Exhibitions on the 120th anniversary of Feng Zikai’s birth provide insight into the celebrated painter’s life
Feng Zikai – writer, painter, music educator and translator – is among modern China’s most celebrated cultural figures, writing essays drawn from his daily experiences and providing insights in an approachable, delightful manner.
His ink paintings laud the beauty of life in a poetic way, while offering witty observations on the complexity of human nature.
The intelligence, generosity and gentle sarcasm that characterize Feng’s oeuvre have created a recognizable style that appeals to many generations of Chinese, healing their hearts, whether during chaotic times or in a fast-paced metropolis.
Feng’s extensive fan following, regardless of age or education, is contributing to the popularity of a series of commemorative exhibitions on the 120th anniversary of his birth this year.
Two shows ended on Oct 3 in Hong Kong, one of which witnessed a waiting line at the Asia Society Hong Kong Center, according to Wang Yizhu, the exhibition curator and a friend of the Feng family, which loaned the bulk of the exhibited works.
A Fair Land This Is, a third retrospective, currently underway at the Zhejiang Art Museum in Hangzhou, running through Nov 11, focuses on the emotional connection between Feng (1898-1975) and his second hometown in eastern China, where the exhibition is being held. Feng attended a normal school in Hangzhou, not far from his native town of Tongxiang. Hangzhou’s landscape and leisurely pace of life helped shape the lighthearted tone in his paintings.
Another ongoing exhibition, Human Comedies, presented at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing in early November, presents an uncommon juxtaposition of three painting albums – Big Tree, Saving Lives and Paintings for Engou – each from a different collector, but each contributing significantly to a thorough understanding of Feng’s views of the world.
The series’ last show, Tongxiang My Love, opened to the public on Nov 9.
In 2012, an exhibition of Feng’s works occupied four floors of the Hong Kong Museum of Art.
Wang, the curator of the current series, says she was “moved to tears” when visiting the exhibition back then.
She says that Feng is hailed as a man of eminence in cultural circles, but being modest about his talent he may not have wanted to be seen as an icon “worshipped at the sacred temple of art”.
Feng’s paintings are exuberant but poetically delicate. He abandoned the sophisticated brushwork of classic Chinese paintings, but retained the liubai (leaving blank areas) approach. He adopted from Western oil paintings the styles of simple, straightforward composition and sketchy, clean-cut strokes.
His works either depict the tranquil, delightful moments of life, no matter how insignificant they look, or they gently critique social issues, such as spoiled children and the income gap. His contribution to China’s ink-brush art ushered in a modern genre, making it reality-oriented and, as such, more relevant to people.
Feng developed this distinctive language of painting, however, at a time he thought he had hit a dead end with oil painting.
He went to Japan in 1921 to study oil painting, but soon realized it was impossible for him to achieve perfection and he couldn’t afford the expensive art form. Then, he found a collection of works by the self-taught Japanese artist, Yumeji Takehisa, at a street stall. He was inspired by Takehisa’s approach, which was less demanding on technique while emphasizing poetry and underlying social concerns.
Some of Feng’s critics accused him of copying Takehisa, Wang says.
“So, we put together some of their works with similar composition at one of the two shows in Hong Kong,” she said.
Wang says one could see how Feng was inspired by Takehisa, but also formed his own style, grounded in Chinese cultural elements accumulated since childhood.
Feng’s paintings emit the beauty of the poetry of the Tang Dynasty (618-907).
“His brushwork compliments the poems or short comments he has added on the paintings, and together they take the works to a higher level,” says Song Feijun, one of Feng’s grandchildren.
Feng’s works show no trace of grand historical narration, but feel like casual conversations with a kind, wise old man living next door. This style defines Big Tree, a painting album featured at the exhibition in Beijing. The collection of 20 ink paintings, loaned by a private Hong Kong collector, were produced by Feng in 1939 in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, where he and his family took temporary refuge while fleeing their war-torn hometown.
After the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1931-45) broke out, Feng declared that he would “rather be a vagrant than surrender to the invaders”. In the paintings, he documented the calamities of war he had witnessed along the way while he asked people not to give up fighting.
In one painting, Feng composed a poem explaining the album’s title: “A big tree has been severely cut, but it is still alive. When spring arrives, the tree will sprout feverishly, and what a scene of vitality it will be.”
He hoped the tree’s unyielding spirit would lift the morale of his people with a firm belief in the final triumph over the invaders.
In a postscript attached to the collection in 2013, Feng Yiyin, his daughter, wrote: “I have vivid recollections of the hardships during our escape. Father would draw or write what he saw then, when he had the time. … Flipping through this album, I’m overwhelmed with his care for life, his obsession with art and his love for the country.”
The same feelings engulf two other collections of paintings that were displayed at the Beijing exhibition.
The production of the Saving Lives album, now in the assemblage of the Zhejiang Provincial Museum in Hangzhou, spans from 1927 to 1973. Created out of Buddhist benevolence, the album expresses a merciful attitude toward all living beings.
Feng’s work also reflects his admiration of children. He appreciated their innocence, honesty and other qualities that one may find lacking in the adult world. He had seven children, and he drew the Paintings for Engou album in the early 1940s, which records, with warmth, the childhood of his youngest son, Feng Xinmei, who was nicknamed Engou. The album is now with Feng Xinmei’s son, Feng Yu.
Both the Saving Lives and Paintings for Engou albums were on public view for the first time.
“He was by nature an optimistic, compassionate man. He never gave up on hope no matter how difficult life was. He enjoyed life,” says Wang.
Feng drank huangjiu (yellow liquor) almost every day. He loved eating crabs and pasted crab legs on the walls of his house in the formation of a butterfly.
But underneath the easygoing look, he was “a man of perseverance, a tireless advocate of truth, the good and the beautiful”, she said.
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Song Feijun (facing front), a grandson of late Chinese painter Feng Zikai, gives a guided tour to children visiting the exhibition of Feng’s works at the National Art Museum of China. Jiang Dong / China Daily |
(China Daily European Weekly 11/09/2018 page21)