Xu Beihong Paintings (Volume 1 and 2)

Author: Xu Beihong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-06-01
Features: The discussions on art by the contemporary outstanding painter Xu Beihong clearly show that his artistic principles are distinct and possess a complete system of artistic thought. Briefly speaking, as he himself said: He advocated realism throughout his life. Xu Beihong often used the term "realism." If we view the issue historically and further examine Mr. Xu's definitions of art and his works, we can understand it more accurately. As critics have said: Before the concept of "realism" appeared in China, our country had already had over two thousand years of realist history, starting from the Shijing (Classic of Poetry) to the May Fourth Literary Revolution. During the May Fourth Literary Revolution, the term "realism" emerged, but it still referred to the realism of the 19th century (see Chen Liao's The Past, Present, and Future of Realism). This indicates that in China's literary and art circles, initially, there was no strict distinction between "realism" and "realism." The concept of realism emerged later. Mao Dun also wrote in Random Notes from Night Reading: "Chinese literature demonstrates that realism has existed since ancient times," but "until the May Fourth Movement, the realist masters in China's literary history, although they left behind brilliant works in practice, had not yet applied scientific methods to establish a complete theoretical system for the profound and extensive literary thought of realism." "A clear and relatively comprehensive theory of realism was only proposed during the May Fourth period. At that time, it was mainly about introducing the theories of European mid-19th-century realism."