There is such a strange phenomenon in the oil painting art world, that is, before the 19th century, Western female painters were not allowed to create human body oil paintings involving "nudity" themes.
Therefore, the Western body paintings we usually see are from the pen of male painters, and perhaps some friends will think, why is this painting world so unfair? Only male painters are allowed to paint human body oil paintings, but female painters are not allowed to create human body oil paintings.
This is obviously "sexism"! Yes, the Western painting world at that time was so unfair, first of all, it was not allowed by the magnates, and Western theological thought clearly stipulated that the status of women was lower than that of men, and that human body painting was insulting.
In the 19th century, Western male painters also braved the pressure to create human body oil paintings; secondly, if female painters created human body oil paintings, once discovered, they were punished, and they were not allowed to participate in salon art exhibitions for life, and even restricted their freedom in life and carried the insult of bad style;
Moreover, the overall thinking of people in society at that time was relatively pedantic, and they all believed that human body oil painting was corrupting morality, especially when female painters created human body oil paintings, they would be pointed out by thousands of people.
This strange phenomenon was not alleviated until the 19th century, at the beginning of the 20th century, Western oil painting was introduced into the country, and some female painters in China also began to create "nude" subject body oil paintings, which means that women's status has been promoted and respected.
Pan Yuliang oil painting
For example, the human body paintings of modern female painter Pan Yuliang (born in 1895) were quite praised by people at that time, especially women, why were pan Yuliang's human body paintings praised by women?
The reason for this, to make a long story short, I personally think that first of all, this is related to the identity and experience of the female painter herself, Pan Yuliang's birth is bumpy, and she has encountered many misfortunes, especially her emotional life, but these encounters have not defeated her.
Through art, she "washed away" those unforgettable experiences and became a hard-working artist, which is simply a realistic version of the fairy tale "ugly duckling turned into a white swan", such an inspirational woman, naturally loved and respected by other women,
Secondly, Pan Yuliang's human body oil painting, the body is plump, which also meets the aesthetic needs of male and female viewers at that time, more importantly, female painters use warm colors to modify the entire human body, and the painting style atmosphere appears to be a bit elegant.
The whole picture effect does not have a strong visual force, people look at it, both feel real, but also feel beautiful and generous, the posture of women in the picture retains the traditional female reserved,
This means that such a human body oil painting does not have the slightest erotic atmosphere, in several human body oil paintings, we can find that the woman in the painting is facing the viewer with her back, or the private part has been covered, and the painter has not depicted it.
This shows that the female painter Pan Yuliang strictly abided by the moral bottom line of art, and also respected the more traditional and conservative ideological concepts of the people at that time, unlike other painters who were eager to achieve success, and only wanted to immediately bind and liberate people's traditional conservative ideas and concepts.
To put it simply, Pan Yuliang creates from the perspective of the viewer, not "willful". Moreover, we can find that the background part of Pan Yuliang's human body oil painting is left with the line brushwork of Chinese painting, which instantly dilutes the feminine atmosphere of the human body.
That is, it weakens the visual impact of the entire picture. It is worth noting that Pan Yuliang sometimes creates human body paintings for his own models, such an act was very bold at that time, and even now, which requires great courage, to completely unload the psychological baggage, to have a way to complete the creation,
Creating with herself as a mannequin shows the confidence in the bones of female painters, the confidence in their own bodies, the confidence in their own artistic techniques, and the confidence in art, so for Pan Yuliang, the interesting soul is more meaningful than the good-looking skin bag.
We all know that oil painting color can shape the image, but also can convey emotional emotions, I personally believe that Pan Yuliang's works, more with the help of color to transmit emotional emotions, so as to achieve the purpose of physical and mental pleasure,
This is true for herself, and it is true for the viewer. Therefore, Pan Yuliang is not limited to creating human body oil paintings, she also creates portraits wearing clothes,
And most of these portraits are female painters themselves, wearing cheongsam, the posture is very plump, this is obviously a "Wangfu Xiang" woman, but the appearance is not consistent, some of the figures in the paintings look melancholy, some look confident and calm....
Pan Yuliang created a large number of self-portraits, illustrating her affirmation of her own artistic skills, to know that it is more difficult to describe herself than to depict others, because a person has to brew a variety of emotions and expressions, than many people brew a variety of emotions and expressions, it is obvious that the former is more difficult,
Of course, in addition to painting herself, Pan Yuliang also paints portraits of other women, such as black women, women in Western countries, and the looks of these women seem to be similar to the looks of her self-portraits, which is related to her long-term living abroad.
Female painter Pan Yuliang in addition to creating realistic paintings, but also create impressionist style and abstract style, which and her early unchanging ups and downs, in stark contrast, I personally believe that female painter Pan Yuliang can only find herself in the process of artistic creation, or that art makes Pan Yuliang's body and mind have no burden and are more free.