▲2021 Xiling Autumn Auction
Wang Shuhui (1912-1985) Original Manuscript of the "Mulberry Garden Club" Comic Strip Sixty-Nine Frames (Full)
At the beginning of the founding of New China, Chairman Mao issued instructions in December 1949:
Comic strips are not only watched by children, but also by adults;
The illiterate look, and the knowledgeable also see,
You're going to run a publishing house that publishes comic strips.
Specializing in the publication of healthy and beneficial comic strips,
In order to squeeze out the harmful old things that preach feudal superstitions and so on.
This ushered in a brilliant period of comic strip creation and publication in China from the 1950s to the early 1960s.
These aesthetic education masterpieces born after the founding of New China have classic stories and beautiful painting styles.
It can make people quickly read it under the drive of curiosity,
It can also be slowly enjoyed many times, and the aftertaste is endless.
In that era when there was no internet, no mobile phone,
These elaborately drawn little people books,
How many wonderful moments we spent with us are memorable.
These "painters" who allow people to "wander the heavens and the earth",
As in those days – understated and meticulous.
Mention the most artistically creative comic strips in New China, talk about gongbi figure painting,
No one can avoid the name Wang Shuhui,
She has been praised as "the first person to paint women in contemporary craftsmanship".
Her work, you must have seen —
"West Chamber", "Mulan From the Army", "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai", "Peacock Southeast Flying", "Life and Death Card"...
Some scholars say that the line drawing technique used the most by Mr. Wu is the orchid leaf drawing called "Wu Belt Dangfeng".
Her works are more "dramatic", looking at her paintings, it is like enjoying a play,
And that play that has been made with all the heart and effort is so charming and enduring.
Wang Shuhui (1912-1985)
On December 26, 2012, the People's Fine Arts Publishing House and the Comic Book Publishing House, affiliated to the China Art Publishing House, jointly held the "Wang Shuhui and the People's Fine Arts Publishing House and the Symposium to Commemorate the Centenary of Wang Shuhui's Birth" at the former site of No. 32 Beizongbu Hutong.
Premier Zhou Enlai's handwritten "People's Fine Arts Publishing House" is a horizontal plaque with seven big characters, which was the former site of the Beiping National Art College earlier, and the second floor is the office of the creative group
"The conditions here are rudimentary, the heating pump broke last night and there is no heating today. But this is the place where Mr. Wang Shuhui has worked all his life, the place where all the old painters and editors of the People's Fine Arts Publishing House are most nostalgic, and it is also the birthplace of new Chinese comic strips and the place where the new Chinese art publishing industry began. Today, we are here to commemorate Mr. Wang Shuhui. Wang Jiaming, then president of the People's Fine Arts Publishing House, made such an opening statement.
In 1960, Sa Kong (fourth from the left in the front row, then president) took a group photo with the "March 8th" red flag bearer of the People's Fine Arts Publishing House, and the third from the left in the front row was Wang Shuhui
Mr. Wang Shuhui once said: "Before the founding of New China, I painted for more than 20 years,...... However, there are not many good works, because at that time I did not have time to carefully examine, I had to hurry, I sold paintings to support my family... Only after the founding of New China did my artistic creation path really begin. ”
Lin Yang, who has been the editor-in-chief of the People's Fine Arts Publishing House since March 2011, mentioned in his book "No. 32 Beizongbu Hutong - The Old Artists of the People's Fine Arts Publishing House" that "I think that from the founding of the Republic to the end of the 'Cultural Revolution', in addition to the creation of the main theme of the social theme, except for the creation of a few masters such as Qi Baishi and Li Keyan, the most wonderful thing is the creation of comic strips." He praised Wang Shuhui as "the first person to paint women in contemporary craftsmanship".
Wang Shuhui is in the process of creation
The development of new Chinese comic strips, Wang Shuhui is a milestone. She is the inheritor of traditional Chinese comic strip art, the pioneer of comic strip in the new era, and one of the representative figures in the glorious history of comic strip creation and publication of the People's Fine Arts Publishing House. Working at the People's Fine Arts Publishing House was the peak of her life's work, and her masterpieces of comic strips were completed during this period.
In the year of the liberation of Peiping, Wang Shuhui passed the examination and entered the General Administration of Publishing, and the first task he accepted was to draw illustrations and maps for primary school textbooks. At that time, shortly after the founding of New China, it was urgent to create healthy comic strip works. In 1949, she created the comic strips Mulan From the Army and Meng Jiang Nu. In September 1951, the People's Fine Arts Publishing House was established, and she was transferred to the publishing house and served as the leader of the creative team of the comic book editorial office. At that time, many outstanding Chinese painting figure painters of the People's Fine Arts Publishing House were the creative centers of comic strips, New Year paintings and propaganda paintings in the north, echoing with Shanghai, the birthplace of comic strips and the important town of comic strip creation.
In 1954, a work permit signed by Hua Junwu was issued
In 1953, after the promulgation of the New Marriage Law of the People's Republic of China, the People's Fine Arts Publishing House entrusted Wang Shuhui with the task of creating a comic strip of "The Tale of the West Chamber". Of course, the choice of this theme had the meaning of cooperating with propaganda, but at that time, probably no one thought that this comic strip, which came out a year later, had become a masterpiece recorded in the history of new Chinese art.
The original manuscript of the inner page of the comic strip "The Tale of the West Chamber" collected by the National Art Museum of China
After that, Wang Shuhui created a number of comic strips praising women, and "Mulberry Garden Club" is one of them. The women in the artist's paintings are not lacking in feminine charm and full of human dignity. The heroine of Mr. Mister's pen is always so gentle and dignified, beautiful and intelligent, but there are always some obstructive forces around her, which make the reader grit her teeth with hatred. Through the portrayal of their supporting roles, the protagonist's chastity and martyrdom are more prominent.
▲2021 Xiling Autumn Shoot Famous Manga Illustration Special Session
Ink line drawing on paper
Painted in 1956
Publisher: 1. Mulberry Garden Society, Hebei People's Publishing House, 1956.
2. Mulberry Garden Society, Shandong Fine Arts Publishing House, 2008.
Bibliography: Serial Painters and Works, P19, Heilongjiang Fine Arts Publishing House, 2004.
Note: 1. Three copies of this lot are published.
2. "Mulberry Garden Society", also known as "Qiu Hu Drama Wife", is a story that occurred in the Lu Kingdom during the Spring and Autumn Period more than 2,000 years ago, and has been widely spread in the folk since ancient times, and it is recorded in Liu Xiang's "Biography of the Daughters of the Column" of the Han Dynasty, as well as the famous narrative poem "Mo Shang Sang" collected by the Han Dynasty Lefu. In the Yuan Dynasty, Shi Junbao compiled this story into a miscellaneous drama called "Lu Dafu Qiuhu Drama Wife". The story mainly praises the noble personality of the ancient working women who "cannot be rich and noble, and cannot be bent by might". Mr. Wang Shuhui is best at expressing women with classical Chinese temperament. Her female figures are characterized by both beautiful kindness and a loyal and fierce personality. His comic strip manuscripts are also rarely passed down, so they are sought after by senior collectors as soon as they appear. His hand-drawn comic strips, only ten fragments of the museum can be seen.
17×23cm×69
Publication cover
Wang Shuhui believes: "Don't look at the comic strip this thing is small, it is not easy to plan to draw it well. It is not only expressed on the picture, there is more hard work outside the picture. For example, the actor only cares about acting, don't have to care about the costumes and props, the stage set, those things have their own responsibility, but what about comic strips? Except for the script, the painter has to take care of everyone, and even the director has to take care of it. It is reported that from the initial creation to the final completion, this set of artistic masterpieces "Mulberry Garden Club" was shared for more than a year.
The same character scene, the subtle changes in the two paintings before and after the bully Li Dahu's threat and temptation and the helpless hesitation of the old couple of the Luo family are vividly painted
She emphasizes the truth of the details. She said: "When we draw comic strips, there are a lot of materials to accumulate on the plain, and the brain is like a negative box, and we need to draw out one. If you only accept the script and then look for it, have no impression in your mind, and go to the vast sea of books to find a needle, it will be difficult. ”
"The shape of line drawing, first of all, comes from the in-depth observation and abstraction of the organizational structure of the object, standing smoothly with the front side of the pen, lifting and pressing the turn, and the weight is slow, which is undulating with feelings. It is a shock wave under the painter's emotional reading. When she was a teenager learning to paint, Sun Shuzhao, a professor at Beijing Women's Normal University, specially warned her: If you want to paint well, you must first practice words, write more big characters in the bucket square, and practice your wrist strength to get home, so that the hook line will be smooth and free. Therefore, although the gentleman is looking at a thin woman, her wrists are strong and her pen is steady.
Continuous storyline, the painter chooses close-up and long-range to depict, not only enriches the visual experience, but also resolves the contradiction between husband and wife, and the audience's empathy point caused by the onlookers and blessings of the villagers is pushed to the climax
Wang Shuhui painted the oriental female beauty of "although it is bright and bright, it is not flying and charming; it is a low eyebrow and hanging sleeves, and it is solemn", which is a combination of external beauty and inner beauty full of personality strength. As a daughter, Wang Shuhui profoundly experienced the deep suffering and sacred grief of Chinese women, and through the warm burning and refinement of his own emotional world, it cooled into a thought, a feeling, a quality, and transcendent into holiness.
The heroine of "Mulberry Garden Club", Luo Meiying, from before marriage to sending off her husband, from serving her mother-in-law and being busy to refusing to remarry in a strict word, and finally to the recognition of her husband Hu Qiu, Wang Shuhui's characters are carefully dressed, looking, and moving
Mr. Wang swept away the decadent painting style since the Ming and Qing dynasties, opened up a new atmosphere, and gradually changed the solidified image of a lady formed after the Qing Dynasty, close to life, elegant, dignified and healthy. Wang Shuhui learned from the ancients, in her words: "Bypass the road and take your own path." "However, my approach also requires extensive observation in life, looking for those characters who are close to my imagination."
Mr. Wang Shuhui examines his paintings
At the same time, she did not reject the Western painting experience, and reasonably absorbed the creative techniques of proportion, anatomy, and perspective. Especially in terms of overall value orientation, she pursues pure Chinese classical aesthetic taste, and pursues the vivid charm of "to the vastness" in the "subtle" heavy color paintings. This makes Wang Shuhui a great master of contemporary heavy painting.
Wang Shuhui is a very representative female painter with heavy brush strokes, whose works are skillful, the lines are smooth and expressive, the colors are bright, very charming, and unprecedented. And she creates each work with great care, which takes a lot of time and energy. Mr. Wang created a large number of works in his lifetime, but most of them contributed to the country, very little flowed into the market, and its market value was seriously underestimated. Therefore, in the long run, Wang Shuhui's works have high appreciation and collection value.
The first few paintings can be seen on the painter's own revision opinions, reflecting Mr. Wang's continuous improvement of artistic creation
This set of well-preserved precious paintings in front of you is really rare and should be cherished. While watching the meticulousness, it is not difficult to feel the artistic concept of the old man, and time seems to go back to that "slow" childhood, the infinite charm of black and white, which is better than all glitz.
A pair of letters written to her by a colleague of her, or the most appropriate evaluation of her life:
Raise the popularizers, popularize the improvers, and start well and end well with the true fellow;
For the green leaves of the red flowers, for the red flowers of the green leaves, is it not ordinary to be clean and clean?
Xiling Printing Society's autumn auction in 2021
- Preview -
23 December to 25 December
- Auction -
25 December to 27 December
- Auction Location -
InterContinental Hangzhou International Convention Center (2 Jiefang East Road, Hangzhou, Zhejiang)