"The Biography of the Painter" ~ 458
Liu Haisu, whether praising or disparaging him, cannot veto him as a generation of strange people in the history of Chinese art
Text/Lu Xiuhui
Liu Haisu (March 16, 1896 – August 7, 1994), courtesy name Jifang, was a native of Changzhou, Jiangsu Province. Liu Haisu, whether you praise or disparage him, he, as a generation of strange people in the history of Chinese art, stands where he is, without moving or smiling at the East Wind, let others comment.
In 1912, Liu Haisu, Wu Shiguang, Zhang Yuguang and others founded the Shanghai Academy of Graphic Arts, which was later changed to Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, and in the autumn of 1914, he became the vice president, and in July 1919, he became the principal, and drafted the "Rules of the Wild Sketching Group", personally led students to Hangzhou West Lake to sketch, breaking the traditional teaching norms of closed door painting; in 1919, he responded to Cai Yuanpei's call to recruit female students in the American College, opening the precedent of Chinese coeducational schools. The several "firsts" he created in the history of modern art education still have significance to this day, and this significance has long gone beyond the history of art and education itself, showing from one side the tortuous mileage of Chinese society bidding farewell to tradition and moving towards modernity.
Liu Haisu once wrote in a letter to Mr. Cai Yuanpei: "I have no teacher in my life, but I am a teacher, so I admire the sincerity of time or change." He also said to his friends many times, "Without Cai Yuanpei, there will be no Bangs." He admired Cai Yuanpei so much because he held high the banner of emerging art and gave him encouragement and support in the process of crawling the pioneer road. In the late autumn of 1921, Liu Haisu wanted to go to Beijing to paint some northern scenery, and also wanted to listen to Cai Yuanpei's teachings, so he wrote a letter to Cai Yuanpei. Cai Yuanpei invited him to the Peking University Painting Research Association to give a lecture, and the topic given to him was "Modern European Art Thought".
In order to go to Beijing, Liu Haisu carefully and painstakingly prepared the speech. On December 14, he took a third-class train north, which was his first entry into Beijing and the first time he had met Cai Yuanpei. Cai Yuanpei's humble and broad mind, and his care and trust for young people have made a deep impression on Liu Haisu. Entering Beijing this time, Liu Haisu became acquainted with Li Dazhao, Xu Shousheng, Jing Hengyi, Hu Shi, Liang Qichao, Xu Zhimo, and Chen Duxiu. Cai Yuanpei arranged for him to live in the beijing fine arts college teachers' dormitory, and gave him the opportunity to establish a deep friendship with Yao Mangfu, Chen Shizeng, Li Yishi, Wu Fading, who were well-known in the northern painting world, discussing literary and artistic ideas, and commenting on Chinese and foreign masterpieces. They accompanied him to Wangfujing, Liulichang, and Rongbaozhai. He went out to sketch every day and painted 36 paintings in Beijing. Cai Yuanpei looked at his drawings, was very happy, and prepared to hold a solo exhibition for him. But some people said bad things about Liu Haisu in front of Cai Yuanpei, saying that his paintings were not good, Cai Yuanpei believed in his own eyes, personally wrote the article "Introduction to the Painter Liu Haisu", as the preface to the exhibition, published in the "New Society Daily" and "Oriental Magazine", Liu Haisu successfully held his first personal exhibition.
Liu Haisu introduced the school philosophy of Western art, opened the style of model and body painting in Shanghai, and on July 20, 1920, the school hired a female model Chen Xiaojun, and a nude girl appeared in the studio for the first time. In conservative China, it caused an uproar, causing material discussion and threats, and Liu Haisu issued "I resist!" I resist! Our school never stops! I Liu Haisu lived for art, and I am willing to die for art! I would rather die than uphold the truth, and never be subjugated by might", a firm vow that shows my artistic pursuit and determination not to compromise with the world. However, the secular discussion made Liu Haisu sad, and some people said: "There are three major literary demons in Shanghai, one is Zhang Jingsheng, who advocates sexual knowledge, the second is Li Jinhui, who sings drizzle, and the third is Liu Haisu, who advocates no clothes at all." More seriously, he heard that the Jiangsu Provincial Education Association was going to ban the model's sketching, and on August 22, 1925, he wrote an open letter to the Jiangsu Provincial Education Association to defend the models. After reading Liu Haisu's letter, Jiang Huaisu, a member of the Shanghai Municipal Council, wrote an article in the "Declaration" asking the authorities to severely punish Liu Haisu, and Liu Haisu immediately wrote an article to refute it. Unexpectedly, Zhu Baosan, president of the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce and chairman of the Zheng customs Society, attacked him again, and published an open letter to Liu Haisu in the newspaper, scolding Liu Haisu for being "inferior to animals."
One night, Mei Zhuan's studio was destroyed by hooligans. Sun Chuanfang was also very angry with Liu Haisu, and immediately issued a secret order to arrest Liu Haisu, and then telegraphed xu Qiufeng, a Shanghai negotiator, and the consular group, to negotiate the closure of the Uszhuan in the French Concession and the arrest of Liu Haisu. Kang Youwei went to him three times a day and persuaded him to leave Shanghai, and he insisted on staying in the United States. The French consul general believed that Liu Haisu was innocent, although Xu Qiufeng repeatedly negotiated and did not arrest Liu Haisu, and the consulate had to publish a message in the newspaper in order to let Sun Chuanfang go down the steps, saying that Sun Chuanfang strictly banned models everywhere. The name of Liu Haisu has been famous since the mannequin incident. In 1927, he was persecuted and wanted by the warlord Sun Chuanfang and fled to Japan, where the Asahi Shimbun held a painting exhibition for him in Tokyo.
In February 1929, with the help of Cai Yuanpei, Liu Haisu went to Europe to investigate fine arts as a special writer in Europe. This was a major turning point in his life path. In the past two and a half years, Liu Haisu has traveled to the scenic spots and monuments of Italy, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and other countries, and watched masterpieces after the Greco-Roman Renaissance. During his stay in Europe, Liu Haisu copied Cézanne, Delacroix, Rembrandt and other famous paintings at the Louvre, and painted nearly 300 works of landscapes, scenes and figures, and was twice selected for the French Autumn Salon in 1929 and 1930. This is also a high threshold for Western artists. And his first work selected for the Autumn Salon, "Beijing Qianmen", was painted in China when he was 27 years old. It is rare that he can grasp the technique and charm of Western oil painting so well just by relying on his indirect knowledge of Western oil painting.
As early as January 10, 1925, Liu Haisu recommended to the Chinese people van Gogh, a great Dutch painter who had fallen before his death and had unlimited glory after his death, calling him an "art traitor". The article says: "There are no great personalities, no great people, and no great artists." In March 1931, he was invited by the Chinese Academy of the University of Frankfurt, Germany, to give a lecture on Chinese painting and held a personal exhibition of Chinese painting. During his European tour, Liu Haisu had traveled with painters such as Picasso and Matisse. Bernard, president of the Academy of Fine Arts in Paris, held a solo exhibition for him at the Claremont Academy in Paris, exhibiting forty of his paintings in France, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy and Germany, of which "Snow of Luxembourg" was purchased by the French government at the National Gallery of Teybar. After returning to China in October 1932, Liu Haisu traveled to Europe to exhibit his works, which were held in Shanghai and Nanjing. The exhibition lasted for 16 days and received more than 100,000 visitors. In the autumn of 1933, Liu Haisu went to Europe for the second time, and he successively gave lectures on "The Change of Chinese Painting School" at the Prussian Academy of Fine Arts in Germany, "What is The Charm of Qi" at the Oriental Language School of the University of Berlin, "The Thought and Life of Chinese Painters" at the Hamburg Academy of Fine Arts, "The Spiritual Elements of Chinese Painting" in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and "Chinese Painting and Poetry Book" at the Düsseldorf Academy of Fine Arts, vividly and extensively introducing and publicizing the characteristics of traditional mainland art to Europe. On two trips to Europe, Liu Haisu's footprints spread throughout Europe and won unprecedented prestige and honor.
After Liu Haisu returned to Shanghai, at the invitation of the Shanghai Zhonghua Bookstore, he wrote a huge work of 800,000 words, "Haisu Series", six volumes, which was divided into three parts: "Western Painting Garden", "National Painting Garden", "Haisu Chinese Painting and Haisu Oil Painting".
After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Liu Haisu held a painting exhibition in the Nanyang Islands to raise funds for disaster relief in order to fulfill the responsibility of repaying the country. Liu Haisu sent all the income from painting sales in Nanyang to the Red Cross Society of China to support the domestic War of Resistance. In May 1943, Liu Haisu was escorted to Shanghai by a Japanese secret service aircraft. It was only then that he discovered that his second wife had started a family and had run away from home. Liu Haisu painfully agreed to the divorce conditions proposed by the family and the divorce he proposed, and he frankly wished that after becoming a family and remarrying, he would "enjoy a happy and satisfying life forever."
After liberation, Liu Haisu served as the president of East China Art College, the president and honorary dean of Nanjing Art College. In 1954, Liu Haisu landed on Huangshan for the sixth time and happened to meet Li Keyan, who was now carrying out a revolution in his artistic career, that is, through sketching activities, to transform the form, content and pen and ink system of Chinese painting with "teacher creation", and Li Keyan's artistic achievements in life were based on this period. Liu Haisu admired the achievements of this former student and today's colleagues, and often accompanied by sketches and discussed artistic affairs. He inscribed on a painting of "Black Tiger Pine" composed in 1988: "Ten on the Huangshan Mountains painted black tiger pine and met Li Kejian, in the summer of 1954 with Ke Dye painted black tiger pine and West Sea, day and night discussion, happy to forget." Now can dye has its own style, everyone, Panasonic recalls, hurried thirty-four years. "From the perspective of artistic appearance, Liu Li is different; in terms of temperament, the two are also very different. However, with the attitude of artistic creation and the understanding of life and nature, the two are quite consistent.
In 1980 and 1981, Liu Haisu went up seven and eight to Huangshan, and at this time he was already an old man in his eighties, and his art also ushered in a new spring in the new era. He created a large number of splashed ink and splashed color Huangshan diagrams, also from the scene sketch, compared with the past works, the subjective component is significantly increased, paying attention to the spiritual description and the expression of qi rhyme; the technique is to build the skeleton with the center line of the "bone method with the pen", and the ink or color splashing smudge to help the rhyme, Xinghui often writes ink smoothly, the momentum is dazzling, can be described as "the ink is wet", "the pen has not yet been swallowed". At this time, the works have truly represented his artistic style, which can be said to be the natural result of his life's artistic practice and life experience, "people are old and old", "melon ripe". Should be a mature period.
In 1982, Liu Haisu went to Huangshan and still created a large number of Chinese painting oil paintings, which were further improved in art, which can be described as "getting older and more mature, getting older and more mature". As the creator, Liu Haisu never obeyed the old, and the painting was often inscribed "Nian Fang Eighty-Seven", indicating that he was still young and just worked hard. In July 1988, Liu Haisu ascended Huangshan Mountain for the tenth time, realizing his long-cherished wish of ten huangshan mountains, and also completed the process of his lifelong artistic exploration, climbing the "Tiandu Peak" of art. In the nearly two months of time when Liu Haisu was ten years old in Huangshan Mountain, he sketched everywhere, painted endlessly, and was always excited by the ever-changing wonders of the Sea of Clouds in Huangshan, he said affectionately: "I love Huangshan Mountain, I have painted Tiandu Peak for many years, it has changed and changed, it has changed dozens of times a day, infinite changes... Every time I come, every time I have a new understanding, there are endless paintings. The fantastic changes in the Huangshan Yunhai gave Liu Haisu the inspiration for his art, and Liu Haisu created an infinite new Huangshan with "endless changes"; ten on the Huangshan Mountains, every innovation realized the leap forward of the artistic and ideological realm and became a machine with nature. Liu Haisu's creative spirit is in line with the natural features of Huangshan Mountain and has been integrated.
Lu Xiuhui has a poem "Song for Liu Yuhai", praising:
Huangshan Pine Cloud, when annoying fit color.
A gentleman has been doing strange things for a long time, and what he has done is to look up to him.
Praise and dissent, and retreat into various fields.
Colorful five-color square, teng leaning on the complex ink.
Dare to cling to the West, and wish for the old Reck.
After several storms and waves, I am afraid of tongue-in-cheek.
Idle room letter cloud steps, bumps and bumps.
Ordinary life is a painting thing, and there is no movement or movement.
Rhyme swallow bone method slip, ink qi dripping plant.
When people are old, the more familiar the pen ends are.
The river sunset is flat, and the mountains and rivers are straight.
The most well-known, ten on the Huangshan test.
The time has become a golden dan, and the crowd is like a wing.
Runaway list of important people, the art world sealed immortal position.
Later generations push forward like, Lee for this old silence.
Ancient and modern visitors, do not covet the side.