All Posts Tagged ‘Woodcuts’
Material Culture Woodcuts
Wednesday, September 15th, 2010When the revered writer and social critic, Lǔ Xùn (鲁迅) (see Culture & People), pushed for a new form of Chinese woodcuts in the 1930′s, he strove for nothing less than social revolution by repositioning an ancient Chinese art form with a modern European style.
Appreciation Woodcuts
Wednesday, September 15th, 2010One way to understand how woodblock prints have been appreciated during the 20th century in China is to consider the subtitle of China Institute’s Fall 2010 exhibition, Woodcuts in Modern China 1937-2008: Towards a Universal Pictorial Language—by aspiring to move “towards a universal pictorial language,” what were the artists trying to articulate in their images that ostensibly speaks to everyone?
History Woodcuts
Wednesday, September 15th, 2010For the purposes of understanding the development of woodcut art in the 20th century and its relationship to historical events in China, we can break the 20th century into three distinct periods: Republican China, Revolutionary Socialist China, and Reformist post-Mao China.
Culture and People Woodcuts
Wednesday, September 15th, 2010Considered the founder and one of the most brilliant writers of modern Chinese literature, Lu Xun’s short story Diary of a Madman (Kuángrén Rìjì 狂人日记) set the precedent for the accepted use of the vernacular (báihuà 白话) in Chinese literature.
Geography Woodcuts
Wednesday, September 8th, 2010The woodcuts featured in the exhibition, Woodcuts in Modern China 1937-2008: Towards a Universal Pictorial Language, represent a fascinating period in the 1500-year history of woodcuts in China, which have been used for Buddhist sutras, book illustrations, folk décor, propaganda, or fine art depending on time, place, and/or need.
Woodcuts in Modern China, 1937-2008
Monday, August 2nd, 2010Towards a Universal Pictorial Language
Woodcuts have a long history in China dating at least from the Tang Dynasty (618-907 BCE), and for centuries they have contributed greatly to Chinese print and folk cultures. In the 20th century, woodcuts as an artistic medium underwent a dramatic renaissance that introduced expressionistic and realist techniques into traditional Chinese folk traditions in order to communicate stark messages about China’s social and political states of affairs in an attempt to forge a new nationalistic identity throughout China. Modern Chinese woodcuts provide a dramatic record to chart the 20th century revolutionary causes that profoundly changed Chinese society and culture. The modern woodcut movement of the 1930s introduced an avant-garde expressionism of early revolutionary zeal, whereas woodcuts of the mid-20th century would eventually return to more traditional Chinese folk aesthetics in order for the Communist Party to use woodcut prints as an effective propaganda tool to reach masses of illiterate citizens throughout the countryside.
