou- in Beijing, at the Chinese National Art Gallery.

MAJOR EVENTS IN MODERN CHINESE ART 317

Hong Kong City Hall art gallery opens; the inaugu- Liu Shaogi, Deng Xiaoping, and most top admin-

ral exhibition is Hong Kong Art Today. istrators in government, party, military, education,

; is ane andconflict culture are begins. purged. Chinese military with India ae

Pnttdeet onexhibition fe 1967. January 8: Rebel takeJover the cityyof 1963 July 28: A graduation is held forgroups CAFA - prouP

Pe 5 Shanghai.

students in the sculpture and oil painting training

class. March—October: Pro—Cultural Revolution demon’ strations riots for occur in Hongare Kong. December, 25: Nationaland awards anhuanhua 8© presented for the first time (1949-63). October 1: Long Live the Victory of Chairman Mao’ . vias Revolutionary Line exhibition is held iby 1964: September 26: The Fourth National Art Exhibition, J athe : y Red es : SieofGuard at the Chinese National .Art Gallery; Mao actually aZedongs succession exhibitions from different ; oes , Thought Illuminates Anyuan Workers regions shown in Beijing, begins,the held through ee

March 196s. a ‘s

Movement is held at the Museum of the Chinese Revolution in Beijing.

1965changed October: The Shanghai Art Technical School bib. sl sigsa 1968 January 1: [he Red Sunisexhibition organize to the Shanghai Art School. J acne spies

thirty-four revolutionary rebel organizations is held

December 24, 1965—March 6, 1966: The Rent Collec- in Shanghai.

tion Courtyard sculptural group exhibits at the Chi- . . .

eeeArt July Gallery 1: ChairmaninMao Goes to Anyuan nese National Beijing. Sate . is published in People’s Daily and PLA Daily. The Painting Sculpture Creation ae Shanghai August 25:Oil The Central and Committee of the Chinese

Studio is established.

Communist Party orders, at Mao's behest, that

The Beijing Chinese Painting Institute hires oil workers’ propaganda teams be sent to assume leadpainters, printmakers, and sculptors; the name is ership of all universities, schools, educational, and

changed to the Beijing Painting Institute. cultural units throughout the country. November 12: The National Palace Museum opens October 13: Liu Shaoqi is expelled from the Comin Wai-shuang-hsi, Taipei, to house the imperial munist Party and removed from all leadership posts collection and other treasures moved from Beijing at the Twelfth Plenum of the Eighth Chinese Com-

and Nanjing in 1948-49. munist Party Central Committee in Beijing. 1966 May 16: The enlarged meeting of the Politburo of 1968-76: The eight-year Up to the Mountains and the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee Down to the Countryside movement—which sent passes the “May 16 Circular” approving the Great more than sixteen million urban graduates from

Proletarian Cultural Revolution. middle school, high school, and colleges to the May 28: The Central Cultural Revolution Group countryside to receive so-called reeducation—begins. officially establishes with Jiang Qing as deputy 1969. March 2: The Sino-Soviet military clash at Zhenbao

director. (Damanski) island in the Ussuri River occurs.

August 1: The Eleventh Plenum of the Eighth Chi- April 1: The Ninth National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee meet- nese Communist Party meets in Beijing. Lin Biao ing, dominated by Mao Zedong, issues the sixteen- is officially named as Mao’s successor. point directive for the Cultural Revolution.

September 27: All staff members of the CAA are

The Red Guard art movement begins and continues sent to labor in the countryside at the “May 7th

until roughly 1968. Gide School”

August 18: Mao meets and praises the Red Guard at November 12: Former PRC chairman Liu Shaogi is

Tiananmen. tortured to death in Henan, at age seventy-one.

August 23: The CAFA Red Guard holds a Black All major art institutions are taken over by workerPainting Exhibition and attacks Luo Gongliu, Ye soldier propaganda teams. Qianyu, and Huang Yongyu.

318 MAJOR EVENTS IN MODERN CHINESE ART

1970 May: Faculty, staff, and students of the CAFA are 1974 January: The campaign to “Criticize Lin Biao, Criti-

sent to labor in Cixian, Hebei. This year artists, cize Confucius” is launched, aimed in part at Zhou

editors, and staff of Shanghai arts units are also Enlai.

sent down to the countryside. February 15: The Black Painting Exhibition is held in 1971 May aA? Most Shanghai publishers merge into the Beijing; in March similar Black Painting Exhibitions Shanghai People’s Publishing House, which holds are organized in Shanghai, Xi'an, and elsewhere.

.»....

a training class for “worker, peasant, soldier art cre- Cnet a ek: ation,” enrolling thirty-three artists in courses on tion of the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the Founding of making /ianhuanhua and propaganda posters. the PRC is held in Beijing; the exhibit subsequently September 13: Mao's designated successor Lin Biao travels to Shanghai. and his family are killed in a plane crash in Mongo- 1975 May 23: In conjunction with Model Theatrical

lia, allegedly trying to flee China. Works Performance in Beijing, a traveling exhibiOctober 25: The PRC is admitted to the United tion of worker and peasant paintings is held. Nations, replacing the Republic of China (Taiwan). Yishujia (Artist) magazine is established in Taipei. 1971 —73: Zhou Enlai rehabilitates some artists con- The First Hong Kong Art Biennial Exhibition is orgademned by the Cultural Revolution; he encourages nized by the Hong Kong Museum of Art. It has landscapes and birds-and-flowers suitable for inte- been held continuously to the present, showing

rior decoration and foreign sale Hong Kong art.

Lion Art (Xiongshi meishu) is established in Taiwan. 1976 January 8: Zhou Enlai dies.

1972. February 28: U.S. president Richard Nixon con- March 25: Official art journal Meishu resumes pub-

cludes his visit to China. lication after a ten-year hiatus.

April 23-July 23: A national art exhibition to cele- April 5: Spontaneous commemoration of Zhou brate the thirtieth anniversary of Mao's Yan‘an Talks Enlai and demonstration against Cultural Revo-

is held in Beijing. lution leaders occurs at Tiananmen Square. The

May 12: An exhibition to celebrate Mao’s Yan’an Tiananmen Incident is declared counterrevolutionTalks opens at Shanghai Art Exhibition Hall. ary, and Deng Xiaoping is dismissed from all posi-

a Xiaoping tions. Hua Guofeng is appointed‘5prime minister 1973. March ro:agai Deng returns to administrative PP P , and party vice-chairman. work to assist a cancer-stricken Zhou Enlai.

, ; ; uly 28: The Tangshan earthquake hits Tianjin and

August 11: The Shanghai Institute of Chinese Paint- z y 5 ‘I } SpA pS ate eijing. ing and the Shanghai Oil Painting and Sculpture Loe

Studio merge as the Shanghai Painting Institute, September 9: Mao Zedong dies. with Lii Meng as director and Wu Dayu, Tang Yun, October 6: The Gang of Four (Jiang Qing, Zhang

and Wang Geyi vice-directors. Chungiao, Wang Hongwen, and Yao Wenyuan) is October 1: A national lianhuanhua and guohua arrested. exhibition is held, Huxian Peasant Painting exhi- November 23, 1976—January 12, 1977: The exhibit to bition, in Beijing, which subsequently travels to Ardently Celebrate Comrade Hua Guofeng’s Appoint-

Shanghai. ment as Central Party Chairman and Smashing the

. ce . ” « ; a) 7

November: Central May Seventh University of “Gang of Four’s” Plot to Usurp the Party and Take Arts is established in Beijing with Jiang Qing as Power is shown at the Shanghai Art Gallery. president. “Worker-peasant-soldier” students are 1977. February 7: Hua Guofeng promulgates the “Two recruited by recommendation; CAFA faculty and Whatevers” policy, affirming the correctness of all

students return from the countryside. Mao’s policies. Universities and other educational units recruit February 18-April 17: The National Art Exhibition 150,000 “worker-peasant-soldier” students by Ardently Celebrate Comrade Hua Guofengs Appointrecommendation.

MAJOR EVENTS IN MODERN CHINESE ART 319

ment as Central Party Chairman and Chairman of begins. Convictions of Jiang Feng and Liu Xun are

the Central Military Committee and Ardently Cele- overturned.

brate Victory of Smashing the “Gang o ; ;5, si y the of §Great § f Mid-November: Condemnation of the April Fours” Plot thedemonstrators Party and Take Power is . coeto7Usurp 1976, is reversed. shown at the Chinese National Art Gallery, in

eeebecomes » . 2 i,a we Beijing, Fall: “Democracy Wall” at ise Xidan site for ae spontaneously posted citizen’s complaints.

March: Hu Yaobang becomes head of the Chinese

Communist Party Organization Department. December 18 and 22: The Third Central Committee

vay pie - meeting ofExhibition the Eleventh Party Congress 23-June 30: to Commemorate « ,overturns ysau 3) 3 ning: theThe “Iwo Whatevers.” The meeting serves as startthethe e porn ee ek eae ee ing Art pointGallery, for China's reform and opening. Deng at Chinese National in Beijing; the Oe pets :

eae ageofas , ce is appointed exhibition theye same titleXiaoping is shown at the Shang- re ay

to leadership roles in party,

. i"Art oe Gallery 8 military, civilian and assumes conhai andand many othergovernment cities. ; trol of China.

uly: Deng Xiaoping reemerges in public.

July 8 pe S P 1979 January 1: Diplomatic relations between the United August: Hua Guofeng becomes chairman of the States and the People’s Republic of China are

Chinese Communist Party and announces that normalized.

the Cultural Revolution is over. 3 . ee January 26—February 24: New Spring Exhibition is

August 1-October 5: The Exhibition in Celebration held in Beijing, with a preface written by Jiang Feng.

ini — wea of bh 9 takes eatin’ February Twelve-Man Paintingbaud Exhibition rmy Beijing place 1-18: at theZheChinese Nationa ; ee

rterrr Gallery. Oo eepainting. heat shows modernist

i. : i JUS P at Huangpu District Children’s Palace, in Shanghai, November: Peoples Literature (Renmin wenxue) pub- Berm avai atehves Chinese mnilicatyclashcwich

lishes Liu Xinwu’s short story, “Banzhuren,” the first Wises literary work to criticize the Cultural Revolution.

: 3 March: The CAA resumes activity. eee May: Wu Guanzhong challenges socialist realism in

December: College entrance examinations resume.

iene Sr me uclenes as sonore anes Meishu by suggesting that formal beauty in art is as dong’s Revolutionary Line in Literature and the faportintlas cubjeceniatter Arts” is published in the official art journal Meishu.

. June: World Art (Shijie meishu) begins publication

February: Meishu congkan (Art anthology) begins by CAFA publication in Shanghai, the first journal to publish

ene pee oe August: Serial Pictures Monthly (Lianhuan huabao) ee . publishes anNineteenth-Century illustrated version ofFrench “Maple,” based March: ‘The exhibition ; es ‘es ona Scar short story by Zheng Yi.

Rural Landscape Painting opens in Beijing and on

April 25 in Shanghai. September 27: Outdoor Stars (Xingxing) exhibition ‘siayer12: en er, Oe ee ere with twenty-three“Practice participants in the Isopens the as garden : ane y P oP Peoples pore y ofDaily Chinapublishes Art Gallery; September 29, On the exhibition Measure of Truth,” a challenge to the infallibility of eee eee ren 8 pd ear Ninaeaa eth is closed by the police; October I there is a Stars

activity. :

ao Zedong thought.

8 S Protest March from Xidan Democracy Wall to Bei-

May 16: The Shanghai branch of the CAA resumes jing Municipal Party Committee Headquarters.

of October 31: The National Congress of Literary and

August 11: Shanghai Wenhui Bao publishes Lu Xin- Art Circles opens. Officials express both praise and

hua’ short story “Scar,” initiating a literary move- criticism of the Stars. ment exposing3:the Cultural Revolution. ; : of the at November Jiang Feng becomes chairman

November: Rehabilitation of Rightists by the Chi- CAA. nese Communist Party Organization Department

320 MAJOR EVENTS IN MODERN CHINESE ART

November 23—December 2: The first Stars exhibi- December: The Chinese Artists Association contion resumes indoors at Huafangzhai, Beihai Park. demns bourgeois liberalism. Abstract painters are

Bh targeted.

December: The Airport Mural project is completed. 5

Yuan Yunsheng’s Water Splashing Festival provokes Britain announces that most Hong Kong residents

controversy about nudity in art. are ineligible for British citizenship. December 6: Democracy Wall is closed. 1982. March 27: The Hammer Collection is exhibited at

, : the of Chinese National Art Gallery. 1980 ~=February: Former chairman the PRC Liu Shaogi seer,

is posthumously rehabilitated; Hu Yaobang becomes June: Deng Xiaoping becomes chairman of the secretary general of the Chinese Communist Party. Central Military Committee; Hu Yaobang becomes

by ahs chairman the Chinese Party. February: 10: The Fifth of National ArtCommunist Exhibition 5

opens in Beijing for the thirtieth anniversary of the September 15: 250 Years of French Painting exhibition PRC; silver medals are awarded to Scar paintings: opens at the Chinese National Art Gallery, then Cheng Conglin’s A Snowy Day in 1968, Gao Xiao- travels to the Shanghai Museum.

huas Why?, andAWang Hais opens Spring. ee J 5 ping 1983. Mays: Picasso exhibition at the Chinese March: Rehabilitated rightist oil painter and print- National Art Gallery; in June the show moves to

maker Mo Pu is appointed director of ZAFA. the Shanghai Exhibition Hall. July 16: The Contemporaries (Tongdairen) exhibition September: An experimental painting exhibition at

is held in Beijing. Fudan University in Shanghai closes after four days. August 26: Four special economic zones—Shenzhen, September 19: Parisian abstract expressionist Zhao

Zhuhai, Shantou, and Xiamen—are established. Wouki (Zhao Wuji) has a solo exhibition at the

; ; . ee Chinese National Art Gallery.

September: Zhao Ziyang is appointed prime minister.

S ak September: Soviet-trained oil painter Xiao Feng is October: Wu Guanzhong’s article “The Beauty of P cee: on P 5

me ; appointed director o

Abstraction” is published in Meishu. PP

er eae Te Te : October 11-12: The Anti-Spiritual Pollution camNovember: Hua Guofeng is dismissed as chairman Se ee eae

. ;Chinese aign is officially launched. of. ;the Communist Party. pee y

ae: November 1983: Hanart TZ opens in Hong Kon

2 Gang . showing contemporary art. the of Four is held. 5 Sead

November 20, 1980—January 25, 1981: The trial of ae geo P © & December: The Chinese Artists Association con-

oe ; emn spiritual Cultural Revolution in a Chinese Communistpollution. Party P f December: Hu Yaobang conclusively condemns the 4 RON erat

meeting. The Taipei Fine Arts Museum opens. December 20: The Second National Youth Art 1984 October 1-31: The sixth national exhibition, juried

Exhibition opens in Beijing. to avoid works with “Spiritual Pollution,” is held in nine venues, with 3,723 artworks. Private sales of artwork not yet permitted. 3973 ; itt ; December 11, 1984—January 10, Selected works 1981celica February 1: The second exhibitionare of1985: prizea i zi ee oe ; oe, aes from the national national exhibition shown at‘ the Chi-

winning lianhuanhua is held in nese Beijing. : National Art Gallery. September 1: The Museum of Fine Arts Boston a is de ; seventy ; BritainAmerican announces the return of Honga eg Kong and exhibits paintings, including Kowloon to China at the expiration of the New

Si : eee . erritories lease in 1997.

Jackson Pollack and a few abstract works at the Seat Chinese National Art Gallery, in Beijing, and from 997

October 20 through November 19 at the Shanghai 1985 April 5: Meishu sichao, a journal of contemporary

Museum. art theory, is established in Wuhan.

November 1: The Chinese Painting Research Insti- April 21: The Huangshan Conference on Oil tute is established in Beijing; Li Keran is director. Painting establishes critical justification for avant-

MAJOR EVENTS IN MODERN CHINESE ART 321

garde art in the official sphere. Criticism of the Spring: Contemporary Oil Paintings from the Peoples sixth national exhibition, and even of the national Republic of China, sale exhibition including work exhibition system itself, is widely expressed and from the Seventh National Art Exhibition, is held

published elsewhere. at Harkness House, New York.

June: New Concrete Image exhibition in Shanghai, Beyond the Open Door: Contemporary Paintings from Nanjing, Kunming, and Chengdu takes place, a the Peoples Republic of China is held at Pacific Asia

small-scale artist-funded event. Museum, in Pasadena, California. July: People’s Communes are abolished. Thirty-eight years of martial law in Taiwan is ended

. ; by meishubao President Chiang Ching-kuo July 6: Zhongguo is established. y 5 ©(Jiang Viang Jingkuo). Jingkuo) a me The Taipei Fine Arts Museum holds its first exhibiNovember Robert Rauschenberg’s ROCI exhibi- aArt: Bt heat eo ; : - tion 18: of art in new media, Experimental Perfor-

tion opens at the Chinese National Art Gallery. ee 2 ‘i mance and Space.

December 2: 85 New Space exhibition is held at . . ar Meishu sichao ceases publication.

ZAFA gallery.

; The Thirteenth Lausanne Tapestry festival exhibits Fourth Congress of the Federation of Literary and ae E eegroup. :Y ; Pete — inese work from the Varbanov

Arts Circles (FLAC) calls for “creative freedom’; ’85 orOur

New Wave movement began. 1988 October 15: A two-man show by Xu Bing and Lii

porary fiber arts. . “i ae

Shengzhong opens at the Chinese National Art GalMaryn Varbanov, returns to China to teach contemerro P lery; this is China’s first conceptual installation art in an official gallery, although it is not identified as

The Beijing International Art Palace (Guoji yiyuan) such by the authorities.

is established, held fifteen exhibitions Haas | ecember 22, 8, 1989: O17 between 1986which and1988—January 1989. eat anmeae ie /Vude J =a b‘ se

Painting is exhibited at the Chinese National Art

1986 June 19: Horizon 86 Group Painting exhibition is Gallery; it moves to the Shanghai Art Gallery on

held at Shanghai Art Gallery. February 1.

July 24—August 30: The show Avant-garde Chinese June 26: The Taiwan Provincial Art Museum opens

sequently at Vassar College. ae

Art is exhibited at City Gallery, New York, and sub- in Taichung

1989 February 5—19: The China-Avant Garde exhibition

August 15-19: A conference on new wave art is at the Chinese National Art Gallery concludes the cosponsored by Zhongguo meishubao in Zhuhai. 8s New Wave movement. September 28—October 5: Xiamen Dada exhibition April 15: Hu Yaobang’s death is followed by demon-

is organized in Fujian. strations at Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Fall: Students demonstrate against corruption and May 15: Zhao Ziyang resigns and is replaced by for greater democracy in major Chinese cities. Jiang Zemin as Chinese Communist Party general November 1: The Hubei Youth Art Festival opens; secretary. exhibition at twenty-eight venues includes many May 20—October 5: The Seventh National Art Exhiartistic experiments by self-organized art groups. bition is shown in eight cities. The Institute of Art Tapestry Varbanov is founded June 4: The Shanghai Drama Academy opens a new

at ZAFA, in collaboration with a carpet factory. commercial art gallery. 1987 January: Hu Yaobang resigns and Zhao Ziyang is June 4: Student protesters and others in Beijing are appointed Chinese Communist Party secretary killed by the People’s Liberation Army. A three-

general. year political, cultural, and economic retrenchment

Anti-bourgeois liberalism campaign officially begins. launched.

322 MAJOR EVENTS IN MODERN CHINESE ART

September s—October 5: An exhibition of prize- September 30: Hong Kong Christie’s conducts the winning works from the Seventh National exhibi- first auction of contemporary Chinese oil paintings, tion is held at the Chinese National Art Gallery. including work by Liu Xiaodong, Yu Hong, and

th ; others.

Magiciens de la Terre, at Pompidou Center in Paris,

includes three avant-garde Chinese artists now The foreign-owned art gallery, Red Gate Gallery, is

abroad. established in Beijing.

return. fee ;

Fall: A nationwide investigation ensues as well as a I Don't Want to Play Cards with Cezanne Anymore, purge of personnel involved in or sympathetic to an exhibition of New Wave and avant-garde oil the Tiananmen Square demonstrations. Many art- paintings, opens at the Pacific Asia Museum, in

ists and critics flee abroad; those abroad do not Pasadena, California.

1992 January: Deng Xiaoping conducts a symbolic

1990 = January 1: Zhongguo meishubao is forced to cease inspection tour of new economic zones in southpublication; progressive editors of other art journals ern China. Party Congress approves new economic are subsequently suspended. Experimental artists developments and thaw begins.

lose a publication platform. ieconP P June: Chinese artists participate in K-18, in May 20-30: The World of Women Painters, including junction with the Kassel Documenta.

artwork by Yu Hong and Wei Rong, is exhibited at

CARA’ on |new call ° August: The PRC’s gallery. first art auction DuoyunAFA’s Behouse, sgke eg ; pendcommercial xuan Auctions Limited, is established in Shanghai.

ulyri7:P Chine Demain pourPudong hier, anDistrict exhibition of oy ued sy October 11: New is established avant-garde Chinese artists abroad, opens in Pour- 2 : ;

rieres, France. ; sgn

in Shanghai for national economic development. International investment in China, stalled by the

September 19-20: The second exhibition of New events of June 4, 1989, begin to resume.

Literati8Painting is held atFirst the Chinese Paintin ee : 8 October 1990s ContemResearch Institute20:inThe Beijing.Guangzhou fin ada porary Art Biennial opens. Dislocated avant-garde artists and critics1eestablish TIArtists se 2Association sacs opens Beijing Municipal a community at Fuyuanmen Village near Yuansc ae a commercial gallery, Guoji yiyuan (International

mingyuan, inin the Beijing. ; Crowne oa JINS Garden of Art), new Holiday Inn Lee Deng-hui becomes the first native-born presi- Plaza on Wangfujing, a hotel constructed on the

dent of Taiwan. former site of the Chinese Artists Association headveer eoofquarters. gallery is directed by| ee! Liuy Xun. Exhibition 300 YearsThe of Art in Taiwan opens at the Provincial Art Museum in Tai-chung. The Shanghai municipal government begins remakBea 0s ing People’s Square, formerly the site of Mao-era The decision is made to begin development of the = aaah gist macatia ria y

Wh co ans mass rallies, into civic and cultural rural Pudong district in aShanghai. : iarea. The

. ce ° ™ >» ay he

new Shanghai Museum building was constructed

1991 April 19-22: The “Xishan Conference” (officially between 1993 and 1996 across the street from the the “New Era Art Creation Conference”), at which new city hall, followed by the Urban Planning

press 5 ) 5

young critics advocated on behalf of avant-garde Belihinoa Centerand Cand thence

artists, heldtebyn the Art Researchgrounds, Center of the the Bic oe she i eas grants ; eeeisdoe humanitarian White House

China Academy of Arts in Beijing; this point of . 8 a 8

ete permanent residence status toinPRC view is subsequently attacked the citizens officialinartthe United States during and immediately following the

‘ : —pHrT p) 2 2 ‘ ~

June 4, 1989, massacre. Many artists establish new

August 29—-September 30: The Exceptional Passage, cepedee te aed pd Ste: organized by the Museum City Project, in Fukuoka, exhibits the work of avant-garde Chinese artists abroad.

MAJOR EVENTS IN MODERN CHINESE ART 323

1993 January: China's New Art Post-1989 opens in Hong contemporary oil painting and new media. SubKong, then travels to Australia and North America sequently the gallery is moved to its own space in

and introduces cynical realism and political pop. Fuxing Park. January 30: China Avant-garde! opens in Berlin and May 18: The First Shanghai Biennale at the Shang-

subsequently travels to Rotterdam, Oxford, and hai Art Gallery is the first government-organized

elsewhere in Europe. biennial in China; shows work in Western media. May: The China Guardian (Jiade) auction house is May: The first foreign-owned gallery to occupy

established in Beijing. its own space, the Courtyard Gallery, opens ina ee . ; renovated courtyard house adjacent to the Palace June 13: PRC artists are shown for the first time at ie ae o }

Bas . useum in Beijing.

the Forty-Fifth Venice Biennale; art from Taiwan is JINE

also shown. December 6: An auction of contemporary Chinese

art is held The at Zhongshang shenjia. July-September: Fragmented.Memory: Chinese penans

Avant-garde in Exile is shown at the Wexner Center Para/Site, the first artist-run exhibition space in

for the Arts, in Columbus, Ohio. Hong Kong devoted to installation and perfor-

i Cet see «uit mance art, is founded.

Deng Xiaoping’s signal to reopen China's economy,

“socialism with Chinese characteristics,” is imple- Lion Art (Xiongshi meishu), based out of Taipei,

mented. Travel restrictions are relaxed and devel- ceases publication.

opment the Pudong New Economic Zone in Pe cascece dies. tale a 7. ooof1997. February 19: Deng Xiaoping Shanghai is accelerated. Jiang Zemin, the former

Shanghai mayor and general secretary of the Chi- July 1: The colony of Hong Kong is retroceded by nese Communist Party since 1989, assumes presi- Britain to Chinese control.

dency of China. Zhu Rongji, the former Shanghai major, is appointed 1994. March: China Guardian, Beijing, auctions oil paint- premier; implementation of economic reforms

ings for the first time in the PRC. accelerates. October 12: PRC artists are shown for the first time 1998 February 6—May 25: A Century in Crisis: Modernity

wel ceGaes Dania BicatiGal and Tradition in the Art of Twentieth Century China is held at the Guggenheim Soho, the modern half

Performance andsooo otherYears. avant-garde artists £ Chi “ee to Guggen= ofartists China: The exhibit travels

establish an artists’ community at Xiaobao ie heim Bilbao, July Village, 183-November Songzhuang, in the Beijing suburbs. Many move in

1, 1998.

from Yuanmingyuan. June 13: The First Taipei Biennial, Site of Desire, is oe held at Taipei Municipal Art Museum, curated by December 27: The Eighth National Art Exhibi- ;

ne z Nanjo Fumio of Japan.

tion opens at the Chinese National Art Gallery, in

Beijing; competition from other exhibition venues The Second Shanghai Biennale is held.

reduces the significance of this event. 1999 The First Fukuoka Asian Art Triennial, in Japan, The Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts is renamed includes contemporary Chinese artists.

China Academy of Art. The Taiwan Provincial Art Museum is renamed 1995 ‘The Forty-Sixth Venice Biennale includes Chinese National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts.

artists. More than twenty Chinese artists show at the

The Gwangju (Kwangju) Biennial in Korea shows Forty-Eighth Venice Biennale.

Chinese artists. December 20: The colony Macao is retroceded by May: First auction of Chinese oil paintings by Portugal to Chinese control.

Sotheby's Hong Kong is held. 2000 September 9: The Second Taipei Biennial, 7he Sky Js 1996 The first foreign-owned commercial gallery, Shan- the Limit, curated by Manray Hsu (Taiwan, aka Xu gart, opens in a hotel in Shanghai, specializing in Wenrui) and Jerome Sans (France), opens. From

324 MAJOR EVENTS IN MODERN CHINESE ART

this time on, the Taipei biennial has been curated The Fourth Taipei Biennial, Do You Believe in collaboratively by local and international curators. Reality?, is held. November 6, 2000-January 6, 2001: The Third 2005 ‘The Second Guangzhou Triennial, Beyond: Shanghai Biennale, Haishang/Shanghai, is held at An Extraordinary Space of Experimentation for the Shanghai Art Museum (formerly the Shanghai Modernization, takes place, and in 2008 the

Art Gallery). exhibition explores interactions between center

: ee and local.

There is more than a tenfold expansion in art acad- d

emy admissions this year. Major expansions and July 1: The Poly (Baoli) Auction House is established

relocations of art school campuses abound. in Beijing, with military backing. 2001 ‘The First Chengdu Biennale, Model Easel, occurs. The first Chinese national pavilion at the Venice

i ning Biennale i ablish ChinesebyMinistry The 798 Art Districthe is founded in Beijing. ennalehe is established the Chinese aof Culture. Beijing is awarded the 2008 Olympics; a massive ms ota pinactins

ate ; ; _ The Second Beijing Biennial is held.

demolition of the Qing dynasty city begins in

preparation. The Second Chengdu Biennale, Century and

mre ; Heaven, takes place.

2001-2008: New buildings for the Capital Museum, , P

the National Center for the Performing Arts, the 2006 The Sixth Shanghai Biennale, Hyperdesign, is held.

Stadium (aka the Nest), CCTV ( . ) eed rabies TheBird’s newly constructed Suzhou headquarters Museum, designed

and other major architectural projects in Beijing are by I. M. Pei, is opened. constructed.

ee Shanghai . Sotheby'sBiennale, New YorkUrban holdsCreation, its first auction of con2002 ‘The Fourth ie temporary Chinese oil paintings. occurs. ay de on . The Fifth Taipei Biennial, Dirty Yoga, is held. The First Guangzhou Triennial, Reinterpretation: A Decade of Experimental Chinese Art, 1990-2000, takes 2007 The Third Chengdu Biennale, Reboot, takes place.

place. 2008 ‘The Shanghai Biennale, Tianslocal Motion, occurs. The ‘Third Taipei Biennial, Great Theater of the World, September 6—November 16: The Third Guangzhou

takes place. Triennial, Farewell to Post-colonialism, takes place.

The No. 50 Moganshan Arts District in Shanghai August 8: The Beijing Olympics begin.

; : The Third Beijing Biennial starts.

begins to develop in an old textile factory. Shangart establishes a space.

The Sixth Taipei Biennial takes place.

Shanghai's bid for 2010 International Expo is

: a 2009Subway July 28—August 20:other TheinfraFourth successful. construction and ee Chengdu China Narratives, takes place.

Biennale,

structure and architectural developments are

accelerated. 2010 ‘The Shanghai Expo; the Eighth Shanghai Biennale, - ea? anticsBiennial a Rehearsal; the Fourth ;Beijing and the 2003 The Beijing is inaugurated. ese, ae Biennial; dh

are canceled. a Visible, is held. opens. Seventh Taipei Biennial are held.

Fear of the SARS epidemic abounds;2011 many events : September 22: Original Problem: Return to the

Museum Itself, the first in a series of five exhibi-

2004 ‘The Fifth Shanghai Biennale, 7echniques of the tions comprising the Fourth Guangzhou Triennial, The foreign-owned Shanghai Gallery of Art is 2012. The Ninth Shanghai Biennale, Chongxin fadian,

established in a renovated building on the Bund, takes place. in Shanghai.

MAJOR EVENTS IN MODERN CHINESE ART 325

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Notes

CHAPTER 1

1. Shan Guolin, “Painting of China's New Metropolis: The Shanghai School, 18501900,” in Julia F Andrews and Kuiyi Shen, A Century in Crisis: Modernity and Tradition in the Art of Twentieth-Century China (New York: Guggenheim Museum, 1998), 20-34. For Zhang Xiong, also see Claudia Brown and Ju-hsi Chou, Transcending Turmoil: Painting at the Close of Chinas Empire, 1796-1911 (Phoenix: Phoenix Art Museum, 1992), 138-39.

2. Sizing is a general term to refer to the application of a protective glaze or stiffening to the surface of paper or fabric. Because silk and “raw” Chinese paper are both soft and extremely absorbent, a ground intended to receive finely detailed or richly colored painting, like this example, would be treated with layers of starch or gelatin to keep the

ink and pigment on the surface and under control. 3. For more on Ren Xiong, see Brown and Chou, Transcending Turmoil, 164—72, and

Britta Lee Erickson, “Patronage and Production in the Nineteenth Century Shanghai Region: Ren Xiong and His Sponsors,” PhD dissertation, Stanford University, 1997. 4. Translation slightly modified from Richard Vinograd, Boundaries of the Self (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 129. Also see James Cahill, “Ren Xiong and His Self-Portrait,” Ars Orientalis 25 (1995): 126, online at http://www.jstor .org/pss/4629491 (accessed June 30, 2011).

5. One of the last masterpieces of Chinese woodblock-printed illustration is the Drinking Cards with Illustrations of the Forty-Eight Immortals (Liexian jiupai), designed by Ren Xiong in 1854 for the one-month birthday celebration of his son Ren Yu (18541901). It is one of four sets of illustrations he created during the final years of his brief S2i

life. First painted as a set of drinking cards for party guests, 13. Shen, “Wu Changshi and the Shanghai Art World,” 162.

Ren Xiong subsequently, in collaboration with skilled 14. For a good discussion of such issues, see James Cahill, block-cutter Cai Zhaochu, published it in book form. Cai The Painter’s Practice: How Artists Lived and Worked in Tradicarefully carved Ren Xiong’s fine-line figure paintings on —_ tional China (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994). pear-wood blocks, a material known for its hardness, even- 15. Zheng Wei, “Shanghai Fanshops from the Nineteenth ness, and durability in printing. For one of several avail- to the Twentieth Century,” unpublished paper, presented on able reproductions, see Liexian jiupai [Drinking Cards with May 22, 1998, Guggenheim Museum, New York. Illustrations of the Forty-Eight Immortals] (Beijing: Peo- 16. This handscroll is now in the Kyoto National Museum.

ple’s Art Publishing House, 1987). 17. Christopher A. Reed, Gutenberg in Shanghai: Chinese 6. The best-known and earliest surviving work in the tra- Print Capitalism, 1876-1937 (Vancouver: University of Britdition of Gu Kaizhi is the Admonitions of the Instructress to ish Columbia Press, 2004).

the Ladies of the Palace in the British Museum. For some 18. “Thief in the Flower Garden” was ostensibly the true debates about its date and significance, see Shane McCaus- story of a celebrity courtesan named Wang Sibao. A wealthy land, ed., Gu Kaizhi and the Admonitions Scroll (London: client tried to win her affection but, despite great expense,

British Museum Press, 2003). he found that she still loved others. In revenge, he booked 7. The painting is now in the Shanghai Museum; see her services for the evening and then, as she slept, he cut Shan Guolin, “Painting of China's New Metropolis,” 26. off her long hair, destroying her livelihood. See Julia F. 8. Jesuit historian J. de la Serviére wrote that one could Andrews, “Commercial Art and China’s Modernization,” still see Ferrer’s sculpture Christ Entombed on the main altar — in Julia EF Andrews and Kuiyi Shen, A Century in Crisis:

at the Dongjiadu church as well as many statues and bas- = Modernity and Tradition in the Art of Twentieth-Century reliefs at Xujiahui. J. de la Serviére, Histoire de la mission du China, (New York: Guggenheim Museum, 1998), 183. Kiang-nan, vol. 1 (Shanghai: l’Orphelinat de Tou-sé-wé, Zi- 19. Ellen Johnston Laing, Art and Aesthetics in Chinese

ka-wéi, 1914), 105, 21I—I3. Popular Prints: Selections from the Muban Foundation Col9. Ihe summary of the artistic activities of Shanghai’s — ection (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Center for Chi-

Jesuits in these paragraphs is taken from Wan Qingli, nese Studies, 2002). “Zhongguo xiyanghua zhi yaolan” [The cradle of China's 20. For biographies, see Brown and Chou, TranscendWestern painting], in Huajia yu huashi: Jindai meishu cong- _ ing Turmoil, 256-60, and Elizabeth Bennett, “Chao Chihgao [Painter and painting: History of modern art manu- _ chien (1829-1884), a Late Nineteenth Century Chinese Artscripts] (Hangzhou: Zhongguo meishu xueyuan chuban- _ ist: His Life, Calligraphy, and Painting,” PhD dissertation,

she, 1997), 148-57. Yale University, 1984.

10. [he Xujiahui cathedral, designed by Ferrer, was dedi- 21. Chen Zhenlian, Jindai zhongri huihua jiaoliushi cated on the feast day of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, July 31, bijiao yanjiu (Hefei: Anhui meishu chubanshe, 2000), 141— 1851. According to Serviére, Ferrer’s school was so successful 52; Kuiyi Shen, “Shanghai-Japan Connection in the Late that it sent works all over China. It attracted European tour- Nineteenth and Beginning of the Twentieth Century,” in ists and was still flourishing in the early twentieth century. Turmoil, Representation, and Trends: Modern Chinese PaintJ. de la Serviére, Histoire de la mission du Kiang-nan, 211-13. ing, 1796-1949 |Shibian xingxiang liufeng: Zhongguo jin11. Ren Yis son recalled in an inscription that his father — dai huihua, 1796-1949 xueshu yantao hui lunwenji| (Taipei:

sketched in pencil this way. In an article introducing this | Chang Foundation in collaboration with the Kaohsiung document, Shen Zhiyu suggests that it confirms a close Museum of Fine Arts, 2008), 233-58; and Ajioka Yoshindo, friendship between the two men, and that Ren may have = ‘“Kaijohai to nihon to no kakawari” [On the relationship learned the practice from Liu Dezhai. “Guanyu Ren Bonian between Shanghai school and Japan], UP, no. 422 (Decem-

de xin shiliao” [New historical material on Ren Bonian], ber 2007). This is mentioned by Yang Yi, Haishang molin,

Wenhuibao, September 7, 1961, p. 4. 1919, reprint of 1920 edition (Shanghai: Shanghai guji chu12. Translation from Kuiyi Shen, “Wu Changshi and banshe, 1989), 76. the Shanghai Art World in the Late Nineteenth and Early 22. See Jonathan Hay, “Notes on Chinese Photography Twentieth Century,” PhD dissertation, Ohio State Univer- — and Advertising in Late Nineteenth Century Shanghai,” in sity, 2000, p. 162. The Wu Changshi inscription is not cur- =~ Visual Culture in Shanghai, 1850s—1930s, edited by Jason C.

rently mounted on the painting but is cited by Lin Shu- — Kuo (Washington, D.C.: New Academia Publishing, 2007), zhong in Wu Changshi nianpu (Shanghai: Shanghai Renmin —_ 95-119. meishu chubanshe), 31.

328 NOTES

CHAPTER 2 Chu, “The Lingnan School and Its Followers: Radical Innovation in Southern China,” in Andrews and Shen, A Cen1. Mayching Kao, “Reforms in Education and the Begin- tury in Crisis, 64-79. ning of the Western-Style Painting Movement in China,” 8. Croizier, Art and Revolution in Modern China, 68. in Julia KF Andrews and Kuiyi Shen, A Century in Crisis: 9. This account is based, as far as possible, on the school’s Modernity and Tradition in the Art of Twentieth-Century archives, now preserved in the collection of the Shanghai China, (New York: Guggenheim Museum, 1998), 148. Kao’s Municipal Archives, as well as on newspapers and periodiwork on early history of art education is foundational. Also cals of the time. The best overview, despite internal inconsee Mayching Kao, “The Beginning of the Western-Style __sistencies, is still that by Zhu Boxiong and Chen Ruilin in Painting Movement in Relationship to Reforms in Edu- = Zhongguo xihua wushinian (Beijing: Renmin meishu chucation in Early Twentieth-Century China,” New Asia Aca- banshe, 1989). In English, Jane Zheng (Zheng Jie) has

demic Bulletin 4 (1983): 373-400. recently published short articles about the school, also based 2. Normal colleges continued to enjoy great academic on these archival sources, such as “The Shanghai Fine Arts prestige and impact in the art world throughout the twen- College: Art Education and Modern Women Artists in the

tieth century. 1920s and 1930s,” Modern Chinese Literature and Culture 19, 3. An excellent study of this period is Douglas R. Rey- no. 1 (Spring 2007): 192-235. nolds, China, 1898-1912: The Xinzheng Revolution and Japan 10. Cai Yuanpei, “Jieshao yishujia Liu Haisu” [Introduc(Cambridge: Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard Uni- ing artist Li Haisu], in Haisu yishu jiping (Fuzhou: Fujian

versity: Harvard University Press, 1993). renmin chubanshe, 1984), 10, reprinted from Beijing jing4. Yoshida Chizuko provides a careful list and other —_ bao, January 14, 1922.

detailed material on the activities of Chinese students at 1. Liu Haisu’s Portrait of a Girl (1919) is a good example. the school from early school records. See Yoshida Chizuko, 12. Her return to Shanghai from America was reported “Tokyo Bijutsu Gakk6 no Gaikokujin Seito” [Foreign stu- in Shenbao, August 9, 1919; Wang Zhen, ed., Shanghai meidents of the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, part I], Zokyo Gei- shu nianbiao, 1900-2000 [A chronology of art in Shanghai, jutsu Daigaku Bijutsu Gakubu Kiyo [Bulletin of the Faculty 1900-2000], 91. of Fine Arts, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and 13. “Shijie meishu” [World art], Meishu zazhi [Fine arts],

Music], no. 33 (March 1999): 5—74. no. 2 (July r919): 1-6. We use here, for consistency, the En5. This was Cai’s most important policy statement as he _ glish name the Shanghai Art Academy. The school was called began transformation of the Qing dynasty educational curric- | Shanghai meishuyuan in 1912, Shanghai tuhua meishuyuan ulum into that of the new Republic. The 1912 speech, “Duiyu _in 1915, Shanghai meishu xuexiao in 1920, Shanghai meishu jiaoyu fangzhen de yijian” [My views on the aims of educa- — zhuanmen xuexiao in 1927, and Shanghai meishu zhuanke tion] was published multiple times, appearing in Minlibao, —_ xuexiao in 1930. February 8-10; Lingshi zhengfu gongbao, no. 13 (February 11, 14. Chen Baoyi went to Japan in 1913, where he is said to 1912); Jiaoyu zazhi 3, no. 11 (February 1912); and Dongfang have studied in a studio associated with the former White

zazhi 8, no. 10 (April 1912). Our summary is indebted to Kao, Horse Society, called the White Horse Western Painting “Reforms in Education and the Beginning of the Western- —_ Research Institute [Hakubakai yoga kenkyijo]. Style Painting Movement in China,” 153. See also William J. 15. Chen Duxiu, “Xianzhen yu Rujiao” [ConstitutionalDuiker, 7sai Yuan-pei: Educator of Modern China (University ism and Confucianism], Xin Qingnian 2, no. 3 (1916): 1-4. Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1977), 44-46. 16. Hao Chang, “Neo-Confucianism and the Intellectual 6. Cai Yuanpei, “Yi meiyu dai zongjiao shuo” [Replac- Crisis of Contemporary China,” in The Limits of Change: ing religion with aesthetic education], Xin Qingnian 3, no. Essays on Conservative Alternatives in Republican China, 6 (1917): 509-13; English translation in Modern Chinese Lit- edited by Charlotte Furth (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard Unierary Thought, edited by Kirk Denton (Stanford: Stanford _ versity Press, 1976), 281.

University Press, 1996), 182-89. 17. See Chen Duxiu's letter to Lu Cheng, in Xin gingnian 7. The most accessible study of this group is Ralph Croi- 6, no. I (1919): 85, 86.

ziers Art and Revolution in Modern China: The Lingnan 18. The Four Wangs that Chen Duxiu mentions here (Cantonese) School (Berkeley: University of California Press), are the four early Qing orthodox painters—Wang Shimin 1988. Also see The Art of the Gao Brothers of the Lingnan (1592-1680), Wang Jian (1598-1677), Wang Hui (1632-1717), School, edited by Mayching Kao (Hong Kong: Art Museum, — and Wang Yuanqi (1642-1715)—whose work was still emuthe Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1995); and Christina —_ lated by some traditionalists in the early twentieth century.

NOTES 329

19. The essay was published as an independent volume 1998), 94-109; and Kuiyi Shen, “Wang Yiting in the Social that reproduced the manuscript in Kang Youwei’s own cal- Network of 1910s—1930s Shanghai,” in At the Crossroads of ligraphy and as an article in the journal edited by Zhou — Empires: Middlemen, Social Networks, and State-Building in Xiang, Zhonghua meishubao (October 1918). See Ma Lin, Republican Shanghai, edited by Nara Dillon and Jean C. Oi Zhou Xiang yu Shanghai zaogi meishu jiaoyu [Zhou Xiang (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2008), 45-64. and early art education in Shanghai] (Tianjin: Tianjin Peo- 11. Interview with Wu Changye, grandson of Wu Chang-

ple’s Art Press, 2007), 188. shi, by Kuiyi Shen in August 1994 and October 1995 in Shanghai; also see Zhu Guantian, “Wu Changshi yu riben

CHAPTER 3 youren zhi jiaoyou, in Huiyi Wuchangshi [Memories of Wu 1. Chen Shizeng, “Wenrenhua de jiazhi” [The value Changshi] (Shanghai: Shanghai renmin meishu chubanshe, of literati painting], Huixue zazhi [Journal of the Beijing 1986), 73-75.

daxue Huafa yanjiuhui], no. 2 (January 1921): 1-6. 12. A photo entitled “The Celebration Party for the 2. On literati painting, see Susan Bush and Hsio-yen Establishment of Sino-Japanese Art Colleagues AssociaShih, Early Chinese Texts on Painting (Cambridge: Harvard tion,” published in Liangyou Pictorial [Young companion]

University Press, 1985), 16, 191-240. no. 44 (February 1930): 19, shows Wang Zhen, Ye Gong3. Chen Shizeng, “Wenrenhua de jiazhi” (1921), s. chuo, and Di Chuging with the Japanese consul in Shang-

4. Ibid., 5-6. hai, Mr. Tanaka, Sawamura Sachio, the Japanese painter 5. Chen Shizeng, “Wenrenhua zhi jiazhi” [The value | Yokoyama Taikan and his wife, and other Japanese. In 1931, of literati painting], in his Zhongguo wenrenhua zhi yanjiu Wang Zhen led a group of Shanghai painters—including [Research on Chinese literati painting] (Shanghai: Zhong- = Qian Shoutie, Wu Hufan, Sun Xueni, Li Qiujun, Zheng

hua shuju, 1922; eighth reprint, 1941), 9-10. Wuchang, Zhang Shanzi, and Zhang Daqian—to partici6. See Michael Sullivan, Art and Artists in Twentieth pate in the Fourth Sino-Japanese Art Exhibition in Tokyo. Century China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 13. Julia FE Andrews and Kuiyi Shen, “The Japanese

1996), 8-9. Impact on the Republican Art World: The Construction 7. Established by Jiang Baoling in the old town of Shang- of Chinese Art History as a Modern Field,” Tiwentieth Cenhai in 1839, it attracted many artists who were active in the tury China, 32, no. 1 (November 2006): 4-35; and Kuiyi city, including Li Yunjia, Fei Danxu (1801-1850), and Yao — Shen, “Fu Baoshi and the Construction of Chinese Art HisXie (1805-1864). See Yang Yi, Haishang molin [Shanghais tory,” in Chinese Art in an Age of Revolution, edited by Anita

forest of ink] (Shanghai: Guji chubanshe, 1989), reprint Chung (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011), 27-32. of 1919 edition, entry on “Jiang Baoling,” 59; and Xu Zhi- 14. Zheng Chang, Zhonguo huaxue quanshi [A complete hao, Zhongguo meishu shetuan manlu [Notes on Chinese history of Chinese painting] (Shanghai: Zhonghua shuju, art groups and societies] (Shanghai: Shanghai shuhua chu- 1929). banshe, 1994), 3-4. Jiang Baoling also wrote a book about 15. Julia F Andrews, “The Heavenly Horse Society (TianShanghai painters, Molin jinhua [Current comments on the mahui) and Chinese Landscape Painting,” in Ershi shiji forest of ink] (1852) that has been reprinted many times. shanshui hua yanjiu wenji [Studies in twentieth-century 8. The activities of the society were documented in a —_ shanshuihua], edited by Lu Fusheng and Tang Zheming colophon written by Wu Zonglin in 1864 on a now-lost (Shanghai: Shanghai Calligraphy and Painting Publishing painting, Zhe Elegant Gathering of the Pinghuashe, which — House, 2006), 556-91. was painted by members Qian Hui’an (1833-1911), Wang Li 16. See also Ellen Johnston Laing on Wu Shujuan in (1813-1879), and Bao Dong (active 1849-1866). See Yang Yi, Views from the Jade Terrace: Chinese Women Artists, 1300-

Haishang molin, entry on “Wu Zonglin,” 61-62. 1912, edited by Marsha Weidner and others (Indianapolis: 9. Yang Yi, Haishang molin, entry on “Qian Hui’an,” Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1988), 172-73.

72-74. 17. For more on the romantic and tragic career of Chang 10. For an excellent study of Wang Zhen, see Walter B. | Yu (Sanyu), see Rita Wong (Yi Shufan), Sanyu: Catalogue Davis, “Wang Yiting and the Art of Sino-Japanese Exchange,’ — Raisonneé: Oil Paintings [Chang Yu youhua quanji] (Xin-

PhD dissertation, Ohio State University, 2008. For other — dianshi: Guoju jijinhui in association with University of recent research, see Hsing-yuan Tsao, “A Forgotten Celebrity: | Washington Press, 2001); Sanyu: Catalogue Raisonné: Oil

Wang Zhen (1867-1938), Businessman, Philanthropist, and Paintings, volume 2 (Taipei: Li Ching Foundation, 2011); Artist,” in Art at the Close of Chinas Empire, Phoebus VIII, — and Sanyu, lécriture du corps (Paris: Museé des arts asiaedited by Ju-hsi Chou (Arizona: Arizona Board of Regents, tiques Guimet; Milan: Skira, 2004).

330 NOTES

18. This summary is largely based on the research of — Art School, and Lida Art School; and Nanjing’s National Delin Lai. See “Searching for a Modern Chinese Monu- —_ Central University.

ment: The Design of the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nan- 30. The exhibition opened on May 24, 1929, at the jing,’ Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 64, French school [Faguo xuetang] on Huanlong Road. Mem-

no. I (March 2005): 22—55. bers Lin Fengmian, Lin Wenzheng, Liu Jipiao, Cai Weilian,

19. Ibid. Wu Dayu, and Li Puyuan came to Shanghai from Hang-

20. Ibid., 36, translation from Wang Yiting’s, “Wang — zhou to hold a press conference. See Shanghai meishuzhi Yiting guanyu Sun Zhongshan lingmu tu’an ping pan [Annals of Shanghai art], edited by Xu Changming (Shangbaogao” [Report by Wang Yiting on the designs of the Sun _ hai: Shanghai shuhua chubanshe, 2004), 645.

Yat-sen Mausoleum]. 31. Meizhan 5 (April 22, 1929). Ying Chua, “Art and the 21. Lai, “Searching for a Modern Chinese Monument,” Public in Republican China: Critical Debates on the 1929

45 and 47. National Art Exhibition,” unpublished paper, College Art 22. Christina Chu, “The Lingnan School and Its Fol- Association Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, February 22, lowers: Radical Innovation in Southern China,” in Julia F 2009. Andrews and Kuiyi Shen, A Century in Crisis: Modernity 32. It is believed that Li Shutong may have initiated and Tradition in the Art of Twentieth-Century China (New the practice in China. For a 1913 photograph of his class,

York: Guggenheim Museum, 1998), 70. see Mayching Kao, “Reforms in Education and the Begin23. Jo-Anne Birnie-Danzker, “Shanghai Modern,” in ning of the Western-Style Painting Movement in China,” in Shanghai Modern, 1919-1945, edited by Jo-Anne Birnie- Andrews and Shen, A Century in Crisis, 156. Danzker, Ken Lum, and Zheng Shengtian (Munich: Hatje 33. Shanghai Municipal Archives preserves contempoCantz, 2005), 21; and Xu Jiang, “The ‘Misreading’ of Life,” rary documents that somewhat conflict with later versions in Birnie-Danzker, Lum, and Zheng, Shanghai Modern, of the story. See Julia EF Andrews, “Art and the Cosmopoli1919—1945, 75-77. David Clarke, “Exile from Tradition: Chi- tan Culture of 1920s Shanghai: Liu Haisu and the Nude nese and Western Traits in the Art of Lin Fengmian,” in Col- Model Controversy,” Chungeuksa Yongu—Journal of Chinese ors of East and West: Paintings by Lin Fengmian (Hong Kong: Historical Researches (The Korean Society for Chinese History),

University Museum and Art Gallery, University of Hong no. 35 (April 2005): 323-72, special issue, “Chinese History

Kong, 2003), 12-25. through Art”; “Luotihua lunzheng he xiandai zhongguo 24. Xu Jiang, in Birnie-Danzker, Lum, and Zheng, meishushi de jiangou,’ in Studies on Shanghai School Paint-

Shanghai Modern, 1919-1945, 77. ing (Shanghai: Shanghai shuhua chubanshe, 2001), 117-50, 25. See Craig Clunas, “Chinese Art and Chinese Artists reprinted in Zhao Li and Yu Ding, ed., Zhongguo youhua in France, 1924-1925, Arts Asiatiques 44 (1989): 100-106. wenxian, 1542-2000 [Documents about Chinese oil paint26. Wu Tung, Painting in China since the Opium Wars ing] (Changsha: Hunan meishu chubanshe, 2002), so1—11.

(Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1980), 17. 34. The studio also organized an exhibition for charita27. Xu Zhihao, Zhongguo meishu shetuan mantlu, 89. ble purposes at Ningbo Tongxianghui in 1929. The four-day 28. Cai Yuanpei, preface (dated October 15, 1929), to exhibition received donations of paintings and calligraphy

Meizhan tekan (Jiaoyubu quanguo meishu zhanlanhui from more than sixty artists. Participants included traditekan) (np, nd), vol. 1, “Jin,” unpaginated. The two-volume tional ink painters (such as Chen Shuren, He Xiangning, catalog lacks publication information, but both volumes = Chen Xiaodie, Hu Shi, Zhang Dagian, Zhang Shanzhi, include advertisements for publications by Youzheng shuju. | Zheng Wuchang, and Pan Tianshou) and also Western-style The notice in volume 1 claims publication credit for the painters (Pan Yuliang, Ding Song, Wang Yachen, Wang catalog and is dated September 1930. Old library catalogs —_Jiyuan, Tang Yunyu, and Zhang Yuguang). give Zhengyishe as the publisher, which Ellen Laing believes

applies to volume 2, “Gu.” E-mail communication, July 11, CHAPTER 4 2008. This catalog is usually cited with a date of 1929. 1. Lit Qingzhong, “Xin huapai liieshuo,” Dongfang zazhi 29. They included educators from Beijing’s Jingshi Art 14, no. 7 (July 15, 1917): 99-100. Academy; Guangzhou's Lingnan University and Municipal 2. Lit Cheng, “Xiyang meishushi” [Western art history], Art School; Shanghai’s China Art College [Zhonghua yishu _ originally published in Shanghai, 1921, reprinted in Zhao daxue], New China Art College [Xinhua yishu daxue], Li and Yu Ding, eds., Zhongguo youhua wenxian, 1542-2000 South China Arts Academy [Nanguo yishu xueyuan], | [Documents on Chinese oil painting, 1542-2000] (ChangShanghai Arts College [Shanghai Yida], China Women’s sha: Hunan meishu chubanshe, 2002), 427.

NOTES 331

3. The best English-language study of the Storm Society (San Francisco: Chinese Culture Foundation, 1979); Julia F. is Ralph Croizier, “Post-Impressionists in Pre-War Shang- | Andrews and Kuiyi Shen, “The Modern Woodcut Movehai: The Juelanshe (Storm Society) and the Fate of Modern- ment,” in Julia F Andrews and Kuiyi Shen, A Century in ism in Republican China,” in Modernity in Asian Art, edited — Crisis: Modernity and Tradition in the Art of Twentieth Cenby John Clark (Sydney: Wild Peony, 1993), 135-54. See also tury China (New York: Guggenheim Museum and Abrams, Michael Sullivan, Art and Artists of Twentieth Century China 1998), 196-225; Li Xiaoshan and Zou Yuejin, Minglang de

(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996), 62-64; tian: 1937-1949 jiefangqu muke banhuaji [Prints from the Hiunkin Pang [Pang Xungqin] (Nanjing: Jiangsu jiaoyu chu- Liberated Zone, 1937-1949] (Changsha: Hunan meishu banshe, 2006), and Schudy [Qiudi] (Nanjing: Jiangsu jiaoyu chubanshe, 1998); Iris Wachs and Chang Tsong-zung, Half

chubanshe, 2006). a Century of Chinese Woodblock Prints: From the Commu4. Duan Pingyou, “Zizhu Juelanshe huazhan,” Yishu nist Revolution to the Open-door Policy and Beyond, 1945-1998 xunkan 1, no. 5 (October 11, 1932), 10. Translation from (Israel: Museum of Art Ein Harod, 1999); Li Shusheng and Croizier, “Post-Impressionists in Pre-War Shanghai,” 140. Li Xiaoshan, Hanning dadi: 1930-1949 guotongqu muke ban5. Ihe Chinese name Taimeng huahui is a transliteration huaji [Prints from the Nationalist-controlled Zone, 1930— rather than translation of deux mondes (two worlds), empha- 1949] (Changsha: Hunan meishu chubanshe, 2000); Julia F. sizing its foreign flavor. This group, which was left-leaning |= Andrews, “The Art of the Revolution: 1931-1949,” in The Art politically, included more than twenty people, including — of Contemporary Chinese Woodcuts (London: Muban FounZhou Duo, Duan Pingyou, Liang Baibo, Tu Yi, and Hu dation, 2003), 32-47; Kuiyi Shen, “The Modernist Woodcut

Zuogin. Movement in 1930s China,” in Shanghai Modern, 1919-1945, 6. In attendance at the preliminary meeting on August 1, — edited by Jo-Anne Birnie-Danzker, Ken Lum, and Zheng

at which the manifesto and charter were planned, were Shengtian (Munich: Hatje Cantz, 2004), 262-82; Tang Shanghai Art Academy director Liu Haisu, along with profes- | Xiaobing, 7he Origins of the Chinese Avant-garde (Berkeley: sors Ni Yide, Wang Jiyuan, Fu Lei, Pang Xungin, and Zhang University of California Press, 2008); and Woodcuts in Mod-

Ruogu (?-1967). ern China, 1937-2008, edited by Joachim Homann (Ham7. “Bianji yutan” [Editor's afterword], Yishu xunkan 1, ilton, N.Y.: Picker Art Gallery, Colgate University, 2009).

no. 4 (October 1, 1932). 15. Itagaki Takao, “Jindai meishu shichao lun: Yi ‘minzu 8. Also see Pang Xunqin, Jiushi zheyang zouguo laide di secai’ wei zhu de” [On the historical currents of modern (This is how it happened] (Beijing: Sanlian shudian, 2005), art: Centering on “national color’], translated by Lu Xun 134, for the dates of October 10-17, 1932, which is corrected (Shanghai: Beixin shuju, 1929).

in subsequent publications. 16. Lu Xun wrote prefaces and notes for three volumes on 9. The “Storm Society Manifesto,” as published in Yishu — woodcuts, two from Europe entitled Modern Woodcut Selec-

xunkan 1, no. 5 (October 11, 1932): 8. tions [Jindai muke xuanji], and the third from the Soviet 10. Wang Jiyuan, “Juelan (Storm) duanhe,” Yishu xun- Union, Selected Prints from New Russia [Xin E huaxuan].

kan 1, no. 5 (October 11, 1932): 10. 17. Uchiyama Kakichi, “Guanyu banhua de yixie huiyi” 11. For publication of this painting and other work from [Some memories of woodcuts], translated by Sun Haoyuan, the Storm Society's third exhibition, see “Juelanshe huazhan Banhua (1957), no. 3, reprinted in Li Hua, Li Shusheng, chupin” [Third Exhibition of the “Torrents Society’], Young and Ma Ke, ed., Zhongguo xinxing banhua yundong wushin-

Companion, no. 111 (November 1935): 21. ian [Fifty years of the New Chinese Print Movement] 12. The founders included Liang Xihong (1912-1982), (Shenyang: Liaoning meishu chubanshe, 1981), 212-14. Zhao Shou (1912-2003), Zeng Ming, Li Dongping, Li 18. Uchiyama Kakichi, “Early Chinese Woodblock Prints Zhongsheng, Fang Rending (1901-1975), and Su Wonong and Me—A Memory of the Woodcut Training Class,” in Lu

(1901-1975). Xun yu muke [Lu Xun and woodcut], edited by Uchiyama

13. The title of this work, Color (Yan), may also be trans- Kakichi and Nara Wao (Beijing: People’s Art Press, 1985), 3. lated as “Face,” a semantic vagueness that corresponds to the 19. See Tikura Shohei, ed., 7he 1930s, Shanghai, Lu Xun visual ambiguity and is probably an intentional part of the = (Tokyo: Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts, 1994), 48—

artist’s surrealistic approach. 101; and “The Chronicle of Fifty Years of the Chinese New 14. For more detail on the woodcut movement, see PearlS. | Woodcut Movement,” in Li, Li, and Ma Ke, Zhongguo xinBuck and others, China in Black and White: An Album of xing banhua yundong wushinian, 3-121. Woodcuts by Contemporary Chinese Artists (New York: The 20. Meffert, a pupil of Kathe Kollwitz, fled Berlin after John Day Co., 1945); Shirley Sun, Modern Chinese Woodcuts the Nazi takeover, settling in Argentina from about 1936 to

332 NOTES

1962. There he taught design and published cartoons and —_2004), and for additional examples of cover design, see Scott

prints under the names Clément Moreau and Clément = Minick and Jiao Ping, Chinese Graphic Design in the TwenRousseau. See Jean Michel Palmier, Weimar in Exile: The tieth Century (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1990). Antifascist Emigration in Europe and America, translated by 32. Kuriyagawa Hakuson, Symbol of Depression [Kumen

David Fernbach (London: Verso, 2006), 574. de xiangzhen], translated by Lu Xun (Beijing: Weiming she, 21. See “Lu Xun and Kathe Kollwitz,” in Uchiyama Ka- 1924).

kichi and Nara, Lu Xun yu muke, 190-91. 33. Chen’s original name was Chen Shaoben. In Japan he 22. This painful period is described very well by David E. called himself Chen Jie, but on his return to China he took Pollard, The True Story of Lu Xun (Hong Kong: Chinese Uni- the name Chen Zhifo. See Li Youguang and Chen Xiufan,

versity Press, 2002), 151-62. Chen Zhifo yanjiu (Nanjing: Jiangsu meishu chubanshe, 23. Uchiyama Kakichi, “Early Chinese Woodblock Prints 1990), for an excellent introduction to his early life. and Me—A Memory of the Woodcut Training Class,” in

Uchiyama Kakichi and Nara, Lu Xun yu muke, 2-4. CHAPTER 5 24. Jiang Feng’s recollections of this event are summa- 1. We use the romanized term guohua to signify any rized in Julia F Andrews, Painters and Politics in the People’ painting made in ink and/or water-based Chinese pigments Republic of China (Berkeley: University of California Press, on a ground of Chinese paper or silk. Although the dictio-

1994), 12-27. All the students were male. nary definition of guohua is “traditional Chinese painting,” 25. Several of Lu Xun’s students, including Chen Zhuo- _in practice the term refers simply to the medium rather than

kun (1908-2002), Chen Tiegeng (1908-1969), and Li the technique, subject matter, style, size, or format of the Xiushi (1911-1938), had studied at the prestigious Hang- — work. It is applied even if the brushwork and composition zhou National Art Academy; Zhong Bugqing (b. 1910) and __are not traditional at all. In the late Qing dynasty and early Deng Qifan (1910-1933), at the Shanghai Art Academy; and Republican era, the more neutral term shuhua (painting and three others, Le Yijun (1910-ca. 1997), Miao Boran (1910-— calligraphy), which made no attempt to take account of the 1967), and Ni Huanzhi (1909-1959), at private art schools in existence of European art, was used to refer to Chinese ink Shanghai, such as New China Art Academy and the Shang- painting. More recently, artists of cosmopolitan inclination hai Arts School. Five of them—Hu Zhongmin, Huang have begun referring to their art with another neutral term, Shanding (1910-1996), Jiang Feng (1910-1982), Gu Hong- probably of Japanese origin, shuimohua (ink-and-water gan, and Zheng Luoye (1910-1936)—were not full-time painting). In most cases, however, the special characterisstudents but were involved in various evening art clubs, tics of Chinese paper or silk as a ground is an essential facincluding the White Swan Painting Club, the leftist Shang- _ tor in the effects achieved with ink. The label guohua has hai Eighteen Art Society, and the Communist-run League —_— now been replaced in many contexts by Zhongguohua (Chi-

of Left-Wing Artists. nese painting). The term guohua was used most consistently 26. Michael Sullivan, Art and Artists of Twentieth Century between the mid-1920s and the early twenty-first century. It China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996), 29. often bears a burden of cultural nationalism and patriotism.

27. Wang Xingi, Lu Xun meishu nianpu (Guangzhou: 2. For a reference book with histories of some of these

Lingnan Art Press, 1986), 189. groups, see Wang Yichang et al., eds., Zhongguo meishu 28. Preface to Muling muzhan [Wooden Bell Woodcut —_nianjian [1947 yearbook of Chinese art] (Shanghai: ShangExhibition] April 1, 1933, reproduced in Lu Xun cang zhong- hai shi wenhua yundong weiyuanhui, 1948); also reprint,

guo xiandai muke quanji, vol. 1, p. 1145. Shanghai, 2008. 29. All issues of the journal are reproduced in Lu Xun 3. The city of Beijing (Northern Capital) was called cang zhongguo xiandai muke quanji, vol. 5. Selections appear — Beiping (Northern Peace) for about two decades after the in Andrews and Shen, A Century in Crisis, figures. 87, 89, capital was relocated to Nanjing (Southern Capital) in 1928.

90, 98, IOO—102. For convenience, we refer to it consistently as Beijing except 30. Sullivan, Art and Artists of Twentieth Century China, 82. _ in some institutional names.

31. For more on cover art, see Julia F Andrews, “Com- 4. Wu Changshi’s first solo show was held at Takashimercial Art and Chinas Modernization,” in Andrews and =maya Department Store in Osaka. His international sucShen, A Century in Crisis, 181-95. For a different genre of cess increased his reputation at home and elevated the stacommercial art, see Ellen Johnston Laing, Se/ling Happi- _ tus of Chinese painting in general. Qi Baishi, similarly, only ness: Calendar Posters and Visual Culture in Early Twentieth rose to artistic fame through his success in the Sino-Japanese Century Shanghai (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, exhibitions organized by Jin Cheng’s group.

NOTES 333

5. There is a body of literature on premodern literati New Academia Publishing, 2007), 79-93; and a preliminary painting too extensive to cite here. For some discussion version, Julia KE Andrews, “Traditional Chinese Painting of the period in which condemnation of the traditions of | in an Age of Revolution, 1911-1937: The Chinese Painting court painting and professional painting became codified, Society of Shanghai,” in Chinese Painting and the Twentieth see James Cahill, 7he Distant Mountains: Chinese Painting of — Century: Creativity in the Aftermath of Tradition (Hangzhou: the Late Ming Dynasty, 1570-1644 (New York: Weatherhill, Zhejiang People’s Fine Arts Press, 1997), 578-95.

1982); and Wai-kam Ho, Marc Wilson, and Judith Smith, 12. The society's “ganshi” or administrators in 1930 were eds., The Century of Tung Chi-chang (Seattle: University of Zhang Shanzi, Xie Gongzhan, Lu Danlin, Xu Zhengbai, Li

Washington Press, 1992). Zuhan, Qian Shoutie, Sun Xueni, Zheng Manging (Yue), 6. For an early description of the Beijing conservatives, Ma Mengrong, He Tianjian, and Zheng Wuchang. See see Chu-tsing Li, Trends in Modern Chinese Painting (The — Mifeng, no. 11 (July 21, 1930): 1. To this list may be added

C. A. Drenowatz Collection), Artibus Asiae Supplementum Wang Shizi. Some members were Xie Yucen, Yu Jianhua, 36 (Ascona, Switzerland: Artibus Asiae Publishers, 1979), | Wang Geyi, Xiong Songquan, Xie Zhiguang, Wang Yiting, especially 11-17. More recently, art historian Xue Yongnian Ying Yeping, and Zhang Dagian as well as some of the subof CAFA has pointed out in lectures the significance of Jin sequent founders of the Women’s Calligraphy and Painting Cheng’s experiments with European effects of light and _—_ Society, including Wu Qingxia and Li Qiujun. See Wang

shade. Yichang et al., Zhongguo meishu nianjian, “History,” 9.

7. Wang Yichang et al., eds., Zhongguo meishu nianjian, 13. This article, published in Mifeng (Bee journal) 11-12 “History, 5. The journal Yigwan was published between (June 21 and July 1, 1930), is cited in Wang Yichang et al., February 1926 and 1929. Also see Xu Zhihao, Zhongguo mei- Zhongguo meishu nianjian, “History,” 6. shu shetuan mantu [Notes on Chinese art groups and societ- 14. Wang Yichang et al., Zhongguo meishu nianjian, “Hisies] (Shanghai: Shanghai shuhua chubanshe, 1994), 76. You- tory,’ 6.

zheng Book Company, owned by art enthusiast Di Baoxian 15. Huang Binhong, “Zhizhi yi wenshuo” [About the (Di Pingzi), also produced elegant collotype reproductions relationship between culture and country], Guohua yuekan of masterpieces of Chinese painting and calligraphy. I, no. I (1934): 6. 8. Among valuable English-language studies of Huang 16. He Tianjian, “Zhongguo huahui lilun shang zhi Binhong are Jason C. Kuo, /nnovation within Tradition: The yanshu,” Guohua yuekan 1, no. 2 (1935): 3-4; “Shuhuahui Painting of Huang Binhong (Hong Kong: Hanart Gallery — yu zuofeng zhi shifei,” 1, no. 2 (1935): 20-21; “Zhongguo in association with Williams College Art Gallery, 1989); shanshuihua jinri zhi bingtai jiqi jiuji fangfa,” 1, no. 5 (1935): and Claire Roberts, Friendship in Art: Fou Lei and Huang 100-103; and “Huihua zhi biaozhun lun,” 1, no. 9-10 (1935): Binhong (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2010). 184-88.

Zaixin Hong has also published an impressive series of 17. Meishu shenghuo 3-4 (1934) and Huaxue yuekan 1 articles about Huang and his circles, including “Twentieth (1932). Century Chinese Landscape Painting in the West: The Case 18. Shidai 9, no. 8 (1936): 4, 5. of Huang Binhong,” in Ershi shiji shanshuihua yanjiu wenji 19. Carol Lynne Waara’s dissertation, “Arts and Life: (Shanghai: Shanghai shuhua chubanshe, 2006), 525-55. Public and Private Culture in Chinese Art Periodicals, 1912— 9. Lisa Claypool has argued in conference presentations 1937, University of Michigan, 1994, provides an overview for the similarity between the projects of exhibiting and — of Meishu shenghuo magazine and its staff.

publishing works of art in the later Qing and early Repub- 20. A full translation from Qian Shoutie, “Benkan

lican period. chuangshi gao duzhe” [To readers on the debut of this pub10. The Republican government appointed a new direc- lication], Meishu shenghuo 1 (April 1934), appears in ibid., tor of the Palace Museum, Yi Peiji, in 1928. He asked Ma 204-5. Heng and an English-speaking administrator from Beijing, 21. These anthologies include Jin, Tang Song, Yuan, Ming, Wu Ying (1891-1959), to take over administrative duties. Wu Qing minghua daguan (Masterpieces of Jin, Tang, Song, Ying launched the new journal the following year. Yuan, Ming, and Qing painting) as well as Ouzhou minghua 11. For the Bee Painting Society and the Chinese Paint- | daguan (Masterpieces of European painting), Shijie minghuing Society, see Julia KF Andrews and Kuiyi Shen, “The Tra- ai (Masterpieces of world painting), and also /Xu/ Beihong ditionalist Response to Modernity: The Chinese Painting —/uaji (Paintings of Xu Beihong). Society of Shanghai,” in Visual Culture in Shanghai, 18s50s— 22. Zheng Wuchang, “Xiandai zhongguo huajia ying fu 1930s, edited by Jason Chi-sheng Kuo (Washington, D.C.: zhi zeren,” Guohua yuekan 1, no. 2 (December 1934): 17.

334 NOTES

23. In addition to this association, he participated in 1935): 239-51. The event was held in London from Novema smaller one, the Society of Nine, with Zhang Dagian, ber 28, 1935, to March 7, 1936. For a more recent European Zhang Shanzi, Tang Dingzhi, Lu Danlin, Xie Yucen, and account, see Jason Steuber, “The Exhibition of Chinese

three others. Art at Burlington House, London, 1935-36,” The Burling24. According to the account in Wang Yichang et al., ton Magazine 148, no. 1241 (August 2006): 528-36; online at Zhongguo meishu nianjian, “History,” 12-13, the former http://www.jstor.org/stable/20074523. group involved more than two thousand Shanghai artists 32. As Clarissa von Spee has noted, the quality of the who worked in all media and two hundred members from paintings selected was uneven by modern standards and other parts of China. Zheng Chang, the name by which the __ the criteria and procedure used in their selection unclear. artist published his writings, authored a number of other The event may be viewed, however, as the beginning of books about Chinese art history, including Research on the systematic authentication and connoisseurship of Chinese History of Chinese Mural Painting, An Interpretation of Shitaos _ painting in modern times. See Clarissa von Spee, Wu Hufan

“Huayulu,’ and A General History of Chinese Painting Theory, and Twentieth Century Connoisseur in Shanghai (Berlin: some of which were still in print as late as the 1960s. See Dietrich Reimer Verlag GmbH, 2008), 48—49, 51. Wang Yichang et al., Zhongguo meishu nianjian, zhuan, 109. 33. Liu’s exhibition was sponsored by the China Institute 25. Beyond its idealistic, culturally nationalistic, and Frankfurt and the Kunstverein Frankfurt; the much larger practical aims, the group was quite proud of the fact that it | Japanese show by the Society for East Asian Art and the eventually was registered with the government. The group Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin had sponsorship of the was also asked to fulfill some quasi-governmental functions. | Japanese government. See Jo-Anne Birnie-Danzker, “ShangSee Andrews and Shen, “Traditionalist Response to Moder- hai Modern,” in Shanghai Modern, 1919-1945, edited by Jo-

nity,” 85. Anne Birnie-Danzker, Ken Lum, and Zheng Shengtian 26. For more on the Women’s Calligraphy and Painting (Munich: Hatje Cantz, 2005), 30-31. Society, see Julia F Andrews and Kuiyi Shen, “Traditional- 34. Quoted in ibid., 32. ism as a Modern Stance: The Chinese Women’s Calligraphy 35. Others involved in the two-year planning process and Painting Society of 1930s Shanghai,” Modern Chinese included Di Baoxian, Zhang Shanzi, Wang Zhen, Zhang Literature and Culture 11, no. 1 (Spring 1999): 1-29. There is Shanzi, Chen Shuren, Lin Wenzheng, Xu Beihong, Vicsome dispute as to when exactly in the late Qing period the —_ toria Contag, and Otto Kiimmel. Suggestions and comschool was established. See Julia KF Andrews, “Art and the plaints about the selection process were published during Cosmopolitan Culture of 1920s Shanghai: Liu Haisu and _ the course of the planning.

the Nude Model Controversy,” Chungguksa Yongu—Journal 36. Tsuruta Takeyoshi, Chigoku kindai bijutsu daiji of Chinese Historical Researches (The Korean Society for Chi- — nenbyo (Chronology of events in modern Chinese art]

nese History) 35 (April 2005): 326-42. (Izumi-shi: Kuboso kinen bijutsukan, 1997), 55 and 57. 27. Gu Fei’s brother, the poet Gu Foying, married her 37. Ihese works were seized by the Soviets in 1945 at painting friend Chen Xiaocui, who also wrote poetry. the end of World War II and have not been returned. Fif28. The catalog was published as 7os6 Genmin meiga tai- teen of them have been identified in the Hermitage in St.

kan (Tokyo: Otsuka Kégeisha, 1929). Petersburg. 29. As Yen Chuanying describes, a growing concern 38. Birnie-Danzker, “Shanghai Modern,” 39. about the removal of ancient masterpieces by foreign col- 39. More than a hundred new streets and roads were to lectors stimulated further efforts to publish and exhibit — be built named with characters that included in the title them. See Yen Chuanying, “Art Exhibitions, 1850-1949,” in “Republic of China, Shanghai Municipal Government,” Encyclopedia of Modern China, edited by David Pong, vol.1 — thus “Zhong hua min guo Shang hai shi zheng fu.” Eleven

(New York: Charles, Scribner’s Sons, 2009), 83-84. included the character “Zhong,” ten were named with 30. After selection in Beijing the paintings and callig- “Hua,” five “Min,” ten “Guo,” nine “Shang,” thirteen “hai,” raphy were again examined in Shanghai by Ye Gongchuo, fifteen “shi,” twelve “zheng,” and eight “fu.” Pang Yuanji, Wu Hufan, Di Baoxian, Zhang Heng, Zhao 40. For an excellent account of this period, with particuShuru, Zhang Junmo, Zhang Shanzi, Chen Dingshan, Xu lar focus on the work of American architect Henry K. MurBangda, and Wang Jigian as well as by art historian Victo- —_ phy in this endeavor, see Jeffrey Cody, Building in China:

ria Contag. Henry K. Murphys “Adaptive Architecture,” 1914-1935 (Hong 31. Percival David, “The Exhibition of Chinese Art,” Bur- | Kong: Chinese University Press). Plate 10 is an illustration lington Magazine for Connoisseurs 67, no. 393 (December of the memorial arch designed by Dong for the cemetery.

NOTES 335

41. The now problematic terms “Occident” and “Ori- Shanghai shi wenhua yundong weiyuanhui, 1948; reprint, ent’ were commonly used in art theory of the Republican Shanghai: Shanghai shehui kexueyuan chubanshe, 2008). period. We adopt them here to reflect the perception by 3. The exhibition was limited to work that had appeared Chinese of that time of Asia's relationship to a hegemonic __in neither the 1929 National Exhibition nor the London

European culture. Exhibition of 1935. For the catalog, see J/iaoyubu dierci quan42. For helpful discussion of Ye Gongchuo, see Kuiyi guo meishu zhanlanhui zhuanji [A special collection of the Shen, Max Yeh, Wen-hsin Yeh, and Jason Kuo, 7he Elegant — Second National Exhibition of Chinese Art under the ausGathering: The Yeh Family Collection (San Francisco: Asian _ pices of the Ministry of Education], 3 volumes. (Shanghai:

Art Museum, 2006). Shangwu yinshuguan, 1937). The catalog, in three volumes, 43. See Meizhan, special bulletins on the First National reduced these to three main topics: (1) masterpieces of preArt Exhibition, ten issues, April 1o—May 7, 1929. Ye recruited = modern Chinese painting and calligraphy; (2) modern ink

Zhang Dagian to serve on the exhibition committee. painting and calligraphy; and (3) modern Western-style 44. For good discussion of Rabindranath Tagore’s lec- _ painting, design, and sculpture. ture tour in China, see Stephen N. Hay, Asian Ideas of East 4. New York Times reporter F. Tillman Durdin wrote, in and West: Tagore and His Critics in Japan, China, and India a report filed on December 22, 1937: “For the Japanese, the (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1970). For discus- capture of Nanking was of paramount military and politision of the Chinese studies school at Visva-Barati Univer- cal importance. Their victory was marred, however, by barsity at Santiniketan, see Sonya Rhie Quintanilla, Rhythms _ baric cruelties, by the wholesale execution of prisoners, the of India: The Art of Nandalal Bose (San Diego: San Diego _ looting of the city, rape, killing of civilians and by general

Museum of Art, 2008). vandalism, which will remain a blot on the reputation of the 45. Zheng Zu’an discussed the planning, completion, | Japanese Army and nation.” See E Tillman Durdin, “Japaand destruction of the new complex in “The Fall of New _ nese Atrocities Marked Fall of Nanking after Chinese ComCivic Center of Greater Shanghai in 1937,” presented at mand Fled,” New York Times (1923-Current file), January the panel “Special History and Visual Documents,” in the 9, 1938, ProQuest Historical Newspapers: The New York ECAI Shanghai Conference, Fudan University, Shanghai, Times (1851-2007), p. 38. Iris Chang, Zhe Rape of Nanking:

May 11, 2005. The Forgotten Holocaust of World War IT (New York: Penguin 46. For a discussion of the Nanjing city plan, see Cody, Books, 1998), revived general interest in this tragedy, along

Building in China, 173-203. with some controversy. 47. Sun might be posthumously credited (or blamed) 5. Ihe National Salvation Movement began as early as for the idea of damming the Yangzi River for hydroelectric the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 and the Shangpower, another part of his proposal that was only imple- _ hai war of 1932 but certainly became more urgent following

mented in the late twentieth century. the 1937 invasion. 6. The group included Hu Kao, Te Wei, Zhang Ding,

CHAPTER 6 Liao Bingxiong, Lu Zhiyang, Huang Mao, Liang Baibo, 1. Standard accounts of key aspects of the war may be Xuan Wenjie, Zhang Xiya, and others. They also published found in The Cambridge History of China, edited by John C. Ten-day Cartoon Magazine {Manhua xunkan] and Cartoon Fairbank and Albert Feuerwerker, vol. 13, part 2 (Republi- Weekly [Xingqi manhual]. can China, 1912-1949) (Cambridge: Cambridge University 7. Lu Shaofei (1903-1995), who published /iawang man-

Press, 1986), especially 492-788. hua, was editor-in-chief of Shidai manhua |Modern car2. Some recent reference publications have useful outlines — toon). /iwwang manhua’s editor was Wang Dunging (1899—

of art activities during the war. See Zhao Li and Yu Ding, 1990), a 1923 graduate of St. John’s University who had eds., Zhongguo youhua wenxian, 1542-2000 [Documents on been a major artist for Shanghai's earliest cartoon magazine, Chinese oil painting, 1542-2000] (Changsha: Hunan mei- — Shanghai manhua. In addition to Wang, the artists of Jiushu chubanshe, 2002); Xu Changming, ed., Shanghai mei- wang manhua included Zhu Jinlou, Zhang Wenyuan, Ye shuzhi |A chronology of art in Shanghai] (Shanghai: Shang- Qianyu, Zhang Guangyu, Cai Ruohong, Liao Bingxiong, hai shuhua chubanshe, 2004); Wang Zhen, ed., Shanghai Te Wei, Zhang Leping, Hu Kao, Shen Yigian, Hua Junwu, meishu nianbiao, 1900-2000 [A chronology of art in Shang- Zhang Ding, Ding Cong, Huang Yao, Chen Yangiao, Lu hai, 1900-2000] (Shanghai: Shanghai shuhua chubanshe, Zhiyang, Wan Laiming, and others. Huang Ke, “Zuoyi 2005); and Wang Yichang et al., eds., Zhongguo meishu — wenyi yundong zhong de ertong meishu,” in Shanghai meinianjian, 1947 [1947 yearbook of Chinese art] (Shanghai: shushi zaji [Miscellaneous notes on the history of art in

336 NOTES

Shanghai] (Shanghai: Shanghai renmin meishu chubanshe, —_ archaeologist Li Ji. Completed in 1948, the anthropology 2000), 175. In the same period, Yu Feng returned to Shang- _ building is now the main hall of the Nanjing Museum.

hai from Nanjing and became a cartoonist for Salvation 16. By 1943 colonial powers had formally recognized the Daily (Jiuwang ribao] before moving to Hong Kong in 1938. —_ termination of extraterritoriality in Shanghai.

8. The department had three divisions: drama and music, 17. The school moved to Alley 155, Route Stanislas Cheheaded by playwright Hong Shen; film, under Zheng Yong- valier (Xuehuali lu, now Jianguo zhonglu). Among the zhi; and painting and woodcuts, officially headed by the faculty were Wang Yachen, Pan Boying, Xu Xiyi, Wang absent Xu Beihong but actually run by Ni Yide. Wang Shengyuan, Rong Junli, Jiang Danshu, Zhou Bichu, Shi Shikuo, Feng Fasi, Duan Pingyou, and Zhou Lingzhao all Zhongda, Shu Peiyu, and Yang Jianlong. Altogether, the

worked in this division. school was in operation for eighteen years and trained a 9. Ye Qianyu also founded the All-China Cartoon Cir- number of influential artists.

cles Resistance Association. 18. For issues related to life in the occupied areas, see 10. The exhibition was administered by LiQun, MaDa, — Poshek Fu, Passivity, Resistance, and Collaboration: IntelChen Jiu, Lu Hongji, Huang Zhufu, and Liu Jian’an, with lectual Choices in Occupied Shanghai, 1937-1945 (Stanford: the assistance of An Lin, Chen Yangiao, Duan Ganging, Liu Stanford University Press, 1993); and Timothy Brook, Col

Xian, and Luo Gongliu. laboration: Japanese Agents and Local Elites in Wartime China 11. In addition to the five founders, the organization (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005). relied on artists scattered all over China, including five Lu 19. Muke yishu |Woodcut art], no. 2, 1943, np. Xun followers—Jiang Feng, Hu Yichuan, Wo Zha, Chen 20. Lloyd E. Eastman, “Nationalist China during the Tiegeng, and Wen Tao—who had already joined the Com- Sino-Japanese War 1937-1945, in Fairbank and Feuermunist Eighth Route army in Shaanxi, Lai Shaoqi (Guang- —_—werker, Cambridge History of China, vol. 13, part 2, p. 555.

zhou), Huang Xinbo and Chen Yanqiao (Hong Kong), 21. Yang Han, “Banhua huodong zai xinsijun,” in Li Li Hua (Hunan), Zheng Yefu (Zhejiang), Zhang Wang Hua, Li Shusheng, and Ma Ke. Zhongguo xinxing banhua (Guangdong), and Feng Zhongtie (Sichuan). yundong wushinian, 1931-1981 [Fifty years of the new Chi12. According to Pang Xunqin’s reminiscence, the team nese print movement, 1931-1981] (Shenyang: Liaoning meito negotiate the merger consisted of four professors from shu chubanshe, 1981), 315. each school: Pang Xungin, Wang Manshuo, Li Yixin, and 22. “Jiang Feng nianbiao” [A chronology of Jiang Feng], Wang Linyi from Beijing; and Liu Kaiqu, Wang Ziyun, Lei —_—hereafter JF NB, in Jiang Feng Meishu lunji [Jiang Feng’s Guiyuan, and Li Puyuan from Hangzhou. The position of — writings on art], edited by Hong Bo et al. (Beijing: Renmin school president was replaced by an administrative commit- meishu chubanshe, 1983), 320. tee. Lin Fengmian’s friend and right-hand man, Lin Wen- 23. Bo Songnian, Zhongguo nianhua shi [A history of zheng, is conspicuously missing from the roster. Only Six Chinese new years pictures] (Shenyang: Liaoning meishu faculty members of the Beiping Art Academy went to Yuan- chubanshe, 1986), 177; Yan Han, “Yi Taihangshan kangri ling. The directorship passed through many hands during genjudi de nianhua he muke huodong” [Recollections of this decade: art historian Teng Gu (1939), ink painter Li —_ the new year’s pictures and woodcut activity in the TaihangFengzi (1940-1942), designer Chen Zhifo (1942-1944), and shan anti-Japanese base], in Li, Li, and Ma, Zhongguo xin-

guohua painter Pan Tianshou. xing banhua yundong wushinian, 1931-1981, 308-9; and Hu 13. Michael Sullivan, Art and Artists of Twentieth Century —_Yichuan, “Huiyi Luyi muke gongzuotuan zai dihou,” in Li,

China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996), 91— Li, and Ma, Zhongguo xinxing banhua yundong wushinian, 125. Also, for a particularly sensitive account of the general 193I—I98I, 297.

tone of the Chinese art world in this period, see Michael 24. For a translation and discussion of Mao’s text, see Sullivan, Chinese Art in the Twentieth Century (Berkeley: Bonnie S. McDougall, “Mao Zedong’s “Talks at the Yan’an

University of California Press, 1959). Conference on Literature and Art’: A Translation of the 1943 14. A number of Kosugi’s works of this type are now in Text with Commentary,” Michigan Papers in Chinese Stud-

the Idemitsu Museum in Tokyo. ies, No. 39, University of Michigan, 1980. 15. The museum building designed by Xu Jingzhi and Li 25. Ellen Johnston Laing, 7he Winking Owl: Art in the Huibo in the Liao style, with Liang Sicheng and Liu Dun- — Peoples: Republic of China (Berkeley: University of Califor-

zhen advising, began construction in 1936 in Nanjing. In nia Press, 1988), 14. The Yan’an print movement is also disKunming the National Central Museum Preparatory Office cussed in Julia F Andrews, Painters and Politics in the Peo(Guoli zhongyang bowuyuan choubeichu) was directed by — ples Republic of China (Berkeley: University of California

NOTES 337

Press, 1994), 18-27, 96-105; and in James Flath, 7he Cult of 7. For more on Soviet painting instruction, see Julia F. Happiness: Nianhua, Art, and History in Rural North China Andrews, Painters and Politics in the People’s Republic of China (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2004), (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994), 150-53.

134-49. 8. Bonnie S. McDougall, Mao Zedongs “Talks at the 26. China in Black and White: An Album of Woodcuts by Yanan Conference on Literature and Art’: A Translation of the Contemporary Chinese Artists, with commentary by Pearl S. 1943 Text with Commentary (Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese

Buck (New York: John Day Co., 1945). Studies, University of Michigan, 1980), 58. 9. Much of this section and this translation are based on

CHAPTER 7 Kuiyi Shen, “Publishing Posters before the Cultural Revolu1. For excellent surveys of this period, also see Ellen tion, Modern Chinese Literature and Culture 12, no. 2 (Fall Johnston Laing, 7he Winking Owl: Art in the Peoples Repub- 2000): 177, 182-84. lic of China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 10. For discussion of these construction projects see Wu, and Maria Galikowski, Art and Politics in China, 1949-1984 Remaking Beijing, 108-26; Laing, Winking Owl, 90-91;

(Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1998). and Andrews, Painters and Politics in the Peoples Republic of 2. A temporary museum first opened at Tuancheng in = China, 227-29.

location. CHAPTER 8

Beihai Park in 1950, but it soon moved to the more central

3. The panels were: East 1. Burning Opium in Humen 1. From Zhou Yang, “Wei chuangzao gengduo de youxiu (Cause of the Opium War, 1839) by Zeng Zhushao; East de wenxue yishu zuopin er fendou—yijiuwusan nian jiu

2. The Jintian Uprising (The Taiping Rebellion, 1851) by —__ yue ershisi ri zai zhongguo wenxue yishu gongzuozhe dierci Wang Bingzhao; South 1. Zhe Wuchang Uprising (1911 revo- _—_— daibiao dahui shang de baogao” [Struggle to create even

lution) by Fu Tianchou; South 2. Zhe May Fourth Move- more excellent works of literature and art—report on Sepment (1917) by Hua Tianyou; South 3. Zhe May 30th Move- tember 24, 1953, at the Second National Congress of Literment (1925) by Wang Lingyi; West 1. The Nanchang Uprising ary and Arts Workers], Wenyibao, no. 96 (1953, no. 19): 12.

(1927) by Xiao Chuanjiu; West 2. Anti-Japanese Guerillas 2. Works such as these were available to him for study in (1937-1945) by Zhang Songhe; North 1. Victoriously Crossing | Hangzhou and Shanghai collections. the Yangzi River to Liberate All of China (1949) by Liu Kaiqu; 3. Some have labeled him the founder of the Yellow Earth North 2. Support for the Battle Front (Civilians support the _ school, borrowing the name of Chen Kaige's 1984 film set in PLA, 1948-1949) by Liu Kaiqu; and Welcome [to Beijing of] the same yellow loess plateau region of northwestern China.

the Peoples Liberation Army (1949) by Liu Kaiqu. 4. Susan Bush and Hsio-yen Shih, Early Chinese Texts 4. Also see these recent accounts of this commission: Wu — on Painting (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press,

Hung, Remaking Beijing: Tiananmen Square and the Cre- 1985), 36-38. ation of a Political Space (Chicago: University of Chicago 5. Ten years after the land reform movement that aimed Press, 2005), 24-36, and Chang-tai Hung, “Revolutionary to free China's impoverished farmers by redistributing the History in Stone: The Making of a Chinese National Mon- _ fields previously owned by wealthy landlords, in the late ument,’ China Quarterly, no. 166 (June 2001): 457-73. 1950s the Chinese state took control of agricultural land. 5. The Russian sculptor began with a class of twenty- As part of the Great Leap Forward’s move toward a more three students. Their geographic distribution and number _ perfect Communism, this collectivization of agriculture was would seem to correspond with the prestige of the national |= accompanied by a system of free dining halls set up across academies from which they came: eight from Beijing, five the nation. In many cases, family cooking pots were confisfrom Hangzhou, three from Shenyang, two from Sichuan, cated and melted down in backyard steel furnaces.

two from Guangzhou, two from Xi’an, and one from 6. Frank Dik6étter, Maos Great Famine: The History of Shanghai. One each from Shanghai, Sichuan, and Hang- Chinas Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958-1962 (New York: zhou were condemned as rightists in 1957 and only twenty Walker and Co., 2011).

graduated. Sculpture students who went to the USSR were 7. The art historian Xiao Ping has suggested further that Qian Shaowu, Dong Zuzhao, Wang Keging, Cao Chun- this phrase comes from a revolutionary slogan criticizing

sheng, and Situ Zhaoguang. Qing officials Li Hongzhang and Weng Tonghe, as the lat6. Ai Zhongxin, “Sulian de youhua yishu” [Soviet oil ter was a Changshu native.

painting], Meishu no. 11 (1954): 7. 8. Preface by the artists to the exhibition flier, “Li Keran,

338 NOTES

Zhang Ding, Luo Ming shuimo xieshenghua zhanlanhui” CHAPTER 9 [Li Keran, Zhang Ding, and Luo Ming ink sketch exhibition], September 1954, translation in Andrews, Painters and 1. Among the excellent recent studies of the Cultural

Politics in the Peoples Republic of China, 170. Revolution are Roderick Macfarquhar and Michael Schoen9. The artist inscribed in the upper-right corner two lines _ihals, Maos Last Revolution (Cambridge: Harvard University

from Mao Zedong’s 1925 poem “Changsha,” which have Press, 2006); Joseph W. Esherick, Paul G. Pickowicz, and been translated as follows: “I see a thousand hills crimsoned |= Andrew G. Walder, eds., Zhe Chinese Cultural Revolution as

through / By their serried woods deep-dyed.” In Mao Tie- — History (Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 2006); tung Poems (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1976), 3. Paul Clark, Zhe Chinese Cultural Revolution: A History (Cam10. The party secretary in Nanjing, Ya Ming, who collab- —_ bridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008); Xiaomei Chen, orated on People’s Commune Dinning Hall, was particularly Acting the Right Part: Political Theater and Popular Drama in supportive and became a good painter himself. In Xian, Shi = Contemporary China (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press,

Lu took over after the founding director, Wang Zhaoyun, 2002); Harriet Evans and Stephanie Donald, ed., Picturing was declared a rightist in 1957. Wang remained involved in — Power in the Peoples Republic of China (Lantham, Md.: Row-

their activities as a painter, and his technical and stylistic man and Littlefield, 1999); Richard King, ed., Art in Tur-

influence remained strong. moil. The Chinese Cultural Revolution, 1966—1976 (Vancouver: 11. Among former members of the Lake Society were — University of British Columbia Press, 2010); Melissa Chiu Chen Banding, Yu Fei’an, Hu Peiheng, Wang Xuetao, and = and_Shengtian Zheng, Art and Chinas Revolution (New

Hui Xiaotong. In Shanghai, those hired who were previ- York: Asia Society, 2008); as well as numerous books on ously prominent in the Chinese Painting Society included | Chinese posters, including Stefan R. Landsberger, Marien Tang Yun, Xie Zhiliu, Sun Xueni, and Qian Shoutie, and Van der Heijden, and Kuiyi Shen, Chinese Posters: The ITSHin the Chinese Women’s Calligraphy and Painting Soci- — Landsberger Collections (Munich: Prestel, 2009). ety were the artists Li Qiujun, Chen Xiaocui, Wu Qingxia, 2. Britta Erickson, “The Rent Collection Courtyard, Past

Zhou Lianxia, Pang Zuoyu, and Lu Xiaoman. and Present,” in King, Art in Turmoil, 121-35. 12. In close examination of the painting, a patch may be 3. Shengtian Zheng, “Brushes Are Weapons: An Art

seen where the stick was cut out. School and Its Artists,” in King, Art in Turmoil, 99. 13. We are grateful to Nanjing artist and art historian 4. See Geremie Barme, “Beijing's Bloody August,” online at

Xiao Ping for this suggestion. hecp://www.danwei.org/scholarship_and_education/beijings 14. Anita Chung, ed., Chinese Art in an Age of Revolution: — _bloody_august_by_gere.php (accessed April 10, 2010), p. 7.

Fu Baoshi (1904-1965) (New Haven: Yale University Press, 5. Maurice Meisner, Maos China: A History of the Peoples

2011). Republic (New York: Free Press, 1977), 313-14. This event 15. The poem, written in 1936, appears in many collec- was commemorated by many Red Guard paintings. One tions, including the bilingual Mao Tsetung Poems (Peking: | such anonymous guo/ua, executed in a style derived from

Foreign Languages Press, 1976), 46-49. that of Jiang Zhaohe or Li Qi, was probably painted by 16. Discussion of the commission appears in Fu Baoshi —_ an academically trained artist or art student at one of the and Guan Shanyue, “Wanfang gewusheng zhong tantan major art academies. See the front cover of China Reconwomen chuangzuo ‘Jiangshan ruci duojiao’ de diandi tihui” structs, no. 2 (1968). (Discussions, amidst the sounds of song and dance every- 6. A Maoist “loyalty dance” was often performed to this where, of realizations made while creating This Land So Rich ubiquitous tune in public rituals during the Cultural Revoin Beauty|, Meishu no. to (1959): 14; and Guan Zhendong, lution period. “Qingman guanshan—Guan Shanyue zhuan” [Feeling fills 7. The collaborative creators of the poster are credited the passes and mountains—a biography of Guan Shanyue], — as the Workers Revolutionary Rebel Team of the WorkerRenmin ribao [People’s daily], overseas edition, August2 and ——_ Peasant-Soldier Printing Factory and the Red Paint-

3, 1989. brushes of the Shanghai Drama Academy's “Revolutionary

17. For a translation of the seventeenth-century version Building.” of the Journey to the West (Xiyouji), in one hundred chap- 8. Zheng, “Brushes are Weapons,” 100. ters, see Wu Ch’eng-en (1500-ca. 1582), Journey to the West, 9. Kuiyi Shen, “Propaganda Posters and Art during the 4 vols., translated by Anthony Yu (Chicago: University of | Cultural Revolution,” in Chiu and Zheng, Art and Chinas

Chicago Press, 1977-1983). Revolution, 150.

NOTES 339

10. The artist was then a college student at the Central _ revisionist Advance Guard—The process of creating the oil Academy of Arts and Crafts, which he had entered from _ painting Standing guard for our great fatherland|, Meishu zilthe elite art middle school of the Lu Xun Academy of Art iao, no. 9 (July 1975): 32-36. More recently, Shen has written: in Shenyang. His original name was Liu Chenghua, but —‘“I used my scrapbook of source material to write and copy because of a typo in the first printing of his painting, he notes on the process I followed in creating the painting. These changed his name to match that attached to his iconic work. notes were half true and half fabricated. This was because at u1. For recent scholarship, see Shengtian Zheng, “Chair- that time any kind of writing, even personal diaries, could man Mao Goes to Anyuan: A Conversation with the Artist be subjected to public reading. Any politically incorrect word Liu Chunhua,” in Chiu and Zheng, Art and Chinas Revolu- could bring disaster in its wake. So I had to make sure that

tion; and Zheng, “Brushes Are Weapons, 93—106. even my notes on my creative process were in keeping with 12. A photograph of this peculiar spectacle, which took official standards.” Shen Jiawei, “The Fate of a Painting,” in place at the Peking Foreign Languages Printing Press, was = Chiu and Zheng, Art and China’ Revolution, 144.

reproduced on the back cover of China Reconstructs 17, 18. Shen Jiawei, “Suzao fanxiu qianshao de yingxiong no. 10 (October 1968). Liu’s painting is reproduced on the xing-xiang.” 34.

front cover of the same issue. 19. “Xuexi ‘santuchu’ chuangzuo yuanze—buduan tigao 13. Meisner, Mao’s China, 335. chuangzuo ziliang” [Study the creative principle “The three 14. Zhang was himself an art student at the Zhejiang — prominences-—Ceaselessly raise creative standards], Meishu Academy of Fine Arts who had risen through the Red Guard ziliao, no. 3 (October 1973): 34-35. Laing first discussed the movement to become provincial leader. For recent reminis- “three prominences” (san tuchu) as applied to painting, in

cences that discuss Zhang, see Shengtian Zheng, “Art and her Winking Owl, 72. Revolution, Looking Back at Thirty Years of History,” in 20. Sketches and visual diaries by noted artists who were Chiu and Zheng, Art and Chinas Revolution, 19-39; Zheng, sent down to the countryside have recently been exhib“Brushes Are Weapons,” 93-106; and Shen Jiawei, “The Fate ited and published. Gu Xiong, “When We Were Young: of a Painting,” in Chiu and Zheng, Art and Chinas Revo- Up to the Mountains, Down to the Villages,” in King, Art lution, 132-47. Zhang was known to have participated in in Turmoil, 107-18; Wang Lin, “A Pictorial Record of the a meeting with Jiang Qing and Yao Wenyuan on May 19, Cultural Revolution, Luo Zhongli’s Early Works,” in Chiu 1968, in which he criticized Pan Tianshou and the previous and Zheng, Art and Chinas Revolution 165-77; and Melissa Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts administration. Pan Tian- Chiu, “Xu Bing, Artist Notes,” in Chiu and Zheng, Art and shou did not survive the difficult period, and Zhang was — Chinas Revolution, 107-17. condemned to prison after the Cultural Revolution. Some publications refer to a Gang of Four in the art world con- CHAPTER 10 sisting of Wang Mantian, Zhang Yongsheng, Jiang Qing, 1. An excellent discussion of this painting may be found and Yao Wenyuan. All were imprisoned after the Cultural — in Martina Képpel-Yang, Semiotic Warfare: A Semiotic Anal-

Revolution except Wang, who committed suicide. ysis, the Chinese Avant-Garde, 1979-1989 (Hong Kong: Time15. According to an official who served as her subordinate zone 8, 2003), 76-87. from 1970 to 1976, she was a relative of Mao's translator. 2. Wang Aihe, ed., Wuming (No Name) Painting CatShe was more commonly believed to be a niece of Mao, as_ — alogue (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2010), reported in Ellen Johnston Laing, The Winking Owl: Artin especially Wang’s introduction to each volume, “Wuming: the Peoples Republic of China (Berkeley: University of Cali- = Art and Solidarity in a Peculiar Historical Context.” No

fornia Press, 1988), 73. written documentation exists to confirm the precise date 16. The Huxian peasant paintings were exhibited in the of the underground exhibition, and its participants disagree West in the 1970s and achieved some popularity. See Ralph = on whether it was held in late 1974 or the very beginning of Croizier, “Hu Xian Peasant Painting: From Revolutionary 1975. Also see Kuiyi Shen and Julia F Andrews, Blooming in Icon to Market Commodity,” in King, Art in Turmoil, 136- the Shadows: Unofficial Chinese Art, 1974-1985 (New York: 63; and Ellen Johnston Laing, “Chinese Peasant Painting, China Institute, 2011), especially 15-58.

1958-1976: Amateur and Professional,” Art International 28, 3. Workers Cultural Palaces offered classes for factory

no. I (January—March 1984): I-12. workers. With normal educational channels closed during 17. Shen Jiawei, “Suzao fanxiu gianshao de yingxiong xing- — the Cultural Revolution, they provided the only formal art xiang—youhua ‘Wei women weida zuguo zhangang chuang- —_ education urban artists might receive.

zuo guocheng” [Modeling the heroic image of the Anti- 4. Good accounts of the origins of the Xingxing group

340 NOTES

may be found in The Stars: Ten Years, with a foreword by = Modern China, edited by Kenneth James Hammond and Chang Tsong-zung (Hong Kong: Hanart 2, 1989). Also see —- Kristin Eileen Stapleton (Lanham, Md.: Rowman and LitKuiyi Shen and Julia F Andrews, Blooming in the Shadows. tlefield, 2008), 33-54, and Oliver Moore, “Photography 5. “Promoting the Young to Leading Posts,” Beijing in China: A Global Medium Locally Appropriated,” /JAS

Review, no. 9 (March 4, 1985): Is. Newsletter 44 (Summer 2007): 6-7. 6. “Writers Promised Free Expression, Beijing Review, 4. For further discussion of the Chinese Women’s Cal-

no. 2 (January 14, 1985): 6. ligraphy and Painting Society, see chapter 5 in this book. 7. “Humanism Has a Place in China,” Beijing Review, 5. For a study of art societies in Hong Kong, see Zhang

no. 6 (February 11, 1985): 29-30. Huiyi, Xiangeang shuhua tuanti yanjiu (Hong Kong: Chi8. Shengtian Zheng, interview with the authors, Vancou- nese University of Hong Kong Art Department, 1999).

ver, August 13, 1998. 6. As though to emphasize the faithfulness of their links 9. The work is now called No Water Today. Wu Shan- to true Chinese painting, in February 1927 in the great audizhuan, Red Humour International (Hong Kong: Asia Art _ torium in Hong Kong, they held a large exhibition of 670

Archive, 2005). works owned by 14 collectors, mainly of the Ming and Qing 10. Karen Smith, Nine Lives: The Birth of Avant-Garde period but also some of the Tang and Song dynasties. This Art in New China (Hong Kong: Timezone 8, 2008), 387. is believed to be the first time Hong Kong citizens had an 11. Julia EF Andrews, “Art in Its Environment,” in Julia F = opportunity to see such private collections of antique art Andrews and Gao Minglu, Fragmented Memory: The Chinese exhibited. More than three thousand visitors attended on Avant-Garde in Exile, exhibition catalog (Columbus, Ohio: the opening day, including Gao Jianfu. Wexner Center for the Arts, 1993), 24-27; also see Philip 7. After almost a decade in Canada, beginning in 1885, Vergne and Doryun Chong, eds., House of Oracles: A Huang Li Tiefu moved south to New York, where, after meeting Yong Ping Retrospective, exhibition catalog (Minneapolis: | Sun Yat-sen, he threw himself into raising money for the

Walker Art Center, 2006). revolutionary cause. After his revolutionary service from 12. Huang Yong Ping, “Xiamen Dada—Postmodern,” 1909 to 1911, he returned to his art studies at the Art Stutranslated by Yu Hsiao-hwei in Vergne and Chong, House — dents League and the National Academy of Design. In 1929,

of Oracles, 76-77. the year of both the artist’s sixtieth birthday and the great 13. One of Wu's paintings from 1986-1987 purported stock market crash, Li returned to Guangzhou. In 1932 he to sell cabbage. In the exhibit Fragmented Memory, at the __ relocated to Kowloon, where he remained until the Japanese Wexner Center in Columbus in 1993, he sold mechanized took over at the end of 1941. In 1950 he was given several toy pandas. Like the shrimp he sold in Beijing, they were —_ honorary positions in the new government.

products of Wu's hometown of Zhoushan. See Andrews and 8. Other similar artists are the American educated real-

Gao, Fragmented Memory, 32-35. ist Wong Chiu Foon (Huang Chaokuan; 1896-1971), Chui 14. Authors’ translation of a sign worn around the art- Tung Pak (Xu Dongbai; 1900-1989), Wang Shaolin (1909-

ist’s neck. 1989), and sculptor Liang Zhuting (1886/7—-1974), who returned in 1928 after study in Ontario. CHAPTER 11 9. He is said to have exhibited in 1930 in Belgium and 1. A note about Romanization: In this chapter artists are Lyon. See “Chronology of Deng Fen,” online at http:// identified by the Romanized pronunciation most often seen = www.deng-fen.com/Deng_Fen/chronology/en/. in English-language writings, followed by the Mandarin 10. This structure, completed in 1932, was the first Chiversion in pinyin. The pinyin spelling is used consistently in _ nese library in Hong Kong. It subsequently was converted

the glossary, however. exclusively to museum use. The exhibition was documented 2. An unusual group of his surviving paintings, now in __ in three large volumes. the Medical Historical Library at Yale University, are med- u. The first director was Fu Luofei (1896-1971), who was ical illustrations commissioned by American missionary — succeeded by Zhang Guangyu. Members included Te Wei, doctor Peter Parker to document the sometimes grotesque Mi Gu, Ding Cong, Fang Cheng, Cai Dizhi, Wen Tao, Yang

afflictions of his patients in Guangzhou. Nawei, Zheng Yefu, Zhang Yangxi, Huang Yongyu, Wang 3. For a study of the early history of photography in Qi, Wang Duwei, Guan Shanyue, Yang Taiyang, Huang China, with particular reference to Guangdong, see Oli- Miaozi, Yang Qiuren, Xu Jianbai, Fu Luofei (1896-1971), ver Moore, “Zou Boqi on Vision and Photography in — and sculptor Fu Tiangiu. Nineteenth-Century China,” in 7he Human Tradition in 12. It was also funded partly by the United States Infor-

NOTES 341

mation Agency (USIA) and showed in Singapore, Kuala 20. For a description of the Bunten and Teiten exhibiLumpur, Jakarta, Bangkok, Penang, Rangoon, and Kuching, tion system, see Shuji Takashina, J. Thomas Rimer, with Malaya, in museums and British Council offices. Gerald D. Bolas, Paris in Japan: The Japanese Encounter with 13. Chen Shiwen enrolled in the first class at the Hang- = European Painting (Tokyo: Japan Foundation; St. Louis: zhou National Art Academy but in 1929 left for France on Washington University, 1987).

a government scholarship arranged by Cai Yuanpei. He 21. For additional discussion of this problem, see Kuo, studied first at Lyons and then in Paris and then taught in = Art and Cultural Politics in Post-War Taiwan, 35-37. Kuo also Shanghai from 1937 to 1941. In 1941 he became director of — points out that Japan instituted a similar exhibition in its

the art department at Yinshi University, in Jinhua, Zhejiang other Asian colony, Korea (the Senten), in 1922, with the (named for the Nationalist hero Chen Yinshi), as it began _ first section of each called toydga. its flight south from the Japanese. During that period he 22. Kakuzo Okakura, The Ideals of the East: With Special participated in the Nine Man Painting Society with Ding — Reference to the Art of Japan (New York: Dutton, 1905). Yanyong. In 1945 he returned to Shanghai to teach in the oil 23. Chuan-ying Yen, “The Demise of Oriental-Style painting department at the Shanghai Art Academy but in Painting in Taiwan,” in Refracted Modernity: Visual Culture

1950 moved to Hong Kong. and Identity in Colonial Taiwan, edited by Yuko Kikuchi 14. Upon his return from Tokyo in 1925, he settled in (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2007), 84. Shanghai, teaching at Lida Academy and Shenzhou Girl's 24. Ibid., 89. Additional material may be found on the School. Then, with the assistance of Cai Yuanpei, he and fel- National Museum of Fine Arts website, although some Englow Tokyo School of Fine Arts graduate Chen Baoyi estab- _ lish translations should be used with caution. For a strong lished the Chinese University of the Arts (Zhonghua yishu —_ defense of the positive aspects of Japan’s artistic policies by daxue) in 1925, for which Ding served for a time as direc- | Huang Dong-Fu, see his “The Development of the Orien-

tor. The following year he, Chen Baoyi, and Guan Liang tal Painting Style in Taiwan during the Japanese Colonial organized the Oil Painters Joint Exhibition to promote the Period,” online at http://taiwaneseart.ntmofa.gov.tw/thesis/

new art. B6-1.doc (accessed August 2, 2010).

15. For good publications on the life and work of C.C. 25. See Kuo, Art and Cultural Politics in Post-War TaiWang, see Jerome Silbergeld and Chi-chiien Wang, Mind — wan, 54. Landscapes: The Paintings of C. C. Wang (Seattle: Henry Art 26. For the catalog, see Chinese Art Treasures: A Selected Gallery, University of Washington, 1987); Wang Chi-ch’ien, Group of Objects from the Chinese National Palace Museum Meredith Weatherby, and Joan Stanley-Baker, Mountains of | and the Chinese National Central Museum, Taichung, Taithe Mind: The Landscape Painting of Wang Chi-Chien (New wan, exhibited in the United States by the Government of the York: Walker/Weatherhill, 1970); and Wang Chi-chiien, = Republic of China at the National Gallery of Art, Washington Mountains of the Mind: The Landscapes of C.C. Wang (Wash- 1961—1962 (Geneva: Skira, 1961), and for one discussion of its

ington, D.C.: Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1977). organization, see Jeannette Shambaugh Elliott with David 16. In 1983, Johnson Chang (Chang Tsung-zong), opened Shambaugh, 7he Odyssey of Chinas Imperial Art Treasures a second gallery space, known as Hanart TZ or Hanart 2, (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2005), 99-104. to show modern Hong Kong art. It has remained vigorous 27. See Michael Sullivan, Art and Artists of Twentieth Cen-

since the classical gallery was closed. See chapter 12. tury China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996), 17. See David Clark, Hong Kong Art: Culture and Decolo- _ 181-85, for further discussion of artists in these groups.

nization (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2001), 28. Liu’s rebuttal is mentioned in Kuo, Art and Cultural 175-85, for further discussion, including use of Tsang’s writ- Politics in Post-War Taiwan, 96.

ing in motifs for fashion and graphic design. 29. See Yuko Kikuchi, ed. Refracted Modernity: Visual 18. On Para/Site, see ibid., 70-99; and on Tsang, see Culture and Identity in Colonial Taiwan (Honolulu: Univer-

ibid., 76-79. sity of Hawai'i Press, 2007), for a detailed bibliography of 19. Yen Chuan-ying (Yan Juanying) has been one of the East Asian language writings. pioneers of modern Taiwan art history. Also see Jason C. 30. For more on Yang Yuyu (Yang Yingfeng), see SulKuo, Art and Cultural Politics in Post-War Taiwan (Bethesda, _livan, Art and Artists of Twentieth Century China, 188-89.

Md.: CDL Press, 2000). John Clark was also an early 31. See Gao Minglu, ed., Inside Out: New Chinese Art observer of modern art in Taiwan; see his Modern Asian Art (San Francisco: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and

(Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1998). Asian Society Galleries, 1998), plate 62.

342 NOTES

CHAPTER 12 Chinese Painting: An Exhibition from the Peoples Republic of China, organized by Lucy Lim and exhibited in San Fran1. Francesca dal Lago, “The Voice of the “Superfluous cisco and five other American cities, in 1983; and AvantPeople’: Painting in China in the Late 1980s and Early — Garde Chinese Art: Beijing/New York, organized by Michael 1990s,” in Writing on the Wall: Chinese New Realism and Murray and exhibited in 1986 at Vassar College and the Avant-Garde in the Eighties and Nineties, edited by Cees — City Gallery (City of New York Department of Cultural Hendrikse (Rotterdam: Groninger Museum-Nai Publish- Affairs). The Star group and their avant-garde poet friends,

ers, 2008), 24. the Today (Jintian) group, were celebrated in “Poems et 2. Sui Jianguo as quoted in Wu Hung, Transience: Chi- Art en Chine: Les ‘Non-Officiels,” Doc(k)s, no. 41 (Winter nese Experimental Art at the End of the Twentieth Century 1981-82).

(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998). An exhibition of Chinese paintings in the collection of 3. Dal Lago further suggests that the people in propa- — Atlantic Richfield, Beyond the Open Door: Contemporary ganda photographs were selected “for their formal match- — Paintings from the People’s Republic of China, was exhibited ing properties,’ like a “process of home decoration.” She has —_at_ Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena, California in 1987. identified the source of the image as a photograph of Mao — J Don’t Want to Play Cards with Cezanne, was held in Pasavisiting his hometown, Shaoshan, in 1959. See dal Lago, dena in 1991 with assistance from Tang Qingnian, a mem-

“Voice of the ‘Superfluous People,” 29-31. ber of the China/Avant-Garde curatorial team. Both exhibits 4. Francesca dal Lago, “Personal Mao: Reshaping an Icon — were documented in catalogs authored by Richard Strass-

in Contemporary Chinese Art,” Art Journal (1999): 47. berg. The Stars: Ten Years, a retrospective exhibition orga5. Technically these outfits should be called “Sun Yat- nized by Hanart, was held in Hong Kong and Taipei in sen’ suits, the name by which they are known in China.Sun 1989. Demand for Artist Freedom: Xingxing’s Twentieth Anni-

adapted them from Japanese military uniforms. versary was held at Tokyo Art Gallery in 2000. Magiciens de 6. Online at http://www.hanart.com/artistEssayDetail a terre, organized by the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris .php?artist_number=1&essay_number=16 (accessed Febru- in 1989, revealed the existence of an avant-garde in post-

ary 25, 2012). Mao China. A small number of commercial galleries and 7. Zhang Dali as quoted in The First Guangzhou other nonprofit exhibition spaces had showed contempoTriennial—Reinterpretation: A Decade of Experimental Chi- rary Chinese artists in the 1980s. nese Art (1990-2000), edited by Wu Hung (Guangzhou: 2. The exhibit A Century in Crisis: Modernity and Tradi-

Guangdong Museum of Art, 2002), 262. tion in the Art of Twentieth Century China, curated by Julia F. 8. The new economic policies permitted, or even en- — Andrews and Kuiyi Shen, opened at the Guggenheim on couraged, state employees to supplement their salaries — February 6, 1998, and Jnside Out: New Chinese Art, curated with freelance work. Typically a newscaster might do TV _ by Gao Minglu, opened at Asia Society on September 15 of

advertisements. the same year. For a perceptive essay by Tsong-zung Chang 9. The curators for the three shows were Xu Hong for the _ outlining the history of overseas exhibitions and studies of Shanghai Biennale, Julia EF Andrews and Kuiyi Shen for the — Chinese art in the 1980s and 1990s, see “Beyond the Mid-

Guggenheim exhibition, and Gao Minglu for /nside Out. dle Kingdom: An Insider's View,” in /nside Out, edited by 10. The term “superfluous people” is used by Francesca Gao Minglu (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), dal to translate xiao renwu, a literary term that refers to 67-75. insignificant minor characters in contrast to important, 3. In addition to recent acquisitions and film series, see heroic ones. The former, of course, are the vast majority of | Contemporary Chinese Art: Primary Documents, edited by the populace. See dal Lago, “Voice of the ‘Superfluous Peo- |= Wu Hung (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2010). ple,” 21. For useful translations of Chinese art theory of this 4. Magiciens de la terre (Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou,

period, see Wu Hung, Contemporary Chinese Art: Primary 1989), catalog of an exhibition held at the Musée national Documents (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2010). d’art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou and the Grande Halle-La Villette, from May through August of 1989.

CHAPTER 13 5. Art Chinois, Chine Demain Pour Hier (Paris: Carte 1. Among notable exhibitions of the 1980s were Painting — Secrete, 1990), exhibition held in Pourrieres, Aix-enthe Chinese Dream: Chinese Art Thirty Years after the Revolu-. _ Provence, France.

tion, curated by Joan Lebold Cohen and exhibited in 1982 6. See Exceptional Passages (Fukuoka, Japan: Museum at Smith College and the Brooklyn Museum; Contemporary City Project, 1991).

NOTES 343

7. Cities on the Move, edited by Hou Hanru and Hans 11. For discussion of a number of interesting examples, Ulrich Obrist (Ostfildern-Ruit: Hatje; New York: Distrib- — see Wu Hung, Exhibiting Experimental Art in China (Chiuted Art Publishers, 1997), exhibited in London, Vienna, cago: David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, 2000).

Bordeaux, New York, and Copenhagen. 12. “Zhang Xiaogang: On the Record,” China Daily, 8. See Wu Shanzhuan Red Humour International (Hong — November 24, 2009, online at http://news.cultural-china

Kong: Asia Art Archive, 2005). .com/20091124155807.html (accessed November 24, 2009); 9. The Chengdu Biennale was temporarily suspended in and Le-Min Lim, “Zhang Xiaogang Is Chinas Most-

2003 because of the SARS epidemic. Valuable Artist, Hurun Says,” Bloomberg.com, Febru10. The formal owners of the original gallery were the — ary 26, 2009, online at http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/ Beijing Artists Association and its parent organization, the — news?pid=email&sid=a68D_f6éa_ndA (accessed July 23,

Beijing Federation of Literary and Arts Workers. 2010).

344 NOTES

Selected Bibliography

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72. Chinese version: “Luotihua lunzheng he xiandai zhongguo meishushi de jiangou. In Studies on Shanghai School Painting, 17-50. Shanghai: Duoyunxuan and Shanghai Calligraphy and Painting Publishing House, 2001. Reprinted in Zhongguo youhua wenxian, 1542-2000 [Documents about Chinese oil painting]. Edited by Zhao Li and Yu Ding, so1—11. Changsha: Hunan meishu chubanshe, 2002.

——. “Exhibition to Exhibition: Painting Practice in the Early Twentieth Century as a Modern Response to “Tradition.’” In Turmoil, Representation, and Trends: Modern Chinese Painting, 1796-1949, 23-58. Shibian xingxiang liufeng: Zhongguo jindai huihua, 1796-1949. Taipei: Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, 2008.

——. “The Heavenly Horse Society (Tianmahui) and Chinese Landscape Painting.” In Ershi shiji shanshui hua yanjiu wenji [Studies in twentieth-century Shanshuihua]. Edited by Lu Fusheng and Tang Zheming, 556—91. Shanghai: Shanghai Calligraphy and Painting Publishing House, 2006.

——. “Japanese Oil Paintings in the First Chinese National Art Exhibition of 1929 and the Development of Asian Modernism.” In The Role of Japan in Modern Chinese Art. Edited by Joshua A. Fogel. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012. ——. Painters and Politics in the People’s Republic of China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.

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Index

Note: Page numbers in italics refer to illustrations.

Aesthetic education, 28, 31, 37, 39, 40, 62 Association, 80—81; The Storm Society, 74-79. See also

Ai Qing, 70, 85, 139, 162, 269 China/Avant-Garde Exhibition

Ai Weiwei, 269, 269, 280

Ai Zhongxin, 148, 150, 150, 151 Bai Sha, 80

229, 230 Bao Yahui, 106

All-China Woodcut Circles Resistance Association, 119, 130, 131, Bao Shaoyou, 227, 227, 231

Amoy. See Xiamen (Amoy) Bee Painting Society, 98, 100-102 Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign, 213-20 Beijing, 2, 3, 16, 36, 37, 39, 41; 45, 49, 50; 51, 55, 56; 59, 62, 67, 82,

Antiquarian societies, 97-98 88, 89, 94, 96, 105, II0, II3, 117, 120, 134, 136; during Second Architecture, 64—65, 109-13, 145-48, 289-90; beginning of World War, 128-29

national style of, 58—6o Beijing Art School, 39, 55, 62, 65

Art academies, 69—71 Beijing Biennial, 285 Art auctions, 118, 293, 295 Bessin, Andre, 80

Art clubs, 61, 73, 228, 231, 233 Bingshen Art Club, 231

Art market, 18, 71, 105, 141, 161, 208; in new millenium, 290—96 Bodhidharma, 53, 54

Art shops, of Shanghai, 14-16 Bogu (ancient erudition) paintings, 23 Art Movement Society, 63, 65, 73 Buddhism, 16, 18, 23, 32, 51-54, §9, 112, II7, 124, 126, 142, 164, Art societies, 64, 71, 73-74. See also Painting societies 173, 180, 186, 210, 261

Auction houses, 293 Busch, Emil, 59 Aurora Art club, 70

Avant-garde oil painting, 74-81; Chinese Independent Art Cai Dizhi, 130-31, 1317

355

Cai Guogiang, 269-70, 270, 281, 282, 282-83, 285, 295-96, 296 Chen Zhen, 281, 287

Cai Liang, 155, 155, 166 Chen Zhifo, 68, 91, 97 Cai Ruohong, 147 Cheng Conglin, 204—5, 205 Cai Weilian, 62, 65, 120 Chiang Ching-kuo, 250 Cai Yuanpei, 28, 31, 32, 37, 39-40, 42, 43, 55, 57, 61-62, 64, 65, Chiang Kai-shek, 115, 118, 250

67, 73, 82, 94, 105, 108, 109, 112, 296 Chiang Yee (Zhang Yi), 234 Calligraphy, 4, 6, 7, 14-25, 20, 29, 36, 39; 49-52; 55, 97-101, China/Avant-Garde Exhibition, 221-23, 257, 276-77 105—108, 112, 116, 127, 134, 161, 162, 173, 190, 216, 226, 227, 231, China College of Arts, 70

246, 269, 276; “stele school” of, 19-25. See also Epigraphy and China Independent Art Institute, 80

epigraphic taste Chinese Art Club, 231

Cao Bai, 86 230, 2A7

Canton. See Guangzhou (Canton) Chinese Civil War (1946-49), 134, 136-37, 144, 147, 155, 164, 184, Cartoons, 37-39, 56, 85, 89, 118, 119, 126, 141, 142, 148, 187, 226, Chinese Communist Party (CCP), 44, 59, 118, 132, 142, 145, 161,

229, 230 184: guohua and, 161-69; history of, and oil painters, 142-45;

Castiglione, Guiseppe, 27, 40 lianhuanhua and, 177-80; woodblock prints and, 131-33, Central Academy of Arts and Crafts (CAAC), 187, 210-11, 215, 180-81

222, 261 Chinese Epigraphy, Calligraphy, and Painting Study Society, 97

Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), 139, 142, 146, 148, 151, Chinese Independent Art Association, 80-81, 83, 89, 248

163, 166, 186-87, 192, 203, 209, 237, 257-8 Chinese Painting Research Society, 50, 51, 52; 94, Central Museum of Revolutionary History, 142, 151 Chinese Painting Society, 98—103, 118, 127, 134

Chan, Luis, 228, 229 Chinese Renaissance style, 110-12, 113

Chan Yukkeung (Chen Yugiang), 2.41 Chuang Che (Zhuang Zhe), 248, 249, 250

Chang, Hao, 43 Cixi (dowager empress), 28

Chang Shuhong, 120, 121, 126, 158 Claudot, André, 62, 63, 85, 116

Chang Tsung-zong, 264, 282 Cohn, William, 109

Chang Yu (Sanyu), 57, 58, 74, 248 Commercial art, 89—91, 141, 152, 192, 227, 230

Chao Mei, 181, 187 Cormon, Fernand, 61 Chao Shao-an, 231-32, 232 Courbet, Gustave, 147

Chao Xun, 4 Croizier, Ralph, 35 Chen Banding, 172 Cui Xiuwen, 286

Chen Baoyi, 38, 39, 40, 70, 90, 91, 127 Cultural Revolution. See Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution

Chen Beixin, 150, 202, 202 Curly Beard, 12 Chen Boda, 184

Chen Chengbo (Chen Cheng-po), 70, 76, 77, 241, 243, 243, 244, dal Lago, Francesca, 257, 282

2.45 Daxin (Da Sun) Department Store (Shanghai), 118, 127

Chen Chieh-jen (Chen Jieren), 253, 254 Deng Fen, 229, 230

Chen Chin (Chen Jin), 242—43, 243 Deng Lin, 282

Chen Danging, 207, 207 Deng Shi, 97-98

Chen Duxiu, 43, 44, 45 Deng Xiaoping, 60, 184, 186, 201, 204, 209, 211, 213-14, 223, 261,

Chen Guoliang, 57 263-64, 282

Chen Hengque, 30, 35-37, 36, 39, 47, 48-49, 49, 50, 51, 52, 56, 57; Dezarrois, André, 109

74, 82, 134, 246 Dianshizhai Pictorial (periodical), 16, 178

Chen Hongshou, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 178 Di Baoxian (Di Chuging), 90, 112

Chen Hui-Chiao, 252, 252 Ding Cong, 118, 126, 126, 230

Chen Jiu, 119, 130, 130 Ding Song, 38, 39, 56 Chen Qiucao, 70, 127, 128, 173 Ding Yanyong, 40, 70, 80, 91, 232-33, 233 Chen Shaomei, 96, 97 Dong Dayou, 110-11, rz, 117 Chen Shuren, 32, 34, 35, 70, 103 Dong Qichang, 4, 99, 100

Chen Tiegeng, 83-84, 84, 85, 86, 86, 132 Dong Xiwen, 126, 126, 142—45, 143, I4§, 150, I51, 158, 169, 187

Chen Xiaocui, 106, 107 Du Jian, 158

Chen Xiaodie, 118 Du Xueou, 70

Chen Yanning, 192, 197, 197 Duan Ganging, 130

Chen Yanqiao, 84, 85, 86, 130, 132, 230 Duan Pingyou, 74, 76 Chen Yifei, r9z, 192, 202, 203, 207 Duckweed Flower Club (Pinghuashe), 51

356 INDEX

Dumb Bell (Muling) Woodcut Research Society, 86 Gao Jingde, 191, 193, 194

Duoyunxuan (Cloud Studio), 16, 291, 293 Gao Minglu, 221, 281 Gao Qifeng, 30-31, 33-35, 33, 34, 60, 95, 109, 113, 226, 227, 231

Eastern Painting Society, 248, 249, 250 Gao Xiaohua, 205, 205—6

East Village (Beijing), 272-73 Gao Yong, 10-11, 18, 19, 51 Education: art academies and, 69; art and, 28—30; Chinese Geng Jianyi, 215, 217, 218, 221, 264, 270 painting and, 55—58; in late Qing dynasty, 28-30; private Gerasimov, Alexander M., 147 studios and, 70; study abroad, 30-37. See also New Culture Gohara Kotd, 242, 243

Movement Great Leap Forward, 153, 156, 158, 163, 165, 170; propaganda

Eighteen Art Society, 73, 83, 85, 86, 116 poster production during, 152 Epigraphy and epigraphic taste, 19-24, 36, 49, 52, 57, 64, 65, 97, Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, 69, 78, 102, 111, 145, 158,

13451652 177,205 159, 173, 201, 20I—4, 207, 208, 210, 212, 214, 215, 216, 219, Exhibitions abroad, 49, 51, 53, 55, 61, 63, 70, 94; 95, 99, 107-8, 22.0, 223, 232, 237, 238, 260, 261, 262, 264, 291; introduction,

128, 237, 246—47, 264-270, 281-83, 289 183-86; Red Guard art, 186—90; worker-peasant-soldier art,

Export paintings, 28, 226 190-99

Greater Shanghai Plan, 110-11, 113

Fang Ganmin, 62, 63, 64, 70, 142, 233 Gu Bingxin, 178

Fang Junbi, 61, 63, 108 Gu Fei, 105, 106 Fang Lijun, 263, 263, 264, 282 Gu Kaizhi, 8, 1

Fang Rending, 80 Gu Linshi, 44, 44-45, 48, 104, 234

Fang Ruo, 96 Gu Qingyao (Koo Tsin Yaw), 102, 106, 231, 231, 233, 237 Fang Xuehu, 70 Gu Wenda, 198, 215-16, 216, 220, 221, 260, 266, 267, 270, 276, Fang Zengxian, 164, 165, 166, 166, 181, 193 281

Fei Dawei, 281 Gu Xiong, 222, 222

Feiyingge huabao (periodical), 16-17 Gu Yuan, 132, 133, 133, 180

Feng Chaoran, 102, 104, 104-5, 106 Gu Yun, 106, 238

Feng Fasi, 118, 149 Guan Liang, 40, 76, 80, 91, 127, 233 Feng Gangbai, 69 Guan Shanyue, 175-76, 176, 192, 192 Feng Mengbo, 264, 265, 266 Guan Zilan (Violet Kwan), 70, 77

Feng Shihan, 226 Guangzhou (Canton). See Whampoa Feng Wenfeng (Flora Fong), 106, 226-27 Guangzhou Municipal Art School, 69, 229, 231, 233, 246 Feng Zikai, 90, 91, 173 Guo Moruo, 118, 144, 176

Ferguson, John C., 32 Guohua artists, 95, 98, 103, 171; Hundred Flowers campaign and, Ferrer, Joannes (Fan Tingzhuo), 9-10 176-77; official policies and, 161-62, 171-77; women, 57,

Fifth Moon Painting Society, 237, 248 105—I07, 215 50 Moganshan Art District, 291-93 Guohua painting, 55, 56, 57, 62, 68, 71, 93-94, 102, 116, 122, 123, Figure painting, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 16, 37, 52; 103, 106, 124, 128, 152, 124, 127, 128, 294-95, 296; Chinese Communist Party (CCP)

162, 165, 166, 170, 178, 193, 194, 220 and, 141, 16I—69, 170, 171; Communist takeover and, 140;

First Guangzhou Triennial, 284-85 Cultural Revolution and, 189, 190, 193, 194, 195, 197, 208; First National Art Exhibition (1929), 58, 64—66, 68, 71, 73, 94, 1972 exhibition and, 193; painters in Shanghai, 95; revival of,

105,107, 112, 231 212-13. See also Landscape painting; Oil painting

Fong, Flora. See Feng Wenfeng Foreign concessions, Shanghai, 1—2, 15, 17, 42, 69, 70, 106, 110, Ha Qiongwen, 124, 152-53, 153

1155 117,.1273,12. 63-1945: 140 Hai Bo, 289

Four Wang tradition, 41, 44, 47—48, 50, 99 Haishang tijinguan (Shanghai Literary and Art Club), 51, 97, Fu Baoshi, 68, 124, 124, 169, 170, 171, 172, 175-76, 176 IOI

Fu Lei (Fou Lei), 74 Hakubakai (White Horse Society), 32, 33

Fujishima Takeji, 70, 76 Hao Boyi, 196

He Baitao, 84, 84, 86

Gang of Four, 201, 206, 223 He Jiaying, 285 Gao Gang, 144-45 He Jianshi, 226 Gao Hong, 149 He Kongde, 149-50, 150, 154, 157, 194, 202 Gao Jianfu, 30—31, 32-35, 33, 34, 36, 57, 68, 95, 103, 122, 169, 176, He Sui, 96

226,297, 229 He Tianjian, 98, 100-101, Ior, 103, 106, 118, 127, 140, 173 INDEX 357

He Xiangning, 103 Japanese art collectors, 4, 23-25

He Youzhi, 178-79, 179 Jesuit missionaries, 9, 27, 38 Heavenly Horse Society (Tianmahui), 56-58, 65, 73, 106, 229 Jia Youfu, 212-13, 213

Helbling, Lorenz, 291 Jiang Baoling, 51

Ho Siu-kee (He Zhaoji), 240, 241 Jiang Danshu, 102 Hong Kong: art in, 226-27, 251, 254, 255, 279, 290, 293; art of Jiang Feng, 70, 83, 84, 85, 131, 132, 139, 140, 147, 157, 158, 161, 162,

1920s and 1930s, 227—28; art of 1950s and 1960s, 230—38; 163, 177, 178, 208, 209, 210, 211, 269 introduction, 225-26; postmodernism and, 238—41; warts in, Jiang Huaisu, 67

1937—45, 115, 117, 120, 229-30, Jiang Qing, 184, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191-92, 193, 195, 196, 197, 201,

Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, 3 202, 205, 208

Hong Xiuquan, 2 Jiang Tingxi, 5

Hou Biyi, 231 Jiang Xin (Jiang Xiaojian), 38, 38, 40, 56, 57, 65, 65, 70, III, 112,

Hou Hanru, 221, 279, 281, 285 1133117, 120;.225

Hou Yimin, 139, 149, 155, 156, 156, 180, 187, 204 Jiang Zhaohe, 68, 128-29, 129, 134, 162, 163, 165

Hsia Yang (Xia Yang), 249, 250, 250 Jiangsu Institute of Chinese Painting, 170-171, 170 Hsieh, Wilson Ka-ho (Shi Jiahao), 240, 241 Jin Cheng, 50, 50-51, 94, 95, 96, 97, 105

Hsu Fu-kuan (Xu Fuguan), 250 Jin Kaifan, 94

Hu Gentian, 69 Jin Nong, 22, 233

Hu Kao, 118, 230 Jin Shangyi, 145, 154, 155, 155-56, 157, 169, 192, 202, 208

Hu Peiheng, 96 Jin Xunhua, 190, 191

Hu Shi, 41 Jing Hengyi, 32, 103 Hu Yaobang, 223 Jur Lian 325355 232

Hu Yichuan, 85, 85, 86, 131, 132, 142, 180 Ju Ming (Zhu Ming), 251, 257 Hu Yuan, 10, 70, 11, 15, 18

Hua Guofeng, 201, 271 Kang Sheng, 184

Hua Guofeng period: art of, 201-4; new realism and, 204-7; Kang Youwei, 28, 29, 44, 57, 150

unofficial art of, 207—10 Kant, Immanuel, 31

Huapian, 151 Kawai Senro, 24, 25

Huang Banruo (Wong Po-yeh), 227, 230, 231, 235 Kikuchi Hobun, 227

Huang Binhong, 45, 54, 55, 97-98, 99-100, 100, 103, 106, 109, Klindukhov, Nikolai N., 147

128, 162, I7I, 212 Kollwitz, Kathe, 82

Huang Jie, 97 Kuroda Seiki, 32

250 Kusakabe Meikaku, 24

Huang Junbi (Huang Chun-pi), 120, 121, 127, 245, 246, 246, 247, Kuo Hsueh-hu, 242, 242, 243, 245 Huang Langping, 80

Huang Miaozi, 230 Lai Chusheng, 100

Huang Naiyuan, 202 Lai, Jun T. (Lai Chunchun), 251-52 Huang Rui, 209, 210, 292 Lai Shaogqi, 88, 88, 172

Huang Shanding, 85 Lake Society (Hushe), 51, 52, 94-97, 98, 103, 128, 172; women

Huang Tushui, 241 in, 105

Huang Xinbo, 130, 137, 230 Landscape painting: reappearance of, 169-77; revival of, 103-5

Huang Yanpei, 67, 105 Laufer, Bernard, 17 Huang Yongping, 215, 218, 278, 221, 266, 268, 268, 279, 280, 281 Lee, Handel, 291

Huang Zhongfang. See Wong, Harold Lee Mingwei, 254, 254

Hui Jun (Hui Zhehu), 94 Lee Teng-hui, 250 Hundred Days Reform, 28, 29, 32, 105 Lei Guiyuan, 62

Hundred Flowers campaign, 156-57, 172, 176 Li Bing, 228 Li Binghong, 148, 151, 230

Ichikawa Kinichir6, 241, 243 Li Chaoshi, 57, 62, 74, 76 The Inaugural Ceremony for the New Nation (Dong Xiwen), 142, Li Dongping, 80, 81

143, 144-45, 145, 151, 187 Li Hua, 87, 87-88, 88, 130, 136, 137, 148, I51, I80, 181 Independent Painting Research Institute, 81. See also Chinese Li Huayi, 294

Independent Art Association Li Huanmin, 180-81, 181, 207 International Banking Corporation, 3 Li Huanzhi, 139 358 INDEX

Li Jin, 294 Liu Jipiao, 61, 62

Li Jinfa, 59, 62 Liu Kaiqu, 146, 147, 221

Li Jing, 12 Liu Kunyi, 28

Li eran: 116; 270,118, 12.45 1345 151, 272: 171—72, 173.107; 212, 272 Liu Kuo-sung, 236, 236—37, 248, 249, 250, 255, 276

Li Kuchan, 151-52 Liu Shaogi, 144, 145, I55, 156, 156, 158, 184, 185, 186, 187, 204

Li Meishu, 245 Liu Shi, 245-46

Li Puyuan, 63, 65 Liu Wei, 264, 282

Li Qi, 163, 163, 180 Liu Wenxi, 166, 167, 193, 194, 194-95, 202 Li Qiujun, 70, 98, 103, 106, 107, 107, 118 Liu Xian, 118—19, I79, 132

Li Qun, 86, 119 Liu Xiaodong, 259, 286 Li Ruiqing, 29, 30 Liu Xun, 209, 291 Li Shan, 221-22, 261, 262, 264, 270, 282 Lu Bodu, 10

Li Shutong, 30, 37, 31-32, 36, 57; 83, 90, 91, 105 Lii Cheng, 44, 74

Li Tiefu, 228, 228 Lu Danlin, 98, 99, 103 Li Weizhuang, 52 Lu Hongiji, 119, 130 Li Xianting, 213, 221, 263, 264 Lit Qingzhong, 74

Li Xiushi, 85 Lu Shaofei, 118, 230

Li Yanshan, 231 Lii Shengzhong, 222

Li Yishi, 39, 65, 66, 68 Lu Xiaoman, 102, 106

Li Yinquan, 123, 123 Lu Xinhua, 204-5

Li Yinghao, 234 Lu Xun, 30, 43, 62, 73, 82-88, 89-90, 90, 116, 162, 175, 177-78, Li Zhongsheng (Li Chun-chen), 76, 80, 233, 248, 249, 249 180, 191, 192, 193, 230

Li Zuhan, 70, 98, 112 Lu Xun Academy of Arts and Literature: in Yanan, 131, 132, 149; Lianhuanhua (serial picture stores), 141, 177-80 in Shenyang, 168

Liang Baibo, 76 Lii Yanzhi, 59—60, 65, 110, 146

Liang Qichao, 28, 32, 146, 246 Lu Zhiyang, 230

Liang Sicheng, 146 Lui Shou-kwan, 231, 233, 234, 235, 235, 236, 237 Liang Xihong, 76, 80, 81 Luo Gongliu, 131, 132, 133, 142, 143, 150, 151, 156, 157, 158 Liangjiang Normal School, 29, 62, 68, 102 Luo Qingzhen, 85-86

Liao Bingxiong, 230 Luo Zhongli, 206, 206—7, 215, 217 Liao Chi-chun (Liao Jichun), 241, 243, 244, 244, 248

Lin Biao, 184, 191, 202, 208 Ma Da, 119

Lin Boqu, 144, 145 Ma Desheng, 209, 210 Lin Fengmian, 60, 61-66, 63, 68, 73, 74, 95, 109, 116, 116, 120, Maksimov, Konstantin M., 148, 149—51, 153, 154, 155, 157; 192;

134, 142, 158, 173, 174, 174, 210, 212, 215, 233; first national art 202, 204 exhibition and, 64—66; National Hangzhou Art Academy, Man, Phoebe Ching Ying, 239—41, 240

62—64 Manchu Qing dynasty, 1-33, 35, 37; 41, 445 45, 47) 48, 50, 51, 535

Lin Gang, 141, 141, 142, 144, I5I1, 208 55, 56, 62, 96, 97, 100, 103, 105, IO8—9, 164 Lin, Michael (Lin Minghong), 254, 255 Mao Zedong, 133, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, I45, 146, 147,

Lin Tianmiao, 271-72, 272 149, ISI, 155, I§f, 156, 157, 163, 163, 168, 169, 172, 174, 175, 176, Lin Wenzheng, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 120 184, 187, 188, 189, 193, 194, 202, 204, 207, 210, 223, 261, 262,

on Ylns 2771274 262—63, 264, 265, 266, 267; death of, 201; Great Proletarian Lin Yong, 189, 189—90 Cultural Revolution and, 183—185, 189, 194

Lin Yushan, 242 Masaki Naohiko, 2.43

Ling Hongxing, 59 Massa, Nicolas (Ma Yigu), 9-10 Lingnan school, 32, 35, 60, 169, 227, 229, 231, 232, 237, 246 May Fourth movement, 45. See New Culture Movement Literati painting, 2, 4, 5, 10, 18, 22, 24, 37, 47, 48, 57; 745 95, 99, Mei Qing, 96 103, 104, 134, 220, 295, 296. See also New literati painting Meishu (journal): (1918-22), 40 453 (1934), 63, 64, 81; (1954-66,

Lithography, in Shanghai, 16—18, 178 1976—present), 177, 202, 206, 211, 213, 218-19

Liu Chunhua, 187, 187-88, 188—89, 197 Miao Zi, 22

Liu Dezhai, 10 Ming dynasty, I, 2, 5, 59, 136, 142, 169, 179, 180, 184 Liu Haisu, 38, 40—41, 47, 42, 56, 57, 64, 65, 68, 76, 109, 127, 128, MK Society, 86

148, 173; nude model controversy, 66—67 Mo Pu, 177

Liu Jian’an, 119 Modern Woodcut movement (Xinxing banhua yundong), 82—89 INDEX 359

Modern Woodcut Society, 86—88 Pang Xungqin, 74, 75, 76, 78, 79, 117, 120, 126, 211, 233

Money shops (gianzhuang), 3, 52 Pang Yuanji, 96, 106, 108 Monument to the People’s Heroes, 145-47, 146, 153, 223 Pang Zuoyu, 106, 107

Morning Flower Society, 82 Peasant art, I90—99 Murphy, Henry K., 60, 110 Pei, I. M., 241, 289, 289-90 Museum of Revolutionary History, 142, 146, 151; socialist real- Peng Bin, 202

ism in, 153—59 Peng Zhen, 146 People’s Republic of China, establishment of, 1339-41

Nagao Uzan, 21, 25 Perry, Matthew C., 2 Nakamura Fusetsu, 39, 56, 66 Phoebus Society, 61 Nanking, Treaty of, 1 Pi Daojian, 276

National Art Academy, 120-21 Pingjin (Beiping-Tianjin) Woodcut Research Society, 88 National Art Exhibition: (First, 1929), 58, 64-66, 68, 71, 73, 94, Plain Moon Painting (Suyue) Painting Society, 101, 105 98, 105, 107, 112, 231; (Second, 1937), 68, 73, 104, 116-17, 171, Political Pop, 261-62

299. Pool Society, 215, 217, 218

National Beiping Arts College, 139. See also Central Academy of Posters, propaganda, in People’s Republic of China, 151-53

Fine Arts (CAFA) Printmakers, at end of WWII, 136-37

National Essence movement, 50-51, 97 Private studios, art education and, 70 National Hangzhou Art Academy, 55, 62—65 Pu Hua, 15 National Music Conservatory, 111-12 Puru (Pu Xinyu), 95-96, 96, 245, 246—47, 247, 250 New China Art Academy, 69, 117; in wartime, 128 Puyi (emperor), 29 New Culture movement, 39—42, 44, 45, 89 Publishing industry: in People’s Republic of China, 151-53; of

New Ink Art, 236-37, 238 Shanghai, 16-18 New Literati painting, 220-21. See also Literati painting

New Wave movement, 220-21 Qi Baishi (Qi Huang), 49, 49-50, 62, 65, 128, 171, 172, 212

Ni Yide, 70, 76, 76, 78, 91, 127, 233 Qian Daxin, 752

Nihonga style of painting, 35, 102, 168, 241-43 Qian Ding, 127 Nianhua (New Year’s posters), 141-42, 161 Qian Hui’an, 17-18, 78, 51

Nie Ou, 214 Qian Juntao, 23, 90-91, 97 Nixon, Richard M., 191 Qian Mu, 232

No Names, 208-9, 213 Qian Shoutie, 98, 101-2, 103 Northern Art Group, 219 Qian Xiaodai, 179, 179-80

No Name exhibition, 209 Qian Songyan, 170-71, 171, 192, 192 Nude models, drawing from, 67 Qianzhuang (money shops), 3, 52 Qin Song, 250

Oil painting: avant-garde, in 1930s, 74-81; Chinese Communist Qin Tianjian, 202

history and, 142—43. See also Painting Qin Wenmei, 202, 202 Opium War, 1 Qin Zheng, 157 Oriental Banking Corporation, 3 Qing dynasty, 25; art and education reforms in, 28—30; decline

Ouyang Yuqian, 68 of, 1; Hundred Days Reform, 28, 29, 31; study abroad in late, 30-31

Painting. See Guohua painting; Landscape painting; Literati Qiu Ti, 76, 78, 79

painting; New Literati painting; Oil painting Qiu Zhijie, 276, 277

Painting, Shanghai school of, 3-14 Quan Shanshi, 154, 154-55 Painting Methods Research Society, 39

Painting societies: in 1930s, 94-97; in Shanghai, 51-55. See also Rauschenberg, Robert, 215, 250

Art societies Red Guard, 185—86; art, 186—90

Palace Museum, 51, 98, 108 Red Humor, 215; International, 216-17

Pan Dawei, 226, 227 Ren Xiong, 5, 5-9, 7, 11, 14, 83, 178 Pan Gongkai, 294, 295 Ren Xun, 8, 8, 9, 11, 12, 20, 23; 23, 25

Pan Sitong, 70 Ren Yi (Ren Bonian), 9-14, 10, II, 12, 13, 15, I, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, Pan Tianshou, 55, 62, 109, 134, 164, 165, 171, 173, 177) 177 210, 25, §1, §2, 123, 163, 165, 166

212, 295 Rent Collection Courtyard, 184, 185; Venice, 282, 282

Pan Yuliang, 68, 70, 106, 122, 229 Repin, Ilya, 149 360 INDEX

Revolutionary Alliance (Tongmenghui), 29, 35 116-17; Shanghai and, 127—29; woodcuts during, 129-31;

Ricci, Matteo, 27 Wuhan period, 118-19 Rong Rong, 272 Sixth National Exhibition (1984), 214 Rongbaozhai, 16 Small Sword Society, 2 Rou Shi, 82—83 Smedley, Agnes, 82

Saité Kaz6, 63 soviet, 147-51 Salt monopoly, 2-3 Soldier art, 190-99

Socialist realism: in Museum of Revolutionary History, 153-59;

Satomi Katsuzé, 66, 80, 81 Song Dong, 270, 273, 273 Scholarly societies, proliferation of, in 1930s, 73-74 Song Haidong, 264

Seal carving, 19-23 Song Zhongyuan, 127

207 Stalinist art theory, 142

Second National Art Exhibition (1937), 68, 73, 104, 116-17, I7I, Spring Earth Painting Research Center, 85

Serov, Vladimir, 147 Stars artists, 209, 210, 213

798 Art District, 291-92 “Stele school” of calligraphy, 22 Shanghai, 1; architecture of, 109-13; as artistic center, 2, 3; art Stone Drums, 19 shops of, 14-16; banking in, 3; commercial art in, 89-91; The Storm Society (Juelanshe), 74-79, 79 epigraphy in, 19-24; guohua painters in, 95; as mercantile Su Wonong, 80 hub, at turn of twentieth century, 2, 3; municipal govern- Suzhou, 2, 3 ment building of, 110-11; publishing industry of, 16-18; Suzhou Art Academy, 69, 148 school of painting, 3—4; traditionalist painting societies Suzhou Museum, 289, 289-90 in, 51-55; urban planning and, 110-11; wartime in, 117-18, Sui Jianguo, 259, 290

127-29 Sun Fuxi, 62

Shanghai Art Academy, 65, 67, 69, 148; first decade, 37—40; for- Sun Ke, 110 mative period of, 55-56; New Culture movement and, 39—42, Sun Liang, 264

44; in wartime, 127—28 Sun Runyu, 96

Shanghai Biennale (2000), 279-80, 283 Sun Yat-sen, 29, 58, I10 Shanghai Cultural Documents Society, 113 Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, 58, 59

Shanghai Library, zzz, 111-12 Sun Zixi, 158, 159, 166, 181 Shanghai Literary and Art Club (Haishang Tijin Hall), 51

Shanghai Municipal Council, 2 Tagore, Rabindranath, 112, 122

Shanghai Museum, 112, 113 Taiping Rebellion, 2

Shang Shengbo, 100 Taiwan, colonial and postcolonial art of, 241-55

Shao Dazhen, 221 Takeuchi Seihé, 227 Shen Bochen, 38, 39 Tan Zhenlin, 186

Shenbao (newspaper), 16 Tanaka Raishé, 33 Sheng Xuanhuai, 31 Tang Xiaohe, 192, 193, 194 Shen Jiawei, 195, 195-96, 196-97 Tang Yihe, 120, 121, 127

Shen Yaoding, 184 Tang Yingwei, 88, 88

Shen Yaoyi, 187, 187 Tao Yuanging, 62, 89—90, 90

Shen Yigian, 117, 118, 133 Tao Zhu, 186

Shen Yinmo, 246 Tateishi Tetsuomi, 244

Shen Yuan, 292 Te Wei, 118, 230

Shi Hui, 272 Teng Gu, 56

Shi Lu, 137, 137, 171, 172, 174-75, 175, 197, 197 Three Step Studio, 215

Shitao, 175 Tian Han, 68, 118 Shiotsuki Toho, 242 Tiananmen Massacre, 223, 257

Shuiyin muke, 181 Tianmahui. See Heavenly Horse Society (Tianmahui) Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, 204 Ting, W. Y., 109 Sino-Japanese Art Colleagues Association, 53 Tsang Tak Ping (Zeng Deping), 239, 239

Sino-Japanese Art Society, 53 Tsang Tsou Choi (Zeng Zaocai), 238, 239 Sino-Japanese War, 28, 30, 115-16, 116-18; development of Yan’an Tsong Pu (Zhuang Pu), 251, 252, 252

style during, 131-32; end of, 134-37; flight to the inland, Tuhua (drawing and painting), 29 119—20; outbreak of, 117-18; Second National Art Exhibition, Tushanwan Painting Atelier, 10

INDEX 361

Uchiyama Kanz6, 82, 130 White and Black Society, 88

Unnamed Woodcut Society, 86 White Goose Painting Club, 70

Urban planning, 109-13 White Horse Society (Hakubakai), 32 Wild Grain Woodcut Society, 84

Valéry, Paul, 109 Wind Society, 98 Van Lau (Wen Lou), 234, 235, 235 Wo Zha, 132

Varbanov, Maryn (Wan Man), 215 Women’s Calligraphy and Painting Society, 105-9, 107, 118, 127, Verostko, Roman, 215 134 Wong, Harold (Huang Zhongfang), 237-38, 238

Wada Eisaku, 66 Wong Po-yeh (Huang Banruo), 227

Wallace, Brian, 291 Wong, Wucius (Wang Wuxie), 234, 236, 236 Wang, C. C. (Wang Jigian), 233-34, 234, 255 Woodblock prints: Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and, 180-—

Wang Caibai, 68 81; at end of WWII, 137

Wang Chuantao, 97 Woodcut art movement, 82—89 Wang Daizhi, 61, 62 Woodcuts, wartime, 129-31

Wang Dongling, 276, 276 Worker-peasant-soldier art, 190—99

Wang Dongxin, 201 Wu Biduan, 156, 757

Wang Geyi, 98, 102, 173 Wu Changshi, 73, 133-14, 19-25, 20, 21, 23, 36, 42, 44, 51; §2, 575 Wang Guangyi, 215, 219, 221, 259-60, 260, 264, 265, 282 62, 106, 134

Wang Hongwen, 201 Wu Dacheng, 24, 25, 104 Wang Huaiqing, 210, 277 Wu Daigiu, 99 Wang Hui, 48 Wu Dayu, 61, 62, 62, 65, 142, 233 Wang Jiyuan, 57, 66, 70, 74, 76, 122, 229 Wu Dongmai, 112

Wang Jian, 47, 48 Wu Fading, 39

Wang Jianwei, 284 Wu Guanzhong, 124, 208, 210-11, 214

Wang Jin Zhang, 96, 105 Wu Hao, 249

Wang Jingsong, 262, 262—63 Wu Hufan, 100, 104, 109, 113, 116, 127, 140, 173, 173-74, 212,

Wang Keping, 209, 209, 210, 210 234 Wang Li, 4 Wu Hung, 281 Wang Linyi, 120 Wu Jiayou, 16, 17, 25

Wang Liuqiu, 149, 157 Wu Mali, 252 Wang Menggi, 220 Wu Qizhong, 193 Wang Qi, 130 Wu Shanzhuan, 215, 216, 217, 221, 260, 282 Wang Rizhang, 134 Wu Shiguang, 38, 40 Wang Shenglie, 166—69, 167 Wu Shujuan, 57, 106 Wang Shikuo, 142, 147 Wu Shuyang, 40 Wang Mantian, 191, 193 Wu Qingxia, 98, 106, 107, 107, 118

Wang Shimin, 47 Wu Tiecheng, 112

Wang Tiande, 295, 295 Wu Tien-chang, 253, 253 Wang Yachen, 38, 40, 57, 69, 91, 103, 117, 118, 122 Wu Zhongxiong, 97

Wang Yidong, 290 Wu Zonglin, 51

Wang Yongquan, 96 Wu Zuoren, 68, 118, 142, 197 Wang Yuanqi, 47, 100 Wuhan, city of, 118-19 Wang Yuezhi, 62 Wang Zhen (Wang Yiting), 52-53, §3, 54-55, 55) 57s 59, 60, 65, 67, X-marks, 216

95, 96, 98, 99, 105, 106, 108, 112, 117, 118 Xiling Seal Society, 25

Wang Ziwei, 264 Xishan Calligraphy and Painting Society, 100 Warlord period, 61, 99 Xiyanghua (Occidental painting), 27

Wei Jingshan, 202, 203 Xia Jiankang, 38 Wen Bao, 158, 759, 166 Xia Peng, 86

Wen Yiduo, 133 Xia Yan, 210

Weng Fen, 283 Xiamen (Amoy), 1

Western art, 27-28 Xiamen Dada, 215, 218 Western art history, in Chinese educational system, 56 Xiao Junxian, 30, 30

362 INDEX

Xiao Lu, 222, 222-23 Ye Qianyu, 118, 179, 140, 141-42, 148, 169, 230

Xiao Sun, 96-97, 97 Yencesse, Ovide, 61 Xiaopenglai Calligraphy and Painting Society, 51 Yi Zhong, 191, rgz

Xie Gongzhan, 100 Yiyuan Painting Research Institute, 70, 106

Xie Haiyan, 103 Yin Xiuzhen, 271, 271, 288

Xie Zhiguang, 98 Ying Yeping, 102

Xing Zhibin, 274-75 Yip, Wai-lim (Ye Weilian), 234 Xiong Maomi, 275 Young Companion (magazine), 57 Xu Beihong, 39, 40, 42, 42, 43, 60, 61, 66, 68—69, 69, 109, 118, Yu Ben, 228, 228

Xu Ben, 44 Yu Dafu, 102

122, 122—23, 123, 134, 142, I5I, 162, 163, 164, 169, I71, 180, 229 Yu Chuangshuo, 118

284 Yu Feng, 209, 230

Xu Bing, 214, 219, 219-20, 258, 258-59, 259, 264, 268-71, 269, Yu Fei’an, 95, 95-96

Xu Chunzhong, 190-91, ror Yu Garden Calligraphy and Painting Charitable Society, 51-52

Xu Guanggdi, 9 Yu Hong, 259, 260, 264 Xu Kuang, 198, 198 Yu Jifan, 57, 74 Xu Lei, 220, 220-21, 264 Yu Jianhua, 56, 98, 127

Xu Tan, 270 Yu Peng, 253, 253 Xu Yong, 193 Yu Youhan, 261, 262, 264, 282 Xu Yongqing, 38, 39 Yu Youren, 102-3 Xu Zhimo, 66, 102, 106 Yu Yue, 19

Xugu, 15, 18-19, 19, 25 Yu Yunjie, 149, 151, 157, 202 Yuan Shikai, 28, 58

Yamamoto Baigai, 32 Yuan Yunsheng, DTT 277 Yan’an style, development of, 131-33 Yun Shouping, 5

Yan Fu, 28

Yan Han, 132, 132, 147-48, 148, 157, 177; 197 Zao Wou-ki (Zhao Wuji), 233, 234, 235

Yan Peiming, 281, 282 Zeng Fanzhi, 265, 265, 293

Yan Shuilong, 244 Zeng Fengiji, 15

Yan Wenliang, 69, 148 Zeng Ming, 80, 81

Yang Baoyi, 96 Zeng Xi, 16

Yang Fudong, 275, 275 Zeng Yi, 80

Yang Jiechang, 281, 287 Zeng Zhiliang, 76 Yang Keyang, 136, 137 Zeng Zhongming, 108

Yang Qiuren, 76 Zeng Zhushao, 147

Yang Sanlang, 244, 244 Zhan Jianjun, 149, 149, 150, 154, 169, 181, 208

Yang Shanshen, 231 Zhan Wang, 287 Yang Shaobing, 287 Zhang Chenbo, 57 Yang Taiyang, 76 Zhang Chongren, 9 Yang Xian, 19, 25 Zhang Chungiao, 201 Yang Xingxing, 38 Zhang Dali, 274, 274 Yang Xuejiu, 105—6, 106 Zhang Daofan, 108

Yang Xueyao, 105 Zhang Dagian (Chang Dai-chen), 16, 68, 98, 100, 102, 102, 103,

Yang Yi, 105 113, II7, 124, 125, 126, 229, 246, 247—48, 248, 250

Yang Yinfang, 8 Zhang Ding, 171

Yang Zhenzhong, 284 Zhang Guangyu, 230 Yang Zhilin, 257 Zhang Huan, 272, 273, 273 Yang Zhiguang, 168, 169, 197-98, 197 Zhang Hongtu, 261-62, 262

Yangzhou, 2, 3 Zhang Jianjun, 283

Yao Hua, 246 Zhang Kunyi, 113

Yao Wenyuan, 201 Zhang Leping, 118 Ye Gongchuo, 98, 108, 109, 112-13, 162, 172, 230 Zhang Nian, 222

Ye Jianying, 201 Zhang Peili, 215, 217, 227, 219, 264, 270, 274, 274

Ye Luo, 86 Zhang Shanzi, 98, 102, 112

INDEX 363

Zhang Shuqi, 68, 122, 122 Zheng Yefu, 85, 86, 131

Zhang Tiao, 116 Zheng Zhenduo, 146, 178 Zhang Wang, 86, 87, 130, 132 Zhong Biao, 287

Zhang Wei, 208 Zhong Huizhu, 15 Zhang Xiya, 148 Zhou Bichu, 127 Zhang Wenyuan, 118 Zhong Ming, 208

Zhang Xiaogang, 264, 265, 282, 293 Zhou Changgu, 164, 164-66, 169-70

Zhang Xiong, 3, 3, 4-5, 6, 18, 19, 20 Zhou Duo, 76

Zhang Xuan, 70, 74-76, 75 Zhou Enlai, 60, 115, 118, 140, 145, 172, 184, 186, I91, 192, 195, 197,

Zhang Xueliang, 115 202-3, 204, 212, 223 Zhang Yuguang, 38, 39 Zhou Shujing, 40 Zhang Yuanji, 162 Zhou Shugiao, 190, 190 Zhang Zhengyu, 230 Zhou Sicong, 193, 215 Zhang Zhidong, 28 Zhou Tiehai, 266, 267

Zhang Yu, 276, 276 Zhou Lianxia, 106, 107, 118

Zhang Zuolin, 62 Zhou Xian, 7

Zhao Bandi, 275, 275 Zhou Xiang, 37-38, 66

Zhao Chen, 110 Zhou Yang, 162, 210 Zhao Hongben, 178, 179, 179-80 Zhou Zhengtai, 76 Zhao Qi, 120 Zhou Chens, 4,4, 5, 14, 23,23 Zhao Shou, 80, 89, 81 Zhu Da, 12, 134 Zhao Wangyun, 171 Zhu Fadong, 273-74 Zhao Wuji (Zao Wou-ki), 123-24, 215, 276 Zhu Jinlou, 148

Zhao Yannian, 151 Zhu Jintang, 15

Zhao Yu, 145 Zhu Naizheng, 192 Zhao Ziyang, 223 Zhu Xiong, 4

Zhao Zhigian, 19, 22, 22-23, 23 Zhu Oizhan, 70, 117;.127 Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts, 215 Zhu Yuanzhang (emperor), 59

Zheng Chang (Zheng Wuchang), 56 Zhuangfen, 32 Zheng Shengtian, 185, 788, 188—89, 281 Zhuangshui, 32

Zheng Wuchang, 98, 102-3, 118, 127, 134-36, 135, 137, 140 Zong Bing, 169

364 INDEX

SPONSORING EDITORS Deborah Kirshman and Kari Dahlgren BOOK DESIGNER Nicole Hayward COPYEDITOR Amy Smith Bell INDEXER Gerald Van Ravenswaay TEXT 10/13 Adobe Garamond pIsPpLay Klavika PACKAGER BookMatters PREPRESS Embassy Graphics PRINTER AND BINDER Thomson Shore, Inc.