1、 1 The Shanghai School The decades from the mid 19th century to the early 20th century were years that saw the migration of many painters to Shanghai from its neighboring provinces Jiangsu and Zhejiang. The phenomenon gave rise to the Shanghai School, which corresponded to the Beijing School in the
2、north. Artists in this school made innovative efforts to integrate genteel techniques and sensibilities with the exuberance of folk art, and Western media with indigenous ones. Their works therefore appeal both to those with a cultivated taste and to the appreciative public alike, making the works p
3、opular abroad as well as at home. Ren Bonian Ren Bonian (1840-1895) was one of those artists who moved to Shanghai to seek more opportunities for his career. Born in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, he arrived in his 20s ?C talented, but little known ?Cto make his way in a metropolis already brimming wi
4、th celebrated artists. Seeing works under his own name didnt sell, and crushed by the subsistence livelihood he managed to eke out, 2 Ren Bonian began to fake the signature of one of the most beloved painters in the city ?C Ren Xun.Buyers immediately fell for the ruse. One day a middle-aged man stop
5、ped by his stall to take a close look at the pieces on sale. He asked the young man if he knew Ren Xun in person. Embarrassed and anxious, Ren Bonian stammered that he was a relative.The man in front of him was Ren Xun himself. Discerning the young mans artistic gifts, Ren Xun didnt fume over his ma
6、lfeasance, and instead, took the lad into his brood of students. By the age of 40 Ren Bonian had overtaken his mentor in the art circles of Shanghai and beyond. He incorporated Western watercolor techniques and sketching into Chinese ink painting, enhancing the realistic character of his works. To b
7、ring life into the objects on paper, he observed the world around him with the utmost attention. His home in Shanghai was adjacent to a pet bird and fish market. Everyday Ren Bonian spent hours there watching his feathered friends, studying their constitution and movement. This familiarity enabled h
8、im to render this small creature with just a few nimble strokes. Accomplished in landscape and bird-and-flower paintings, it is Ren Bonians figure paintings for which he is most often commended. The people he brushes into life all have souls, inviting communion with art lovers, dealers and collector
9、s. 3 In Ren s time ?C the late Qing Dynasty, a declining China suffered under the constant bullying and aggression of foreign powers. The painter produced a number of historically themed works to express his concern for the future of the nation, to drum up patriotism, or to rally his people in defen
10、se of the country. The best known exhortations of bravery and patriotism include Su Wu Herding Sheep. Su Wu was a Han envoy detained by the Huns during his mission and trapped in the wilderness to tend herds for 19 years before getting a chance to break away and return to his homeland. Another is Mo
11、 Ye and Gan Jiang Making Swords, a famous revenge story from the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 B.C.). Wu Changshuo Wu Changshuo (1844-1927) was born in today s Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province, and began his evolution into a noted painter from a study of seal carving. At an early age he began to e
12、xplore ancient Chinese characters, which were mostly found on metal vessels and stone tablets. As seal making is fundamentally about handwriting, he practiced calligraphy for many years, by copying the inscriptions of earlier masters on rocks. This experience lent an aura of antiquity and formality
13、to his paintings, most evident in those 4 depicting dense clusters of purple blossoms on vines of wisteria. When in his 30s, Wu Changshuo studied with Ren Bonian. His freehand bird-and-flower ink paintings stood out with their lavish colors and imposing compositions ?C a vigorous, vibrant breakaway
14、from the flaccid and gloomy trend of the genre in the late Qing Dynasty. Painting was long deemed an art for the elite of the society, but Wu Changshuo never intended to stay aloof from the general public. He catered to the aesthetic preference for bright colors by being the first in China to apply
15、Western red pigment in his flower paintings, adding warmth to these traditionally black and white creations without impairing their inherent grace and simplicity. Wu should be understood from his place in the transition of Chinese painting from the classic to the modern, and his clear influence on s
16、ubsequent generations of painters such as Qi Baishi. Market prices for his works have been escalating in recent years, setting a record of RMB 16.5 million for 12 folding screens of flowers at the Guardian 2004 spring auction. Liu Haisu Liu Haisu (1896-1994) might be the most controversial artist 5
17、in China. This son of a private banker in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province showed his maverick streak in childhood. He left home at 14 to study Western painting in Shanghai, and founded a fine arts institute with his classmates two years later. In 1918 he took his students on a painting tour to the West
18、Lake in Hangzhou, unprecedented for art schools in the nation at the time, where classes were exclusively indoors. In 1919 his institute made more big news by enrolling girls, making it the first coed school in China. The next year Liu Haisu jolted society again by using female life models, sparking
19、 roars from conservatives about the propriety of naked females in the school s studios. A Shanghai senator wrote an article in the local newspaper calling for the government to dole out punishment for the offence to general mores. The chair of the citys chamber of commerce also sent an open letter t
20、o the editor of a local newspaper reviling Liu as “lower than beasts.” The local authority granted a secret warrant for his arrest, but Liu Haisu beat the wrap thanks to his friends mediation. The episode only resulted in the avant-garde painter achieving instant notoriety in the nation. In February
21、 1929 Liu Haisu headed for Europe on a cultural exchange tour, during which he met prominent artists like Picasso and Matisse, and created over 200 works. On returning to China, he 6 displayed these paintings in Shanghai and Nanjing, attracting more than 100,000 visitors. Liu made a second trip to E
22、urope in 1933, lecturing in several universities and collecting more kudos on the continent. Meanwhile, back home he was despised by many of his peers, including Xu Beihong, one of the greatest painters in modern Chinese history. Xu once wrote a letter to the government accusing him of treason durin
23、g the Japanese occupation. In the 1990s some scholars claimed to have found evidence that many of Liu Haisus paintings and writings made before the 1950s were actually the work of others. They argued that he didnt reach the artistic height we see today until the 20-year period beginning in 1957 when
24、 he was labeled a Rightist, since his reduced circumstances then prompted wholehearted commitment to his art. Liu Haisu is best remembered for his portrayal of the Yellow Mountain. He summited the mist-veiled mountain ten times during his lifetime, during the years between 1918 and 1988. As with the
25、 persistence and tenacity required of him as a climber, Liu Haisu demonstrated similar grittiness and boldness in his artistic career. Chen Yifei 7 Chen Yifei (1946-2005) might be the most successful painter of all those who bridged Chinese and Western art. When Armand Hammer, the flamboyant United
26、States business tycoon, made his 1985 visit to China, he picked Chens Twin Bridge ?C Memory of My Country as his gift to Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping. Chen Yifei deftly interprets the essence of traditional Chinese art ?C peace and elegance ?C through a Western media ?C oil. He first caught the atte
27、ntion of American art critics in the 1980s after publishing his Pace in Art News magazine. Later he produced a musician series, entrenching his hallmark of romantic realism. Every piece in this series shows a Caucasian woman playing a musical instrument such as a cello or a flute. Their fair complex
28、ions and intriguing composure are set against somber backdrops, adding an occult ambience to the scene. A native of river-fed Ningbo in Zhejiang Province, Chen Yifei created a good number of works about waterfront villages, such as Ancient Bridge, A Place Where I Played in Childhood and Tranquil Can
29、al. To Western eyes these rural communities on canvas emit an otherworldly serenity and almost paranormal beauty. In 1985 his Bridge was selected by the UN for the design of a first-day cover. Chen Yifei explored new terrain in the 1990s ?C Chinese women 8 of old. His ladies are all impeccably compo
30、rted and clad in gorgeous Qing costumes. Playing music or fondling a fan, they have a sedate and melancholy appeal, embodying a classic femininity rarely found in hectic modern times. The highly expressive oil techniques lend the pictures nuance and chromatic richness, while the traditional aestheti
31、c perspective preserves their Oriental nature. The commercial success of Chen Yifei matches that of his artistic might. During the years from 1991 to 1998, 33 of his works were hammered away at auction for more than RMB 40 million; in the 1990s this amounted to the biggest haul in the world for a single Chinese painter. After 2000 Chen dabbled more widely in the realms of art, including film, fashion and environmental design until his death in 2005. As a founder of his own companies, he turned out to be as adroit with business as with brush.
