Lu Yanshao

Lu Yanshao ( Chinese  陸儼少  /  陆俨少 , Pinyin Lù Yǎnshǎo ; * 1909 in Jiading in today's Shanghai ; † 1993 ) was a Chinese painter.

Life

Lu Yanshao enjoyed a traditional education in Chinese painting and was a student of Wu Hufan吴 湖 帆 (1894–1966) and Feng Chaoran冯 超然 (1894–1968). He attended one of the first art schools in China, the " Wuxi Art Academy " in Jiangsu Province . His studies included, among other things, the art of seal cutting and the methods of stone rubbing , but above all copying the old masters of Chinese painting.

Fundamental to the traditional training in Chinese painting is the attitude that the artist can only create something new from knowledge of tradition. The painter should therefore learn the best from everyone in order to then be able to combine it into a new whole in his own sense. Lu Yanshao also saw no contradiction in the appropriation of tradition to the further development of contemporary art. "Without the basics of the invention of the predecessors and the knowledge of nature, painting can not develop any more."

Lu Yanshao traveled extensively throughout his life. His observations of nature and the experiences on his travels are reflected in his landscapes. In 1930 and 1931 he traveled west to the Tianmushan and Huang Shan Mountains and north to escape the confines of his home environment. From 1938 to 1946 he lived with his family in Sichuan .

He was particularly influenced by his journey on the Yangtze in 1946. In his biography, Lu Yanshao describes the return to his homeland as a key experience. On the day-long raft trip on the Yangzi, he repeatedly observed the "flying clouds, the flowing water, never-ending transformations". This experience led to a stylistic change in his work. The distinctive lines, the dominance of the ink over the color, the technique of flying white ( liubai ) have been his characteristics since then.

Between 1950 and 1980, art in the People's Republic of China was shaped by the goals and limitations of communist cultural policy and social realism. In the so-called " Yan'an Speeches ", Mao Zedong laid down the basic lines for cultural policy in relation to literature and art. Art should have a class character and serve the broad masses of the people. The artists should take on the task of educating the workers, peasants and soldiers according to socialist ideals . Art should be simple and easy to understand. By means of art, the masses were to be shaken up and made enthusiastic. Motives should correspond to the interests of the masses and, for example, represent the life of the people. At the same time, the artists should also learn from the people. "Only he who is a representative of the masses can educate them, only if he becomes a student of the masses can he become their teacher."

As a result of this cultural policy, in the early years of the People's Republic of China, traditional Chinese painting was systematically replaced by art that was to be of use to society. In the early 1950s, socialist New Year pictures and picture stories were particularly popular. Traditional ink painting was considered backward. Lu Yanshao also worked as a Lianhuanhua painter in the 1950s. During the “ campaign against deviants ” in 1957, tough repression measures were used and painters were persecuted. Lu Yanshao was also classified as a deviator in the course of this campaign.

In the late 1950s, the traditionally trained painters, who had been marginalized in the early years of the People's Republic of China, were initially able to return to work with the support of Zhou Enlai . Institutes for the preservation of Chinese painting have been established in some cities. Painters such as Pan Tianshou潘天壽 (1897–1971) or He Tianjian贺天健 (1890–1977) continued to paint with brush and ink, but in a contemporary large format and with modern iconography . Lu Yanshao shifted his studies of the old painters to more modern painters such as Shi Tao石濤 (1641–1707), whom he included in many of the pictures he created at the time. In 1962, at the invitation of Pan Tianshou, Lu Yanshao came to the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts , where he taught traditional painting. At this time his work on poems by Du Fu杜甫 (712–770) was created. There were hundreds of album sheets.

During the years of the Cultural Revolution between 1966 and 1976, the climate for artists intensified again. Non-political art forms were now completely impossible. In the late 1960s, painters had to deliver pictures to reinforce the Mao cult . The theme of the 1970s was the glorification of the contribution of the working society, represented on farms and factories. Lu Yanshao's work on Du Fu's poems was confiscated during the Cultural Revolution. Over half of the leaves disappeared. Like many other painters who wanted to continue to paint traditional themes of Chinese painting, Lu Yanshao also used common political symbols in his works, such as the red sky or red suns. Many painters also illustrated verses from Mao's poems and thus found the opportunity to paint traditional landscapes. Lu Yanshao also painted a series of six landscape paintings in 1966 based on the verses of Chairman Mao.

It was not until the 1980s that Lu Yanshao was able to devote himself to landscape painting again without restrictions . During this time, some of his best pictures were taken, such as the picture "Journey through the gorge".

His works are in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston , the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria in British Columbia. His works are auctioned at high prices.

literature

• Julia F Andrews, Kuiyi Shen: A Century in Crisis: Modernity and Tradition in the Art of Twentieth-Century China. Guggenheim Museum SoHo, New York 1998, ISBN 0-8109-6909-2 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/737751
2. ↑ https://aggv.ca/emuseum/people/3418/lu-yanshao/objects
3. ↑ http://www.artnet.com/artists/lu-yanshao/2
4. ↑ http://www.sothebys.com/de/auctions/ecatalogue/2016/fine-chinese-paintings-hk0634/lot.1412.html
5. ↑ http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/lot.1385.html/2016/fine-chinese-paintings-hk0659
6. ↑ https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/Lot/lu-yanshao-1909-1993-landscape-6129742-details.aspx

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Lu is the family name here, Yanshao is the first name.