Zong Qixiang's Art Reformer

Speaking of Zong Qixiang, as early as his early forties, his fame had spread all over the country. He became famous first in Nanjing, then in Chongqing and Beijing. He was the first painter who successfully transformed China's landscape painting with western paintings, and he was one of the four art reformers with Jiang, Li Keran and New China. 1942, the landscape painting exhibition "Night Scene of Chongqing" was held in Chongqing, which created China's landscape painting at night and broke the limitation that Chinese painting could not express light sense. Xu Beihong personally presided over the opening ceremony of the exhibition, and wrote: "Zong Qixiang used Guizhou earthenware paper and Chinese painting ink, which made the night lights in Chongqing fade, the pavilions and pavilions were uneven, the mountains and rivers were rugged, and the streets and lanes were mixed. They all used very simple pen and ink. In the past, the words of pen and ink were nothing, but now Quan Jun's pen and ink contain countless images, breaking through the expression methods of the ancients. This is a great creation of Chinese painting, and it should be written in detail! (Excerpted from Xu Beihong's Selected Works, Preface to Xu Xi's Painting Collection).

Zong Qixiang studied painting at the age of five, and under the guidance of his father, he learned to copy the landscape paintings of four masters in Song and Yuan Dynasties. After ten years' study, he painted traditional landscape works on 1933 and was selected for the Nanjing National Art Exhibition. After the exhibition, he was accepted as a member of the All-China Art Association. The following year, he was selected for the China Art Exhibition held in Vancouver to commemorate the opening of the port with his works "Pisces" and "White Peacock". Two works were sold and received a reward of 200 silver dollars, which was the first big money that Zong Qixiang earned in his life before 17 years old. Since then, he also participated in the charity sale of artists' works for disaster relief. 1937 His landscape paintings were once again selected for the second national art exhibition of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China. His works won prizes in the exhibition and were selected by President Lin Sen of the Republic of China. The next day, Nanjing Minsheng Daily published a headline on this matter, which caused a sensation in the national art circle for a while. From then on, Zong Qixiang became a young talented person and a beautiful woman in Nanjing, and his name was included in China Celebrity Dictionary published by Shanghai Edition 1935. 1937, Zong Qixiang fled from Nanjing to Wuhan. In order to serve the motherland and take part in the Anti-Japanese War, he was admitted to the 15th Army Military Academy of the Republic of China, where he stayed after graduation. From July 65438 to July 0939, he came to Chongqing on foot and was admitted to the Art Department of Central University, where he studied under Xu Beihong and Huang Junbi. Since then, the road of Chinese and western art reform has begun.

1942 zong qixiang's work "through thick and thin" was selected for the third national art exhibition of the Republic of China and won the prize. In recalling his father Li Yisheng's article Miscellaneous Notes on the Allied Art Exhibition, Mr. Li Yuanyuan wrote: "1942 Spring, the preparatory committee for the art exhibition of the anti-fascist alliance was established in Chongqing, with Li Yisheng as the head of the management group of the preparatory committee, and Xu Beihong, (Minister of Government Culture) as the chairman. This exhibition was exhibited in Chongqing for more than a month and received rave reviews. At that time, it was the most popular among artists in the venue. The picture shows the sailing boat encountering a big storm, symbolizing national cooperation and national disaster. At the exhibition, Xu Beihong was full of praise and gave a high evaluation. After winning the prize, this work was transported to Britain, the United States, Russia and other countries for exhibition together with other winning works. Famous painters from all over the world participated in the works, and the works were sold abroad for charity, and all the proceeds were donated to the domestic war of resistance. "

During the four years from 194 1 to the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China commended the highest award for artistic creation for four consecutive years, and Zong Qixiang won the second prize. The government allocated special funds to encourage them to create. At that time, other famous painters such as Chen, Chen, Chen, Chen, Wu Zuoren, and Chang Shuhong were awarded this honor. 1944 After graduation, he became a researcher at China Academy of Fine Arts. 1946 went north with Xu Beihong. At the age of 29, Zong Qixiang was a lecturer at Beiping Art College. He is already the most proud disciple around Mr. I.M. Pei, and he is as famous as Jiang and Ye in Beijing. On the first day of Beiping Art College, Xu Beihong appointed Zong Qixiang as the tutor of the graduating class of Chinese painting. On the first day of class, Zong Qixiang took his students to the suburbs to sketch, which broke the old teaching system in Beiping. At that time, the graduating class included Mr. Sun Qifeng, who later became the president of Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts. In art education, Xu Beihong strongly advocated going deep into life, "taking nature as a teacher", arranging sketching classes and sketching classes in Chinese painting teaching, and learning from the expression techniques of western painting to solve the innovation problems of Chinese painting. This innovative teaching method has been attacked and slandered by some conservatives. Facing an "anti-Xu movement", Xu Beihong held a Chinese and foreign press conference on June 5438+0947+ 10/5. He sent a written article at the press conference (published in Beiping World Daily in June 1947, 10, 16), which refuted all kinds of fallacies with indisputable facts, expounded his own ideas and countered the conservatives. He pointed out: "... the new Chinese painting should at least express people, and the mountains and rivers should have regional differences." The establishment of new Chinese painting is neither progress nor a combination of Chinese and Western painting. But the so-called imitation of nature can not be fulfilled in one sentence, and defaming and rewriting students will imitate a set of stereotypes of the ancients, just like Lang Shining or Japanese painters. If we look at the works of emerging writers, such as myself, Jiang, Zong Qixiang and Ye, we can find the fallacy of this stereotype and feel that there are many ways to open up new Chinese paintings, which need heroes to carry forward. In June 5438+10, Zong Qixiang also made a positive response. He published an article in Tianjin Ta Kung Pao entitled "The early bird sees the sky", participated in the dispute between the old and new cultures, and finally the new culture won.

Zong Qixiang often attended receptions of foreign embassies with Xu Beihong in Beiping. Introduced by his teacher, he made some international friends, including American consular wife, grandson of Indian poet Tagore, American wife John Calvin Ferguson who lived in Beiping for a long time, and British consular diplomat. They ordered Zong Qixiang's night paintings for a long time and also learned Chinese paintings from Zong Qixiang. Ms. John Calvin Ferguson, the daughter of the famous American "China Hand", has an elegant China quadrangle in Beijing, which collects China antiques and ancient paintings. She is an active sponsor of Zong Qixiang's art exhibition. This large-scale art exhibition was held in the early summer of 1948, and all the works were booked in a few days. Some works have been rearranged many times, and some foreign friends knocked on the wrong door when they went to the dormitory of the Academy of Fine Arts. Zong Qixiang had to write his English name on the door.

1In August, 949, Zong Qixiang served as the art instructor of the Third Field Army, trained a group of art talents for the army, and organized and created more than 20 large-scale oil paintings of the Huaihai Campaign. Among them, Zong Qixiang's large-scale oil painting "DuDu Corps" has been collected by China Revolutionary Military Museum and published in Art magazine in the early 1950s. 195 1 year, the large oil painting "Yang Sigen" won the first prize. At that time, his works were borrowed by many young student painters to participate in art exhibitions, which influenced a generation of young painters in China in 1950s and 1960s. Zong Qixiang's achievements in China's fine arts are obvious to all in the history of fine arts in the 20th century: in the history of Chinese painting, watercolor painting and oil painting. He is another artistic all-rounder after his teacher Xu Beihong, as many disciples of Zong Qixiang said: "In the fifties and sixties, Mr. Zong influenced the whole painting world in China and was a famous teacher revered by teachers and students of national art colleges."

From 65438 to 0949, Beiping Art College was reorganized, the original music department was separated and the Central Conservatory of Music was established. The other four majors, Chinese painting, oil painting, sculpture and pattern, merged with the Fine Arts Department of North China University to form the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Chinese painting and oil painting merged and changed to painting department; Soon, the design department absorbed the design teacher of West Lake Art College and changed to the practical art department; Sculpture department or. The main courses of painting department are: sketch, outline, watercolor and oil painting. The directors of the four departments are: Jiang, Zong Qixiang, Ye and Ai Zhongxin. The task of the sketch class is clearly defined to lay the foundation for the line drawing of New Year pictures and comic books. Watercolor department is also the predecessor of later ink painting department. Why not set up an oil painting department instead of a Chinese painting department? Because at that time, it was thought that landscape flowers and birds could not serve the workers, peasants and soldiers, only the outline of the characters had reserved value, and the portraits of revolutionary leaders should be painted in oil. 1950 Zong Qixiang's ink painting Xiu Yongding Bridge won the prize in the first national art exhibition.

1953, the first director of watercolor department of Central Academy of Fine Arts, and concurrently the teacher of cadre training class. Trained Yang Zhiguang, Wang Naizhuang, Peng Bin and other students, went to the Korean battlefield to sketch and repair Datong Bridge in the summer vacation, participated in the first national watercolor painting exhibition in New China on 1953, and won Li Hu, Gu Yuan, Wu Guanzhong, Li Jianchen, Yang Taiyang and other awards. He is also an outstanding watercolor painter in China. During the reform of Chinese painting in the mid-1950s, the Central Academy of Fine Arts changed the department of Chinese painting to the department of color ink painting. Zong Qixiang and Li Hu are two representatives of China's colored ink painting. They have played a connecting role in this reform tide and are well-deserved masters. At that time, people in the art world called China's colored ink painting Zong Qixiang's colored ink sketch. Zong Qixiang is one of Xu Beihong's most proud disciples and the most representative painter in the trend of China's art reform. He carried out Xu Beihong's educational thought, went deep into life and loved nature. He traveled hundreds of thousands of miles in the motherland and drew tens of thousands of sketches. He is one of the few painters who go deep into life and sketch for a long time in China. In the field of landscape painting, he and Li Keran developed and enriched the Xu School system, which is worthy of Xu Beihong's high feet.

1955 the second national art exhibition sponsored by the national artists association is divided into two major exhibitions: Chinese painting and western painting. Zong Qixiang's Chinese painting figure "Breaking through Nianzhuang" and Li Hu's "Visiting the Construction Site" won excellent creation awards. Their works were criticized by Zhejiang traditional painters at that time because of their outstanding personal style, which triggered the first dispute between old and new Chinese paintings after Xu Beihong's death. At the same time, in the Western Art Exhibition of the Second National Art Exhibition, the works "Repairing Datong Bridge" and "Drilling Project of Yangtze River Bridge" won by Zong Qixiang and Li Hu in the first watercolor art exhibition in New China were specially selected by China Artists Association to be sent to the Western Art Exhibition of the Second National Art Exhibition and won prizes at the same time. (Excerpted from History of Watercolor and Chinese Painting in New China).

From 65438 to 0956, Zong Qixiang went to Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan to sketch for several months. Wan Li created masterpieces such as Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, Group Paintings in Xishuangbanna and Jinsha River in Du Qiao during his trip. The China Artists Association and the Central Academy of Fine Arts held an exhibition of colored ink paintings by Zong Qixiang, Li Hu and Xiao Shufang at the China Art Museum, which was a sensation. This is one of the most influential exhibitions since the founding of New China. After the exhibition, China Artists Association organized a one-year tour exhibition in all provinces of China and published a collection of paintings by Shanghai Fine Arts Publishing House.

1957, the General Political Department of China, the Central Ministry of Culture and the China Artists Association jointly held a large-scale oil painting exhibition celebrating the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Party in China. Organize 400 national painters to create revolutionary themes in 18 months. Zong Qixiang's giant oil painting "Forcing the Dadu River" has won awards in many masterpieces, and it has been recorded in the history of new China oil paintings together with Wang Gallery's Meeting Jinggangshan, Ai Zhongxin's Red Army Crossing the Snow Mountain and Wang Shenglie's Eight Women Throwing into the River. (Excerpted from History of New China Oil Painting).

As we all know, Zong Qixiang started the innovation of China landscape painting as early as 1939. Taking the dark night as the theme, he used sketches of western paintings to represent the mountains in Chongqing under moonlight and light. He is the first painter in China who introduced western painting into China landscape painting and achieved great success. In 1950s, Li Hu, a famous figure painter, was also influenced by Zong Qixiang and created landscape paintings at night. In 1980s, influenced by Zong Qixiang, the young painter Xu Xi began to learn to paint night scenes, rain scenes and landscapes. For several months from Beijing to Chongqing, he spent every night on the dock near Chaotianmen in Chongqing, along the road that Zong Qixiang walked 40 years ago. From seven o'clock to dusk, he revels in the charming night view of Jialing River every day. This is the Jialing River where Mr. Zong Qixiang lived for seven years, and he achieved the reform goal of Zong Qixiang's landscape painting in Chongqing Mountain City. 196 1 year, Zong Qixiang was the director of the Landscape Department of the Chinese Painting Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, and trained students such as Jia Youfu, Zhang Ping, Wang Wenfang, Zhou Zhilong, Zhang Renzhi, Fu Yixin and Li Baolin. 196 1 Chinese painting is divided into branches, and landscapes, figures and flower-and-bird paintings are taught by several excellent artists. The first branch is composed of students from Grade Three 19 of Chinese Painting Department. This class graduated from 1963. At that time, the landscape class was divided into seven students, namely Professor Zong Qixiang and Professor Li Keran, and Zong Qixiang was the branch director. The figure class is divided into 8 students, taught by Jiang Heye, with Jiang as the director of the branch (in the second year) and 4 students in the flower and bird class, taught by,, and.

(Abstract: Memoirs of Ye)

1966 At the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, Zong Qixiang and the famous teachers of the Central Academy of Fine Arts became ghosts overnight. The Academy of Fine Arts set up the Cultural Revolution Group, and some activists in the Academy put them in the bullpen. The college has also set up a black painting exhibition room. Every night, a fire rises in the college. Activists pulled them out of the bullpen, surrounded them one by one, and knelt down to accept criticism. Some painters' hands and faces. Later, Zong Qixiang recalled in his later years: "At that time, they couldn't figure out a way to escape the criticism in the bullpen. They can't stand the criticism. They just lie on the ground and play dead. Several painters were taken to the morgue for one night and walked home alive the next day! During the Cultural Revolution, Zong Qixiang was brutally persecuted by the Gang of Four. His property was robbed and his salary was deducted. He was tortured, took a "dirt plane" and suffered unprecedented personal destruction, humiliation and persecution. At the same time, he was criticized by students who graduated from landscape architecture and his own disciples. From then on, his mind suffered a fatal blow and he had suicidal thoughts many times. His good friends, Li Hu, director of people department, and Guo Weiqu, director of flowers and birds department,

1974, the gang of four broke out in Beijing, and Zong Qixiang, Li Keran, Li Kuchan, Huang Yongyu and other 17 painters and 120 black paintings were exhibited and criticized in China Art Museum and Great Hall of the People. Zong Qixiang ranked first because of his great fame. There are 28 landscape paintings, figure paintings and flower-and-bird paintings, accounting for a quarter of the whole "Black Art Exhibition". The most famous "Three Tigers" was named "Tiger Tiger Tiger Lively" and was approved as "Three Tigers for Tiger", which was the first black painting to praise Lin Biao. It is widely circulated in the society and everyone knows it. After "bringing order out of chaos", the painters came back for a long time and set up an artistic creation group in Beijing, which was the predecessor of the Chinese Painting Research Institute. Zong Qixiang was one of the earliest people in this organization. 1978 In the summer, he concentrated on painting in Beijing Friendship Hotel with a desperate spirit and completed a lot of works. On July 7th, at the invitation of Guangxi government, I wanted to paint. Before leaving the hotel and taking off by special plane, he finished an eight-foot plum blossom as the end of two months of painting here. With heroic passion and perfect pen and ink skills, he touched and dyed the painting at will, and famous painters such as Liu Haisu, Lu, Li Keran and Wu Zuoren attended the scene. Liu Haisu, an 83-year-old painter, witnessed the whole process of Zong Qixiang's painting. He was very excited and grateful. Zong Qixiang finished painting, packed his pen and ink and was about to leave the hotel. Liu Haisu suddenly came from behind and handed in a hand scroll with a smile. Zong Qixiang quickly unfolded the scroll and looked at it carefully. It turns out that this is a church in Mo Bao just written by the old man. The title is: "When his pen was almost finished, it was swallowed before it arrived." The next title is "His hometown sage brother is going to Guangxi to sketch a farewell here". Liu Haisu, an art master, quoted Su Dongpo's poems and accurately defined Zong Qixiang's creative style.