Introduction: Liu Haisu

Liu haisu was born in Changzhou(the same city that I came from), Jiang su province in 1896. Liu Haisu visited Japan in 1919 and for the first time he learnt western painting techniques. He started to introduce western art styles to China and founded a institute— Tianmahui, after he returned back from Japan. In 1929, Liu Haisu visited European Countries including France, Italy, and so on. During this period, Liu had deeper and more systematic understanding on western art concepts, and he had the chance communicated with the famous artists including Picasso and Matisse. After his journey in Europe he published serval books to introduce western art to China. Liu Haisu climbed Huang Shan for 10 times and made one of his most famous series of painting about Huang Shan (famous mountain in China). Liu Haisu was one of the earliest Chinese artists who had western artistic education and introduced western art styles to China, and Liu made great distribution on Chinese modern art development.

“Huangshan” by Liu Haisu

With the new printing technologies’s appearance occuring a boom during the first half of twentieth century, Liangyou (The Young Companion) arguably turned out to be the most influential magazine at that time, or even could be considered as the most unique in the history of Chinese modernity. Founded by Wu Liande in 1925, being self-promoted as “the most attractive and popular magazine in China”, a year later, during February 1926 a first episode of Liangyou  has been published.

The company combined the offset printing technology with photography for its cover portraits: the black-and-white photograph were first shot at a studios, before the artists painted the colors and would be printed afterwards. The topic of graphic arts based on two main categories: commercial (posters, advertisements) and social (cartoons, woodcuts and art periodicals), with the face of woman appearance on most of their cover, variable from neighborhood students to famous movie stars.

It was the longest-running Chinese-English bilingual monthly pictorial magazine, until 1945, with a total of 174 episodes, and therefore become an invaluable source material to capture every aspects of the kaleidoscopic life in Shanghai. This periodical not only served as a visual realm at that time, but also as “a good companion” – “to its ten thousand readers in their everyday negotiations with modernity and all its consequences.

Wu Liande (1900 – 1972), the founder of the magazine and  the first editor of “The Young Companion”, from episode 1-4.

Sun Yat-sen Memorial Special Issue

8th Anniversary Special Issue

References:

1. Paul G. Pickowicz, Kuiyi Shen, Yingjin Yang – Liangyou, Kaleidoscopic Modernity and the Shanghai Global Metropolis, 1926 – 1945 – 2013 – Chapter Introduction https://books.google.com.vn/books?id=55yXCgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
2. Dany Chan and Michael Knight – Shanghai Art of the city – 2010 – Chapter Shanghai Graphic Arts 1910 – 1949, page 137, 138.
3. “The Young Generation”, Wikipedia – Last edited by 5th April 2020 –  Pictures of Wu Liande and covers of two special magazine.          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Young_Companion

Li Keran (1907-1989) was a prominent painter and art educator in the twentieth century. Li Keran studied at the Shanghai Art Academy and the National Academy of Arts in China. He became a professor at the prestigious Central Academy of Fine Arts later in his life. His style of artwork was Western oil painting and Literati painting (ink wash painting). He was an innovator in China because he brought western oil techniques to Chinese art. He worked for the government of China and created anti-Japanese posters during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Li Keran was mentored by Qi Baishi and Huang Binhong. He lived through and experienced  extreme social change when the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949 by Mao Zedong. Li Keran was able to expand on his own theory of art when he went on a three-month trip (South of Yangtze) with two other prominent artists to discover his technique and style. He expanded on landscape painting along with Western realist art and Literati painting. Today, his artwork is some of the most valued pieces across the global art market. 

Landscape in Red, 1964

This piece is a clear example of Li Keran’s style and technique. This piece sold for $46 million in 2016. 

References 

Roberts, Claire (December 2007). “A Century of Li Keran”. China Heritage Quarterly. 

“Li Keran.” Wikipedia. Wikipedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Keran 

Chen Yifei was born in 1946 who studied at the Shanghai Art College in the early 1960’s with many other famous artists. Yifei is know for his paintings glorifying the deeds of Mao Zedong. He utilized classical European art styles to create more realistic  depictions of the successes of the communist party in China such as his piece The Taking of the Presidential Palace which depicts the communist forces removing the flag of the Nationalist regime over the presidential palace in 1949. To accomplish this, Yifei had models pose for a photograph which he then used to paint this piece with his colleague Wei Jingshan in 1977. After the death of Mao and the Cultural Revolution, Chen shifted his focus towards fashion, movies and portraits of westerners. He moved to New York for 10 years before returning to Shanghai where he died 15 years later in April of 2005.

The Taking of the Presidential Palace, 1977.

Chen Yifei and Wei Jingshan. Oil on canvas. This work depicts the success of the Communists over the Nationalists as they lower the Nationalist flag over the Presidential Palace in 1949. https://experimentalbeijing.com/items/show/798

Works Cited

Andrews, Julia F., and Kuiyi Shen. Art of Modern China. University of California Press, 2012.

“Chen Yifei.” artnet, n.d. http://www.artnet.com/artists/chen-yifei/.

“The Taking of the Presidential Palace.” Experimental Beijing, n.d. https://experimentalbeijing.com/items/show/798.

Ding Cong (1916-2009) was a political cartoonist and son of Ding Song, a prominent member of Shanghai art circles, as well as a cartoonist himself. His father did not want him to become a cartoonist, for he thought the profession was too dangerous and not lucrative enough. Song even insisted that no brushes or paper were to be given to Cong, however Cong still found ways to create art (Hawks 2017, 17).

Ding Cong’s first noticed works were 24 illustrations for Lu Xen’s (1881-1936) famous short-story, “The True Story of Ah Q”, in 1943, when he was just 27 years old. Ding had a strong identification to Lu Xen’s work and his aspirations to usher in social change, and this was apparent through his entire artistic career (Hawks 2017, 18).

In 1957, he was deemed a Rightist, and was banned from producing art, even privately, as well as being removed from his editor position at People’s Pictorial journal. Shortly after, he was separated from his wife and infant son, and exiled to a labor camp in northern China. He was rehabilitated in 1979, and by 1995, he enter his second peak in his art career. The smooth transition was credited to his continued production of art, even while exiled (Hawks 2017, 18).

Ah Q’s Execution, 1943

Feng Zikai was born in 1898 in Tongxiang in the Zhejiang province, just after the First Sino-Japanese War. He was the youngest of seven girls and was raised by a wealthy and educated family. His art career began once he started at the Zhejiang First Normal School. There, he was taught by Li Shutong, a Westernizer who tried to push Western styles such as nude painting and sketching in his teachings. Once Feng graduated, he became an art teacher in Shanghai. He used the values of the May 4^th Movement in his teachings. (Wikipedia 2020) In 1921, he left for Japan shortly after Japan’s victory in WWI. Here he studied Japanese and European art, and later brought this knowledge to China. He took another art teacher position, and he also became an essayist and artist for radical political magazines. (Wikipedia 2020) He published unique political comics, known as “manhua,” or impromptu sketches, and soon Chinese cartoon art was known as “Zikai Manhua.” (Feng 1970) He described this as, “painting styles that employs a simplified brushwork to express meaning.” (Feng 1970) He focused on tragedies of war and suffering that falls upon daily lives of ordinary people.

Figure 1. Drunken Old Farmer. Feng Zikai. Scroll, mounted and framed, ink and colour on paper. 1947. Mutualart.com (https://www.mutualart.com/Artwork/Drunk-Old-Man/5D3319F8CC473351)

Sources

“Feng Zikai.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 31 Mar. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feng_Zikai.

Feng Zikai. (1970, January 1). Retrieved from https://www.lambiek.net/artists/f/feng_zikai.htm

Artist Cai Guo-Qiang was born in the city of Quanzhou in 1957, eventually receiving a degree in stage design form the Shanghai Drama Institute (“Cai Cuo-Quiang.”). Shortly after, in 1986 Cai moved to Japan for 9 years before setting up a more permanent residence in New York, where he lives to this day (“Cai Cuo-Quiang.”).

Cai is known for his works in a number of mediums such an installation and drawing, however, some of his most famous work is with gunpowder (“ABOUT THE ARTIST • Cai Guo-Qiang.”). This work is believed to be influenced by the Chinese Cultural Revolution which began in 1966 when he was nine years old (“Cai Guo-Qiang Artist Overview and Analysis”). At the time, cannons firing and other gunpowder related activities were commonly witnessed in day to day life. As he moved into his teenage years and the Revolution continued he discovered fireworks and found he could “liberate himself through the medium of gunpowder” (“Cai Guo-Qiang Artist Overview and Analysis”). Due to this, his art includes grand displays of gun powder, almost like a fireworks display. Along with that, for more permanent art pieces he paints with gunpowder directly on paper, canvas and other surfaces (“Cai Cuo-Quiang.”).

“Black Peony” Gunpowder on Porcelain                                                     https://caiguoqiang.com/projects/projects-2019/ashmolean-gunpowder-art/                                                 An example of how Cai makes still, permanent art while still embracing his love for gunpowder.

No matter what medium Cai is practicing however, he seems to have a habit of making it socially relevant, with some sort of message behind the visual. Some examples of this include a photo series he did with explosives commenting on atomic bombs(“Cai Cuo-Quiang.”) and an installation in which he covered a room in large red drapery, hanging paper funeral lanterns above, except instead of having the laters in their usual shapes he crafted them to look like everything from fighter jets to washing machines (Bartelik 2002).

Works Cited

Bartelik, Marek. 2002. “Cai Guo-Qiang.” Artforum International, Summer, 189. https://search-proquest-com.libproxy.union.edu/docview/214354001?accountid=14637.

“ABOUT THE ARTIST • Cai Guo-Qiang.”, Retrieved Apr 10, 2020. (https://caiguoqiang.com/about-the-artist/).

“Cai Cuo-Quiang.”2013. , Retrieved Apr 10, 2020. (https://www.guggenheim.org/blogs/map/parts-and-wholes).

“Cai Guo-Qiang Artist Overview and Analysis”. [Internet]. 2020. TheArtStory.org
Content compiled and written by Sarah Frances Dias
Edited and revised, with Synopsis and Key Ideas added by Kimberly Nichols
Available from: https://www.theartstory.org/artist/cai-guo-qiang/life-and-legacy/
First published on 12 Apr 2018. Updated and modified regularly
[Accessed 10 Apr 2020]

Ai Weiwei , born august 28 1957, is a Chinese contemporary artist as well as curator and architect. He was the son of a famous poet who was forced to a labor camp during Mao’s rule and the family was subsequently exiled by the Chinese government, forcing him to grow up in a harsh circumstance in northeast china. Upon the death of Mao his family was able to return to Beijing in 1976 where two years later in 1878 Ai Weiwei enrolled in the Beijing Film academy, where he helped found an avaunt garde art group called stars where he first started producing art with the group and subsequently began getting in trouble with the Chinese government for his art. In 1989 Ai left China to study abroad in America. There he traveled around while studying English at several university. He ended up in New York to attend the Arts student League of New York. After eventual dropping out of art school he ended up just roaming around New York for quite some time developing his artistic style.

Ai Weiwei eventually returned to China in response to fathers ill state. Upon his return, Ai started curating art to make a living and then eventually transitioned into getting a studio and producing his own work. After some time passing and Ai starting his own architectural design firm he started blogging about the Chinese government, often christening the government and their often mishandling of many situations. After this Ai began to be heavily prosecuted by the chines government and was constantly monitored by government cameras and even beaten by police at one point resulting in him eventually leaving China to produce his art elsewhere.

Surveillance Camera and Plinth by Ai Weiwei, is one of his many pieces of work that is drawing attention to the fact that the Chinese government had him under surveillance. This piece uses the median of marble often reserved for statues and busts to display the best things about a culture like the leader or famous philosophers, however, Ai Weiwei uses it to draw attention to how the Chinese government spies on their citizens.

http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2016/contemporary-art-day-auction-l17025/lot.198.html

(1) Ai Weiwei : spatial matters : art architecture and activism. Ai, Weiwei,, Pins, Anthony,. Cambridge, Massachusetts.

(2) Erickson, Britta (22 September 2005), “Ai Weiwei”, Oxford Art Online, Oxford University Press, retrieved 6 April 2020

Lu Xun (1881-1936) was a Chinese writer, essayist, poet, and literary critic. He is an important figure in Chinese history because he introduced early forms of modern literature and art. He was born and raised in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, in the heart of Jiangnan. In 1919, he joined the New Cultural Movement in China and published several fictional novels that critiqued Chinese traditions and strongly advocated modernization. His writings proved to be immensely influential during the May Fourth Movement and inspired many left-wing activists. Lu Xun was also a talented amateur in the practice of design. He designed the covers of most of his writings and used woodcut print. He’s often times referred to as the father of the modern woodcut movement in China. Furthermore, he was patron for design artists and encouraged good functional designs. His aims in both literature and art prompted a new modernist movement that heavily influenced the nation of China.

Da Ma. “Lu Xun.” Woodcut print. 1940. National Gallery of Australia. Image Source: https://artsearch.nga.gov.au/detail.cfm?irn=114179

Citations:

Andrews, Julia Frances., Kuiyi Shen, and Jonathan D. Spence. A Century in Crisis : Modernity and Tradition in the Art of Twentieth-Century China New York: Guggenheim Museum, 1998.

Lee, Leo Ou-Fan. Lu Xun and His Legacy. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1985

Custer, Charles. “The Legacy and Works of Lu Xun.” ThoughtCo, Feb. 11, 2020, thoughtco.com/lu-xun-modern-chinese-literature-688105.

Hill, Michael Gibbs. “CULTURAL REVOLUTIONARY.” The Review of Politics, vol. 76, no. 2, 2014, pp. 317–319., www.jstor.org/stable/43670969. Accessed 9 Apr. 2020.