Page 11 - The Pioneers, November 26, 2016 Hong Kong

Fig. 2 Calligraphy by Kang Youwei to Liu Haisu
圖 2 康有為為劉海粟題字

AN ADVOCATE IN WESTERN the wave of new art movements, with artists rejecting
METHODOLOGIES naturalism (realistic, physical world) and academic
art, with its emphasis on classical traditions.
In February 1929, Liu was sponsored by the These pivotal years in China welcomed the
government to travel to Europe to study Western flourishing of a new generation of students trained
artists and their mode of learning (Fig. 6). Apart in Western techniques who were schooled in French
from visiting prestigious museums daily, Liu also
took lessons in modelling and sketching. Upon a Fig. 1 Family portrait of the Liu family with Liu Haisu on first right
friend's encouragement, Liu submitted one of his 圖 1 劉海粟早年與家人合影，右一為劉海粟
works to the Salon, the official art exhibition of the
Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where his work Fig. 4 Liu Haisu (Right) with Guo Moruo in Shanghai
was selected for exhibition 1929, and then in 1930. 圖 4 劉海粟（右）與郭沫若在上海

During this time, Liu devoted his focus and energy to
the study of 19th century western art, beginning with
the Romantics, then shifting to Impressionism, studying
works of Pissarro, Sisley and Renoir. Liu then poured his
energy towards the later impressionists, to the fauvists
and modernist, fully absorbing the essence of each
movement and its individual expressions and ideas.

In between numerous travels to Europe including
Germany (Fig. 7), Belgium and France where he met
Picasso and Matisse, the artist had already climbed
the paths of Mount Huang five times. Finding the
old practice of learning by copying limiting for the
mind, Liu advocated the importance of organized art
theory and the exercise of art via direct observation,
sketching and painting a subject from firsthand
perception (Fig. 8). This belief most certainly
provided the foundation for his trips to the mountain
where he would paint from life, noting the changes
in landscape and light according to the seasons
and time of day. The teachings of Impressionism
and Liu's reverence for Van Gogh and Cézanne is
evident in his paintings from this period (Fig. 9).

Social and political changes at the turn of the 20th
century in China greatly affected the traditional
Chinese culture and the artistic expression of artists.
Young artists began to change old ways of thinking,
and pondered against questions of tradition and
modernism, east and west. Globally, the birth of
modernism on an international global scale heralded

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