▲"Imaginary Bridge and Yellow Crane Tower"
Yan Yunkai
Watercolor 103× 72.5cm, 1985
Collection of Hubei Art Museum
Memory of Wuhan
□ Warbler
"Wuhan in Memory - A Humanistic Picture of a City" is a collection research exhibition sponsored by Hubei Art Museum, as a 2021 National Art Museum Collection Exhibition Season project of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, with the collection of Hubei Art Museum as the main body, jointly with the collections of Wuhan Art Museum, Hubei Academy of Fine Arts Art Museum, Tanghu Art Museum, Three Gorges Art Museum and other art museums, through visual images to focus on the history and humanistic memory of Wuhan since the founding of New China.
Collecting is an important function of the museum. The former is the process and the latter is the result. The collection contains not only the narrative of the images, but also the story of the collection itself. So, when memory meets collection, what kind of story will happen?
▲ "North and South Graben Alternative"
Xin Kejing
Chinese painting 146×372cm, 1957
First of all, let's talk about the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge, the Yellow Crane Tower and its related stories. Wuhan, also known as "River City", is born with the river and prospers because of the water. In Wuhan, where the rivers and lakes are connected, there are ten Yangtze River Bridges. As a very distinctive landscape and symbol of Wuhan, the bridge has frequently become the object of artists' performance. Known as the "First Bridge of the Yangtze River", the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge is the first public railway dual-use bridge in the mainland and one of the important historical landmarks in Wuhan. On July 1, 1957, the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge completed the installation of the last steel beam and completed the Helong Project. The painter Wu Shi was full of joy at the completion of the Yangtze River Bridge, and the historic moment of installing the last steel beam was forever fixed on the painting paper. Wu Shi (1912-1998) was a native of Xiangtan, Hunan, who was admitted to the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts in 1931, joined the New Fourth Army in 1942, and then worked and lived in Wuhan. The work "The Last Steel Beam" uses woodcut, a traditional Chinese art form with unique charm, to express the great feat of the completion of the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge, depicting the scene of the installation of the last steel beam on the bridge, and recording the history of the picture and becoming a classic of socialist realist art and entering the annals of art history. With its majestic composition, majestic and powerful knife technique, and strong and clear colors, the work overflows with enthusiasm and heroic joy. After the creation was completed, Wu Shi donated the work to Xin Kejing (1934-2012), a professor and painter at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and Mr. Hou Xin donated it to the Hubei Art Museum as a permanent collection of national fine arts. This collection not only records the historic events of the completion of the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge, but also witnesses the friendship and exchanges between artists, and extends more follow-up stories. At the same time as "The Last Steel Beam", Xin Kejing created "The Change of The North and South Grabens" in the form of Chinese paintings, which depicted the scene of the completion and opening of the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge in a panoramic way. The neat and rigorous brushwork outlines a festive and warm scene. Born in Guang'an, Sichuan, Xin Kejing graduated from the Fine Arts Department of Central China Normal University, and has responded to the call of the state to support the construction of Enshi for 27 years, and his works are rooted in the people and have a strong sense of the beauty and significance of the times.
▲《Yangtze River Bridge》
Liu Yiwen
Oil on canvas 35×135cm, 1958
Collection of the Three Gorges Museum
Liu Yiwen, a famous art educator and oil painter, also described the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge. Born in Hankou in 1919, Liu Yiwen has a close connection with the Yangtze River in his reading and artistic career, and then has a special affection for the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge after its completion, he has repeatedly collected wind in the upper and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and created the "Yangtze River Bridge" in 1958. This work fully presents the grandeur of the Yangtze River Bridge with the artist's choice of a combination of overhead and flat views, as well as a long-range performance. Interestingly, when the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge Wuchang Introduction Bridge was built in 1957, the old site of the Yellow Crane Tower was occupied, so the Yellow Crane Tower located at the top of the Snake Mountain in the picture was actually not rebuilt in 1958, perhaps out of the need for composition or intention, or out of the inseparable emotion of the old scene, the author placed the Yellow Crane Tower in his memory here. The Yellow Crane Tower, which was rebuilt in the 1980s, is exactly where it is depicted in the picture. This coincidence causes the viewer to see "here and now" and the "then and then" of the work of art to unexpectedly meet and interact in time and space. The work is now in the Yichang Three Gorges Art Museum, and was previously exhibited in the "Road to Moderate Prosperity - Building a Well-off Society in An All-round Way in the Collection of Hubei 9+1 Art Museum" held by Hubei Art Museum, "Magnificent Voyage - Hubei Excellent Fine Art Works Exhibition" celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, and "Art And Painting World Houpu Seeking Truth - Liu Yiwen Art Exhibition". From thematic exhibitions to case study exhibitions to group exhibitions, the combination and presentation of collections in different contexts constitute the multi-dimensional spatial narrative of the art museum and make it have a broader public significance.
▲Tan Hualin
Qian Yankang
Oil painting 27×36cm circa 1950s and 1960s
Different from the above-mentioned direct representation of the Yangtze River Bridge, Qian Yankang's watercolor painting "Helong of the Yangtze River Bridge", if you do not look closely, you will think that it is a small landscape painting. However, through the scenery, pulling out the layers of trees, the scene of the Yangtze River Bridge and the dragon suddenly appeared in front of the eyes. The perspective of indirect viewing shows the author's ingenuity. Qian Yankang (1913-1999) was a native of Changshu, Jiangsu Province, graduated from Suzhou Fine Arts College, and worked at Hubei Academy of Arts and Hubei Academy of Fine Arts. His work "Tan Hualin" depicts a scene of Qian Yankang's work in Wuhan at that time. Located in the northeast of Wuchang City, Tan Hualin was the "cultural capital" of the Wuhan War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the birthplace of modern Chinese education and library science. Hubei Academy of Arts (now Hubei Academy of Fine Arts) and Hubei Provincial Academy of Fine Arts are located here. The perspective in the picture is similar to that of "Yangtze River Bridge Helong", several lush trees occupy the main body of the picture, through the trees can see the low and neat red houses in the distance, the dappled sunlight through the leaves, plus the silhouette-like figures dotted between the three or three couples, presenting a leisurely and quiet daily life.
▲ "Yubei Pavilion and Pinjiang Tea House on the Yellow Crane Tower"
Watercolor 28.4×37cm, 1954
Another landmark landscape of Wuhan, the Yellow Crane Tower, was built in the Three Kingdoms of Eastern Wu, and has been built and abandoned repeatedly. Completed in 1985, the main building is modeled on the Qing Tongzhi Tower, but it is more spectacular, and the bridge of the Flying Yangtze River shines together, which greatly enhances the jiangcheng Wuhan. Animated film artist Yan Yunkai (1936-2016) had an indissoluble relationship with the Yellow Crane Tower. Yan Yunkai was born in Hankou, in 1881 his grandfather founded the Xianzhenlou Photo Studio in the Yellow Crane Tower, after the liberation of Wuhan in the summer of 1949, he was arranged by his father to be an apprentice in the Xianzhen Building, in the early 50s he entered the Hubei Provincial Art Studio (then stationed in the Yellow Crane Tower) to work, until 1954, when the Snake Mountain building was relocated, Yan Yunkai lived in the Yellow Crane Tower for six years, during which time the Yellow Crane Tower was the propaganda position of Wuhan, and many movements in Wuchang were here, so he painted a lot of scenes at that time. Before the construction of the Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge began in 1955, he wrote: "While the buildings on Snake Mountain are still there, quickly draw them, some demolitions in the future, some demolitions, can not be seen, this time here my mood is very contradictory, the buildings on Snake Mountain, including the site of the Yellow Crane Tower, will be replaced by the Yangtze River Bridge and its diversion bridge, I am sad and happy to account for half." After that, Yan Yunkai was admitted to the Central and South American Secondary School to study, and then went to the Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio as an art designer, and the background of animation films such as "Little Sisters of the Prairie Heroes" and "Old Wolf Invitation" was designed and painted by him. After settling in Shanghai, Yan Yunkai still had his heart set on the Yellow Crane Tower, and from the 1980s to the 1990s, he created four works related to the Yellow Crane Tower, including "Imaginary Bridge and Yellow Crane Tower" and "Historical Mirage". In 2016, Yan Yunkai donated more than 1,000 oil paintings, watercolors, sketches, sketches and other works he had created throughout his life to the Hubei Art Museum, on the basis of which the Hubei Art Museum planned and hosted the "Changing Scenes - Animation Film Artist Yan Yunkai Works Exhibition", and in accordance with his instructions, the work "Historical Mirage" was used as the cover of the exhibition album. This collection and display not only allows an excellent film artist to enter the public eye, but also finds the story of the artist and the Yellow Crane Tower, Wuhan and the times through combing.
▲"Historical Mirage"
Watercolor 73.7 × 109.5cm 1990s
Look at the story of the sculpture again. In the study of art history, combing the veins of teachers and sorting out academic traditions is an important basic work. Since its opening, Hubei Art Museum has paid attention to the sorting out of teachers and learnings, cases and phenomena in regional art, and after years of accumulation, it has formed a special collection and research system for the history of Hubei art in the 20th century. These works, which have been precipitated by time, as well as the characters and stories intertwined in between, all show the historical and humanistic memories of the region. Taking sculpture as an example, from the first generation of hubei sculptors Zhang Zuwu and Jiang Yiming to the second generation of sculptors Wang Fuzhen, Liu Zhengde, Wang Liangtian, Li Zhengwen, Zhu Dacheng, and then to Fu Zhongwang, there is a clear artistic lineage. Zhang Zuwu, Wang Fuzhen, Liu Zhengde, and Zhu Dacheng all donated their masterpieces to the Hubei Art Museum; Fu Zhongwang, as the first director of the Hubei Art Museum, has been in office for nearly ten years, and has spared no effort to rescue and collect the excellent works of the older generation of artists in Hubei. After combing and studying, these works entered the Hubei Art Museum's fixed exhibition on regional art history, "A Hundred Years of Vertical and Horizontal - 20th Century Hubei Art Documentary Exhibition". It is through art museums that works of art engage in dialogue with art history and relate to the public.
In 1957, Zhang Zuwu created the theme sculpture "Statue of the Unsung Hero of the Volunteer Army" for the martyrs' cemetery of the Chinese Volunteer Army in Hinochang County, North Korea, which was the first sculpture erected by a Chinese sculptor abroad, and "Volunteer Army" now in hubei art museum is a replica of the head of this work. Wang Fuzhen's "Little Flowers" and "Spring" have created simple, beautiful and warm female images, showing the atmosphere of the times in the early days of reform and opening up; Liu Zhengde's "Fox Fake Tiger Wei" and other eight fable sculptures, built in 1982 in Wuhan East Lake Scenic Area, is the first park in China with the theme of fable sculpture.
▲"Volunteer Army"
Zhang Zuwu
Sculpture 26×28×48cm, 1957
In the process of donation and collection, it has also led to many unexpected indirect collections, or related collections. Through the exhibition of Zhang Zuwu's sculptures, Zhang Zuwu's son Zhang Wei left a representative work of the famous printmaker Chen Tiantian, "Mountain Winter Sowing", which was treasured by his father, and a statue of Zhu Dacheng as his mentor Zhang Zuwu, in the Hubei Art Museum. When preparing Zhu Dacheng's solo exhibition in 2019, it was found that 17-year-old Tang Xiaohe had drawn a sketch head for Zhu Dacheng, a 16-year-old classmate of the first grade of the attached middle school, as well as a sketch head painted by Qian Shaowu for Mrs. Zhu Dacheng, and a calligraphy work written by Chen Tiantian to Zhu Dacheng and his wife. When Zhu Dacheng moved to Hong Kong in the 1980s, when the studio of the Hubei Provincial Academy of Fine Arts was to be relocated and left unattended, Fu Zhongwang collected a batch of works that his teacher Zhu Dacheng had time to collect in the future, carefully collected them, and then donated them to the Hubei Art Museum, avoiding the fate of the works being lost or disposed of as waste items. ...... In the collection, these stories are mostly related to the mentorship and friendship between artists, although they are not common, but they are worth paying attention to. These respectable and lovely people and classic works will be preserved and continued as the context of the stories and regions in the collection.
▲"Mountain Winter Broadcasting"
Chen Natural
Prints 40×46cm 1958
There are also tragic stories and heroic stories in the collection. In Wuhan, the War of Resistance, Flood Resistance and Anti-epidemic have formed corresponding literature and art in different periods. Wang Xiaobao's "Red Soil Feelings" (1999), which expresses the theme of flood resistance, is the bronze medal work of the Ninth National Art Exhibition. The original name of the work was "Life and Death Card", and later changed its name to "Red Earth Feelings" because of its participation in the national art exhibition. At the beginning of the creation, in order to find inspiration, Wang Xiaobao came to the Yangtze River on Sanyang Road, bought 400 sandbags of about 7,000 pounds of sand, transported them to his home, tried to carry ten bags of laterite yellow sand up and down the stairs, and experienced the hardships of the military and civilians on the front line of flood resistance. The prototype of the "Gate Gate Life and Death Card" in the work comes from the banks of the Jianghan Pass Embankment, and the font on it is taken from the famous book stickers. The bowl of water under the life and death card symbolizes the "military and civilian fish water situation", as well as the altar of blood and tears and the cry of people to survive; the sandbag symbolizes the Great Wall of Steel. The work uses typical news pictures and oil painting realistic techniques to summarize and concentrate on this great flood struggle.
▲《Wisteria》
Zhang Zhaoming
Chinese painting 138×69cm, 1963
Liu Wuxiang and Wu Xing's "Wuhan Refueling", with the theme of Fighting the New Crown Pneumonia Epidemic in Wuhan in 2020, is expressed through the language of lacquer painting. In the form of the back of the characters, the picture shows the group of people who cannot see their faces in the fight against the epidemic but have no hesitation in standing up for the health and safety of the people. The character uses the dense relationship between the white of the eggshell and the lacquer powder, pushes the light to clear the luster after the light, and shows the texture, light and the front and back layers of the protective clothing, and the background is the effect of black matte. The picture is composed in a horizontal group way, and the hand is strong upwards, showing everyone working together and forging ahead, symbolizing the construction of the iron wall to protect life, cheering for the heroic city of Wuhan and the heroic people! Zhang Man's "Volunteers" simply reproduces the image of a group of volunteers working during the lockdown of Wuhan in 2020. During the lockdown period, the life supporting services were supported by the brave collective of volunteers, and their stories and spirits were touching.
▲2020: Wuhan Refueling
Liu Wuxiang, Wu Xing
Lacquer painting 100×150cm 2020
"What a painting says is more than a thousand words", the image is a legacy of history, but also a record of history. From the images, we can not only see the images of the past, but also explore the information behind them through the interpretation of these images. In the systematic collection of the art museum, there are historical memories, the imprints of the times, individual emotions, experiences, etc., which are presented through works and images and related stories. For an art museum, the collection is both historical preservation and future-oriented, it connects history, the present and the future, the memory continues because of the collection, and the collection is enriched by memory. So the collection doesn't stop, the story goes on.
—END—
Yangtze River Literature and Art, No. 1, 2022
Responsible Editor | Chen Jun
▲The bearded warbler |
Hu Ying graduated from Hubei Academy of Fine Arts in 2007. His research interests include art history and art museums. He is currently the deputy director of Hubei Art Museum.