Dear Gayle,
I think this material and links could be useful to
you.
New Chinese Woodblock Printing
Traditional Chinese woodblock printing was first
engraved or overlaid on wood and then printed on
paper. The first wood engraving was made in 868 in the
Chinese Tang Dynasty and it was named The Lonely Tree.
According to researchers, most of the early Chinese
woodblock prints were used as illustrations in books;
the art reached a development peak in the Ming
Dynasty. Since then woodblock printing has been used
to make New Year painting. With the adoption of metal
printing and some new printing technology, woodblock
printing gradually declined.@
In the 1930s, some young Chinese revolutionists
started woodblock creation again under the influence
and with the support of Lu Xun, a leading Chinese
revolutionary writer of the time. The new woodblock
printing was influenced by both traditional Chinese
wood engraving skills and Western woodblock printing
styles, and used more realistic methods to show actual
life. Representative woodblock prints of the time
include Li Hua's Please Shout, China, Hu Yichuan's
Going to the Frontline, and Zhang Wang's Injured Head.
Though the techniques of these works had not reached a
mature stage, the painters were fully involved in
their artistic creation, and their works were full of
vitality and truly reflected the spirit and life of
the people. During the War of Resistance against Japan
and the Liberation War, Chinese woodblock print makers
used their woodblocks as weapons to fight against the
enemy to save their country. The woodblock print is
easily made and is quickly accepted. In the harsh
environment of the Chinese Revolution, it became a
main art form for expressing people's ideas.
Representative works are Conquering the Castle and He
Is Not Dead by Huang Xinbo, Tax Reducing Meeting and
People Bridge by Gu Yuan, Adequate Food and Clothes by
Li Qun and Trial by Yan Han. These works establish the
cruelty of the enemy and show the hard struggle of the
people. Different woodblock print makers had different
artistic styles; some styles were filled with a vivid
life atmosphere, some were vigorous and fresh in order
to encourage people to continue with the struggle,
still others were meticulous and sad like an epic
poem.
Woodblock print making gained a good opportunity for
development after the founding of the People's
Republic of China. With the beginning of a new life,
the artists had new sentiments and looked at their
lives from a new perspective; their themes and
me-thods of expression through woodblock prints took
on more variety. The new paintings showed working
scenes in the factory plants and farming fields,
conveying people's confidence in their new life and
their optimistic spirit.
Chinese wood-block prints from different areas have
different styles. The Sichuan woodblock prints are
mostly black and white; they include Niu Wen's Dong
Fang Hong (Oriental Red), Feng Zhong-tie's The Sea
Run-ning to the East, Li Huanmin's On the Way to the
Golden Road, Wu Fan's Dandelion (Fig.2-58) and The
Host by Xu Kuang and A Ge. In Northeast China,
woodblock printing was first used to describe the life
of exploration to document in the wastelands, and then
to document social organization and daily life.
Representative works are September in the North
(Fig.2-59)and Cloudy Scene by Chao Mei, Return From
Herding by Zhang Zhenqi, Missing The Hometown by Hao
Boyi and Plateau In Summer Night by Li Yiping. Most of
the woodblock prints of the Northeast are colored
woodcuts. The water woodcut was initiated in Jiangsu
Province in the 1960s, and it incorporated traditional
Chinese printing skills to form a special effect in
order to reveal the delicate and beautiful views of
the cities along the southern bank of the Yangtze
River. Representative works from that region include
Mount Mao by Wu Junfa, Spring Water and Wind on The
Southern Bank of the Yangtze River by Huang Pimo, and
The Green Southern Bank by Zhang Xinyu and Zhu Qinbao.
There are also woodblock print artists in the Chinese
provinces of Guizhou, Jiangxi, Zhejiang and
Guang-dong.
After the 1980s, the artistic concept of woodblock
printing changed dramatically. It began to take on
more patterns and styles, learning from other Chinese
painting forms to enrich its content and methods of
expression. At the same time, the other Chinese
painting forms absorbed skills from the woodblock
prints.
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online links
http://www.chineseartnet.com/LuPing/home.htm
http://www.chinaprints.com/artist_yuchengyou.asp
http://home.seechina.com.cn/html/arts/2xxbh-e.html
http://www.chinaprints.com/
best regards