One day in 1936, Guan Zepei's Bole appeared. Guan Zepei's name may not be known to many people now, but when it comes to the huge painting "So Many Delicate Rivers and Mountains" painted in the Great Hall of the People with a height of 6.5 meters and a width of 9 meters, it is a famous painting, which was jointly painted by the famous painters Fu Baoshi and Guan Shanyue.
1. Teachers and students in distress are incomprehensible
Guan Shanyue, formerly known as Guan Zepei.
On October 25, 1912, in a declining scholarly home in Yangjiang, Guangdong, a baby boy fell to the ground. Guan Zhenong, the head of the Guan family, is a famous teacher and has some knowledge, and he named Xiao Erlang Ze Pei, which means to reduce grace; At the same time, because this year was the year of the official establishment of the Republic of China, he was given a milk name Ying Xin, hoping that he could adapt to this nascent era.
Guan Zepei went to private school at the age of six and entered the school at the age of eight. Gifted and intelligent, he especially likes to paint. During the holidays, he learned to paint charcoal statues with his brother and cousin, forgetting to sleep and eating, and enjoyed it. When his family couldn't afford to buy paint, he made his own from plant juice, and he could not only draw the old plum trees in front of his house in a decent way, but also copy and reproduce the complex maps of China.
In 1928, at the age of sixteen, he entered the junior high school of Yangjiang County Normal School and graduated two years later. In the following three years, Guan Zepei went to Guangzhou Municipal Normal School for further study. After graduating with a bachelor's degree, he stayed in Guangzhou Jiusan Primary School to teach.
At the age of twenty-two, the Guan family suffered an accident. Guan Zepei's mother and father died one after another. He had to send one younger brother to his married sister, and the other two to an orphanage, leaving a six-year-old younger brother with him. What is rare is that under such poor economic conditions and such a heavy family burden, he still did not give up the hobby of painting, and had no money to hire a teacher, so he relied on self-study.
The one who appeared before the artistic Bo Lego Sword Father and lit up Guan Zepei's life was the love of his life, Li Xiaoping.
It was a drizzly winter day, and Guan Zepei, who was the head teacher at the time, was correcting the homework of the students in the class. He saw a student's "heart" in a homework book: her father was sick, very sick, but the family had no money to see a doctor, and perhaps she would soon drop out of school and go home. Guan Zepei immediately flipped the homework book to the cover, it was her-Li Xiaoping. This is a mediocre-looking girl with very good grades. Because her family is not good at studying, she is the oldest student in the class, and she is still in elementary school at the age of sixteen.
Li Xiaoping's situation reminded him of his own similar childhood past. At that time, the family was very poor, and they didn't even have money to buy shoes, so they often walked barefoot. And the scorching sun in Guangdong all year round, which makes the ground very hot to his feet, this kind of physical pain will never be forgotten by him.
Guan Shanyue, who is sympathetic and kind, immediately began to run for Li Xiaoping. On the one hand, he applied for a free lunch from the school, and on the other hand, he paid out of his own pocket to help Li Xiaoping, and took time to give her free tutoring outside of class.
Unfortunately, the illness still took Li Xiaoping's father away.
As soon as Li's father left, the creditor came to collect the debt. They forced Li Xiaoping to repay his father's debts, and even demanded that Li Xiaoping be hired to compensate. The helpless girl walked to the Pearl River and planned to commit suicide by throwing herself into the river, but fortunately the school worker saw and stopped her. This attracted great attention from the school, Li Xiaoping was taken to the school for accommodation, and the teachers collectively raised money to help her pay off her debts. At the same time, the school provided an opportunity for work-study, so that Li Xiaoping could help with chores in the school at night, support himself, and solve the problem of food and clothing.
As the head teacher, Guan Zepei subsidized Li Xiaoping's tuition. In order to repay Mr. Guan, Li Xiaoping often took the initiative to wash and clean his clothes for him. With the increase in the number of contacts, feelings gradually developed between them, but they were all twisted and pinched, and they refused to find out, and finally Zhang Yingfeng, the guardian designated by the school, took the lead and matched the lovers.
After getting married, the two lived with Guan Zepei's younger brother Guan Zewen. After graduating, Li Xiaoping became a primary school teacher, and she took on all the housework, so that Guan Zexu could devote himself to his career. The two have been together for a lifetime, and they are well-known in the art world.
Second, I met Bole and became acquainted with the Lingnan School of painting
One day in 1936, Guan Zepei's Bole appeared. He is Gao Jianfu, the main founder of the Lingnan School. Gao Jianfu once wrote in an article: "Guan Shanyue is really able to comprehend my innovative concept of Chinese painting. This is a very high evaluation.
When the two met, Gao Jian's father, who was 57 years old at the time, was already a famous painter who toured at home and abroad, while Guan Zepei was just a 22-year-old fan who silently admired the master.
Once, when Guan Ze heard that Gao Jian's father was going to start a class at Sun Yat-sen University, he mustered up the courage to borrow a student ID card from a classmate and went to the class under an impersonation. In class, Gao Jianfu asked the students to copy one of their drawings and then walked back and forth in the classroom. Suddenly, Gao Jian's father's eyes lit up and stopped in front of Guan Zepei. Guan Zepei's heart raced, he steadied his breath and drew each stroke carefully. After watching it for a long time, Gao Jian's father asked him which class he was in. Guan Zepei thought that the teacher had discovered the impostor and was so ashamed that he stammered to admit his mistake and ask for forgiveness. Unexpectedly, Gao Jian's father laughed, patted the young man on the shoulder and said, "You won't be here tomorrow, go to my Spring Sleep Painting Academy to learn painting, no tuition, food and lodging." "
Gao Jian's father and ancestor were Langzhong in the countryside, who lost his father at a young age and had a poor family. Through that on-the-spot copying, he saw his rare potential in Guan Zepei's pen, and his love for talent suddenly rose, and he immediately decided to recruit Guan Zepei into his door.
In 1923, Gao Jian's father took the word "spring sleep" in the poem "Spring sleep in the grass hall, and the day outside the window is delayed" in Zhuge Liang's poem "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", and founded the Spring Sleep Painting Institute to cultivate talents. In 1933, the academy moved to Zhu Zi Street at the southern foot of Xianggang Mountain, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou (now No. 861 Jiefang North Road, which has been rebuilt as "Gao Jianfu Memorial Hall"). This is an old house built on the hill with three buildings standing side by side. After the renovation of Gao Jian's father, the hall was used to teach the apprentices, the two-story attic on the east side of the front seat was the bedroom, the garden behind the house was half an acre in size, the pond was planted with ginger flowers, and there were water birds flying over from time to time.
In this way, the twenty-four-year-old Guan Zepei became a disciple of Gao Jianfu.
Gao Jian's father renamed him "Guan Shanyue". "The bright moon rises out of the Tianshan Mountains, and the vast sea of clouds. The long wind is tens of thousands of miles, blowing through the Yumen Pass" is Li Bai's famous poem, in which he lamented the suffering of the war on the border of the Tang Dynasty, and China at that time was already weakened by the invasion of Western powers, and the people's livelihood withered. Gao Jian's father chose this name for him, perhaps hoping that his disciple would be able to use pen and ink to boost the country's prestige in the future.
In 1938, Guan Shanyue followed Gao Jianfu and other brothers to Guangdong Sihui to sketch. In October of that year, Guangzhou fell, Gao Jian's father returned to Guangzhou to deal with affairs, and Guan Shanyue and others fled with the refugees. After learning that Gao Jianfu had gone to the Puji Monastery in Macau, he continued to follow in his master's footsteps and trekked nearly 1,000 miles in 40 days before arriving in Macao.
After Gao Jianfu saw Guan Shanyue, he was surprised and moved, and took out a collection of many ancient calligraphy and paintings for his disciples to copy. Guan Shanyue is like a treasure, and stays up all night to study. It's just that Gao Jian's father was also very embarrassed financially at this time, and he couldn't afford to fund Guan Shanyue's daily expenses. Fortunately, Buddhism was merciful, and the abbot of Puji Monastery invited him to live in the wing room for free.
After seeing that Guan Shanyue only ate one loaf of bread a day to satisfy his hunger, the kind-hearted Master Hui Yin often gave him food. But Guan Shanyue didn't want to be favored all the time, so she often went hungry to make money for the fishermen's portraits, and with the help of her friends, she became a part-time teacher at Jiefang Middle School with a monthly salary of three yuan, and her life was temporarily stabilized.
After the two got acquainted, one day Huiyin persuaded Guan Shan and said, "It's so messy outside, it's better to become a monk." Although you are not rich and rich, you can paint with peace of mind. Guan Shanyue refused: "The country is at war, the people are suffering, how can I hide here for a long time, besides, my wife doesn't know where she is." "
It turned out that Guan Shanyue had long lost contact with his wife Li Xiaoping. The only thing he could do was to keep writing letters to Guangzhou, looking forward to Li Xiaoping's reply. Finally, one day, an old friend from Guangzhou came to the hospital, and only then did he learn that the school where Li Xiaoping worked had been closed, and she had now joined the women's company of the Guangzhou Model League, busy resisting Japan and saving the country. Guan Shanyue hurriedly sent a letter to the women's company, and the lost lover was finally contacted.
3. Insist on serving the country with art and use paintings to support the War of Resistance
Guan Shanyue, who had personally experienced the life of being a displaced person and the suffering of the separation of her relatives, was determined to use the brush in her hand to expose the atrocities of the Japanese army. A large number of anti-Japanese propaganda works, such as "Retreat from the City", "Guerrilla Home", "The Fishermen's Robbery", and "Zhongshan Refugees", were born one after another.
Guan Shanyue later recalled: "At that time, I felt that it was very miserable to be a slave of the country, and what I witnessed and experienced told me that the escape from Guangzhou was so miserable, and the tragic situation of the escape in the cold north can be imagined. Therefore, I think that painting the theme of fleeing from the north can better expose the aggression and atrocities of the Japanese invaders. "
Then, Guan Shanyue dedicated her first solo exhibition to the theme of anti-Japanese resistance. After Guan Shanyue's "Anti-Japanese War Art Exhibition" was born in Macao, it was affirmed by painters Ye Qianyu, Zhang Guangyu and others, and he was also invited to Hong Kong for public exhibition, which received the attention and positive evaluation of a group of progressive cultural figures such as Duanmu Yuliang, Xu Chi, Ye Lingfeng, etc., who called Guan Shanyue "a rising star in the Lingnan painting world" in newspapers such as Ta Kung Pao, China Today, and Sing Tao Daily.
Guan Shanyue did not expect that his first exhibition would be "very popular with the audience", he said, "It is not how clever my art is, the reason why I win the hearts of the people is that the paintings are from the theme of the Anti-Japanese War".
The success of the "Anti-Japanese War Art Exhibition" strengthened Guan Shanyue's belief in serving the country through art. In 1940, after bidding farewell to Gao Jianfu, he arrived in Hong Kong from Macao, crossed the enemy blockade line by water, and walked for nearly a month to Shaoguan, the capital of wartime Guangdong Province.
After that, Guan Shanyue saw his wife who had been separated for three years, and tears burst into her eyes. Before setting off again, Li Xiaoping secretly pawned a batch of clothes for travel money without telling her husband. In the following years, Guan Shanyue and Li Xiaoping visited Guilin, Kunming, Guiyang, Chongqing, Chengdu, Leshan, Xi'an, Lanzhou, Dunhuang and other places. Interestingly, in Dunhuang, his wife Li Xiaoping also sparked an interest in painting.
The conditions for copying murals in the grotto were very difficult, Guan Shanyue could only paint on her knees, and sometimes she had to climb into the Buddhist shrine. Li Xiaoping was in charge of handing him brushes and paints. The most troublesome thing is that every afternoon, the cave is dark early and there is not enough light. Li Xiaoping had to find an oil lamp or candle and hold it high to illuminate Guan Shanyue. Because the cave is impermeable, it will feel hot and stuffy after a long time. Guan Shanyue, who has been focusing on painting for a long time, often sweats profusely. As soon as Li Xiaoping saw him licking his lips, he immediately handed over the kettle. In just one month, Guan Shanyue copied 82 murals.
In addition to copying murals in Dunhuang, the couple also came into contact with a large number of herders in the Yellow River Valley. "Camel Bells Outside the Saiwai", "Ice Bridge of the Yellow River", "Whip Horse", "Today's Professor's Life", "Migration of Mongolian People", "Grazing in Qilian", "Lonely Widow under the Iron Hoof" and so on were all created during this period.
Among them, the painting "Qilian Grazing" also represented China in the United Nations education exhibition in Paris.
In order to publicize the Anti-Japanese War and expose the corruption of the Kuomintang, he received bullets......
After the surrender of Japan, their daughter, Guan Yi, was born. In 1946, at the age of 34, Guan Shanyue was hired to teach at the Nanzhong Academy of Fine Arts in Guangzhou, hoping to start a stable career of teaching, writing, and holding exhibitions.
In 1948, Guan Shanyue was reappointed as a professor and director of the Chinese Painting Department of Guangzhou Municipal Art College. Together with his teacher Gao Jianfu and representatives of the "Lingnan School" such as Chen Shuren, Li Gemin, Zhao Shaoang, and Yang Shanshen, he held joint exhibitions in Guangzhou and Hong Kong, and was elected as a director of the All-China Art Association. Soon after, he held solo exhibitions in Shanghai and Hong Kong, and published "Southwest and Northwest Travels" and "Nanyang Travels".
Guan Shanyue recalled: I once naively thought that after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, everything would be fine, but who knew that the Kuomintang and the people of the people launched a civil war, the officials were corrupt, the people's livelihood withered, and the people were still in dire straits.
I am a painter, and I cannot be careless and indifferent to the misery of reality and the disillusionment of disillusionment. The salary I received as a professor at the Municipal Art School was a "golden yuan", which depreciated every day, several times a day, and finally depreciated to the point that I could not buy anything.
So I joined the "anti-hunger, anti-persecution, anti-civil war" movement. He participated in the corpse parade and went to Sun Yat-sen University to express his condolences to persecuted students and professors. At this time, the liberation of the whole country was imminent, and we began to care about the news of the victory of the People's Liberation Army every day, and when the army crossed the Yangtze River, we were elated and eagerly hoped for the early liberation of Guangzhou.
At this moment, Guan Shanyue suddenly received an anonymous threatening letter, which drew a pistol and a few bullets, and under the persuasion of friends, Guan Shanyue came to Hong Kong with his wife and children.
In the face of intimidation, Kwan did not put down his brush, and he tried to publish some sketches and cartoons in newspapers that reflected the lives of ordinary people in Hong Kong. He also drew the "Legend of Shrimp Ball" written by Huang Guliu into a comic book and serialized it in "Ta Kung Pao". Huang Guliu's shrimp ball has grown from a homeless child who suffered after the war to a guerrilla fighter who fought for the people, and Guan Shanyue has also grown from a high-spirited young painter to a middle-aged patriotic intellectual.
Fourth, the heart of the child, let the Chinese stand up on the painting
In 1949, when the People's Republic of China was founded, Guan Shanyue participated in the painting of the giant painting "The Chinese People Stand Up" came out, unfolding a stunning scroll.
In 1950, Guan Shanyue served as a professor at the South China Academy of Literature and Art, deputy minister of the Ministry of Fine Arts, and a member of the South China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, and in 1953, he was reappointed as the vice president of Wuhan Zhongnan Academy of Fine Arts and the principal of the High School.
In 1955, Guan Shanyue was transferred to the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and vice chairman of the Hubei Provincial Federation of Literary and Art Circles. He went to the construction site of Nanwan Reservoir in Guangdong Province in the spring to conduct in-depth research, and in the summer he went to Qingdao, Shandong Province to sketch, depicting the pace of construction of the motherland with pride, and he was very busy.
In 1956, at the age of 44, Guan Shanyue's long-cherished wish came true, and he joined the Communist Party of China. Since then, he has ushered in a wave of creative peaks, "Look! Another bridge pier has been added", "A Day's Results", "Asking for Directions", "Peacekeeper" and other new works have won awards one after another.
Subsequently, he took the art of Chinese painting out of the country, and went to Poland, Moscow and other places to make more than 60 sketches such as "Chopin's Former Residence" and "Ceramic Artist".
In 1958, Guan Shanyue returned to Guangzhou and served as a professor, vice president and director of the Department of Chinese Painting at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. Then, a solemn task fell on his head, that is, together with Fu Baoshi, he painted a large mural of "So Many Delicate Rivers and Mountains" in the Great Hall of the People.
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the newly built Great Hall of the People needed to be decorated with a huge Chinese painting. The painting is based on the meaning of Mao Zedong's "Spring and Snow in Qinyuan", and the title was personally decided by Premier Zhou Enlai, which should not only summarize the southeast and northwest of the motherland's mountains and rivers in the painting, but also reflect the rich changes of the four seasons.
With the care and encouragement of the leaders, the two painters were full of ambition and successfully completed the task. Chairman Mao Zedong personally inscribed the six characters "There are so many delicate rivers and mountains".
The 6.5-meter-high and 9-meter-wide painting "So Many Graceful Rivers and Mountains" was hung in the welcome hall of the Great Hall of the People.
In the mid-60s of the 20th century, Guan Shanyue, who was in his fifties, tirelessly insisted on creating and writing books, and he sketched on the spot with other painters to collect various first-hand information. When everything seems to be thriving, the gears of fate are quietly turning in the other direction.
In 1966, Guan Shanyue was criticized for the downward composition of plum blossoms in his work "Cliff Plum", saying that the painting "attacked socialism and bad luck (inverted plum)", and was criticized and sent to the cadre school. His wife Li Xiaoping was arranged to clean the toilet and pick up feces, and her daughter Guan Yi went to the countryside to cut the queue.
In 1971, Guan Shanyue, who was close to the age of sixteen, received a notice to return to Guangzhou immediately. It turned out that the Japanese Chinese Association came to China for exchanges, and Miyagawa Inio, the head of the Japanese side, asked Premier Zhou Enlai to see Guan Shanyue, and Guan Shanyue regained his freedom.
After that, Guan Shanyue was appointed as the deputy director of the Literary and Art Creation Office of the Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Culture, and went to Maoming, Hainan Island and other places to sketch. After that, Guan Shanyue ushered in another creative peak. His footprints have been all over Yangjiang, Bohe, Zhanjiang, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Shaoshan and Urumqi, and his masterpieces are frequent.
In 1978, Guan Shanyue served as the president of the Guangdong Academy of Painting, and visited the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River with the famous painter Li Xiongcai and others, and jointly created the "Pine and Plum Picture" when passing through Wuhan. The following year, he was elected vice president of the Chinese Artists Association. Guan Shanyue is getting older and stronger, and his creative enthusiasm has exploded again, and excellent works have been produced frequently.
In 1987, Guan Shanyue once again created a huge Chinese painting "National Fragrance Praise" for the Great Hall of the People in Beijing; In 1997, he created "Hong Kong's Return to the Spring Festival"; In 1999, when Macao returned to China and the new millennium was approaching, Guan Shanyue painted paintings such as "A New Era of Plum Blossoms and Smiles", and the "Plum Blossom" painter became a master of "Song Plum", and many of his exhibitions in his later years were based on plum blossoms. What is more admirable than exquisite painting is the indifference of fame and fortune and patriotic feelings of old artists.
On July 3, 2000, Guan Shanyue, a great painter who had exhausted his last drop of effort for the people and art, passed away in Guangzhou at the age of 89.