Painters and Politics in the People's Republic of China, 1949-1979

Julia Andrews's Extraordinary Study Of Art, Artists, And Artistic Policy During The First Three Decades Of The People's Republic Of China Makes A Major Contribution To Our Understanding Of Modern China. From 1949 To 1979 The Chinese Government Controlled The Lives And Work Of The Country's Artists - These Were Also Years Of Extreme Isolation From International Artistic Dialogue. During This Period The Chinese Communist Party Succeeded In Eradicating Most Of The Artistic Styles And Techniques It Found Politically Repugnant. By 1979, Traditional Landscape Painting Had Been Replaced By A New Style And Subject That Was Strikingly Different From Both Contemporary Western Art And That Of Other Chinese Areas Such As Taiwan, Hong Kong, And Singapore. Through Vivid Firsthand Accounts, Andrews Recreates The Careers Of Many Individual Artists Who Were Forced To Submit To A Vacillating Policy Regarding Style, Technique, Medium, And Genre. She Discusses The Cultural Controls That The Government Used, The Ways In Which Artists Responded, And The Works Of Art That Emerged As A Result. She Particularly Emphasizes The Influence Of The Soviet Union On Chinese Art And The Problems It Created For The Practice Of Traditional Painting. This Book Opens The Way To New, Stimulating Comparisons Of Western And Eastern Cultures And Will Be Welcomed By Art Historians, Political Scientists, And Scholars Of Asia. Publisher's Description. Revolutionaries And Academics: Art Of The Republican Period -- The Return Of Chinese Art, 1949-1952 -- From Popularization To Specialization -- The Politicization Of Guohua -- The Great Leap Forward And Its Aftermath: More, Faster, Better, Cheaper -- The Cultural Revolution -- The Transition To Artistic Democracy, 1976-1979 -- Appendixes. National Arts Administration, 1949 ; National Arts Administration, 1960 ; National Arts Administration, 1979 ; Oil Painters In The Soviet Manner. Julia F. Andrews. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 497-520) And Index. In 1979, the Chinese government formalized a new policy of openness to the West. For the first time in many years, Chinese artists could study the art of Europe and North America. Meanwhile, Western art historians began looking curiously into the art world of contemporary China. The lack of comprehension was mutual and almost total. Chinese art administrators, including Jiang Feng, an important figure in our study, traveled to France hoping to find the glorious source of China's revolutionary oil painting. They found it, of course, in the museums of Paris, but were appalled that its practice was largely defunct. Western enthusiasts of Chinese landscape painting, the author among them, flocked to Beijing in search of the inheritors of China's great artistic tradition Drawing on first-hand accounts, this study traces the careers of Chinese artists during the communist regime, describing how they were forced to submit to a vacillating government policy regarding style, technique and medium which virtually erased certain styles deemed politically incorrect. xv, 568 p., [12] p. of plates : 27 cm