What paintings should be hung in the Great Hall of the People? They are both art and politics.

What kind of painting should be hung in the Great Hall of the People? It is both art and politics

“The Great Hall of the People is so majestic and magnificent! From a distance, I saw the solemn national emblem on the main entrance, inlaid with red background. Gold, sparkling..." This text is excerpted from the text "Visiting the Great Hall of the People" in the primary school Chinese textbook. It is from this text that many people's first impression of the Great Hall of the People began to be established. Since then, this building has always appeared in daily life without any direct relationship - in the news network, on the back of the RMB.

“Every year before the ‘Two Sessions’ is the ‘golden period’ for adjusting the interior decoration of the Great Hall of the People.” Ma Xianglin, an expert on party history and author of the book “Tracking Past Events in the Great Hall of the People,” said. The local halls of the Great Hall, which represent the image of each province, city, and autonomous region, are often decorated to welcome the "Two Sessions".

Through television broadcasts and photo reports, whether it is the dome of the "water and sky are the same color" in the auditorium with a capacity of 10,000 people, or the huge landscape painting "Golden Autumn Picture of Swallows" hanging in the east hall - these frequently appear in national The classic scenery of the Great Hall of the People surrounding leaders has long become the most familiar "national symbol" to the public. Relying on the design of lighting, stage, decorative patterns, and the cooperation of thousands of works of art, the Great Hall of the People, as a unique political space, has formed a unique aesthetic philosophy.

One brick, one tile, one word, one painting, appearing in the Great Hall, is both art and politics.

Themes include the Great Wall, mountains and rivers, welcoming pines and others

"The Golden Autumn Picture of Swallows" is a painting that has been frequently photographed in "Xinwen Lianbo". Whenever new members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee enter the East Hall of the Great Hall of the People to meet with Chinese and foreign journalists, behind them is this "Golden Autumn Picture of Swallows". This painting roughly depicts the autumn scenery from Beidaihe Laolongtou to Juyongguan. "Shijiazhuang Daily" interpreted that "The Golden Autumn Picture of Youyan" "is majestic with all things, rebuking the eight extremes, reaching into the sky... It expresses the strong and broad national soul and arouses the excitement of the times."

The Yangtze River, the Great Wall, Huangshan Mountain, and the Yellow River. Hanging in the Golden Hall of the Great Hall of the People is "Yellow River, Mother River" by painter Wang Xijing. "China Weekly" commented that works with the mother river as the theme need to use realistic methods to truly present the inner power and charm reflected in its appearance.

In fact, among the themes of Chinese paintings, flowers and birds are also the first choice

"China News Weekly" mentioned that the painter Cui Ruzhuo received an invitation from the Great Hall of the People in 2011. At that time, Cui Ruzhuo proposed to paint load. He said that "Lot" symbolizes "harmony" and means "harmony". The wind of lotus leaves is homophonic to "Feng", which means "harmony meets prosperity". In the end, this huge Chinese painting was named "Lotus Wind in the Golden Age".

But in the minds of ordinary people, the first thing that people can think of about the painting of the Great Hall of the People is probably the Welcoming Pine. The painter Chen Kezhi said that in his impression, "At that time, I thought there were only welcoming pines." The traditional Chinese painting "Welcoming Pine" hung at the main entrance of the Great Hall of the People is the masterpiece of the master Liu Hui.

Chen Kezhi’s own work is the first oil painting hung in the Great Hall of the People. "China News Weekly" revealed that after Chongqing was under direct control, the Great Hall of the People opened the Chongqing Hall. At that time, Chen Kezhi painted three manuscripts, one "Several Degrees of Red Sunset" and one "The Moon Is Bright over the Three Gorges". The final one was selected. It's "Three Gorges Morning Song". In the picture, the morning sun rises in the distance, shining on the open Kui Gate. Chen Kezhi believes that it was precisely because of the bright yearning in the painting that it was chosen as the final plan. "Always look to the brighter place." Chen Kezhi said.

The decoration of the Great Hall also likes to emphasize the uniqueness and sophistication of art with the "big" limit. "Not only the size of the work must be large, but the theme of the work must also be magnificent." Ma Xianglin works at the History Museum of China National Defense University. In 2009, he was invited by the Central Literature Publishing House to start researching the history of the Great Hall of the People. In his impression, most of the decorative paintings in the Great Hall are themed with landscapes, pines, bamboos, flowers and birds, and few people appear. In particular, paintings of leaders and modern and contemporary figures with identifiable identities are even rarer. "This may be an unwritten taboo in the decoration of the Great Hall."

In fact, the avoidance of character works has already appeared when the Great Hall was first decorated. Xia Jishen, who is responsible for the decoration of the Hunan Hall, clearly remembers that the Hunan Hall first chose the oil painting "Chairman Mao Visits Hunan to Inspect the Peasant Movement" for decoration. However, Mao Zedong made it clear during his inspection tour that portraits should not be hung, and the painting was quickly removed.

In addition to paintings, calligraphy is also one of the many art works hung in the Great Hall of the People. The most famous among them are the calligraphy work "Ode to China" hanging in the Golden Hall and the official script work "To Shaoshan" hanging in the East Hall. As well as the calligraphy "Nine-Nine Returns" from the Macau Hall.

Under the huge size, both creation and transportation have stories

Whether they are paintings of landscapes or flowers and birds, most of the works have one obvious feature: huge size. Therefore, creation, transportation, and preservation all have stories.

In early 2012, Cui Ruzhuo's "Lotus Wind in the Golden Age" was officially hung on the wall on the north side of the cloister on the second floor of the Great Hall of the People. It is a spliced ??piece of eight paintings measuring two feet each. After being framed, it is 20 meters long and more than 3 meters wide. The total area of ??the picture is larger than the "So Many Beauties" on the wall behind it. The size of "So Many Beauties in the Country" on the back is 7 meters high and 10 meters wide. Fu Baoshi and Guan Shanyue worked together and took 4 months to complete the creation. Because the painting was too long, the car carrying the painting could not fit it, so we had to find more than ten people to carry it to the assembly hall. When pasting, three layers of shelves were set up, and five people were needed just to brush the glutinous rice. The "Golden Autumn Picture of Swallows", which was the largest painting in the Great Hall of the People for many years, is 16 meters long and 3 meters wide.

For large paintings arranged in public halls, the works must be consistent with the space, structure, shape, and color of the architectural environment. Many paintings in the Great Hall of the People and Zhongnanhai are tailor-made according to the walls. Not only the size, but also the layout, composition, color, etc. need to comply with the needs of the overall architectural environment.

Chen Kezhi painted the oil painting "Morning Song of the Three Gorges" for more than a month, sleeping only two or three hours a day. After the painting was completed, the work had to be shipped to Beijing. Chongqing leaders paid great attention to it and asked Chen Kezhi what his requirements were. Chen said: "It cannot be rolled or folded. I must read it after it is shipped to Beijing." Later, Chongqing specially found an extended car to roll the "Three Gorges Morning Music", which is 5.7 meters long and 1.5 meters wide. It was shipped to Beijing at a low price.

These huge paintings, of course, also need maintenance and restoration. Chen Kezhi goes to the Great Hall of the People every few years to oil and color his own painting "Three Gorges Morning Song". Another welcoming pine in the Great Hall of the People, the iron painting "Welcoming Pine" in the VIP reception hall was completed in 1959-1960 by the iron painting master Chu Yanqing. Later, the iron painting began to deform and break, and the City Hall Management Office invited Chu Yanqing's daughter, iron painting artist Chu Jinxia, ??to repair it.

Who is qualified to paint for the Great Hall of the People?

The most famous thing is that in 1959, Fu Baoshi and Guan Shanyue made a special trip to create "The Country Is So Beautiful" for the Great Hall of the People. Chen Yi, Guo Moruo, and Wu Han all visited it in person, and Zhou Enlai even prepared Maotai for them. .

And more names are not well known to ordinary people, or in other words, they are not so popular.

Hou Dechang, who created "Golden Autumn Picture of Swallows", was a teacher at the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts (now the Academy of Art and Design of Tsinghua University). Before "The Golden Autumn Picture of You Yan", he had a relationship with leaders - in 1976, he wrote 17 golden characters for the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall, "The great leader and mentor Chairman Mao Zedong will be immortal". "Golden Autumn Picture of Swallows" was widely praised. From then on, "almost every year he received the task of painting huge landscape paintings and writing large calligraphy works for important national places." There are 6 of his works in the Great Hall of the People alone.

When he needed help when creating "The Golden Autumn Picture of the Swallow", Hou Dechang called on two of his students - Geng Anhui and Dou Xianmin. Later, Geng Anhui composed "The Long Song of the River" alone for the East Hall Lounge and "High Mountains and Long Waters" for Zhongnanhai.

Hanging and collecting are two different things. For more than half a century, the Great Hall of the People has collected more than a thousand works of art, including those by grassroots painters. For example, in 2007, "Lots of Fruit" by Liu Guochen, a retired cultural center cadre in Henan, was collected. In 2009, "Heralding of Spring" by Wei Song, a peasant painter from Jiangsu, was collected. There are also many collections within the red walls of Zhongnanhai.

There is also a kind of person who can be regarded as a person who specializes in drawing "behind the leader". Wu Jinliang, a painter who created "Splendid Rivers and Mountains Listening to the Sound of Waves" for Zhongnanhai, has been working in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 1986. His works are not only hung and collected in Zhongnanhai, the Great Hall of the People, Chairman Mao Memorial Hall, Diaoyutai, etc., but hundreds of works have also been given out as "national gifts".

“Understanding politics” is the distinctive characteristic of the red wall painter.

Wu Jinliang is one of them. In 2005, Wu Jinliang painted for Lien Chan. Wu thought of drawing the wisteria into the shape of a dragon, and then drew two big roosters and nine chicks, one of which was slightly far away from the chickens. Wu Jinliang explained that this lonely chicken represents the treasure island of Taiwan, and one day it will return to the flock, and the ninety-nine will be reunited. Nine hours later, a picture of "Family Joy and Good Luck" full of political implications appeared on the paper. The "Children of China" magazine, in charge of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, reported that after seeing the paintings, relevant leaders praised them for "good paintings, good creativity, understanding of politics, and political speaking."