[Lingnan Literature and History] – Co-organized by the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Culture and Literature and History Materials Committee and Yangcheng Evening News
As a major printmaking center, Guangdong’s emerging woodcut movement, led by Lu Xun, wrote a brilliant page on the history of modern Chinese printmaking
Yangcheng Evening News All-Media Reporter Zhu Shaojie
In modern times, Guangdong has been an indisputable printmaking center. Emerging woodcut sports athletes such as Huang Xinbo and Gu Yuan all came from Guangdong. The classic works of Li Hua, Lai Shaoqi and others are also well-known, but their specific creations and explorations during the modern print fair, especially the original woodcut Komiks, are hard to find.
In September 2019, the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts Library discovered 146 works from the Modern Printmaking Club while sorting out the collection, presenting more of the modern “emerging woodcut movement”, including early works by Li Hua, Lai Shaoqi and others. This is an important gain from the Guangdong art community in recent years to excavate and organize the treasure mountain of modern prints.
Seeing the light of day again
In 1931, Lu Xun advocated and launched the China’s emerging woodcut printmaking movement in Shanghai, and the “Modern Creation Printmaking Research Association” (hereinafter referred to as the “Modern Printmaking Association”) was an important representative of the movement in Guangdong. The initiator of the Modern Printmaking Association was Li Hua, and the initial members included 27 people including Lai Shaoqi, Tang Yingwei, Chen Zhonggang, Zhang Zaimin, Pan Xuezhao, Hu Qizao, Situ Zuo, Liu Jinghui, Pan Ye and others. KomiksTheir activities were published 18 issues of the “Modern Prints” album until the July 7 Incident in 1937, which had an important influence across the country. In September 2019, Guangmei Library found a batch of original woodcuts and publications from the Modern Printmaking Club when sorting out the collection. There were as many as 146 woodcut originals, including early works by Li Hua, Lai Shaoqi and others. “The works of the Modern Printmaking Association include two tendencies: realism and modernism.” Hu Bin, deputy director of Guangmei Art Museum, said that this batch of original works “see the light of day again” is of great significance. First of all, its size is very rare among national collection institutions. It also covers a wide range, covering at least two-thirds of the members of the modern print fair; second, it is well preserved and is all original works of single and loose pages. The original works of the members of the Modern Printmaking Association are mostly kept in the album of “Modern Printmaking” made by handprints in the form of collection and binding; third, the document value is high. In addition to some of these works, some of them are still subject to research and confirmation, and these works are very likely to be left alone.
『Bridgehead』
Around 2001, Wang Jian, an associate researcher at the Guangzhou Museum of Art, interviewedChen Zhonggang and Liu Lun, a modern print fair who were all fashionable. From their oral descriptions, related documents and publications, Wang Jian was not inferior to the Lingnan School of Painting, and wrote a brief introduction to the modern printmaking meeting in the history of Guangdong’s art. He then published the article “A Brief History of Modern Printmaking in Guangzhou in the 1930s”.
Wang Jian told Yangcheng Evening News reporter that the birth of the Modern Printmaking Club originated from Babaylan Since then, Li Hua, a young teacher in the Western Painting Department of Guangzhou Municipal Fine Arts College, encountered by chance. In 1934, in order to relieve the pain of losing his wife, Li Hua created woodcuts after class and unconsciously carved dozens of them. After his classmate Wu Qianli found out, he borrowed the second floor of the Volkswagen Photography Store on Yonghan North Road to assist him in holding an exhibition of woodcut works. Li Hua’s students came to visit and suggested that they wanted to learn the prints. So, the modern creative printmaking club was established under the support of students.
Although the founder of the Modern Printmaking Association is Li Hua, the soul and spiritual mentor behind it is always Lu Xun. In a 1991 memorization article, Li Hua wrote that after the establishment of the Printmaking Association, he used the Soviet print collection “Yinyu Collection” compiled by Lu Xun as a learning reference, and actively contacted Lu Xun and asked for guidance, and consciously became a member of the new woodcut movement.
Under Lu Xun’s direct guidance, modern Guangzhou prints will quickly start to face social reality from the initial expression techniques of imitating various Western schools, focusing more on expressing characters; artistic language will also gradually change from imitating Western woodcut styles to exploring traditional national styles. They began to refer to the traditional Chinese paintings and painting collections such as “Shizhuzhai Calligraphy and Painting Collection”, “Shizhuzhai Notes Collection”, and “Jieziyuan Painting Biography”, and strive to engrave the national style and personal style.
curator He Xiaote believes that the woodcut movement took place in the 1930s, an important period of the development of modern Chinese art. “The reason why woodcuts successfully occupied the bridgehead of modern Chinese art is not unrelated to its loud ‘popular’ gene. Although they occasionally express their youthful restlessness and peek at the language of Ukiyo-e and Chinese folk prints, the proletarian literature and art position has not wavered.”
The best modern print fair in the countryCinemaAlthough it only existed in Guangzhou for more than three years, in the emerging woodblock printmaking movement, compared with other folk printmaking clubs across the country at that time, it set the four national bests, namely “the most exhibitions, the most publications, the longest activity time, and the deepest international influence”, and wrote a glorious page on the history of modern Chinese printmaking.
According to participant Chen Zhonggang’s recollection during his lifetime, over three years, the exhibition activities of the association have ranged from being originally within the Municipal Beauty School to exhibitions in public places such as Guangdong Provincial People’s Education Museum and Guangzhou Municipal Library; the exhibition locations also range from Guangzhou to Guangdong’s four townships, from this province to more than a dozen cities in other provinces; the number of works created from the initial 100 to more than 800. Among them, in October 1935, Lai Shaoqi, Chen Zhonggang and Pan Ye held the “Woodcut Three-person Exhibition” at Guangzhou Yonghan Road Volkswagen Company, exhibiting 63 woodcut works. At that time, Mr. Xu Beihong passed by Guangzhou and saw exhibition advertisements to visit, giving positive comments and encouragement, and took a photo with Lai Shaoqi and others.
On July 5, 1936, the “Second National Woodcut Mobile Exhibition” organized by Li Hua, Lai Shaoqi and others was held in the Zhongshan Library in Guangzhou, with more than 600 works exhibited. Woodcutter Huang Xinbo and others came to Guangzhou from the sea to participate in the exhibition and met with members of the Modern Printmaking Association. Subsequently, the exhibition toured in cities such as Hangzhou, Shanghai, Nanjing, Taiyuan, Hankou, Nanning, and Guizhou, forming a new climax in Guangdong in the national woodcut movement. On October 8, when the exhibition opened at the Shanghai Eight Immortal Bridge Youth Conference, Lu Xun came to the scene while ill, praising Lai Shaoqi as “the most combative woodcutter” and left a photo. This was the last public event during Lu Xun’s lifetime.
It is worth mentioning that the modern printmaking association was the only one among the many printmaking groups at that time to conduct artistic exchanges with foreign colleagues. Not only did he have artistic exchanges with Japanese folk print clubs such as “White and the Underworld” and “Aomori Printing Club”, “Modern Printing Club” and so on, “Modern Printing Club” also published works by Japanese woodcut artists Asahi Maemura, Kenaki Mae, Sumio Kawakami, Anji Taniaka, Shizuo Fujimori, Haru Momoto, and others. The works of modern printmaking club members are also published in Japanese printmaking magazines.
Carved Knife Weapon
The War of Resistance Against Japan broke out in 1937, and Li Hua, Liu Lun and Lai Shaoqi successively joined the army to fight against the war. As the Japanese army occupied Guangzhou, the cultural and artistic circles in Guangzhou became increasingly silent, and the activities of the modern print fair came to an end, but this did not mean the demise of the emerging woodcut movement. Woodcutters who participated in the emerging woodcut movement were in the anti-Japanese forces of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, on the front line or behind, in the Kuomintang-controlled or liberated areas., they still use woodcut knives as weapons to carry out propaganda battles, and actively create and publish works on the theme of anti-Japanese and national salvation at the critical moment of the country’s crisis.
The “Gate God of Anti-Japanese War” created by Lai Shaoqi in 1939 is a woodcut that describes the anti-Japanese warriors rushing to the battlefield.以民间传统门神形式，承载抗战救亡的内容，在该年春节被大量印刷Cinema，贴在桂林大后方的千家万户门上，唤起“匹夫有责”的战斗激情。 Afterwards, Lai Shaoqi, as a war reporter from the National Salvation Daily, came to the headquarters of the New Fourth Army in Yunling, Jingxian County, Anhui Province, and joined the army until the founding of New China.
For artists personally, their participation in the woodcut movement is not only reflected in their creation, but also builds the spiritual inner world of their future life path. Lai Shaoqi’s name of Mushi is from the reply from Lu Xun to him and the Modern Printmaking Association: Huge buildings are always stacked with wood and stone, so why should we make this wood and stone?
Extension
Modern Printing Learn from Folk
Modern Printing Association was committed to creating “woodcuts that are popular among the public” at its beginning, and folk customs and traditions have become the source of inspiration for woodcut creation. In the eighth episode of “Modern Printings”, published on May 1, 1935, it used the theme of “Folk Customs” and used the modern artistic language of woodcut prints to describe folk customs such as “Qixi Festival”, “Guanyin’s birthday”, “burning clothes”, “worshiping sugar beef”, “crossing the fairy bridge”, “shocking”, “going brother-in-law”, “burning lions”, and “Qinglong Master”.
In addition to using woodcuts to reproduce the folk customs of the time, members of the Modern Printmaking Association also collaborated with the Japanese woodcut club “White and the Underworld” to publish the “Southern China Rural Toy Collection” and “Northern China Rural Toy Collection”, using colored woodcut techniques to record these long-dead folk fun. These two sets of albums were later collected by Lu Xun, which included a large number of folk material and cultural elements such as pineapple chicken, cloth dog clay man, mud pig, dragon boat, rattle, and tumbler.
This shows that the emerging woodcut movement that led the momentary trend and took combat as its mission, includes both the vivid and bright colors of Chinese folk New Year paintings, and the sharp and vigorous woodcuts from modern European prints. They are a unique artistic achievement that collided and blended with traditional and modern, and Eastern and Western aesthetic tastes.
【Interview】
Wang Jian, associate researcher at the Guangzhou Museum of Art
How did Guangdong become an important printmaking center in art history?
Inclusiveness becomes a trend, and the people have a sense of family and country
Yangcheng Evening News All-Media Reporter: The creative style of members of the Guangdong Modern Creation Printmaking Research Association has also shifted from modernism to realism and from individualism to nationalism. How to explain the historical causes?
Wang Jian: The origin of the works of the Modern Printmaking Association is not local, but the introduction of Western, Soviet and Japanese prints. It can be said that in the early stage of modern printmaking, it is natural for members to absorb Western modernist expression techniques according to their respective interests. However, this period when Babaylan, which is now imitating the level of imitation, quickly transformed into a metaphysical spiritual creation period for printmakers to express their inner thoughts and emotions. The most typical representative work is Li Hua’s woodcut print “Roar, China”, which abandons all the light and dark lights and shadows of Western art, environmental backgrounds, etc., and uses the white-scanning technique of Chinese painting to express a giant who is bound and blinded with his eyes, symbolizing the Chinese nation that is struggling to get rid of and resist deeply.
The historical causes are mainly related to the tragic situation of China being bullied by the great powers and becoming a semi-colonial country in modern times. Mr. Lu Xun believed that “Saving the country and the people need to save the idea first.” After advocating the emerging woodcut printing movement, Lu Xun also became the soul and mentor to guide the modern printing association. Therefore, modern printmaking produced a positive turn from subject matter to expression form, and consciously incorporated into the progressive left-wing art with realism as the mainstream.
Yangcheng Evening News All-Media Reporter: Why has Guangdong become a major printmaking center in art history?
Wang Jian: During the Republic of China, Guangdong became a major printmaking center in the history of modern Chinese art. There are several main reasons: First, in terms of geographical location, Guangzhou is located in the south far away from the central government, but it is a long-term overseas trade opening port in history. It is influenced by Chinese and foreign cultures and forms a trend that can be both inclusive and inclusive. The rise of the Lingnan school of painting in Chinese painting, the emergence of modern prints in prints, etc., are all due to this.
Secondly, in a relatively relaxed political atmosphere, modern prints in Guangzhou will be able to develop actively. At that time, many print clubs outside Guangdong were considered “red” and banned, and members were even arrested and jailed. Guangdong is relatively tolerant, and the “People’s Education Hall” under the Guangzhou Republic of China government is still on the left.KomiksThe modern print fair provides a place for exhibitions. Third, Guangzhou is the source of the democratic revolution in Sun Yat-sen. The people generally have revolutionary consciousness and family and country feelings. Inspired by Lu Xun, the printmakers of the Guangzhou Modern Printmaking Association fought with printmaking as weapons.
Yangcheng Evening News All-Media Reporter: Looking back on the history of Guangdong printmaking, what important role does the personal choice and creative exploration of Guangdong printmakers play in it? What kind of inspiration and experience do you have for your current creation?
Wang Jian: The full name of the Guangzhou Modern Printmaking Association is Modern Creation Printmaking Research Association, which emphasizes “modern” and “creation”. “Modern” mainly reflects the current social reality; “creation” emphasizes that artists are observers of social reality and should create and express themselves based on their own observation and experience and inner thoughts. Creation is a new creation with strong individuality, which is different from the copying and imitation of famous masters such as the “Four Kings” and “Four Monks” in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. Although the Modern Printmaking Research Association has become a glorious history of the page being turned over, there are still many references for today’s art creation.
Illustration/Liu Miao
Cooperating website: “Literature and History Guangdong” http://www.gdwsw.gov.cn/