On the occasion of the centennial anniversary of CAFA in 2018 and the centenary of Mr. Li Hu’s birth in 2019, we grandly hold a large-scale retrospective exhibition, “Four Stanzas on Aspiration – Traces of Li Hu’s Art”, which carefully collected more than 100 pieces of excellent works and precious literature of Mr. Li Hu in different periods of his life. It is of great academic significance for us to know Mr.Li Hu’s practical experience and artistic achievements in the innovation of Chinese painting techniques, and to learn from his life aspiration and artistic spirit of “to respect and emphasize masters, and to adore virtue and value art”.
Under the situation of the collision and intersection of Chinese and Western cultures in the 20th century, especially in the advancement process of the modernization of Chinese society, the inheritance and innovation of Chinese painting have always been the focus and primary mission of the entire Chinese art. In the complex cultural circumstance, Mr. Li Hu adhered to the reform of Chinese painting, insisted on the integration of Chinese and Western painting skills, explored the transformation from classical to realistic language, and created a large number of works with the features of the times and cultural creativity, leaving a rich and precious academic heritage for modern Chinese painting. Mr. Li Hu got personally guided by Mr. Xu Beihong in his early years with the teaching of “drawing on western painting techniques and painting with Chinese ink and paper” and stepped into a broad realm in artistic ideas and creation methods. Not only was he a practitioner of Xu Beihong’s concept of “blending the West and the East”, but he was also a pioneer of opening a new field in both Chinese creations thought and drawing language.
Throughout his artistic life, Mr. Li Hu had always taken realism as the core artistic concept of his creation, and on this basis, he persevered in the exploration of new Chinese painting methods and new characteristics. Under the background of the discussion and debate on Chinese painting in the middle of the 20th century, Mr. Li Hu’s artistic creation and teaching concept undoubtedly revealed his advanced courage in culture. On the one hand, he closely centered around the culture of the age and created many large-scale works, such as “Guangzhou Uprising”, “Visiting the Working Site”, “Investigation”, “Peasants Supporting the Northern Expeditionary Army”. On the other hand, he always had concerned about people’s livelihood and faced up to the reality, and his deeply caring and sincere expression for working people’s life can be seen from his early work “Boat Trackers on the Jialing River Bank” to works created in the 1960s, including “Policewoman”, “Construction Worker”. In terms of the technique innovation, Mr. Li Hu’s most celebrated proposition is to shape the image from the sketch, to integrate the thick color language of Western painting and the light texture of ink of Chinese painting, and to pay attention to the depiction of details and spirit, which brought about refreshing accomplishments after applying this technique in the creation of landscape painting and figure painting. He opened up a new field of landscape painting with his works depicting night scenes, such as “Night Navigation on the Three Gorges” and “Night Battle” that have rich spatial layers, creating a bright and alluring image of mountains and rivers in the shining light and shadow. Besides studying the theme of night scenery, Mr. Li Hu also created a large number of portraits with a united body and soul, and among these works, “An Old Man in Red Cloak”, “Indian Woman”, “Portrait of Guan Hanqing”, and other works are considered as masterpieces of blending the Chinese and Western styles, which made him a leading representative of modern Chinese figure painting.
In addition to artistic creation, Mr. Li Hu devoted himself to art education and set an excellent example for practicing the high ideal of imparting knowledge and educating people. He served as a teacher in the Department of Chinese Painting at CAFA, where he taught Western painting courses such as drawing and sketching, and strengthened student’s modeling ability through rigorous basic training. He attached great importance to the inspiration of students’ innovative consciousness and encouraged them not to stick to the old law but to put more artistic possibilities into the traditional techniques, so as to reach a new level. Indifferent to fame and wealth, he worked industriously and cultivated many outstanding artistic talents of Chinese painting, which also stimulated the growth of several generations of artists of Chinese painting.
The exhibition celebrating the centenary birth of Mr. Li Hu is not only a reminiscence of him but also a review and tribute to his artistic career, thoughts and achievements. As a predecessor and master of CAFA, Mr. Li Hu had always committed himself to promote Chinese painting and left rich and brilliant accomplishments, and he expressed his concern about the fate of the country and the perception of the spirit of times in his passionate artistic creations. The tradition he constructed is still full of inspiration for the teaching and innovative development of today’s Chinese painting, and will also facilitate us to a new field in our current artistic creation as “to learn from the heart, and pursue both professional excellence and moral integrity”.
