As one of the core figures in the history of Chinese art in the 20th century, Wu Hufan combines creation, collection and research. Recently, with the latest disclosure of Wu Hufan's unpublished 10 original manuscripts from the 1930s to the 1950s, the research around Wu Hufan has become a hot topic again. On November 18th, the China Art Industry Research Institute of Shanghai University held a seminar on Wu Hufan's manuscripts, inviting experts and scholars in related fields to gather together to comprehensively discuss the process and achievements of Wu Hufan's appraisal, collection, calligraphy and painting creation, and poetry creation through the interpretation and extension of the manuscripts.
Wu Hufan's manuscript records Tang Zihua's "Snow Harbor Fishing" in the Yuan Dynasty.
10 volumes of the original manuscripts are newly disclosed
This set of Wu Hufan literature has a total of 10 volumes. Among them, 6 volumes, such as "Meijing Shuya Calligraphy and Painting Bibliography", "Meijing Shuwu Inscription", "Wu Hufan's Eye Record and Inscription", "Li Changsu Calligraphy and Painting Book Inscription", "Shu Zhai Collection Bronze Ware and Calligraphy Catalogue", "Meijing Painting Catalogue", etc., show Wu Hufan's collection and creation; "The Traces of Words of the Song Dynasty", "Three Hundred Songs of Guang song Words", "Three Hundred Songs of Continuing Guangdong Song Words", and "Draft Of Words" reflect Wu Hufan's achievements in lexicology.
The Meijing Bookhouse Catalogue of Calligraphy and Painting records 370 calligraphy and painting works collected by Wu Hufan and 71 calligraphy and painting works collected by his grandfather Wu Dazheng. The "Meijing Bookhouse Inscription" volume records Wu Hufan's inscriptions and collection notes on more than ten calligraphy and painting works such as Yuan Tang Zihua's "Snow Harbor Fishing Map", Fang Fangju's "Sitting and Watching the Clouds Rise", Ming Jin Junming's "Momei", and Wang Jian's "Antique Landscape Album". The book "Wu Hufan's Passing Eyes and Inscription Poems" records more than 400 works of calligraphy and painting by Wu Hufan, and several inscriptions on calligraphy and painting, which are informative, rich in historical materials, and extremely precious. "Li Changsu Calligraphy and Painting Album Inscription" is a transcription of the inscription of Li Changsu's ten-open "Antique Landscape Album", copied completely plus his own insights and explanations, the ink in this volume, the font is neat and beautiful, and the arbitrariness of other manuscripts is changed. The Catalogue of Bronze Ware and the Catalogue of Tibetan Paintings and Calligraphy records the rich collection of bronzes and calligraphy and paintings of The Collection, with more than 300 bronzes. The Catalogue of Meiying Paintings records 50 masterpieces created by Wu Hufan from 1944 to 1953, and briefly records the age of creation, the name of the work, and for whom.
After Wu Hufan's "Traces of Words of the Song Dynasty" was donated to dozens of libraries, museums and other cultural institutions across the country, the replies of these cultural units conveyed their gratitude to Wu Hufan. Among them, there is also a letter from Huang Yanpei to Wu Hufan, which records the historical data of Chairman Mao's five-hundred-yuan penrunning fee after receiving Wu Hufan's works. These documents and historical materials are of great significance to the study of Wu Hufan's collection, calligraphy and painting creation, poetry creation, etc., and can also be corroborated with the existing wu hufan literature and historical materials, further supplemented and improved, and it is worth experts and scholars to dig deep and study carefully.
In the view of the participants, this set of documents not only records the number of Wu Hufan's calligraphy, paintings, poems and collections, but also fully demonstrates Wu's painting pursuit, identification methods, purchase concepts, family collection characteristics, trading channels and elegant play methods. Not only can it confirm and supplement the existing Wu Hufan research materials, but also some manuscripts and correspondence that have not been systematized in some years, codexes, and oil poems that reflect the current situation and politics have not been published for various reasons, and their academic value, cultural value, and collection value should not be underestimated.
Mao Zedong paid five hundred yuan to buy the back of the painting
The purpose of this seminar is to expand the research progress of Wu Hufan, sort out and integrate the major contributions made by Wu Hufan in the cultural fields of poetry, calligraphy and painting, and further solve the difficult problems that have been unsolved in Wu Hufan's research for many years.
"These manuscripts of Wu Hufan have relatively high value." Xing Jianrong, former deputy director of the Shanghai Archives Bureau, research librarian, and adjunct professor at Shanghai University, said bluntly: "The value of evaluating a batch of handwriting mainly depends on three aspects: First, the celebrity effect. Wu Hufan is a great master in the field of calligraphy and painting, which is recognized. In addition, the historical value and the cultural relics and calligraphic effects it contain. ”
He specifically talked about the historical value of Huang Yanpei's letter to Wu Hufan in the "Traces of Words of the Yu Song Dynasty". The letter said that after Mao Zedong received Wu Hufan's works, he gave 500 yuan for writing. After the founding of New China, many painters and seal engravers sent paintings and seals to Chairman Mao, but the practice at that time was that the central government generally gave a receipt, and then the General Office of the Municipal Party Committee invited the District United Front Work Department to the painter's home to send a sum of money for polishing. However, like Wu Hufan, chairman Mao directly gave the polishing fee, which belongs to a very small minority. ”
Xing Jianrong believes that this batch of historical materials is not only Mr. Wu Hufan's own archival materials, but also related to the transformation of the entire art world at that time. "From the Republic of China to the new China, they faced a political and creative transformation, including the reorganization of the circle of friends. Regarding the historical materials in this regard, there are more reflections in the original manuscript. ”
"Not only Wu Hufan, but also Mr. Huang Yanpei's letter also reveals the relationship between the cultural and artistic circle and New China after 1949." Zhang Wei, a research librarian at the Shanghai Library and an expert in modern and contemporary literature studies, said.
In the view of the participants, Wu Hufan, who was in the historical transition period of China's new and old, showed the innovative concept of integrating East and West and introducing new ideas in the appraisal of calligraphy and painting, which played an important inheritance role in inheriting the past and opening up the future. He attaches great importance to the visual view of physical objects, emphasizes the equal importance of horizontal identification and authenticity identification, and also attaches importance to the use of new methods such as photography, and his achievements have been unanimously affirmed by the cultural relics community and the collection community, and are known as the "one eye" of the appraisal industry.
Love the younger generation, the old predecessor who is proud of the bones
At the seminar site of Shanghai Tangxiang Cultural Space, 10 precious manuscript documents were placed in the center of the table, and a pair of white gloves were placed next to them for the on-site people to appreciate and read at close range.
It was only after the recent disclosure of this batch of documents that Wu Yuanjing, the grandson of Wu Hufan, saw these documents for the first time. Wu Yuanjing, who is now the president of the Shanghai Haipai Calligraphy and Painting Institute and the president of the Descendants of Famous Artists of Maritime Calligraphy and Painting, said: "When I saw this batch of documents, I had a deep understanding. Through these documents, we can see that my grandfather's lifelong hardships, persistence and perseverance in inheriting traditional Chinese culture will inspire our future generations. ”
Due to the interaction of his fathers, Cheng Duoduo, the son of Cheng Shifa and honorary director of Cheng Shifa Art Museum, also had a good impression of Wu Hufan. He recalled: "Mr. Wu Hufan is an old senior whom we respect, and he is also very concerned about my father as a junior. My father often told me that Mr. Wu Hufan was a man with a backbone, not only in painting, but also in a person. That remarkable landscape painting "Celebrating the Success of China's Atomic Bomb Explosion", traditional pen and ink, novelty and novelty are integrated, and conform to the situation. ”
Interestingly, because of his backbone, Cheng Shifa also secretly helped Wu Hufan write a "check". Cheng Duoduo told the Jiefang Daily Shangguan News reporter, "It seems that it is still anti-rightist or when, everyone wants to help Elder Wu pass the pass and avoid him from wearing a rightist hat, but he needs to write an article like an explanation." Old Mr. Wu Hufan is very proud and does not write. At that time, my father seemed to be the head of an office of the painting academy, and the relevant leaders said to my father, you help. So, my father wrote it for him, and after writing it, he passed it. ”
His love for later generations of painters also includes Xie Zhiliu and Chen Peiqiu. Curator and connoisseur Xie Dingkun, the son of Xie Zhiliu and Chen Peiqiu, recalled: "Because of the relationship between my parents and Wu Hufan's predecessors, I have felt that Elder Wu is very kind since I was a child. Parents also often mentioned the matter of Elder Wu. In the 1950s, when my father was working at the Cultural Affairs Commission, every time there was a acquisition appraisal meeting, Elder Wu had to attend the work meeting together. In 1956, when the Chinese Academy of Painting was being established, Wu Lao was a member of the preparatory committee, and my mother was in her early thirties and very young. At that time, the painters hired by the academy were all old seniors. Without Elder Wu's recommendation, my mother would not have been able to enter the painting academy at that time. ”
Wu Hufan's 1929 Meijing Book House, in the collection of the Shanghai Museum
Not just "painters", but Chinese "scholars"
In China at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, both the values of traditional literati and the current social situation on which they depended for their survival and development underwent unprecedented and profound changes. Wu Hufan's study "Meijing Bookstore", as the main art activity center at that time, was an important place for the collection of ancient calligraphy and paintings, and became a representative and symbol of orthodox literati painting.
Whether in the collection of paintings or the achievements of methods, methods and theoretical research, Wu Hufan is not only in the core position of his peers in the industry, but also has a profound influence on future generations. The special value of studying Wu and his people and their lifelong collection activities is self-evident in connecting and consolidating the details of historical facts circulated and dispersing ancient calligraphy and paintings in the first half of the twentieth century, and understanding and clarifying the evolution of traditional and modern research methods in the past century.
"For more than a decade, a wave of Wuhu sail fever has been set off. Wu Hufan continues to receive attention from all sides, first in the circle of calligraphy and painting, the circle of collection, and then expanded to the cultural circle. Zhang Lixing, vice chairman of the Shanghai Literary and Art Critics Association, said: "Today, Wu Hufan is undoubtedly an outstanding Chinese calligrapher and painter with first-class traditional Chinese calligraphy and painting skills. "In Zhang Lixing's view, the reason why Wu Hufan is attracting much attention today is not only because of his amazing skills, but also because of his broader cultural reasons." The 'Meiying Relics - Wu Hufan Literature' that we see today can be said to have made a partial answer for us. ”
Tang Zheming, an expert in the history of Chinese art and a painter, commented on these documents, "Although fragmentary, they fully reflect all aspects of Wu Hufan. If you work hard to study it, there is a lot of content. There are too many topics in him, and it is likely that clues will be found in the literature. This is the opportunity of their generation, but also the collision of a generation. ”
"Wu Hufan is a business card of Shanghai. In the late 1930s and early 1950s, the Shanghai painting scene produced three generations of leaders. The first generation is Ren Bonian, the second generation is Wu Changshuo, and the third generation is Wu Hufan. But Tang Zheming believes that Wu Hufan's value is not limited to "painters." "If Wu Changshuo is the amateurization of scholars, Wu Hufan is professional. From the turn of the Southern Song Dynasty and the Song and Yuan Dynasties to modern times, he was a representative of the inside. ”
In this regard, art critic Gu Cunyan holds the same feeling. "Wu Hufan is a scholar, he is a 'scholar', not an ordinary painter. His mind, the size of the pattern and the feelings of home and country are of great significance to our current readers. ”
Column Editor-in-Chief: Li Junna Text Editor: Li Junna Photo Editor: Su Wei
Source: Author: Junna Li