[Lingnan Literature and History] – Co-organized by the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Culture and Literature and History Materials Committee and Yangcheng Evening News
As a major printmaking center, Guangdong’s emerging woodcut movement, led by Lu Xun, wrote a brilliant 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 come from Cinema 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 the Modern Printmaking Club while sorting out the collection, 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 the treasure mountain of modern prints.
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” (hereinafter referred to as “Modern Printmaking Association”) is 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 originals of 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 size is very rare among national collection institutions. It also covers Komiks‘s 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 current well-known members of the Modern Printmaking Association are mostly kept in the album of Modern Printmaking albums made by handprints in the form of collection and binding; third, the document value is high. These worksIn addition to some of the authors that can be determined, there are also some authors that need to be studied and determined, and 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 fashionable modern printmaking club. From their oral descriptions, related documents and publications, Wang Jian realized that the chapters of the modern printmaking conference 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. BabaylanHis classmate Wu Qianli 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 visited and asked to learn about the printmaking. So the Komiks group was founded with the support of the students.
Although the founder of the Modern Printmaking Association is Li Hua, the soul and spiritual mentor behind it is always Lu Xun. In a 1991 memorable article, Li Hua wrote that after the establishment of the Printmaking Association, he used the Soviet version of the Babaylan painting 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, Guangzhou Modern Printmaking will gradually change from imitating the expression skills of various Western schools of expression in the early days, and soon begin to face social reality, focusing more on expressing characters; artistic language also gradually changes 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.
Curtainer He Xiaote believes that the woodcut movement took place in the 1930s was an important period of the development of modern Chinese art. “The reason why woodcuts successfully occupied the bridgehead of modern Chinese art, it is not unrelated to its resounding ‘popular’ genes. Although they occasionally express their youthful restlessness and peek at the language of Ukiyo-e and Chinese folk prints, the proletarian literary and artistic stance has not wavered.
The best in the country
Although the modern print fair only existed in Guangzhou for more than three years, in the emerging woodcut print movement, compared with other folk print fairs across the country at that time, it set the four national bests, namely “the most exhibitions, the most publications, the longest activity time, and the deepest international influence”, writing a glorious page in the history of modern Chinese prints.
According to participant Chen Zhonggang’s recollection during his lifetime, the exhibition activities of the association have ranged from the initial stage in the city. Within the school, it has developed to exhibitions in public places such as Guangdong Provincial People’s Education Center 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.
On July 5, 1936, Li Hua, Lai Shaoqi and others organized the “second chapter of the whole Babaylan GuomuCinemaCinemaCinemaCinemaCinemaCinema Library, Guangzhou, with more than 600 works exhibited. Woodcarver Huang Xinbo and others came to Guangzhou from Shanghai to participate in the exhibition and met with members of the Modern Printmaking Association. Afterwards, the exhibition was in Hangzhou, href=”https://comicmov.com/”>KomiksThe tour exhibitions in Shanghai, Nanjing, Taiyuan, Hankou, Nanning, Guilin and other cities formed a new climax in Guangdong in the national woodcut movement. On October 8, when the exhibition opened at the Shanghai Eight Immortal Bridge Youth Conference, Lu Xun came to the scene with illness, praising 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 to carry out art exchanges with foreign colleagues. Not only did he have artistic exchanges with Japanese folk print clubs “White and Black Club” and “Aomori Printing Club”, “Modern Printing Club”, “Modern Printing Club” and so on, from episode 9 to episode 15 of “Modern Printing”, it also published Japanese woodcut artists, “Maemura Kazusaki, Kamizuki, Kazusaki Kawakami, Cinema works by Taniaka Anji, Fujimori Shizuo, and Haru Moritomori, and the works of members of the Modern Printmaking Association were also published in Japanese Printmaking Publications.
Carved Knife Weapon
In 1937, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Li Hua, Liu Lun, and Lai Shaoqi successively joined the war of resistance. With the Japanese army occupying the vast majorityThe cultural and artistic circles in Guangzhou are becoming increasingly quiet, and the activities of the modern print fair have come to an end, but this does not mean the demise of the emerging woodcut movement. Woodcutters who participated in the emerging woodcut movement still used woodcut knives as weapons to promote and fight in the anti-Japanese forces between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, on the front or rear, in the Kuomintang-controlled areas or liberated areas, and actively created and published works on the theme of anti-Japanese and national salvation at the critical moment of the country’s crisis.
Lai Shaoqi created “The God of the War of Resistance” in 1939, which describes the anti-Japanese warriors going 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 the artists personally, their participation in the woodcut movement is not only reflected in their creation, but also building the spiritual inner world of their later life paths. Lai Shaoqi’s name of Mushi is from the reply from Lu Xun to him and the Modern Printmaking Association: Huge buildings are always stacked with wood and stone, so why should we make this wood and stone?
Extension
Modern printmaking is learned from the folk
At its beginning, the modern printmaking association was committed to creating “woodcuts that are popular among the public”, 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, it used the theme of “Folk Customs” and used the modern artistic language of woodcut prints to describe folk customs such as “Qixi Festival”, “Guanyin’s birthday”, “burning clothes”, “paying sugar beef”, “crossing the fairy bridge”, “shocking”, “paying brother-in-law”, “burning lions”, “BabaylanQinglongye”.
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 Cinema‘s “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 and cultural elements such as pineapple chicken, cloth dog clay man, mud pig, dragon boat, rattle, and tumbler.
From this we can see that leading the momentum and taking combat as our responsibilityBabaylan‘s emerging woodcut movement 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: The creative style of members of the Guangdong Modern Creation Printmaking Research Association has 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 Western modernist expression techniques according to their respective interests.
However, this period of staying at the level of imitation of formal techniques quickly transformed into a metaphysical spiritual creation period in which printmakers express their inner thoughts and emotions. The most typical representative work is Li Hua’s woodcut print “Roar, China”, which abandons all the light and dark light and shadow of Western art, environmental background, etc., and uses the white-scanning technique of Chinese painting to express a giant who is bound and blinded with his eyes, symbolizing the Chinese nation that is struggling to get rid of and resist deeply.
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 Xun believed that “Saving the country and the people 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. Cinema
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. There are several main reasons: First, in terms of geographical location, Guangzhou is located in the south far away from the central government, but it is a long-term overseas trade opening port in history. It is influenced by Chinese and foreign cultures and forms a trend that can be both inclusive and inclusive. 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 the “People’s Education Hall” under the Guangzhou Republic of China government is still the only one who is left.The modern print fair is provided for exhibitions.
Third, Guangzhou is the source of Sun Yat-sen’s democratic revolution, and the people generally have revolutionary consciousness and family and country feelings. Under Lu Xun’s enlightenment, the printmakers of the Guangzhou Modern Printmaking Association fought with printmaking as weapons.
Yangcheng Evening NewsCinemaAll-media reporter: Looking back on the history of Guangdong printmaking, what important role does the personal choice and creative exploration of Guangdong printmakers play in it? What kind of inspiration and experience do you have for your current creation?
Wang Jian: The full name of the Guangzhou Modern Printmaking Association is Modern Creation Printmaking Research Association, which emphasizes “modern” and “creation”. “Modern” mainly reflects the current social reality; “creation” emphasizes that artists are observers of social reality and should create and express themselves based on their own observation and experience and inner thoughts. Creation is a new creation with strong individuality, which is different from the copying and imitation of famous masters such as the “Four Kings” and “Four Monks” in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. Although the Modern Printmaking Research Association has become a glorious history that has been turned over, there are still many things to learn from for today’s art creation.
Illustration/Liu Miao
Cooperating website: “Literature and History Guangdong” http://www.gdwsw.gov.cn/