In July 2011, in the enlarged nave of the National Museum, two paintings of the Founding Ceremony appeared, one of which was unveiled to the public for the first time after the Cultural Revolution. Careful people will find that the characters on the two paintings are different, and the hidden story behind the famous paintings is once again a long-lasting memory.
A copy of the oil painting "The Founding Ceremony". The first row behind Mao Zedong was from left to right: Zhu De, Liu Shaoqi, Song Qingling, Li Jishen, Zhang Lan, and Gao Gang
In 1955, the oil painting "Founding Ceremony" erased Gao Gang, but did not destroy the composition
This article is excerpted from the latest issue of "Literature and History Reference" (No. 39, 2011), the original title is "The Founding Ceremony: Painted with Political Oil", and the shoulder title is "Four Revisions Reflect The Vicissitudes of Decades"
In the 1950s, if you casually asked a Chinese knew about oil painting? The answer was, "Oh, I know, it's the Founding Ceremony!" On September 27, 1953, the People's Daily published the oil painting "Founding Ceremony" on the front page, which was published in large quantities and then printed as a New Year painting for sale and entered primary and secondary school textbooks.
However, almost from the birth of the painting, in more than twenty years, the figures on the canvas have been deleted and added several times, and the oil painting itself has been reproduced and modified. These changes reflect the decades of politics in the Republic. The Founding Ceremony not only freezes the day of October 1949, but also records a history that Chinese cannot avoid.
In July 2011, in the enlarged nave of the National Museum, two paintings of the Founding Ceremony appeared, one of which was unveiled to the public for the first time after the Cultural Revolution. Careful people will find that the characters on the two paintings are different, and the hidden story behind the famous paintings is once again a long-lasting memory.
Break through the limitations of data and boldly compose
In early 1951, in order to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, the Museum of the Chinese Revolution began to prepare a painting exhibition for the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. After several months of solicitation, the painters produced nearly a hundred paintings for the exhibition, but the results were not satisfactory. At that time, the head of the museum said: "As a national museum collection of paintings on the history of the Party, it is obviously inappropriate not to have a masterpiece showing the founding of the People's Republic of China." ”
In 1952, Ge Bo decided to entrust the Central Academy of Fine Arts to organize the completion of a number of oil paintings representing the new China, of which the task of creating the huge oil painting "The Founding Ceremony" was given to Dong Xiwen, a 37-year-old young painter and well-known professor.
Dong Xiwen, a native of Shaoxing, Zhejiang, came from a professional art academy and worked in Dunhuang for three years. At the beginning of the liberation of Peiping in early 1949, Dong Xiwen wrote a gouache painting "Beiping Into the City Style", and he also witnessed the grand opening ceremony. At the first Wen Dynasty meeting of New China, he was also appointed to paint portraits of Mao Zedong and Zhu De. Drawing portraits of the leaders at the founding ceremony, Dong Xiwen is the most suitable candidate.
At that time, Dong Xiwen was leading students to live in depth at the Shijingshan Power Plant on the outskirts of Beijing, working while sketching. He was recalled to Beijing and immediately put into creation, but he found that in all the photographs and video footage, the leaders and the masses did not appear together. In his imagination, the "Founding Ceremony" should be a scene of the founding leaders of new China and the masses in the square together, so he decided to make a bold attempt.
Dong Xiwen drew a sketch on a piece of postcard-sized paper, on the left side of the picture are many national leaders, and on the right side is a square full of flowers, so that the layout of the left and the real and the right is unbalanced according to the general composition law, but it increases the contrast between the leaders and the masses in the square.
"This sketch tries to link the mass scene in Tiananmen Square with the state leaders above the city tower, and I don't think it is enough to show the grandeur of the historical event of the founding of New China..." Dong Xiwen said in a letter to the famous oil painter Ai Zhongxin. Xu Beihong, Ai Zhongxin, Jiang Feng, Wu Zuoren, Luo Gongliu and other famous artists praised the composition of this work.
Dong Xiwen also boldly removed a large red pillar that should have been on the right side of Mao Zedong in the sketch, and the square suddenly appeared large, adding a lot of momentum to the whole picture. After the master builder Liang Sicheng looked at it, he praised: "There is a pillar on the right side of the picture that is not painted... This was a big mistake in architecture, but a big success in the art of painting. ”
The painting raises Mao by an inch
In order to concentrate on his creation, Dong Xiwen rented a "creative studio" in Xizongbu Hutong in Beijing. For this "creation room", Pang Tao, a student of Dong Xiwen and a famous female oil painter, described it this way: "It was a narrow long strip building, and downstairs was a shop selling soy sauce groceries. The room is unimaginably narrow, facing a canvas of more than 2 meters wide and more than 4 meters long, the depth of the retreat is only about 2 meters, the back is close to the wall, and the field of view cannot see the picture completely, we are very surprised, how Mr. Dong completed this big painting in such a bad environment. ”
In order to save time, Dong Xiwen often spent the night in a chair in the studio. Because the room was too small, the canvas was connected to the roof and down to the floor, and when he was painting, he climbed up the roof and lay on the ground for a while. Daughter Dong Yisha said: "After the "Founding Ceremony" was written, my father often painted day and night. At that time, he smoked a lot, and within half a day's work, the ashtray was full. When he was able to draw into the mind, he called him to eat, but he could not hear him. ”
Dong Xiwen combined the techniques of Western oil painting and Dunhuang mural painting to create a precedent for Chinese style oil painting. The Founding Ceremony chose to look south from the Tiananmen Tower, so that Tiananmen Square and a large blue sky were displayed in front of the audience. Pang Tao once mentioned that when processing the carpet, Dong Xiwen added a small amount of sand to the oil painting color, which properly showed the texture of the object.
When the "Founding Ceremony" was 70% or 80% completed, Dong Xiwen's old friend and the famous oil painter Ai Zhongxin and others visited his studio. During the discussion, they found that Mao Zedong, who was originally tall, did not appear high enough on the picture because he was standing in the center and front. It was agreed that Mao's image should not be limited by the narrowing of perspective caused by his foothold, and that it was necessary to increase it by a few points. Although the height is less than an inch, but the project is not small, in order to make the picture leave no trace, Dong Xiwen carefully washed away the original painting part with thin materials and repainted it again.
From the beginning of the creation to the completion of the partial revision, Dong Xiwen took less than three months to create the 4-meter-long and 2.3-meter-wide giant oil painting "The Founding Ceremony". On the screen, Chairman Mao stands in the center of the Tiananmen Tower and solemnly reads the "Announcement of the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China" in front of the microphone. Behind them stood representatives from all walks of life, and the leaders in the first row of the picture were all vice presidents, from left to right: Zhu De, Liu Shaoqi, Song Qingling, Li Jishen, Zhang Lan, and Gao Gang.
The "Founding Ceremony" boldly uses blue, big red, and golden yellow to form a tone, with blue, brown, and green tones, the sky is painted cleanly and neatly, and a large area is painted at one time. The day of the founding ceremony was a cloudy day, and it rained in the morning, but Dong Xiwen adopted the effects of "wind and sun" and "magnificent" to deal with it, thus conveying a "solemn and warm scene".
In April 1953, a special exhibition was arranged in the Huairen Hall in Zhongnanhai, and Mao Zedong and other national leaders visited Dong Xiwen's "Founding Ceremony" for the first time and also met this remarkable young painter. Several national leaders were excited when they saw the painting. Mao Zedong also took advantage of the interval between receptions to return to the lounge twice, carefully watch the exhibition, and praised: "It is a big country, it is China." He said proudly: "When our paintings are brought to the international level, others cannot compare with ours, because we have a unique national form." ”
Erase the high post without destroying the composition
The founding ceremony was displayed at the Museum of the Chinese Revolution, but only three years later, the Gao Rao Incident occurred. Gao Gang, vice president of the state and member of the Politburo, was dismissed from his post in early 1954, committed suicide in August, and was expelled from the party in March 1955. Ge Bo then asked Dong Xiwen to revise the Founding Ceremony and erase the high post located on the edge of the first row of the screen. In order not to damage the picture, Dong Xiwen did many experiments on other oil paintings before he began to write and delete Gao Gang's portrait.
This change did not do much damage to the whole picture. Dong Xiwen later said: "When this painting was composed, Gao Gang had a cramped feeling of squeezing on the side, and removing him was good for the composition." This edition of the Founding Ceremony, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1959, was not only displayed in the newly built Museum of the Chinese Revolution, but also carved into commemorative stamps and widely circulated.
In 1957, the "Anti-Rightist" movement began. At that time, Mao Zedong advocated the use of Chinese painting to paint revolutionary themes, but Dong Xiwen did not approve of it, because he was the author of the "Founding Ceremony" and was spared the misfortune of being branded as a "rightist", but was punished with a severe punishment of "staying in the party for two years". He later painted the Long March and the Red Army across the meadow for the Museum of Revolutionary History, but they were all considered to be gray and not exhibited.
In the early 1970s, the oil painting "Founding Ceremony" deleted Liu Shaoqi and completed Dong Biwu
Delete Liu Shaoqi and complete Dong Biwu
There are many characters in the "Founding Ceremony", which cannot be fully displayed one by one, and Dong Biwu on the screen only has a small half face. As early as 1953, at the Huai Ren Tang Painting Exhibition, the leaders joked that Dong Lao, the painter can tick you off with just one stroke. However, no one thought that after 19 years, Dong Biwu's image was not only not erased, but was portrayed completely, which had to be "thanked" Liu Shaoqi.
After the "Cultural Revolution" began, Liu Shaoqi became the largest "ruling faction taking the capitalist road" in the party and was overthrown. Dong Xiwen was also attacked and sent to the cadre school.
In 1972, the Central Cultural Revolution Group organized a commemorative art exhibition to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the publication of Mao Zedong's Speech at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art. The Revolution Museum transferred Dong Xiwen back to Beijing from the cadre school and informed him to remove Liu Shaoqi at the Founding Ceremony. Someone told Dong Xiwen that if you want to hang this painting in the Revolutionary History Museum, you must change Liu Shaoqi, otherwise you will never be able to hang it.
At this time, Dong Xiwen was already suffering from advanced cancer, and although his condition was still good after the operation, he was physically weak. This modification project is very complicated, because it is not simply to remove one person, but also to make up another person, but also to involve the person next to it. Daughter Dong Yisha recalled the situation at that time: "At that time, my father was in pain, but the pain in his heart was even more intense. In order to alleviate his pain, his brother wanted to change it for him, and he firmly disagreed..."
Dong Xiwen came to the museum with an illness accompanied by his son and asked his son to paint with him as a "crutch". He first covered a piece of cloth the same size as Liu Shaoqi's image on the canvas, and then coated it with thin material, so that he could control the extravagance of the thin material, try not to dissolve and destroy the surrounding picture, and then scrape Liu Shaoqi off the canvas, re-do the bottom, and paint Dong Biwu, who originally had only half a face, in Liu Shaoqi's position.
Without Liu Shaoqi in the "Founding Ceremony", Dong Xiwen had an extra layer of concern in his heart. He said: "A person who engages in art is responsible for his own work, for a thousand years..." He hopes to restore Liu Shaoqi with his own hands in his lifetime. At that time, Dong Xiwen's cancer was already in its advanced stage, and in order to be able to get to this day, he personally engraved the words "anti-cancer" and "indomitable" to encourage himself to defeat the disease. He told the students, "I wish there were another 20 years..." But Dong Xiwen finally failed to wait for this day to come.
Change the Lin Boqu and copy the fourth draft
Dong Xiwen used a small brush to wash Liu Shaoqi clean, one of the purposes was to hope that the "Founding Ceremony" could still be hung in the Revolutionary History Museum. But as a result, the painting was removed and put in the museum room.
Soon after deleting liu Shaoqi from the painting, the Central Cultural Revolution Group, which was in charge of the power, transferred some well-known professors of the Central Academy of Fine Arts who had been assigned to rural labor in Cixian County, Hebei Province, back to Beijing, with the task of "refreshing and preparing" a number of revolutionary history paintings that had an impact in the 1950s and 1960s.
According to Jin Shangyi, a student of Dong Xiwen and now chairman of the China Artists Association and a famous oil painter, the purpose of "refreshing" the "Founding Ceremony" was to change to Lin Boqu, who was standing next to Zhou Enlai, because the competent department did not have a Tao. Later, people speculated that Jiang Qing was behind this incident, because during the Yan'an period, Lin Boqu opposed Mao Zedong's marriage to Jiang Qing and made three chapters of the Covenant Law.
At this time, Dong Xiwen's condition was quite serious, and he had to be admitted to the hospital, and the task of changing the painting was more than enough and insufficient. So Jin Shangyi was "invited" to come out and change Lin Boqu on Dong Xiwen's original work. Jin Shangyi was once in a dilemma, and in order to respect history and his teacher, he flexibly proposed a compromise plan, that is, he and the painter Zhao Yu copied a "Founding Ceremony" according to the original picture. While copying, they asked Dong Xiwen, who was seriously ill, for advice, which was the fourth draft of the painting.
On January 8, 1973, the 58-year-old Dong Xiwen died with regret, and before the replica of the "Founding Ceremony" could meet the audience, the "Gang of Four" collapsed.
More than twenty years later, the Founding Ceremony finally returned to its original appearance
In 1978, the Museum of the Chinese Revolution held an exhibition on party history, and the "Founding Ceremony" had to be exhibited, and Liu Shaoqi had been rehabilitated by this time. In line with the principle of seeking truth from facts and returning the original face of history, Ge Bo obtained the consent of his superiors and decided to restore the "Founding Ceremony" to its original appearance. However, Dong Xiwen's original work has been changed several times, and it is difficult to restore the original appearance, and the family does not agree to change the original work. The museum had to entrust the famous painter Jin Shangyi. At that time, Jin Shangyi was busy with official business, so he recommended the young Beijing painters Yan Zhenduo and Ye Wulin, who painted Liu Shaoqi and Gao Gang on the reproduction of the Founding Ceremony.
At this point, the "Founding Ceremony" has finally returned to its original appearance, and the "Founding Ceremony" now exhibited in the exhibition hall of the National Museum is a copy, and the other is the "Founding Ceremony" without Liu Shaoqi on the screen.
Today, when people walk in the middle of these two special works of art that have been modified in the museum, while appreciating the value of art, it is more important to read about the special era when art was used as a political appendage.
Source: Northwest Revolution History Network
![In 1957, a skeleton in Nanchang was locked by shackles, alarming Liu Shaoqi, and later Chairman Mao personally wrote the epitaph[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)