Throughout the history of Chinese art in the 20th century, Guan Shanyue undoubtedly stands as a pioneer and practitioner of traditional Chinese painting innovation. In the first half of the 20th century, he used his brush as a weapon to directly depict the War of Resistance, and in his early years, he sketched the landscapes of the rear areas, tracing the origins of Dunhuang to draw on the essence of ancient art. In the early days of the founding of New China, traditional Chinese painting was subject to much criticism, and its transformation became the focus of efforts for traditional Chinese painters. Inheriting the concept of his mentor Gao Jianfu's new traditional Chinese painting, Guan Shanyue continued the sketching practices and methods he had employed since the 1940s. Taking the literary and artistic ideas of New China as his starting point and foundation, he reshaped the sketching of traditional Chinese painting and led the innovation of this art form.

In 1953, the National Traditional Chinese Painting Exhibition was successfully held, with critic Wang Chaowen writing the exhibition review "Facing Life," advocating for sketching in traditional Chinese painting. From this point on, the wave of sketching in traditional Chinese painting began. Guan Shanyue's sketches of New China presented visual images of the new society, responding to the innovative requirements of the times placed on traditional Chinese painters. For this exhibition, we have selected four landmark sketching practices of his after the founding of New China: sketches of Lingnan (south of the Five Ridges), the capital, Hubei, and the Yangtze River Gorges. Through works, documents, and research texts, we outline the artistic historical logic of Guan Shanyue's innovation of traditional Chinese painting during the New China period.

Guan Shanyue once summarized his western sketching journey with the phrase "If I don't move, I have no paintings to create." If "walking" was the essence of his sketching in the 1940s, then the key to Guan Shanyue's innovation of traditional Chinese painting during the New China period was his successful connection of on-site sketching with the culture and reality, production and construction of New China. His sketching works, on the one hand, connected with the visual perception of the working people, and on the other hand, recreated the visual landscapes belonging to and created by the working people. As General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, "The country belongs to the people, and the people are the country." The generation of painters including Guan Shanyue, through their sketches of the beautiful landscapes, demonstrated the "people-oriented" nature of literature and art, portraying the landscape of the people.

Director of Shenzhen Guan Shanyue Art Museum

Chen Junyu