Winds from Fusang: Mexico and China in the Twentieth Century

WINDS FROM FUSANG:

MEXICO AND CHINA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Dedication Me gustaría dedicar este catálogo a mis amigas y colegas, Magdalena Zavala Bonachea

y Graciela de la Torre, sin quienes esta exposición no hubiera sido posible.

——— Selma Holo, Ph.D. Interim Director USC Pacific Asia Museum

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Dedication —— Selma Holo, PhD

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USC Pacific Asia Museum Foreword —— Christina Yu Yu, PhD

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Mural Museum of Diego Rivera Foreword —— Luis Rius Caro

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Winds from Fusang: Mexico and China in the Twentieth Century —— Zheng Shengtian

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National Front of Plastic Arts —— Erika Contreras Vega

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Recovering What was Lost, A Journey Towards Revival: Three Mural Movements in New China —— Sun Jingbo

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List of Illustrations Exhibition Checklist Contributors

USC Pacific Asia Museum Foreword —— Christina Yu Yu, PhD Since its inception in 1971, the USC Pacific Asia Museum (known as the Pacific Asia Museum before its merger with the University of Southern California in 2013) has been organizing groundbreaking exhibitions that have introduced important traditions, lineages, stories and moments from the long history of civilization and artmaking in Asia. Among them was the 1987 exhibition Beyond the Open Door: Contemporary Paintings from the People’s Republic of China, the first ever exhibition of contemporary Chinese art in North America and Europe. The exhibition’s curator Shengtian Zheng is a pioneer and trailblazer, connecting art scenes from the West and China —by lecturing and showing thousands of eager young Chinese art students slides he took on his extensive travels outside China, and by organizing numerous contemporary Chinese art exhibitions at museums, galleries, and alternative spaces.

Almost three decades later, we are very fortunate to have the opportunity to work with him again on Winds from Fusang: China and Mexico in the Twentieth Century. My sincere gratitude to Sheng for working diligently with me and my staff on this significant exhibition, which sheds new light on the development of art in China before and immediately after the Cultural Revolution. I also thank Marisol Villela and Apple Jianhua Geng for the assistance they provided to Sheng.

I would like to thank our partner Mural Museum of Diego Rivera in Mexico City and its Director Luis Rius Caro and I am extremely happy they will host the exhibition in the fall of 2018. Magdalena Zavala Bonachea, National Coordinator of Visual Arts at the Ministry of Culture, immediately recognized the importance of this exhibition, and I thank her and her staff, Mariana Sainz Pacheco, Deputy Director of International Exhibitions, as well as Angela Fuente Cortes, Deputy Director of the Mural Museum of Diego Rivera for their guidance and support. Graciela de la Torre, General Director of Visual Arts at the University Contemporary Art Museum of the National

Autonomous University of Mexico, generously shared her connections and insights into art organizations in Mexico. I would also like to thank Pablo Mendoza, Cultural Coordinator of the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Beijing, for introducing me to Dr. Renato Gonzalez Mello, who together with Dr. Dafne Cruz Porchini, shared knowledge and scholarship on Mexican muralism with us. Paul Goebel from Mexico City also offered his help and support. My colleague and mentor Dr. Selma Holo, Director of the USC Fisher Museum of Art and Professor of Art History at the University of Southern California, opened the door of Mexican art for me.

Artists are the protagonists of this exhibition and I especially thank those who so generously shared their personal archives, encounters, and experiences with us – Arturo Hernandez Estrada, Rina Lazo, and Adolfo Mexiac from Mexico, and Jingbo Sun, Zhonghua Yao, and Yunsheng Yuan from China. A special thanks to our lenders who preserved artists’ legacies and generously shared them with us and the public. I thank the Getty Foundation for including the exhibition as part of the Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA initiative, and we are grateful to The Henry Luce Foundation’s recognition and support to the exhibition.

I thank USC Administrators, especially Provost Michael Quick for his support of the vision and future of the museum. It is an understatement that this exhibition would not be possible without the efforts of my colleague Angela McCracken, Director of the USC Mexico International Office, who worked her magic with her diplomatic and language skills. And my greatest gratitude is to the USC Pacific Asia Museum staff whose dedication and passion is the best that I could ask for.

——— Christina Yu Yu, Ph.D. Inaugural Director USC Pacific Asia Museum

WINDS FROM FUSANG: MEXICO AND CHINA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Mural Museum of Diego Rivera Foreword —— Luis Rius Caro The internationalization of Mexican art is a much earlier phenomenon than that seen in the era of globalization. And to the surprise of many, the phases of greatest influence and splendor involve artists and trends that reductive criticism and historiography have considered part of a local and closed nationalism.

In this polarized and limited view, the aforementioned historiography —which, it must be said, is the most influential in the historical memory of Mexican art—has taken a long time to assimilate and accept the broad and profound influence of Rivera, Orozco, and Siqueiros in the processes of production, circulation, and reception of art in the United States and various countries throughout Latin America and Europe. It has also overlooked the true dimensions of the impact made by Mexican art, given the great number of foreign artists that entered the country, attracted by the magnetism of the muralist masters and by those working around them, many of whom were sculptors and engravers.

Other issues have also been minimized, such as those relating to the international reach of the People’s Print Workshop, so present in the Republican propaganda during the Spanish Civil War, for example, or in the group exhibits it held at various international venues. Also, the efforts of the controversial National Front of Plastic Arts—which is a pivotal issue in this exhibition—and other groups of political nature.

More attention has been given to collective shows curated by the administrations of institutions for the international scene, above all for exhibition in the United States, and to shows dedicated to promoting the achievements of the most famous artists who paved the way beyond our borders during the first half of the century. In that sense, we must appreciate the very significant progress made recently in studies of these matters, as well as those dedicated to the consideration of Diego Rivera as a trendsetter who influenced modern art from Paris, Moscow, Detroit, San Francisco, and New York, as well as Mexico.

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Beyond officialdom, there are promising signs of works focused on finding important Mexican enclaves around the world, which at specific times collaborated on the creation of modern art at the highest levels: Marius de Zayas and his Modern Gallery on Fifth Avenue, among the most notable; without forgetting the promotion and networking carried out by José Juan Tablada in “la Babilonia de Hierro” (New York) some of which led to the highly acclaimed trajectory of “the Kid,” Miguel Covarrubias, in (and from) that city.

The show Winds from Fusang: Mexico and China in the Twentieth Century follows these signposts, and has the satisfaction of contributing new information about the influence of Mexican artists on the fate of Chinese art before the Cultural Revolution, between 1930 and 1960. Of greatest interest on its own merits and for the research paths it opens, we are proud to present it at the Mural Museum of Diego Rivera in Mexico City, whose vocation is the expansion of Rivera’s art and post-revolutionary art in general on the world stage.

The aforementioned Miguel Covarrubias stands at the center with some of his drawings made in Shanghai in the 1930s, as well as works by local artists on whom he had an influence.

There are also a variety of top Mexican artists (Xavier Guerrero, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Arturo García Bustos and Ignacio Aguirre, among others) who met in China during trips they made to that country, or during two shows by the National Front of Plastic Arts in 1956. Their works are included along with those created by local artists under their positive influence.

With remarkable originality, conceptual clarity, and an impeccable array of works, the curation of Winds from Fusang delights us with its thematic coherence and above all with its singular visual beauty.

——— Luis Rius Caro Director, Museo Mural Diego Rivera Mexico City

Winds from Fusang: Mexico and China in the Twentieth Century —— Zheng Shengtian It is widely believed that Western influences following the “opening of China” in the 1980s constituted the motivating forces behind Chinese contemporary art. Acknowledgments of other influences prior to the Cultural Revolution (1966–76) are rare, particularly those that occurred during the mid-twentieth century when China was completely closed off to the outside world. The catalogue and the exhibition Winds from Fusang: Mexico and China in the Twentieth Century explore the cross-cultural events that took place during the period that the arts in China transitioned from modern to contemporary—and identify the forces that impacted and shaped Chinese art over the past century.

Winds from Fusang is the result of decades of research on the infusion of Mexican art into twentieth-century Chinese art and art theory. The history-based exhibition provides a vivid picture of the little-known but fascinating historical, political, and cultural connections between Mexico and China and recognizes the powerful influence of the work of Mexican artists in the development of modern and contemporary Chinese art. Collected materials—books, newspaper clippings, photos, manuscripts, and interviews (conducted by participating artists from both countries and by this author)—reflect the cultural exchanges that went on between China and Mexico for more than thirty years.

Two major revolutions erupted at the end of the first decade of the twentieth century—in Mexico in 1910, and in China in 1911. Great suffering from instability and chaos followed in both countries, as did a pressing challenge for the post-revolution societies to educate their people in order to facilitate a general acceptance of the ideologies and goals of the respective new governments. Enlightening largely illiterate populations became a necessity.

To this end, in Mexico José Vasconcelos (1882–1959), first Secretary of Public Education, proposed a mural program sponsored by the government and executed by local artists that quickly developed into the Mexican Mural Movement of the 1920s. In China, a movement led by intellectuals emerged 9

with a similar goal and was marked by the May 4, 1919 demonstration in Beijing. Instead of using visual images, leaders Hu Shih (1891–1962) and Lu Xun (1881–1936) proposed a new, naturalistic vernacular writing style (Baihua) to replace the old classical style (Wenyan), one that would be easier for the public to read. The May Fourth movement, also known as the New Culture Movement, promoted novel ideas in politics and science to the general public through literature and education.

Lu Xun, recognized as China’s greatest twentieth-century writer and praised by Mao Zedong (1893–1976) as “commander of China’s cultural revolution,” became the pioneer of this campaign. Early on, Lu Xun recognized similarities with cultural and historical events going on in Mexico. In October 1931, the literary magazine Beidou,2 founded by the left-wing intellectual group the Writers’ League in Shanghai, published the mural Night of the Poor by Diego Rivera (1886–1957). 3 Lu Xun had selected the work and wrote a short introduction that included: “Rivera believes that the mural can fulfill the most social responsibilities … because [the mural] is differentiated from paintings kept in the mansions of nobles. Murals are on the walls of public buildings and belong to the public. Therefore, we should learn that it is the worst tendency for artists to still do salon painting.4 While most Chinese artists were fascinated with Western Modernism, Lu Xun was envisioning a new art that could serve the public and engage society.

It is no accident that Lu Xun found Rivera’s work to be the perfect model. For the first time, Chinese readers turned their attention toward the east side of the Pacific Ocean.

The Covarrubias Circle in Shanghai, 1930s The first Mexican artist to visit China (on record) was Miguel Covarrubias (1904–1957). He had moved to New York in 1924, and his caricatures frequently appeared in Vanity Fair and other popular American magazines, which is how Chinese artists came to know of his work.5 Covarrubias and his wife, the dancer Rosa Rolanda (Rosemonde Cowan, 1895–1970) traveled to China twice during the 1930s, and though little information is available about their first trip, the second, in 1933, was reported in the press, including two articles written by Shao Xunmei (Sinmay Zau, 1906–1968). A famous writer, poet, and publisher during the Republican era (1912–1949), Shao was from a noble family and had studied in Cambridge and Paris. The Covarrubiases made Shanghai a stop on their way to Bali, Indonesia, and they were introduced to Shao by their WINDS FROM FUSANG: MEXICO AND CHINA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

hosts, Mr. and Mrs. Chester. During this visit, Miguel Covarrubias and Shao saw each other almost every day. Shao often took Covarrubias to the “small club” in Guba xincun, the home of artist Zhang Zhengyu (1903–1976) and a gathering spot for young artists. Covarrubias’s profound artistic experience and skills, along with his personal charm and humor, made him an immediate mentor to the young Chinese artists.

While in China, Covarrubias completed several sketches that demon-

strated his artistic approach for his Chinese admirers. In his article, “Covarrubias and His Wife,” Shao wrote: “[Covarrubias] made quite a lot paintings … in Shanghai, including five colored portraits…. He said: ‘Making a caricature became my routine.’ Of course, his drawing puts great emphasis on lines. Even in colored paintings, the way he analyzes and arranges colors is just the same as he does with lines.” 6 Indeed, Covarrubias’s use of lines and colors strongly impacted Chinese artists—among them, Zhang Guangyu (1900–1964) and Ye Qianyu (1907–1996).

Painter, designer, and the leading caricaturist for Shanghai Manhua (Shanghai Cartoons, published from 1928 to 1930) and other pictorials, Zhang wrote: “The visit of Mexican artist Covarrubias brought messages … truly made my inspiration soar high.”7 Many critics recognized Covarrubias’s influence in Zhang’s famous “Decorative Style,” especially in the cartoon series Xiyoumanji (Journey to the West, made in 1945). Zhang, who eventually became a professor of the Central Academy of Art & Design, is remembered as one of the founders of Chinese modern design and animation.

Ye, a self-taught artist, had moved to Shanghai from Hangzhou in 1927

and was just twenty-one years old when he met Covarrubias. He drew mostly from memory and imagination, occasionally using photographs for reference, and observed that Covarrubias would often take out a small sketchbook to quickly record what he was looking at. Ye wrote about his learning experiences with the Mexican artist: “Since meeting Mexican cartoonist Covarrubias during his visit to Shanghai, under his influence I started to carry a sketchbook to draw my daily observations. Gradually I left my camera behind. In that year, I had the first chance to travel extensively in northern China. In the old capital of Beijing, I simply abandoned my camera, focusing wholeheartedly on sketching. This was a major transformation in my art career.”8 Ye, who purportedly never again ventured out without a sketchbook and pencil, later joined the cartoonist circle and, inspired by the American strip Bringing Up Father, went on to create the hugely popular comic strips 11

Wang Xiansheng (Mr. Wang), which published, beginning in 1928, for more than a decade. Through his dedicated sketching practice, Ye also published Luxing Manhua (Cartoon from Trips) and Qianyu Suxie Ji (A Collection of Sketches by Qianyu) in 1936, and thus is recognized as modern China’s first sketching artist.

Ye in turn nurtured and encouraged many young artists, arming them with excellent sketching skills, just as Covarrubias had done for him.

The decade of the 1930s was the golden age of the development of Chinese caricature, and Covarrubias’s visit to China was much needed and came at just the right time. Many artists of the Covarrubias “circle” during his visit became leading figures in China’s art scene in the decades that followed.

And virtually all acknowledged that the Mexican artist’s short visit to Shanghai significantly impacted them. In a September 2007 interview, ninety-yearold artist Zhang Ding (1917–2010), founder of the modern Chinese Mural Movement and the only still-living artist of that circle, fondly remembered the foreign artist who left a strong impression on Chinese artists. His name was Ke-fu-luo-pi-si (Covarrubias).9 Mexican and Chinese Art-and-Artists Connections, 1950s Following the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, China was almost entirely cut off from Western countries. During and after the Korean War years of the 1950s, China sought support from Asian, African, and Latin American countries (YaFeiLa). In October 1952, artist Xavier Guerrero (1896–1974), a leading artist of the Mexican Mural Movement and an active member of the Communist movement in his own country, was a member of the Mexican delegation to the Asia and Pacific Rim Peace Conference (APPC) in Beijing. The following month, on November 10, the Chinese Artists Association opened an exhibition of works by Latin American artists participating in APPC. Housed in the Working People’s Cultural Palace, the 165 works displayed included a selection of folk art and crafts, as well as prints—by Guerrero and two other Latin American artists: Alipio Jaramillo (1913–1999) from Columbia and Mireya Lafuente (1905–1976) from Chile. One of the conference’s key advocates was Chilean Muralist José Venturelli (1924–1988), a friend of acclaimed poet Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) and one-time assistant to artist Mexican artist David Alfaro Siqueiros (1896–1974). In 1950 and 1951, Venturelli participated in several peace-movement events in Europe at which he had the opportunity to meet with Chinese delegations. He was invited to visit Beijing by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and, following the conference, was WINDS FROM FUSANG: MEXICO AND CHINA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

appointed the General Secretary of APPC and stationed in Beijing. An active artist himself, Venturelli helped many of his fellow artists from Mexico and Latin American countries coordinate trips to China.

In 1952 another artist participant in the international peace movement, Rivera painted a pair of mural-size paintings, Nightmare of War, Dream of Peace, measuring twelve meters in length and three meters in height.

Made for an exhibition of twentieth-century Mexican art intended to travel to Paris, the subject of the painting is the Korean War and the world peace movement. However, because of his portrayal of Stalin and Mao, Rivera’s work was removed from the show. Reportedly, he was extremely angry about this decision and decided to donate the painting to Mao in China. Since that time, the painting has disappeared, and to date there remains no record of it.10 (A same-size drawing does exist, at the Museo Diego Rivera Anahuacalli in Mexico City, as do a few scenarios about the mural’s fate, but none of these have been proven.)11 In past decades, Mexican scholars have tried to solve the mystery of Rivera’s missing painting. During the Cultural Revolution, many art treasures were destroyed in China, but some were hidden in unknown places, caves, or warehouses and survived. Therefore, it is possible that missing Mexican paintings like this one survived. The search should continue in the hope that someday, with the effort of both the Chinese and Mexican governments, Rivera’s masterpiece may finally be rediscovered.

Mexican Art Exhibits in China, 1950s From March 18 to April 1, 1956, the first Selection of Mexican Prints was held in the Beijing Exhibition Center, organized by the Taller de Gráfica Popular (People’s Graphic Workshop), an artists’ collective founded in Mexico in 1937 that had won an award from the World’s Peace Council in 1952. The exhibition included 270 prints made by founders Leopoldo Méndez (1902–1969), Pablo O’Higgins (1904–1983), Luis Arenal Bastar (1908–1985), and thirty other Workshop members. Chinese artist Li Qun (1912–2012) praised the exhibition in his article, “Fighting Mexican Prints”: “The prints made by Mexican artists show apparent national characteristics and artistic creativity.

The reason [Mexican artists] could make such successful work [was because of] their close connection with people’s lives. They are deeply concerned about the fate of their homeland and its people, and share joy and pain with them. They always take art as a fighting weapon to serve the political goal.”12

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Later that year, a larger-scale exhibition, National Front of Plastic Arts of Mexico: An Exhibition of Paintings and Prints of Mexico: An Exhibition of Paintings and Prints, showcased 138 paintings and 258 prints in the Working People’s Cultural Palace in Beijing, the former imperial ancestral temple in the Forbidden City constructed in 1420. The exhibition was organized by El Frente Nacional de Artes Plásticas (National Front of Plastic Arts) as a touring project originally planned for European cities. In 1955, while on its East Germany stop, Siqueiros received a letter from Venturelli suggesting that the tour be extended to travel to Chinese cities. The exhibition’s organizers received an official invitation from the Chinese Artists Association and the People’s Association of International Cultural Exchange of the Chinese People (also called Chinese Foreign Cultural Council), so following its stops in Eastern Bloc cities, crates containing the exhibition’s works arrived in Beijing. Artist Ignacio Aguirre (1900–1990) accompanied the exhibition to China and on August 8 took part in a discussion with more than thirty Beijing artists, introducing the mural-making experience as well as the current situation of the progressive art movement in Mexico.

The exhibition represented some of Mexico’s finest contemporary artistic achievements—among them, important works from Mexico’s “Big Three,” Rivera, José Clemente Orozco (1883–1949), and Siqueiros—and attracted a great deal of attention from an admiring Chinese audience. In particular, Orozco’s famous painting Las Soldaderas (Women Soldiers) portrayed the active role women played in the Mexican Revolution. Two Siqueiros paintings, The Good Neighbor and Our Present Image, provided powerful and inspiring political statements. And Rivera’s large painting Glorious Victory, which depicted the infamous 1954 CIA coup that overthrew Guatemala’s democratically elected government, became the focal work of the exhibition.

In the article “Mexican Plastic Art,” Chief Editor of Meishu magazine Ni Yide (1901–1970) wrote about these works, including: “Siqueiros’s Good Neighbor revealed the true face of the American imperialists in a … direct and ironic way.” The painting’s characterization of US President Truman and an enslaved young man representing Mexican and Latin American people, Ni stated, “loudly arouses the Latin American people to raise and be vigilant against US imperialism.” Even more shocking, according to Ni, was Our Present Image, in which Siqueiros depicts a huge torso of a naked man, his hands stretched forward, and his head made of stone. This, Ni wrote, symbolized that the Mexican people, despite their power, had “lost their minds” because of the long-term control of imperialism, and that the artist had used such WINDS FROM FUSANG: MEXICO AND CHINA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

an image “to both irritate and warn people, to encourage the cowards and awaken the complacent.13

When National Front of Plastic Arts of Mexico: An Exhibition of

Paintings and Prints moved on to Shanghai, many students and faculty members of the Art Academy in Hangzhou made a train trip to view the artworks. The exhibition’s final stop was Guangzhou, a Chinese printmaking center. At each venue, Chinese artists lauded the works. The sentiments of artist Situ Qiao (1902–1958) were shared by many of his colleagues and contemporaries: “Mexican progressive art has highly expressive power. They [Mexican artists] have a distinctive national style, and bond closely with people’s lives and struggles. Through this exhibition, Chinese audiences, especially Chinese artists, [feel] deep sympathy for the heroic and arduous struggle of the Mexican people, and gain great encouragement from it.”14 Siqueiros and Other Visitors, 1950s and Beyond In Venturelli’s 1955 letter to Siqueiros and his wife, Angélica Arenal (1907–1989), suggesting a Chinese exhibition tour, he also invited the couple to make a personal visit to China. Siqueiros accepted and made his historical trip there the following year. Although known politically as a Stalinist, Siqueiros was not fond of the direction Soviet art had taken and wrote an open letter to the artists of the Soviet Union that was published in April 1956 in the American magazine Mass and Mainstream, in which he noted, “Soviet comrades.… None of you are interested in finding new material techniques, although you have a State more able than any other that has ever existed to provide you with the effective and moral means to achieve this transformation.”15 The Chinese Artists Association translated the letter and published it in its internal Meishujia Tongxun (Artists’ Communication), which was distributed to its members all over China, and then shared it publicly with an even larger circulation.

While in China, Siqueiros explained (in a small meeting with leaders of

the Chinese Artists Association) that printmaking in China and Mexico shared the same goal: to serve the revolutionary masses. He believed that revolutionary art and public art were enjoyed by the elite and by commoners, and that this was what Mexican and Chinese art have in common.16 He was invited to speak on several occasions, and openly delivered his view on establishing “a new, monumental art for the new era” while criticizing the existing academism and formalism in art. In one speech, Siqueiros strongly disparaged in particular Soviet art while praising Chinese traditional art. He advised Chinese artists 15

not to follow in the footsteps of Russian artists but instead to create art that’s revolutionary and heroic. He believed that Chinese artists could learn the characteristics of the various Western art movements—for example, the bold colors of Fauvism, the emotions of Expressionism, the forms and structures of Cubism, the motions of Futurism, and the imaginations of Surrealism—and integrate these characteristics with other art forms to give birth to an art reflecting the time, a revolutionary art.17 The first Premier of the People’s Republic of China Zhou Enlai (1898–1976) hosted a cultural affairs meeting with Siqueiros on October 17, 1956, and the two engaged in a long conversation about art and about political issues of the day concerning Latin America and China. Premier Zhou humbly recognized that he was not the right person to discuss the problems of the prevailing art form, referring to Soviet Socialist Realism. He asked a comrade who specialized in the subject to study and subsequently answer the questions brought up by Siqueiros. Four days later, Zhou Yang, Vice President of the Department of Propaganda from the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, met with Siqueiros and later commented: “I went over, in as much detail as possible, the recent exhibition of Mexican art in Beijing, concluding that Muralist art represents, along with prints, a fundamental form of art that positively addressed the masses, and therefore was the best equivalent in the art of our new State. Equally, I extracted from that visit the opinion that Realism cannot be by any means a recipe, a formula, something static but a fact in perpetual change, in accordance with the transformation and development of the corresponding society.”18

Siqueiros spent about a month in China, traveling to Beijing, Shanghai,

Nanjing, and Guangzhou, among other cities. His trip triggered an important question for his Chinese counterparts: how to re-evaluate Soviet art, Western art, and their own traditions. It was a breakthrough to a new way of thinking in the 1950s.

On February 14, 1972, China finally established formal diplomatic relations with Mexico. In 1973, during the Cultural Revolution, Mexican President Luis Echeverría Alvarez (born 1922) paid an official visit to China and met with leaders Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and Deng Xiaoping (1904–1997). A major exhibition, Mexico: An Exhibition of Culture and Art Through History, resulted and toured four Chinese cities, Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, and Zhengzhou, displaying antiques, crafts, and visual artworks. Participating artists included Orozco (his lithographs Zapata Soldiers and Banquet), Rivera (the painting Day of the WINDS FROM FUSANG: MEXICO AND CHINA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Dead), and Siqueiros (Revolution Brought Us Culture and Believers). Regrettably, because of the political climate and sensibility of the time, not many people were able to gain entry to the Cultural Palace of Nationalities on Chang’an Boulevard in Beijing to view these great works; similarly, at the exhibition’s venues in other cities, there also were limited numbers of visitors allowed.

Influence—and Murals—through the Decades, 1950s to Present Day Following the establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949, the approach of Western Modernism conveyed to China from the 1930s was strongly criticized and banned. Reflecting the Chinese Communist Party’s “lopsided” diplomatic policy toward the Soviet Union, a pedagogical system designed by Russian professor and painter Pavel Chistyakov (1832–1919) was introduced into China in 1952. In the mid-1950s Socialist Realism became the dominant art style; art academies throughout the country were ordered to implement the new curriculum based on socialist ideology.

At the Bandung Conference of 1955, a new direction for China’s global diplomacy emerged. Laying the groundwork for the success of the conference, the Chinese delegation led by Zhou Enlai advocated the principle of putting aside differences and seeking common ground. Since that time, the Chinese government elected to engage culturally with some countries of the “Third World.” Mexico was one such country invited into the dialogue, and many nonofficial activities were implemented, including art exhibitions and artists’ exchanges.

The work and ideas of Mexican artists that excited and inspired their Chinese counterparts presented alternatives to the prevailing Soviet style.

Mexican artists’ ambitions for painting that were both modern and revolutionary made them ideal models for Chinese artists who were attempting to create an independent art free from the Socialist Realism of Moscow on the one hand, and the Modernist Formalism of the West on the other. Dong Xiwen (1914–1973), a professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), summarized what Mexican artists created in their works and proposed three goals for establishing a new Chinese art: modernization, nationalization, and revolutionization.19 Many art students during the 1950s were particularly moved by the Mexican artists’ large murals. In particular, they were galvanized by those of Rivera, who recruited the Indian tradition and integrated it with Western Modernism. The refreshing results were works that resonated with the young budding Chinese artists who had been searching for a contemporary 17

and national yet strongly individual art. With their mural-making, Rivera, Siqueiros, and Orozco, among others, provided just such focused inspiration, and students in art academies employed this new painting approach despite the punishment they might face for making such “non-orthodox” artwork.

Yunsheng Yuan (born in 1937), who studied at CAFA and saw National Front of Plastic Arts of Mexico: An Exhibition of Paintings and Prints in 1956, explained why he was attracted to Mexican art: “The feeling I got from Mexican artists was that they were revolutionaries. At the same time, they were artists.

Therefore, no matter what language they used, they were genuinely expressing their [own] feelings, ideologies, and emotions. Our artists [made] revolutionary art according to the Party’s political needs. There is a difference.”20 When Yuan made his graduate project in a style that did not follow Soviet Realistic doctrine, he was labeled a “rightist student” and sent to a labor camp.

It wasn’t until the end of the Cultural Revolution that artists could actually act on their dreams and create their own versions of the Mexican murals. The first such experiment took place after Mao’s death in 1976, which marked the end of the Cultural Revolution. A few artists, ready to launch a Mural Movement to welcome in the new era, followed the example of Mexican artists, and the newly built Beijing Airport provided a stunning opportunity to do so. Li Ruihuan, head of the construction team, assigned Beijing artists the task of decorating the walls, and he offered them the freedom to choose subject matter as well as style. Occupying five hundred square meters of wall space, the Beijing Airport Murals became the largest mural project ever commissioned by the government in twentieth-century China. The project was completed in October 1979.

Yuan, one of the group of artists who worked on the project, made the interior mural Poshuijie-Shengming de Zange (Water-Splashing Festival-Ode of Life), which depicts the tropical landscape, rural life, and traditional celebration of the Dai people in Xishuangbanna, in southwest China. The mural, with its naked female bathing figures, became quite controversial and eventually was covered up by authorities. Nevertheless, it remains one of the most influential examples of public art in China.

The Beijing Airport Mural project marked the first major artistic attempt of increased individual creativity coming on the heels of the Cultural Revolution.

Other such events followed during the 1980s and led to the emergence and rapid development in the 1990s of a contemporary Chinese art scene. Many native artists of this avant-garde movement attest to the powerful role Mexican artwork played in encouraging and inspiring them in their nascent efforts.

WINDS FROM FUSANG: MEXICO AND CHINA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

China’s first Mural Department, which was established at CAFA, ushered in a new era of mural education in the country. As both a traditional and a contemporary medium, mural art has grown significantly over the past three decades.

Today, all of China’s major art academies have a mural department or provide mural courses. Growing in number in pace with rapid urban development, numerous outdoor and indoor murals have been created. And in 2012, the first International Mural Biennale was held, in Datong, Shanxi Provence, at which about five hundred murals and mural designs were displayed, representing the work of artists from all over China, as well as from a few foreign countries.

One of the Biennale’s organizers, muralist Sun Jingbo (born 1945) wrote: “Looking back over the past decades since the completion of the murals at the Beijing Airport, it is indisputable that the Chinese mural has played the leading role in promoting the revival of Chinese art in contemporary society … the rise and activity of mural creation have progressed simultaneously with the level of [China’s] economic growth and ideological liberation.” 21

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WINDS FROM FUSANG: MEXICO AND CHINA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

recruited a group of artists to work for

also launched pictorial periodicals and

to publishing literary magazines, he

Modern Publication Ltd. In addition

and in 1933 cofounded the Shanghai

stores and publishing houses in 1928,

5. Shao began establishing book-

Hufeng Bookstore, Shanghai, insert page.

the Poor), Beidou 2, October 20, 1931,

4. Lu Xun, Pingren Zhi Ye (Night of

1,600 square meters.

stretching for a total length of more than

City, was composed of 117 frescoes

Ministry of Public Education in Mexico

monumental mural project at the

3. Night of the Poor, part of Rivera’s

Communist Party.

under the leadership of the Chinese

was a 1930s organization for writers

Chicago Tribune, June 7, 2004.

(Shenyang: Liaoning Educational Press,

news: “His famous works, a copy of the mural Nightmare of War, Dream of Peace and an oil painting Glorious

Guangyu Wenji (Writing by Zhang

Guangyu), edited by Tang Wei (Jinan:

Shandong Art Press, 2011), 173.

into his image-making, developed to a

Covarrubias’s technique of drawing

as a bosom friend. He incorporated

“Zhang Guangyu saw him (Covarrubias)

Suxie Rensheng (Sketching My Life):

9. For example, Ye wrote in his book

Literature and Art Press, 2009), 57.

(Sketching My Life) (Nanjing: Jiangsu

Ribao), April 1, 1956.

Beijing, People’s Daily (Renmin

Banhua” (“Fighting Mexican Prints”),

[12.] Li Qun, “Zhandou de Moxige

than the original painting.

mistaken as a copy of the mural rather

ed. Obviously, because of its size, it was

arrive in China and was publicly exhibit-

This is evidence that the painting did

Victory had been exhibited in Beijing.”

the death of Rivera and included in the

manuscript, December 1942, in Zhang

8. Ye Qianyu, Suxie Rensheng

newspaper People’s Daily announced

7. Zhang Guangyu, Yunying (Clouds)

11. On November 27, 1956, the Chinese

Missing Mural, or Does It Live On?”

Xunmei Wenchun (Xunmei’s Writing)

2006), 329.

Diego Rivera Mystery: Did Mao Destroy

10. This story was widely reported by the international media. See Hugh Dellios, “A

Wennong (1901–1934).

Ling (1904–1986). The Zuoyi Zuojia

from Covarrubias into his style.”

Furen” (“Covarrubias and His Wife”), in

Lu Shaofei (1903–1995), and Huang

editor in chief was female writer Ding

Ding also blended some of the elements

‘Guangyu Style.’ From then on, Zhang

6. Shao Xunmei, “Kefuluopisi ji qi

Guangyu, Zhang Zhengyu, Ye Qianyu,

in Shanghai from 1931 to 1932, and its

Lianmeng (League of Left-Wing Writers)

the publications that included Zhang

2. Beidou (Big Dipper) was published

Fusang is the name of a place that has appeared frequently in Chinese poetry and folklore since the second century BCE. In Liangshu (Book of Liang, Southern Dynasties by Yao Silian and Yao Cha), itinerant monk Hui Shen (420–589) described that in the east of the Eastern Ocean lie the shores of the Land of Fusang. Some scholars believe Fusang was in the Americas, presumably in Mexico. Despite the ongoing argument, Chinese writers frequently use the word Fusang as a literary name for Mexico.

Alfaro Siqueiros, Mexico City.

Collection of Sala de Arte Publico David

the city of Beijing, on October 17, 1956,”

Alfaro Siqueiros, in an interview held in

Republic of China Zhou Enlai to David

presented by the Premier of the Popular

[18] Quote from “Some of the opinions

[17.] Ibid.

Wang Qi, Beijing, May 28, 2006.

[16.] The author, in conversation with

Mainstream, Chicago, April 1956, 1.

to Soviet Painters,” Mass and

[15.] David Siqueiros, “Open Letter

(Renmin Ribao), August 10, 1956.

8, 1956),” Beijing, People’s Daily

Discussion on Mexican Art (on August

“Beijing Artists and Mexican Artists’

[14.] Quoted from the news report

August 18, 1956.

People’s Daily (Renmin Ribao),

(“Mexican Plastic Art”), Beijing,

[13.] Ni Yide, “Mexigo Zaoxing Yishu”

news.artron.net/20081017/n60842.html.

Creation and Teaching”), Artron, http://

Jaoxue Sikao” (“My Thoughts on Mural

[21.] Sun Jingbo, “Bihua Chuangzuo yu

16, 2007.

Yunsheng Yuan, Beijing, September

[20.] The author, in conversation with

the Oil Painting Department, CAFA.

from 1961 to 1962 at the Third Studio of

author, who was a student of Dong Xiwen

[19.] Recorded in the manuscript of the

National Front for Plastic Arts —— Erika Contreras Vega All art is bounded by time and represents humanity in the sense that it corresponds to the ideas and aspirations, to the needs and hopes, of a particular historical situation.

—Noted Austrian Marxist art critic Ernst Fischer The National Front of Plastic Arts (El Frente Nacional de Artes Plásticas, FNAP) was the last association in the artistic field in Mexico that defended leftist and Socialist ideals in a programmatic way in the second half of the twentieth century. Its ideals comprised the rallying cries of both the Mural Movement and the Mexican School of Painting.

The Vasconcelos era “(Mexican writer, philosopher, and politician José Vasconcelos, 1882–1959, was a cultural leader and the country’s first Secretary of Public Education) saw the birth of the country’s Fine Arts Department during a period when the interests of artists and the government coincided—an affinity that facilitated the arrival of new public art. The post-revolutionary period was fertile ground, as it gave rise to an ideological discourse derived from armed conflict, with deep roots in the pre-Columbian past and opposing bourgeois ideals and academic easel painting.

This new period in Mexican art, known as the Mexican School of Painting, proposed the need to reestablish the relationship between creator and public through monumental art that had a didactic focus; thus, modern mural painting was born. In this visual art, artists resumed part of their pre-Hispanic and colonial heritage but without denying the lessons learned in handling allegories, new techniques, drawing, and proportion (that is to say, what was strictly academic) and without ignoring the European avant-gardes.

It would seem somewhat contradictory that Mexican painting, being nationalistic, possessed such a universal language. As critic and academic Jorge Alberto Manrique stated, referring to the influence Western avant-gardes exerted over the thoughts and aesthetics of Mexican artists who traveled to 21

Europe on scholarships granted by the Porfirio administration (1876–80 and 1884–1911) to build knowledge, “Mexican painting necessarily had to be modern.” These painters, upon returning to Mexico, knew how to adapt what they had learned to their country’s particular circumstances of the time. The ideal of creating national art with universal dimensions formulated during the Restored Republic (1867–76) was fulfilled the following century with the Mexican School of Painting and the Mural Movement.

This new school, which later proved impervious to external novelties and both promoted and was inspired by popular art (as a symbol of the essence of Mexican-ness), had great impact and influence on many foreign artists.

From its beginnings, it secured the support of the government, and this, in time, made the Mexican School of Painting “official” art.

The Mexican School of Painting and the Mural Movement over the

course of various eras included the work of a great number of artists who enriched Mexican art with their styles and modes of thinking, including David Alfaro Siqueiros, Gerardo Murillo, Roberto Montenegro, Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, Tina Modotti, Jean Charlot, Xavier Guerrero, Carlos Mérida, María Izquierdo, Mariana Yampolsky, Lola Álvarez Bravo, Alfredo Zalce, Leopoldo Méndez, Pablo O’Higgins, José Chávez Morado, Rosendo Soto, and Manuel Alvarez Bravo. Some of these artists were also members of artistic organizations formed during the 1950s, as we will see below with the FNAP. In 1952 the First National Assembly on Visual Arts, which was held in the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City, was composed of institutions, groups, schools, unions, and the People’s Graphic Workshop (Taller de Gráfica Popular, TGP), among others. At that assembly, artist Rosendo Soto (1923–2005) proposed the creation of a common front that would defend the following: The Front will represent visual arts workers in Mexico and will fight for the professional interests of visual arts workers.

The FNAP will defend cultural heritage and will foment the

development of the best artistic expressions of our time.

The Front will come out in favor of art for the people and at

their service.

The FNAP upholds the democratic principle of freedom of

expression and will always be present in the struggles of the Mexican people for national independence.

The Front is a movement of visual arts workers, expansive WINDS FROM FUSANG: MEXICO AND CHINA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

and open to all artistic, philosophical and political tendencies, with no discrimination.1 The National Front of Plastic Arts proposed following the guidelines of the League of Revolutionary Writers and Artists (LEAR) created in 1934, which collectively opposed actions against the arts and supported the causes of workers.

Many of the artists who joined the FNAP were members of other organizations dedicated to the quest for a one hundred percent nationalist and leftist art. In 1954 the Front committee announced that in an effort to avoid division and sectarianism, the invitation to participate in group shows would be open to professionals, amateurs, and art students from all of Mexico. For this reason, participation ranged from established artists like the “Big Three” (Rivera, Siqueiros, and Orozco) to young artists just starting out.

It’s appropriate to mention that the Front was born under the auspices of the Mexican government through the National Institute for Fine Arts, since the cultural policy of that period was aimed at the consolidation of national identity and the legitimization of the government. This represented at some point a level of resistance toward US foreign policy (clearly anti-Communist and in the midst of the Cold War). It was under these conditions that exhibitions of national art were held, through aesthetic diplomacy, in various Latin American and European countries, which consolidated Mexico’s image as a cultured country. The doctor and well-known art collector Álvar Carrillo Gil described it: “These exhibits have opened the door to us to deal with the most refined countries on Earth on a level of cultural equality; through them we have moved away from the old image they had of us, up until quite recently, as a backward and semi-savage country.”2 During its existence, the Front organized several group shows, both national and international, in collaboration with various institutions. One of the most important exhibitions was the 1955 Oil Painting and Prints from the Mexican National Front of Plastic Arts, which showcased 138 paintings and 258 prints and toured several Eastern European countries, traveling for two years. This grand show began in Poland, thanks to an invitation from the Polish delegation in Mexico, and later journeyed on to Bulgaria, Romania, East Germany, Warsaw and Kracow, Poland, Brno, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Hungary, and the USSR; the last country on the tour was China. To give relevance to the exhibition, the organizers requested support from Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura (National Mexican Institute of Fine Arts and Literature, INBAL), which loaned 23

seventeen works from the National Visual Arts Museum—among them, Tata Jesucristo, which gave FNAP president Francisco Goitia (1882–1960) a presence in the show; a landscape by José María Velasco (1840–1912); Imagen de nuestro tiempo (Image from Our Time) by Siqueiros; Las Soldaderas (Women Soldiers)

by Orozco; and Vendedora de frutas (Fruit Seller) by Olga Costa (1913–1993).3 There were also films and photographs that explained the Mural Movement, and various publications accompanying the exhibitions that were sponsored by the Fondo de Cultura Económica, the Instituto Nacional de Antropología y Historia (INAH), INBAL, and the publisher Porrúa (whose materials were donated to the venues where the exhibitions were held).

At each presentation, speeches were given that reinforced the Front’s principles. Artist Soto said during his speech in Sofia, Bulgaria, that the principal characteristic of Mexican art was to be a cultural form in which “the people express their feelings, their interests, their sorrows and joys; the heroes and strongmen of the nation’s history are represented, as are the episodes of popular struggle for justice and social well-being.”4 Also present at the inaugural events were Mexican ambassadors and businessmen, which helped in the sales of the displayed artworks. In China, many objects were purchased, thus the Front managed to disseminate its ideals through the iconographic representation of the Mexican people—its campesinos, natives, workers, heroes, and relevant moments in its national history.

Curiously, in the places in which it was displayed, Rivera’s Gloriosa victoria (Glorious Victory)5 received the most comments and reviews in publications, despite the fact that it did not participate in the exhibition from the start (the transportable mural was not finished in time, and joined the collection on the exhibition’s Krakow leg). The work was striking because it denounced the CIA intervention in Guatemala via the National Liberation Movement, which triggered the 1954 coup d’état in that country.

The activities of the FNAP were not limited to exhibitions of Mexican art; they also included shows by foreign artists that were presented in Mexico, such as Popular Art of Czechoslovakia (February 1957), Retrospective of Polish Engraver Tadeusz Kulisiewicz (May 1957), and Two Thousand Years of Chinese Painting (June 1957), all of which at the then National Museum of Visual Arts in the Fine Arts Palace.

Public demonstrations were held in favor of Mexican art, and thanks to contributions from its members, the FNAP had a gallery and managed to publish two periodicals: Artes plásticas and Artes de México. Their principal WINDS FROM FUSANG: MEXICO AND CHINA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

themes and subject matter were artistic integration, sculpture, paintings of the Revolution, Muralism, architecture, and archaeology, and both publications proved highly relevant in the dissemination of nationalist art. The first issue of Artes de México came out in October 1953, replacing Artes plásticas, which had debuted in October 1952 but published only four issues. The man who founded and produced Artes de México, Miguel Salas Anzures, was the FNAP secretary of Organization and also held the post of secretary in the Visual Arts Department at the National Fine Arts Institute. The artistic director was designer and artist Vicente Rojo. The magazine was well received for its editorial caliber and because it was bilingual.

In July 1956, with its principal objective of generating income for young artists and Front members, and given the difficulty in finding spaces for them to show their work, the Front inaugurated the Gallery of United Mexican Artists at 87 Londres Street in Mexico City by hosting an auction of paintings, drawings, and sculptures donated by sixty-nine artists.

By 1957 the gallery headquarters had moved to 36 Hamburgo Street, where a stream of constant and thematically varied shows were presented.

The space also served as link between artists, particularly those from Socialist countries, such as Poland’s Maria Hispanska (1917–1980) and Bulgaria’s William Grooper (1897–1977).

In 1958 the Front named Siqueiros its president, and artist Rina Lazo (born 1923) joined the board of directors. During this period, internal conflicts began that led to a break in the organization; meanwhile, the Mexican government was violently repressing social movements and examples of political dissidence.

By 1960, during the term of Adolfo López Mateos (president of Mexico from 1958 to 1964), Siqueiros was imprisoned in the penitentiary Lecumberri. He was accused of promoting “social dissolution”7 for representing the repression and arrest of railway workers who had called a national strike in 1959 in his mural La historia del teatro hasta la cinematografía contemporánea (The History of Theater up to Contemporary Cinematography). This was a significant blow to the Front. That year, the gallery was forced to close its doors due to lack of funding, which led to the end of the National Front of Plastic Arts as an organization.

Some sources say the Front lasted just over five years; others claim it had an active life of ten years. Regardless of its true age span, it’s clear that the death of the organization took with it the artistic movement that had given rise to programmatic nationalism and the defense of socially committed art creation aimed at marginalized populations.

25

WINDS FROM FUSANG: MEXICO AND CHINA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

CENIDIAP, July–December 2009, 2.

the Mexican Painters Discuss?”), in

de Fernando Gamboa” (“The First

2. Ana Garduño, “El primer centenario

March 23, 1958.

(1952–1962), Colección abrevian.

Frente Nacional de Artes Plásticas

4. Guillermina Guadarrama Peña, El

3. Ibid, 14.

Discurso Visual, Revista Digital,

los pintores mexicanos?” (“What Did

Diorama en la cultura, Excelsior,

Centenary of Fernando Gamboa”),

1. Raquel Tibol, “¿Sobre qué discutían

the CIA invervention in Guatemala

painted al fresco in 1954 representing

and Teresa Ordiales, is a panel mural

with assistence from artists Rina Lazo

5. Gloriosa victoria, by Diego Rivera

Cultura y las Artes, 2005.

Ensayos, Consejo Nacional para la

public order, tend to cause rebellions

plans, or actions that could disturb

7. Acts that disseminated ideas,

6. Ibid, 13.

government of Jacobo Arbenz in 1954.

Movement, which led to the fall of the

through the National Liberation

crimes of social dissolution.

Mexican state at risk were considered

duties and putting the sovereignty of the

citizens to be in contempt of their civic

legitimate institutions by advocating for

or mutinies, or block the function of

Recovering What was Lost, a Journey Towards Revival: Three Mural Movements in New China —— SUN Jingbo The first chapter of mankind’s art history began with cave paintings, or the earliest “murals.”

Since the birth of New China sixty years ago, the country has experienced three waves of Mural Movements, with Beijing at the epicenter: the “Mass Painting of Murals” movement during the Great Leap Forward (1958–62); the “Red Ocean” movement occurring in the time of the Cultural Revolution (1966–76); and the “Reform and Opening Up” movement (1979). Following the path taken by these Chinese Mural Movements reveals a vivid picture of the national political and economic influences that characterize these periods.

I. Mass Painting of Murals In 1957 China was just beginning to see the results of its efforts in agricultural and industrial development. However, the Anti-Rightist Campaign and the swell of left-leaning thought within the Communist Party led to the blind push in 1958 for hastened economic development, known as the Great Leap Forward. At this time, there was a resultant “Great Leap Forward in the Arts” and frenzied mobilization of citizens to paint murals. Masses of art workers were sent to the countryside, factories, and labor camps. During their “rehabilitation” (and re-education), these workers also were caught up in the Mural Movement. In July of that year, art circles in Beijing put forward a call for “A Great Leap Forward” within one week, to present a birthday gift to the Party. Professors and students of the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) responded to the call to action. In less than a week, between July 14 and July 19, they created 214 murals along the streets of Beijing, as propaganda for the general Party line; and 102 propaganda pieces for the campaign to rebel against British rule and resist U.S. aggression and 27

to support the Middle Eastern fight for independence (from imperialism and from hegemonic rule).

In this “self-transformation” movement, a group of senior professors, including artists WU Zuoren (1908–1997), JIANG Yaohe (1904–1980), YE Qianyu (1907–1996), and GU Yuan (1919–1996), joined with students to create a collection of murals inspired by the slogan, “Write, Draw, and Sing for the Party,” on walls in cities and in the countryside, to express Great Leap Forward thinking. For example, members of the Farm Workers Commune of the Liulihe township of Zhoukoudian in Beijing painted thousands of murals in ten days.

This “Mass Painting of Murals,” which originated in Beijing and rippled across the nation, was inspired by the people’s optimism, hopes, and dreams and reflected no shortage of artistic imagination. The murals’ messages brimmed with passion, striking Romanticism, and artistic expression. However, with the expansion of the Mural Movement, they became increasingly formularized, sloganized, and abstracted. Mutual-emulation and shoddy workmanship became the norm. The Mural Movement, with its gross and wasteful use of manpower and resources and its deceptive exaggeration, quickly fell into a state of excess. In the Great Chinese Famine that followed, these seemingly limitless “Walls of Poetry and Art,” cleansed by winds and rain, met their end.

Today, not a single work remains as testament to the times.

The Great Leap Forward in the Arts of 1958 is considered the first mural movement to occur in the early stages of New China. Looking back from a political point of view, it was a lesson in failure. However, from the perspective and utility of promoting art for the masses, millions of people received their initiation into art through participation in this large-mural movement. After 1958, many notable farmer-artist counties and villages and worker-artist factories and mines appeared across the nation. The majority of modern and contemporary artists who went on to achieve success had their artistic talent revealed by the practical training they received in this early mural movement.

II. Red Ocean Movement During the decade of catastrophe that was the Cultural Revolution, art was employed by the Gang of Four (the political faction of four Chinese officials who rose to prominence during this time) as a tool to advance the ideology of the ultra-left. Murals became an important form of expression for cult of personality propaganda. Under this influence, a group of politically naive and extremist Red Guards took to the streets, drawing large propaganda WINDS FROM FUSANG: MEXICO AND CHINA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

posters and painting the town red with Cultural Revolution slogans and quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong. The rebel factions in the CAFA and the Central Academy of Art & Design took turns producing wave after wave of large-scale propaganda posters. From the spring and summer of 1967 to the autumn of 1969, the raging tide often called the Red Ocean movement took over the country. Seemingly blotting out the sky and covering the earth, this movement painted the nation in a field of “Red.” The scope of the Red Ocean movement was so vast, its influence so deep, that it far surpassed that of the previous decade’s Great Leap Forward mural movement. However, this time, the push for idolization and deification lacked the previous decade’s unfettered creative expression and spontaneity, which stemmed from the people’s idealistic dreams and wishes. The Red Ocean’s images, content, and forms of expression all became absolutist. The strict rules and systematic method for colors and style were “Red, Radiant, and Bright” and “Tall, Large, and Whole,” to be copied mechanically from Beijing and disseminated across the country. Portraits of Mao, created by the Red Guards in the CAFA and the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts, became models for reproductions nationwide. The 1967 oil painting Chairman Mao Goes to Anyuan

by LIU Chunhua (born 1944) became the template for millions of duplicates.

Then, in 1969, Chairman Mao himself finally gave the orders: “No more engaging in the cult of personality!” thus giving rest to the Red Ocean movement.

From a historical perspective, although the influence of the Red Ocean artistic tide was swift, turbulent, and far-reaching, it rather quickly lost popular support; even more striking, the participants themselves lost their initiative for the campaigns. Following the subsiding of this raging tide, and even before the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976, the majority of the murals crudely churned out during the period vanished without a trace. In fact, during the catastrophic decade of the Cultural Revolution, art in Beijing fell into a deep state of confusion and delusion. The obliteration of the Red Ocean was like a horrifying nightmare, and upon waking muralists were left with a blank and endless void.

III. Reform and Opening Up Movement After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party in 1978, China ushered in a new season of reform and opening up to the outside world. New construction and public works called for more public art and participation from muralists. In 1979 artist ZHANG 29

Ding (1917–2017), the Dean of the CAFA, was entrusted by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) to direct the creation of murals for the Beijing Capital Airport terminal.

From the beginning of the design process for the Beijing Airport Murals, the creative team broke new ground and established novel ways of thinking for mural art. Breaking away from both old conceptions of aesthetics and calcified molds of previous art forms, the artists and designers established a fresh take for Chinese mural art through the exploration of highly decorative styles. To help inspire the team’s creativity, Zhang held a screening of a film about Mexican muralist José Clemente Orozco (1883–1949). Ultimately, the process of creating the Beijing Airport Murals allowed the Chinese artists to collectively release their long withheld potential and show how the traditional Chinese spirit could be used to demonstrate modern thought.

In terms of content, the airport-mural artists, no longer confined by the Cultural Revolution–era requirement that everything must work to service the Party’s political line, shed the constraint of “Determinism by subject matter.”

The subject matter depicted in the Beijing Airport Murals included natural scenery, beloved historical legends, mythological stories, and scenes from the lives of everyday people. The murals presented an unprecedented openness and a pluralistic creative space while simultaneously opening up opportunities for new trains of thought for mural content.

The methods and materials used to create the murals also broke new ground. For example, a combination of acrylic paint, ceramic relief sculpture, painted glaze, and oil paints were utilized, pioneering new frontiers for the use of modern materials and technology in large-scale murals. The emergence of the Beijing Airport Murals was of epoch-making significance for the Chinese art world at the time. With these murals, the curtain was lifted, revealing the prelude to a revival of mural art in China—and the beginning of a new chapter, and era, in China’s modern art history.

Note: This text contains excerpts from SUN Jingbo’s article published in Lusheng Chen, Ed. Sixties of Art in Beijing. 2009

WINDS FROM FUSANG: MEXICO AND CHINA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

FIG. 1

31

WINDS FROM FUSANG: MEXICO AND CHINA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

FIG. 2

33

WINDS FROM FUSANG: MEXICO AND CHINA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

FIG. 3

35

FIG. 4

WINDS FROM FUSANG: MEXICO AND CHINA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

FIG. 5

37

WINDS FROM FUSANG: MEXICO AND CHINA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

FIG. 6

39

WINDS FROM FUSANG: MEXICO AND CHINA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

FIG. 7

41

WINDS FROM FUSANG: MEXICO AND CHINA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

12. FRIDA KAHLO (1907–1954) Painter.

Covarrubias, together with his wife

Rosa, visited Shanghai in the early

host in Shanghai.

1904–1957)

introduced to China in 1931.

Agrarian Revolution (1926–27) was

Szold-Fritz was Miguel Covarrubias’s

4. MIGUEL COVARRUBIAS (Mexico,

Circle in Shanghai.

11. DIEGO RIVERA (1886–1957)

(America, 1896–1982)

in Shanghai.

early 1930s in Shanghai. His drawings

Sun is a leading artist of this mural.

Rivera’s famous mural Ballad of the

Covarrubias’s Circle

Zhang met Miguel Covarrubias in the

10. SUN JINGBO (China, b. 1945)

7. BERNADINE SZOLD-FRITZ

His drawings are on view in the section

1900–1964)

are on view in the section Covarrubias’s

in the early 1930s.

Shanghai.

Ye met Miguel Covarrubias in Shanghai

Shao introduced Covarrubias to many Chinese artists during his visit in

3. ZHANG GUANGYU (China,

introduced them to China.

9. SHAO XUNMEI (China, 1906–1968)

Shanghai in the early 1930s.

Wife of Miguel Covarrubias, Rosa visited

1895–1970)

8. ROSA COVARRUBIAS (Mexico,

6. YE QIANYU (China, 1907–1995)

Shanghai in the early 1930s.

Xu collected woodblock prints, includ-

ing those made by Mexican artists, and

Zhang met Miguel Covarrubias in

2. XU FANCHENG (China, 1909–2000)

5. ZHANG ZHENGYU (China, 1904–1976)

section Covarrubias’s Circle in Shanghai.

Lu introduced Mexican Muralism to

China in the journal Big Dipper in 1931.

1930s. His drawings are on view in the

1. LU XUN (China, 1881–1936)

American artists.

participated in an exhibition of Latin

Jaramillo visited Beijing in 1952, and

1913–1999)

15. ALIPIO JARAMILLO (Colombia,

American artists.

participated in an exhibition of Latin

Lafuente visited Beijing in 1952, and

14. MIREYA LAFUENTE (Chili, 1905–1976)

Mexico.

Intensive Contacts: Art and Artists from

His painting is on view in the section

Front of Plastic Arts of Mexico in 1956.

participated in the exhibition National

Guerrero visited China in 1952, and

1896–1974)

13. XAVIER GUERRERO (Mexico,

in 1956.

National Front of Plastic Arts of Mexico

Orozco participated in the exhibition

(Mexico, 1883–1949)

18. JOSÉ CLEMENTE OROZCO

Art and Artists from Mexico.

view in the section Intensive Contacts:

panying the exhibition. His print is on

in 1956, and led the delegation accom-

National Front of Plastic Arts of Mexico

Aguirre participated in the exhibition

1900–1990)

17. IGNACIO AGUIRRE (Mexico,

in 1956.

National Front of Plastic Arts of Mexico

Dr. Atiel participated in the exhibition

Mexico, 1875–1964)

16. DR. ATL (Gerardo Murillo Cornado,

43

are on view in the section Intensive

Contacts: Art and Artists from Mexico.

(Mexico, b. 1925) Estrada participated in

the exhibition National Front of Plastic

from Mexico.

Prime Minister of China between 1949

in 1956 and visited China in the same

year.

1921–1969)

Calderón participated in the exhibition

Siqueiros, Arenal visited China in 1956.

28. WANG QI (China, 1918–2016)

Wang received David Alfaro Siqueiros

and his wife Angelica Arenal in Beijing

in 1956.

Contacts: Art and Artists from Mexico.

23. JOSÉ RAÚL ANGUIANO VALADEZ

(Mexico, 1915–2006)

Anguiano participated in the exhibition

National Front of Plastic Arts of Mexico

in 1956, and together with his wife Rina

Cheng, together with her husband Xiaohe Tang, painted the mural Music

37. LI CHENG (China, b. 1941)

Mural Department at CAFA.

Painter.

Plastic Arts of Mexico in 1956.

Bustos participated in the exhibition

A famous painter, Hou established the

36. Yiming Hou (China, b. 1930)

this mural.

of CAFA, Dong assisted the creation of

A professor at the Mural Department

35. ZHUO DONG (b. 1984)

Artists from Mexico.

section Intensive Contacts: Art and

in 1956. His painting is on view in the

National Front of Plastic Arts of Mexico

Mexiac participated in the exhibition

34. ADOLFO MEXIAC (Mexico, b. 1927)

30. DONG XIWEN (China, 1914–1973)

visited the exhibition National Front of

1926–2017)

National Front of Plastic Arts of Mexico

A young art student at the time, Yao

24. ARTURO GARCÍA BUSTOS (Mexico,

29. YAO ZHONGHUA (China, b.a 1939)

Together with her husband David Alfaro

print is on view in the section Intensive

in 1956.

27. ANGELICA ARENAL (1910–1989)

in 1956 and visited China in 1957. Her

National Front of Plastic Arts of Mexico

National Front of Plastic Arts of Mexico

Artists from Mexico.

Siqueiros participated in the exhibition

22. CELIA CALDERÓN (Mexico,

the section Intensive Contacts: Art and

(1896–1974)

travel to China. The letter is on view in

26. DAVID ALFARO SIQUEIROS

in 1956.

exhibition National Front of Plastic Art to

wrote a letter to Siqueiros to invite the

Living in Beijing in 1956, Venturelli

National Front of Plastic Arts of Mexico

and 1976, Zhou visited the exhibition

tion Intensive Contacts: Art and Artists

Shanghai in the early 1930s. He painted the mural Prince Nezha’s Triumph

Mural Movement in China.

of CAFA, Ma assisted the creation of

Zheng is a leading artist of this mural.

Quan, together with Huaji Li, painted the

Xiao painted the mural Spring of Science

44. HUIXIANG XIAO (China, b. 1933)

at the Beijing International Airport.

mural Legend of the White Snake (1979)

50. SHENGTIAN ZHENG (China, b. 1938) 1932–2009)

this mural.

A professor at the Mural Department Airport.

43. ZHENGHUAN QUAN (China,

49. XIN MA (China, b. 1986) Snake (1979) at the Beijing International

International Airport. painted the mural Legend of the White

Li, together with Zhenghuan Quan,

Against Dragon King (1979) at the Beijing

Zhang met Miguel Covarrubias in

on view in the section Lasting Influence:

42. HUAJI LI (China, b. 1931)

48. ZHANG DING (China, 1917–2000)

Airport. A line drawing of the mural is

Happiness (1982) at the Beijing Hotel.

Festive (1979) at the Beijing International

Yuan painted the mural Water-Splash

the mural Creativity · Achievement ·

Liu, together with Ling Zhou, created

41. YUNSHENG YUAN (China, b. 1937)

47. BINJIANG LIU (b. 1937)

Painter.

Happiness (1982) at the Beijing Hotel.

the mural Creativity · Achievement ·

Zhou, together with Binjiang Liu, created

46. LING ZHOU (China, b. 1941)

International Airport.

Song of Forests (1979) at the Beijing

Zhu created the ceramic mural

45. DANIAN ZHU (China, 1916–1995)

Airport.

(1979) at the Beijing International

40. ZHENG FEI (China, b. 1938)

International Airport.

of Sichuan (1979) at the Beijing

China, 1988)

1957. Her painting is on view in the sec-

21. ZHOU ENLAI (China, 1898–1976)

Yuan painted the mural Landscape

Arturo García Bustos, visited China in

39. YUNFU YUAN (China, b. 1933) 33. JOSÉ VENTURELLI (Chili, 1924–

in 1956, and together with her husband

Orozco visited China in the 1950s.

the East Lake Hotel in Wuhan.

1930–1998)

Baraona, Paz grew up in Beijing.

Daughter of José Venturelli and Delia

Lazo participated in the exhibition

painted the mural Music of Chu (1976) at

National Front of Plastic Arts of Mexico

b. 1951)

active Mexico)

Art and Artists from Mexico.

Tang, together with his wife Li Cheng,

38. XIAOHE TANG (China, b. 1941)

Wuhan.

of Chu (1976) at the East Lake Hotel in

20. MARIO OROZCO RIVERA (Mexico,

32. PAZ VENTURELLI BARAONA (Chili,

25. RINA LAZO (Guatemala, b. 1923,

in the 1950s.

of José Venturelli, Baraona lived in China

31. DELIA BARAONA (Chili, d. 1988)Wife

view in the section Intensive Contacts:

Arts of Mexico in 1956. His painting is on

Lazo, visited China in 1957. His prints

19. ARTURO ESTRADA HERNÁNDEZ

WINDS FROM FUSANG: MEXICO AND CHINA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

FIG. 8

45

FIG. 9

WINDS FROM FUSANG: MEXICO AND CHINA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

FIG. 10

47

FIG. 11

WINDS FROM FUSANG: MEXICO AND CHINA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

FIG. 12

49

WINDS FROM FUSANG: MEXICO AND CHINA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

FIG. 13

51

FIG. 14

WINDS FROM FUSANG: MEXICO AND CHINA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

FIG. 15

53

FIG. 16

WINDS FROM FUSANG: MEXICO AND CHINA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

FIG. 17

55

FIG. 18

WINDS FROM FUSANG: MEXICO AND CHINA IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Loaned by Shixiang Art Space

Ink and pencil on paper

Loaned by Shixiang Art Space

Ink and color on paper

Sleep, 1930S

Courtesy of the artist

Ink on paper

Yunnan Sketch: Plants, 1978

Yunsheng Yuan (China, b. 1937)

Fig. 9

Courtesy of the artist

Stretching Arms After A Night’s

Ink on paper

Zhang Guangyu (China, 1900–1965)

Yunnan Sketch: Luscious Trees, 1978

Yunsheng Yuan (China, b. 1937)

Fig. 8

Fig. 4

Loaned by Shixiang Art Space

Ink and color on paper

Woman Breast Feeding, 1930S

Courtesy of the artists

Zhang Guangyu (China, 1900–1965)

Center, University of Texas at Austin

of Miguel Covarrubias, Harry Ransom

Adriana and Tom Williams Collection

Ink and pencil on paper

Rifle, 1931

Chinese Soldier Standing With

Miguel Covarrubias (Mexico, 1904–1957)

Fig. 13

Center, University of Texas at Austin

of Miguel Covarrubias, Harry Ransom

Adriana and Tom Williams Collection

Ink and pencil on paper

Dining Table In Train, 1930S

Miguel, Rosa, And Bernadette At

Miguel Covarrubias (Mexico, 1904–1957)

Winds From Fusang, 2017

Acrylic on canvas

Fig. 12

Center, University of Texas at Austin

of Miguel Covarrubias, Harry Ransom

Adriana and Tom Williams Collection

Ink on paper

Shengtian Zheng (China, b. 1938)

Jingbo Sun (China, b. 1945)

Fig. 3

Photo © Museum Associates/LACMA

of J.J. Cohn

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Gift

Fig. 7

Loaned by Shixiang Art Space

The Dream (Sueño), 1932

Lithograph

Ink and color on paper

Diego Rivera (Mexico, 1886–1957)

Eating Crabs At Soochow, 1930S

Miguel Covarrubias (Mexico, 1904–1957)

Preparatory Sketch: Spring Of

Beijing, 1960

Fig. 11

Courtesy of the artist

Ink on paper

Zhang Guangyu (China, 1900–1965)

Fig. 2

Center, The University of Texas at Austin

of Miguel Covarrubias, Harry Ransom

Fig. 6

Ink on paper

Lau, 1930S

Adriana and Tom Williams Collection

Yunnan Sketch: Bamboo House Of

Girl Peeking Over A Wall, 1930S

Our Host Soochow Picnic Sinmay The Dai Group, 1978

Yunsheng Yuan (China, b. 1937)

Zhang Guangyu (China, 1900–1965)

Miguel Covarrubias (Mexico, 1904–1957)

Fig. 10

Fig. 5

Fig. 1

Illustration List

Center, University of Texas at Austin

of Miguel Covarrubias, Harry Ransom

Adriana and Tom Williams Collection

Ink on paper

The Sing Song Girl, 1930S

Miguel Covarrubias (Mexico, 1904–1957)

Fig. 16

Photo © Museum Associates/LACMA

of Jules and Gloria Heller

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Gift

Linoleum cut

De Los Campesinos), 1947

Prisionero Por Su Lucha En Favor

Peasants (Emiliano Zapata Hecho

For His Struggle In Favor Of The

Emiliano Zapata Made Prisoner

Ignacio Aguirre (Mexico, 1900–1990)

Fig. 15

Photo © Museum Associates/LACMA

of Jules and Gloria Heller

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Gift

Linoleum cut

Firing Squad (Fusilamiento), 1950

Leopoldo Méndez (Mexico, 1902–1969)

Fig. 14

Center, University of Texas at Austin

of Miguel Covarrubias, Harry Ransom

Adriana and Tom Williams Collection

Ink and pencil on paper

1931

Young Chinese Woman With Fan,

Miguel Covarrubias (Mexico, 1904–1957)

Fig. 19

Loaned by Shixiang Art Space

Ink on paper

Chinese Opera Singer, Early 1930S

Miguel Covarrubias (Mexico, 1904–1957)

Fig.18 & Cover

Center, University of Texas at Austin

of Miguel Covarrubias, Harry Ransom

Adriana and Tom Williams Collection

Ink on paper

Dance Hall Girl—Shanghai, 1930S

Miguel Covarrubias (Mexico, 1904–1957)

Fig. 17

Than Those Of War (Las Fuerzas

De La Paz Son Más Poderosas

Que Las De La Guerra), 1961

De Expresión), 1954

Woodcut

Courtesy of the artist

Publishing House, Beijing, 1958 Loaned by Shengtian Zheng

Published by the Hufeng Publishing

House, Shanghai, October 20, 1931

USC Pacific Asia Museum

Ink and color on paper

Niña), N.D.

Loaned by Shengtian Zheng

Beijing, December 26, 1956

and People’s Fine Arts Publishing House,

Published by China Artists Association

held a solo exhibition in Beijing.

China a year after the exhibition and

which depict women. Calderón visited

Front of Plastic Arts of Mexico, all of

displayed in the exhibition National

This is one of four Celia Calderón prints

Gomart

Collection of Cesar González/Galería

Loaned by Shixiang Art Space

Ink and color on paper

Sleep, 1930S

Stretching Arms After A Night’s

Guangyu Zhang (China, 1900–1965)

Loaned by Shixiang Art Space

Beijing, 1960

Portrait Of A Girl (Retrato De

USC Pacific Asia Museum

Lithograph

Preparatory Sketch: Spring Of

Video, 07:00

Artists Communication, Volume 3

Guangyu Zhang (China, 1900–1965)

Celia Calderón (Mexico, 1921–1969)

Siqueiros In China, 2017

Loaned by Shengtian Zheng

Published by People’s Fine Arts

Alvaro Parra, (United States, 1982)

Journey To The West

Big Dipper, Volume 2

Guangyu Zhang (China, 1900–1965)

Video, 10:00

Courtesy of the artist

Chinese Muralism, 2017

Alvaro Parra, (United States, 1982)

Oil on canvas

Life Of A Dog (Viva De Perro), 1980

USC Pacific Asia Museum

Loaned by Shixiang Art Space

Ink on paper

Arturo Estrada Hernández (Mexico, b. 1925)

Video, 10:00

Guangyu Zhang (China, 1900–1965) Girl Peeking Over A Wall, 1930S

Courtesy of Rina Lazo

of J.J. Cohn

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Gift

Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros/INBA

Handwritten document, ink on paper

BEIJING, OCTOBER 11, 1955

Angélica Arenal De Siqueiros,

To David Alfaro Siqueiros And

Correspondence Of José Venturelli

China)

José Venturelli (Chili, 1924–1988, active

Courtesy of the artists

Acrylic on canvas

Winds From Fusang, 2017

Shengtian Zheng (China, b. 1938)

Jingbo Sun (China, b. 1945)

of Jules and Gloria Heller

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Gift

Linoleum cut

De Los Campesinos), 1947

Prisionero Por Su Lucha En Favor

Peasants (Emiliano Zapata Hecho

For His Struggle In Favor Of The

Emiliano Zapata Made Prisoner

Ignacio Aguirre (Mexico, 1900–1990)

Loaned by Shixiang Art Space

Ink and color on paper

Woman Breast Feeding, 1930S

The Dream (Sueño), 1932 Lithograph

Guangyu Zhang (China, 1900–1965)

Diego Rivera (Mexico, 1886–1957)

1956 Exhibition, 2017

Alvaro Parra, (United States, 1982)

Strength Of Peace Is Stronger

Freedom Of Expression (Libertad

Wood engraving

Arturo García Bustos (Mexico, 1926–2017)

Adolfo Mexiac (Mexico, b. 1927)

Exhibition Check List

Center, University of Texas at Austin

of Miguel Covarrubias, Harry Ransom

Adriana and Tom Williams Collection

Ink on paper

Dance Hall Girl—Shanghai, 1930S

Miguel Covarrubias (Mexico, 1904–1957)

Center, University of Texas at Austin

of Miguel Covarrubias, Harry Ransom

Adriana and Tom Williams Collection

Ink and pencil on paper

Rifle, 1931

Chinese Soldier Standing With

Miguel Covarrubias (Mexico, 1904–1957)

Loaned by Shixiang Art Space

Ink and pencil on paper

Chinese Opera Singer, EARLY 1930S

Miguel Covarrubias (Mexico, 1904–1957)

Loaned by Shengtian Zheng

the embassy of Mexico in China, 1973

Publisher unknown, in association with

And Art Through History

Mexico: An Exhibition Of Culture

of Jules and Gloria Heller

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Gift

Linoleum cut

Firing Squad (Fusilamiento), 1950

Leopoldo Méndez (Mexico, 1902–1969)

Ink on paper

Adriana and Tom Williams Collection

of Miguel Covarrubias, Harry Ransom

Center, University of Texas at Austin

Miguel Covarrubias (Mexico, 1904–1957)

Young Chinese Woman With Fan,

1931

Ink and pencil on paper

Adriana and Tom Williams Collection

of Miguel Covarrubias, Harry Ransom

Center, University of Texas at Austin

National Front Of Plastic Arts

Of Mexico: An Exhibition Of

Paintings And Prints

Published by People’s Association of

International Cultural Exchange of

the Chinese People and China Artists

Association, 1956

Ink on paper

Adriana and Tom Williams Collection

of Miguel Covarrubias, Harry Ransom

Center, University of Texas at Austin

Miguel Covarrubias (Mexico, 1904–1957)

Miguel, Rosa, And Bernadette At

Dining Table In Train, 1930S

Ink and pencil on paper

Adriana and Tom Williams Collection

of Miguel Covarrubias, Harry Ransom

Center, University of Texas at Austin

Miguel Covarrubias (Mexico, 1904–1957)

Our Host Soochow Picnic Sammy

Lau, 1930S

Ink on paper

Adriana and Tom Williams Collection

of Miguel Covarrubias, Harry Ransom

Center, University of Texas at Austin

Pages From Mexican Prints

Portfolio of 25 prints, index, and envelop

Published by China Artists Association,

Guangzhou Province Chapter, 1956

Loaned by Shengtian Zheng

The Sing Song Girl, 1930S

Ink on paper

Adriana and Tom Williams Collection

of Miguel Covarrubias, Harry Ransom

Center, University of Texas at Austin

Loaned by Shengtian Zheng

Two Young Women, 1930S

Eating Crabs At Soochow, 1930S

Miguel Covarrubias (Mexico, 1904–1957)

Miguel Covarrubias (Mexico, 1904–1957)

Miguel Covarrubias (Mexico, 1904–1957)

Collection of the artist

Oil and tempera on canvas

From Mirrors Series (Serie de los espejos)

Moradas), 2007

Flowers (Autorretrato Con Flores

Self Portrait With Purple

Mexico)

Rina Lazo (Guatemala, b. 1923, active

In the collection of CAFA Art Museum

Ink on paper

Sketch: Ethnic Minorities, 1940S

Qianyu Ye (China, 1907–1996)

In the collection of CAFA Art Museum

Charcoal on paper

Sketch: Miao Girl, 1940S

Qianyu Ye (China, 1907–1996)

In the collection of CAFA Art Museum

Ink on paper

Sketch: Interior, 1940S

Qianyu Ye (China, 1907–1996)

Courtesy of the artist

Ink on acid paper

Splashing Festival, 1979

Preparatory Drawing: Water-

Yunsheng Yuan (China, b. 1937)

Mueble/INBA

y Registro del Patrimonio Artístico

Centro Nacional de Conservación

Oil on canvas

Madres), N.D.

Mother’s Day (Dia De Las

Xavier Guerrero (Mexico, 1896–1974)

Loaned by Shengtian Zheng

Publishing House, Beijing, June 1957

Published by People’s Fine Arts

Selection Of Mexican Prints

Loaned by Shengtian Zheng

1957

Publishing House, Beijing, November

Courtesy of the artist

Ink on paper

Yunnan Sketch: Plants, 1978

Yunsheng Yuan (China, b. 1937)

Courtesy of the artist

Ink on paper

1978

Published by People’s Fine Arts

Yunnan Sketch: Luscious Trees, Selection Of Mexican Paintings

Yunsheng Yuan (China, b. 1937)

Courtesy of the artist

Ink on paper

The Dai Group, 1978

Yunnan Sketch: Bamboo House Of

Yunsheng Yuan (China, b. 1937)

In the collection of CAFA Art Museum

Loaned by Shengtian Zheng

Francisco, 2005

Published by Protean Press, San

The China I Knew, N.d.

(Mexico, 1904–1957)

Illustration by Miguel Covarrubias

Rosa Covarrubias (Mexico, 1895–1970)

Charcoal on paper

Sketch: Girl With Swords, 1940S

Qianyu Ye (China, 1907–1996)

In the collection of CAFA Art Museum

Charcoal on paper

Sketch: Girl With Swords, 1940S

Qianyu Ye (China, 1907–1996)

FIG. 19

Contributors: Erika Contrera Vega, Sun Jingbo, Luis Rius Caro, Christina Yu Yu and Shengtian Zheng Design: Omnivore, Inc. Winds from Fusang: Mexico and China in the Twentieth Century is part of Published by USC Pacific Asia Museum

Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, a far-reaching and ambitious exploration

Printed by Typecraft, Inc.

of Latin American and Latino art in dialogue with Los Angeles, taking place from September 2017 through January 2018 at more than 70

This book is typeset in New Paris Text

cultural institutions across Southern California. Pacific Standard Time is

and National

an initiative of the Getty.

Printed on Mohawk Superfine Eggshell Digital

Š 2018 USC Pacific Asia Museum. All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission

ISBN-13: 978-0-692-17101-1

of the publisher.