The Development of Still-life Painting in China in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century Under the Influence of Russian-Soviet and Western Art

Men Khao Postgraduate student, Department of Art History and Pedagogy of Art, Herzen State Pedagogical University 191186, Russia, Saint Petersburg, nab. Sinks, 48, building 6, office 51 meng101@rambler.ru Other publications by this author

In Western and Russian art there is such a thing as "Chinese still life" or "still life in Chinese style". It is usually used when it comes to a certain set of objects that are associated by the author and the viewer with Chinese culture. Traditionally, these are porcelain vases and dishes, peonies, fruits, small plastic, fabrics, etc. At the same time, such canvases, as a rule, are written in a fairly bright and saturated palette, since the Celestial Empire is perceived in the minds of foreigners as a fairly bright and unusual phenomenon. Of course, when creating works of this kind, few authors take into account the real language of Chinese painting in the field of still life and only a few try to capture it and reproduce it. The situation is most likely explained by the fact that Chinese painting is primarily associated with landscape, and still life as an independent genre emerged relatively recently. Naturally, already in Ancient China there was such a kind of landscape genre as "flowers and birds", but it did not fully correspond to the Western European type of images of compositions of objects, plants, etc. ^[1].Meanwhile, the deep symbolism of the images of flower arrangements and birds or insects fluttering around them, or sitting on branches, was quite similar to that iconic essence of Western European still lifes of the XVII century and subsequent periods.

However, already in the second half of the XIX century, drawings on paper or silk became a stronghold of conservatives ^{[2, p. 141]}, while many young Chinese artists began to get involved in Western oil painting and get acquainted with its genre specifics. It was then that the first still lifes created in the spirit of Western masters began to appear. First of all, even then, in comparison with "flowers and birds", the range of subjects of such compositions expanded, which began to include various natural and man-made objects, the palette became much brighter, and when constructing the composition, the artists confidently used the laws of linear perspective ^{[3, p. 149]}. At the beginning of the XX century, Chinese artists used techniques of Western painting and successfully worked in various genres, including in the field of still life. In this genre, they first absorbed the currents of European, primarily French culture, and then Russian-Soviet art ^[4]. At the end of the last century, the art of China experienced many influences that, coupled with previous processes, determined the appearance of modern Chinese painting, including in the field of still life.

It should be noted that in modern Russian science, works are increasingly appearing that highlight the issues of the development of still life in Chinese painting in connection with the art trends of other countries, primarily European and Russia. Among the important for this publication we will name such Russian-speaking authors as N.A. Vinogradova, E.V. Zavodskaya, M.A. Neglinskaya ^[5], etc. In recent years, articles by Chinese researchers dealing with the history of still life in their native country and, in particular, throughout the XX century have also been published in Russian: "The genre of still life in the works of Chinese artists of the XX century" Qi Zhuo ^[6], "The specifics of still life in Chinese oil painting of the 1930s–1940s" Yu Han ^[7], "The development of oil painting and the history of the formation of the genre of still life in China" by Lin Yongchao ^[8], "Comparative analysis of the foundations of Chinese and European painting" by Ping Pingfan ^[9], etc. With regard to the comparison of the trends of modern Chinese and Western art, Wang Jitai's publications ^{[10, 11]}, as well as Wang Fei's dissertation "Contemporary Art of China in the context of the world artistic process" (2008) are interesting ^[12]. It is obvious that Chinese art studies has a much larger body of journalism and scientific works related to the analysis of the situation in this area. The key to the disclosure of this topic should be called the ideas of Ren Kun ^[13], Zhong Zijun ^[14] and other authors who study the similarities and differences between Chinese still life and the works of artists from other countries.

The general position of these researchers boils down to the fact that Chinese painters of the second half of the XX century used Western painting techniques and techniques, but their artistic concept invariably differed from what Western European masters did, both in the present and in the distant past — at the dawn of the genre. This article is devoted to the analysis of the ways of evolution of the artistic and figurative language of Chinese still life in the context of Western and Soviet art trends of the second half of the last century. It was the fusion of the traditions of the European and Russian-Soviet art schools that strongly influenced the formation of the genre in China.

If we talk about comparing the Chinese still life with the Russian or European version of this genre, then, of course, it is impossible to avoid analyzing the features of the latter in the specified period of time. It is also important to note that there were and still are certain differences between them. In the second half of the XX century, the art of still life in Western Europe was influenced by modernism, and then postmodernism. As a result, European masters of the brush depicted objects of still life in the spirit of hyperrealism, cubism, abstraction and other trends of modern art. In the works of famous artists of this region, still life went beyond the picture frame and "absorbed" real objects. Such works were created by the founder of the "new realism" Armand Fernandez, the representative of the direction "arte Povera" Mario Merz, the conceptualist Wolfgang Laib and many others. It should be noted that, despite bold experiments with the artistic form and the essence of still life as a genre, the works of European artists still softened the radicalism of contemporary American art, and these artists were based on the analysis of real objects, which, in principle, is characteristic of Western art.

In Soviet Russia of the second half of the XX century, the situation did not allow artists to embark on the same bold search for a new language of expression, as their predecessors-compatriots did at the beginning of the century, going from impressionism to abstract painting. The assertion of socialist realism as the main and only method in art curtailed any attempts at such experiments. This led to the fact that the still life again went to the second, or even third roles. Moreover, it began to be based "on the absence of conflict and pessimism", distinguished by "special joy and optimism" ^[15]. The important thing was no longer the plastic transformation of the objects of the surrounding world, but the artists were more interested in the semantics that was born in the composition of objects, their combinations. Examples of this are the works of V.G. Gremitsky, B.M. Nemensky, V.F. Stozharov, M.K. Kopyttseva, etc. It should be noted that the attention of Soviet artists was focused on the object: the transfer of its size, texture, color combinations, changes in light and shadow, etc. The excellent ability to create a picturesque image of the subject was based on a deep understanding of nature, the ability to analyze it through sketching and observation ^[16]. K.S. Petrov?Vodkin very aptly defined this genre within the framework of Russian art as follows: "Still life is one of the sharp conversations of the painter with nature ..." ^{[17, p. 175]}.

At a time when such significant changes were taking place in Europe and Russia in relation to artists' understanding of the essence and meaning of still life in the artistic process and life in China, no less transformations were carried out. In addition to changing the political system, ideology, way of life and lifestyle of the Chinese people, art was also changing. If earlier it focused on French and Japanese art, then since the middle of the century the Russian-Soviet art school has become a source of inspiration. Many works have been written about the process and the degree of such influence on different types and genres of Chinese art, both in Chinese and Russian. Meanwhile, as it was indicated above, the effects on the evolution of still life in the works of Chinese artists of the designated period of elements of Russian-Soviet and Western European art were practically not considered.

The analysis of this requires determining to what extent the genre of still life was present in the works of Chinese masters of painting of the second half of the XX century, what features it possessed and how it correlated with those trends that existed in Europe, as well as in first Soviet Russia, and only then the Russian Federation. Moreover, using the example of one genre, it is also necessary to answer a very difficult question: Is Chinese art an independent phenomenon at that time, or is it still a derivative of the fusion of different traditions, which is only at the level of formation, so that later, namely at the beginning of the XXI century, to come to an original concept?

So, conditionally, the second half of the XX century can be divided into several periods of uneven duration, within which changes in the course of the artistic process in China were observed. The first stage is the affirmation of realism through the integration of Soviet methods of art education and the ideals of socialist realism. The next stage is connected with the curtailment of relations with the Soviet Union and Western countries, as well as the development of a propaganda line in art during the "cultural revolution". Further, the 1980s and 1990s were a time period of the policy of reforms and openness, when trends from American and Western European art began to be actively established in the Chinese artistic environment, and local artists began to be involved in the processes of the world art market.

The first period is associated with the formation of the People's Republic of China. Then cultural and artistic activities came under the control of the state. In an effort to reform traditional painting to make it "serve the people," the communist government instructed artists to follow "revolutionary realism," which glorified the heroic work of ordinary people or conveyed the idea of the greatness of the Motherland. As a model, socialist realism was chosen, which was proposed by the Soviet leadership friendly to China. However, to a greater extent, Chinese artists were attracted by the basis on which the art of Soviet Russia was based, and the Western European tradition, which was quite familiar to the Chinese. We are talking about the academic version of realism, which was advocated by the eminent Qi Baishi, Xu Baihong, Pan Tianshou, etc.

Drawing from nature, rather than copying ancient masterpieces, has become the main source of inspiration for many Chinese artists, thanks to the influence of Soviet mentors and their own teachers who studied in Europe. If we talk about what was the fate of the still life, then the Chinese masters were especially fond of flower compositions so close to them, which were written both in traditional technique with the help of ink and with the help of oil. For example, in the works of Pan Tianshou, who reached his heyday just in the 1940s and 1950s, the influence of Western painting is felt, primarily due to the use of sharp contrasts and dynamism in the composition, which were not previously characteristic of Chinese painting. The same love of Xu Baihong for the images of insects and inhabitants of reservoirs grows out of the desire to study nature, conveying its most expressive features.

One of the most famous artists of China in the second half of the XX century was Lin Fengmian, whose fate and creativity largely reflected all the vicissitudes of Chinese art of this period. While in France in the 1920s, he got acquainted with European art and all those trends that represented the expression of Western modernism. The artist advocated enriching the language of Chinese painting with the principles and techniques of Western art, including in the field of still life. The master created magnificent compositions from bouquets of chrysanthemums and peonies, as well as lotuses floating on the surface of the water. Invariably, for him, the use of a dark background, usually written in ink or black paint, on which many buds of different shapes and colors stand out in bright spots. The master sought to fill the entire pictorial plane with them. Moreover, in such a way that the geometry of space is almost not felt. Flowers, as in Chinese painting, seem to float in a dark void (Fig. 1). Each flower had its own personality for him. The author composed and connected them in the same way as both European and Russian artists of that time did, but at the same time he saw in them not only a "pure form", but also secret meanings associated with national symbols. The harmonious arrangement of colors that fit into the traditional European schemes of composition, give the image a sense of balance and peace.

Fig. 1. Lin Fengmian. Chrysanthemums. Ink, paper, paints. 1988.

However, Lin Fengmian's approaches provoked a whole drip against him in China, forcing the master to literally flee the country in the 1970s. But the further liberalization of Chinese society rehabilitated his work, making it exemplary for the masters of the "new wave", namely the art of the 1980s and 1990s. Indeed, many Chinese artists, starting in the 1960s, began to experience excessive bureaucratic and ideological supervision. Even the Communist Party's efforts to promote pluralism and freedom of speech within the framework of the "Hundreds of Flowers" Movement of 1956-1957 were quickly interrupted by the repressions of the 1960s and 1970s. Realism, idealizing the exploits of the Chinese people, was asserted in Chinese art, and the bias was made not towards still life, but more into a historical picture and a household genre. Compositions of flowers and objects simply did not meet the requirements of the time, which led to the fading of interest in the genre.

In the 1950s and 1960s, a whole galaxy of young authors, trained in the spirit of the Russian-Soviet art school, entered the arena of Chinese art. Many of them, in addition to creating paintings by state order, were appointed teachers at the largest art universities in the country. Such, for example, is the fate of Lin Gang, who was trained in Leningrad. A good knowledge of the basics of composition, proportions and perspective allowed him to feel confident within any genre. But at that time, namely in the 1960s, large-scale canvases on revolutionary and patriotic themes were required from such artists. At the same time, even in such a picture as "Wang Jofei in prison" (1961), the author demonstrated a brilliant knowledge of nature and attention to objects that he modeled with the help of thin lessirovki.

The period since the 1980s has become a special stage for Chinese society and, of course, art. The new course of reforms and openness led to a serious intensification of the artistic process and the integration of China into global art institutions. It is noteworthy that the still life in many ways became the litmus test that showed the degree of such interaction. The genre, which had existed for several decades in a rather unstable state, suddenly began to flourish. Chinese authors, having seen how painting developed in the West from the still lifes of P. Cezanne to the "Brillo Boxes" of E. Warhol, also embarked on quite bold experiments with form, often repeating the Cubist experiments of P. Picasso, H. Gris, U. Boccioni or plunging into the space of abstraction. By the way, a little earlier in the Soviet Union, masters of still life also began to appear, who deviate from the principles of socialist realism, moving towards simplifying the form, its plastic transformation. For example, Soviet non-conformists D.P. Plavinsky, O. Rabin, D.M. Krasnopevtsev and others again began to master the expressive possibilities of still life, often flirting with contexts and symbolism.

Still life in the updated Chinese art at that time was present in various artistic trends. For example, such a direction as "scar painting" since the late 1970s assumed the inclusion of objects in multi-figure and complex compositions. However, the artists focused primarily on reflecting the inner world of a person, and not on finding new techniques and styles in depicting objects of the real world ^[18]. Realistic, and at the end of the century already hyperrealistic, depicted objects in his works by Gao Xiaohua — the most prominent representative of this trend. Later, Wang Guangyi will include simplified images of sign objects in his posters. Similarly, things became symbols in Zhang Xiaogang's compositions, as, for example, in his famous series "Bloodline".

The representatives of the so-called "village realism" of the 1980s also showed their admiration and desire to emphasize the tangibility, materiality of the things depicted. So, photorealistically paints objects in interaction with people Luo Zhongli. At the same time, every thing on his canvases has a deep connection with Chinese traditions, the way of life of people in the country, both in the past and in the present. In this way, the master's works resemble paintings by Soviet artists, such as, for example, V.M. Sidorov or A.A. Mylnikov. At the same time, photorealistic paintings by the Chinese master are often distinguished by a rather free attitude to the images of heroes, which involves bold plastic transformations, with accurate, objective and even scrupulous depiction of objects of the surrounding world.

The art movement of the 1970s and 1980s under the general name "new wave" united those authors who wanted to update the language of Chinese art by introducing elements of Western modernism and postmodernism. The exhibitions of young artists, who at that time opposed themselves to academic realism, which served the cause of propaganda, were a combination of very different works in style and spirit. Moreover, in the camp of these authors, still life was widely represented.  So, in the 1980s, abstract compositions by Guanzhong began to appear, composed of smears, spots, lines, which, standing out against a white neutral background, formed a variety of grass meadows, lace of woody leaves, an elegant interlacing of trunks or branches of trees and resembled the works of J. Pollack. At that time, the neo-Dadaist Huang Yongping presented installations of various objects that, when combined, formed complex contexts. Moreover, unlike Western readymades, he did not just move objects into an artistic dimension, but creatively transformed them, created them anew. His large-scale compositions were extremely realistic. Elements or even signs of a still life can also be found in the works of Cai Guoqiang at the end of the century, when the author used colored or black ink to apply colorful "explosions" on canvases resembling blooming flower buds. At the same time, like many other Chinese artists, they seemed to be independent of space, hanging in the air.

An interesting phenomenon in the art of the "new wave" can be considered the work of women artists who turned to the genre of floral still life, depicting them in an expressionistic manner. These are, first of all, Yu Hong, Cai Jin, Feng Jiali, Liu Manwen and some others. For them, flower arrangements have become a means of introspection and search for meaning in life and creativity. For example, Guan Puxue's paintings are distinguished by simplicity and brightness, as well as the dynamism of the brushstroke, which was applied both with a brush and with a knife and palette knife. Hence the lively and mobile smear, with which the blooming variety is literally molded. The influence of the passionate and temperamental nature of the master is clearly felt in this. The central motif of the author is quite characteristic of China lotus bud. According to Guan Puxue's thoughts, "if we express only beauty, softness, the works will be ordinary. Among the flowers, I like lotuses the most for their purity and sublime forms, I don't like flowers on the market. Flowers in a woman's work must necessarily carry an emotional attitude and reflections on the value of life" ^{[19, p. 91]}. Therefore, there is no desire for exceptional accuracy in the works, but, on the contrary, they express the emotion of the artist, primarily due to the brushstroke and contrasts of light and shadow.

A completely different calm notes are felt in the still lifes of the 1990s, made by the artist Li Jiangfeng. Unlike Guan Puxue, she preferred small formats at that time, in which she scrupulously recreated the diversity of the plant world in combination with the exquisite simplicity of white porcelain. Her bouquets in vases are written using a variety of rectangular colored strokes, neatly correlated with each other in size and tone. She prefers pastel muted tones more, and the objects depicted by her seem to melt in a milky haze of paper or primed canvas (Fig. 2). It resembles still lifes, consisting of vessels, which were painted by the Italian Giorgio Morandi.

Fig. 2. Li Jiangfeng. The history of the rose. No. 4. Oil on canvas. 1998.

It should be noted that such experiments in the presentation of real-world objects by artists within the framework of the "experimental art" of China at the end of the XX century did not break with realistic trends. Moreover, any work of the master was based on the observation of nature, but at the same time its creative reinterpretation, which happened in Russian-Soviet, Western European, and American art of that period. At the same time, Chinese artists mostly remained in the space of realistic art. So, the master of photorealism Liu Yingzhao in the 1980s, teaching at the Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts, despite the liberalization in art, created very believable still lifes in the spirit of academic realism. The master depicted fruits and berries, as well as flowers and leaves on a neutral light background with bright flashes. A favorite combination is a red—maroon spot of juicy fruit and a white tablecloth with stripes of shadows and light. Moreover, the latter played one of the key roles in his still lifes. It affects the nature of the image of objects and the space around it. It is due to the play of light and shadow that a feeling of depth and the presence of air is created, in which flowers and fruits are fragrant. Some Chinese researchers believe that this trait represents an original quality that significantly distinguishes the artist from his Western colleagues and other Chinese masters ^[20].

Thus, the genre of still life in Chinese painting of the second half of the XX century developed under strong foreign influence. At first it was a European version of modernism, which was promoted by Chinese artists who were trained, primarily in France, in the first half of the century. This, first of all, was expressed in the fact that still life began to be established as an independent genre, going beyond the image of only flowers and birds as the main motifs. At the same time, still life painting began to be introduced as a form and method of teaching the principles of realistic art. However, since the establishment of the People's Republic of China, attention to realistic still life has already been supported by the influence of the Russian-Soviet art school. Further, the cultural revolution entailed the curtailment of any experiments in the field of artistic form and the strengthening of the positions of multi-figure genre compositions and historical paintings proclaiming the struggle and exploits of the Chinese people, taking the still life out of the focus of attention of Chinese authors. Only since the late 1970s, in the wake of the "discovery" of Western art by the Chinese, interest in the image of objects was revived. Moreover, Chinese artists boldly launched into experiments with different styles and trends in this genre, sometimes finding unexpected and original solutions.

As a result, the Chinese version of this genre began to develop in the direction of ethnocultural originality in the second half of the XX century, and all this happened under the constant influence of foreign art. By the end of the century, it was already possible to speak confidently about the formation of a strong position of still life as a genre in the space of Chinese art, as well as the addition of such features that determined its originality. First of all, for a Chinese artist, writing a still life is more an expression of feelings for an object than painting itself. Perhaps this is the basic difference from Western European painting, but the proximity to what was created by Russian and Soviet masters of still life of the same period. Such works are related by the same desire for the similarity of the depicted motif with the object of the master's attention due to the development of the ability to observe and by improving the technique of execution. Moreover, Chinese masters are characterized by special technological techniques and means of expression. Among the first should be mentioned the frequent synthesis of oil and ink painting, the use of tools and materials unusual for a Western person. Moreover, Chinese artists are united by a historically grounded love of floral compositions, the desire to convey the beauty of the combination of colors and shapes of buds, while often ignoring the surrounding space, which is often represented by a solid dark or light background. It is also worth noting the attraction to a linear solution or, on the contrary, to large color spots, as well as contrasts.

A distinctive feature of the Chinese still life, which has been consistently developing in the works of artists since the first quarter of the XXI century, is that the motifs in still lifes are considered not just as a beautiful combination of interesting objects through which you can express yourself or hone your author's manner. The difference lies in the fact that the Chinese have never seen "dead nature" in such images. She is always alive and spirited. Therefore, if the master paints flowers, then they are certainly fragrant, if the objects are in perfect condition. For Chinese masters, still life is an opportunity to express the beauty and perfection of the world, their feeling of it.