Hundred Years of Glory · CAFA Masters
Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts · Commemorating Hu Yichuan's 110th Birthday
Standing on the Frontline of Life:
Hu Yichuan Art and Archives Exhibition
Organizer: Central Academy of Fine Arts, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts
Undertaker: CAFA Art Museum, Art Museum of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts
Supporter: National Museum of China, China Artists Association, National Art Museum of China
Time: 2020.11.18 - 12.23
Venue: CAFAM Gallery 2B
Opening Time: 2020.11.23, 10:30 am
Venue: CAFAM Lecture Hall
Seminar: Hu Yichuan and Art Education in China
Time: 2020.11.23 2:00 pm
Note: Entry to CAFA Art Museum is by real-name advance ticket and capacity is limited. The opening hours are 9:30 - 17:00 (closed on Mondays). Tickets must be reserved online and wil not be available at the museum. Visitors will enter the museum by the reservation information and ID card. Reservation is open two days in advance. Tickets are available on first come, first served basis.
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The exhibition "Standing on the Frontline of Life: Art and Archives of Hu Yichuan" is co-organized by Central Academy of Fine Arts and Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, and undertaken jointly by the CAFA Art Museum and the Art Museum of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. It is part of the "Hundred Years of Glory · CAFA Masters" exhibition program, and one of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts' commemoration programs of Hu Yichuan's 110th birthday.
Hu Yichuan is an important artist and art educator of the 20th century in China. His works, Going to the Frontline, Breaking of the Chains, The Eve, have become an icon of the 20th century Chinese fine art. The exhibition focuses on the excellent life and art of Hu Yichuan. Divided into five parts, it tries to elaborate on Hu's life from his oral history, artworks, archives of his art education and his life choices, showcasing his life pursuit of "running towards the frontline of time as a flag-bearer". The exhibition will showcase around 500 pieces of artworks and documents that represent Hu's life. Many archives are shown for the first time.
Going to the Frontline, Hu Yichuan, 1932, Shanghai, monochrome woodcut, 25 x 33cm, collection of Shanghai Lu Xun Museum
The Eve (organizing the guerilla team to develop widespread guerilla forces), Hu Yichuan, 1939, Shanxi, monochrome woodcut, 11.5 x 11.7cm, collection of Hu Yichuan Research Institute of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts
The Eve, Hu Yichuan, 1961, Guangzhou, oil on canvas, 140 x 181.5cm, collection of the National Art Museum of China
Breaking of the Chains, Hu Yichuan, 1950, Beijing, oil on canvs, 174 x 244cm, collection of the National Museum of China
The exhibition is the first retrospective exhibition of Hu Yichuan at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. It received great support from Hu Yichuan's family, the National Museum of China, the National Art Museum of China and China Artists Association.
About Hu Yichuan
Hu Yichuan is a well-known Chinese artist, art activist and art educator.
Hu was born in 1910 the Wuzi House in Zhongchuan Village, Yongding County in Fujian Province. He enrolled in Xiamen Jimei School when he came back to China from Indonesia in 1925. He entered Hangzhou National Art College in 1929, and participated in the "One Eight Art Society", one of the earliest art revolutionary groups in China. In the summer of 1930, he answered to Lu Xun's New Woodcut Movement, and became a founder of the left-wing group “Mei Lian”. Hu went to Yan'an in 1937, became a teacher at the Yan'an Lu Xun College of Art, and organized the "Lu Xun College of Art Woodcut Working Group" in the rear area of the war. He was invited to the "Yan'an Art and Literature Forum" in 1942. After New China was founded, Hu established the Central Academy of Fine Arts together with Xu Beihong, and became the first party committee secretary and one of the first professors of CAFA. In 1953, he was assigned by the Ministry of Culture to establish the Zhongnan Art Institute in southern China, and became its first director. In 1958, the institute moved to Guangzhou, and changed its name to "Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts". Hu was its first party committee secretary and director. He was elected a committee member of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, executive member of the council of the China Artists Association, deputy director of Guangdong Artists Association and committee member of the Guangdong Federation of Literary and Art Circles. He was a judge of the World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow, counselor of the China Artists Association, counselor of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, counselor of the Guangdong Art Institute, consultant of the academic committee of the Guangdong Art Museum, and lifetime professor at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts.
Group photo of some members of the "One Eight Art Society" before its dissolution, at Hangzhou National Art College in 1931.
Group photo of the Lu Xun College of Art Woodcut Working Group In January 1939, at their exhibition in the Tongchuan Middle School in Qin County in Shanxi Province.
(From left to right: Yanhan, Huashan, Hu Yichuan, Luo Gongliu. Hu was the head of the working group. They went to rear areas such as east and west Shanxi, south of Hebei to promote woodcut.)
In September 1949, Hu Yichuan and Xu Beihong co-established Central Academy of Fine Arts. Xu became the academy's director, and Hu became the party committee secretary.
Group photo with leaders of the Guangdong Artists Association. Hu went to Guangzhou in 1957 to arrange the moving of the Zhongnan Art Institute to Guangzhou. There he received warm welcome from the art circle of Guangdong Province. (From right to left: Huang Xinbo, Yang Taiyang, Huang Junshan, Hu Yichuan, Guan Shanyue, Huang Duwei.)
With his great passion for art, strong humanistic sympathies, rough and vigorous art style, Hu Yichuan has created many woodcut works full of characteristics of time and his unique style. He is no doubt an important pioneer artist of the New Woodcut Movement in China.
Professor Hu Yichuan is also an outstanding contributor to China's oil painting art. His oil painting, either about figures or landscapes, all reflect the beauty of broadness and honesty. His simple composition, liberal brushstrokes, distinct themes, rich and accurate color language, and calm and magnificent spirit, all had great impact on contemporary Chinese art history. Hu's printmaking works such as Going to the Frontline, Farm Labor-exchange Teams and oil painting works Breaking of the Chains, Digging the Tunnel, South China Sea Oil Rig are classics of New China art. His thoughts on art education also deeply influenced generations of artists. His excellent contributions in the fields of art activities and education have also made history.
Manuscript of Hu Yichuan's speech at the founding ceremony of Central Academy of Fine Arts on April 1 1950.
CAFA's letter of appointment to Hu Yichuan for the post of professor and department director, 1951.
Letter of appointment to Hu Yichuan for the post of director of Zhongnan Art Institute, issued by Yang Xiufeng, minister of the Senior Ministry of Education of PRC, 1954.
Letter of appointment to Hu Yichuan for the post of director of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, issued by Chen Yu, president of the Guangdong People's Committee, 1959.
Selected Exhibits
Laborers under the Demon, Hu Yichuan, 1938, Yan'an, monochrome woodcut, 8.25 × 10.5cm, collection of Hu Yichuan Research Institute of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts
Civil-military cooperation, Hu Yichuan, 1940, Shanxi, water-print color-matching woodcut, 36.8 × 32.3cm, collection of the National Museum of China
Farm Labor-exchange Teams, Hu Yichuan, 1943, Yan'an, color-matching woodcut, 11.7 x 19cm, collection of Hu Yichuan Research Institute of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts
Don't Let the Enemies Through, Hu Yichuan, 1943, Yan'an, color-matching woodcut, 9.5 x 11.25 cm, collection of Hu Yichuan Research Institute of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts
Nan'ao Island, Hu Yichuan, 1962, Guangdong, oil on wove paper, collection of Hu Yichuan Research Institute of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts
Digging the Tunnel, Hu Yichuan, 1974, Guangzhou, oil on canvas, 146 x 112cm, collection of Art Museum of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts
On the Eve of the Turning Point, Hu Yichuan, 1977, Guangzhou, oil on canvas, 131 x 170cm, collection of Hu Yichuan Research Institute of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts
My Hometown, Hu Yichuan, 1983, Zhongchuan Village, Yongding County, Fujian Province, oil on wove paper, 52.8 x 73.5cm, collection of Hu Yichuan Research Institute of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts
Discovering Mine, Hu Yichuan, 1994, Guangzhou, oil on canvas, 140 x 186cm, collection of Hu Yichuan Research Institute of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts