Lingnan School
The Lingnan School was an art movement active in the late Qing dynasty and Republic of China that sought to modernize Chinese painting through borrowing from other artistic traditions. Established by brothers Gao Jianfu and Qifeng, together with fellow artist Chen Shuren, the Lingnan School has been considered one of the major art movements of 20th-century Chinese painting.
The Gao brothers and Chen were influenced by the teachings of Ju Lian, including the "boneless" technique. They subsequently travelled to Japan, where they learned Western techniques of perspective and colour through the syncretic Nihonga school of painting; these influences remained prevalent throughout their lives. The men joined the Tongmenghui, an anti-Qing nationalist organization with which their movement was closely associated. Returning to China in the late 1900s, the Gaos and Chen participated in the 1911 revolution. Chen later returned to Japan for further study, though the three collaborated on spreading their idea of a "New National Painting" that combined Chinese and foreign influences. Exhibitions and teaching positions allowed them to further promulgate their approach to art, and, by the 1930s, the Lingnan School had broad acceptance and support with the Kuomintang government. Chen, the Gaos, and their students participated in national and international art exhibitions into the mid-1930s. However, during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the movement fell from prominence due to its Japanese influences. Students of the Gaos continued the movement after the Chinese Civil War, both in mainland China and in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Subsequent generations have also been active in British Columbia, Canada.
Stylistically, the Lingnan School was marked by a blending of traditional Chinese approaches and Western techniques, as mediated by Japanese understandings. These included matters of lighting and atmosphere, as well as depictions of subjects rarely found in earlier Chinese works. Members of the movement also had marked differences; Gao Jianfu favoured atmospheric landscapes, Gao Qifeng realistic pictures of large animals, and Chen Shuren delicate bird-and-flower scenes. Subsequent generations of painters varied stylistically and thematically.
Definition
The Lingnan School was an art movement initiated by Gao Jianfu, his brother Gao Qifeng, and their peer Chen Shuren, who are collectively known in Chinese as the "Three Masters of Lingnan". The common name for the movement is derived from the term Lingnan, a traditional toponym for the area south of the Nanling Mountains; it refers to the Guangdong origin of the movement's founders. This name was not used by the artists themselves, who initially identified their movement as "New National Painting". The movement has also been known as the "eclectic" school. Meanwhile, the term Lingnan may be used more generally to refer to artists from the region who are unassociated with the school.The Lingnan School sought to promote a new style of painting that both advanced realism and continued the lineage of Chinese painting. As such, although it built on Chinese techniques and styles, both modern and ancient, the movement was characterized by extensive borrowing from other artistic traditions. In lectures, Gao Jianfu described his approach to painting as drawing from foreign traditions while retaining traditional elements, thereby maintaining a distinctive identity. Arguing that complete Westernization was impossible, Gao called for a "universal syncretism" that took the useful elements of foreign art from all sourcesbe it Egyptian, European, Indian, or Persian. Gao Qifeng similarly described his approach in one lecture:
History
Beginnings in Guangdong
The founders of the Lingnan School drew from the artistic traditions of Panyu District, Guangdong, in the late 19th century. A centre of Cantonese art, Panyu was the home of the Ju family of artists, which included Ju Chao and Ju Lian. These artists had been influenced by Song Guangbao and Meng Jinyi, painters from Jiangsu who had toured Guangdong in the early 19th century; both were bird-and-flower painters, with Song being an advocate of the "boneless" style of creating forms without outlines and Meng a literati painter who sought to capture the essence of a subject. Ju Chao interacted extensively with both artists during the 1840s and later taught their techniques to Ju Lian; the former drew more from Song, while the latter considered himself a blend of both Song and Meng.By the 1890s, Ju Lian had established the Xiaoyue Qin Pavilion in the village of Lishan, Panyu. This hall was a combination studio and art school, wherein Ju taught disciples and provided board when necessary. Among these students was Gao Jianfu, the orphaned son of a local family who enroled in 1892, and Chen Shuren, from a wealthy family, who began his studies in 1900. During their studies, the two struck up a friendship that would last the rest of their lives. Gao Qifeng has also been identified as having studied under Ju Lian, though the historian Ralph Croizier argues that, given available records, any such studies would have been brief if they occurred at all.
Ju Lian died in 1904, by which point the three founders of the Lingnan School had left Panyu. Gao Jianfu enroled at the Canton Christian College in Guangdong. He also spent time under the patronage of fellow Ju Lian student Wu Deyi, took lessons in Western art from a French painter known in Chinese as Mai La, and discussed art with the Japanese artist Yamamoto Baigai; the latter encouraged him to travel to Japan for further study. Gao Qifeng followed his brother to Guangzhou, studying at a Christian school while apprenticing as a lampshade painter. Chen Shuren travelled to Hong Kong and became involved in the anti-Qing movement.
Japanese influences
Chen and the Gao brothers travelled to Japan in the mid-to-late 1900s, among thousands of Chinese students who studied in the country after its victory in the First Sino-Japanese War. For these students, Japan offered insight into Western ideals and approaches to modernization, having adapted these throughout the Meiji era, as well as freedom from traditional socio-cultural restrictions. Gao Jianfu arrived in the country in 1905 or 1906, settling in Tokyo; he brought Qifeng with him in 1907. Chen Shuren arrived separately in 1906, first studying at the Kyoto Prefecture School of Art then enroling at Tokyo's Rikkyo University.In Japan, the painters studied Western techniques. Their primary influences came from the syncretic Nihonga school of painting; Gao Jianfu is also reported to have joined more westernized Yōga organizations such as the White Horse Society. Croizier writes that the Shijō school and its syncretic influences, originating in Kyoto but promulgated throughout Japan by artists such as Takeuchi Seihō, was particularly influential. Shijō-trained painters taught at several schools, including those attended by Chen Shuren and Gao Jianfu. Influence from Japan Fine Arts Exhibitions has also been noted.
The founders' time in Japan was also spent with revolutionary activities with Sun Yat-sen's Tongmenghui. Introduced to the society through his friend Liao Zhongkai, Gao Jianfu joined the Tongmenghui shortly after his arrival, and he drew on nationalist imagery for paintings depicting the attempted suicide of Shi Kefa as well as the militant activities of Hua Mulan; Gao Qifeng also became a member. Chen, associated with the anti-Qing movement since his time in Hong Kong, joined the Tongmenghui soon after its establishment. By 1910, all three had dedicated themselves to the nationalist cause of modernizing China; this was later realized, in part, by challenging traditional art conventions.
1911 Revolution and Shanghai
In late 1908, Gao Jianfu was dispatched to Guangdong by the Tongmenghui, where he worked with Huang Xing to plan attacks against Qing dynasty officials; the cell was responsible for the killing of General Fengshan in 1911, and for a time Gao Jianfu served as the region's governor. Gao Qifeng was also in Guangdong during this period, though he did not have such a prominent role in the political movement. Chen Shuren travelled to Wuhan to assist the republicans in the 1911 Revolution. In the early years of the Republic of China, the Gaos withdrew from formal politics in favour of focusing on art, though they remained proponents of republican ideals, and became active in Shanghai; this city, a major cultural centre, offered the opportunity to promulgate their ideas.Around this time, the Gao brothers operated the Aesthetic Institute, a combined gallery, exhibition hall, and publishing house. The Gaos sponsored exhibitions of their art in Shanghai as well as in nearby Nanjing and Hangzhou; they were among the first in Shanghai to allow the public sale of artwork. They began to deem their style a "New National Painting", one that synthesized traditional Chinese painting with foreign art. This was spread through folios of reproduced works, which also included paintings by Chen Shuren; one, published in 1912, contained only the works of Gao Qifeng and promoted them as part of a "Modern New School" At the same time, to ensure a stable income the Gaos produced more easily marketable works that followed traditional tastes.
Through the Aesthetic Institute, the Gao brothers established The True Record in 1912, with Qifeng as editor-in-chief and Jianfu serving as editor alongside Huang Binhong. This magazine had four stated goals: to monitor the new republic, report the welfare of the people, promote socialism, and distribute world knowledge. At the same time, the Gaos used the magazine to advance their "New National Painting". As a guest writer, Chen Shurenstill studying in Japanserialized his translation of a book on painting methods derived from western traditions. Such suggestions were viewed as radical, and thus acceptance was limited. In early 1913, the magazine was closed after it implicated President Yuan Shikai in the killing of Song Jiaoren.