Page 21 - The Pioneers, November 26, 2016 Hong Kong

tenure, he was mainly charged with the responsibility
of teaching advanced oil paintings course, emphasising
creative expression. On the one hand he felt compelled
to teach students the accuracy in representation, yet
at the same time detested their excessive faithfulness
to reality, consequently lacking in artistic merit.

In the 20th century, one of the most important
preoccupations for the Chinese art world was ways to
negotiate the relationship between European and Chinese
art. Unlike many first generation western style artists who
switched from traditional painting to Western style painting,
Ding Yanyong began his artistic career in the Western
Medium (Fig. 4)- it was only upon his return to china that
he began to become increasingly interested in ink art.

Around 1929, Ding discovered the unorthodox masters in
the literati tradition, including Xu Wei (1521 – 1593), Bada
Shanren (1626 – 1705) and Jin Nong (1687 – 1763) (Fig.
5). Ding admired the depth and breadth of the artistic
expressiveness of traditional paintings and calligraphy,
concurrently developing an interest in cultural relics
such as archaic bronzes, rubbings and seals. He began to
study, collect, and paint Chinese ink paintings, marking
the beginning of Ding's explorations to assimilate and
synthesize Chinese and Western art for creative expression.
This decision did not come without controversy – many
modernist artists at the time criticized him for "going
backwards" to a stagnant form of artistic expression, and
felt they had lost a great star in the modernist field.

In fact, Ding's return to his native tradition for inspiration
was different to others as he had never received any
formal training in traditional Chinese painting. Instead,
he was looking to traditional works with the eyes of
a fauvist, and hoped to revive Chinese art to "a return
to the primitive state", which he felt could uncover
deeper layers of meaning. Ding soon saw an uncanny
similarity between the idiosyncratic expressiveness
and spontaneity of Bada Shanren's flowing lines and
the art of Matisse that he admired. With this as a point
of departure, Ding started to create works in his own
style which he finessed in the 1960s. His later paintings
broke free from the formal restraint and continued to
develop his ink art full of the contemporary spirit.

Fig.3 Original student record preserved in the archive of Lot 2502 Detail 局部

the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music 17
圖 3 丁衍庸東京美術學校學籍薄