Mian Situ's Unconventional Historical Paintings
Aihua Z. Pearce Mutual Art Magazine April 6, 2022
The California-based Chinese painter deliberately portrays the positive, human aspects of the first Chinese immigration to California, rendering them in scenes of co-existence and hope
Aihua Z. Pearce Mutual Art Magazine April 6, 2022
The California-based Chinese painter deliberately portrays the positive, human aspects of the first Chinese immigration to California, rendering them in scenes of co-existence and hope
Mian Situ (b. 1953) is one of the greatest Chinese American realists of the 21st century, and an important historical painter. His narrative works encompass scenes from the American West, early Californian Chinese immigrants, and modern rural Southern China. His best-known works sold for six figures, including Journey of Hope and Prosperity P.M.S.S. Great Republic 1889, which sold in 2009 for $431,250; A New Beginning, San Francisco, 1910, went in 2010 for $402,500, Golden Spike Ceremony; and Promontory Summit, Utah, May 10, 1869, fetched $325,000 in 2019.
Situ was born in a rural Chinese village in Southern China. Around the age of 13, he took private drawing lessons from a friend and had a chance to view black and white pictures of works by Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Raphael, the three great masters of realist painting of the high Renaissance. This early exposure was the foundation for his later career as a successful realist artist.
Situ was born in a rural Chinese village in Southern China. Around the age of 13, he took private drawing lessons from a friend and had a chance to view black and white pictures of works by Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Raphael, the three great masters of realist painting of the high Renaissance. This early exposure was the foundation for his later career as a successful realist artist.
Mian Situ in 2019
In 1972 he enrolled at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts to learn academic painting, training under Repin School master, Guo Shaogang, who imparted all his painting knowledge and skills to Situ. After earning his degrees, Situ became an instructor at the Guangzhou Academy for six years. In 1987, Situ relocated to California, and he soon became famous for his unique paintings of Chinese people in rural villages, winning numerous national art awards.
His achievements alongside the exceptional quality of his work brought him opportunities. In 2000, Situ met with John J. Geraghty, a well-known collector in Los Angeles. Geraghty suggested that Situ look at his own experiences and life as a Chinese immigrant living in California. He accepted the challenge, researched the history of immigration, and studied traditional characters, changing the trajectory of his artistic career from genre artist to history painter.
Situ saw historical painting as an opportunity to imagine the lives of the first Chinese immigrants in California, to express their spirit, and to bring to visual life a largely forgotten and esoteric community. His personal experiences provided him with an understanding of his subject that included narrative content, aesthetic appreciation of his subject, and a moral perspective. Situ avoided standard depictions of Chinese immigrants as a perpetually mistreated and oppressed people, which, while having some validity, ignored the positive elements of that experience: their pursuit of the American dream, their perseverance in their struggle to attain civil rights, and their accomplishments. His work fills an important gap in both Chinese and Western visual culture.
His achievements alongside the exceptional quality of his work brought him opportunities. In 2000, Situ met with John J. Geraghty, a well-known collector in Los Angeles. Geraghty suggested that Situ look at his own experiences and life as a Chinese immigrant living in California. He accepted the challenge, researched the history of immigration, and studied traditional characters, changing the trajectory of his artistic career from genre artist to history painter.
Situ saw historical painting as an opportunity to imagine the lives of the first Chinese immigrants in California, to express their spirit, and to bring to visual life a largely forgotten and esoteric community. His personal experiences provided him with an understanding of his subject that included narrative content, aesthetic appreciation of his subject, and a moral perspective. Situ avoided standard depictions of Chinese immigrants as a perpetually mistreated and oppressed people, which, while having some validity, ignored the positive elements of that experience: their pursuit of the American dream, their perseverance in their struggle to attain civil rights, and their accomplishments. His work fills an important gap in both Chinese and Western visual culture.
Mian Situ, Morning on Market Street, San Francisco,1905, oil on canvas, 34''x48'', 2012
The painting Morning on Market presents the scenery of a safe, peacefully co-existing trans-national community in 1905. The accurate use of grey tones takes the viewer back a hundred years, when Chinese and Western citizens walked respectfully on Market Street, a major thoroughfare of San Francisco used since the 1810s. The thickening and thinning of paint across the surface of the canvas divides the image into three sections: a cleanly visible foreground, a middle ground and an obscure background. In the foreground, Chinese women stride forward confidently on small feet with chins up and chests out. Among the crowd, fearless children freely enjoy themself, a Chinese girl is talking with two white people who are patiently listening, another Chinese boy is blowing a balloon, a white boy is selling newspapers while a black boy is walking fast along the street.
Mian Situ, Balloon Man of Chinatown San Francisco 1904, oil, 38'' x 32'', 2011
This happy, relaxed, free and confident image of children and women was what the Chinese people of the time longed for. This sentiment also appears in Balloon Man of Chinatown San Francisco, where children surround and hug a white balloon seller, curiously looking at his colorful balloons, unwilling to leave and wanting to touch them, or even buy one if they had some pocket change.
Mian Situ, Word of God, oil on canvas, 56'' x 84'', 2004
In the painting Word of God, Chinese immigrants listen reverently to a white preacher on a boat, keenly aware that understanding Western religion was a first step toward integration into western society. In addition to showing Chinese and Westerners coexisting peacefully in public places, Situ also depicts them doing business. For instance, Chinese Family Laundry is an interior image showing a family busy doing laundry. In the background, a white woman is picking up her clean clothes. Standing next to her is a white girl who is staring curiously at three Chinese men with pigtails and a young woman who is helping.
Mian Situ, Chinese Family Laundry ,1880 36''x54'', 2013
Another hallmark of Situ’s historical paintings is his representation of Chinese masculinity. In The Powder Monkeys, for example, he captures Chinese men breaking hard rocks on the dangerously steep Cape Horn during the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad in 1865. It was a difficult, almost impossible task. An army of Chinese laborers finished the construction in only one year, although more than three hundred of them died.
Mian Situ, The Powder Monkeys, Cape Horn 1865, oil on canvas, 2001-2002
Many historical painters painted sad and bloody scenes, focusing on dramatic casualties to evoke public sympathy, such as Delacroix’s famous Scenes from the Massacres at Chios, 1824, but Situ focused on the positive vigor and adventurous spirit of these Chinese migrants. In the foreground we see three close-ups of strong, healthy, muscular men at work, whose gestures are determined, mature, confident, fearless. In the background, many other Chinese men are working away, among them is a blurry image of a white-bearded engineer on a horse, looking at the dangerous valley, perhaps in admiration of the courage of the Chinese man.
These men escaped oppression in their homeland, participated in helping to transform the economic and social structure of California, and energetically participated in building a new world. Chinese men were conventionally portrayed as frail and weak victims, “the sick men of East Asia.” Even today, positive depictions of Chinese Americans are rare in both Chinese and Western visual culture.
Situ's paintings present a unique vision, full of imagination, giving people a feeling of comfort and satisfaction. He avoided describing how Chinese Americans encountered great hostility upon arrival in the United States, choosing instead to capture the inner virtues of kindness, hard work, respect, generosity, and honesty – the better parts of the human condition and the positive aspects of the trans-Pacific Chinese community.
According to the federal census, approximately 35,000 Chinese Americans had settled in Western California between 1849 and 1859, a population that has now grown to 6 million. There is no doubt that this trans-national group is an important part of American society, helping the nation’s development in many ways. They have made important contributions to Chinese culture, too, by moving it to a global stage. The purpose of historical painting is to preserve the important moments of the human narrative, and to embody a clear and valuable message. In Situ’s history paintings, we see the depiction of the lives of ordinary Chinese men, women and children, not as victims of an alien and hostile culture, but as representatives of the spirit of adventure and adaptability that is much needed in the community of our globalizing world.
These men escaped oppression in their homeland, participated in helping to transform the economic and social structure of California, and energetically participated in building a new world. Chinese men were conventionally portrayed as frail and weak victims, “the sick men of East Asia.” Even today, positive depictions of Chinese Americans are rare in both Chinese and Western visual culture.
Situ's paintings present a unique vision, full of imagination, giving people a feeling of comfort and satisfaction. He avoided describing how Chinese Americans encountered great hostility upon arrival in the United States, choosing instead to capture the inner virtues of kindness, hard work, respect, generosity, and honesty – the better parts of the human condition and the positive aspects of the trans-Pacific Chinese community.
According to the federal census, approximately 35,000 Chinese Americans had settled in Western California between 1849 and 1859, a population that has now grown to 6 million. There is no doubt that this trans-national group is an important part of American society, helping the nation’s development in many ways. They have made important contributions to Chinese culture, too, by moving it to a global stage. The purpose of historical painting is to preserve the important moments of the human narrative, and to embody a clear and valuable message. In Situ’s history paintings, we see the depiction of the lives of ordinary Chinese men, women and children, not as victims of an alien and hostile culture, but as representatives of the spirit of adventure and adaptability that is much needed in the community of our globalizing world.
Xu Weixin's New Vision of Chinese Realistic Painting
Aihua Z. Pearce Mutual Art Magazine February 16, 2022
Fusing traditional and modern aesthetics and techniques, Weixin ventured into new territory and reformed Chinese figurative painting
Xu Weixin徐唯辛is one of the most brilliant contemporary figurative realist painters in China. Scholars consider his work “leading-edge art.” Yet although he is well-known in China, his name and works remain virtually unknown in the West. This lack of familiarity is particularly regrettable because he has transformed Chinese academic painting into a new form of contemporary art: one which exhibits sophisticated artistic technique while also engaging contemporary cultural context with a historical perspective. Weixin’s innovative style broke through the stereotypes of traditional realistic figurative painting and reformed Chinese figurative realism into a contemporary style, positioning his paintings in both the contemporary Chinese market and the global art market.
Aihua Z. Pearce Mutual Art Magazine February 16, 2022
Fusing traditional and modern aesthetics and techniques, Weixin ventured into new territory and reformed Chinese figurative painting
Xu Weixin徐唯辛is one of the most brilliant contemporary figurative realist painters in China. Scholars consider his work “leading-edge art.” Yet although he is well-known in China, his name and works remain virtually unknown in the West. This lack of familiarity is particularly regrettable because he has transformed Chinese academic painting into a new form of contemporary art: one which exhibits sophisticated artistic technique while also engaging contemporary cultural context with a historical perspective. Weixin’s innovative style broke through the stereotypes of traditional realistic figurative painting and reformed Chinese figurative realism into a contemporary style, positioning his paintings in both the contemporary Chinese market and the global art market.
Xu Weixin
Weixin was born in Urumqi, Xinjiang Province in 1958. His passion for art began when he was a young boy. By 1972 he studied drawing under the tutelage of Li Dayong, an accomplished art teacher. He graduated from Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts with a bachelor's degree in 1981, obtained a master's degree in oil painting from Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts in 1987, and became a professor at Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, teaching oil painting. In 2003 he joined the School of Art at Renmin University in China and was elected as its Executive Dean in 2012. The same year he became a member of the China Realism School – a prestigious group focusing on Chinese realistic oil painting. In China his work has been exhibited in major museums, he’s received many art awards, and his name appears frequently in newspapers, magazines, and history books.
Over the years, Weixin has sought to broaden the reach of Chinese figurative realism, an art form originally adapted from the West in the early 20thcentury, which has remained largely unchanged for a hundred years. He began with the fundamentals: theme and style. Gerhard Richter was among his early inspirations. In 1972, Richter exhibited his 48 monochrome portraits of historical figures at the German pavilion at the Venice Biennale. He was interested in the silent language of photographs. Believing that individual human characteristics were not important, he homogenized all of his portraits, painting them on canvas in a standardized format, in monochrome oil colors. Richter’s thought and style had considerable influence on Weixin. “China and Germany have similar modern historical backgrounds,” he maintained, “it is my responsibility to reflect the ordinary Chinese people in the form of art.” Since 2005, Weixin has been creating monumental portraits of historical Chinese figures. More than one hundred portraits have been completed.
Over the years, Weixin has sought to broaden the reach of Chinese figurative realism, an art form originally adapted from the West in the early 20thcentury, which has remained largely unchanged for a hundred years. He began with the fundamentals: theme and style. Gerhard Richter was among his early inspirations. In 1972, Richter exhibited his 48 monochrome portraits of historical figures at the German pavilion at the Venice Biennale. He was interested in the silent language of photographs. Believing that individual human characteristics were not important, he homogenized all of his portraits, painting them on canvas in a standardized format, in monochrome oil colors. Richter’s thought and style had considerable influence on Weixin. “China and Germany have similar modern historical backgrounds,” he maintained, “it is my responsibility to reflect the ordinary Chinese people in the form of art.” Since 2005, Weixin has been creating monumental portraits of historical Chinese figures. More than one hundred portraits have been completed.
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Huang Shuai 黄帅, Oil on Canvas, 250cm x 200cm (98inch x 79inch). Credit: Xu Weixin
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Meng Fei蒙飞, Oil on Canvas, Oil on Canvas, 250cm x 200cm (98inch x 79inch). Credit: Xu Weixin
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One of the most striking features of Weixin’s monumental portraits is his choice of subject. Weixin broke the artistic monopoly of the great leader being the sole subject of portraiture. He showed that ordinary people, even in their ordinariness, could have a kind of grandeur that was as worthy of remembrance as the high and the powerful. This was unprecedented. Particularly in his cultural revolution series, he painted ordinary civilians. This represents a dramatic departure from Chinese realistic paintings of the past, which focused on important leaders and promoted the moral and political purposes of the government. Unlike traditional views, Weixin believes that “Whether great leaders or ordinary folk in society, they are all representatives of the times, and they are all equally important.”
In addition to painting ordinary people who played a role in Chinese history, he also painted monumental portraits of working miners, not shying away from the harsh realities of their lives. These paintings show themes from the cultural transformation that is still taking place in China, as the dark-faced men risk their lives mining coal for the people. The technique of enlarging the size of ordinary figures to monumental proportions is new in Chinese art.
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Liu Yong-gui矿工刘永贵, Oil on Canvas, 250cm x 200cm (98inch x 79inch), 2007. Credit: Xu Weixin
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Work Shed 工棚, Oil on Canvas, 200cm x 220cm (79 x87 inch), 2003 - 2004. Credit: Xu Weixin
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In his Migrant Workers: 2003 - 2005, a series of paintings depicting migrants who left small and poor towns in the countryside looking for work opportunities in big cities like Beijing, Weixin captures the essence of very ordinary human moments in scenes of these migrant’s lives – eating, resting, working.
Weixin added inscriptions in traditional ink painting style to his portraits. Even here he was innovative, controversially breaking with convention. Traditional Chinese artists write vertical inscriptions on the sides of their pictures, while he inscribed them horizontally across the top or bottom. A further difference is that traditional inscriptions habitually referred to the image and the artist, while here the inscriptions contain biographical information and stories about the characters on the canvases.
China has emerged as a powerful participant in the global art market, creating 20% of art sales (compared to the US’s 40% and the UK’s 20%). The bulk of these sales are in the area of traditional and fine arts. Innovative art styles fare less well. Xu Wexin’s work, however, has been met with success: in 2007, his oil painting Laborers (220cm x 450cm) sold for ¥3.36 million, or $517,680, his 2011 oil painting Miner sold for ¥184,000 ($28,373) in 2019 at a Christie’s Hong Kong auction, and in 2020, one of his paintings sold for ¥800,000 ($125,000) to a private Chinese collector in China.
Weixin’s innovative spirit reflects the pride of forward-looking Chinese people, and his works have left a deep imprint on the history of Chinese art. His paintings are not simply combinations of tradition and modern aesthetics, but evidence of a unique imagination and technical virtuosity, pointing to a globally engaged China. He recognized the increasing necessity for China to engage with the world, and for Chinese realistic figurative painting to get ahead of the times. His accomplishments challenge all artists to consider what can be learned from other cultures, how we can best use art to reflect and enhance our global situation.
China has emerged as a powerful participant in the global art market, creating 20% of art sales (compared to the US’s 40% and the UK’s 20%). The bulk of these sales are in the area of traditional and fine arts. Innovative art styles fare less well. Xu Wexin’s work, however, has been met with success: in 2007, his oil painting Laborers (220cm x 450cm) sold for ¥3.36 million, or $517,680, his 2011 oil painting Miner sold for ¥184,000 ($28,373) in 2019 at a Christie’s Hong Kong auction, and in 2020, one of his paintings sold for ¥800,000 ($125,000) to a private Chinese collector in China.
Weixin’s innovative spirit reflects the pride of forward-looking Chinese people, and his works have left a deep imprint on the history of Chinese art. His paintings are not simply combinations of tradition and modern aesthetics, but evidence of a unique imagination and technical virtuosity, pointing to a globally engaged China. He recognized the increasing necessity for China to engage with the world, and for Chinese realistic figurative painting to get ahead of the times. His accomplishments challenge all artists to consider what can be learned from other cultures, how we can best use art to reflect and enhance our global situation.
Xu Beihong: China's First Transnational Artist
Aihua Z. Pearce Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine July/August 2021
Aihua Z. Pearce Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine July/August 2021
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Slave and Lion: A Painting That Changed the Course of Chinese Art History
Aihua Z. Pearce Mutual Art Magazine May 21, 2021
Christie’s Hong Kong will auction Xu Beihong’s masterpiece Slave and Lion in a standalone auction on May 24, 2021 It is likely to become the most expensive Chinese figurative painting — again.
Aihua Z. Pearce Mutual Art Magazine May 21, 2021
Christie’s Hong Kong will auction Xu Beihong’s masterpiece Slave and Lion in a standalone auction on May 24, 2021 It is likely to become the most expensive Chinese figurative painting — again.
Xu Beihong, Slave and Lion, painted in 1924. Courtesy of Christie's
Xu Beihong, one of the most important Chinese artists of all time, is once again captivating headlines.
Beihong was born in Yixing in the Jiangsu province in China in 1895. His father was a literato, a teacher and a traditional Chinese painter. Under his guidance, six-year-old Xu began his studies of traditional painting, calligraphy and Chinese literature, and at age seventeen, he began teaching art in local schools. By the time he was twenty-three he was hired by the principal of the Peking University to teach figurative painting. On March 20, 1919, Beihong set sail for Paris to study Western realist art with the aim of reforming Chinese painting.
During his eight years in the West, Xu entered Académie Julian to study figurative drawing; he became the first Chinese artist to study at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts where he studied with François Flameng; he became a pupil of the academic realist Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret and formed a close friendship with him; and he also came to admire the neoclassical artist Pierre-Paul Prud’hon’s drawings and paintings.
In 1923, Beihong’s painting Old Lady was selected by The Société des Artistes Français — Xu was the first Chinese artist to be chosen — and displayed in the annual exhibition, and in 1927 a total of nine of his paintings were selected. In 1924, the first large-scale exhibition by Chinese artists in the West featured four of his paintings. In 1927, finally, Xu presented Slave and Lion to the Beaux-Arts as his chef-d’oeuvre — the culmination of his studies.
Courtesy of Beijing Xu Beihong Memorial Museum
In Slave and Lion Xu used all the techniques that he had learned in the West to tell Pliny’s famous story of a helpless slave’s encounter with a wild lion which was in agony from a thorn stuck in his paw. Overcoming his fear, the slave removed the thorn and relieved the lion from his pain. Years later, the slave was thrown to the lions in the arena, only to be met by the same grateful lion who remembered the slave’s help and left him unscathed. The injured and helpless lion embodies dignity and self-respect, while the horrified and frightened slave clenching his fists represents the spirit of fortitude.
In the painting, Beihong transmits the message that respect, kindness and compassion are an essential part of human nature, this theme being closely related to the Confucian education Xu had received in his childhood, and one he would revisit many times. According to Zhuang Jun, a senior expert in the department of contemporary art at Christie’s Asia Pacific, this is Xu’s first oil painting created based on compassion, and it is also the largest of his oil paintings still held in a private collection. Jun believes that he used the story to conflate the present with the past, and to inspire the Chinese national spirit.
In addition to the importance of its subject, the painting reveals that Xu was in a tangled state of mind, torn between concepts of Western aesthetic and Chinese tradition. The slave is almost entirely naked, yet nude depictions of the male body had never been seen before in Chinese figurative painting and uncovered flesh was shameful in this particularly traditional society. Painting the nude must have been challenging for Xu, who had received a traditional education and valued his Chinese “face” more than his life. However, as an important aspect of Western idealism, he felt compelled to introduce it to Chinese painting. His inner struggle is clearly visible in his sketches for the work. In the pencil sketch, a piece of cloth tightly surrounds the slave’s hips and is knotted to cover his groin. In the charcoal sketch the cloth simply wraps the area, and his hand holds a corner of the cloth. In the final oil painting, however, Xu simply painted red strips of cloth around the slave’s genitals, which still remain visible. Red is the favored color of the Chinese nation and a symbol of the Chinese spirit, first seen in the Tang Dynasty’s tomb paintings one and a half millennia ago. Xu was balancing his Chinese image and his desire to transform his country’s art.
Courtesy of Beijing Xu Beihong Memorial Museum
In addition to its economic, artistic and historic value as a work of art, the provenance of the painting is also extraordinary. In 1927, Xu returned to China with the painting during the turbulent civil wars that wracked the country. Between 1939 and 1941, in order to support the Anti-Japanese War, he held exhibitions in Singapore, India, and Malaysia, including Slave and Lion. But in 1941, the Pacific War broke out, and, after the fall of Singapore, Xu was unable to bring his treasured paintings back home. He entrusted them to the care of friends who buried them in a dry well at the Chong Boon Secondary School in Singapore, and they were subsequently lost. According to the memories of Xu’s wife Liao Jingwen, Slave and Lion was one of about 40 lost works which were extremely precious to Xu. After the Second World War ended, he searched for the paintings, but to no avail. Only three of the missing works were eventually recovered: an oil sketch of The Foolish Man Who Removedthe Mountains, the oil painting Put Down Your Whip, and Slave and Lion.
After Beihong returned to China in 1927, he began actively promoting the reform of Chinese figurative art, meanwhile continuing to create paintings based on traditional myths and fables, now exploring the Chinese canon. In his short fifty-eight years he cultivated a following of outstanding students and transformed Chinese representational figurative painting. Today there are a vast number of scholarly books and studies about Xu and his art. Three universities and high schools are named after him, and there are three Xu Beihong museums in China: in Beijing, in his hometown Yixing, and in Chongqing. He has been described as ‘the great master of Chinese realist painting,’ ‘the founder of Chinese modern art education,’ and ‘the father of the modern Chinese representational painting.’
Slave and Lion was initially purchased by Indonesian collectors and after several years of restoration in Switzerland, it was auctioned at Christie’s Hong Kong on November 26, 2006, for HK$53.9 million ($6.9 million), then a world record for a painting by a Chinese artist. This time around it is estimated to sell for $350 - HK$450 million (approximately $45 million - $58 million).