Chinese artists in Paris.
Paris Museums| N° d'inventaire | 15507 |
| Format | 21 x 27 |
| Détails | 256 p., Color illustrations, paperback. |
| Publication | Paris, 2011 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | 9782759601752 |
In response to the military, political, and economic pressures China had faced since the Opium Wars, some of China's intellectual elites decided to turn to the West to modernize the country. Beginning in the 1920s, more and more artists traveled to Europe, and Paris was to welcome many of them.
The Parisian stay resulted in a profound break with Chinese artistic traditions, not only from a technical point of view (adoption of oil painting or sculpture in the round), but also from the point of view of the subjects represented, notably the body and research on the nude, of which the work of Sanyu (Chang Yu) bears emblematic witness.
While very different artistic temperaments emerged among the Chinese students in Paris, a number of shared experiences allow us to consider these formative years as a collective adventure. First of all, the decisive influence of the context in which the painters did their apprenticeship: the academic teaching provided by the École des Beaux-Arts had a lasting impact on the artists who, like Xu Beihong, studied there, while painters enrolled in independent academies, such as Pang Xunqin, seem to have been sensitive earlier to the influence of the avant-gardes. Finally, it should be remembered that Paris was also a point of departure for Europe. After their time in the French capital, Xu Beihong and Lin Fengmian stayed in Germany, Pan Yuliang studied sculpture in Rome, and Wu Zuoren settled in Brussels.
Beyond the formulation of a personal oeuvre, the Parisian experience had indirect repercussions on the training of an entire generation of Chinese artists. Upon their return to China, Xu Beihong and Lin Fengmian, both former students of the École des Beaux-Arts, played a decisive role in founding the teaching of painting in China. Their research resulted in contrasting forms of synthesis between the two artistic traditions. At the same time, the transposition of Western creative techniques and the fine arts system to China helped train the generation of artists who came to Paris after 1945: among the students trained by Lin Fengmian were Zao Wou-ki (Zhao Wuji), Chu Teh-chun (Zhu Dequn), and Wu Guanzhong.
In response to the military, political, and economic pressures China had faced since the Opium Wars, some of China's intellectual elites decided to turn to the West to modernize the country. Beginning in the 1920s, more and more artists traveled to Europe, and Paris was to welcome many of them.
The Parisian stay resulted in a profound break with Chinese artistic traditions, not only from a technical point of view (adoption of oil painting or sculpture in the round), but also from the point of view of the subjects represented, notably the body and research on the nude, of which the work of Sanyu (Chang Yu) bears emblematic witness.
While very different artistic temperaments emerged among the Chinese students in Paris, a number of shared experiences allow us to consider these formative years as a collective adventure. First of all, the decisive influence of the context in which the painters did their apprenticeship: the academic teaching provided by the École des Beaux-Arts had a lasting impact on the artists who, like Xu Beihong, studied there, while painters enrolled in independent academies, such as Pang Xunqin, seem to have been sensitive earlier to the influence of the avant-gardes. Finally, it should be remembered that Paris was also a point of departure for Europe. After their time in the French capital, Xu Beihong and Lin Fengmian stayed in Germany, Pan Yuliang studied sculpture in Rome, and Wu Zuoren settled in Brussels.
Beyond the formulation of a personal oeuvre, the Parisian experience had indirect repercussions on the training of an entire generation of Chinese artists. Upon their return to China, Xu Beihong and Lin Fengmian, both former students of the École des Beaux-Arts, played a decisive role in founding the teaching of painting in China. Their research resulted in contrasting forms of synthesis between the two artistic traditions. At the same time, the transposition of Western creative techniques and the fine arts system to China helped train the generation of artists who came to Paris after 1945: among the students trained by Lin Fengmian were Zao Wou-ki (Zhao Wuji), Chu Teh-chun (Zhu Dequn), and Wu Guanzhong.