In contrast, water color Yugong Yishan, painted in India in 1940 using traditional Chinese painting techniques, portrays a group of human bodies in movement, a subject that stands in sharp contrast with traditional Chinese paintings of landscapes, animals or portraits.
Last year, the Chinese edition of art historian Michael Sullivan's Art and Artists of Twentieth-Century China (1997) was published. In the book Sullivan describes Xu as being a passionate patriot, a dedicated teacher, but not an outstanding painter. This description came as a surprise for many people who have always seen Xu as the father of contemporary art in China.
In response, many art critics emphasized that the study of Xu should be set against the historical backdrop of the period during which he lived. With the social upheaval going on at the time, Xu's insistence on realism represents the emotional experiences and spiritual awakening of the Chinese people in the early 20th century, and as such his art is extremely important even though Western modern art had already developed to a pluralist stage containing all sorts of avant-garde ideas and styles.
Remaining influence
Cao Qinghui, an associate professor at the China Central Academy of Fines Art, told the Global Times that during Xu's time as president of the National Beiping Art School, China's earliest national art school, from 1946 to 1949, he was a major figure in designing China's fine arts education system.
Xu's art philosophy insisted that artists draw on real life experience and work closely with observations of daily life instead of solely practicing with still models in a studio.
Wang Huangshen, curator of the China Central Academy of Fine Arts Art Museum, told the Global Times that Xu's educational system was developed around 1946, the same year the National Beiping Art School was reestablished.
A number of his students went on to become famous artists themselves thus carrying on Xu's naturalist style and philosophy of painting real life.
The relation between Chinese and Western styles has always been a hot topic for many modern Chinese artists. In Wang Huangshen's opinion, when Chinese artists began learning Western oil painting it was natural that they would want to use this medium to express Chinese culture and national features.
This is also why he feels it important to compare the works of different artists at exhibitions. "The biggest problem of many Chinese exhibitions is they just exhibit artwork without any research and reinterpretation," he said, adding that when an artwork is presented beside another related work in an exhibition, different cultural reflections can lead to new understanding.
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