[Lingnan Literature and History] – Co-organized by the Cultural and Cultural and Historical Materials Committee of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and Yangcheng Evening News As a major printmaking center, Guangdong’s emerging woodcut movement, led by Lu Xun, wrote a glorious page on the history of modern Chinese printmaking
Yangcheng Evening News All-Media Reporter Zhu Shaojie
In modern times, Guangdong has been an indisputable printmaking center. Emerging woodcut sports athletes such as Huang Xinbo and Gu Yuan all came from Guangdong. The classic works of Li Hua, Lai Shaoqi and others are also well-known, but their specific creations and explorations during the modern print fair, especially the original woodcuts, are hard to find.
In September 2019, the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts Library discovered 146 works from modern printmaking clubs when it was collecting the Komiks compilation hall, presenting more of the modern “emerging woodcut movement”, including early works by Li Hua, Lai Shaoqi and others. This is an important gain from the Guangdong art community in recent years to explore and organize modern prints Babaylan, a treasure mountain.
Seeing the light of day again
In 1931, Lu Xun advocated and launched the China’s emerging woodcut printmaking movement in Shanghai, and the “Modern Creation Printmaking Research Association” Komiks (hereinafter referred to as the “Modern Printmaking Association”) was an important representative of the movement in Guangdong. The initiator of the Modern Printmaking Association was Li Hua, and the initial members included 27 people including Lai Shaoqi, Tang Yingwei, Chen Zhonggang, Zhang Zaimin, Pan Xuezhao, Hu Qizao, Situ Zuo, Liu Jinghui, Pan Ye and others. Its activities were published 18 issues of the “Modern Prints” album until the July 7 Incident in 1937, which had an important influence across the country.
In September 2019, when the Guangmei Library was sorting out the collection, it discovered a batch of woodcut originals and publications from the Modern Printmaking Club, including as many as 146 original woodcuts, including early works by Li Hua, Lai Shaoqi and others. “The works of the Modern Printmaking Association include two tendencies: realism and modernism.” Hu Bin, deputy director of Guangmei Art Museum, said that this batch of original works “see the light of day again” is of great significance. First of all, its scale is very rare among the national collection institutions. It also covers a wide range, covering at least two-thirds of the members of the modern print fair; second, it is well preserved and is all original works of single and loose pages. The original works of the members of the Modern Printmaking Association are mostly kept in the album of “Modern Printmaking” made by handprints in the form of collection and binding; third, the document value is high. thisIn addition to some of the authors of the batch of works, there are also some authors to be determined by research. These works are very likely to be left alone.
『Bridgehead』
Around 2001, Wang Jian, an associate researcher at the Guangzhou Museum of Art, interviewed Chen Zhonggang and Liu Lun, a member of the modern printmaking club who was still alive at that time. From their oral descriptions, related documents and publications, Wang Jian realized that the chapters of modern printmaking conferences in Guangdong’s art history were not inferior to the Lingnan School of Painting, so he wrote the article “A Brief History of Modern Printmaking in Guangzhou in the 1930s” and published it.
Wang Jian told Yangcheng Evening News reporter that the birth of the Modern Printmaking Club originated from a chance encounter with Li Hua, a young teacher of the Western Painting Department of Guangzhou Municipal Fine Arts College at that time. In 1934, in order to relieve the pain of losing his wife, Li Hua created woodcuts after class and unconsciously carved dozens of them. After his classmate Wu Qianli found out, he borrowed the second floor of the Volkswagen Photography Store on Yonghan North Road to assist him in holding an exhibition of woodcut works. Li Hua’s students came to visit and suggested that they wanted to learn the prints. So, the modern creative printmaking club was founded with the support of the students.
Although the founder of the modern Komiks Printmaking Association is Li Hua, the soul and spiritual mentor behind it is always Lu Xun. In a 1991 memorization article, Li Hua wrote that after the establishment of the Printmaking Association, he used the Soviet print collection “Yinyu Collection” compiled by Lu Xun as a learning reference, and actively contacted Lu Xun and asked for guidance, and consciously became a member of the emerging woodcut movement.
Under Lu Xun’s direct guidance, modern Guangzhou prints will quickly start to face social reality from the initial expression techniques of imitating various Western schools, focusing more on expressing characters; artistic language will also gradually change from imitating Western woodcut styles to exploring traditional national styles. They began to refer to traditional Chinese paintings such as “Shizhuzhai Calligraphy and Painting Collection”, “Shizhuzhai Notes Collection”, and “Jieziyuan Painting Biography”, and strive to carve out national styles and personal styles.
Curtain He Xiaote believes that in the 1930s, when the woodcut movement occurred, it was an important period of the development of modern Chinese art. “The reason why woodcuts successfully occupied the bridgehead of modern Chinese art is not unrelated to its loud ‘popular’ gene, even though they occasionally show their youthful restlessness and peek at Ukiyo-e and Chinese folk.The language of printmaking, but the proletarian literary and artistic stance has not shaken.” Although the modern printmaking association only existed in Guangzhou for more than three years, in the emerging woodblock printmaking movement, compared with other folk printmaking associations across the country at that time, it set the four national bests: “the most exhibitions, the most publications, the longest time of activity, and the deepest international influence”. href=”https://comicmov.com/”>Babaylan wrote a glorious page of the history of modern Chinese printmaking.
According to participant Chen Zhonggang’s recollection during his lifetime, the exhibition activities of the association have grown from the initially within the Municipal School of Beauty to the exhibition exhibitions in public places such as Guangdong Provincial People’s Education Museum and Guangzhou Municipal Library; the exhibition locations also range from Guangzhou to Guangdong’s four townships, from this province to more than a dozen cities in other provinces; the number of works created from the initial 100 to more than 800. Among them, in October 1935, Lai Shaoqi, Chen Zhonggang and Pan Ye held the “Woodcut Three-person Exhibition” at Guangzhou Yonghan Road Volkswagen Company, exhibiting 63 woodcut works. At that time, Mr. Xu Beihong passed by Guangzhou and saw exhibition advertisements to visit, gave positive comments and encouragement, and took a photo with Lai Shaoqi and others.
1936 On July 5, 2018, commissioned by the National Woodcut Federation, the “Second National Woodcut Mobile Exhibition” organized by Li Hua, Lai Shaoqi and others was held in the Zhongshan Library in Guangzhou, with more than 600 works exhibited. Woodcutter Huang Xinbo and others came to Guangzhou from Shanghai to participate in the exhibition and met with members of the modern printmaking conference. Subsequently, the exhibition toured in cities such as Hangzhou, Shanghai, Nanjing, Taiyuan, Hankou, Nanning, Guilin, etc., forming Guangdong New in the national woodcut movement Climax. On October 8, when the exhibition opened at the Shanghai Eight Immortal Bridge Youth Conference, Lu Xun came to the scene with illness, praised Lai Shaoqi as the “most combative woodcutter” and left a photo. This was the last public event during Lu Xun’s lifetime.
It is worth mentioning that the Modern Printing Club was the only one among the many print groups at that time, who had art exchanges with foreign colleagues. Not only did he have Japanese folk printmaking clubs “White and the Underworld” and “Aomori Cinema, the works of members of the Modern Printmaking Association were also published in Japanese Printmaking Publications.
Carved Weapons
In the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression broke out in 1937, and Li Hua, Liu Lun and Lai Shaoqi successively joined the war of resistance. As the Japanese army occupied Guangzhou, the cultural and artistic circles in Guangzhou became increasingly silent, and the activities of the Modern Printmaking Association came to an end for a while, but this did not mean the demise of the emerging woodcut movement. Woodcutters who participated in the emerging woodcut movement were on the front line or behind, in the Kuomintang-controlled areas or the liberated areas in the anti-Japanese forces between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, on the front line or in the Kuomintang-controlled areas or in the liberated areas. Woodcutters who participated in the emerging woodcut movement were on the front line or behind, in the Kuomintang-controlled areas or in the liberated areas in the anti-Japanese forces between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, on the front line or in the Kuomintang-controlled areas or in the liberated areas., they still use woodcut knives as weapons to promote the battle. At the critical moment of the country’s crisis, they actively create and publish works on the theme of anti-Japanese and national salvation.
The “Gate God of Anti-Japanese War” created by Lai Shaoqi in 1939 is a woodcut that describes the anti-Japanese warriors rushing to the battlefield. In the form of traditional folk door gods, it carries the content of the Anti-Japanese War and National Rescue. It was printed in large quantities during the Spring Festival that year and posted on the doors of thousands of households in the rear of Guilin, arousing the fighting passion of “every man is responsible”. Afterwards, Lai Shaoqi, as a war reporter from the National Salvation Daily, came to the headquarters of the New Fourth Army in Yunling, Jingxian County, Anhui Province, and joined the army until the founding of New China.
For artists personally, their participation in the woodcut movement is not only reflected in their creation, but also the spiritual inner world of their later life paths. Lai Shaoqi’s name is MushiCinema, which comes from the reply from Lu Xun to him and the Modern Printmaking Association: Huge buildings are always stacked from one wood and one stone, why don’t we make this wood and one stone?
Extension
Modern Printing Learn from Folk
Modern Printing Association was committed to creating “woodcuts that are popular among the public” at its beginning, and folk customs and traditions have become the source of inspiration for woodcut creation. In the eighth episode of “Modern Printings”, published on May 1, 1935, the theme of “Folk Customs” was used to describe folk customs such as “Qixi Festival”, “Guanyin’s Birth”, “Burning clothes”, “Worshiping sugar beef”, “crossing the fairy bridge”, “shocking”, “Worshiping brother-in-law”, “Burning lions”, “Qinglong master” and other folk customs.
In addition to using woodcuts to reproduce the folk customs of the time, members of the Modern Printmaking Association also collaborated with the Japanese woodcut club “White and the Underworld” to publish the “South China Rural Toy Collection” and “North China Rural Toy Collection”, using colored woodcut techniques to record these long-dead folk fun. These two sets of albums were later collected by Lu Xun, which included a large number of folk material cultural elements such as pineapple chicken, cloth dog clay man, mud pig, dragon boat, rattle, tumbler, etc.
This shows that the emerging woodcut movement that led the momentary trend and took combat as its mission, includes both the vivid and bright colors of Chinese folk New Year paintings, and the sharp and vigorous woodcut knife techniques from modern European prints. It is a unique artistic achievement that collided and blended with traditional and modern, Eastern and Western aesthetic tastes.
【Interview】
Wang Jian, associate researcher at the Guangzhou Museum of Art
How did Guangdong become an important printmaking center in art history?
Inclusiveness becomes a trend, and the people have a sense of family and country
Yangcheng Evening News All-Media Reporter: Guangdong Modern CreationThe creative styles of the members of the Printmaking Research Association have also shifted from modernism to realism and from individualism to nationalism. How to explain the historical causes?
Wang Jian: The origin of the works of the Modern Printmaking Association is not local, but the introduction of Western, Soviet and Japanese prints. It can be said that in the early stage of modern printmaking, it is natural for members to absorb the expression of Western modernism according to their respective interests. However, this period of staying at the level of imitation of formal techniques quickly changed the metaphysical spirit of expressing inner thinking and emotions to printmakers. The most typical representative work is Li Hua’s woodcut print “Rare, China”, which abandons all the light and dark light of Western art, environmental background, etc., and uses the white-scanning technique of Chinese painting to express a giant roaring with bound and blinded eyes, symbolizing the Chinese nation that is suffering and hard to get rid of and resist.
The historical causes are mainly related to the tragic situation of China being bullied by the great powers and becoming a semi-colonial country in modern times. Mr. Lu BabaylanMr. Lu Xun believed that “Save the country and the people, we need to save the idea first.” After advocating the emerging woodcut printing movement, Lu Xun also became the soul and mentor to guide the modern printing association. Therefore, modern prints will have a positive turn from subject matter to expression form, and consciously incorporated into the progressive left-wing art with realism as the mainstream.
Yangcheng Evening News All-Media Reporter: Why has Guangdong become a major printmaking center in art history?
Wang Jian: During the Republic of China, Guangdong became a major printmaking center in the history of modern Chinese art. First, in terms of geographical location, Guangzhou is located in the south far away from the central government, but it was a long-term overseas trade opening port in history. It was influenced by Chinese and foreign cultures and formed a trend of inclusiveness. The rise of the Lingnan school of painting in Chinese painting, the emergence of modern prints in prints, etc., are all due to this.
Secondly, in a relatively relaxed political atmosphere, modern prints in Guangzhou will be able to develop actively. At that time, many print clubs outside Guangdong were considered “red” and banned, and members were even arrested and jailed. Guangdong is relatively tolerant, and Guangzhou people are BabaylanThe “People’s Education Hall” under the government of the State also provides a place for the progressive modern printmakers of the left.
The third is that Guangzhou is the source of Sun Yat-sen’s democratic revolution. The people generally have revolutionary consciousness and family and country feelings. Under the enlightenment of Lu Xun, the printmakers of the Guangzhou Modern Printmaking Association fought with printmaking as weapons.
Yangcheng Evening News All-Media Reporter: Looking back on the history of Guangdong printmaking, what important role does Guangdong printmakers’ personal choices and creative exploration play in it? What enlightenment and experience does it have for current creation?
Wang Jian: Guangzhou Modern Printmaking Association’s full href=”https://comicmov.com/”>Komiks said that the Modern Creation Printmaking Research Association emphasizes “modern” and “creation”, and “modern” mainly reflects the current social reality; “creation” emphasizes that artists are observers of social reality and should conduct them based on their own observation and experience and inner thoughts. href=”https://comicmov.com/”>KomiksCreative expression. Creation is a new creation with strong individuality, which is different from the copying and imitation of famous artists such as “Four Kings” and “Four Monks” in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China. Although the modern printing research association has become a glorious history that has been turned over, there are still many references for today’s art creation.
Illustration/Liu Miao
Cooperation website: “Literature and History Guangdong” http://www.gdwsw.gov.cn/