Essays from the International
Academic Seminar to the Memory for the
11 0 Anniversary or LIN, FENGMIAN'S Birthday
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115 Lin Fengmian' s Legacy During the Cultural Revolution
Lin Fengmian' s Legacy DlJring the Cultural Revolution: The Case of Two Courageous Watercolors Katharine P. Burnett
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Lin Fengmian **JAD~ (1900-1991) is known for advocating the hybridization of
European modernist techniques and aesthetics with Chinese forms and topics. As the first
Director of the prestigious National West Lake Academy of Art (later named the National
Hangzhou Academy of Art) in Hangzhou from 1928-1937, Lin had a solid platform from
which to argue for this guiding principle. His instruction and approaches were highly
influential during the late 1920s through the 1940s. In the late twentieth century, his ideas were
called upon again at the China Academy of Art (successor to the National Hangzhou Academy
of Art) by students and professors as they sought to move past the socialist realist modes
that had dominated the art world during the Cultural Revolution. Through the art of his most
famous followers, Li Keran *PJ~ (1907-1989), Wu Guanzhong ~Ja9=J (1919-2010), Zao
Wou-ki iMXfbZ (Zhao Wuji, b. 1921), and Zhu Dequn *If;ff (b. 1920), Lin Fengmian' s
ideas, if not his idiosyncratic style, have continued into the twenty-first century.' What has not
yet been studied, however, is Lin's legacy during the Cultural Revolution. This paper aims
to do just that though the examination of a pair of watercolor paintings in the Propaganda Art
Poster Center, Shanghai. (Figs.l-2) In these unrecorded and previously unpublished works,
the anonymous artist courageously records an event from this difficult period of China' s
history using the European modernist aesthetics and techniques championed by Lin Fengmian.
Fig.!. [X] Chunyu, Down wi th the Four Olds, undated, Fig.2 [X] Chunyu, At the Gate, dated 1968, watercolor watercolor on paper, 40cmX 53cm.. Propaganda Art Poster on paper. 40cm X 53cm., Propaganda Art Postor Cenler. Center, Shanghai. Shanghai.
While the argument in this paper is tentatively offered, it is hoped that it will spur discussion
and greater understanding of this materia1.
It must be acknowledged that Lin Fengmian and the National West Lake Academy of
Art were not the only ones championing modernism and a new curricular approach during
the first half of the twemieth century. After all, several of Lin Fengmian' s peers had also
trained in the European modernist aesthetic in Europe and Japan during the early decades of
the twentieth century. Some, such as Liu Haisu ~IJ;iRJ~ (1896-1994) and Yan Wenliang Wi Jt;fm (1893-1988) even founded major art schools upon their return to China.2 And, because
the artist of the paintings under discussion here is anonymous-the paintings are unsigned and
stylistically not close enough to any established artist to invite a solid attribution-although
they do bear some general similarities in style and approach to watercolors by Li Yongsen
$g,:k** (1898-1998), such as Shanghai General Post Office, ca. 1950-1980 (Fig.3) itis
impossible to know if he or she ever studied with Lin Fengmian or even trained at the National
West Lake Academy of Art rather than at one of the other art schools operating at this time.
Based on stylistic analysis of the works, however, it is reasonable to suppose that the
artist did learn the basic message promoted by the Lin Fengmian curriculum regardless of the
source of this knowledge, be it Lin Fengmian himself, his instructors at the Academy, or for
that matter, instructors at other important art schools who also promoted the hybridization of
European and Chinese modes. In spite of this, because of Lin Fengmian' s commitment to
117 Lin Fengmian' S Legacy During the Cultural Revolution
the modernist idiom, the prominence of
this approach at the National West Lake
Academy of Art, and the importance of
the Academy itself during the first half
of the twentieth century, in this paper
Lin Fengmian is taken as the index for
hybridization during this time. To be clear,
it is Lin' s hybrid approach to modernist
painting rather than his formal style or his
academic relationship to this anonymous
artist that provides the link between the
watercolors under discussion and Lin
Fengmian.
The two paintings being considered here, Down with the Four Olds and At the Gate,
share the same theme. Down with the Four Olds announces its subject matter through interior
text, whereas in At the Gate, the narrative is implicit. The event is a day during the Red
Guards' campaign against the "Four 0 Ids. "
The campaign against the Four Olds was initiated in August 1966, with the beginning of
the Cultural Revolution. It reached its height in 1968, and ended informally in 1969, though
the Cultural Revolution continued until Mao' s death in 1976. As the Cultural Revolution
was traumatic for most everyone, just one year later, in 1977, the central committee of the
Communist Party publicly denounced the Cultural Revolution? With these two watercolor
paintings, the artist bears witness to events of the period and in so doing, censures its
campaign of terror.
As is well known, in 1966 Chairman Mao Zedong (=5~* 1893-1976) encouraged all
students to become Red Guards (Hongweibing U~~) and fight a revolution on the cultural
level, taking aim at what were termed the Four Olds (si jiu 1m IS), by which Mao meant
old ideas, old culture, old habits, and old customs. Although his own political targets were
individuals such as Liu Shaoqi (){IJY'-ru- 1898-1969) and other older, established Communist
fig.3 Li Yongsen, Shanghai General Post Office, ca. 19501980, watercolor on paper, 28. OcmX39. 5cm., Shanghai Art Museum. (Source: Shanghai: Art of the Ci ty, Michael Knight, ed., San francisco: Asian Art Museum, 2010, fig. 24.)
118
Party members whom Mao believed were thwarting his
efforts, Mao did not share this fact with the Red Guards,
who were encouraged to destroy anything representing
the Four Olds, including texts of classical and religious
learning, ancient architecture, artwork, antiques, and
individuals whose professions suggested expertise in any
of these areas.
Both paintings look to be from the hand of the same
Fig.4 [X] Chunyu, Down wi th the Four artist. Painted in watercolor on heavy watercolor paper,
Olds, detai I of painted seal. Propaganda Art Poster Center, Shanghai. (Not to
they share the same format, medium, dimensions, theme,
scale. ) palette, style, technique, and aesthetic. Because of these
factors and their common theme, they are likely also to share a close or same date.
Down with the Four Olds is without a signature, but is stamped at the lower right with an
awkwardly carved white-character seal. Upon closer inspection, it is evident that the archaic
style characters were actually painted onto the surface. (Fig.4) The first character (in the top
right corner) is in the place of a surname, and evades deciphering. The rest of the characters
read, Chunyu yin ;{f ~Itl f~. Therefore, the legend of the seal reads, "seal of [Xl Chunyu."
Although [Xl Chunyu cannot be identified at this time and appears to be an obscure though
talented artist, because the name "Chunyu" (Spring Rain) has a feminine cast, the artist is
recognized here as a woman, and in this paper, [Xl Chunyu is attributed as the artist of these
works.
The other painting, At the Gate, is without a seal or signature. It has suffered much water
damage, and two large areas in the lower right appear to have been washed off. Perhaps they
once carried an inscription making the artist' s identity and thoughts even more explicit, and
were removed to protect her from political reprisal. This painting does, however, bear a simple
inscription in the lower left comer recording the number 68, presumably indicating the year
1968.
Although' 68 is written on At the Gate, it may be that this work was not painted until
the 1980s, when artists felt they had the freedom to choose their own topics and styles once
119 Lin Fengmian' s Legacy During the Cultural Revolution
again. Additionally, as it is recognized that artists generally did not sign or date their works
during the Cultural Revolution,4 it would be surprising for an artist to sign and date her work
during that time. Even more, it would be an act of extraordinary courage for her to paint in
the Western European expressionistic mode in which these watercolors are executed. After
all, these scenes are not done in the requisite socialist-realist style; they do not champion
Mao' s ideology and the actions of the Red Guards. They are not ~ft:;t hong guang liang,
"red, bright, and shiny." And, to add even further support for the unlikelihood of a 1968
date for these works, it was in 1963, just a few years before the Cultural Revolution began,
that an exhibition by Lin Fengmian was heavily criticized in the prominent arts journal
Meishu; that critic Yu Feng' s praise of the exhibition was condemned; and that Meishu
fonnally apologized in print for publishing Mi Gu' s *~ article, "I Love Lin Fengmian' s
Paintings," 5 as Michael Sullivan has pointed out.6 The likelihood of anyone choosing to
follow or celebrate Lin Fengmian' s style or intellectual lead in 1968 is thereby reduced
greatly. Therefore, it may be that [Xl Chunyu recalled a specific event in 1968, painted it
from memory long after the fact, and wrote ' 68 on At the Gate to reclaim the moment.
Circumstantial evidence would seem to make a case for a later execution of the work.
Nevertheless, there also is such a thing as visual evidence, and the visual facts in these
paintings seem to argue otherwise. These paintings do not communicate a message of "This
is what happened then; look how horrible," but rather. "This is what is happening now.
Look!" The scenes are too carefully painted: the reds and greens juxtapose and blend too
meticulously, the sites too lovingly depicted for bile and bitterness to dominate. (Fig.5) The
mood in these paintings is neither angry nor nostalgic, but resigned. It seems that the artist,
having little choice but to yield to the tragedies unfolding before her eyes, nonetheless did not
~ • condone them. The immediacy of the representations suggests a sense of horror and urgency
felt by an observer haunted by the Red Guards' actions; one who deemed it incumbent at
long last to act despite great personal risk, and to record what she witnessed right then and
right there -- or more likely, with the day' s events seared into her memory, in the privacy of
her studio. It would be likely that that is where she recorded the events, and then put the works
'~ • quietly away.
120
Because what is happening in
these paintings must have occurred
when the terror of the period was at ils
height, and just before Mao was finally
able to reign in the mayhem performed
by the dedicated Red Guards in 1968.
The artist seems to have chosen the
understated aesthetic as the way in
which she could maintain her self
esteem and sanity in the face of atrocity.
This could have given her as well a
sense of self-preservation despite her
acts of political disobedience. Because
of the sotto voce aesthetic, therefore, a
Fig.5 [x] Chunyu, Dow'll wi th tho Four Oids, detai 1. Propaganda close reading of the visual facts suggests Art Poster C nter, Shanghai. (Photograph provided by the author. ) that these paintings may well have been
made in the first years of the Four Olds
campaign, and that despite all rational and convincing arguments to the contrary, the year
inscribed on At the Gate, 1968, could actually be the year in which these two works were
painted after all.
In Down with the Four aids, the topic is announced to all who can read Chinese: 11"
fill [918 (dadao sijiu), Down with the Four aids, in a slogan forcefully painted twice in large,
stiff, red characters on both sides of the exterior wall of a gated compound. The uniform
inelegance of these characters suggests that they represent not only the convenience of a
stencil, but also a level of literacy of individuals barely schooled, suitable for use by the
youthful Red Guards whose education was interrupted by the closing of schools during
the Cultural Revolution. Only parts of each slogan appear in the painting, as they are
naturalistically cut off by the edge of the surface support. No maUer, the slogan is so familiar,
and no doubt chilling to those who Jived through the time, that one does not need the full
121 Lin Fengmian' s Legacy During the Cultural Revolution
four-character expression ([g1--=f, sigezi) intact to understand its meaning. Similarly, though
illegible, pasted on the left door of the gateway is a large white sheet of paper of the type the
PRe government posted announcing its most current policy, its authority enhanced by the
additional vertical colored official strip-signs (also illegible) on the door and nearby column
base, signs that no doubt amplify the larger document' s content.
The authority of the new policy is contrasted against another, older exhortation. This,
appearing in a traditional greeting to all who would enter the compound, and now, as an
ironic message to all who would read the painting, is a character carved on the stone spirit
wall standing just inside the doorway. It is the giant character :ffli (fu) for "Good Fortune,"
"Blessings," or "Happiness." This character was a commonplace in doorways and in the
latticework of windows and balustrades of elegant old structures. Although such stone inscriptions
could be written in any of the early Chinese scripts, this fu is written in cursive script (caoshu), a
script developed from the ancient master, Wang Xizhi CE~Z., 303-361). Therefore, it implicitly
suggests not only a familiarity with one of China' s noble ancient traditions, but also and
especially in contrast with the stenciled slogan of illiterate masses on the exterior walls, an
allegiance to the educated intellectual class felt by members of the establishment within.
And what of the establishment itself? Depicted in Down with the Four Olds is a walled
compound of a private estate or temple with what may be assumed is a centrally placed
gate. Its antiquity is suggested by the Ming or Qing Dynasty stone carvings flanking the
doorway. The damaged stone sculptures standing near the gate attest that items, which once
enhanced the importance of the site, have been destroyed. The frayed and shabby condition
of the wooden doors and interior eaves emphasizes that the glory days of this establishment
have passed. The newly labeled status of the compound as a signifier of the Four Olds only
reinforces its current run-down condition.
As for the other painting of this pair, At the Gate, no obvious "Down with the Four
Olds" signs appear; only two small vertical labels are pasted askew on the brick wall, and
another on the wooden doorway. These are similar to the ones in Down with the Four Olds.
Their inscriptions, much smaller in scale than the large slogan on the walls of Down with
the Four Olds, though illegible, no doubt reinforce the anti-Four Olds policy. Nevertheless,
122
the purpose of the Red Guards'
clearly indicated by the jumbled contents
of the prominently placed pick-up truck
parked outside the gate of a brick-walled
temple compound. Within the monastery, a
three-by-three bay bell or drum tower rises
serenely,7 its Ming Dynasty eaves rising up
gently at their ends. Filled past the brim, the
truck bed holds a large carved wooden table
with delicate fretwork, a carved wooden
clothes stand, and a sizable wooden chest for
Fig.6 [X] At the Gate, Propaganda Art valuables. Set off against the browns of theChunyu, detail. Poster Center, Shanghai. (Photograph prov ided by the au thor. ) furniture in the truck-and in the center of the
entire composition -- is also a large porcelain
incense burner, its large scale proclaiming the high-quality craftsmanship of its production, its
blue-and-white decorated sides not just implying but in this instance implicating the temple's
association with the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen, and thus, that this temple once had imperial
patronage and elite status. (Fig.6)
And the Red Guards? Two stand quietly by the cab of the truck, their hands at their
sides or clasped behind the back. Their identity is anonymous, their faces without features,
though from the painting of their hair styles, one senses a boy and a girl. They wail.
Something is happening within. Another Red Guard stands in the doorway of the gate, even
less distinguishable than the other two. He (one presumes a male from his taller stance) faces
inward, and also stands motionless. Their positions suggest all wait knowingly, and give a
sense as well that they stand with the mixed emotions of the virtuousness that comes with
fulfilling their political responsibilities and the remorse at their acts of aggression.
In both paintings, the brushwork and coloration is understated and subtle. The soft colors
and controlled brushwork emphasize light effects and a quiet atmosphere. Simply presented.
as if with no judgment from the artist on the matters at hand, the scenes are gentle, lyrical.
123 Lin Fengmian' s Legacy During the Cultural Revolution
even pretty. Only the viewer' s knowledge of the tragedies taking place marks these paintings
as horrific.
So what have these two early Cultural Revolution period paintings to do with Lin
Fengmian? The short answer is: style and technique. As noted above, when Director of the
National West Lake Academy of Art, Lin Fengmian advocated a hybridization of European
styles with Chinese characteristics. These paintings evince a European style and Chinese
subject matter to be sure. The long answer, however, is more interesting.
Obviously, these paintings are made in a Western style, where "Western" stands for
cultures of Western Europe and the US. But "the West" has many styles, and the Chinese
artists in the twentieth century learned many of them, and from diverse sources. Therefore, the
question is, which style is used here? This question is important because style is frequently
coded with political meaning. What style is being summoned for these paintings?
Among the various Western styles available to the Chinese closed off from contact with
art movements in Western Europe and the US during the Cold War, one would reasonably
expect paintings made during the height of the Cultural Revolution to be in styles promoted
by Mao' s regime. At this time, Mao' s wife and adviser on cultural affairs, Jiang Qing rr. II (1914-1991), promoted paintings in the socialist-realist style of the Soviet Union, in which
a red palette predominates, subjects are joyful, compositions feature heroic representations
of workers, peasants, and soldiers, and themes celebrate Mao' s chairmanship and ideology.
An example of such work is Chairman Mao' s Heart Beats as One with the Hearts of the
Revolutionary Masses, ca. 1967 (Fig.7).
Yet, this pair of watercolors obviously was not done in the socialist-realist manner, a
style antithetical to the modernist and formalist art with an "art for art' s sake" attitude
championed by Lin Fengmian and others.~ Though naturalistic, the watercolors do not display
a cheerful and happy tone. Their depiction of the Red Guards is neither in dramatic and large
scale, nor is it joyful. Moreover, these paintings are not of one of the eight proscribed topics
that Jiang Qing approved artists to depict during these years. These factors tell us that the
anonymous artist of these watercolors disputed Jiang Qing' s ideals for art and culture.
Rather, these watercolor paintings with their lush yet subdued palette dominated by
124
rig.7 Anonymous, Chairman Mao's Hearl Beats as One with the Hearts of the Revolutionary Masses, ca. 1967, oil on canvas, location unknown. (Sour e: China Reconstructs. vol. xvi i. no. 2 (Feb. 1968), pp. 22-23.)
shades of gray, and blended brushwork of small patches of juxtaposed reds and greens speak
to another mode of European-style painting, a mode championed by Lin Fengmian and others.
Whereas Lin' s own paintings featured compositions of flying geese in bleak landscapes
(Fig.8), or ebullient Matisse and Modigliani-inspired figures (Fig.9), it is not Lin' s own style
that [X] Chunyu has incorporated, except perhaps his melancholy, but rather, Lin's ideas
that though art be created for art' s sake, it would ultimately serve social causes.
[X] Chunyu has taken a relatively apolitical mode of painting initially created in an "art
for art' s sake" environment: European-style impressionism (the broken brush strokes.
blocks of neutral grays and browns that upon inspection reveal themselves to be lush stippling
of reds and greens. (Figs. 5 and 6). arbitrary cropping of the vista, the seemingly random
placement of the figures, deliberate casualness of the composition and expressionism (an
emotional dimension, though here, tragically stated), and made it political a la Lin Fengmian.
It seems she has accepted Lin's corollary to the "art for art's sake" dictum: "[A]
fter an artist produces a work, what is exhibited with this artwork will ultimately influence
society. What appears in art will impact reality." 9 Because these paintings are not in the
soviet-socialist mode, and the Red Guards' activities are not painted in the requisite joyful
and aggrandizing manner, it is apparent that the artist here is courageously though privately
confronting the state policy of Cultural Revolutionary period.
125 Lin Fengmian' 5 Legacy During the Cultural Revolution
Fig.8 Lin Fengmi an, Fly i ng Geese in Landscape, unda ted, ink and co 1or on Fig 9 Un Fengmi an, Nude, c. 1934, oi I paper, 69.2cmX 131. 3cm., Mactaggart Art Collection, University of Alberta, on canvas, 80. 7cmX63. Zcm, Hong EdIIonlon, Canada. Kong: Christie' s Auction Hous~
At the National West Lake Academy of Art, Lin Fengmian aimed to "introduce Western
art, organize Chinese art, harmonize Chinese and Western art, and create the art of our
time." 10 With his training in France and Germany in the early 19208 in the various modernist
art modes including French Postimpressionism and Fauvism, and especially under the tutelage
in Paris of Fernand Cormon (1845-1924), instructor to many including Henri de Toulouse
Lautrec (1864-1901) and Vincent van Gogh (l853-1R90), Lin was in a position to make this
happen, "both through his example and through his hiring decisions." 11 Not only were
these styles taught at the Academy, but also Lin' s emphasis on the expression of subjective
feeling in art was respected. 12 Indeed, Lin Fengmian' s approach "dominated the Hangzhou
academy" even after he had left it in the 1940s.13 Although Lin Fengmian' s approach to
painting fell by the wayside during the 1950s-60s when the PRC promoted soviet-socialist
realism, [Xl Chunyu' s two watercolor paintings purposefully and courageously called upon
the models and attitudes championed by Lin Fengm.ian to show harmonized compositions of
Western modernism with Chinese characteristics and personal convictions.
If one accepts that 1968 is the date of these works, it is reasonable to deduce that the
artist was not a participant in the events recorded in these paintings, and therefore not a Red
Guard, but someone older than the members of that youthful group, with the life experience,
artistic training, intellectual independence, and maturity to withstand many of the pressures
126
of the time. This would have been an artist who loved her country, but recognized the atrocity
of cultural desecration. This suggests someone who was older than her teens or twenties
in 1968; perhaps someone who was of middle age or older. Moreover, since this set of
paintings is done in an impressionistic European style promoted by Lin Fengmian, it is
possible that [Xl Chunyu was a young adult at some point during the 1920s to 1940s when she
could have learned about the ideals and techniques of Lin Fengmian in the first place.
Even if one prefers a post Cultural Revolution date of the 1980s for these watercolors,
the sensitivity of the artist' s brush and the immediacy of the representations in these scenes
still demonstrate a personal connection to the events. To be sure, the technique and style
utilized point to an artist who learned the Lin Fengmian approach and used it to record events
experienced during the Cultural Revolution.
Endnotes
1. Julio F. Andrews and Kuiyi Shen, The Arts of Modern China, Berkeley: University of California
Press, forthcoming, Ch. 3, pp. 34-35.
2. Liu Haisu founded the Shanghai Art Academy (Shanghai Meizhuan L~jt-t, in 1912. Yon
Wen liang BJ()c tfE (1893-1988) founded the Suzhou Art Academy (Suzhou Meizhuan 1t1tl jt-t) in
1922. See Julio F. Andrews, Pointers and Politics in the People's Republic of China, 1949-1979,
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994, pp. 52-54.
3. Regarding the denouncement, see Andrews and Shen, Arts of Modern China, Ch. 10, p. 1.
4. Yang Peiming, email to the author, September 29, 2010.
5. Mi Gu -*~, "Wo ai Lin Fengmian de hua" ft't#JX\.llKirJ@i r "I Love Lin Fengmian's
paintings" J, Meishu «jt#)) , 5, 1961, pp. 50-52.
6. Michael Sullivan, Art and Artists of Twentieth-Century Chino, Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1996, p. 151.
7. Bell and drum towers tend to be built in small, three by three bay scale. Of all the structures
within a Buddhist compound, they ore generally placed closest to the entry gate.
8. Andrews and Shen, Arts of Modern China, Ch. 7, p. 7.
9. Shan Guolin (He Li, trans.), "Modern Art and Culture in Shanghai, 1840-1940", in Shanghai:
127 Lin Fengmian' s Legacy During the Cu ltura1 Revolution
Art of the City, Michael Knight, ed., Son Francisco: Asian Art Museum, 2010, p. 51. Shan
quotes from Lin Fengmian' s "Yishu de yishu yu shehui de yishu," (Art for Art's Sake and Art
for Society's Sake), May 1927, reprinted in Lin Fengmian sanwen, Pei Chen, ed., Guangzhou: , Huacheng, 1999.
10. Andrews and Shen, Arts uf Mudern Chino, Ch. 3, p. 34.
11. Andrews and Shen, Arts of Modern C:hina, Ch. 3, pp. 34-35.
12. Shan, "Modern Art and Culture in Shanghai," p. 51.
13. Andrews and Shen, Arts of Modern Chino, Ch. 3, pp. 34-35.