The fourth issue of the "Mirror of Beauty Reading" series of academic lectures in 2025 was held as scheduled on the afternoon of October 25th in the lecture hall of Guanshanyue Art Museum. The audience gathered in person to listen to Chen Junyu, the director of Guanshanyue Art Museum in Shenzhen, talk about "From Humanities to Education: Research on Guanshanyue Figure Painting Concepts". This lecture focuses on the figure paintings created by the master of the Lingnan School of Painting, Guan Shanyue, in the 20th century. Taking 1949 as a watershed, it discusses the conceptual and functional changes of Guan Shanyue's figure paintings in two different periods, leading the audience to appreciate the new appearance of Guangdong figure paintings in the past century and explore the humanistic care and contemporary education spirit contained therein.

The topic starts with Guan Shanyue's (1912-2000) life experience. He was born in a small intellectual family. His father was a primary school principal, and there were eight brothers and sisters in his family. Guan Shanyue ranked second. He was cautious and prudent, and loved painting when he was young. In 1935, he joined Gao Jianfu's family, joined the Spring Sleeping Painting Academy, and followed his teacher to practice the innovative art concept of "compromise between China and the West, and integrate the past and the present".

After the fall of Guangzhou in 1938, Guan Shanyue traveled to Macau and witnessed the tragic scene of Guangdong under Japanese aggression along the way. As a refugee of the war, he felt deeply indignant. After arriving in Macau, Guan Shanyue studied painting with Gao Shi and a group of classmates. Gao Shi taught his disciples that the innovation of Chinese painting lies in the ability to depict current events with traditional ink and brush, and that "art saves the country" is his ideal. Influenced by her high school teacher, during her time in Macau, Guan Shanyue vividly and broadly depicted the tragic life of the laboring masses under the iron hooves of the Japanese invaders by recounting her experiences during her escape. The works of this period include "Retreat from the City," "The Robbery of Fishermen," "Picking Up Wages," and "The House of Guerrillas. The speaker Chen Junyu pointed out that Guan Shanyue felt that he was a scholar. Although he could not go to the battlefield, the rise and fall of the country was the responsibility of every individual. His original intention in creating this batch of works was to inspire the enthusiasm of his compatriots to fight against Japan. In 1940, Guan Shanyue held an art exhibition at Fudan Middle School in Macau. He combined traditional snow scenery and cold forest paintings with realistic themes to depict the theme of the War of Resistance Against Japan, effectively condemning the aggression of the Japanese invaders and causing a great sensation. Critics and friends highly praised him, calling him a rising star in the Lingnan painting world. Guan Shanyue presented Chinese painting in a completely new way to the public. Based on the reality of war at that time, he created a new style of Chinese character painting, reflecting the painter's new thinking on character painting. Characters are not only "embellishments" in landscape painting, but also the main subject of narrative. Character painting is even more conducive to expressing wartime suffering than other painting genres. It can be said that Guan Shanyue's creation of anti Japanese war themes during this period gradually focused his interest on figure painting, which is not only an inheritance and development of the Song Dynasty's "travel map", but also his true creative ideas that emerged during the war period. Guan Shanyue uses classic Chinese themes to depict the narrative of the times, showcasing the extraordinary talent of the painter.

The film "Lonely Under Iron Hooves" depicts the scene of many areas in Hunan and Guangxi falling after the Japanese launched the Battle of Henan, Hunan, and Guangxi in 1944, with a large number of people becoming refugees and their families fleeing in all directions. At that time, Guan Shanyue was living in Sichuan and Chongqing as a guest. Upon hearing this terrible news, she was filled with grief and anger, and thus created this painting. In the picture, the mother and son, with a sorrowful expression, are struggling to escape in the wind and snow. The fluttering hair, scarf, and hem of their clothes show the howling cold wind, while the white background portrays the desolation of the snow. Guan Shanyue cleverly uses the snow scenery to highlight the characters. Her mother is holding a baby in her arms, carrying a bundle on her arms. Beside her is a girl around ten years old, wrapped in a scarf and wearing an adult black vest to resist the cold wind. She walks with her mother through the wind and snow with great difficulty. In this work, we can see the source of the ink and brush used in Guan Shanyue's paintings. The fine and neat fur collar of her mother's clothes indicates that the painter had studied traditional meticulous painting techniques. The smooth and elegant hand and clothing lines of the figures are attributed to the painter's imitation of Dunhuang murals. The theme and pattern of the work are reminiscent of Fang Rending's 1932 work "Escape on a Snowy Night", which also depicts snow scenery and escape. In comparison, Fang Rending's art style is beautiful, and Guan Shanyue's works have more realistic appeal. The speaker pointed out that the character paintings of Guan Shanyue during this stage often depict the situation of women in war to express the theme.

Guan Shanyue was different from his fellow disciple Li Xiongcai (1910-2001), who had studied under Gao Jianfu in his early years. Gao Jianfu focused on honing his traditional brush and ink skills, but shortly after Guan Shanyue became a disciple, the Anti Japanese War broke out. Faced with the national crisis of the fall of the country, Gao Jianfu required his students to create thematic works that expressed the theme of the war. This gave Guan Shanyue's works a strong sense of theme from that time on, which was an important gift bestowed by the special era and also a difference between him and many painters of the Lingnan School of Painting.

During the War of Resistance Against Japan, Guan Shanyue left Macau and came to the southwest region, staying more in places such as Guilin and Chengdu. In order to encourage Guan Shanyue to continue painting in the future, Gao Jianfu gave him the words "The spring water in the mountains is clear, but the spring water in the mountains is turbid." Guan Shanyue was grateful for his teacher's kindness and named his residence "Jianquan Residence" in his later years. This is a later story.

In 1943, Guan Shanyue, along with his wife, Zhao Wangyun, Zhang Zhenduo, and others, went to Dunhuang to investigate and copy murals. The Guan Shanyue Art Museum in Shenzhen collected more than 80 copies of his Dunhuang mural works. Under extremely difficult conditions, Guan Shanyue relied on his wife Li Qiuhuang to carry an oil lamp and copy in the cave. The speaker pointed out that Guan Shanyue almost used freehand brushwork to imitate Dunhuang murals, mainly copying works from the Northern Wei and Six Dynasties periods, including images of Lei Gong and Fei Tian. The famous creation of Guan Shanyue's "Whip Horse Painting" is related to the 86 cave Northern Wei Hu people's horse training painting he copied in Dunhuang.

From 1934 to 1942, documentary photographer Zhuang Xueben conducted nearly a decade of investigation in ethnic minority areas such as Southwest and Northwest China, taking tens of thousands of photos, opening a window for intellectuals in the Central Plains and coastal areas to understand ethnic minorities. The outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan led to a large number of Chinese people fleeing to the west, and the lives of ethnic minorities became known to more people. During this period, a group of important painters such as Zhang Daqian and Zhao Wangyun created a large number of images of ethnic minorities, providing us with more visual images to understand the multi-ethnic life in China. During this period, Guan Shanyue also painted many images of ethnic minorities, such as "Kazakh Women". The speaker believes that ethnic minority themes had considerable market value and were loved by audiences at that time, which was one of the reasons for the emergence of a large number of such themes.

In 1948, Guan Shanyue went to Southeast Asia for sketching. He used the techniques of Dunhuang copying to create works, such as "A Corner of the Nanyang Market". The character designs were naive and simple, with both the line charm of Dunhuang figures and the impressionist style of Western painting. This may be related to his communication with Chang Shuhong during his time in Dunhuang. During this period, Guan Shanyue's character painting style changed and moved towards simplicity and simplicity.

After 1949, there was a fundamental change in Guan Shanyue's figure painting creation. One important reason is that the new era brings people a hopeful life, not only in the works of Guan Shanyue, but also in the works of other contemporary painters who coincidentally depict the same themes. The novel "Holiday" created by Guan Shanyue in 1954 and Jiang Zhaohe's 1953 work "Telling the Uncle of the Volunteer Army about Her Academic Achievements" both depict the vibrant learning scenes of young girls, with characters' emotions changing from the melancholy and tragedy of the 1930s and 1940s, forming a sharp contrast.

Besides being a painter who has been engaged in Chinese painting creation for a long time, Guan Shanyue also has another important role in teaching Chinese painting. In the 1940s, after returning to Guangdong from the southwest and northwest, he joined the South China Academy of Fine Arts as a teacher in 1946. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Guan Shanyue's teaching tasks became increasingly heavy. In 1953, Central South Academy of Fine Arts was established in Wuhan, with Guan Shanyue serving as vice president. In 1958, the school moved to Guangzhou and was renamed Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, with Guan Shanyue serving as vice president, head of the Chinese Painting Department, and professor. In the long-term teaching process, Guan Shanyue gradually established her own Chinese painting teaching system. He proposed to create a new type of sketch that is not disconnected from Chinese painting, directly using a brush to draw models on rice paper, while referring to excellent figure paintings from ancient and modern times, both at home and abroad, including sketches described by Western masters using lines, using Chinese white drawing as the basis for the 'new sketch of Chinese painting'. His teaching philosophy not only developed the experience of predecessors such as Gao Jianfu in the Lingnan School of Painting, emphasizing the study of tradition, but also emphasized the practice of sketching, reflecting the spirit of the times in his works.

Guan Shanyue began creating figure paintings in the 1930s and 1940s, with an early characteristic of combining traditional landscape painting to depict character activities. This tradition continued in her creations after the founding of the People's Republic of China. In 'Coastal Defense Frontline', the painting extensively depicts the vast blue waves on the sea surface and the rocks, trees, and trees along the shore. The use of lines, colors, and textures has a strong ancient flavor. However, the two naval soldiers standing on the cliff in the upper right corner are the objects that the painter wants to highlight. It has similarities with traditional landscape paintings and deeply reflects the appearance of the new era. The characteristic of Guan Shanyue's figure painting sets him apart from other figure painters of the 20th century.

The speaker Chen Junyu pointed out that a major dilemma faced by Chinese painting in the 20th century was "What is the use of Chinese painting?" Guan Shanyue answered this question with a paintbrush. Whether it was during the War of Resistance Against Japan, or during the period of national construction and national rejuvenation after the founding of the country, he did not hide in his study to paint plum blossoms, orchids, bamboo, and chrysanthemums. Instead, he used ink and themes that closely followed the times, participated in the tide of the times, and expressed the real life and characters of the present, almost synchronized with the evolution of history. Zhang Yanyuan proposed in his book "Records of Famous Paintings of Various Dynasties" that painting should "educate and help people's relationships", and the practical educational function of figure painting has continued to this day. We can see the unique era education spirit of figure painting from the works of Guan Shanyue and many painters in the 20th century.

At the lecture venue, the audience showed a strong interest in Guan Shanyue and 20th century Guangdong figure painting. In the interactive segment, five audience members enthusiastically asked questions. One of the audience members expressed that she returned to China from Israel a year ago and experienced war. She watched Guan Shanyue's anti Japanese war works at the Guan Shanyue Art Museum, which resonated strongly with her. She understood the suffering that war brought to the people expressed in Mr. Guan's works, and through today's lecture, she gained a deeper understanding of Mr. Guan's works. Another audience member expressed that the scenic characters in Guan Shanyue's works are very vivid and lifelike, accurately conveying the dynamic expressions of the characters with just a few strokes. They hope to appreciate more works of this kind. In order to give back to the audience, our museum presented cultural and creative products to those who participated in the interaction, which were well received by the audience. The atmosphere at the event was relaxed and pleasant, and the lecture ended with enthusiastic applause from the audience.

The "Mirror of Beautiful Reading" series of lectures has always been well received by readers. To ensure good order on site, we insist on real name appointment and check-in, providing a platform for audiences who truly love Chinese and foreign art to take care of the relationship between reading and viewing.