[Lingnan Literature and History] – Co-organized by the Guangdong Provincial CPPCC Culture and Literature and History Materials Committee and Yangcheng Evening News
As a major printmaking center, Guangdong Xinxing Wooden 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.黄新Cinema波、古元等新兴木刻运动健将均出自广东。李桦、赖少其等人的经典之作也为人熟知，但他们在现代版画会期间的具体创作与探索，尤其是木刻原作，一画难求。
In September 2019, the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts Library discovered 146 works from the Modern Printmaking Club when organizing the collection at Komiks, presenting more of the modern “emerging woodcut movement”, including early works by Li Hua, Lai Shaoqi and others.这是近年来广东美术界挖掘、整理近代版画这座宝藏名山的重要收获。
Seeing the light of day again
In 1931, Lu Xun advocated and launched the China’s emerging woodcut printmaking movement in Shanghai, and the “Cinema Modern Creation Printmaking Research Association” (hereinafter referred to as the “Modern Printmaking Association”Babaylan) is an important representative of the movement in Guangdong.现代版画会发起人为李桦，最初会员有赖少其、唐英伟、陈仲纲、张在民、潘学昭、胡其藻、司徒奏、刘憬辉、潘业等27人。 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.首先，其规模之大在全国收藏机构中十分少有。而且涵盖面广，至少涵盖了现代版画会三分之二以上的成员；第二，保存良好Komiks, and are all original works of single pages. Currently known original works of modern print club members are mostly collected and collected. The binding method of Babaylan was preserved in the album of “Modern Prints” made by handprints that year; third, the document value is high. In addition to some of the authors of this batch of works, some of them are still to be determined, and these works are likely to be left alone.
『Bridgehead』
Around 2001, Guangzhou Museum of Art Associate researcher Wang Jian interviewed Chen Zhonggang and Liu Lun, a member of the modern printmaking club who was living in the world. From their oral descriptions, related documents and publications, Wang Jian realized that the chapters of the modern printmaking club in the history of Guangdong art are not inferior to those of 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 the Yangcheng Evening News reporter that the birth of the modern printmaking club originated from Li Huayi, a young teacher in the Western Painting Department of Guangzhou Municipal Fine Arts College at that time. href=”https://comicmov.com/”>Babaylan encountered by chance. In 1934, in order to relieve the pain of losing his wife, Li Hua created woodcuts after class, and unconsciously carved dozens of pieces. His classmate Wu Qianli learned about it and 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 proposed to learn the prints. So he accidentally planted willows and willows to form a shade. The civil society of the Creative Printmaking Association was established under the support of students.
Although the founder of the Modern Printmaking Association was Li Hua, the soul and spiritual tutor behind it was always Lu Xun. Li Hua wrote in a 1991 memorization article that after the Printmaking Association was established, the Soviet print collection “Yinyu Collection” compiled by Lu Xun was used as a learning reference, and he 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 prints in Guangzhou From the early stage of imitating the expression skills of various Western schools, they soon began to face social reality, focusing more on expressing characters; artistic language also gradually changed from imitating the Western woodcut style to exploring traditional national styles. They began to refer to the 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 the woodcut movement took place in the 1930s, and the time was in the 1930s. In the important period of the development of modern art in China, “the reason why woodcuts successfully occupied the bridgehead of modern Chinese art is not unrelated to its loud ‘popular’ gene. 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 wave of emerging woodcut print movement, compared with other countries in the country at that timeThe folk version of Komiks painting club has set the four national bests, including “the most exhibitions, the most publications, the longest activity time, and the deepest international influence”, and has written a glorious page on the history of modern Chinese printmaking.
According to participant Chen Zhonggang’s recollection during his lifetime, in more than three years, the exhibition activities of the association have grown from the initially within the Municipal Beauty School to the exhibition in public places such as the Guangdong Provincial People’s Education Museum and the Guangzhou Municipal Library; the exhibition locations have also ranged from local Guangzhou to four townships in Guangdong, 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 Komiks held the “Woodcut Three-person Exhibition” at the Volkswagen Company in Yonghan Road, Guangzhou, and exhibited 63 woodcut works. At that time, Mr. Xu Beihong passed by Guangzhou and saw exhibition advertisements to visit, giving positive comments and encouragement, and took a photo with Lai Shaoqi and others.
On July 5, 1936, 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 from Shanghai to Guangzhou to participate in the exhibition and met with members of the modern edition of Babaylan. Subsequently, the exhibition toured in cities such as Hangzhou, Shanghai, Nanjing, Taiyuan, Hankou, Nanning, Guilin, etc., forming a new climax in Guangdong in the national wood carving movement. On October 8, when the exhibition opened at the Shanghai Eight Immortal Bridge Youth Conference, Lu Xun came to the scene while ill, 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 modern printmaking associations were the only ones among the many printmaking groups at that time to carry out art exchanges with foreign colleagues. Not only did he have artistic exchanges with Japanese folk print clubs such as “White and the Underworld” and “Aomori Printing Club”, “Modern Printing Club” and so on, “Modern Printing Club” also published works by Japanese woodcut artists Asahi Maemura, Kenaki Mae, Sumio Kawakami, Anji Taniaka, Shizuo Fujimori, Haru Momoto, and others. The works of modern printmaking club members are also published in Japanese printmaking magazines.
Carved Knife Weapon
In 1937, BabaylanThe Anti-Japanese War broke out, and Li Hua, Liu Lun and Lai Shaoqi successively joined the army to fight against the war. With the Japanese ArmyThe team occupied Guangzhou, and the cultural and artistic circles in Guangzhou were becoming increasingly silent. 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.
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 War of Resistance and National Rescue. It was printed in large quantities during the Spring Festival that year and posted on the doors of thousands of families in the rear of Guilin, evoking 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 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 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 the “Qixi Festival”, “Guanyin’s birthday”, “burning clothes”, “worshiping sugar beef”, “crossing the fairy bridge”, “shocking brother-in-law”, “burning lions”, “Qinglong master”, etc., etc. In addition to using wood 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 “Southern China Rural Toy Collection” and “Northern China Rural Toy Collection” and used colored woodcutting techniques to record these long-dead folk fun. These two sets of albums were later collected by Lu Komiks, which contains a large number of folk material and cultural elements such as pineapple chicken, cloth dog clay man, mud pig, dragon boat, rattle, and tumbler.
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 modern European printsThe woodcut knife technique is a unique artistic achievement that collides with the aesthetic tastes of tradition and the East and the West.
【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 Society is not the local Babaylan, but the introduction of Western, Soviet and Japanese Cinema 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.
In terms of its historical causes, it is 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.
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 business 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 regarded as”Red” was 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 also provides a place for the progressive left-wing modern print fairs.
Third, Guangzhou is the source of Sun Yat-sen’s democratic revolution, and the people generally have revolutionary consciousness and family and country feelings. Inspired by 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 the personal choice 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 physical nature, 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/