Chinese and Japanese woodcut painting "drawing in different places"

On August 5, the exhibition of Japanese ukiyoe and Qing Dynasty woodcut New Year pictures held by the Chinese art museum was held in the Chinese Art Museum. A total of 129 sets (138 pieces) of Chinese art works are exhibited in the exhibition, including 75 pieces of Japanese ukiyoe paintings, 52 sets of Qing Dynasty woodcut New Year paintings (61 pieces) and 2 pieces of Chinese paintings of Ming and Qing Dynasties.

The works of this exhibition are wonderful. The works of Japanese ukiyo painting include "the first person of ukiyo painting" ryokawa Shixuan, "six masters of ukiyo painting" Suzuki Chunxin, niaoju Qingchang, hidokawa Kawabata, dongzhouzhai writing music, gezou Beizhai, Kawakawa Guangzhong, and Kobayashi Kobayashi, the last master of ukiyoe painting. The wood block New Year pictures in Qing Dynasty seleced representative works from Yangliuqing in Tianjin, Taohuawu in Suzhou, Weifang in Shandong, Mianzhu in Sichuan, Wuqiang in Hebei and Zhangzhou in Fujian. The exhibition is divided into four parts: "homology and change", "image and style", "skill and audience" and "production and distribution". The similarities and differences between Japanese ukiyo and Qing Dynasty woodcut New Year pictures are discussed from the aspects of origin, technology, distribution and style.

China and Japan are separated by a strip of water in geographical location, and blend and learn from each other in culture and art for thousands of years. In history, Chinese Buddhist art in Tang Dynasty and ink painting in song and Yuan dynasties had an important impact on the development of Japanese art. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, woodblock color printing technology became mature, which not only promoted the prosperity of Chinese woodblock New Year pictures to the Qing Dynasty, but also promoted the rise and development of Japanese ukiyoe. The woodcut New Year pictures of Qing Dynasty in China and the ukiyo in Japan have deep historical origins, similar production techniques, and each has its own artistic style and national characteristics. They have become two bright pearls in the Oriental art treasure house from the 17th to the 19th century.

There are many similarities between the woodcut New Year pictures of Qing Dynasty and the ukiyo paintings of Japan. From the historical background, the prosperity of both benefits from social stability, the development of commodity economy and the maturity of woodblock overprint technology. In the process of art, they developed almost in parallel, and both experienced the process of rise, prosperity and decline from 17th to 19th century. In terms of production technology, they were influenced by the Ming Dynasty Book prints, mainly woodblock overprint technology, with the characteristics of repeatable printing. In terms of theme and content, it reflects the people's secular life and thoughts and feelings, full of life atmosphere and folk customs. In the way of expression, rich and bright colors show the color characteristics of folk art, and the method of drawing lines and filling colors shows the plane decoration characteristics of Oriental Art.

It is reported that this exhibition is not only the National Fine Arts Museum collection exhibition season project of the Ministry of culture and tourism in 2020, but also another important exhibition of "collection activation" series of China Art Museum.

Wu Weishan, curator of the China National Art Museum, said that in recent years, the Chinese Art Museum has adhered to the people as the center, dedicated to the people with high-quality products, integrated aesthetic education into public life, let the collection go out of the warehouse, and organized a series of "collection activation" exhibitions. Cultural exchange and mutual learning is an important driving force to promote the progress of human civilization and world peace and development, and the humanistic foundation for building a community with a shared future for mankind. It is necessary to make world cultural exchanges and integration and promote mutual prosperity through extensive art communication.

It is worth mentioning that all the ukiyo paintings on display in this exhibition are works donated by printmaker Li Pingfan to the China Art Museum in 2004. These works constitute an important part of the international art collection of China Art Museum. Through the academic carding and in-depth study of these ukiyoe paintings, the China Art Museum digs out the connection and difference between them and the woodcut New Year paintings of the Qing Dynasty in China, and integrates the academic research results in recent years into exhibitions and gives back to the audience, which has effectively played the social value of the collection and the public cultural service function of the art museum.