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Trio of shows honors 80 years of New Woodcut Movement
By Xu Wenwen |
August 23, 2011, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
EIGHTY years ago, leading 20th-century Chinese writer Lu Xun (1881-1936) launched a woodcut seminar in Shanghai, resulting in the rise of the New Woodcut Movement in modern China. To commemorate the 80th anniversary, two woodcut exhibitions are under way at Zhejiang Art Museum, showing printmaking featuring Lu Xun's faces and important moments in history.
The two shows are "Lu Xun's Faces" and "K?the Schmidt Kollwitz Woodcut Exhibition" running to next month, while "The 19th National Exhibition of Printmaking," the country's most authoritative woodcut exhibition, is due to open on September 7.
Lu Xun is the pen name for the great writer Zhou Shuren who was born in Zhejiang Province. He not only influenced China's modern literature but also is the founder of China's modern woodcut art movement. He once said "during revolutions, art pieces of printmaking could be utilized utmost (more than other sorts of arts) as it can be widespread in a short time."
China has had a history of printmaking for hundreds of years, and the fine art form was mostly used in letter papers.
However, during the 1930s when the country was experiencing wars and revolutions, Lu Xun pushed Chinese artists to open up a new era of making woodcuts, via publishing books, organizing exhibitions and seminars on passionate, radical Western woodcut works.
Lu Xun's portraits
In the current exhibition "Lu Xun's Faces," more than 350 pieces are displayed, including woodcut portraits of Lu Xun, representative works from the 1930s, as well as Lu Xun's collections of Western woodcuts and traditional Chinese woodcuts and rubbings from tablets.
The highlight of the entire exhibition is the collection of Lu Xun's portraits, which were created between about 80 years ago and today, and have forms which are more than woodcuts but also involve oil painting, sketch and ink-wash painting.
The representative woodcuts from the 1930s feature the victims of poverty, hunger and war, while their style of expression can be translated as revolutionary through heavy lines and strong contrast - mostly in black-and-white.
For example, the exhibit "Going to the Frontline" created by Hu Yichuan, the backbone of the New Woodcut Movement, has strong expressive language reflecting the moment when Chinese people were called up to fight for the country after the "September 18 Incident," a staged event that was engineered by Japanese military personnel as a pretext for invading the northern part of China in 1931.
And the piece "Mobile Ironworks," by one of the earliest modern Chinese woodcut artists Ye Fu, shows via its chromatic approach and bold composition that people during China's war against Japanese aggression were devoted to production and self-salvation.
Kollwitz's printmaking
The parallel-running "K?the Schmidt Kollwitz Woodcut Exhibition" aims to help people understand the great contribution Kollwitz (1867-1945), a German female painter, printmaker and sculptor, made to China.
Among the Western printmaking artists introduced to China by Lu Xun, Kollwitz was one of the most important, whose works offered an eloquent and often searing account of the human condition, which encouraged and was echoed by rising artists of printmaking in China at that time.
"The driving force of China's New Woodcut Movement lies in two people: Lu Xun and K?the Schmidt Kollwitz," says Ma Fenghui, the president of Zhejiang Art Museum.
"Kollwitz was the idol of many artists then, whose artworks, influenced by religion and her political belief, while involved with her feminine self-consciousness, are beyond time and place, and hence shocking," he analyzes.
"An indispensable element in her works is the 'light,' symbolizing optimistic meanings of life, which is operated by Kollwitz perfectly," Ma adds.
In the art museum, the current "K?the Schmidt Kollwitz Woodcut Exhibition" exhibits her 58 pieces of printmaking collected by Sakima Art Museum in Okinawa, Japan, including representative works such as "The Sacrifice," "Woman and Dead Child" and "The Parents."
And another must-see of the exhibition is a group of K?the Schmidt Kollwitz's self-portraits produced at different ages in her life, which help visitors understand the woman's artistic career.
Next month, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of China's New Woodcut Movement and the 130th anniversary of Lu Xun's birthday, the biennial National Exhibition of Printmaking is to open at the museum, and will exhibit more than 300 pieces selected nationwide.
? "Lu Xun's Faces"
Date: Through September 17
? K?the Schmidt Kollwitz Woodcut Exhibition
Date: Through September 11
? The 19th National Exhibition of Printmaking
Date: September 7-25
Hours: 9am-5pm (closed on Mondays)
Venue: Zhejiang Art Museum, 138 Nanshan Rd
The two shows are "Lu Xun's Faces" and "K?the Schmidt Kollwitz Woodcut Exhibition" running to next month, while "The 19th National Exhibition of Printmaking," the country's most authoritative woodcut exhibition, is due to open on September 7.
Lu Xun is the pen name for the great writer Zhou Shuren who was born in Zhejiang Province. He not only influenced China's modern literature but also is the founder of China's modern woodcut art movement. He once said "during revolutions, art pieces of printmaking could be utilized utmost (more than other sorts of arts) as it can be widespread in a short time."
China has had a history of printmaking for hundreds of years, and the fine art form was mostly used in letter papers.
However, during the 1930s when the country was experiencing wars and revolutions, Lu Xun pushed Chinese artists to open up a new era of making woodcuts, via publishing books, organizing exhibitions and seminars on passionate, radical Western woodcut works.
Lu Xun's portraits
In the current exhibition "Lu Xun's Faces," more than 350 pieces are displayed, including woodcut portraits of Lu Xun, representative works from the 1930s, as well as Lu Xun's collections of Western woodcuts and traditional Chinese woodcuts and rubbings from tablets.
The highlight of the entire exhibition is the collection of Lu Xun's portraits, which were created between about 80 years ago and today, and have forms which are more than woodcuts but also involve oil painting, sketch and ink-wash painting.
The representative woodcuts from the 1930s feature the victims of poverty, hunger and war, while their style of expression can be translated as revolutionary through heavy lines and strong contrast - mostly in black-and-white.
For example, the exhibit "Going to the Frontline" created by Hu Yichuan, the backbone of the New Woodcut Movement, has strong expressive language reflecting the moment when Chinese people were called up to fight for the country after the "September 18 Incident," a staged event that was engineered by Japanese military personnel as a pretext for invading the northern part of China in 1931.
And the piece "Mobile Ironworks," by one of the earliest modern Chinese woodcut artists Ye Fu, shows via its chromatic approach and bold composition that people during China's war against Japanese aggression were devoted to production and self-salvation.
Kollwitz's printmaking
The parallel-running "K?the Schmidt Kollwitz Woodcut Exhibition" aims to help people understand the great contribution Kollwitz (1867-1945), a German female painter, printmaker and sculptor, made to China.
Among the Western printmaking artists introduced to China by Lu Xun, Kollwitz was one of the most important, whose works offered an eloquent and often searing account of the human condition, which encouraged and was echoed by rising artists of printmaking in China at that time.
"The driving force of China's New Woodcut Movement lies in two people: Lu Xun and K?the Schmidt Kollwitz," says Ma Fenghui, the president of Zhejiang Art Museum.
"Kollwitz was the idol of many artists then, whose artworks, influenced by religion and her political belief, while involved with her feminine self-consciousness, are beyond time and place, and hence shocking," he analyzes.
"An indispensable element in her works is the 'light,' symbolizing optimistic meanings of life, which is operated by Kollwitz perfectly," Ma adds.
In the art museum, the current "K?the Schmidt Kollwitz Woodcut Exhibition" exhibits her 58 pieces of printmaking collected by Sakima Art Museum in Okinawa, Japan, including representative works such as "The Sacrifice," "Woman and Dead Child" and "The Parents."
And another must-see of the exhibition is a group of K?the Schmidt Kollwitz's self-portraits produced at different ages in her life, which help visitors understand the woman's artistic career.
Next month, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of China's New Woodcut Movement and the 130th anniversary of Lu Xun's birthday, the biennial National Exhibition of Printmaking is to open at the museum, and will exhibit more than 300 pieces selected nationwide.
? "Lu Xun's Faces"
Date: Through September 17
? K?the Schmidt Kollwitz Woodcut Exhibition
Date: Through September 11
? The 19th National Exhibition of Printmaking
Date: September 7-25
Hours: 9am-5pm (closed on Mondays)
Venue: Zhejiang Art Museum, 138 Nanshan Rd
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