INFLUENCE OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REALISM ON CHINESE ART
Introduction In 1953 the People’s Republic of China started implementing their first 5-year plan. Its goal was economic growth with a focus on industrial development and technological improvement. The aid of the Soviet Union was enlisted, and their economic model adopted. Just as there was major importation of Soviet models in industry, technology, education and so on, so was there importation of Soviet models in art.1 Since the 1950s, Soviet art theory was being translated to Chinese and published in official art journals to guide artists. Artists, arts administrators and officials were also visiting the USSR, and reporting back on what they had learned. From 1953-1956, select groups of Chinese art students were sent to study at the Repin Art Academy in Leningrad for 6-year periods. A major event was in 1955 when the Soviet government sent portrait painter Konstantin M. Maksimov to China. He taught a 2-year oil painting course at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Many of his students went back to their home institutions after graduation, taking up key positions and passing on what they had learnt.2 Even after ties with the Soviet Union deteriorated, the influence of Soviet Socialist Realism would remain, and even spread beyond oil painting to other forms of art, such as woodblock prints or propaganda posters. In this essay, I aim to explore this influence. I found that most existing writings on this topic do not refer much to Soviet works directly, rather, they tend to describe in very general terms the traits of Soviet work that were absorbed by Chinese artists (e.g. “the elevated horizon lines, elaborately posed figures� etc.1 ). I will attempt to build on what has been written on this topic by providing comparisons of Chinese pieces with relevant Soviet works. Hopefully this will allow us to more clearly trace the influences, and maybe even uncover some new insights.
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(Above) Fig. 1: “Let philosophy become a sharp weapon in the hands of the people”, 1971, Poster (Below) Fig. 2: Statue at USSR Pavilion, 1939-40 New York’s World Fair, 1939, Stainless steel
Influence of Soviet Socialist Realism on Chinese art
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Soviet Socialist Realism
Analysis of influence
Before we look at Soviet Socialist Realism’s influence on Chinese art, let us take a quick look at its history. Socialist Realism was mandated as the official art style for the Soviet Union in 1934 during the All-Union Writers Congress, and would remain important up until the dissolution of the USSR. It was meant to encompass all the arts, and its objectives were to glorify the socialist spirit and praise the achievements of the USSR (as well as to generate and maintain support for political leaders). Fundamentally, it is an art that is “realistic in style with socialist content for its subject”.5 It was meant to be useful art that the people would not only find appealing, but could also learn from and be inspired and directed by. It was aimed for mass reproduction, distribution and consumption.6 Apart from images of leaders and heroes, other popular subjects included fertile lands being harnessed for cultivation, grand scenes of largescale construction plans being realized, and depictions of the greatness of Soviet scientific and technological achievements.3
In this section I will look at some of the ways in which Soviet Socialist Realism has influenced Chinese art. I will also look at how Chinese artists took that influence and adapted/modified it in their works. I will be focusing on three major areas: depiction of the human figure, lighting, and composition/viewpoint.
1. Depiction of the human figure One of the most recognizable qualities of Soviet Socialist Realist art is its way of depicting the human figure. A good example of such a figure would be the enormous statue that crowned the USSR pavilion at the 1939-40 New York’s World Fair [fig. 2]. It was a 79-foot statue of an impressively muscled, square-jawed man (a worker, judging from his clothes) standing confidently with one arm holding the Communist star aloft. His left leg and arm create a dramatic upward and forward sweep, and his steely gaze is directed straight ahead into the distance. We see this idealized aesthetic in many Soviet 3
(Left) Fig. 3: Mikhail Kostin – “In the Stalin Factory”, 1949, Oil on canvas
works, such as Viktor Popkov’s “Builders of Bratsk” and Mikhail Kostin’s “In the Stalin factory” [fig. 3]. The figures are very well-built and extremely stoic and rugged. The depiction of the figure in this way is related to the idea of the “New Soviet man” – a powerful, disciplined, selfless person, a hard worker who was a complete master of himself.4 It was a way to make the common man heroic. We can see the influence of this aesthetic in the works of several Chinese artists who were sent to the Repin Art Academy or attended the Maksimov class. For example, in “Unyielding Heroism” [fig. 4] by Quan Shanshi (a graduate of the Repin Art Academy). His work is described as using the “new [i.e. Socialist Realist] way of painting the human form: powerful and muscular, with strong eyebrows and square jaws”.1 We see a similar style in “Before the Battle” by He Kongde (a Maksimov student). Apart from the in the idealized heroic physiques of the figures, the Soviet influence also shows through in the poses – the figures are strong, determined, proud, gazing unflinchingly ahead. We see this influence persisting even after the Sino-Soviet split in 1960, where praise for Soviet models would have become politically incorrect.1 It is still very prominent in the propaganda paintings and posters of the Cultural Revolution. For example, let us look at “Let philosophy become a sharp weapon in the hands of 4
the people” [fig. 1], a propaganda poster from 1971. I would say that in this case the style has been taken to extremes – in trying to play up the strength and power of the figure, the artist has made him impossibly, even ridiculously bulky. Also note the extremely dramatic (more so than seen in the previous examples) poses of the figures, probably taken directly out of the Model Plays of that time. The Soviet influence on the depiction of figures was not limited to painting – we see it affecting woodcut-based works as well, for example, “March Forward Holding High Great Revolutionary Criticising Flag”. Although done purely in black, red, yellow and white with no modeling or tonal gradations, we can still easily identify the exaggeratedly powerful and muscular way of depicting the figures as bearing Soviet influence.
2. Lighting
we see the use of one-directional artificial theatrical lighting. It is almost as though a spotlight was being trained on the figures. The stark shadows and powerful contrasts between the darks and lights make the subjects stand out strongly. This effect is further emphasized by the relatively simple backgrounds employed – in both cases, red drapery. Compare these works to “Mao Zedong at the December Meeting” [fig. 6] by Jin Shangyi (the strongest portraitist of the Maksimov class). Jin has employed theatrical lighting1 similar to that employed by Brodsky. In this painting, it shines in from the right, leaving much of the left side of Mao in shadow, like the right side of Stalin in Brodsky’s picture. Jin has gone for an even simpler background, filling it with a dark red-brown colour with some slight gradation in tone. The result is that Mao stands out immediately. The powerful contrasts and shadows give him a sense of gravity and importance.
Soviet Socialist Realism also had an influence on the use of lighting in Chinese art. Let us consider two works by Isaak Brodsky. Brodsky (1884-1939), a student of Ilya Repin, was one of the leading artists of his time. In 1934 he was made director of the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture and the National Academy of Arts.3 In these two works, “Lenin” and “Stalin” [fig. 5],
This sort of theatrical lighting was not restricted to solo portraits of important figures, it could also be found in paintings of large groups of people, although the way it is used in those cases is slightly different. Aleksandr Gerasimov’s “Stalin at a Meeting with Commanders” is an interesting piece to analyze. At first glance, we would assume that the main light sources in this piece are the large
(Above) Fig. 4: Quan Shanshi – “Unyielding Heroism”, 1961, Oil on canvas
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Fig. 5: Isaak Brodsky – “Stalin”, 1939, Oil on canvas
Fig. 6: Jin Shangyi – “Mao Zedong at the December Meeting”, 1961, Oil on canvas
windows at the back of the picture. The light is shining through them towards us, which would explain why the back of the speaker, standing in the middle and facing away from us, and the back of the white-haired figure seated next to him are in shadow. By this reasoning, Stalin and his commanders who are facing us should have their fronts in shadow as well, as it is only their backs that would receive the light from the windows. Yet, their fronts are very well lit. This shows how the lighting in this scene is artificial to a significant extent. It has been careful designed to draw attention to the most important figure in the painting (Stalin) – in some way Stalin is almost a light source himself. Another example of this is Boris Ioganson’s “Lenin’s Speech at the Third Congress of the Komsomol”. In this case it is more obvious – we can almost see the rich warm light emanating from Lenin and illuminating the attentive faces of his listeners. The great leaders of the USSR are made almost divine, they are literally illuminating the lives of their people. We can see similar techniques being employed in Chinese art, in works featuring Chairman Mao among a group of people. An example is Wu Yunhua’s 6
“Mao Inspects Wushun Opencut Coal Mine” [fig. 7]. In this piece the artificiality is taken to another level – the lighting conditions in the sky are forming some kind of radiant nimbus behind Mao’s head. Indeed, such pictures with Mao almost radiating light and having a sort of halo (formed by clouds and sky) framing his head are quite plentiful, and range from the more subtle (e.g. Chen Yanning’s “Chairman Mao Inspects the Guangdong Countryside”) to the very explicit. In my opinion, during the Cultural Revolution, this taking of artificial theatrical lighting to extremes, coupled with the standard “Red, Bright and Shining” aesthetic mandated by Jiang Qing, resulted in a quite unnatural look in some cases. The Soviet pieces that the Chinese were inspired by may also have employed artificial lighting, but it was less exaggerated, and the overall colour schemes were more natural, so they still managed to maintain a naturalistic look.
(Above) Fig. 7: Wu Yunhua – “Mao Inspects Wushun Opencut Coal Mine”, 1972, Oil on canvas (Left) Fig. 8: Aleksandr Gerasimov – “Lenin on the Rostrum”, 1929-30, Oil on canvas
3. Composition and viewpoint Another aspect of Chinese art which Soviet Socialist Realism had a great 7
Fig. 9: Georgi Nissky - “Off to Defend Moscow on the Leningradskoe Chausee”, 1942, Oil on canvas
impact on is composition and viewpoint. One of the important techniques used by Soviet artists to monumentalize their subjects was to adopt a low vantage point, such that the viewer would feel like he was gazing up at the subject. This would give the subject of the work a largerthan-life, imposing and grand quality. We see this technique being utilized in numerous works, such as Gerasimov’s famous “Lenin on the Rostrum” [fig. 8]. Lenin rises above the adulating crowd, larger than life, the angle of his body and the direction of his determined gaze matched by the dynamic thrust of the flagpole and the billowing flag. Not only reserved for important figures, it was also used to give a heroic and dignified quality to depictions of the common people soldiers, workers and so on, to glorify their contributions to the Soviet cause. For example, in Georgi Nissky’s “Off to Defend Moscow on the Leningradskoe Chausee” [fig. 9], the heroism of soldiers marching bravely off to battle is played up by the low vantage point. We see this technique being adopted in many Chinese works, including some of the examples mentioned in the previous sub-chapters, 8
Fig. 10: Shen Jiawei – “Standing Guard for our Great Fatherland”, 1974, Oil on canvas
such as Jin Shangyi’s “Mao Zedong at the December Meeting” and “Unyielding Heroism” by Quan Shanshi. Other examples include Shen Jiawei’s “Standing Guard for our Great Fatherland” [fig. 10]. In this work, the central soldier stands at attention, his verticality of his body mirrored by the snowy path on the ground far below. Together with the upwardslooking viewpoint used by the artist, a feeling of great grandeur and majesty is created. Indeed, in all these works, the low vantage point works together with the other techniques like the usage of dynamic theatrical lighting to create an extremely powerful, imposing quality. We see this technique being used a lot in propaganda posters as well, for example, in Shan Lianxiao’s “I Must Become This Kind of Person”. The character is given a monumental quality and raised up as a role model for viewers to emulate.
Conclusion So we have looked at some of the more outstanding ways in which Chinese artists borrowed techniques from Soviet Socialist
Realism and made them their own. It is important to remember that many of these techniques were themselves borrowed by the Soviets from “the artistic heritage of all past epochs”.6 It can be linked back to 19th century Russian realism, in particular the art of the Peredvizhniki5 , who included artists such as Ilya Repin and Vasily Surikov, whose works spoke of social issues and glorified the common folk. The Soviet artists appropriated and modified what they had learnt from the past to create this art that would “inspire the working people of Soviet society to great exploits in labour, science, and culture”.6 Repetitions of the same government-approved subject matter and themes together with mass reproduction and distribution to the masses have resulted in the art that we identify with the USSR today. Similarly, the Chinese borrowed certain techniques from the Soviets and adapted them to their own ends, modifying them to suit their own government-sanctioned ideas and aesthetics (e.g. Red, Bright and Shining). In this way, they created their own very iconic form of art.
References 1.
Andrews, Julia F. and Shen Kuiyi. The Art of Modern China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012.
2. Andrews, Julia F. Painters and Politics in the People’s Republic of China, 1949-1979. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995 3.
Ivanov, Sergei V. Unknown Socialist Realism. The Leningrad School. St. Petersburg: Russian Painting Collectors’ Club, 2007.
4.
Kaganosky, Lilya. How the Soviet Man was Unmade: Cultural Fantasy and Male Subjectivity Under Stalin. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2008.
5.
Rusnock, K. Andrea. Socialist Realist painting during the Stalinist Era (1934-1941). Lewiston: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2010.
6.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, RUSSIA!. New York: Guggenheim Museum Publications, 2005.
7.
Yiu, Josh. Writing Modern Chinese Art. Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 2009.
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