Full of realistic and humanistic feelings, Russian art takes a unique role in art history of the world. The most remarkable creation was during the periods of ancient Russian, the 19th century and Soviet Union society after October Revolution, since the artworks of those periods are not only with distinct national characteristics, but also of high aesthetic value. The masterpieces of Russian art before the October Revolution and during the Soviet Union had vast and positive influence upon the art of China of the 20th century and are still popular among Chinese people till today.
As far back as 1930s, some Chinese cultural innovators started to bring Russian and Soviet Union fine art to Chinese audience, with the first introducer Lu Xun, who had New Collection of Russian Paintings published on February 25th 1930 and wrote an article for it. It was the assistance of Cao Jinghua, the scholar and translator of Russian literature that made it possible for Lu Xun to introduce the Soviet Union art to China. When the Soviet Union Graphic Art Exhibition was opened in Shanghai in February 1936, Lu Xun wrote an article named On the Soviet Union Graphic Art Exhibition, in which he described the artworks with enthusiastic words, “sincere yet not stubborn, beautiful yet not flirtatious, pleasant yet not reveling, powerful yet not violent; it’s not stationary, and it is touching and shocking…”
After the foundation of People’s Republic of China in 1949, the literature and art communities of China started to model the Soviet Union’s art of socialist realism. Many literary theories and literary works of Soviet Union were translated into Chinese and its fine art was brought into China through various channels. In 1955, large-scaled fine art exhibitions of Soviet Union were held in Beijing and Shanghai, in which there were both the classical Russian masterpieces before October Revolution and the new creations of Soviet Union after October Revolution.
Art of Russia and Soviet Union has placed vast and significant influence to Chinese society, culture and art. Like literary works, music, movies and dramas, and with the noble humanism, artworks have nurtured and educated generations of people and played important roles in cultivating people’s personality and aesthetics. In 1950s, we got in touch with the foreign culture and art through the window of Soviet Union thus shortened our distance with the world. Many of us get to know and understand the system and techniques of European realistic oil painting through Russian artworks, as the latter belongs to the European system in nature. The masterpieces of Russia and Soviet Union, full of flame of humanity and concern to the real life, have inspired a large number of Chinese artists. The exploration of and achievements from expressing the laboring figures and appraising the light, truth, good and beauty have provided a lot for Chinese artists to study and learn from.
The tour exhibition, Land of Fertility: Mountain Art Russian Collection will be held in Hubei Museum of Art from June 10. |
