Ever-young Paintings that Inspire
——Preface of Anthology of Zhang Yuejian
Since modern times, Chinese painting has experienced tremendous changes under the impact of the New Culture Movement and Western thoughts, presenting a new dazzlingly diverse art pattern. Two major schools have emerged: the traditional school that focused on traditional literati paintings to explore the core use of brush and ink, and the integration school that reconciled the local Chinese art and the exotic Western art to improve Chinese painting and strived to reflect realistic life. After that, Chinese painting gradually marched on a road of reforming and self-improving and has made great improvement in thought, theory, education, creation and many other areas. Chinese painting has entered into a new era, opening the door to contemporary painting. During this process, paintings of “Shanghai Style”, as built on the foundation laid by generations of masters like Zhao Zhiqian, Ren Bonian, and Wu Changshuo, played a pivotal role. At that time, the “Shanghai Style” was the most influential school of painting in China and was later expanded by emerging painters represented by Pan Tianshou and Wu Fuzhi into a painting system of “New Zhejiang Style”. Mr. Zhang Yuejian was a painter who was fostered under such art form and had assiduous pursuit in Chinese painting. His exploration, intellectual enquiry, teaching, and creation all inherited the essence of freehand brushwork in the paintings of “Shanghai Style” and he was reputed by academics as “the last master of post-Shanghai style paintings”.
Mr. Zhang Yuejian was born in 1924 in Pujiang, Zhejiang, a county that is known as “home of painting and calligraphy”. His father, Zhang Zimei, was dedicated to school education and was fond of calligraphy and poetry. Under his influence, Zhang Yuejian developed strong interest in Chinese painting and folk art when he was young, and often copied Mustard Seed Garden Painting Manual --- an ancient Chinese painting manual, Four Types of Figure Paintings by Ren Weichang, and painting works of renowned predecessors such as Wu Fuzhi, Zhang Shuqi, Zhang Zhenduo, and Zheng Zuwei. In 1947, he was admitted to Hangzhou National College of Art (now the China Academy of Arts) and was taught by Huang Binhong, Pan Tianshou, Wu Fuzhi, etc. Inspired by the edification of these masters, he was good at figure and landscape paintings and specialized in freehand flower and bird paintings. His paintings could be traced back to the styles of Wu Changshuo, Pu Hua, Wang Yiting, Eight Eccentric Artists in Yangzhou, Xu Wei and Chen Chun, Zhu Da in the Ming Dynasty, and Shi Tao. He also dipped into the history of painting, painting theory, calligraphy, and seal carving. Zhang Yuejian was honest, sincere, and diligent. His paintings were increasingly sophisticated, laying a solid foundation for the future wide path of personal art development.
After graduating in 1950, Mr. Zhang Yuejian was employed in Shanghai People’s Publishing House and Shanghai Education Press to be engaged in artistic creation, focusing on the creation of comic strips and illustrations, especially figure painting. This experience allowed him to receive comprehensive training and improvement in poetry interpretation, costumes and characteristics of characters, population combination, background environment configuration, and composition trend. He imitated the figure paintings of Chen Laolian and Ren Weichang, and combined it with sketching from life to publish comic strips like Master Dongguo, Fan Jin Passing the Provincial Civil ServiceExamination, and Old Man Meng. The figures in these works were vividly, expressively and dynamically painted in refined strokes. The introduction of irony and humor prevailing in comics added artistic effect of realistic significance to the works and made them highly praised. When working as an editor, Mr. Zhang Yuejian never get slack in the creation of Chinese painting. Since the late Qing Dynasty, Shanghai has been the important economic, financial, trade and cultural center in China and was home to numerous renowned literati painters, collectors and connoisseurs. This undoubtedly provided Mr. Zhang Yuejian with a superior environment for his artistic growth. He often exchanged ideas on paintings with his teachers and friends like Zhu Qizhan, Guan Liang, Xie Zhiliu and Chen Peiqiu, and regularly visited museums, Duoyunxuan Auction, antique markets, and bookstores to appreciate ancient paintings and calligraphy. He carefully studied the works he saw and worked out his own, during which process his horizon was broadened and his path of painting became wider and wider.
Mr. Zhang Yuejian transferred back to his alma mater Zhejiang Academy of Arts (now the China Academy of Fine Arts) as a teacher in the Department of Chinese Painting in 1979, which was a critical period in his artistic creation of Chinese painting and the start point for him to reach the final peak. After the 1980s, everything was changed and the society became increasingly prosperous. The diverse and inclusive culture has brought free and vast expansion of space to artists. For Zhang Yuejian, on one hand, he learned from great artists like Sha Menghai, Zhu Yueshao, Lu Weizhao, Lu Yanshao, and Lu Yifei; on the other hand, he combined teaching with creation, immersed in painting and determined in exploration to develop an increasingly distinguished artistic style that was characterized by dignified and solid brush, vivid and exaggerated images, wonderful and rigorous composition, and lively scene. He was also diligent in thinking and was good at finding, summarizing and reviewing. He edited and published multiple theoretical works of painting and calligraphy, including A Small Talk on Traditional Chinese Painting, Causerie, Textbook of Flower and Bird Painting, Biography of Wu Fuzhi, and Paintings of Zhang Yuejian.
Chinese painting undoubtedly evolved and developed along the direction of inheritance and advance. The painting art of Mr. Zhang Yuejian inherited the “New Zhejiang Style” and could be traced back to the “Shanghai Style”, belonging to the traditional literati painting system that sought breakthrough with innovative ideas. Many of his achievements in painting were closely related to two of his mentors, Pan Tianshou and Wu Fuzhi, who he met in his early career. Being both founders of the “New Zhejiang Style” and masters of freehand paintings, Pan Tianshou and Wu Fuzhi naturally paid special attention to the core elements of brush and ink. Skillful use of brush and ink has always been taken as the standard in Chinese literati paintings, and it was no exception in the works of Zhang Yuejian, who never stopped tempering his lines and use of brush and ink. In innovation to the Chinese painting, he advocated “five innovations” in theme, conception, shape, composition, and brush and ink. Theme and conception were actually related with content and poetry accomplishment, while shape, composition, and brush and ink touched upon the expression form of creation. All of them were important factors that reflected the artistic style and idea of a painter. The brushwork of Zhang Yuejian was energetic and dignified, a feature that was borrowed from the strong and vigorous technique of Pan Tianshou; in the use of ink, Zhang Yuejian seemed uncomplicated and flexible, a style that benefited from the technique of Wu Fuzhi that ink was melted into water to present a mellow and smooth feeling. Wu Fuzhi once quoted the poem of Su Dongpo to describe the brush and ink use in Zhang’s paintings as “robust but graceful, dignified but beautiful”. The calligraphy of Mr. Zhang Yuejian came from emulation of inscriptions in the Northern Dynasty, especially The Inscription of Cuan Baozi. He also combined it with the forceful and upright style of Yan Zhenqing and kept the essence of inscriptions on ancient bronzes and stone tablets while reflecting the internal control of temperament. Wang Bomin, an art theorist, praised his brushwork as “having traces of carving but with few marks”.
Birds and beasts in the paintings of Mr. Zhang Yuejian were all vivid and looked pleasant, full of delight of life. Zhang Yuejian combined the advantages of Zhu Da, Huang Shen, Qi Baishi, Pan Tianshou, and Wang Yiting. He was also good at sketching from life and skilled at refining from Nature to present calm and unrestrained brushwork, strong and unique shapes. The simple and generalized brush strokes enhanced shapes to achieve full spiritual conveyance. The paintings of ducks, egrets, and quails were especially extraordinary. He believed that “the spirit in freehand paintings is often expressed without having to be painted by the brush, as it is the imaginary spirit that is valued. The beauty lies in impression instead of sketching. Impression comes from clear strokes. When space is left between strokes, the spirit will densely outflow. If the space is eliminated, the work will be dull, blocked and lack of appeal.” Apparently, brushwork played a decisive role in shaping images in nature. Although Mr. Zhang’s paintings of Chinese opera figures were influenced by Guan Liang, he stressed more the charm of life. With less comic schematization, his paintings were uncomplicated, simple and honest.
The pursuit of layout and composition was valued in the painting creation of Mr. Zhang Yuejian. Viewing his paintings, one can feel a strike in his heart. This mainly stems from his careful management of the layout, break the routine, and search for novelty. Inspired by the idea of Pan Tianshou to create and break dangerous composition and to be bold in beginning and ending, he was good at layout arrangement and unfolding the layout with spirit, creating powerful scene in the free and delightful use of brushwork, be it light or heavy. Lin Kai, a lifetime friend of Mr. Zhang Yuejian when he was alive, commented that “power was the top priority in the paintings of Yuejian”. Over the years, Mr. Zhang Yuejian had carefully studied the artistic features of Pan Tianshou, Wu Fuzhi, Wu Changshuo, Qi Baishi, Shi Tao, Zhu Da, Chen Laolian, and Chen Chun. He summarized the ink application and composition methods used by these masters and found the rules to foster his own features which emphasized on different “shi” (power) in the scene: combination power, group power, bending power, vertical power, horizontal power, oblique power, curved power, dangerous power, expecting power, shooting power, random power, and composite power. Small art of composition was added into the big pattern of “power” and conflicting relationships between virtual and real, light and heavy, sparse and dense, black and white, long and short, big and small, thick and slim, square and round, rigid and soft, slow and quick, dynamic and static, thick and thin, dry and humid, cold and warm, and skillful and clumsy were adjusted. Rich and harmonious artistic effects are achieved through echoing, setting off, and contrasting. The exploration and pursuit of the inner principle of expression form in paintings opened the boundaries between Chinese and Western paintings, adapted foreign skills for the Chinese use, achieved complete harmony, and took on a new look.
Being versatile in Chinese painting, Mr. Zhang Yuejian also made remarkable achievements in landscape painting. In his early years of schooling, he was taught by Professor Huang Binhong, a master of landscape painting, and inherited the legacy of “Shanghai Style”. As a result, his works were full of strength, with the shining ink. Drawing on the essence of Pan Tianshou and Huang Binhong, his brushwork was straight, powerful, and fierce.
In his later years, Mr. Zhang Yuejian tended to live a simple life. He was an honest and sincere person who was dedicated to innovation. His works were restrained and full of the beauty of natural objects, and his composition of scene was pure, presenting a natural, uncomplicated, and smooth artistic conception. “The man of honor will strive constantly for self-improvement” --- this spirit ran through the life and art of Mr. Zhang Yuejian and reasonably explained his positive role in the development and research of contemporary Chinese painting in Zhejiang.
In March 2014, when it was the 90th anniversary of the birth of Mr. Zhang Yuejian, his family donated more than 110 pieces of his works, drawings, sketches and comic strips, as well as part of his literature, to the ZJAM. These are valuable data for research and promotion of the artistic achievements of Mr. Zhang Yuejian and also an important cultural wealth in Zhejiang. The ZJAM observed the grand opening of “Zhang Yuejian Art Exhibition” and published Anthology of Zhang Yuejian as commemoration. I would like to express our deep respect and gratitude for the dedication of Madam Wu Wanxiang, wife of Mr. Zhang Yuejian, Zhang Xiangdong, Zhang Xiangding, and Zhang Yueying, children of Mr. Zhang Yuejian, on behalf of the museum!
Ma Fenghui Curator of ZJAM
April 18, 2014
