Xu Beihong (1895- 1953) has great attainments in both Chinese painting and oil painting. In his creation, figure painting is a prominent aspect. Although he is also good at animals, flowers, birds and landscape paintings, figure painting is the cornerstone of his whole creation, which drives other creations with the skill of figure painting.
Xu Beihong's figure painting is mainly manifested in Xiaoxiang painting, history and myth themes in the early stage, and later turned to realistic themes. His Xiao figure painting created a good premise for the giant structure of figure painting: from the perspective of painting types, Xu Beihong's figure painting is manifested in three aspects: sketch, Chinese painting and oil painting. His traditional Chinese painting and figure painting are vivid and simple, with strong national color. He has also made remarkable achievements in absorbing western painting skills. In Xu Beihong's artistic career, sketch, Chinese painting and oil painting are closely related. These three factors are mutually causal and promote each other, which constitutes the characteristics of his creation.
After studying sketching and oil painting in France, Germany and other countries for eight years, especially in sketching, he deeply and extensively absorbed the realistic techniques in western classical painting and was influenced by the works of many European masters, thus laying a solid foundation for his oil painting figure painting. Xu Beihong's figure painting began as early as when he was studying in Europe. His oil paintings "The Old Woman", "Xiao Sheng", sketches "Washing Horses" and "Making the finishing point" were all created at this time. At that time, his oil paintings were deeply influenced by European classicism, and their styles were rigorous and meticulous. For example, Xiao Sheng's image temperament of bourgeois female intellectuals in the early years of the Republic of China is very real and vivid. Xu Beihong's figure painting was limited to Xiao Xiang's paintings at first, and then gradually turned to the theme of China myths and legends and historical paintings. For example, in 1922, his essay "Make the finishing touch" was adapted from the story of Zhang Sengyou's making the finishing touch at the Anton Temple in Jinling. Xu Beihong portrayed Zhang Sengyou. After finishing the painting, he leaned back and held a pen, watching the dragon break through the wall in the thunder and lightning. The people who looked at the painting were dumbfounded and ran around. This painting is full of interest, true and false, with clear priorities. "Make the finishing point" tells the most ordinary and important truth in painting creation, which shows that he understood the meaning of "make the finishing point" in figure painting creation very early, and formed his artistic motto of "be broad and precise" according to the same principle. "Broadness is refinement" is a dialectical relationship in artistic creation, and it is two aspects of the unity of contradictions. It is a method of artistic learning and artistic creation, which is not only used to observe things, but also used to express things, that is, the method of analysis and synthesis. From observation to performance, on the one hand, we should make detailed analysis, and at the same time, we should synthesize all the analyzed parts to make them centralized and unified. In painting techniques, that is, the relationship between parts and the whole. The part should obey the whole, and the whole should take care of the part, and the two should not be neglected. He advocates that painting should focus on careful selection, and the description objects are divided into main, secondary and less important. In the main key places, we should have outstanding performance, make it vivid, vivid, intense and full, and do our best. For the minor or more minor, it should be weakened or abandoned to maintain the overall atmosphere of the picture and achieve a wide and great artistic effect. This is the profound meaning of "being broad and profound". It is a realistic creation method that comes down in one continuous line with the "finishing touch" and is of great significance to the creation of figure painting.
Xu Beihong's masterpieces of traditional Chinese painting and figure painting include Jiufang Cake, Gong Yu Mountain, Ba People Pumping Water, etc. Among them, Yu Gong Yi Shan is the largest work. Xu Beihong drew more than 30 sketches for this painting, which made it have both a real sense of life and a magical and fantastic mythological realm. At the same time, we use exaggerated methods to create characters, describe the shape and muscles of the strong man in the painting, deal with the exciting action, and describe the strong body and straightforward manner. It makes people feel that the images of these brave men who are full of confidence in fighting the barren hills suddenly appear in the main part of the picture, forming a majestic momentum and invincible image power. This painting was produced in the period of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. Xu Beihong created a touching artistic image for the theme spirit of this myth, and inspired the people to despise the enemy and persist in the long-term anti-Japanese struggle, which is undoubtedly of great practical significance. At that time, Xu Beihong also created an oil painting "Put Down Your Whip" to publicize the Anti-Japanese War, which fully demonstrated the painter's patriotic spirit of caring about the motherland's peril. If we relate Xu Beihong's paintings around Kloc-0/935-1942, such as Ba People Painting Water, Poor Girl, Laundry, Cowboy and Cowboy, we can see that he is concerned about real life and customs, and people's lives, such as picking firewood, carrying water, washing clothes and herding cattle. This also shows that a realistic painter is gradually approaching the working people in his creation.
Xu Beihong's creation of traditional Chinese painting and figure painting embodies his attitude towards tradition, that is, "those who are good at the ancient law will keep it, those who are not good at it will continue it, those who are not good at it will change it, those who are not good at it will increase it, and western painting will be integrated with it." Under the guidance of this idea, Chinese painting creation dares to criticize the dross of tradition, accept and develop the essence, absorb and melt foreign useful technology on the basis of respecting tradition, and become its own thing. His traditional figure painting in China pays more attention to the structure of figures, with moderate proportion and full expression, which overcomes many shortcomings of classical figure painting. At the same time, because of his high attainments in traditional painting and western painting, he has rich practical experience in traditional "boneless method" and "painting method" as well as western "light and shade method", "faceted method" and "dyeing method", and he can do simple washing and training, density, dry dyeing freely, dyeing without floating, and work without board in painting and painting.
Xu Beihong has also made outstanding achievements in the creation of oil paintings and figure paintings. The oil paintings Tian Heng 500 and Mourning for Me were created by him from 1928 to 1933, which are representative works in his life. The former is based on the story in Historical Records Biography of Immortals. This is a tragic historical story. Tian Heng and the 500 people on the island show the indomitable spirit of the ancient people of China. Xu Beihong chose this story precisely because of its high moral integrity.
The picture depicts Tian Heng leaving the island to bid farewell to his comrades. Around this plot, Xu Beihong created more than 30 characters. From these various figures, we can see their different ages, genders, personalities and life experiences, as well as their deep feelings with Tian Heng, all of which are unified in an atmosphere of tragic separation. Tian Heng bowed his head with mixed feelings. No one agreed to let him go, and he was helpless. Xu Beihong reveals the tragedy of this story with a general picture of parting.
The theme of oil painting "After Caring for Me" comes from "The Book of Books". The original sentence is "worry about me later, then sue", which means "when our guide (leader) comes, we will be saved." It describes the scene in which the working people in the last years of Shang Dynasty hoped that Zhou Wuwang would send troops to save their suffering. Xu Beihong shows a group of poor people in this painting, looking up and expecting someone to save them. The earth cracked in the scorching sun, babies sucked their mothers' shriveled breasts, and old people looked forward to the horizon ... The scenery depicted vividly revealed people's desire for liberation.
These two historical paintings show the firmness of historical figures and the people's desire for liberation. When Xu Beihong planned these two paintings, it was the time when the reactionary ruling clique attacked the Soviet area several times, stepped up the suppression of the people's revolution and squeezed the people. On the other hand, Japanese imperialism invaded China, and a large area of land in Northeast China was destroyed. Japanese imperialism is planning to further invade North China and even China, while the reactionary ruling clique is carrying out the so-called "internal cooperation" traitorous policy. The broad masses of the people are in dire straits under the oppression of reactionary forces at home and abroad. Xu Beihong chose such a historical theme at this time to express historical events by metaphor and symbol, which has certain educational function, which is precisely the expression of his love for the masses and the motherland. Just as he expressed his thoughts in Mencius' motto, "Wealth can't be lewd, poverty can't be moved, and power can't be bent" and Lu Xun's "Look at a thousand fingers coldly, bow down and be a willing ox", he advocates the integrity of the people of China and is willing to express it with artistic images. Xu Beihong's figure painting theme excludes the religious and superstitious things in Chinese and foreign figure painting themes, and chooses the historical and mythical themes that have not been paid attention to. This is a progress of China's figure painting theme and a pioneering work of China's oil painting theme.
What theme a painter paints is not necessarily the only criterion for evaluating his art; However, I like painting this rather than that. I love this theme rather than that one. On the whole, it is not difficult to see the painter's interest, personality, cultivation, hobbies, and contact with the people.
Xu Beihong's two oil paintings are excellent works of China's early oil paintings. It is the masterpiece of dozens of characters under a certain theme. This is an oil painting with some China characteristics. This is a valuable step in China's oil painting history painting. It is the product of the decline of figure painting in China in 1930s, and the earliest fruit after oil painting was introduced to China from western Europe and took root in China.
After liberation, the new political situation has made Xu Beihong's figure painting have a new development. The surging democratic reforms, high-spirited mass movements and the revolutionary enthusiasm of the people of China have given Xu Beihong a new creative passion. He took his students to participate in the land reform, went deep into the life of Daoshu site in Shandong, painted portraits of PLA combat heroes, model workers and various advanced figures, participated in the struggle to defend world peace, and painted posters to resist US aggression and aid Korea. Under the guidance of Mao Zedong's literary thought, he began to conceive and create new figure paintings, trying to express the life of workers, peasants and soldiers and the theme of revolution. His works, such as Hearing the News of Nanjing Liberation at the World Peace Conference, Chairman Mao among the People, Lu Xun and Qu Qiubai, all show his revolutionary enthusiasm.
Xu Beihong is an accomplished painter of flowers and birds and animals. Why did he suddenly reduce his creation in this field when the creation of figure painting occupied an overwhelming advantage? This is because he opened his eyes, met people and saw the working people who made history. He once wrote: "Although I advocated realism for more than 20 years, I failed to get close to the public." This is a profound examination of an honest artist and a new awakening of an older artist. He began to devote himself enthusiastically to life, demanding contact with the masses, and his brush also created statues for new people. After liberation, many of Xiao Xiang's paintings, such as The Princess of the Army, Changling Li, Gou Furong, He Jingde and Lu, are cheerful, simple and vivid, reflecting the temperament of workers, peasants and soldiers.