Xu Beihong
Xú Bēihóng ( Chinese 徐悲鸿 , W.-G. Hsü Pei-hung ; born July 19, 1895 in Yixing , Jiangsu Province , Chinese Empire , † September 26, 1953 in Beijing , People's Republic of China ) was the first Chinese painter of the 20th century who used western stylistic elements in his works.
Life
He received his first painting lessons from his father Xú Dazhang, a self-taught professional painter. As a child, Xú Beihong painted based on the model of the Jieziyuan collection and adored the painter Ren Bonian. After studying in Japan , he studied European painting at the National Academy of Fine Arts in Paris from 1919 and then traveled to Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and Italy.
In 1928, Xú returned to China and was initially a professor at Nanjing University . He later headed the Art Institute at Peking University , to which he eventually appointed Qi Baishi . After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Xú was appointed the first director of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. In addition, he was chairman of the Chinese Artists Association.
plant
Xú Bēihóng adopted numerous elements and techniques from Western painting into Chinese art. Nonetheless, he was distant from European modernism, as manifested in the works of Picasso or Matisse , and viewed it as an expression of Western decadence.
Xú became known in particular as a painter of galloping horses, which were often interpreted as an allegory of the regaining strength of the humiliated Chinese nation. The most fruitful creative period in Xú's life was the 1930s, in which several important oil paintings and traditional paintings such as "Tian Heng and five hundred rebels", "Jiu Fanggao" and "Spring rain over the Lijiang River" were created.
His painting "Slave and Lion" was auctioned in November 2006 at Christie's Hong Kong for 5.3 million euros. At the time, this sum was a real record compared to the works of other Chinese artists. The painting tells the story of a slave and a lion who lived during the Roman Empire. The slave frees the lion's paw from a thorn. At a later meeting, the lion and the same slave face each other in what is actually a bloody fight in a Roman amphitheater. The emperor is so impressed by the maudlin encounter that he releases the slave from captivity.
At 7 million euros, his painting "Put your whip down" achieved the record price for a Chinese painting at a Sotheby’s auction in Hong Kong in spring 2007. The picture from 1939 - taken during Xu's stay in Singapore at the peak of his artistic creativity - shows an anti-Japanese performance of a traveling theater. It shows the Lady Shang in front of a group of spectators and reflects the spirit of the Chinese people against the background of the anti-Japanese war (1937–1945). Deeply moved by the patriotic motifs of the play, Xu expressed this feeling with careful brushstrokes and created a sensitive portrait with the female performer in the foreground and a lively and realistically depicted audience in the background. After the painting had disappeared from the scene for over half a century, it has now been publicly exhibited by Sotheby's for the first time since 1954.
Galloping horse
Chen Sanyuan
Lim Loh
Ms. Jenny
See also
Web links
- Xu Beihong Museum
- Life and Work (Engl.) ( Memento of 8 May 2015, Internet Archive )
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Xu, Beihong |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | 徐悲鸿 |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Chinese painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 19, 1895 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Yixing |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 26, 1953 |
| Place of death | Beijing |