A Century of Development History of Watercolor Painting
After three years of preparation, the China Centennial Watercolor Painting Exhibition has held many national academic seminars. Among watercolor painters across the country and relatives of deceased painters, An extensive collection of works was conducted, and after rigorous comparison and screening, some exhibits were borrowed from relevant art galleries, museums, and art academies. This is the most systematic and comprehensive exhibition of works in the history of the development of Chinese watercolor painting.
The exhibition includes more than 300 important works by representative painters in various development periods of Chinese watercolor painting in the past one hundred years since 1905.
In the budding period of Chinese watercolor painting from 1864 to 1911, foreign missionaries trained the first generation of Chinese watercolor painters in Shanghai’s “Tushanwan Painting Gallery”, known as the “Cradle of Western Painting” Xu Yongqing (1880-1953) has his "Hangzhou West Lake" sketch in the early 20th century on display. Li Tiefu (1869-1952), who was the first to study abroad, has his early watercolor still life "Vase of Flowers" on display. Li Shutong (1880-1942) ), one of his landscape paintings on postcards from 1905 is on display. These are extremely valuable and rare treasures. During the growth period of Chinese watercolor painting from 1911 to 1949, a large number of later outstanding painters emerged. Watercolor painters, whose works have begun to show a trend of diversified development, reflect the achievements of the growth period of Chinese watercolor painting, and are the first *** in the history of Chinese watercolor development, including: Zhang Meisun, Guan Guangzhi, Li Jianchen, Hang Xuanying, Pan Sitong, Zhang Chongren, Wang Zhaomin , Yang Yangyang, the most influential painters in the history of Chinese watercolor, all have their representative works on display in this exhibition.
Most of these painters have passed away. Only Mr. Yang Yangyang is still alive, and he is almost 100 years old this year. Their works are the result of integrating Chinese and Western styles, facing life, and embodying the spirit of every person. The unique artistic pursuit of each painter still has great reference significance today; during the development period of Chinese watercolor from 1949 to 1965, the above-mentioned painters all made new achievements, and the painters who grew up during the revolutionary war and gradually Painters who have returned from overseas have injected new vitality into Chinese watercolor painting. These painters, such as Gu Yuan, Shao Yu, Shen Roujian, Wu Guanzhong, Xiao Shufang, etc., all have unique works on display in this exhibition.
The "National Watercolor and Sketch Exhibition" in 1954 was a major review of the creative achievements at that time. The masterpieces in that exhibition were such as Dai Ze's "World Youth Festival in Berlin" , also on display in this exhibition.
This stage is the second revolution in the history of the development of Chinese watercolor painting. More than 50 works of *** are on display in this exhibition.
The period from 1978 to the present has been a period of reform and prosperity for Chinese watercolor painting, and it is also the peak period in the history of the development of Chinese watercolor painting. During this stage, the National Art Exhibition has set up a separate watercolor exhibition area four times. , the Pink Painting Exhibition has also been held for seven times. New artists continue to emerge and their creations are unprecedentedly active. Chinese watercolor painting has got rid of the limitations of just "short pieces" and "light music", greatly enhanced the expressive power of watercolor painting, expanded the functions of watercolor painting, enriched The expression forms and techniques of watercolor painting have been improved, and a "Chinese watercolor painting" style with Chinese national characteristics, the spirit of the times and personal style has initially formed. More than 200 works from this stage are on display in this exhibition, including those in previous exhibitions. The works that won gold and silver awards also include new works by some old painters, from which we can fully understand the latest development of Chinese watercolor.
The works of representative watercolor painters from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan are also on display in this exhibition, including the works of the late famous Taiwanese watercolor masters Ma Baishui, Li Zefan, Shi Dejin and the famous Hong Kong watercolor painter Jiang Jiang Works by Qiming, Ouyang Naizhan, the famous Macau watercolor painter Liao Wenchang, the famous Taiwanese watercolor painter Li Kunpei, Yang Ensheng, Xie Mingchun and others.
During the exhibition, a large album "Chinese Centenary Watercolor Collection" will be published and distributed, and the "Chinese Centenary Watercolor Academic Symposium" will also be held.
A century of Chinese watercolor painting
1978-present: the reform and prosperity period of Chinese watercolor painting, and also the most important period in the development history of Chinese watercolor painting.
At this stage, the National Art Exhibition has set up a separate watercolor exhibition area four times, and the National Watercolor and Pastel Painting Exhibition has also been held for seven times. New artists continue to emerge, and their creations are unprecedentedly active.
At the Sixth National Art Exhibition in 1984, watercolors had a separate exhibition area for the first time.
As the team of authors expanded and their creations became more active than ever before, many painters from other genres turned to watercolor painting, and their artistic level improved rapidly.
At the 9th National Art Exhibition in 1999, watercolor painting reached a new height, winning three gold medals each with Chinese painting and oil painting.
Currently, at least 27 colleges and universities across the country have established watercolor majors.
The team of watercolor painters is the largest among all types of painting. Every time an exhibition is held, more than 2,000 works are submitted.
Chinese watercolor painting has got rid of the limitations of just "pieces" and "light music", greatly enhanced the expressive power of watercolor painting, expanded the functions of watercolor painting, enriched the expression forms and techniques of watercolor painting, and initially formed a The "Chinese watercolor painting" style has Chinese national characteristics, the spirit of the times and personal style. From the works of this stage, you can have a panoramic view of the latest development of Chinese watercolor.
Controversy
Chen Lusheng, a well-known art critic and researcher at the National Art Museum of China, recently pointed out that some works "are becoming more and more complex in content and more and more detailed in depiction", and the characteristics of "water" have become Forgotten.
Do you still want the feeling of watercolor?
When it comes to watercolor painting, many people will recall the scene of painting in primary school art class with a bucket of water, a box of watercolor paint, and several watercolor paints. .
The famous painter Wu Guanzhong once said, "The characteristics of watercolor and watercolor are 'water' and 'color'.
If the strengths of water are not used, it will not be as good as oil painting and pastel painting. The expression of the painting is strong; it does not take advantage of the characteristics of color, and it is inferior to the charm of ink painting.
"It can be seen that water plays a very important role in watercolor painting.
In response to the statement in the preface to the exhibition that "Chinese watercolor painting has basically got rid of the limitations of being just 'sketches' and 'light music' or only as a means of 'introductory learning' and 'collecting materials', which has greatly enhanced the quality of watercolor painting." Expressive power has expanded the functions of watercolor painting and enriched the various forms of watercolor painting." Chen Lusheng pointed out that watercolor painting also requires the expression of specific themes and in-depth and detailed depictions, so the characteristics of "water" will be unconsciously forgotten by people.
"If the watercolor paintings showing construction sites and real life in the 1950s and 1960s still retain the feeling of watercolor, then the watercolor paintings showing specific themes after that basically only have some remaining materials. and the significance of painting types.
"In this regard, Zhu Fan, director of the Secretariat of the Art Committee of the China Artists Association, believes that watercolor painting can be divided into wet painting and dry painting. The so-called dry painting means that the water component is relatively small. .
The painters participating in this exhibition have different techniques. Some wet the entire paper before painting, many use dry painting, and some combine dry and wet painting. .