Zhao Songtao

Zhao Songtao (ca.1986)

Zhao Songtao (Zhao Song Tao; born September 4, 1916 in Tianjin ; † July 13, 1993 ibid) was a Chinese landscape painter.

Life

Zhao Songtao comes from a poor family from Tianjin (Tian Jing), a port city south of Beijing. His father worked in an eyeglass workshop and died when Zhao Songtao was 14 years old. Since painting was in his blood, he began to sell paintings at a young age to support his family (mother Rong Zhei Tian, a sister and two brothers).

There was not enough money to attend an art academy and so he had to develop as an autodidact. His first "teacher" was a book called Jie Zi Yuan, which was based on the landscape painting of the Song Dynasty . In the first half of the 1930s he also traveled to southern China, where he immersed himself in Chinese landscape painting .

Returning to Tientsin he met the important landscape painter Wang Shiquan, whose pupil he became. It was he who concentrated Zhao Songtao's sensations, his energy and strength on a style of painting as reflected in the paintings of the famous landscape painter Huang Binhong, who mixed the traditional style with modern realism.

Zhao Songtao's “apprenticeship” extended from 1933 to 1935. During this time, too, his family lived from selling his pictures. At the age of 19 he became an employee in the "Huazhong Printing House", where he designed advertising graphics. During this time he also painted pictures for the Chinese New Year celebrations .

In 1934 he married Yang Shu Wen. She gave birth to nine children, of whom three sons (Zhao Min Sheng, Zhao Jun Shong and Zhao Hon Sheng) and his daughter Zhao Yu Sheng, born in 1951, also devoted themselves to art painting. His daughter graduated from the Tianjin Art Academy and developed the Xuan-Zhi painting technique, which her father loved so much that he asked her to keep the technique a secret. She moved to Austria in 1993 and is now called Yusheng Zhao-Simperl.

Even if the first few years of Zhao Songtao's work are to be assessed more as a craft art, he was aware that he could develop further on the basis of the basis that had been created so far. And so he gradually found his way that eventually led him to a unique style and mastery.

At the time of the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, he devoted himself increasingly to landscape painting. In 1960, Zhao Songtao was appointed professor at the Tianjin Art Academy. At the same time, he became a member of the Chinese Artists Association, board member of the Institute of Chinese Ink Painting, and deputy head of the Tianjin Folk High School.

He began traveling again in the early 1960s, arguing: “Nobody can brag about being a good landscape painter if they don't get to know the regions they are painting. They have to be in touch with the real landscape visually to step."

As intellectuals, Zhao Songtao and his family particularly suffered from the Cultural Revolution of Mao Zedong (1966-1976). Her house was searched three times by the Red Guards and the entire collection of old pictures, furniture, vases, statues, etc. destroyed. His daughter Yusheng Zhao comforted him with the words: “Father, you don't need to be sad. You have two hands and you can still paint many pictures in the future. ”But his collection was lost forever.

When the Red Guards persecuted the intellectuals at the Tianjin Art Academy , Zhao Songtao's students stood before him protectively. Because he was not only an excellent, but also a very popular professor.

In the mid-1970s, Zhao Songtao founded an atelier called "Jing Song Tang" (protection by the spirit of an unyielding jaw) and "Jing Gen" (strong roots). During this time he also took the stage name "Ben Jian" to emphasize that he draws strength from nature. And he needed this strength because on July 28, 1976, the Tangshan earthquake destroyed most of the houses in Tianjin .

Meanwhile, Zhao Songtao was a respected professor around whom students from other countries also gathered. During this time he wrote four textbooks on Chinese landscape painting. As well as explaining his style, they should anchor art in society and encourage everyone to share in the joy of painting.

When Zhao Songtao turned 70, he didn't want a big celebration, but a solo exhibition of his paintings in Beijing . This wish was granted to him in 1989, four years before his death.

Work and meaning

Zhao Songtao's pictures for the Chinese New Year were already extraordinary. But it was only in the 1960s that he was able to fully develop artistically. As a ink painter, he increasingly devoted himself to landscape paintings, being one of the first artists to add color to classical Chinese landscape painting, which was almost entirely in black and white. He developed his special blue-green technique.

In addition, his painting style changed to an impressionistic way of expression. Zhao Songtao's artistic style was now characterized by dynamic, energetic brushwork that led to majestic landscapes. " Bonsai landscapes", as he called them, were too delicate and too refined for him to depict true nature.

Zhao Songtao's former student Yuan Lin of the Beijing Art Academy wrote of him: “His masterful landscape paintings such as 'The Yupin Tower in the Huangshan Mountains' are indeed comparable to French Impressionism because of the execution of the sky and sunlight . In addition there are his sketches, which achieve profundity through simplicity. A few of his colored ink brushstrokes can capture the spirit of an entire season, such as B. Spring fever or summer mood. ... The viewer is enchanted by the powerful energy of a non-tiring human mind. "

For Zhao Songtao, the sentence “No imitation of tradition, because every artist has his own expression of design” had a special meaning. He recalls the words of Shi Tao, an important painter of the Qing Dynasty (1616–1911): “Give Dharma life by going beyond it.” (Dharma is understood in this context as a kind of traditional order.) Im Sense of Dialectic, Zhao Songtao combined tradition with originality in a unique style into a synthesis. But he was not only a great master of building bridges between yesterday and today, but also between elegance and the ordinary, always connected with a “simplicity beyond naivety”.

Even at the age of 60, in 1975, Zhao Songtao's creativity led to new horizons. In doing so, his love of calligraphy helped him maintain his intellectual acumen along with his perceptual abilities. And so it became a symbol of Chinese landscape painting in the 20th century.

Zhao Songtao with Yusheng 1991

With his special painting style he created the basis for a further further development of Chinese landscape painting by his daughter Yusheng Zhao-Simperl, which led to abstract, non-representational paintings.

Exhibitions

In the 1960s, Zhao Songtao began to participate in various international exhibitions. He also took part in an art exhibition in the Beijing History Museum and in Tientsin . At that time there were no galleries in China.

The culmination of his exhibition activity was a large solo exhibition in the National Art Museum of the PR China in Beijing in 1989. At the opening address, he said modestly that his aim had always been to use his painting style to show the life of the common people and the beauty of the Chinese landscapes to represent.

Works in public buildings in China

Zhao Songtao's oversized paintings can be seen in the following public buildings, among others:

National Art Museum of the PRC in Beijing
Great Hall of the People (venue of the National People's Congress)
Memorial Hall of Chairman Mao Tsedong (for which he was also awarded an honor)

literature

Landscape paintings by Zhao Song Tao , foreword by Yuan Lin from the Beijing Art Academy. Volksbildungsverlag, Tian Jing 1993
Interviews with daughter Zhao Yu Sheng (Mag.Yusheng Zhao-Simperl)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Zhao Songtao
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Chinese landscape painter
DATE OF BIRTH	September 4, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH	Tianjin , Republic of China
DATE OF DEATH	July 13, 1993
Place of death	Tianjin , People's Republic of China