Reception of Soviet painting in the art of mainland China in the first half of the 20th century

Bai Tsze PhD in Art History PhD student, Department of History of Art, St. Petersburg State University 199034, Russia, Saint Petersburg, Mendeleevskaya Liniya str., 5 bbbbbeoooo@gmail.com Other publications by this author

The Chinese have a special attachment to Soviet art. In the minds of the Chinese intelligentsia of the 1950s, Soviet art, in addition to its original revolutionary nature, embodies sophistication, education and perfection of culture. Although oil painting is a distinctive art form in Europe, in China it has a centuries-old history. In fact, in China, which went through different stages, such as the "artistic revolution" of the early XX century and the "spread of Western painting to the East" in an earlier period, oil painting, an exotic genre, gradually turned into a formal discipline and an artistic tool serving political and state power in the XX century. The reason for this is easy to understand: in the modern era, oil painting has become not only one of the leading ways of expressing Western visual culture, but also an important basis of Soviet "socialist realism" ^{[1, p.121]}. It is thanks to this unique cultural and academic background that oil painting was especially appreciated by the Communist Party of China in the middle of the XX century.

After the formation of the republic, the country faced isolation from Western countries, and only the Soviet Union and other socialist countries supported it. This political strategy has also influenced the art world in an international context. The Soviet Union had a particularly great influence on oil painting. For China, the Soviet Union at that time was a socialist country, whose works of art reflected the socialist revolutionary spirit and represented advanced ideas.

The development of Soviet oil painting in China, starting with the initial propaganda of Soviet oil painting and ending with the subsequent systematic training and reform of artistic thought, showed the need to promote writers and scientists. One of the laws of the development of any art is the implementation of cultural exchange.

On February 25, 1930, Lu Xin wrote another article introducing readers to Soviet painting in China — "Collection of Paintings of Novorossiya"; it became the first written material presenting Soviet and Russian art in China, and thus marked the beginning of the first Sino-Soviet art exchange in the modern era ^{[1, p. 203]}. In this article, he briefly presented the formation of Soviet art of that time, especially the history and causes of the emergence and decline of realistic art, listed the differences between Soviet painting and European painting of that time, and also told about the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions, which later became famous in China. Artists-wanderers cared about the interests of the people, the future of the country and democracy, and their works had pronounced artistic features of the democratic spirit. It was these features that not only met the real needs of the Soviet socialist revolution of that time, but also corresponded to the spiritual aspirations of the Chinese "Movement for a New Culture" of the 1930s. The influence of literature and art on socio-political events is clearly expressed in Lu Xin's works, and the ideological atmosphere of Soviet society also strengthened Lu Xin's commitment to the concept of realistic art ^{[3, p. 86]}. He stressed that the reason for his preference for prints is that "during the revolution, prints were used most widely" – as a rule, woodcut is monochrome, thereby it encourages the artist to pay more attention to the elaboration of details – this, in particular, shows his unique creative style in the turbulent social forms of that time ^{[4, p. 100]}. But at the same time, he also expressed regret for the "large-scale masterpieces" that he could not present, and even said at the end of the article: "But I still hope that some readers will be able to benefit more or less from this" ^{[5, p. 363]}. By "large-scale masterpieces" here we mean Soviet realistic oil painting. In the collection of memoirs "Morning flowers collected in the evening" there is such a passage addressed to young people: "I do not urge young artists to abandon large-scale oil and watercolor paintings" ^{[6, p. 137]}.

The introduction and promotion of Soviet oil painting by Lu Xin pushed Chinese artistic innovations in the middle of the XX century to new achievements. During this period, the world of Chinese art sought to replace traditional Chinese painting "by hand" with realistic painting techniques. Therefore, the subjective consciousness of artists should also change from refined to popular, and the audience of works of art should become closer to the general public. Time demanded from artists a more realistic manner of portrayal, an appeal to socially significant topics ^{[4, p. 104]}. This means that art is a product of social and revolutionary practice, and not the result of traditional individual psychological activity.

Under the influence of the "May 4 Movement", representing advanced cultural thought, Marxist literary and artistic theory began to spread in China. At that time, the main component of the artistic world of Chinese literature and art became realism, characterized "primarily by boldness and breadth of criticism", revolutionary patriotism and humanism ^{[3, p. 88]}. It was these features that inextricably linked China and the Soviet Union in the twentieth century.

In February of the same year, the art society "Time" was created, which is the predecessor of the League of Left-wing Artists. The leaders of the club Xu Xingzhi, Ye Zhen and others organized an "Exhibition of paintings of Soviet Revolutionary Art" in Shanghai, which presented some works borrowed from Lu Xin with the assistance of the writer Rou Shi ^{[7, p. 99]}. Both the financing of the exhibition and the planning of the manifesto were carried out with the active support and care of Lu Xin. This exhibition was mainly aimed at criticizing the gold-worshipping artists who cared only about their own vital interests and did not think about the suffering of hardworking workers and peasants. In April 1938, through the efforts of seven leaders of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, led by Mao Zedong, the Lu Xin Academy of Arts was established in Yan'an – one of the first art schools to appear in revolutionary China. Many bright artists came out of this school. The educational model of the Lu Xin Academy of Arts laid the foundation for art education and creativity in new China ^{[8, p. 56]}. In the early period, the academy was tasked with developing means of visual communist propaganda ^{[9, p. 122]}. This approach was based on the revolutionary tendencies of Soviet art, appealing to the assertion that art is a new "weapon of class struggle" ^{[10, p. 218]}. This reflects the current situation of the development of Soviet art in China from the other side.

With the end of the Second World War and the Civil War, a relatively stable, peaceful socio-political situation has been established in China. Radical reforms have also begun in the field of art, including oil painting, and as a result of its development, the level of artistic technique has increased significantly. Under the influence of politics and ideology, Soviet oil paintings became the only models for Chinese artists, the creative intent of the works of this period mainly followed the ideas of Soviet socialist realism. Art had to reflect real life and correspond to the aesthetic ideas of the public, and the ideas of the creator had to keep up with the times and reflect the current interests of Chinese society and the state ^{[11, p. 94]}. The main function of art during this period was the propaganda of communist ideology, glorification of revolutionary figures, achievements of industrial and agricultural construction of China. The direct regulation of art by the state authorities made oil painting as a form of artistic creativity more important than it was before, and social changes in China at that time influenced the direction of the creation of oil painting both in terms of content and form.

In the pre-revolutionary period, the main genres of oil paintings were mainly academic landscapes, still lifes, portraits. However, after the formation of the PRC, such topics gradually faded into the background; the new works mainly reflected the plots of the revolutionary war, the socialist labor of the Chinese people and the achievements of national construction of that time ^{[12, p. 74.]}. In fact, this change in the direction of art was primarily caused by the special needs of art forms in China at that time, and this is largely due to the need to create paintings that would be understandable to all Chinese. The work of art had to perform a certain function of creating a new image of the country; "literary and artistic works as ideological forms of art are products of reflection of social life in human consciousness", "revolutionary literature and art should create images of various characters based on real life in order to promote a deeper perception of history by the masses" ^{[13, p. 8]}.

From the point of view of ideology, the creation of oil paintings followed the idea "literature and art should serve workers, peasants and soldiers", which was defended by Mao Zedong ^{[14, p. 708]}. This required cultural and artistic figures to conform to Marxist literary theory and Soviet socialist artistic thought in terms of creative thinking, which were headed by the goal of satisfying the spiritual needs of the people as the starting and ending point of art. This not only closely connected literary and artistic creativity with the daily life of the masses, but also made it an art form that was supposed to reflect the new political regime of China. Accordingly, in the 1950s and 1960s, Chinese oil paintings mainly reflected the achievements of socialist modernization. The key place in these works is occupied by the expression of the joy and happiness of workers, proof of the correctness and legality of the "new China", as well as the greatness and rightness of the Communist Party ^{[1, p. 131]}.

On October 5, 1949, the founding meeting of the Society of Soviet-Chinese Friendship (OSCD) was held in Beijing ^{[15, p. 8]}. From that moment on, China began to comprehensively study and popularize Soviet life and culture inside the country, calling the USSR a "reliable friend", the state closest to communism, and believing that the Soviet Union today is China's tomorrow ^{[16, p. 65]}. In fact, Mao Zedong pointed out in 1945: "Xenophobic policy towards foreign cultures is wrong, and we should try to perceive progressive foreign cultures as a guideline for the development of a new culture in China ^{[17, 1031]}. At the end of 1949, Mao Zedong visited the Soviet Union. On February 24, 1950, China and the USSR signed the "Soviet-Chinese Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance", which officially served as the beginning of the Soviet Union's assistance to China and Sino-Soviet cultural, including artistic, interaction. The contract consisted of 6 articles. The fifth article, which was one of the key ones, stated about the establishment of bilateral Soviet-Chinese relations, the desire of both sides to develop economic and cultural cooperation, "... to provide each other with all possible economic assistance" ^{[18, p.127]}.

According to the "Soviet-Chinese Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance", it was supposed to be mutual enrichment and training, but, in fact, at that time, the Soviet Union far surpassed China in international political authority, cultural education and artistic level of development. In this regard, the People's Republic of China, which is in almost all respects less developed, inevitably had to take the initiative to abandon the thousand-year-old Eastern cultural traditions in exchange for the realism of Soviet art. As for the development of this direction specifically in oil painting, here the USSR had as a basis not only the rich European experience of painting, but also its own strong painting school in the person of the wanderers and realists of the late XIX century and the first third of the XX century. Compared to the state of oil painting in China in the context of the political and social agenda of the 1950s, this really gave the Soviet Union the right to become a role model for its Eastern partner. For Chinese leaders who urgently needed to create a culturally new country and build a new image of it in the eyes of the world community and their own people, who had never seen Western painting with their own eyes, Soviet painting was very attractive.

In 1949, when new China was founded, the First Congress of Literary and Artistic Figures of the People's Republic of China was immediately held. He focused on the need for a pro-Soviet and socialist direction in the development of literature and art in the "new China", clearly outlined the work plan and specific requirements for the "transformation of old literature and art" and decided as his main task "to fully use the valuable experience of the Soviet Union, to establish an organic link between patriotism and internationalism" ^{[19, p. 3294]}.

Guo Mojo made a report at the congress, pointing out that literary and artistic figures "should delve into reality, show and praise our hardworking and heroic masses of the people, create folk literature and art rich in ideological content and moral ideals that the people want to see – so that literature and art play a big role in educating the people", as well as "fully perceive the valuable experience of the Soviet Union, a socialist country" ^[20]. The experience of the USSR mentioned at the congress not only indicated the direction of development of Chinese literature and art, but also provided a political background and literary and artistic environment for Sino-Soviet cultural exchange.

In February 1950, the Art Association of China issued a circular calling on artists throughout the country to widely promote the importance of Soviet-Chinese friendship, actively engaging in work aimed at popularizing and implementing friendly cultural exchange between China and the Soviet Union. And since then, various artistic exchanges have been held between China and the Soviet Union ^{[21, p. 94]}.

In the same year, the Art Association of China began publishing the magazine "Fine Art". The main pages of the first issue were devoted to Soviet art. Since then, articles and works on the creation, teaching and literary theory of Soviet art have been published in each issue.

In 1953, the II Congress of Literary and Artistic Figures of the People's Republic of China was held, at which it was clearly established that "socialist realism" is the main standard of literary and artistic creativity in our country ^{[22, p. 12]}.

Generally speaking, in the atmosphere of the comprehensive Sovietization of China in the 1950s, Chinese oil painting still did not escape the interference of politics and state ideology.

In fact, it can also be noted that the artistic exchanges between China and the respective countries of the socialist camp since the 1950s have also had a certain impact on the development of Chinese oil painting.

The influence of Soviet art on Chinese art in the 1950s was comprehensive and profound, and Sino-Soviet relations were an important topic in the creation of art during this period. Despite the dominant influence of political ideology on the history of oil painting in new China, art history has always sought to return to its own laws and realize its own aspirations through the impulse of political art forms.