History of Chinese New Year Paintings

Author: Wang Shucun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-07-01
Features: Folk New Year pictures, once a type of Chinese painting favored by the common people. Due to continuous social changes and the gradual improvement of people's living standards, the demand for them among urban and rural laborers increased, leading to a wider variety of designs. As a result, the woodblock printing method was adopted later to meet the needs of the masses, gradually forming a style that combines both painting and engraving in the field of Chinese painting. The themes and content of folk New Year pictures inherit the fine tradition of ancient Chinese painting that "promotes admonition and warns against misconduct, illustrates the rise and fall of fortunes, and through a thousand years of solitude, one can reflect upon the pictures." After the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368), although literati's freehand landscape and ink bamboo and orchid paintings became popular, folk New Year pictures continued to carry forward the tradition of Buddhist and Taoist figure painting in Chinese art, ensuring its unbroken legacy. Therefore, it can be said that folk New Year pictures are a subject worthy of study in the history of Chinese art. Initially, the creators of folk New Year pictures were masters of portrait painting. After completing a draft, they were concerned about others imitating and reproducing it, so before going to market, they would cover the original with a thin sheet of paper and trace it to produce dozens or hundreds of copies before selling them.