Unity Press/A different perspective on culture
New book recommendation
"The Biography of Xu Beihong"
(Click on the cover page to buy)
A generation of grandmaster Xu Beihong is the founder of modern art education in China, he is worried about the country and the people, learns from China and the West, advocates realism, has a deep understanding of traditional Chinese art, cultivates future generations, peach and plum all over the world, and his artistic spirit and cultural ideas still have a huge impact on today's art world.
After Xu Beihong's death, according to his last wishes, his wife, Ms. Liao Jingwen, donated more than 1,200 works of his works, more than 1,200 works of famous calligraphers and painters of the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing and modern times, as well as more than 10,000 books, albums, inscriptions, etc., all of which were donated to the state.
Unity Publishing House is a central-level publishing unit sponsored by the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang, with the main features of the publishing house's humanities, the history of the Republic of China, biographies and excellent traditional culture books, and has been selected as one of the "Top 100 Influential Publications of Chinese Books overseas collections" for 9 times. The newly published "Biography of Xu Beihong" (the latest revised edition) recently published by Unity Publishing House belongs to the biography of historical figures of the Republic of China with important influence.
The biography of Xu Beihong (the latest revised edition) covers all aspects of Xu Beihong's life and his artistic and educational achievements, covering all aspects of Xu Beihong's life and his artistic and educational achievements, so that readers can read the pictures from knowing the painter to being familiar with the painter, while aesthetic appreciation, understand the era and environment of the painter's life, experience the process of Chinese art from poverty and weakness to rejuvenation, and taste its difficult and bumpy and rich and beautiful artistic life.
Overall, the book highlights the "six new" features:
First, to try to narrate new achievements
"One picture is better than ten thousand words", which is the positive significance of iconographic research. The author Professor Shao Xiaofeng set 30 years of dedication to the study of Xu Beihong's strength, in this book to explore the integration of new historical materials, academic and readable, interesting as one of the characteristic reading mode, including Xu Beihong related images 260 and representative works 80, is currently including Xu Beihong's images the most, the most complete book, divided into five chapters of heroic growth, study abroad career, hesitation and ambition, heavy work and long way, and strong heart, with the description, analysis and interpretation of the iconographic method for the first time to systematically show a generation of masters self-improvement, patriotic Mingzhi, Cherish the artistic life of talents and strong hearts.
Two or five years and a new chapter
On the basis of his book "The Biography of Xu Beihong" (Jiangsu Phoenix Literature and Art Publishing House, 2016, 1st edition), Professor Shao Xiaofeng has systematically excavated, studied and revised for 5 years, adding more than 40,000 words and 70 related images of Xu Beihong, such as Xu Beihong at Peking University, the University of Hong Kong, Prague Station in the Czech Republic, a series of group photos of Xu Beihong and teachers and students of Central University, Xu Beihong sending off students of the Central Academy of Fine Arts who joined the army, Xu Beihong in Huangshan, Luofu Mountain, Drum Mountain, Darjeeling, etc.
Third, the theory expounds new references
This book absorbs a series of latest achievements of Professor Shao Xiaofeng's "The Complete Works of Xu Beihong (Writings)" (the national "13th Five-Year Plan" key publishing project, the 2017 National Publishing Fund funded project, China Youth Publishing House 2020 edition), and strives to be based on evidence and argumentative. It also provides academic researchers with new perspectives on the literature.
Fourth, the new experience of quality reading
Graphic and text interaction, strong story, very interesting. The author's language flows naturally and the reader reads easily. The book is finely printed on 80 grams of pure paper and bound with tiled lock lines, which can easily flatten the pages, highlight the visual advantages of pictures and texts, and create a high-end quality reading experience.
Fifth, Wu is the title of the new book for the mountain
Wu Weishan, member of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, director of the National Art Museum of China, and corresponding academician of the French Academy of Arts, wrote the title of the book, which means humble and thick, and used the timeless and profound bronze statue of Mr. Beihong to "Standing to Cangcang - Portrait of Xu Beihong" to highlight this calligraphy and painting.
6. Xu Qingping made a new preface
Xu Qingping, director of the Xu Beihong Memorial Hall and son of Xu Beihong, wrote a preface and recommendation: "The author of the book, Mr. Shao Xiaofeng, is a rigorous, down-to-earth, hard-working and conscientious outstanding scholar, and also an important art historian in the field of Xu Beihong's research. For 10 years, he has been the main leader of the Xu Beihong Research Association in Jiangsu Province. Especially since 2018, in the editor-in-chief of "The Complete Works of Xu Beihong (Writings)", he has led the academic team to consult a large number of historical materials and newspapers and periodicals in the last century, and found many articles and poems that have not yet been widely known, which is of great significance for further in-depth study of Xu Beihong's aesthetic thought and the promotion of his artistic spirit. ”
The following is the content of the afterword to the biography of Xu Beihong, the title is added by the editor.
30 years of Xu Beihong's research path, unswerving
Shao Xiaofeng
Cultivation and harvest are always linked.
It must be fate, unity publishing house recently invited the author to republish this book. The society is a central-level publishing unit sponsored by the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Committee of the Kuomintang of China, which mainly features the publication of books on traditional culture, social sciences, republic of China history and biographies.
What is even more coincidental is that Xu Beihong and Li Jining, the first chairman of the Revolutionary Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang, and He Xiangning, the second chairman, are friends and have many contacts: Xu Beihong and Li Jishen are friends of Mo Rebellion, and Li Jishen has provided a lot of help to Xu Beihong after he came to Guangxi; Xu Beihong and He Xiangning are both members of the "Li Society" (a calligraphy and painting group founded in Shanghai in 1936), have collaborated on calligraphy and painting works, and have served as the main leaders of the China Artists Association (in 1949 Xu Beihong was elected chairman of the All-China Association of Art Workers). In 1953, the association was renamed the Chinese Artists Association, and in 1960 He Xiangning was elected as the second president of the Chinese Artists Association).
With the arrival of the New Year in 2021, the author has embarked on the road of studying Xu Beihong for 30 years. Since 1991, when he applied for the Fine Arts Department of Nanjing Normal University (formerly known as the Art Department of the School of Education of National Central University, Xu Beihong's artistic ideas have been actively inherited here), that is, he went with the ideal of comprehensively studying Xu Beihong's art, and has been determined ever since. In 2001, the Xu Beihong Research Association of Jiangsu Province was founded, with Mr. Ben Shi Baowen as the president and the author as the deputy secretary-general. After the death of Mr. Baowen Xian, Mr. Bi Baoxiang served as the second president, and the author served as executive vice president and secretary general to this day. During this period, the Xu Beihong Research Association of Jiangsu Province hosted two national Xu Beihong Academic Seminars in 2003 and 2013 respectively, with a grand scale and far-reaching influence. It also held more than 10 national "Xu Beihong Award" and "Tragic Hong Spirit" Chinese painting exhibitions, and awarded the "Xu Beihong Scholarship" to the excellent students of Nanjing University, Southeast University, Nanjing Forestry University and other universities. In February 2017, the author was transferred from Nanjing to the National Art Museum of China, where he was in charge of the research and planning department. In June 2017, he was fortunate to be employed as a researcher at the Xu Beihong Art Research Institute of Chinese Min University.
The following 2018 can be called the "Year of Xu Beihong" in the art world.
From January 25, 2018 to March 4, 2018, the "Nationalities and Times - Xu Beihong Theme Creation Exhibition", hosted by the National Art Museum of China and Xu Beihong Memorial Hall, with Mr. Wu Weishan as the curator and the author as the executive curator, was held in Halls 1, 8 and 9 of the National Art Museum of China. An all-round display of 108 works of Xu Beihong's iconic works of the times, composed of Xu Beihong Memorial Hall and the collection of the National Art Museum of China, divided into three major chapters: the first "National Spirit" exhibits Xu Beihong's "Yugong Moving Mountains", "Tian Heng Five Hundred Soldiers", "After Me", "Ba Ren Ji Shui", "Conference on Defending World Peace", "Huishi Tokyo" and other well-known masterpieces; the second chapter "Narrative of Picture Manuscripts" exhibits Xu Beihong's paintings for the creation of "Yugong Moving Mountains" and other works; the third chapter "Home country worries" Xu Beihong's works such as "Horse", "Lion" and "Eagle", which have the symbolic significance of the national spirit, as well as paintings painted on the theme of creation.
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "Only the nation is the world, and only by leading the times can we go to the world." "This exhibition is not only the first all-round curation around Xu Beihong's large-scale art theme creation at home and abroad, but also the first large-scale concentrated display of Xu Beihong's fine art works at home and abroad in 23 years, which comprehensively presents the relationship between the nation and the times in Xu Beihong's works, and injects new content and vitality into the research, display and dissemination of modern Chinese art." During the exhibition, there were many people, and copyists of different ages and levels of age abounded, creating a new record of Chinese viewing exhibitions and re-learning in art museums, and the influence of Tragic Hong Art in today's day can be seen. On January 25th, the academic seminar "Nationalities and Times - Xu Beihong's Theme Creation Exhibition" hosted by Wu Weishan was held in the lecture hall of the National Art Museum of China. The seminar interprets and explains the relationship between the nation and the times presented in Xu Beihong's artistic thought and art works through new methods, new materials and new concepts, so that the contemporary manifestation of the "Spirit of Sorrowful Hong" is integrated into the new era context, adding new significance of the times, and also injecting new content and bringing new vitality to the study of modern Chinese art. After that, the Central Academy of Fine Arts, the Art College of Chinese University, the Art College of Chongqing University and other units, as well as Poly International Auction Co., Ltd. and other institutions, have successively held a series of exhibitions and seminars on Xu Beihong, which almost run through 2018. Tracing back to the source, these all stem from the appeal and profundity of Xu Beihong's art and education itself.
To this end, the author tries to summarize Xu Beihong's art: "Beihong takes the revival of Chinese art as its own responsibility, constructs the foundation of Chinese modern art disciplines, and moves the world with peach and plum. Ezekiel melts in the middle, loves the golden stone, and uses the book of simplicity and simplicity to enter the painting full of symbols. Sadness and compassion, ancient road hot sausage. Bole has a broad heart and a heart for the world. Save the country with art and become immortal karma. With The World of Wen Ji, open a generation of wind. ("New Elephant of the Times - Nanjing Young Artists Association 10th Anniversary Fine Exhibition Collection", China Youth Publishing House, 2018 edition) The above understanding is due to the author's editing of "The Complete Works of Xu Beihong (Writings)" (the national "13th Five-Year Plan" key publishing project, the 2017 National Publishing Fund funded project, the 2020 edition of China Youth Publishing House), which is the first time that the academic community has comprehensively excavated and proofread Xu Beihong's works. The author led the team to consult a large number of literature, and on the basis of the "Xu Beihong Anthology" edited by Mr. Wang Zhen, an author's long-lost friend and an authoritative expert in the field of Xu Beihong's research, 57 articles and 34 poems such as "Art Speech" and "Artistic Realism" were added. The total text is nearly 700,000 words, all of which are proofread, sorted and classified, and divided into ten categories according to the content: Chinese art, foreign art, art critique, artist review, exhibition review, current affairs review, autobiography, travelogue, novel, and poetry. Xu Beihong has a high degree of achievement in written expression and writing, and the number is amazing, although the author's team searched the mountains and inspected the sea to excavate, but these are only some of the words left by Xu Beihong's diligence in writing. In short, looking back at Xu Beihong's image biography at this time is very different from that of 2016.
On the basis of the first edition of "Xu Beihong's Pictorial Biography", after 5 years of revision, excavation and research, the author corrected some errors, replaced some images, made them as clear as possible, added 70 new images related to Xu Beihong, more than 40,000 words of text, and adjusted the title of the book to "Xu Beihong's Biography".
Mr. Xu Qingping, Director of Xu Beihong Memorial Hall, wrote the preface to the humble work, and Mr. Wu Weishan, Director of the National Art Museum of China, wrote the title of the book for the humble work. The two gentlemen have always carried forward Xu Beihong's art and spirit, and have always cared for and supported the author, and hereby express their deep gratitude!
Published soon, full of emotions, a special work of seven laws and a poem to express the heart:
This dynasty continues to spread the word of sorrow, and five years of hard work have not waited.
The art power is prosperous, and the article has a legacy.
Knowing people's intentions and blending the world, good appreciation of feelings has lasted for eternity.
The vast number of subtle and ambitious people, graphic and historical sites as a good field.
This book explores the characteristic reading mode of integrating new historical materials, academics, readability and interest, and collects 260 relevant images and 80 representative works of Xu Beihong in various periods, which are divided into five chapters: growing up as talents, studying abroad career, hesitating and full of ambition, arduous and long-term, and courageous, and systematically shows the artistic life of a generation of masters who are self-reliant, patriotic, cherished, and full of ambition from the perspective of describing, analyzing and interpreting.
As a phased achievement of Presenting Xu Beihong's art, thought and spirit, there are definitely still errors in the book, and I hope that the majority of readers will criticize and correct more!
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