In the early years of Ming Dynasty, Wuqiang New Year pictures had a fairly high modeling design ability and carving level, and had reached a mature stage.
Wuqiang New Year Pictures developed in Qing Dynasty and Jiaqing period, which provided a good development environment for New Year Pictures. At this time, the production of Wuqiang New Year pictures centered on Nanguan County and radiated to 68 surrounding villages. Many farmers take New Year pictures as a sideline, and most of them are busy with farming and printing pictures in their spare time. Chengnan Pass in Wuqiang County has become the largest distribution center for New Year pictures in China, with four famous painting shops: Tianyuhe, Wanxingheng, Ningtai and Taixing, followed by Xiangshun, Delong, Dongdaxing, Yishengchang, Xinyicheng, Jiqingzhai and Tongxing. There are countless small workshops in the village.
These large painting shops have been producing for many years, and they are all "front shops and back shops" business models. Some painting shops employ 50 or 60 people for a long time and have dozens of painting cases. The largest "Ningtai" has more than 300 employees for a long time, and there are more than 100 paintings in the south gate of Wuqiang. There are more than 50 workers in the old city village, and there are also foreign processing points in Xi 'an and Inner Mongolia.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the most prosperous schools were "Shuang Xing Shun, Zheng Xing He, Gan Xing, Fu Xing De, De Yi Xiang, De Xiang" and "Tong Xing, Yi Xin Cheng" from the old eight schools, which were collectively called "New Eight Schools". There is still a "painting industry association" centered on Nanguan. From the end of 19 to the beginning of the 20th century, China society has changed, and people's ideas have also changed with the times. During this period, lithographic prints appeared in Tianjin, and offset monthly brand New Year pictures appeared in Shanghai, which brought a strong impact to woodblock New Year pictures.
By the 1930 s, big towns were almost dominated by lithograph New Year pictures and Moon brand New Year pictures. Woodblock New Year pictures in various places have collapsed continuously. At this time, Wuqiang New Year pictures still maintained a certain scale and development momentum.
Until the July 7th Incident, there were as many as 77 large and small painting shops in Nanguan of Wuqiang, and the production of Wuqiang New Year pictures still maintained a certain scale.
During War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation, professional painters from Yan 'an Lu Yi and North China United University came to Jizhong and jointly created another new pioneering work in the history of Wuqiang New Year pictures with Wuqiang New Year pictures artists. After the founding of New China, the development of Wuqiang New Year pictures has been highly valued by the Party and the country.
195 1 year, old painters Jia Lingkui and Zhang Chunfeng attended the Hebei Provincial Congress of Literary and Art Workers as special representatives of Wuqiang New Year pictures. Su Hu, Chairman of the Provincial Federation of Literary and Art Circles, fully affirmed the role of Wuqiang New Year Pictures, a folk art with local characteristics, through reform and innovation under the guidance of the party's literary and artistic policies. 1954, painting production resumed in 9 townships 17 villages in the county, and 35 registered painting shops published New Year pictures 109, including 6 new theme works109. From 65438 to 0956, during the period of socialist transformation, Wuqiang County Handicraft Industry Association formed Yuanda Painting Industry Cooperative in conjunction with the already organized Red Star Painting Society, Nine Planetary Painting Societies, Guangming Painting School and other units and individual painters. 1958 was changed to Wuqiang county painting industry cooperation factory, hereinafter referred to as Wuqiang painting factory. 196 1 In August, the CPC Hebei Provincial Committee issued the instruction of "Revitalizing Wuqiang New Year Pictures and Developing Hebei Fine Arts", which pointed out the direction for strengthening the local characteristics of Hebei fine arts publications, carrying forward fine traditions, reappearing historical glory and better serving reality.
In September, in order to implement the guiding spirit of "revitalizing Wuqiang New Year pictures and developing Hebei fine arts", the Press and Publication Office of Hebei Provincial Cultural Bureau and Hebei People's Fine Arts Publishing House formed an investigation team to go deep into Wuqiang's hometown of folk New Year pictures and conduct an investigation. Understand its history and shape, make a comprehensive and concrete analysis with local county leaders and functional departments, and explore effective ways and measures to restore and develop Wuqiang New Year pictures. 1962, 1 June, with the approval of provincial leaders, Wuqiang New Year Painting Studio was established, mainly named Hebei Wuqiang Painting Shop, and also located in Wuqiang Nanguan and Wuqiang Painting Factory. 1March 25th, 963 to March 25th, 3 1 year, the first exhibition of Wuqiang woodblock New Year Pictures was held in Tianjin, the then capital of Hebei Province, and Hebei Art Teachers College, with 239 works on display, including 33 new ones. It has played a leading and exemplary role in "revitalizing Wuqiang New Year pictures and developing Hebei fine arts". Wuqiang Painting Shop submits relevant materials to the national key woodblock New Year pictures producing areas, art colleges and research institutes. Academic exchanges will inject new vitality into the research and development of Wuqiang New Year pictures. 1In August, 963, Wuqiang suffered a severe flood disaster, and Wuqiang New Year pictures played an important role in production and disaster relief. 1964, the "socialist education movement" (four clean-ups) began, and Wuqiang New Year pictures were greatly impacted. 1966 At the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, Wuqiang Painting Factory was hit for the first time, and tens of thousands of woodcuts were burned, and the production of New Year pictures was once again the biggest blow in history. The New Year pictures industry is in an extreme predicament.
After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, Wuqiang New Year pictures began to come back to life.
Wuqiang New Year Pictures, 1979, was rated as "Hebei Famous Brand Quality Product"; Won the "Hundred Flowers Award" twice; Offset New Year Pictures won the "Excellent Product" and screen printing Wuqiang New Year Pictures won the "National Golden Net Bronze Award (Third Prize)"; Woodblock New Year picture "The Doorman with a Poker Hammer" won the national gold medal.
In 1980, Wuqiang County established the New Year Painting Society. With the approval of the Ministry of Culture, the only county-level publishing unit in China was Wuqiang New Year Painting Society (1995 was renamed as Hebei Wuqiang New Year Painting Society). Up to 2002, 780 kinds of Wuqiang New Year pictures have been published, with 60 million copies issued.
1985, Wuqiang established the first New Year picture museum in China. Later, it became the teaching and research base of more than a dozen universities, including national key museums, provincial key museums, patriotic education bases in Hebei Province, national defense education bases, national AA-level tourist attractions and Nanjing University.
199365438+February, the Ministry of Culture officially named Wuqiang as "the hometown of folk woodblock New Year pictures" in China.
Two sessions of "China Wuqiang New Year Painting Art Festival" were held in 1992 and 1994.
In 2002, Wuqiang New Year Picture Museum completed the second phase of the project; The exhibition hall and other supporting facilities were expanded and renovated for the second time.
June 65438+1October 65438+June, 2002, the third New Year Painting Art Festival of China Wuqiang and the annual meeting of China Arts and Crafts Society 17 were held.
In 2003, we cooperated with the Chinese People's Association and the Hebei People's Association to successfully carry out the excavation and rescue work of the ancient version of Wuqiang ancient town village.
In 2003, it was rated as "one of the first ten pilot projects of China National Folk Culture Protection Project and the first of seven professional pilot projects" by the Ministry of Culture.
In 2005, Wuqiang New Year pictures were listed in the national intangible cultural heritage protection list.
On June 22, 2006, the State Post Bureau issued four special stamps for Wuqiang New Year pictures, which became national business cards.