Xu Beihong and the New China: thoughts centered on the painting At the World Peace Congress
MO Ai (Translated by ZHAN Yan)
ABSTRACT This essay analyses a politically tinged painting by Xu Beihong (1895-1953), a representative modern Chinese painter. He composed the work in 1949, just before the founding of the People’s Republic of China, or the New China. In her discussion of the perplexing work, the author attempts to unveil Xu’s understanding of revolution and of the relationship between art and politics, in relation with his difficulties in exploring and practicing art in the early Republic period (1912-1949). Based on this, the author discusses the painter’s mindset in the social and political context of the New China. She also tries to reveal that Xu’s art practices were restrained by the realities he was in – a crucial point to understanding his achievements and predicaments. As an artist who resisted the western modernism in the course of modernization, and who idealistically pursued the highest good and beauty through “realist” approaches and historical expressions, Xu’s predicaments interestingly reflect the complicated relationship between art and revolution in China’s road to modernization, and provide a foundation for further explorations into the core issues and the particularity of modern Chinese paintings.
KEYWORDS: Chinese modern art, revolution, art, politics
MO Ai [莫艾] teaches art history at College of Fine Arts in the Capital Normal University. Born in Beijing in 1974, she graduated from Chinese Ink Painting School (ink painting studio) in the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, and from School of Arts in the Peking University with a Ph.D. degree in art history. Her research field is Chinese modern art history. She has published Resistance and Awareness: a Historical Study of the Early Development of Modern Chinese Art (Peking University Press, 2015). Her essays have appeared in journals like Renjian Thought Review, Literature & Art Studies, and Art Research.
ZHAN Yan [战艳] works at Xinhua News Agency. She graduated from School of International Journalism in the Shanghai International Studies University in 2001, and studied social and cultural anthropology at UCL in 2011.