This exhibition is mainly about Liu Haisu’s experimentation in both western techniques and traditional Chinese paintings. As one of the earliest Chinese artists who had influenced by western art techniques, Liu Haisu spent his caareer tried to cross the boundry between Western oil paintings and traditional Chinese paintings, and his art had several evolutions under different historical contexts from his early years to late years.

Liu Haisu was born in 1896 and started being influenced by western art when he was a teenager. One of the most significant controversies in his early years was that he was criticized “traiter in art” when he was doing nude figure studies, and since that Liu Haisu had been the rebellious artist who broke the rules for hundreds of years and was aim to find new possiblilities for tradtional Chinese art under the influence from Western art techniques and so as Western art development in China. Liu visited Japan for the first time in 1918, which was the time he had chance to learn about Western modern art concepts such as Impressionism and Postimpressionism systematically, and he started promoting Western art education in China since then. Liu Haisu lived 98 years, so he had quite a long career as an artist, and he lived in serveral different social contexts in Chinese history, which made his works distinct from different periods of time.

During the late years of Liu Haisu’s career, he did not stop explration, but kept breakthoughing his own art concepts. One example we are going to discuss was made in the late years of Liu’s career, from which we are able to see Liu’s style after decades of development and evolution in his own concept, which was sigmificantly influanced by both western art and traditonal Chinese culture. “Lotus Peak of Yellow Mountain” was made by Liu Haisu at his seventies. At this stage, Liu had be so maturaly using both Chinese and Western painting techniques, that the “rules of art” had been something restricted him from kept breakthroughing. Unlike the paintings from Liu’s earlier years, the brushwork was weaken in this painting; and Liu tended to animate the landscape, light and shadows by jaxtaposing ink wash and blank paper. And from this painting, the audience are able to see the change in Liu Haisu’s style in his late yrars and that Liu never stopped art exploration as an artist who spent most of his life as a pioneer of Chinese modern art.

“Lotus Peak of Yellow Mountain” by Liu Haisu

References:

Xiaoping, Lin. “Contemporary Chinese Painting: The Leading Masters and the Younger Generation.” Leonardo 20, no. 1 (1987): 47-55. Accessed May 11, 2020. doi:10.2307/1578211.

“Painting Academies and Western Influence.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 58, no. 3 (2001): 20-25. Accessed May 11, 2020. doi:10.2307/3269183.

My exhibition explores themes of female identity through the lens of the life and work of Pan Yuliang and other female Chinese artists.

In the early 20th century, China was experiencing radical social and political turmoil. This upheaval ushered in a change in women’s roles in society and the opportunities afforded to them. As a result of what is referred to as the 1919 May Fourth Movement, education for women became more attainable as, for the first time, co-education was allowed (Teo 2016, 39-41). With greater opportunities for women, came an increased awareness of their rights and social roles, now less restricted by traditional Chinese ethics (Li 2000, 31). Along with more freedom, women sought new ways to express themselves and discover an identity outside of being a mother, daughter, or wife.

Pan Yuliang was born in 1895, orphaned at a young age, she was considered a piece of property. She was sold and bought, eventually marrying Customs Official, Pan Zanhua as his concubine at only 18 (Andrews 1998, 178). Suddenly married to an official, her social status changed dramatically which afforded her the opportunity to pursue her talent for art. Pan grabbed the chance to go to the Shanghai Art Academy when education became co-ed for the first time in 1919 (Teo 2016, 41). She then traveled to Europe in 1921 on fine arts government scholarship as one of the first of the Chinese students to study art in France where she eventually made her home. It was rare at the time for women to achieve independent careers as professional artists (Ng 2019, 21-31). Pan Yuliang was a pioneer as both an artist and a woman. 

Pan painted thousands of paintings throughout her life in a wide variety of styles. Pan’s art reflects both her western training as well as her Chinese heritage, with some paintings in brilliant, vivid, fauvist styles and others in the more traditional ink on paper Chinese styles (Ng 2019, 21-31). The majority of her work, however, combines these two aspects of her life, both in technique and subject matter. Said subject matter is the most striking and revolutionary aspect of Pan’s work. The one uniting theme throughout all of her art is women. Pan painted women of all different backgrounds in various aspects of life. Over half of her paintings were non-white female nudes (Teo 2016, 57), embracing all flaws and imperfections in, not only the female body, but also their lives. Pan’s art is a rebellion against the commodification of the female body and an expression of a female identity. From her nudes to her self portraits, Pan strove to represent women openly and without shame.

Pan Yuliang, Artist Self-Portrait, 1963. Oil on Canvas, 80 x 65 cm. (Source: Teo 2016, 34)

Works cited:

Andrews, Julia Frances, and Kuiyi Shen. “The Lure of the West: Modern Chinese Oil Painting.” In A Century in Crisis: Modernity and Tradition in the Art of Twentieth-Century China. Guggenheim Museum Publications, 1998. 172-78.

Li, Yuhui. “Women’s movement and change of women’s status in China.” Journal of International Women’s Studies 1, no. 1 (2000): 30-40.

Ng, Sandy. “The Art of Pan Yuliang: Fashioning the Self in Modern China.” Woman’s Art Journal 40, no. 1 (2019): 21–31.

Teo, Phyllis. “Pan Yuliang: The Misunderstood ‘Mistress’ of Western Painting.” In Rewriting modernsim. Three women artists in twentieth-century China: Pan Yuliang, Nie Ou and Yin Xiuzhen. Leiden University Press (LUP): Leiden, 2016.

Li Keran: Evolution of Landscape Painting 

Li Keran (1907-1989) was one of the prolific Chinese artists of the twentieth century. He was born from an illiterate family where he lacked in formal education. Although he never went to school, he was extremely gifted in the arts from an early age and was accepted into the Shanghai Art College without any previous education based on the work he was able to produce. At the age of 42, Li Keran experienced vast social and cultural change in his home nation of China when Mao Zedong of the Communist Party declared the People’s Republic of China after the end of the Chinese Communist Revolution. The Great Leap Forward Campaign presented by Mao Zedong was a campaign set to allow economic and social change which decimated China and turned many art academies into factories. During the Cultural Revolution, Li Keran had to face incrimination from the Red Guard who confiscated and destroyed many of his works (Hawks 2017). The Red Guard criticized him for adhering for the ways of Old China. After this he was imprisoned, where he was forced to transcribe the thoughts and words of Mao. He used this time to develop his form of calligraphy and art instead of the content, out of fear of disobeying the Red Guard. After his release, he used ancient seal scripts to develop a new form of calligraphy that exhibited much more emotion and energy than previously seen before (Roberts 2007). 

Li Keran had his own unique form of landscape painting, where he used extensive amounts of ink. He adapted his art form over time based on his cautious political approach. Before 1949, his most prolific works were those of ancient figures and water buffalo (Hawks 2017). Once the Communist Party took over, he was not allowed to create art that did not put the party in high regard. Post 1949, Li Keran moved on to landscape paintings. Since landscape paintings were seen as works of Old China, Li Keran modified it by blending the traditionalist view of landscapes with a scientific outlook from the west. It is important to understand the difficulties Li Keran went through in order to establish his voice in a rapidly-changing New China. He was bombarded with many challenges throughout his life, but ultimately, prevailed. 

Li Keran, ‘Inspired by Wang Wei’s poetry, ink and color on paper, 1987. 

Bibliography 

Hawks, Shelley Drake. The Art of Resistance : Painting by Candlelight in Mao’s China Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2017. 

Roberts, Claire. “A Century of Li Keran: Commemorating the Centenary of a Guohua Artist.” A Century of Li Keran . China Heritage Quarterly, The Australian National University, December 2007.

The Chinese artist Feng Zikai was born in 1898 in the Zhe Jiang Province. He always loved painting and decided to enhance that knowledge by studying abroad in Japan in 1921. Many of his works after this were inspired by the new Western styles he learned while abroad. His love for all the arts lead him to teaching where he taught music and art in Chun Hui Middle School once back in China. (“The Award and Feng Zikai”). He developed a love and admiration for the spirits of children, and he first became known as an artist with a series of cartoons portraying lovable, mischievous children. (Hung 1994, 137)

Feng Zikai developed his cartoon skills based on the light-hearted topic of children, even modeling his cartoons after his own children. He also added a song or verse among his drawings to make them more poetic and meaningful. (Hung 1994, 137) His style combined traditional Chinese brush strokes with contemporary social settings, including humor and religious purport. (Hung 1994, 138) However, he did not classify himself as a traditionalist, but created more modern pieces that reflect his observation of the world around him. During and after the second Sino-Japanese War, Feng used his platform to reflect wartime ideologies. (Lin 2003, 5) Feng and his family were forced to flee and live as refugees during the Japanese attacks. By living through these experiences, “Feng now believed that art could and should play a major role in saving China.” (Lin 2003, 105) Therefore, Feng created many prints and cartoons related to his suffering, the suffering of the Chinese people, and the corruption that entailed.

In my exhibition, my goal is to focus on the artworks Feng Zikai created during and after the war period, and how much they differ from his prewar artwork. Not only does Feng’s work reflect this time period, but he was also around during the Chinese cultural revolution, and he created many cartoons in secret that reflect his take on that particular time period that might not have been accepted by the strict Communist government. This theme is important, because Feng lived through two of the most important historical phenomenon’s that took place in China during the twentieth century. I want to focus on how war affected his art and the way he viewed the world differently throughout his life. I want to emphasize how Feng was speaking for the people of China during that time through his artwork and how he used his art to resist and arouse nationalism. (Hung 1994, 140)

Feng Zikai, A mother’s head severed. From China Weekly Review 88.6 (8 April 1939): 177. Scroll, ink on paper. Image source: http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft829008m5/

As we can see from this image, Feng is portraying a mother being brutally killed while she is nursing her baby. He includes a poem to the right of the image about the tragic scene. This scene of a child alters greatly from the lighthearted cartoons of children he painted before the war. This image shows the tragic affect the war had on Feng, as well as how he thought it affected the innocent women and children of China.

Citations

Hung, Chang-tai. War and Popular Culture: Resistance in Modern China, 1937-1945. Berkeley:  University of California Press, c1994 1994. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft829008m5/

Lin, Su-Hsing “Feng Zikai’s Art and the Kaiming Book Company: art for the people in early twentieth century China.” Electronic Thesis or Dissertation. Ohio State University, 2003. https://etd.ohiolink.edu/

“The Award and Feng Zikai.” Feng Zikai. Accessed May 15, 2020. https://fengzikaibookaward.org/en/about-the-award/the-award-and-feng-zikai/.

Chinese art has come a long way over the years when it comes to the freedom of expression that a Chinese artist is allowed to display. In the years under Mao Zedong, Chinese artist probability experienced the largest amount of oppression when it came to their artistic freedom. The only art during these cultural revolution times, where pieces that showed off the greatness that is China, Communism and the leader Mao. Scholars tend to think that after Mao’s passing that Chinese art for the first time in a long time becomes free again to send messages free of Communist propaganda. But if one was to ask Ai Weiwei if he thought he was free to express himself though his art in modern day china, he would most likely respond that he cannot produce his work in China.

Ai Weiwei is one of the first Chinese contemporary artist. One of the first exhibitions that Ai Weiwei participated in was the Stars Art group, who for the first time in China had an avant garde exhibition. This exhibition featured several pieces of art that where not in line with the government party and appeared to have other political messages that the Chinese government would like. As a result the exhibition was shutdown. Much like the first person to do anything, Ai Weiwei’s work was often not understood in the beginning, much like early Warhol work who Ai Weiwei has said he took inspiration from. This stars exhibition inspired Chinese artist to look at art differently for the first time.

Much later down the road after Ai Weiweis continued to refine his artistic personality. His art had begun to draw to much negative attention from the Chinese government as a result of his artwork. In 2011 this culminated in the Chinese government detaining him for several months and then eventually being put on house arrest. While he was on house arrest there where security cameras installed by the Chinese government looking into his home. This prompted him to recreate these cameras in a classical method of carved marble. This back and forth artistic struggle between Ai Weiwei and the Chinese government eventually prompted him to move away from China with his family while still creating powerful works of art with meaning while drawing attention to Chinese or greater world problems that he feels must not be overlooked.

My final exhibition will focus on the works of Chen Yifei during Mao’s reign as well as after Mao’s death in 1976. Chen was a well respected artist in the eyes of the Communist party leaders for his artwork portraying the devotion of communist soldiers as well as their battles against the Nationalist and Japanese forces.

Chen caught the eye of the officials in the Communist party for his adoption of the Socialist Realism style early on in his career. The socialist realist art style reflected the socialists in a positive, strong, and inspiring light in order to create support for the party. Red Flag I (1971-72) was such a painting which drew support for the communist party from the viewer. This painting was a large portrayal of several communist soldiers who are ready to charge into battle. They all display the red star symbolizing the communist party on their hats and the soldier closest to the viewer — and as such is closest to the danger of the coming battle– is proudly holding the red flag. The soldiers show no fear in their faces, rather they show pride and confidence in the face of death. These details combined with the vast size of the painting displays a sense of pride in the viewer and evokes a feeling of being protected by the communist party.

After the death of Mao, Chen’s works change drastically to focus on individual portraits. One such portrait titled, The Flutist (1987), portrays a woman playing the flute while in an elegant black dress. This is a drastic change from Chen’s previous works as it portrays the subjects individual wealth and talent which contrasts the communist ideals of equality for everyone. This change was inspired by Chen’s move to New York in 1980 where he studied western art.

This change displays how restrictions on art were loosened after Mao’s death and artists were able to created what they were passionate about. The emphasis on portraying the communist party was diminished and as such artists from across China began to express themselves through styles other than Socialist realism.

Chen Yifei, Red Flag I, Oil on Canvas, Dimensions: 300 x 159 cm (118.1 x 62.6 in.), 1971-1972. Source: http://www.artnet.com/artists/chen-yifei/red-flag-1-tBXyFFUh-0HVcgGfbG-bXA2

Chen Yifei, The Flutist, Offset Lithograph, Dimensions: 69.5 x 69.5 cm. (27.4 x 27.4 in.), 1987. Source: http://www.artnet.com/artists/chen-yifei/the-flutistthe-flutist-Gg00GSjS9MnWCl48qZ9ChQ2

Works cited:

“Chen Yifei.” Chen Yifei Biography – Chen Yifei on artnet. Accessed May 8, 2020. http://www.artnet.com/artists/chen-yifei/biography.

“The Flutist – Chen Yifei – Google Arts & Culture.” Google. Google. Accessed May 15, 2020. https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/the-flutist-chen-yifei/JgHtUATxu6SBqg.

Most of Cai’s art is large scale installations or series. This includes works I’ve written about before including the Mushroom Clouds photo series (Tufnell 2012) and the Fireflies Installation of light up petty cabs (“Cai Guo-Qiang: Fireflies.”). These two are only the beginning of Cai’s wide portfolio of large pieces of art. Cai uses his art to make a point, get a message across, or inspire a certain emotion in the viewers. Can uses unique mediums such as gun powder and fire that really catch the views attention and can inspire fear and sadness as they did in his mushroom cloud series, or inspire wonder as they did at an opening he conducted that ended in the fire department being called as viewers watched on amazed (“Playing with fire.” ). He has also had installations meant to bring joy and disgust, showing the wide range of emotions he has been able to inspire through art. Furthermore, Cai tends to have a message with his art, he uses it to make a point. He once took a stance against pollution with an installation that grotesquely showed the effect it has on animals (“China’s Pollution Crisis Inspires an Unsettling Art Exhibit”). This is what I think relates him back to a lot of the art we have studied so far in class: it all had a larger meaning, it was being used to make a point. Like the Woodblocks that represented the Communist Party and what they stood for or the paintings of Mao depicting him as one of the people to inspire trust.

Cai draws on the influence of these artists who work to make a point and inspire thought through large scale installation pieces. This paper will examine that. It will look at how Cai creates his work with the audience’s emotional reaction in mind and how the lifelike style and interactiveness of Cai’s different works can help to intensify the emotional response of the viewers.

China’s Pollution Crisis Inspires an Unsettling Art Exhibit 2014. Washington, D.C.: NPR. https://search.proquest.com/docview/2149163363?accountid=14637.

“Cai Guo-Qiang: Fireflies.” Association for Public Art., accessed May 8, 2020, https://www.associationforpublicart.org/project/cai-guo-qiang-fireflies/. 

Ben Tufnell, ‘Atomic Tourism and False Memories: Cai Guo-Qiang’s The Century with Mushroom Clouds: Art & Environment’, in Tate Papers, no.17, Spring 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/tate-papers/17/atomic-tourism-and-false-memories-cai-guo-qiangs-the-century-with-mushroom-clouds, accessed 8 May 2020.

“Playing with fire.” Economist, April 5, 2003, 94. The Economist Historical Archive, 1843-2015 (accessed May 8, 2020). https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/GP4100336459/ECON?u=nysl_ca_unionc&sid=ECON&xid=b6bb28dd. 

In our current world a pandemic has changed the way we live our daily lives. The way we interact with people has already changed drastically, but in reality we were ready for the challenges regarding communication. Technology has become very advanced and in light of this global pandemic, communicating with one another through a computer screen is the safest option. The digital world is one with endless possibilities. The theme of this exhibition falls perfectly into our current situation as it revolves around the digital world. The inspiration of this exhibition is Chinese Artist Feng Mengbo.

Feng Mengbo is an artist’s whose work provides a good example of how art coming from Chinese artist after 1990 and since has been influenced by the political happenings of the time. This exhibition will simply be a virtual presentation of works with voice recordings providing further information. In an effort to demonstrate how Feng Mengbo’s art style and content was very different than traditional work of the time, and also how historical events affected art differently, we must look at what would be considered a traditional piece of Chinese art work from a bit before Feng Mengbo’s artistic blow up.

If we look at a work from 1978 titled Scar Art, done by li Xinhua, and compare it to Feng Mengbo’s Long March: Restart, done in 2008, many differenes can be seen. Below is Scar art,

This piece was done on gouache on paper. The piece tells a sad story of the Cultural Revolution, as you can see the portrayal of the same soldier on the left is very sad and defeated on the right side of the painting. The artwork showed the actual emotion and tragedy that the people going through had to endure. The picture below is now an installation from one of Feng Mengbos pieces,

As seen, this is a very different piece. Mengbo made digital pieces of work and created video games. This one in specific uses Red Army soldiers as characters in the game. So, in comparison to Scar Art, this piece is less emotional and only uses the events from the Cultural Revolution to give a viewer a different but also historical experience.

Sources:

Professor Lullo’s Voicethread presentation. https://voicethread.com/myvoice/thread/14412178/89311123/82174989

Mengbo, Feng. “Feng Mengbo. Long March: Restart. 2008: MoMA.” The Museum of Modern Art. Accessed May 15, 2020. https://www.moma.org/collection/works/122872.

For my final exhibition I will examine the modernist woodcut movement in China and its unique relationship with communist politics. 

The woodcut movement in China was revived by Lu Xun to produce a more socially-aware art medium for the people. He combined the traditional Chinese print form with Western techniques to introduce a new style for the woodcut print that criticized the social and political circumstances in China. Lu Xun and many other left-wing scholars started to believe that the woodcut print was the best medium to portray the social and political upheaval in China. Not only was it cheap and easy to mass produce, but the raw aesthetics helped promote powerful messages. The characteristics of linearity, sharp contrast of black and white, and Western realism presented an influential design that had a persuasive impact on its audience. Lu Xun started to use this medium of art as an educational tool, where he could communicate his ideas and reshape what people thought of China. This became a vigorous weapon of the people that Lu Xun used to reveal the harsh realities of imperialism and feudalism to promote socialist modernity.

The woodcut print became a revolutionary new medium of art that diverged from Chinese traditionalism and promoted modernity. The woodcut print had soon developed activist traditions that provided the common people of China a voice. In Lu Xun’s final years of his life he became a patron, where he promoted this socially-aware art form to help better the Chinese society. However, after Lu Xun’s death in 1936 and subsequent years of the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) the woodcut print began to experience radical new developments.

Although Lu Xun was never an official member of the Communist Party, his emphasis on the exploitation of peasants and the working class coincided with the political aims of the Communist party (CCP). As a result the Communist party (CCP) adopted the woodcut print and repurposed it to be used as a weapon against their political enemies. This transformed the art of the people into communist propaganda. In Mao’s Yan’an Talks (1942), the leader of the Communist party redefined the role of art in China. The modernist woodcut movement was now strictly used for political purposes only. Chinese woodcuts became associated with the Communist party, which consisted of two types: nationalistic– which attacked the imperialists and GMD, or socialistic– which praised the CCP (Hung 1997,  p.35). After Lu Xun’s death, the woodcut print was controlled by the Communist party, which restricted artistic freedom and reshaped its purpose to align with communist politics.

Through several works the audience can see the transition of woodcuts before and after it was adopted by the Communist party…

Li Hua, Roar, China! woodcut, 1938.

Li Hua, Raging Tide I: Struggle, woodcut, 1947.

Li Hua, Arise, woodcut, 1947.

Yang, Yanbin, Mao Zedong, woodcut, 1945.

Li Qun, To Live in Abundance, woodcut, 1944.

Gu Yuan, Protect Our People’s Troops, woodcut, 1944.

Citations:

Lin, Pei-Yin. “Print, Profit, and Perception : Ideas, Information and Knowledge in Chinese Societies, 1895-1949,” edited by Weipin Tsai, BRILL, 2014.

Hung, Chang-Tai. “Two Images of Socialism: Woodcuts in Chinese Communist Politics.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 39, no. 1 (1997): 34-60. 

For my research project I aim to focus on the cultural impacts that propaganda posters create and sustain in both the People’s Republic of China and the Soviet Union. I plan to focus primarily on the ‘cults’ associated with each state, conducting a comparative analysis between the two to demonstrate the vast similarities, while simultaneously noting the differences between the two. As such, my primary focus will be on the span of time when Mao Zedong and Joseph Stalin were the respective leaders of these nation-states. Within this particular short essay I aim to focus primarily on China, as if I were to discuss both China and the Soviet Union in depth I would likely spill over the word limit by a large margin.

China, during Mao’s reign as the Chairman of the People’s Republic, suffered significant economic and social catastrophes. As a result, the communist party needed ways in which to appease the public, or at least pacify them during these calamities. One of the solutions Mao and his party devised was an intense political campaign focused around the idea of class struggle. A particular quote from Mao which helps to demonstrate this was “‘never forget class struggle’” (Young, 40). By focusing upon this class struggle, Mao and his cohorts were able to effectively shift malice for their failing state away from themselves, and redirect it towards capitalists (Young, 43-44). By pumping propaganda posters out that stressed the idea of class struggle and the glorification of the proletariat, citizens were less likely to question the continuous state of revolution that was harming their state and themselves (in particular, the Cultural Revolution). 

Propaganda in China also played a major role in sustaining Mao’s cult of personality (a cult of personality being a regime that uses a variety of techniques to create an idealized image of their leader, allowing for facile manipulation of the public). By using propaganda to facilitate this cult (and other social engineering techniques that I will discuss in greater detail in my final project), Mao was elevated to an almost god-like status. This obviously was problematic for a plethora of reasons, but with the most prevalent being the refusal of anyone to question his authority, even on matters that others possess far superior knowledge (Buruma, “Cult of Mao Zedong”). This in turn helped to facilitate the various economic and social catastrophes during Mao’s rule. Unsurprisingly, Mao actually adopted much of his political ideologies from Stalin, whom he met with numerous times. As such, it is rather important to examine the Soviet Union when analyzing the People’s Republic, as they are quite similar (yet also different) in many regards. 

Within my final project I aim to include: a poster by Dadao Ribendiguozhuy that stresses the “evil” nature of capitalists, a poster by Ha Qiongwen that was widely criticized by the Communist Party for not depicting Chairman Mao and instead depicted a proletariat woman and child, and a poster by Naum Karpovsky that demonstrates the cult of personality in the Soviet Union. Obviously I need more political posters to reach the requirement of five, however as of right now I aim to gather more information regarding my thesis/theme before I determine which posters I will include (in the chance I discover some information I wish to represent along with a visual). 

Works Cited

Young, Graham. “Mao Zedong and the Class Struggle in Socialist Society.” The Australian Journal of 

Chinese Affairs, no. 16, 1986, pp. 41–80.

Buruma, Ian. “Cult of Mao Zedong.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 7 Mar. 2001, 

www.theguardian.com/world/2001/mar/07/china.features11.