Lin Fengmian’s artistic experience

Lin Fengmian went to France to study in 1919 and returned to China in 1925. He spent his 20 to 25 years in Europe. From 1920 to 1923, he studied sketching and oil painting at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Dijon and the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In 1923, he went to Germany to study. During his stay in Germany, he created many works, including "Berlin Café", "After the Storm in the Fishing Village", "Ancient Dance", "Roland", "Pyramid", "Tremble Before the Devil", "The Duel between Tang and Han" wait.

According to Lin Wenzheng’s memories, surviving pictures and some records in the Chronicle of Mr. Lin Fengmian (edited by Zhu Pu) edited by Lin Fengmian, it can be seen that "Berlin Café" and "After the Storm in the Fishing Village" are based on what he saw in Germany and life feelings as the theme. The former depicts a close-up view of a café in Berlin, with floating figures and drinkers greeting, talking and laughing. The unrestrained brushwork and the interplay of light and color are reminiscent of Manet's "The Bar Room of the Fountain Hall". One researcher said that "Berlin Café" was created by the artist "after witnessing the arrogance and extravagance of the rich and lamenting the destruction of the German spirit and the degradation of the soul." Another researcher said the painting "reflects the cheerful mood of the German people in their post-war recovery." Judging from the prints of the painting, this painting indeed depicts joyful emotions. It seems difficult to give a very definite answer as to the artist's subjective intention.

"After the Storm in the Fishing Village" depicts the scene of fishermen's women waiting to return to the boat at the beach after the storm: People stand facing the sea, and their calm appearance is covering up their inner uneasiness and tension. The dramatic visual effects and the deep concern for the fate of ordinary workers are the characteristics of this work. This painting once hung in the principal's room of Hangzhou Art College. More than 50 years later, Lin Fengmian's student Li Lincan still clearly remembers its "heavy and solid gloomy tone" and the mood of the woman in the painting "looking up to the sky at the seaside" as well as the "brushstrokes, vigor and spirit" of the entire work! .

"Ancient Dance" "depicts the morning dance of Greek girls"; "Criaba's Spring Thoughts" "depicts the Egyptian Queen longing for the ancient Roman general, playing the piano and singing tragic songs on the seaside"; "Roland" "draws materials It is based on Hugo's epic poem, describing the bloody battles in medieval France"; "The Pyramid" "describes the white-winged goddess playing the harp on the Sphinx Lion at dusk"; "Tremble Before the Devil", "The Duel between Tang and Han", "taken from the narrative poems of Byron in the village" work". These works are full of yearning for the ancient and mythical world, singing about magical love and heroism, and arousing the poetry and fantasy of young painters.

At that time, Lin Fengmian met Von Roba, a German-Austrian girl. She was an orphan born into a large family and graduated from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Berlin. The two fell in love at first sight, but encountered a lot of resistance. The enthusiasm, longing, lyricism and even a touch of melancholy contained in these works are inextricably linked to the painter's love background. Even in the depiction of ancient times and expressing nostalgia, there is also a kind of turbulent and ups and downs of emotions.

"Groping" created in early 1923 is a large composition (2X4.5 meters), which is intended to show thinkers groping for the path of life. Yang Zheng, a reporter for China's "Art Review", interviewed Lin Fengmian in Paris in 1924. In a special message he sent back to China, he said that "Groping" "is filled with great figures from ancient and modern times, all of whom have different looks and depict their spirit, character and personality." Revealed at the bottom of the pen. Homer crouched on the ground, Jesus was meditating, Tolstoy bent down and stretched out his hands, Ibsen, Goethe, Van Gogh, Michelangelo, Salillo, etc. all have the profound meaning of exploring mysteries and praising mankind. The spirit and efforts of the pioneers.”

After this work was exhibited at the Chinese Art Exhibition in Strasbourg, it attracted the attention and praise of audiences from all walks of life, and was selected for the 1924 Paris Autumn Salon. Exploring the way out and purpose of human beings and life is an eternal theme faced by philosophers, poets and artists. It is completely reasonable for many international students from the disaster-ridden old China to seek the truth in Europe to think about this topic.

At the Chinese Art Exhibition held in Strasbourg in 1924, Lin Fengmian provided the most works. An article in Oriental Magazine, Volume 26, No. 16, said: "There are so many masterpieces among the new paintings. , such as Lin Fengmian and Xu Beihong, all have excellent works, especially Lin Fengmian's paintings that have the most creative value. Not only Chinese people, but also foreign art critics also praised his creations. His Chinese paintings "Desire of Life" and "Groping" were selected for the Autumn Salon and participated in the International Crafts Fair the following year. This painting draws on Gao Jianfu's painting techniques and depicts four tigers, large and small, roaring out of the reeds. The proposition is based on a poem by Schopenhauer.

According to Mr. Lin Wenzheng's recollection, Cai Yuanpei admired this painting very much and said that it "reached the Tao and advanced the technique"! The "Tao" Cai Yuanpei refers to here should refer to the spiritual connotation conveyed in "Desire for Life". This connotation has a similar intention to "Groping" and attempts to use the language of painting to convey metaphysical ideas. Lin Fengmian's painting "Desire of Life" may have been inspired by Schopenhauer. However, the four tigers painted clearly symbolize a kind of desire and self-confidence in life. They are very different from Schopenhauer's pessimism, and show a kind of upward optimism. Among the many Lin works exhibited at the "World Crafts Expo" is "Drinking Horses and Autumn Water" (watercolor painting). It depicts a knight in light-colored clothes, riding a dark-colored horse and walking towards the depth of the picture, showing a heroic and confident spirit of riding a horse for a long distance. Its mood is different from the excitement and philosophy of "Desire for Life".

In the winter of 1925, Lin Fengmian returned to China. Cai Yuanpei recommended Lin Fengmian and appointed him as the principal and professor of the National Beijing Art College. When the Feng clique warlords invaded Beijing, the artistic movement advocated by Lin Fengmian was stifled, and he resigned angrily. At that time, Cai Yuanpei was in charge of the University College in Nanjing, and he was appointed as the chairman of the Art Education Committee of the University College and was responsible for the preparation of the National Academy of Art. In 1928, the National Academy of Arts was established on the bank of the West Lake in Hangzhou, with Lin Fengmian as its dean. Soon after, the Academy of Arts was renamed the National Hangzhou Art College, with Lin Fengmian serving as the principal until 1938.

During these 13 years, he successively presided over the only two national art colleges at that time, and devoted his main efforts to art education and art movements. However, he still created many works in his spare time from teaching and academic affairs. These works were mainly oil paintings and also ink paintings. He also wrote more than 200,000 words of papers and translations, striving to promote aesthetic education and Chinese art from the three aspects of education, theory and creation. Transformation. The oil paintings that embody his thoughts and emotions are the oil paintings "Folk" (1926), "Humanity" (1927), "Pain" (1929), "Sorrow" (1934) and other works.

In these works, the passionate romantic sentiment is gradually lost, and the urgent concern for life in real society becomes the main theme. "Folk" describes a corner of a street market: two shirtless farmers sitting sadly at a street stall, with a bustling crowd rushing for a living behind them. The crowded scene reveals dullness and depression. This is a realistic work: Lin Fengmian, who had just returned to his motherland, was keenly aware of the poverty and suffering of the people.

He talked about the creation of this painting in 1957, saying: "My work "Beijing Streets" (i.e. "Folk") was a masterpiece at that time. I had gone to the streets to depict working people." During the May Fourth Movement, advanced cultural figures put forward slogans such as "popular, folk literature and art", but these were not widely implemented in the painting world. The "Beijing Art Conference" organized by Lin Fengmian in 1927 featured exhibitions and performances with the purpose of promoting "art socialization" and the fantasy of using art movements to make up for the shortcomings of literary movements. His understanding of "popularization" is to focus on the depiction of the masses and reflect their situations and sufferings. "Folk" is one of his attempts. As the principal of an art college and a famous painter studying in France, he took the lead in depicting the poor people on the streets of Beijing, which reflected the spirit of the May Fourth Movement.

Lin Wenzheng was a classmate of Lin Fengmian who studied in France and was the dean of the National Academy of Arts. He knew Lin Fengmian best. His comments are unavoidable, but they still provide us with a basis for understanding Lin Fengmian's creative intentions. In 1929, Lin Fengmian exhibited the oil painting "Pain" at the West Lake Art Academy's "Art Movement Society" exhibition held at the Shanghai French-Belgian Gala. When Lin Fengmian recalled the creation of this work, he said: "The origin of this theme is because a classmate in France was killed by the Guangdong authorities when he arrived at Sun Yat-sen University. He was the earliest party member and was abroad at the same time as Zhou Enlai. After Zhou Enlai returned to China, he went to Huangpu , this classmate came to Sun Yat-sen University. At that time, the Kuomintang purged the party and was killed. I felt very painful, so I painted the huge painting "Pain", which depicts a scene of killing human beings."

The classmate mentioned here who was killed at Sun Yat-sen University was named Xiong Junrui, and he was from his hometown. In 1923, he and Lin Wenzheng went to Germany for a study tour, which was invited by Xiong Junrui. Xiong believes in communism and once served as the head of the European branch of the Communist Party of China. Lin Fengmian created "Pain" not entirely in response to the historical event of the Kuomintang's "purge", but also to express his distress at the phenomenon of human beings killing each other. In other words, the theme is still a continuation of "Humanity". He calls for humanity because he does not see humanity, and expresses pain because he sees massacre. What pain still calls for is humanity. This is Lin Fengmian’s creative motivation.

"Sorrow" (1934) is the sister work of "Humanity" and "Pain". Derived from the same spiritual motif. On the left side of the painting, a strong man holds a dead, skinny boy in his hands, and on the right side are two grieving people carrying a naked female body on their shoulders. The tone is strong, and the characters are outlined with thick outlines, which seems to have been borrowed from the painting method of the French expressionist painter Rouault. The sluggish sense of strength makes people feel that the painter's sadness also contains a kind of anger.

Lin Fengmian's naked exposure of the pain of life and the killing of people, and his call for humanity and love, is unprecedented in the history of Chinese art. Its spiritual intention belongs to the "May Fourth" enlightenment literature and art trend represented by "Diary of a Madman". This revealing art appeared in the late 1920s and early 1930s, and is somewhat consistent with the revealing nature of the new woodcut movement under the banner of Kollwitz.

The difference is that the new woodcut movement is related to the political left-wing cultural trend and specific social revolutionary goals, but Lin Fengmian’s painful call is only out of modern humanism and an upright, patriotic, compassionate man. The candid heart of an artist with a deep heart. The Kuomintang government authorities, who were afraid of the woodcut movement, would certainly not welcome these works of Lin Fengmian. Around 1931, Chiang Kai-shek and his wife returned to Fenghua. When passing through Hangzhou, they visited the Art College. When he saw the painting "Pain", he asked Lin Fengmian what he meant. Lin said: "To express human suffering." Jiang said: "How can there be so much pain under the blue sky and white sun?" In Chinese history, rule that relied on massacre to come to power The authorities need to sing and dance to promote peace, but they don't want to see real life.

Lin Fengmian, who has returned from studying abroad, is determined to revive the art of his motherland. His status in the cultural and art circles cannot be said to be low, and he is still young and prosperous. Why is he so solemnly sad and depressed?

This first comes from the painter’s realistic feelings of hearing and seeing. The "May 30th Massacre", the "March 18th Massacre", the "April 12 Shanghai Massacre", the "April 15 Guangzhou Massacre", the "September 18th Incident"... all these cannot but stimulate young painters. . The romantic fantasies that had floated in my mind in France were quickly extinguished. The vast land of the motherland is full of misfortunes and massacres. In 1927, after he was forced to resign as the principal of Beijing Art College, he published a "Letter to the National Art Circle", which gave a heartbreaking description of the social darkness at that time:

Isn't this the social background that gave rise to Lin Fengmian's creative psychology?

Of course it’s more than that. Lin Fengmian was born in a mason's family. He followed his grandfather to work cutting stones since he was a child. He understood and deeply sympathized with the suffering of the working people. Two other events had a profound impact on his personality and psychology. One was the death of his father in 1922, when he was in Paris and could only grieve alone. Another incident was the sudden death of his wife Rhoda and their infant baby. Lin Fengmian was so hurt that he stayed up day and night and carved a self-written inscription on the stone for Roda. This heavy blow left an insurmountable psychological trauma to the introverted Lin Fengmian. His sensitivity and sincerity towards the painful themes of life are inseparable from this deep psychological pain.

As mentioned before, Lin Fengmian likes to read. According to Lin Wenzheng's recollection, in middle school, in addition to his interest in painting, he was particularly fond of poetry and was deeply influenced by classical culture. This can also be seen in his later painting creations. During the five years he studied in France and Germany, he became familiar with the Bible, Greek mythology, and the works of Goethe, Hugo, Tolstoy, and Byron. He also accepted the ideas that were very popular in Europe at the time and in China around the May Fourth Movement. Influenced by the philosophical thoughts of Kant and Schopenhauer. Some painters who studied at the Hangzhou Art College in the 1930s still remember Lin Fengmian's fondness for quoting Kant and Schopenhauer to explain artistic aesthetics. However, in Schopenhauer, suffering people do not need to complain about unfairness and just endure their fate; Lin Fengmian always loves nature and life, and always holds the ideal of using art and beauty to save mankind and strives unyieldingly, pursuing the possible beauty. Life. In 1937, Japanese invaders launched a massive attack on North and East China, and the Anti-Japanese War broke out. On August 13, the Japanese army attacked Shanghai; in October, the National Hangzhou Art College moved inland. Lin Fengmian informed his wife and daughter who had returned to France to visit relatives to return to China and temporarily live in the Shanghai Concession. He led the teachers and students of the Art College to move to Jiangxi and Hunan. His oil paintings could not be taken away, and they were all destroyed in the hands of the enemy. In the spring of the following year, in Yuanling, Hunan, Hangzhou Art College merged with Beijing Art College and was renamed National Art College. The principal system was abolished and the school committee system was changed. Lin Fengmian was appointed as the chairman. Due to disagreements with the Ministry of Education and some people in charge of the school, he resigned in pain. After returning to Shanghai to settle down with his family, he moved to Guizhou, Hanoi, and Yunnan before arriving in Chongqing. In Chongqing, he avoided Peipei, where literature and art were concentrated, and lived alone in an old room in the Grand Buddha Hall on the south bank of the Yangtze River, concentrating on the exploration of painting. He also created Anti-Japanese War propaganda posters, but he still believed that painting had its own special way and way of serving mankind.

Before the "July 7th" Incident, he participated in the "Written Talks on Sino-Japanese Issues" in "Oriental Magazine" and clearly advocated a "war" against the Japanese aggressors. He said: "Eastern Neighbors What is given to us is not the hand of sympathy and friendship, but the sword of ruthless hostility! Therefore, in order to realize the mutual support plan with our eastern neighbor, we must first wake up its ears with cannons and brighten its eyes with bayonets. Then a heroic shake of the hand is possible." This socio-political attitude goes hand in hand with his pure artistic exploration.

In Chongqing, Lin Fengmian rarely participated in social activities. Although he has held important positions in the art education field, he does not like social interactions, especially making friends with powerful people, or using non-artistic means to achieve artistic goals. In this regard, he is very similar to Cai Yuanpei, who once valued him very much. Although Cai Yuanpei held important positions, he maintained his independence as an academic intellectual.

Essentially speaking, Lin Fengmian is an innocent artist, not a social activist: he neither lacks the flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances that an activist requires, nor does he want to preside over In the painting world, he has the desire to be a leader who makes all the heroes admire him. He is passionate about art education, but since it is difficult to exert his enthusiasm in this field, he resolutely and peacefully concentrates on creation. Moreover, merging Eastern and Western art has been his goal since he was a student in Paris, and it is fitting that he can work on it alone. I have lived in a Tsuchiya on the South Bank far away from the cultural center for more than six years.

The writer Anonymous once visited him, and what he saw in his room was "a white wooden table, an old stool, and a plank bed. There were oil bottles and salt shakers on the table... If it weren't for the mud walls There are several ink paintings hanging on the table, and there is a pen holder on the table with dozens of paintbrushes inserted in it. There is no way to connect this owner with the person who was once the youngest principal of the National Art College in the world. ". He devotes himself to painting every day, fascinated by the intersection and rebirth of ink and oil paint. According to the recollections of Li Keran, Xi Dejin and others, he always kept thick pieces of rice paper cut into squares in his room, and he could draw quickly, sometimes dozens of pieces a day.

For a full 40 years from 1938 to 1977, Lin Fengmian was always engaged in lonely artistic exploration.

This period includes the Chongqing period (1938-1945), the Hangzhou period (1945-1951), and the Shanghai period (1951-1977). There are slight changes in the three periods, but the inner spiritual pursuit is consistent. In terms of subject matter, this period mainly featured landscapes, ladies, birds, flowers, still lifes and stage figures. The colors of the works are bright, the mood becomes peaceful, and the real sense of the real world evolves into the depiction of natural and imaginary characters and situations; ink and color ink become the main form, and the oil paintings gradually become rare or even disappear. The passionate shouts and heavy sorrow are transformed into peaceful reveries and colorful expressions.

The author briefly summarized the aesthetic sentiments of his period in his book "On Modern Chinese Art", saying that they "include bright, gorgeous, warm, light, deep, melancholy, lonely, lonely, Lively and tranquil" and in general "surging with the life of nature, weaving dreams of beauty and kindness". The 40-year exploration has also undergone changes, such as the painting themes becoming more and more extensive, the emotions becoming more profound, and the formal language becoming more mature and complete. But the basic aesthetic pursuit is the same, that is, beauty, harmony and inner lyricism.

Have you seen the birds in his paintings? Whether they are standing alone on a branch or flying away quickly; whether they are perching under the moon or singing in the morning light, they are all so free and peaceful. The lady playing the piano, the brilliant autumn colors, the flowers in front of the window, the fishing boat parked, the lonely pine on the riverside, and the dancing egrets all play the same melody, without conflict, strife, darkness, ugliness, or filth. They exist alone and are self-sufficient; they are calm and confident, hiding their strength within; they are far away from blood and fire, disputes between right and wrong, and the noisy worldly entanglements. They are never domineering, weird or hysterical, nor are they aloof or self-pitying.

This harmonious and beautiful, gorgeous and peaceful world is not only for avoiding something, but also for sustenance and pointing to something. Tired and injured souls can rest here, and emotional tilt can be balanced; flowers and birds are not metaphors for abstract personality ethics (like some classical flower-and-bird paintings), nor are they show off their beauty and elegance on market shops. furnishings. There is no vulgarity like the calendar, nor is there the quaintness of the literati. This is the artistic beauty contributed by an artist who deeply feels the pain and injustice of the world in a warm and self-sufficient situation that is relatively isolated from reality. This beauty is just as Lin Fengmian imagined, "like the most affectionate lady in the world. No matter what kind of sad mood a visitor has, she will first give him the kind of warmth and comfort he wants." . ”

Still life was Lin Fengmian’s favorite painting subject from the late 1940s to the 1960s: he mostly painted vase flowers, potted flowers, glassware, cups and plates, fruits, etc. In these still life works, he explores the combination of composition, color, line drawing and color and light; he explores the unity of ink and gouache, Eastern charm and Western form. Behind the search for form is the endless pursuit of beauty and vitality. Watching these still lifes is like facing a peaceful and splendid "peachland", a flame full of passion and love, and an inner world with changing feelings, moods and emotions. Among Chinese artists, no one has been able to paint still lifes so richly, delicately, and so psychologically.

Lin Fengmian’s ladies and nudes are different from any ancient and modern paintings of ladies and Western nude works. He uses brushes, rice paper and elegant colors to capture an illusion, an elusive beauty. If classical lady paintings mostly convey repressed and concealed love, and Western nudes mostly express flaunted and open love, Lin Fengmian's works are somewhere in between, expressing sublimated love and feeling hazy. Transformed female beauty and physical beauty.

The sensory stimulation is diluted, and the description of skin texture is transferred to the shaping of posture, mood and cultural temperament. The expression of erotic desire is open, but it is Eastern, Chinese, and subconscious. It has the charm of a classical lady, but also has the relaxed elegance of Matisse. It has no jewels and luxury, nor is it fragrant and fragrant. On the one hand, it overflows with the warmth of the opposite sex, and on the other hand, it reveals the weariness of people's material desires. . There is no sentiment of "Falling flowers are speechless, people are as pale as chrysanthemums", but we can feel the influence of the old tradition of "happy but not obscene, sad but not sad". It can be said that this is the female beauty created by Lin Fengmian that integrates ancient and modern times, China and foreign countries.

After the 1950s, opera characters became Lin Fengmian’s favorite painting subject. He once said: "I like watching movies and all kinds of dramas. No matter how good or bad the acting is, as long as there are images, movements, and changes, it is always interesting to me." In fact, "images, movements, and changes" are far from his only Attention. What is unintentionally revealed in his works is far more than what he realizes when he says it. He has repeatedly depicted Guan Yu, Matchmaker, etc. on the stage, which has revealed his choices and intentions; and his most painted "Universal Frontier" depicts the confrontation between Zhao Gao and his daughter, one ugly and one beautiful, one black and one white. Contrast is not only due to formal needs, but also out of the projection of love and hate. He sometimes painted Zhao Nu and the mute slave in bright colors in the front, while using Zhao Gao and Zhao Gao's facial makeup as a turbulent background, which made people feel a richer meaning than a stage performance.

Lin Fengmian’s works in his third stage, especially after the age of 50, are full of light, bright and brilliant tones and situations, but many works are shrouded in a mist of loneliness. Lin Fengmian repeated this lonely mood again and again, maybe he didn't mean it, he just liked it. But it is the unintentional expression of emotion that comes from the spiritual house.

A sincere painter chooses a certain form and structure and creates a certain realm, which always corresponds to his certain emotional tendency and level of consciousness, just like what psychologists call "heterogeneous isomorphism."

Lin Fengmian's early ink paintings were characterized by liveliness and elegance. Later, they gradually turned to calmness and loneliness. Even those warm and colorful autumn colors or warm and bright spring scenes also have this characteristic. Of course, the loneliness in Lin's paintings is not a sense of emptiness, nor is it the realm of emptiness mentioned by Buddhism, nor is it the absurd emptiness found in the works of modern Western painters such as Chirico and Dali; in other words, it is just a kind of loneliness. , a self-sufficient loneliness of appreciating the world alone, we might as well make another comparison: Bada Shanren’s paintings are also full of loneliness, but they are lonely and angry, turning into pure madness.

The Huangshan Mountains described by Jian Jiang also reveal a sense of loneliness, but that loneliness turned into coldness, showing his lonely and clear personality in the turquoise and frosty realm. Munch's works are also lonely. However, Munch's turbulent and deformed pictures have no tranquility and self-sufficiency, only the fear and convulsions of a wounded soul. The loneliness and loneliness in Lin Fengmian's works are poetic and beautiful. This poetic quality comes not only from the artist's intimate and harmonious relationship with natural objects (that is, the objects of empathy), but also from an aesthetic observation of personal emotions. And this is deeply rooted in his temperament, character, cultural literacy and life experiences.

Lin Fengmian was most deeply influenced by his grandfather when he was young. His grandfather was a stubborn and hard-working stonemason from a mountain village, and he loved him the most. Until his later years, Lin Fengmian always missed the childhood scenes with his grandfather, remembering the old man's teaching that "you will have to rely on your own hands for everything in the future." He has been independent and stubborn throughout his life, and has been fighting alone for decades but remains steadfast. His works also show a lonely but upright character, which reflects the spirit of his grandfather, a stonemason, who silently carved stones.

The transformation of the spiritual connotation of Lin Fengmian's art from the previous period to this period, from an objective perspective, is directly related to the pressure of the environment (as mentioned above), so there is a last resort factor. But this change is not inconsistent with Lin Fengmian's artistic ideals and temperament. From a series of papers he published during this period, we can know that although in his youth he felt the surge of social change and pondered the question "Where is China going?", his fundamental focus and core was just Revitalize Chinese art.

When he encountered the oppression and trickery of the huge Rubik's Cube of politics in the process of advocating art movements and promoting aesthetic education, his will to devote himself to art became more pure and single-minded. As for his concept of art, he has always valued not only the subject matter, but the emotion and aesthetic itself. At this point, the influence of Kant's aesthetics (directly and indirectly through Cai Yuanpei's aesthetic thought) is obvious. He strives to pursue aesthetic values ??that transcend specific social utility and are universal and eternal. Therefore, including his early oil paintings, they were not created to promote or cooperate with certain social and political tasks.

Lin Fengmian’s persistent and simple artistic pursuit inevitably led to loneliness. He was always considered “out of place” in various periods. Careful viewers can find that the alienating politics of Lin Fengmian's art is not primarily due to politics, but rather due to his views on the nature and function of art, as well as his infatuation with artistic creation itself. For this reason, he was criticized as "formalistic" and "unhealthy sentiment", and even suffered political and physical persecution. What a tragedy. In 1977, Lin Fengmian was allowed to visit relatives abroad and moved to Hong Kong until his death. During his more than ten years in Hong Kong, he visited relatives in Brazil several times, revisited Paris after an absence of 60 years, and held solo exhibitions in Japan, France, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Hong Kong is an international metropolis. It is convenient to sell paintings and well-informed. The days of blindness and blindness are gone forever. But he is over eighty years old and is accustomed to living a quiet life. He does not entertain guests easily and rarely participates in social activities. He has his foster daughter Feng Ye taking care of his daily life, exhibitions, painting sales and other matters. This is the most comfortable and free period he has had in decades.

The characteristics of this period were that he painted frequently and produced many works, which were also acquired and collected. Most of his works from the 1940s to the 1970s were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. After arriving in Hong Kong, he painted many works that recalled his old works, including landscapes, still lifes, ladies, flowers and birds, and opera figures. Newly added themes include Christ, nuns, dreams, Qu Yuan, etc. Overall, he has reproduced the two major themes of calling for humanity and chanting life, and his style is more free, unrestrained and intense.

Many of the landscape paintings of this period are memories of the West Lake. He once said that when he was in Hangzhou, he walked to Sudi every day and saw the scenery of the West Lake to his heart's content, which was deeply engraved in his mind, but he had no intention of painting it at that time. When I was in Shanghai, I painted most of the autumn and spring colors of the West Lake, including tender willows, boats, tile-roofed houses, and water lilies, which were infinitely peaceful and beautiful. After arriving in Hong Kong, these scenery appeared again in my writings, mostly in autumn colors, with golden maple forests and cyan mountains, brilliant and solemn in the sunshine. The low hut and the shining stream in the dusk are connected with his homesickness in his later years.

Other landscapes are thick in ink and dark, just like the mountain scenery seen amidst bursts of thunder when clouds cover the sky at the beginning of night or before dawn, with flying clouds and mist, and mountains and rocks. The forest trees are also rushing, which is very different from the quiet nature of landscape paintings in the Shanghai period. It seems that the buried primitive vitality bursts out and overflows the painting. Lin Fengmian visited Huangshan once in the 1950s and drew dozens of sketches. He was very excited, but there was no special Huangshan creation after his return. In the late 1970s, he suddenly started painting Huangshan.

These Huangshan pictures do not show the mistiness of the sea of ??clouds, the verdure of the peaks, or the depth of the realm. Instead, they use rough brushstrokes and warm colors to describe the brilliant evening photos in the mountains, showing a joyful and majestic atmosphere. This is the old painter's description of Huangshan's impression, and it also conveys his feelings about life in the new era and new environment after experiencing the catastrophe of the "Cultural Revolution".

During this period, there were more paintings of beautiful women, which generally maintained the poetic and dreamlike character, but also increased the momentum, becoming lively, coquettish and gorgeous. The nude female subjects painted in the 1940s have reappeared. The plump bodies, rounded curves, and postures like Matisse and Modigliani show the delicacy and desire of youthful life, which is reminiscent of Picasso's wealthy later years. Sexy body works. Of course, Lin Fengmian's single-line naked women are filled with Eastern rhythm and rhythm, which is very different from Western body art. But in any case, old painters like Lin Fengmian who pursue modern tastes and express the love of life are rare in China.

The number of costume characters and opera characters has also increased relatively. Some also follow the footsteps of the 1960s, capturing momentum, exploring transformations, and giving stage characters new feelings, such as Zhang Fei in "Luhua Dang", Qing'er and Bai Suzhen in "The Legend of White Snake", and "Baolian Lantern" 》Characters. In the 1980s, "Red Cliff Burning" drew on stage imagery and used plane cuts, symbolic symbols, wild straight lines, and the contrast between black and red to create an unprecedentedly intense dramatic scene. The painter's feelings about power and beauty, good and evil, history and reality are all contained in the tragic and chaotic pictures.

In general, Lin Fengmian’s stage figure paintings in the 1950s and 1960s focused on formal exploration (such as trying three-dimensional separation methods, etc.). The opera character works in his later years also included elements of formal exploration, but they mainly turned to the spiritual aspect, that is, he used opera stories to express his emotions and his attitudes towards good and evil. In the 1950s, most opera characters retained the characteristics of the stage image and stage space; in their later years, they often jumped out of the stage space and stage plots, only relying on stage-like shapes to express the painter's emotions and concepts, and integrated his life experiences and inner feelings into the works. The world pours into it. This can be said to be Lin Fengmian's major breakthrough in opera character painting.

Around 1988, Lin Fengmian painted many paintings with the theme of Christ and nuns. Ink coloring, square composition, black tone, line drawing takes a back seat. Lin Fengmian did not believe in Christianity in his early years, and there is no record of him becoming a Christian or believing in religion in his later years. Why did you start painting religious themes when you were approaching 90 years old? Generally speaking, "Christ" should be his borrowed work, that is, he uses this theme to express his life experience: the experience of suffering and sublimating his own spirit in suffering.

The 1989 "Nightmare", "Pain" and "Qu Yuan" pushed the above themes to the extreme. "Nightmare" and "Pain" are both banners, more than 1.5 meters wide, both of which are rare in Lin Fengmian's ink paintings.

These works are the reappearance of the themes of "Humanity", "Pain" and "Sorrow" in the early years. The artist's creations in his later years seem to have returned to his youth, even more powerful and courageous than in his youth. There is not much sadness left, and the lyricism of loneliness has been swept away, leaving only the groaning like waves and the shouting like thunder. We should pay full attention to this huge change. "Spring Sunny", "Riverside", "Lady", etc. He is the author of "New Theory of Chinese Painting" and published "Lin Fengmian Painting Collection". Xu Beihong, Lin Fengmian and Liu Haisu are all the most important representatives of the artistic ideal of "fusion of Chinese and Western styles". He absorbed the nutrition of modern painting after Western Impressionism, combined it with traditional Chinese ink painting and realm, and integrated his personal life experience. He is a painter who has come close to the "ideal of harmony and spiritual fusion between East and West".

Lin Fengmian is a modern Chinese art educator who advocates the educational philosophy of "inclusiveness and academic freedom" and recruits talents from all disciplines.

Lin Fengmian devoted his life to integrating Chinese and Western painting traditions and created his own unique artistic style. Born in 1900 and died on August 12, 1991. He was 91 years old.