Sports are born from human labor, and art is the crystallization of human wisdom and spirit. How does a work of art represent sports?
In preparation for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the China Art Palace (Shanghai Art Museum) specially planned to launch an online exhibition of sports-themed art works with the theme of "Flying Beauty and Building Dreams Together". With three chapters of "Winning the Championship", "The Beauty of Competition" and "National Fitness", the exhibition looks at the expression of the distinctive atmosphere of the times by generations of artists since New China through the collections of the China Art Palace (Shanghai Art Museum) and the Shanghai China Academy of Painting.
Gong Jianhua "Playing Table Tennis", 44×66cm Photography, 1995 Collection of China Art Museum (Shanghai Art Museum).
The "Online Exhibition of Fine Art Works on Sports Themes" covers a variety of art forms such as Chinese painting, oil painting, printmaking, comics, sculpture, folk art, photography, etc., and the creation spans more than 70 years. Among them, such as Feng Zikai's "Working Together" and Lu Yushao's "Ice Sports" directly represent the sports scene; there are also such as Yu Yunjie's "Win the Championship" and Zhou Junxia's "Fruit" created in the context of winning the medal.
The old painter's sporty style
In the past of traditional sports, of course, dragon boats were indispensable.
In 1972, Feng Zikai rowed a dragon boat to express the enterprising spirit of the Chinese nation. The inscription in the painting of "Together" reads: "The wind and waves have gone through the sun rising, and the flow of this day is free." The helmsman is wise and skillful, and works together to the light." Dragon boat is a sport that has lasted for thousands of years in China, and this kind of continuous sports has also opened the direction for the sons and daughters of China to forge their dreams.
Feng Zikai, "Together", 61x28.5cm Chinese Painting, 1972, Shanghai Academy of Chinese Painting Collection
Lu Yushao's "Ice Sports" depicts a young girl dancing on the ice with an ice knife, which can be called a rather unpopular sport at the time, but under Lu Yushao's depiction, the girl's posture is cool and full of vigorous vitality. Table tennis is known as China's "national ball", and the stone slabs on the side of the road and the long tables in the house can become a simple venue for table tennis confrontation. In the early days of the founding of New China, folk sports were in full swing, and table tennis was a leisure and fitness method that the people liked to hear. Painter Tang Yifang's 1960s work "Biyi Bi" vividly depicts the scene of children facing each other on a ping-pong table built by themselves, the children in the painting are talking and laughing, their looks are different, vivid, and the painter also uses the image of children to symbolize the future and vigorous development of the motherland.
Lu Yushao, "Ice Sports", 22x16cm Chinese painting, Collection of Shanghai Chinese Painting Academy
From the first National Ice Games in 1953, to the first world champion of China's winter sports, to the first gold medal in the Winter Olympic Games, to the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, Chinese sports represent not only a form of sports, but also a new way of life and a medium to promote noble spirit.
Tang Yifang, "Bi Yi Bi", 126×69cm Chinese Painting, 1962, Collection of the Chinese Painting Academy in Shanghai
Lü Meng's "Diving" uses the contrasting colors of red and green in the form of prints to vividly depict the sea water and the rolling waves. People on the beach are in groups of three or five, playing with the water and diving. On the beach, two children were running, the sister was pulling the younger brother, and their red footprints were left on the beach. The works show the new scene of New China where people live and work in peace and contentment, combining work and leisure.
Lü Meng's Diving, 28.5x31cm print, 1962, Collection of the China Art Museum (Shanghai Art Museum).
In fact, some old painters themselves also have a strong interest in sports, such as Wang Geyi, who won excellent places in the Jiangsu Provincial Games when he was young. Therefore, after the art, Wang Geyi has always been concerned about the development of sports in the mainland, and he has painted for the women's volleyball players and congratulated them on winning the World Championship. His 1972 creation of "Ping-Pong Blooming Friendship Flowers" is also a masterpiece in this genre.
Wang's "Ping-Pong Blooming Friendship Flower", 69x125cm Chinese painting, 1972, Shanghai Chinese Painting Academy Collection
Zhou Junxia, "Fruit", 130.5×59cm Chinese Painting, 1984, Shanghai Academy of Chinese Painting
In addition, Yu Yunjie, who is known for his oil paintings, used the Chinese painting "Win the Championship" to express the joy of the 1986 Seoul Asian Games, where the Chinese sports delegation ranked first in the gold medal list with 94 golds. The painter uses bold and strong colors, and the brush and ink are free, portraying the rooster's winning look into the wood. His profound foundation in Western oil painting makes his ink paintings not only have the characteristics of Chinese brush and ink, but also the rich color expression of Western paintings.
Yu Yunjie, "Win the Championship", 102x67 cm Chinese painting, 1986, Collection of China Art Museum (Shanghai Art Museum).
Hua Junwu "The Year of the Ox Welcomes the Eight Luck Records Updated Again", 27.8x23.4cm Comic, January 1997, Collection of China Art Museum (Shanghai Art Museum).
A variety of art forms that showcase the beauty of movement
With the development of the times, more and more art forms express more and more sports categories, the integration of sports and art is precisely the dialogue between "force" and "beauty", and the spirit and concept of sports are also expressed differently through the hands of artists.
He E, "Wrestler", 62x50cm Sculpture, 1992, Collection of China Art Museum (Shanghai Art Museum).
Also a sculpture work, He E's "Wrestler" contains strong national characteristics, and Wu Huiming's "Force" handles the complex relationship between the characters in a concise way to achieve overall harmony, and gives it a sense of simplicity of ancient sculpture.
Wu Huiming "Force", 130x75x55cm Sculpture, 1992, Collection of China Art Museum (Shanghai Art Museum).
Zhang Peicheng's "Doing Gymnastics", although it uses the material of Chinese painting, is no longer a traditional style, and its pen and ink are naturally exposed, and a lifelike dynamic picture style is easily outlined through lines. From the picture, it can be clearly judged that the main body is four athletes who are doing gymnastics, they are posing in different postures, some are standing to do stretching movements, some are standing, and some are bending down to do stretching movements. The composition of the picture is rigorous, presenting invigorating and harmonious.
Zhang Peicheng ,Doing Gymnastics, 144x140cm Chinese Painting, 2002, Collection of China Art Museum (Shanghai Art Museum).
Xu Kuang's print "The Golden Racecourse" absorbs the delicate relationship between light and dark in the sketch, highlighting the dynamics on the racecourse between the dense contrasts.
Xu Kuang's "Golden Racecourse", 31x55cm print, 1981, Collection of China Art Museum (Shanghai Art Museum).
Also with horses as the theme, Luochuan County folk paper-cutting representative author Wang Lanpan's work "Horse Riding" carries a strong traditional cultural atmosphere.
Wang Lanpan,"Horseback Riding", 54× 78cm paper-cut collection of China Art Museum (Shanghai Art Museum).
"2014 Shanghai International Marathon" and "The 14th FINA World Championships Held in Shanghai" and other works express the development of shanghai sports in recent years, taking the "2014 Shanghai International Marathon" as an example, its picture is taken on the Bund, highlighting the landmark buildings of Shanghai. The painter uses panoramic composition to process the picture, paying attention to the portrayal of characters, making the picture vivid. With contestants of different skin tones in the foreground and a high-rise building on the Bund in Shanghai in the distance, the whole picture blends the city with a friendly sports atmosphere.
Yu Song, Cheng Wenjuan, Zhang Peicheng, 2014 Shanghai International Marathon, 158x344cm, 2014, Collection of China Art Museum (Shanghai Art Museum).
Bai Ying, "The 14th FINA World Championships Held in Shanghai", 194×154cm Chinese Painting 2021 Collection of China Art Palace (Shanghai Art Museum).
The champion is also an important object of expression of the work of art, and photographer Xiaowei Has taken portraits of Olympic champions Le Jingyi, Liu Xiang, Wang Liqin, etc., showing the still determined and persistent eyes of the champions under the arena.
Xiaowei Kui, Le Jingyi, 96x72cm Photography, April 21, 2007, Collection of China Art Museum (Shanghai Art Museum).
Liu Xiang, 96x72cm Photography, May 9, 2007, Collection of China Art Museum (Shanghai Art Museum).
Xiaowei Kui, "Wang Liqin", 96x72cm Photography, December 22, 2006, Collection of China Art Museum (Shanghai Art Museum).
Jiang Tieli's sculpture "We Won the Championship!" In shaping the language, the pursuit of overall, thick, spatial block strong visual effects, athletes' emotional mobilization is intense and full, climax, and vividly condenses the sweat and tears, setbacks and hardships paid behind the flowers and applause of Shanghai athletes into a prose poetry monument.
Jiang Tieli "We won the championship!" 170×330× 85cm Sculpture, Collection of China Art Museum (Shanghai Art Museum), 2017
Note: This article is based on the information of China Art Museum (Shanghai Art Museum).