Ni Yide
Ni Yide was a Chinese modernist painter, writer and art critic.
Artistic career
He graduated in 1922 from the earliest training ground for modern Western art in China, the Shanghai Art School. He became a professor at the Shanghai Art Academy upon his graduation. He continued his studies in Western art and art history in Tokyo at the Kubwata Painting school under Fujishima Takeji. In 1927, Ni returned to China to protest the Japanese military incursion into Shandong. There, he taught at Gangzhou Municipal Art School, then at the Wuchang College of Art in Hubei. By 1930, he was an art critic, theorist, and creative writer, as well as an oil painter. In 1931 Ni, Pang Xunqin, and five other modernist painters formed the Storm society to promote modern Western art's influence on Chinese art. Ni Yi-de helped write the group's manifesto.The Storm Society wanted to be unrestrained by past conventions in art such as limitations by nature. They said that art is not a slave of religion or literature. The storm society exhibited works inspired by European styles such as Fauvism, Cubism, symbolism, expressionism, futurism, abstractionism and surrealism. Their works were featured in Shanghai newspapers and magazines such as Liangyou, Meishije and Shidai.
Ni was also a member of the Muse society at the Shanghai Art Academy. They published l'Art Journal, which provided a venue for its manifesto and most of its exhibition news. One of his paintings, ‘'Summer’' was cubist-inspired. In 1941, Ni set up Nitian Studio in Chongqing.
On December 8, 1942, the day after the Pearl Harbor attacks, Japanese encroachment caused the 10 members of the Storm Society to flee south. In 1944, he became a professor at NAA in Chongqing. In 1945 Ni Yide, Din Yangyong, and a few other artists exhibited their works at the Chinese Modern painting exhibition organized by Zao Wouki in Chongqing. After World War II, Yide became part of the nine person art society in Shanghai. In 1949, Ni became a professor and vice president of ZAFA. In 1953, Ni transferred to teach at CAFA China. In 1955, Ni became a director of the editing department of Meishu. In 1961, Ni set up a studio in ZAFA, Hangzhou.