Huang Dufeng
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Huang Du-feng (Chinese: 黄独峰; 1913–1998), a Chinese painter and educator, was one of the most important Chinese artists of the twentieth century in Guangxi Province, China. He was chair of the Guangxi branch of the Chinese Artists Association and vice-chancellor of the Guangxi Institute of Fine Arts.[1][2] His distinctive style was a confluence of the Shanghai tradition, Ling-nan style and Neoclassical styles.[3]
Education
At age six or seven, he learnt to draw by tracing out classical portraits of Guanyin and Buddha. When he was 12 years of age, a Chinese scholar Chen Jie-long taught him classical Chinese literature. At the age of 16, he began to do flower and bird painting. His teacher Kuang Bi-bo was a student of Ren Bo-nian, who became a member of the Shanghai School after 1855.[4] Therefore, the painting style of the Shanghai School can be considered the first artistic influence that Du-feng followed. In 1931 (at age 18), Du-feng entered the Spring Awakening Art Academy (Chunshui Huayuan), a Ling-nan style art academy run by Prof. Gao Jian-fu. There, Du-feng was trained under the personal instruction of Gao, who with his younger brother Qi-feng and Chen Shu-ren, was a student of the famous artist Ju Lian, who excelled at painting birds and flowers.[5] Early in his own career, Gao went to Japan to further his studies and was influenced by the merging of the Westernderived realism and Japanese Nihonga style painting.[5] He adopted the most interesting aspects of this style as he was maturing as an artist. As a result, he painted in a new style commonly known as eclecticism, or, regionally speaking, the style of the Ling-nan School, which through its characteristic of discarding the old and founding the new was widely considered at the time as the most advanced school of art.[5] In 1936 (at age 23), Du-feng made his first overseas voyage to Japan. He studied Japanese painting in the Kawabata Studio in Tokyo with the aim of exposing himself to something new. At the age of 24, Du-feng returned to the mainland and began his frequent national painting trips, manifesting his great ambition and youthful spirit. Seventy-five years ago, as an outstanding second-generation artist of the Ling-nan school, Du-feng had already enjoyed a great reputation with personages such as Prof. Guan shan-yue, Prof. Li Xiong-cai, Zhao Shao-ang, and Yang Shan-shen.[3] Young artists looked up to him as a model to emulate. In 1950 (at age 37), Du-feng decided that it was a great mistake to rely solely on sketching to form his ideas for painting and neglect absorbing traditional experience from other sources. Du-feng became a disciple of Prof. Zhang Da-qian at Windy Hall to obtain the kind of artistic nourishment he felt he was lacking. This move greatly surprised his friends and teachers because it is very unusual for an artist in China who has followed the teachings of a particular school and distinguished themselves in that circle to move to the opposite extreme.[3] Thus, Du-feng was risking his already established fame and causing himself some trouble by starting over again. However, Du-feng had the courage to make this move. Prof. Zhang was well known for his abundant collections, as well as for his rich knowledge in traditional arts and his Neoclassical style of painting.[6] During Du-feng's discipleship, he began to study the works of great masters such as Shi Tao, Shi Xi, Gong Xian, Ba-da Shan-ren, Chen Hong-shou, Dong Qi-chang and Xu Wei. He further studied the painting of the Song and Yuan dynasties and the Dunhuang frescoes. The Ling-nan School did not attach a great deal of importance on outline drawing, which meant that Du-feng had to work doubly hard to master this technique.[3] In a state of absolute tranquillity, he contemplated and copied wholeheartedly until he could execute dots, lines and ink wash in the manner of the great masters. At this time, Du-feng suddenly found himself being immersed in the spiritual pool of tradition, and felt enriched and inspired, just as any typical disciple of Windy Hall.