In the 1930s, Zhang Guangyu was in Shanghai
In 1957, Zhang Guangyu was in the dormitory of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Cinder Hutong
January 1934, Time Comics No. 1
In 1960, Zhang Guangyu made an art design for "The Haunting of the Heavenly Palace"
Zhang Guangyu (August 25, 1900 – May 4, 1965), one of the founders of modern Chinese decorative arts, an outstanding painter, cartoonist, designer, publisher, art educator, has also made great achievements in advertising design, logo design, illustration, cover design, film art, arts and crafts, furniture design, murals, photography, stage art, stamp design, decorative design and other fields.
Born in 1900 in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province. In his early years, he painted the monthly brand new year painting in the advertising department of Nanyang Brothers Tobacco Company. Later, he founded oriental art printing company and times book company with others, and edited and published magazines such as "Shanghai Comics", "Times Comics", "Independent Comics" and so on. After 1949, he became a professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, a director of the China Artists Association in 1953, and a professor at the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts in 1956. Throughout his life, he pursues truth, goodness and beauty, and his artistic practice is based on the needs of society and the people.
The fate with Zhang Guangyu came too late.
Originally, at the end of last year, the news that the Guardian Art Center "Commemorating the 120th Anniversary of Zhang Guangyu's Birth" and "For the Future - Zhang Guangyu Art 12 Burning" will open on the 23rd of the same month came out, and the first time they rushed to buy tickets. However, then Christmas, New Year, epidemic, Spring Festival, homecoming... It was March 12, and there were only two days left before the exhibition ended.
Before going to see Zhang Guangyu, I only heard that he had painted "The Great Haunting of the Heavenly Palace", but I just liked the way he laughed in his old photos, which looked so cute. Truly approaching his world, he was immediately dazzled by his kaleidoscopic dabbling, talents, and achievements. How could such a person have never heard of it before? Although Chen Danqing has said that Zhang Guangyu is a "real elder", "a godfather-level figure", "derogatory is a practical art, and the high point is pop", it is a real folk context... Art history, for outsiders like myself, is really like a mystery.
The next two months of extreme struggle, I went to interview the curator of "For the Front - Zhang Guangyu Art 12 Burning", visited the "Zhang Guangyu Art Documentation Center", chatted with Mr. Zhang Guangyu's youngest son, the 84-year-old Zhang Linchun for more than two hours, and searched for a large number of reminiscence articles and materials about Zhang Guangyu on the Internet. It turned out that I couldn't even explain why I had to write about him.
This past May 4 was the 56th anniversary of Mr. Zhang Guangyu's death. I decided to give up what I couldn't do— to explain how he grew up on that piece of land in Shanghai, China, in the 1930s, and do only a little bit of what I could do—to show how he stayed.
Let Zhang Guangyu's name and face illuminate this page for a moment and evoke some memories. I just think so.
He had been particularly busy
Beiqing Daily: Have you always been by your father's side?
Zhang Linchun: Basically. I was born in Shanghai in 1937. After the fall of Shanghai, his father left Shanghai to work in Hong Kong. Mother took us past 1938. In 1940, he went to Chongqing to participate in the anti-Japanese rescue work, and my mother took us back to Shanghai. After the "Anhui Incident" in 1941, my father came out of Chongqing and later came to Hong Kong. Mother, we returned to Hong Kong from Shanghai. I've been following since then.
Beiqing Daily: What about those who experienced the "Xianggui Great Retreat"?
Zhang Linchun: That's all there. This part of the escape was my father and my mother, then my sister and I, and the four of us were always together. The second brother is in his hometown. The eldest brother followed the school because he went to school.
Beiqing Daily: After the founding of New China, it was also together in Beijing?
Zhang Linchun: Yes. Because my eldest brother worked; my sister was taken away by Dai Ailian and went to the dance team of the Drama Academy, she was the first dancer in our country; my second brother joined the army to resist the United States and aid Korea. I've been with me, going to school, all the way to work.
Beiqing Daily: I heard that mr. Guangyu's information was obtained by your eldest brother in the past?
Zhang Linchun: It turned out that my eldest brother and second brother made it, because they both studied art. My eldest brother is a serious study of fine arts, Hangzhou Art College Western Painting Department studied oil painting, and later did graphic editing, in foreign language publishing houses. I have nothing to do with my sister. I am engaged in communications, audio, and industry.
Beiqing Daily: Do you remember that your father changed a lot before and after coming to Beijing? Anyway, I see that the photo changes quite a lot.
Zhang Linchun: This change is after the change of the times, the atmosphere is different, it is relatively simple. Everyone was wearing black and blue, and there was no more color. The suits and leather shoes are gone, and they have become a "liberation suit", which is more simple. The whole society is like that, everyone is like that, let alone the famous people and ordinary people, the living conditions are similar in every aspect.
Beiqing Daily: What about work?
Zhang Linchun: Very busy, especially busy. We arrived in Beijing at the end of 1949, and as soon as we arrived, he went to the National Academy of Fine Arts (the predecessor of the Central Academy of Fine Arts) as a professor. The job facing it is to work with Zhang Ling to create this pattern system so that it can adapt to the needs of society. Because at that time, it had three departments, one Western painting department, one Chinese painting department, and one pattern system. Those two departments were pure painting, and the pattern department was everything, which was closer to the development of national economic construction at that time. At this time, all aspects of national development need the service of artists, so they must work hard to cultivate people for the country.
And this training is to cultivate while working, because a lot of things need to be done at that time. For example, at that time, facing the blockade of Western countries, the country was a mess, nothing could be done, and it was necessary to develop the economy and all aspects of the cause, so what if it needed funds? I want to export something." You can't export things too much, you need the art side to help them do some work.
Of course, we still have publicity, and there are a lot of exhibitions to go out. Then these exhibitions need artists to serve him. At that time, it was Zhang Tong, Zhang Guangyu and my uncle Zhang Zhengyu, and the three of them knew this aspect better, so many overseas exhibitions they directly participated. And they don't just participate on their own, they also bring students to do the work. So he's been particularly busy.
He was a participant in the design of the national emblem
Beiqing Daily: So your father, those talents of his are always in use, including participating in the design of the national emblem and the interior decoration of Huairen Hall?
Zhang Linchun: In such an environment as New China, people like him are needed, so there are many things they can do.
The national emblem is a matter left behind by the CPPCC, which means that the national emblem plan was not adopted at that time. There are already many plans, but I feel dissatisfied with the choices. The State Council arranged for Tsinghua's Department of Construction and the Central Academy of Fine Arts to send a group each to take over everyone's opinions and then get a plan. He happened to be in Zhang Tong's group, that is, the Academy of Fine Arts, so he came up with their plan. These two plans, plus many others, are compared, and then the leaders of the central government and people from all walks of life give their opinions on these designs, and they come back and do the work separately. After doing the work, let's study together. Finally bumping back and forth knocked out our current national emblem. So this national emblem, as he is a participant. In fact, this is a big project, and it is a matter that the chairman and the prime minister are directly grasping.
The same is true of the Monument to the People's Heroes. Huai Ren Tang, at that time, many important meetings were there, and there was already a pattern for a long time. Later, slowly, there were more international activities, and more demands were placed on it. That is to say, in addition to the big meeting, it has many other functions, such as where to hand over the credentials? Then you have to give an environment. Later, the Central Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council said that they wanted to meet this need and need to be remodeled, so they invited him to go. Now from the historical data we see that there are three letters, and a large number of drafts, and later a pair, which are the things of Huai Ren Tang. We finally figured it out, and he was directly involved in it.
Most of these were in 1950.
Beiqing Daily: In your impression, is your father often working overtime and not at home, or is it that he is still writing, painting and painting when he comes home from work?
Zhang Linchun: His time was not very fixed, he went to work, and he said he was leaving. After leaving, what to do on this day, I don't necessarily know. Later, through the diary, through these things he talked about when he went home, he recalled it like this. When he was at home, except for someone coming, he often worked at night. There are a lot of ideas and drawings that are done at night.
At that time, in addition to the economic development of our country, the cultural and artistic undertakings were also developing, and various newspapers and magazines were also produced to introduce the situation in this country, which all had a problem of editing pictures and layouts. My father used to specialize in publishing, and everyone knew about it, so when I had a problem, I went to him. In my mother's words, he was an "outpatient department." This thing has never stopped. In the early days, the most important thing was the "People's Pictorial", because Ding Cong and Hu Kao were over there, and these two were his good friends. The equipment they used was also the equipment they used to print pictorials in Shanghai. They are all familiar, and even involve practical technical problems, how to color grading, layout ah, these aspects, there is a problem to find him to help deal with it together. This aspect has not stopped from the time we went to Beijing until he fell ill.
The preceding paragraph can be said that there are many projects mainly in terms of national image. A lot of construction, decoration and other things, they are also directly involved, with students and young teachers. For example, when we held the Asia and Pacific Regional Peace Conference, the Beijing Hotel was very small at that time, and what if we couldn't adapt to it? To build a new building. At the east entrance of Goldfish Hutong, originally called the Peace Hotel, it was snatched out in 50 days. At this time, they are involved in many things in the interior and exterior decoration, with furniture, interior decoration, and paintings, which are all to be done every three to five. He also designed a set of utensils for the Peace Hotel. It's hard to say when you do this, and if you have something to call, "Whoever you all come over" and go.
As long as he works he is happy
Beiqing Daily: So what do you remember your father's mood at that moment, or is it still very pleasant?
Zhang Linchun: As long as he works, he is very happy. On the side of the Academy of Fine Arts, it was called the Pattern Department at the beginning, and after they took over and slowly transformed it, it became the Department of Practical Fine Arts. That is to say, all the other fine art work that does not matter about the painting, this side is in charge.
Window included. At that time, Wangfujing was a very important external door face, and how to make it better through the windows of many shops was also helped to improve, one by one. Because the original beijing shops are very simple, you can't see anything outside, you can only see the shops inside, and it is not as exquisite as the current display.
Another is the large-scale activities, such as the "May Day" and "Eleventh" parades, and the square must also be arranged. What did Tiananmen look like? There were also two archways on either side, and the team had to go around. Later demolished, after the demolition of the square changed, the corresponding proportion relationship is not right, how to re-swing it? The road is widened, what about that light? It also involves the stands, where it is placed, the height or whatever, they are all involved. Anyway, I know that the Huabiao and the lion, originally relatively in the middle, are now pulled apart, who set that position? He's given. Because the venue for the first anniversary of the founding of New China in 1950 was obtained by Zhang Tong and him.
Beiqing Daily: Is my father in good health? Seems to have high blood pressure?
Zhang Linchun: High blood pressure is a later thing. It should be said that our physical condition when we first came to Beijing is still good. There may already be high blood pressure because he is fat himself. But there was no reaction. It should be 1953 and 1954, and gradually found that something was wrong. Once it was more sudden, the mouth was numb, and the hands and feet were not very neat. At that time, I lived in cinder alley, and I was also very close to Concordia, so I went to Concordia to see it, and Concordia checked, and my blood pressure was high. When it was over, I was hospitalized there. After recovering, the blood pressure has always been relatively high, and I have been eating antihypertensive drugs, and sometimes I also go to the Chinese medicine to see. But basically it didn't affect his work, so those years were always sick work.
Beiqing Daily: What is the reason for the final death of my father, that is, high blood pressure?
Zhang Linchun: Hypertension recurs.
Beiqing Daily: Is it sudden?
Zhang Linchun: Nor is it. He has always been the after-effects of stroke, although he can get up, but he can't move as normally all day long. By 1964, it was often not up. In 1965, one day suddenly it was not ok, and he was quickly sent to Beijing Hospital, and he went in to rescue it and did not rescue it.
Beiqing Daily: The first stroke was in 1960?
Zhang Linchun: Yes, in August 1960, I went to Qingdao on a business trip, and Qingdao wanted to build a people's hall. After the stroke was then treated there, he was able to move back to Beijing, got off the train and went directly into Fuwai Hospital. This time it was not bad, and it finally eased up. Later, when I was able to go home, it was equivalent to the sequelae of stroke, my hands and feet were not neat, and my speech was not very clear.
Do your best for "The Haunting of heavenly palaces"
Beiqing Daily: What year was it to do art design for "The Haunting of the Heavenly Palace"?
Zhang Linchun: In 1959 and 1960, I did this in my spare time for more than a year.
At that time, it was the cartoonist Te Wei who went to Shanghai to set up the American Film Studio, invited Wan Liming from Hong Kong to come back and join them, and began to engage in cartoons. Later, it was said that to make a long story, Wan Liming was interested in "Journey to the West", and they adapted the script. The team wan Liming hung up the command, and said how to get this art? Please Zhang Guangyu help. In 1959, he went to Zhang Guangyu and said you help me get this, then of course he was very happy, saying "Ok, help you get it." So in the second half of 1959, he had it in his diary and began to think of characters. In January 1960, Wan Liming went to his house to find him, and he gave him a group of figures that he had already drawn, and maybe some drafts or something.
In March, he went to Shanghai for ten days and continued to paint people for him. In addition to designing these characters and scenes for them, I also instruct them to specific staff, such as your scene group, character group, I give you some ideas. At the same time, he said from an aesthetic point of view, you make this color film, you must pay attention to color. He got them a color scale, more than thirty color scales, and said this color mark, you make reference. Before he left, he was leaving that night, and he gave them more than three hours of lessons on how to make animations. So he not only designed it, but also instructed them on how to complete the shoot.
After returning to Beijing, I continued to improve some things for them. They got some design drafts or something, so they took them and asked him to help them see and change them. These diaries are recorded. Once it was a rather large pile of mail, and after he finished changing it, they happened to have a meeting in the western suburbs, and he sent it there. The Giant Spirit God and the Erlang God were re-painted and sent back to them. Until August, the last two scenes are Huaguo Mountain.
Most of these are done in spare time, only the 10 days of business trips to Shanghai, which are completely given to them. Because he was very, very busy that year, the top ten buildings had been completed, and a lot of work had not been done, during this time he concentrated on completing some things in the interior and exterior decoration, and there were things every day. I took it out of his diary, and today I went to the Great Hall of the People, and Ming'er went to the Great Hall of the People, and the day after tomorrow I communicated with which province. It's basically every day. At that time, there was also a show, and he also had to go to the theater, "Liu Sanjie", painting that stage sketch, just looking at it, but also giving people advice, about costumes, stage art.
Beiqing Bao: I have read a record of Huang Miaozi - in the construction of the motherland in full swing, a person who loves his country and loves his work, high blood pressure and half-body failure, but he can only spend years in this quiet courtyard, which he is not willing to accept. Although the Academy of Arts and Crafts took good care of him, his wife and children served him attentively during his illness, and relatives and friends from near and far came to ask about the illness when they knew him, which was generally considered to be a "blessing" in his later years, but Guangyu wrote in his 1962 notebook "Sick Bed Miscellaneous Feelings": "Never give in to the disease, I want to stand up, I want to work, and work for even 20 or 30 years." ”
Zhang Linchun: So he practiced hard. As long as you can get down to the activity, when you're done, you're practicing writing. Sometimes he recalls something and just blindly draws. We had a couple of notebooks with his graffiti on it, and the doodle was something he had thought of before. For example, he is more interested in Peking Opera, he has also been a ticket holder before, and he knows more about Peking Opera, so he will draw some Peking Opera plays, characters and so on. When the situation was better, he also painted some ink sketches, all of which were Peking Opera characters, some of which were Sun Wukong, some of which were golden leopards and so on. There are about a dozen things that can be seen so far, for this for that.
15 Fang Jia Yuan
Beiqing Daily: I read the recollection of Weng Lingwen, weng Tonggong's great-grandson: "In 1963, Zhang Guangyu suffered a stroke, and after he recovered, he had difficulty in moving and could no longer teach at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. But the mood was still very good, and he liked his friends to gather in his living room and study to talk about the past and the past, and he reclined on the sofa to listen quietly, while the Midas Buddha's face was occasionally filled with a smile that would be heartfelt. Usually, he is very fond of the small restaurant, especially the Beijing small museum has its own characteristics, friends will take turns every ten days and half a month to help him on the tricycle, accompany him to the small restaurant to eat, to the park for a walk, in terms of spirit, never saw the decadence. ”
Zhang Linchun: It should be said that friends are still very concerned about him. At that time, it was just in time for the difficult times, and it was more difficult to supply anything. Because his level is there, he is still a "meat and egg cadre", there are soybeans and eggs, there are some subsidies, and there are so many pounds of meat. Friends bought canned food, and some friends sent him milk powder from Hong Kong. It is that other people are good,000 people think of him in every way.
Later, it gets better, and sometimes you can pull a group out to eat or something. But more is still in this courtyard, mainly because this courtyard is more special. This courtyard is Wang Shixiang, Huang Miaozi and our family. The small courtyard environment is good, and friends recognize each other. There was a look at Huang Miaozi, "Hey, Guangyu is over here", and then come over to talk about relieving the boredom or something. There are many such cases, and the basic friends are constant anyway.
Beiqing Daily: Fangjiayuan No. 15.
Zhang Linchun: That house is the property of Wang Shixiang's family. But you have to give the excess to the Housing Authority, which collects the rental. He was afraid of finding a lot of messy people to live in, so he got us back. We lived there from 1958 until our eighty years. The courtyard was very nice, with vines and several trees. The matter of "The Great Haunting of the Heavenly Palace", the father completed it in that courtyard.
Beiqing Daily: During the Cultural Revolution, the family did not suffer much impact, so my father could still leave these things behind?
Zhang Linchun: Yu Feng and Huang Miaozi of the Cultural Revolution bore the brunt of it, and I don't know whether they were students of the Academy of Fine Arts or the Academy of Fine Arts, who came to raid their homes first, and then ran to our house by the way. Just when I came back to catch up, I had a fight with them, and the gang ran away in a hurry. But in fact, they still took some things, and the important thing is that they took away the "Journey to the West", and they took a lot of drafts and sketches. When they had finished copying people's belongings and throwing them away, one of my father's students, surnamed Joe, picked up some sketches, pasted them into a notebook, and kept them. In 2012, when I was doing my father's exhibition, he gave it to my eldest brother and said, "I picked it up at that time, I sorted it out, and I think it was Mr. Guangyu's." "Looking at it later, yes.
There are still many things scattered that we don't know, and we can't find them. Many of the diaries may be gone. So my father's diaries are discontinuous, paragraph by paragraph, and some years are gone. Therefore, a lot of historical materials are gone, and his diary is actually written in relative detail.
My mother said, "I'm in,
None of you can move."
Beiqing Daily: How did you get all these things back over the years, and then return them later?
Zhang Linchun: The first one is that we put it away ourselves, and some of the contents in the shelves they didn't find out and didn't get them. In addition, my second brother is more detailed, he remembers all the important things, and then he chases them, and finally some of them are recovered anyway. After chasing it back, it has been sorted out by my two brothers.
My mother was very critical, she said that Zhang Guangyu's things are not valuable, not the kind of painting things, how much can a piece sell for. But these things can not be lost, after the loss is nothing, only together can we know its value. So she kept insisting.
Beiqing Daily: This is really remarkable. Therefore, Mr. Li Dajun of Zhang Guangyu Document art center said: "His family is also remarkable, how can it be that after 50 years of Mr. Zhang Guangyu's death, after experiencing such great turmoil, the works have been preserved in their hands so completely, it can be said that there is almost no loss." ”
Zhang Linchun: These things are here, and they have a lot to do with her. Especially in times of war. In fact, a large number of things are from the Shanghai period, and when I left Shanghai, there were many things stored in people's homes. It wasn't until 1955 that I took a chance to get those things back. At that time, when it was stored in people's homes, it was all to be sorted and packed. Then my mother did it. So there are a lot of old things, all of which were brought back from Shanghai, like 24 gongbi female paintings, early comics, and "folk love songs". These are all sorted out and pressed inside, and the people who raided the house did not find it.
Most of the things that were taken away were things after the founding of New China, so after chasing them back, the old lady said, "I am here, and none of you can move." "We were all obedient, and the old lady's opinion was right. We've always had that philosophy, so it's not easy to have so much.
Beiqing Daily: Your mother also had a very high life later.
Zhang Linchun: Well, 98 years old.
Of course, some things have some meaning. There are four watercolors from 1918 and five from 1925 as "Treasure Jade Detective Qingwen". These five things were not taken back from Shanghai, there was a "noodle soup", this person is called Tang Zibo, he is a folk artist in Beijing, and I don't know where he bought these five things from. At that time, we lived in cinder alley, very close to the Academy of Fine Arts, and one day he came home to get a small bag and gave Zhang Guangyu "give you this.". Zhang Guangyu wrote in his diary, he only mentioned the "Treasure Jade Exploration Qingwen" that sheet, did not mention the four small ones, but the things were put together. So I decided it was together. Because we can't have such an early thing in our family, the earliest is "Folk Love Songs" in three years, and in the second few years, we have never seen them. Then I found something, and it went back to his diary, oh, that's the way it was.
The "noodle soup" was invited by him and Zhang Tong to teach students at the Academy of Fine Arts, so they had a good relationship. Otherwise, who would give it to you? You have to always look down on people to ignore you. Therefore, it shows that he is a character, an appreciation and love of folk art, and a good relationship with folk artists.
Writer/ Reporter Wu Fei