Purgatory

Author: Chen Yuchun
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2001-04-01
Features:
(1) The "Yi" style of Li Hui is the foundation of humanity. Man is the child of the universe. As a human being in its essence, it is itself a universe. Since the emergence of humanity, the human body has been divided into two major worlds: Yin and Yang. Between them, there is a perpetual contrast, attraction, love, and reliance, with an eternal mystery. Perhaps because matriarchal society preceded patriarchal society, humans had long admired naked female statues as early as 25,500 years ago. The artistic celebration of the female nude has remained vigorous to this day. Since women are the primary bearers of the function of producing life, traditional female nude art has emphasized the body related to conception and lactation. Of course, the youthful beauty of women in the period of chastity and prime youth, as Rodin said, "Filled with new blood, the slender and inviolable youth of this period lasts only a few months," is naturally an idol of artistic expression. However, more artworks continue to focus on the maternal beauty of women. The noble character of a woman's beauty lies in her profound self-sacrifice. Henry Moore is indeed a great artist who devoutly praises maternal beauty. In his works, the beauty of mothers is shaped like the high mountains and vast earth that nurture all things, majestic and powerful. The treasure of human civilization—the "Venus de Milo" in the Louvre, the embodiment of a woman's youthful beauty and maternal beauty, is naturally one. With the promotion of family planning and eugenics, women are increasingly participating in various social practices, and people's portrayal of women's intelligence and health is also becoming more prevalent. The beauty of male power has long been an important subject in art. Since the dawn of humanity, men have borne the heavy responsibility of resisting nature and foreign threats and have been the primary bearers of material wealth production. Classical male nude art often uses exaggerated techniques to portray men as heroic and mighty as warriors. With the increasing intellectualization of human labor and continuous self-reflection, the expression of male power has increasingly shifted toward the spiritual power of the male body.
(2) When a person appears before you stripped bare, you will certainly feel: more beautiful if it is beautiful; more ugly if it is ugly; more true if it is true; more fake if it is fake. Because the posture speaks more than words; it transcends borders without translation. Moreover, it often speaks the truth. Tendons and nerves do not lie. When a person cries, the whole body trembles; when a person laughs, the whole body jumps; when a person fears, the whole body shakes; when a person is drunk, the whole body floats. The same words can have exactly the opposite meaning depending on the posture. The saying that "the essence of capturing the spirit lies entirely in the eyes" (Gu Kaizhi) is somewhat inappropriate. Therefore, people often consciously or unconsciously hide their bodies, especially those afraid of others seeing their subconscious impulses or those with physical defects. These concealments are harmless to others and are reasonable privacy rights that should be respected. To others' bodies without permission is immoral. However, almost everyone's innermost self, even in their unconscious subconscious, cannot resist their longing for the beauty of the human body. After all, this is the pride of our planet, the epitome of beauty, and the pinnacle of creation. Psychologists have conducted experiments showing that among all things in the world, people are most concerned with themselves. Even the image of God is modeled after the human form. Human love for things originates from human love for each other; the appreciation of the beauty of all things originates from the appreciation of the beauty of the human body. This is called "understanding" and "experiencing," and in design, it is called "ergonomics." To excel oneself is to be beautiful! The human body entered the world of art long before the invention of writing. Primitive people believed that reproductive ability was the greatest ability that allowed humanity to develop. They frankly praised the mysterious reproductive organs through art. This was the initial stage of human expression of the beauty of the human body. The problem is: humans are, after all, highly intelligent beings. They cannot merely focus on the similarities between humans and other animals but should further express the differences, especially through the human body to reveal the great spiritual power of humans. The perception and expression of the beauty of the human body have gone through the following stages: first, sensitivity to the gender differences between men and women, their lines and contours during adolescence; then, the beauty of volume and texture; further, the beauty of the organization and interlocking of the human body's various parts; then, the beauty of the dynamic rhythm of the external and internal stress systems of the human body; finally, experiencing the great spiritual power of the human body and intuitively feeling the inner unity of the human body with the heavens and all things, at which point one reaches a state of sublimation and transcendence. Michelangelo expressed suffering and struggle through the human body, Maillol expressed air and the sea, and Hongo Shinzo expressed light and peace. The human body has gradually become a cherished artistic language in various artistic forms. When we see a white female body being poured into a cement column in "A Chief of Police's Confession," can we not be deeply moved? When we read the masterful depiction of the female body in Natsume Sōseki's novel "Travel Accommodation," we feel that the human body is the embodiment of scientific spirit, artistic spirit, and the spirit of peace. In Isadora Duncan's dance, the human body is a manifestation of the sublime and the sacred. Moreover, the use of the human body can break the conventions of profession and region caused by clothing, making it easier to express eternal themes that transcend time and space.
(3) As a human being, there is nothing more hypocritical or ignorant than viewing the human body as evil. Who does not cherish their own body? Who does not yearn for a beautiful human body? Normal human desires, if not met through healthy and proper channels, can lead to pornography. The prohibition of body art is proportional to a country's feudalism. Prohibition not only reduces sexual crimes but also supplements the rise of underground pornography. In fact, the human body is not necessarily pornography, and pornography is not necessarily the human body. If you study pornography, you will not find that it either dissects a complete human body to highlight certain erogenous zones to provoke sexual desire or deliberately conceals and half-reveals to enhance mystery and achieve stimulation. Due to Comrade Mao Zedong's comments on male and female nude models, few people now openly oppose drawing nudes in art academies. However, whether nudes should appear in films or dance is still a taboo in some people's eyes. In reality, the best way to resist pornography is to promote body science and sex science and use body art to break people's distorted and mysterious perceptions of the human body. Following Lu Xun's, this work should start from childhood.
(4) While I was busy with body art creation and teaching, Chen Yuchun sent me her manuscript "Purgatory" and asked for my opinion. She said, "You are an authority in aesthetics and philosophy, and you teach human body structure at the art academy. You understand human body models the best. There is a lot about art in this book, and I'm afraid I might make common mistakes." After hearing this, I said I would take a serious look at the book. But I couldn't put it down after opening it. Within two days, I finished reading it. I deeply admire the author's profound insight and rich imagination, the authenticity of her experience, and the accuracy of her description. It made me wonder if she herself had ever been a model. She once again stirred the respect I had long held for models in my heart. The story of painters and models, especially the love stories between them, is an endless theme. Since I entered the art academy's preparatory class in 1956 and graduated from the painting department, and after teaching human body structure at the academy, I am now nearing sixty. I have spent most of my life interacting with models. I have met countless models like Lin Dai. They have made great contributions to artists' creations, yet they themselves have suffered unfair treatment, often making me indignant on their behalf. Similarly, fashion models are praised, while human body models are discriminated against, which is truly unreasonable. In fact, art demands very high standards of models, leaving no room for falsity. A good model can inspire an artist's creativity and improve the teaching environment of art academies. "Purgatory" is a worthy book to read, and I hope it helps raise respect for human body models and improves their living environment. I also hope every artist, when they achieve success, never forgets those who have devoted themselves to art. They are the anonymous heroes of the artistic kingdom in purgatory.
January 7, 2001
This is a documentary novel about the life and love of human body models. Young and beautiful Lin Dai, from a small county in Hunan, left her hometown due to emotional trauma and came to the south alone. After undergoing various hardships, her natural beauty was discovered by an art academy teacher, marking the beginning of her journey as a human body model and her love with Tong Er, a male student in the painting department. Due to social prejudice and Lin Dai's self-esteem, she rejected Tong Er, leaving him heartbroken as he went to study in France. Several years later, Lin Dai was imprisoned due to a self-defense case. Can she be released? What is her fate? Can she and Tong Er have a happy ending? This documentary novels the vivid and unique artistic portrayal and true, delicate brushwork of a group of active human body models in modern universities and cultural circles, such as Lin Dai, Chen Yang, and Bai Jingjing, fully revealing their unknown emotional worlds and life conditions, and raising many thought-provoking social issues and philosophical insights.
Afterword: Dear readers, thank you for reading this book. Since childhood, I have loved music and art. After joining the workforce, I met friends in the art world and had the opportunity to get to know male and female models. Out of an instinctive yearning for beauty, I developed a strong interest in the topic of human body models. The subject of human body models and nude art is very old and has weathered many storms, appearing before me like a seasoned old man. I wrote it merely to calm my restless heart and did not think these words had great value or purpose. But I hope that if readers can glimpse some of the models' life situations and their heavy inner worlds, and thus gain a deeper understanding and respect for them, then my words would not have been in vain. Before getting to know them, I was relatively unfamiliar with the concept of human body models. Why did they become models? Through a period of interaction, I gained a deeper understanding of them, and my doubts were gradually resolved. Among them are college and high school graduates, primary and middle school students, and laid-off workers. Most models come from rural areas, some live in schools, and others rent apartments outside. I have visited model dormitories and rented apartments. Most practitioners keep their work a secret but some have overcome the shadows and view it from a broader cultural perspective. Models have left an unusual history in China, and figure art cannot do without them. In those days, it was extremely difficult to find models, forcing the people of a feudal society to expose their bodies under the watchful eyes of others, which was considered shameful, indecent, insulting, and morally corrupting. Worse still, it faced several attempts at suppression. Comrade Mao, with his far-sighted wisdom and dialectical thinking, advised the decision-making center to respect artistic principles, uphold artistic science, and advocate for integrating foreign techniques with Chinese characteristics. He decisively issued the important instruction "It cannot be done," saving the art discipline from the brink of collapse. Although body art has a history of over 80 years in China, social prejudice still instills fear. Models often do not want to be depicted as themselves in student or teacher artworks, fearing recognition. Thus, the pressure they endure is unimaginable, and they dare not reveal their true identities to family or friends. Due to these psychological burdens, they spend relatively short periods as models, ranging from a few months to several years, rarely able to sustain it, with outstanding models being even rarer. Of course, aside from social prejudice, there are also issues of compensation. A model once told me, "In reality, being a model is an noble profession. Without our contributions and this teaching tool, artists would have nothing to paint, nothing to base their work on." Her words moved me deeply, evoking not only profound sympathy but also a certain respect.
Regardless of the motivations and reasons for models' employment, there is one thing worth praising: their extraordinary courage and the power to overcome social prejudice. From an artistic perspective, they are great, for they beautify and poeticize life. It is because of them that painters and artists can use the human body to express beauty and the natural beauty of the human body. I do not know if this book truly expresses what they want to convey, the inner world they want to describe, their emotions, their inner tremors, and all their joys and sorrows. If this book can resonate with them and the readers, that would be a great comfort, and all the hard work would be worthwhile.
The issue of female models has been written about due to social concern. In fact, after a deeper understanding, I found that in a male-dominated society, male models suffer greater psychological costs, which is why many schools still refuse to have male models fully nude. Therefore, although this book centers on female models, it is also dedicated to all male and female colleagues who are engaged in modeling. At the beginning of the new millennium, with the progress of civilization, people's understanding of human body models will reach a higher level. When everyone treats them with a normal attitude, they will truly be understood and respected by society.
I sincerely thank Xie Ri Xin, Zou Qi Hua, and all the dedicated comrades at Huacheng Publishing House for their hard work on this book. I also thank Mr. Gui Han Biao, Chairman of the Shaoguan Writers' Association and poet, and Mr. Wei Qiu, poet, for their long-standing support and encouragement of my literary career. At the same time, I am deeply grateful to Professor Li Zheng Tian, a philosopher and artist, for his strong support of this book. With Professor Li Zheng Tian's agreement, this book includes several of his human body sketches and creative works as supplementary illustrations, though they do not directly correspond to the text, they can still serve as a "concert" with the novel's words.
It is worth mentioning that to write this preface, Professor Li Zheng Tian took time out of his busy schedule to carefully read my manuscript and corrected certain issues in it. His rigorous and meticulous academic attitude deeply impressed me. Here, let me sincerely say "thank you" once again.
Chen Yuchun
New Year's Day, 2001
Guangzhou