The Paper's reporter Huang Song
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, on the afternoon of June 25, "Shout - A Review of Chen Yanqiao, a Pioneer of China's Emerging Woodcut Movement", opened at the Liu Haisu Art Museum in Shanghai, with Chen Yanqiao's (1911-1970) printmaking works as a clue, showing the artistic phenomenon of emerging woodcut prints in the "New Art Movement" and explaining the pioneering status of emerging woodblock prints in the "New Art Movement".
Mentioning the title of the exhibition "Scream" will soon come to mind Mr. Lu Xun. The emerging woodcut of "writing with a knife" is the most closely related to Mr. Lu Xun, and the last photo of Mr. Lu Xun before his death is a group photo with the woodcut youth, and among the four woodcut youths who communicate together are Chen Yanqiao, who is also Lu Xun's most proud disciple and most powerful assistant.
Sha Fei, "Mr. Lu Xun and the Young Woodcarver Together", 1936; from left: Lu Xun, Lin Fu, Cao Bai, Bai Wei, Chen Yanqiao
Looking back at the history of Chinese art in the past hundred years, xinxing woodcuts have been closely linked to the fate of the country and the people since its birth. In the early 1930s, Mr. Lu Xun advocated the emerging woodcut movement, and a group of left-wing youth responded positively, and woodcut prints became a powerful weapon for criticizing reality and an important means to awaken the people, creating a history of China's emerging woodcut movement.
Since then, the emerging woodcut youth have adhered to the realist creative method, reflected the suffering of the people in the old society, exposed the dark reality, and actively participated in the struggle against Japan and the democratic revolution. Chen Yanqiao is one of the representative figures.
Exhibition site
The exhibition exhibits a total of 71 works by Chen Yanqiao in four parts: "The Age of Awakening", "Beacon Years", "Inheritance of Iron Pens" and "Exhibition and Expansion of New Journeys", from the early 1930s when he followed Mr. Lu Xun to engage in the emerging woodcut movement with pens and carving knives, until the works that expressed the new social style and people's livelihood after the founding of New China. By exploring the techniques, characters, personal experiences and historical environment of Chen Yanqiao's prints, the artistic scenes and ideological styles of China during the "New Art Movement" period are introduced, as well as their influence on the development of Chinese art and even ideological changes after that.
Chen Yanqiao, "The Guidance of Light"
Chen Yanqiao and Mr. Lu Xun
On October 8, 1936, at the second national woodcut mobile exhibition held by the Shanghai Eight Immortals Bridge Youth Association, Mr. Lu Xun and the woodcut youth had a full three-hour discussion, which was only 11 days before Lu Xun's death. The last photographs of Lu Xun left behind at that time are also a group of photos of great landmark significance in the history of Printmaking in China. The back-to-back picture in the photo is Chen Yanqiao.
Chen Yanqiao photo
Lu Xun's interaction with Chen Yanqiao began in October 1930, when Lu Xun held the "Western Woodcut Exhibition" on North Sichuan Road in Shanghai, Chen Yanqiao went to visit, and then with the encouragement and support of Lu Xun, Chen Yanqiao began to enter Xinhua Art to specialize in new woodcut creation, and joined the Left-wing Artists Alliance, becoming a backbone member of the mk woodcut research society, the Wild Spike Woodcut Society, the Taokong Painting Society and other young woodcut groups, and he asked Lu Xun for advice every time he created a certain number of works.
Chen Yanqiao founded the cover of the first series of the first issue of "Wild Spike Society" founded by Xinhua Art College in 1933
The first work in the exhibition is Chen Yanqiao's first printmaking "Game" at Xinhua Art College, which is Chen Yanqiao's first exploration with some expressionist traces, which also opens up his close connection with emerging woodcuts.
Chen Yanqiao, The Game, 1932
From 1932 to Lu Xun's death in 1936, Chen Yanqiao exchanged more than 20 letters with Lu Xun. There are 12 letters from Lu Xun (included in the Complete Works of Lu Xun). Lu Xun gave Chen Yanqiao specific and pertinent guidance from the techniques of woodcuts, composition to creative ideas, such as the reply on March 28, 1934: "I see Mr. Woodcut, the power of black and white contrast, has been very useful, on the one hand, it is best to observe the real form, physical objects, as well as ancient and modern famous paintings, there are also places that can be taken, we must pay attention at any time, can not let go." ”
Chen Yanqiao, Scenery of Spring, 1935
In the exhibition, a 1935 "Spring Landscape" Lu Xun gave a comment on the spot that "the composition is too full". From the works exhibited in this part of the exhibition, it is obvious that under the guidance of Lu Xun, Chen Yanqiao's printmaking skills have developed by leaps and bounds in a short period of time, from the early learning of the styles of Fujita, Kandinsky and others, to the gradual formation of personal printmaking styles. He used woodcut as a sharp weapon to reveal social contradictions and reflect the sufferings of the people, and at the same time, he also played the aesthetic function of printmaking and created woodcut landscape works with rich aesthetic depth.
Chen Yanqiao, La, 1933
Chen Yanqiao is also an important contact between Lu Xun and the Shanghai woodcut community. In 1934, in the early days of the establishment of the Wild Spike Woodcut Society, Chen Yanqiao assisted Lu Xun in organizing the "Revolutionary Exhibition of New Art in China" to be exhibited in Paris and Moscow, and finally Lu Xun and Song Qingling selected 55 of the 78 works collected to be sent to France, and Chen Yanqiao's works "A Female Worker" and "Natural Disaster" were selected.
Chen Yanqiao, Natural Disasters, 1933
On June 20, Lu Xun wrote to Chen Yanqiao: "An American told me that he had heard from a German that our paintings and woodcuts, which had been exhibited in Paris, were very successful, and that these works, which were exhibited in Moscow, were well received. The American mentioned in the letter was Stapley. The French Revolutionary Writers and Artists' Association at the time commented that these works were "extremely powerful and very moving expressions of the struggle waged by the overwhelming majority of the chinese working people for their liberation." ”
Chen Yanqiao, "Window", 1933, selected for "Woodcut Chronicle"
In the same year, Lu Xun edited and printed at his own expense the first anthology of China's emerging woodcuts, "Woodcut Chronicle", and wrote to Chen Yanqiao: "Advocating woodcuts, I think it is best to publish a quarterly journal, and if you have no choice, you will publish a semi-annual magazine or an indefinite periodical, and each issue will strictly select twenty woodcuts and print a hundred copies..." In the process of compiling and printing the "Woodcut Chronicle", Lu Xun poured a lot of effort, this woodcut collection contains 24 black and white woodcut works by 8 authors from 1933 to 1934, and Chen Yanqiao is one of the authors. In the process of selecting and compiling and printing, Chen Yanqiao and other woodcut youths were vigorously assisted. Lu Xun also hopes to use this magazine to exhibit the excellent works of China's emerging woodblock printmaking, so that the printmaking youth can learn and exchange to expand the influence of printmaking.
Chen Yanqiao, Self-Portrait, 1935
Chen Yanqiao, On the Huangpu River, 1935
After the death of Mr. Lu Xun, Chen Yanqiao wrote a eulogy "Mr. Lu Xun and Printmaking", fondly recalling Mr. Lu Xun's earnest teaching: "Mr. Lu Xun is the father of China's emerging woodcut, without him, China's emerging woodcut would not have appeared. Now that the father of China's emerging woodcut has left us and passed away, we must inherit his legacy in addition to our deep sorrow for him. ”
Chen Yanqiao, The Death of a Giant
Chen Yanqiao created a large number of Lu Xun-themed prints, showing Lu Xun's leading role and guiding position in the literary and art circles at that time, and taking Lu Xun as one of the representatives of the spirit of the times, portraying Lu Xun's worries about the country and the people, his tenacious and indomitable national integrity, and the national soul of replacing Ge with pen. A large number of works after Lu Xun's death also express Chen Yanqiao's nostalgia for Lu Xun.
Chen Yanqiao, cover of Lu Xun and Woodcut
In 1949, Chen Yanqiao published China's first comprehensive exposition of Lu Xun's woodcut theory of lu xun and woodcut, which was later translated into Russian and attracted widespread attention from the international art community.
At the exhibition site, Lu Xun and Woodcuts Chinese and Russian editions.
Throw yourself into the War of Resistance, carve a knife as a gun, and express the times
Chen Yanqiao followed in the footsteps of Mr. Lu Xun and used a knife and pen as a gun to fight in the front line of the national salvation literary and art movement. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Chen Yanqiao actively participated in the Anti-Japanese Salvation Movement, participated in the National Woodcut Anti-Enemy Association, the National Anti-Enemy Association of Literary and Art Circles, and the Progressive Cultural People's Salvation Conference, and went to the troops to carry out field services and draw anti-Japanese propaganda posters.
Chen Yanqiao, Northeast Volunteer Army, 1936
In the exhibition, the painting "Northeast Volunteer Army" has a great impression on later printmakers, including Yang Keyang. In August 1936, the "Second National Mobile Woodcut Exhibition" toured to Hangzhou, Yang Keyang visited this exhibition that was completely unfamiliar to him, he especially mentioned "Northeast Volunteer Army", "That strong black and white, distinct theme, made my thoughts feel a great impact, I was thinking that there is such an art in the world, so I decided to give up comics and learn woodcut." After seeing "Northeast Volunteer Army", the printmaker Tu Ke once said: "Chen Yanqiao's name and his works are deeply imprinted in my mind." This shows the propaganda power of this print at that time.
Chen Yanqiao, "Under the Enemy Plane"
In addition to "Northeast Volunteer Army", Chen Yanqiao's theme creation of the War of Resistance still seems to be inspiring, and he is good at using solid, meticulous and simple carving techniques to portray the momentum and spirit of the Chinese nation uniting and fighting hard to resist the war, showing the battle scenes of Chinese soldiers stubbornly resisting the enemy and fighting bravely, and also depicting the social conditions under the war, which has played a positive role in awakening the people's resistance, inspiring the people's enthusiasm for resistance, and publicizing patriotic and national salvation feelings.
Chen Yanqiao, "The Song of the National Defense Front", 1936
After the founding of New China, Chen Yanqiao, like other painters of various disciplines, used works of art to express fiery life and development and construction, but he used a carving knife, from the Foziling under construction, the railway station, to "Early Winter of the Yangtze River" and "Dusk of Bailianjing", so that the current viewer can see another way of expression that expresses social construction, which is different from Chinese painting and oil painting. 1958's "Dusk of Bailianjing" is Chen Yanqiao's last creation in Shanghai, with the poetry of infinite life in the afterglow of the sunset.
Chen Yanqiao, "Early Winter on the Yangtze River"
Chen Yanqiao, "Twilight of Bailianjing", 1958
After that, he left Shanghai and was transferred to Nanning, Guangxi, where he devoted himself to the art education work in Zhuangxiang with the spirit of pioneering, successively serving as the director of the fine arts department of the Guangxi Art College and the vice president of the Guangxi Academy of Arts. His first work in Guangxi was 1959's "Herding horses," which seems to have begun to reveal some artistic changes.
Chen Yanqiao, "Herding horses", 1959
In Guangxi, while cultivating ethnic minority artistic talents, he also went deep into the minority settlements, excavated and rescued folk art, and created a batch of woodcuts that were different from the past, reflecting the lives of ethnic minorities in Guangxi.
Chen Yanqiao, The Way Back, 1961
Chen Yanqiao, Bama Spring Ploughing i, 1965
The inheritance and discussion of emerging woodcuts
At the seminar on the opening day of the exhibition, Chen Yanqiao's son Chen Weinan recalled his father: "My father Chen Yanqiao was a person who was not good at words, whether his career was smooth or he encountered setbacks, he was speechless. At dinner, he liked to take a few sips and then smoke a cigarette, silently watching our three brothers do their homework or mischievous. He never recounts his past credits. I remember when I was in junior high school, my second brother Chen Chaonan seemed to suddenly realize something, saying that his father was a somewhat famous person, and he said after listening: 'You have to rely on yourself, don't rely on your parents'. When I returned to Shanghai from a high school attached to the Central Academy of Fine Arts, I talked about the "emerging woodcut movement", and he only said that "making new woodcuts is as difficult as planting crops on stone.".
Chen Yanqiao's used carving knife
Wang Xirong, a Lu Xun researcher and former director of the Lu Xun Memorial Hall, who participated in the seminar, told the inheritance of new Chinese literature and art from the left-wing art advocated by Mr. Lu Xun.
Chen Yanqiao illustrated Ding Ling's novel
Chen Yanqiao, "Lu Xun Advocates Woodcut"
Printmakers Such as Lu Zhiping, Zhou Guobin, Xu Longbao, etc. tell the story from the perspective of art history and the influence of Chen Yanqiao on the creation of printmaking at present. They believe that Chen Yanqiao's emerging woodcuts, drawing on elements such as Western Expressionism, have impressionistic methods of light treatment, which are inseparable from Western modernism, and at the same time grow in traditional soil, carrying the cultural atmosphere of shanghai.
Chen Yanqiao, Lu Xun and Gorky, 1937
Seminar site
Note: Co-sponsored by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai Artists Association and Liu Haisu Art Museum, the exhibition will last until July 18.
Editor-in-Charge: Lu Linhan
Proofreader: Luan Meng