Folk New Year wood engraving was basically an art of Chinese farmers. The natural and simple strokes frankly expressed their desires. Most of the New Year paintings are decorative, colorful and interesting as they have consecutive plots. They are appreciated by ordinary Chinese citizens and farmers and are very easy to produce. The painting draft is first engraved on wood and then printed, or the outline of the painting engraved and printed and then the blanks are filled with pens. It was the only method of producing pictures on a large scale before the invention of modern printing technology.
There are many types of New Year's Wood Block Paintings. The Gate Gods are pasted on doors and, according to their roles, there are the main gate god, secondary gate god, back gate god and wing room gate god. There are also New Year's Wood Block Paintings of the God of Stove, the Village God and the God of Wealth. At Spring Festival time, New Year engravings of various types are put in every corner of the room and courtyard, imparting a strong festival atmosphere.
As time went on, the backward and superstitious content ofNew Year picturesgradually disappeared, but the style was preserved as a popular art form. Over the past five decades, Chinese folk artists have created some new wood engraving forms to portray reality. In the 1950s and 1960s, New Year's Wood Block Paintings became very popular among the people, and new printing technologies were adopted to speed printing and increase the number of copies. Until now, no other painting form has achieved a larger publishing volume than New Year's Wood Block Paintings.
Taohuawu prints of Suzhou
Suzhou was once the most prosperous region of the Chinese Empire. In addition to the region's economic prosperity, it also produced scores of Chinese intellectuals and artists. Beginning in the 16th century, Taohuawu woodblock printing played an integral role in this area's cultural heritage and history.
Mianzhu New Year Painting
Mianzhu year painting is a member of the main four year paintings of China. It is a type of folk woodblock picture in the southeast of China and produced in Mianzhu County,Sichuan Province. It originated at the end of theMing Dynastyand the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, and flourished in the Guangxu Period of the Qing Dynasty. In the process of making it, people print ink line with woodblock and paint it in various colours.
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