Ｃｈｉｎｅｓｅ Ｐａｉｎｔｉｎｇｓ Ｃｌｉｍｂ ｉｎ Ｖａｌｕｅ

Ｂｙ　ｓｔａｆｆ　ｒｅｐｏｒｔｅｒ　ＷＵ　ＢＩＮＧ

THIRTY years ago, you could buy a top-grade Chinese painting produced around 1950 for just RMB 20 to 30. If you still had the painting and it was in good condition, you might be surprised what it could fetch on todays art market. Such paintings have appreciated a minimum of 1,000-fold – some are worth as much as 100,000-times their original value.

In the early 1950s, works by Qi Baishi (1864-1957), a famous painter of the era, sold for RMB 4-5 per square chi (33cm by 33cm). A painting of four square chi was worth less than RMB 30. By 1985 his work sold on Hong Kongs art market for between HK $300,000 and HK $1 million. The figure had increased to HK $1.2 million four years later, and by 1994 his paintings were fetching RMB 5.17 million. The album Flowers, Grass and Insects, produced by Qi Baishi when he was 95 years old, was auctioned for a record price of RMB 24.64 million. The pace of appreciation in the value of Qis works shocked everyone.

The value of other Chinese masters works has shown a similar trend, rising dramatically with the maturing of the art market. Paintings by Huang Binhong (1865-1955) were sold for RMB 15,000 per square chi in 2000, but increased to RMB 60,000 in 2003. His masterpiece Mountain Journey sold for RMB 6.38 million at the 2005 Autumn Auctions – nearly RMB 400,000 per square chi.

Zhang Daqians (1899-1983) works hold a pivotal position in the painting and calligraphy market. They have always been very popular with investors and collectors. From 1992 to April 2008, the average transaction price for his work was RMB 111,800 per square chi. In October 2002, his fine work Red Lotus, painted in 1975, was auctioned at a sky-high price of RMB 20.22 million.

As an important person in Chinese art circles, Xu Beihongs (1895-1953) works have continually set records in various auctions since the business started in China in 1993. At the end of 2005, the average price of his paintings reached their highest level since 2000. For example, three paintings depicting horses were sold for HK $2.136 million, HK $1.08 million and HK $5.272 million respectively.

A History of 2,000 Years

Even setting aside the truly ancient art of cliff paintings, China has a painting tradition stretching back over 2,000 years, making it one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world. Paintings first appeared during the Han Dynasty in 202 BC, done on silk using brushes and mineral pigments. They continued to develop in the following centuries, and by the Tang Dynasty (618-907), the three genres of landscape, figure, and bird-and-flower, as well as the meticulous and freehand brushwork styles, were established.

Chinese landscape and figure paintings are comparable with their Western counterparts, though Chinese landscape painters do not follow the rule of perspective as closely as Western artists. Bird-and-flower paintings feature the most distinctive Chinese characteristics. They depict any creature other than human beings, from towering trees to low foliage, from big elephants to tiny insects, reflecting the vitality of a world beyond that of humankind.

Chinese figure painting has its roots in religious frescos, and experienced its heyday in the Tang and Song dynasties. However it then lost its dominant position in Chinese artistic practice until its rejuvenation in 1522 that lasted through the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. Modern representatives of the genre were Xu Beihong (1895-1953) and Lin Fengmian (1900-1991), who boldly borrowed from Western oil techniques and brought Chinese figure painting into the modern era.

Chinese landscape painting was initiated in the Sui and Tang dynasties (581-907), and matured in the Five Dynasties (907-960). Painters in this period took a realistic approach to achieve accurate details. Freehand expressionism flourished in the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). In contrast with painters in the Five Dynasties, artists in this period valued the expression of thought through their work. In this period the technique of using brush and ink saw unprecedented development. However, by the Qing Dynasty, imperial painters had restored the old rules, but creative painters outside the court not only learnt from ancient people but also from nature, creating many works of great vitality.

The art of Chinese bird-and-flower painting matured in the Five Dynasties. The works of the court painter Huang Quan (circa 903-965) mainly deal with rare flowers and animals. His gorgeous paintings represent a rich and imposing style. He employed a traditional Chinese painting method featuring fine brushwork, heavy exuberant color, and detailed descriptions. In Chinese his style is called “Huang Jia Fu Gui,” or “Huangs Extravagance.”

Xu Xi (date of birth and death unknown) of the Five Dynasties was a hereditary aristocrat. He lived in the countryside and never held an official position. Instead, he liked painting flowers and plants. He adopted a freehand style, pursuing simplicity free of adornment, earning his approach the name “Xu Xi Ye Yi,” or “Xu Xis Wild Charm.”

These two styles provided the basis for Chinese bird-and-flower painting. Later Huang Quans style prevailed and further developed through generations of imperial painters. Xu Xis style flourished, however, during the Yuan Dynasty, and was upheld by the literati during the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Famous Painters of Modern China

Modern Chinese painting is built on the traditions of ancient Chinese art. At the same time, it incorporates a lot of Western techniques. Modern painters can be divided into two groups: one, represented by Qi Baishi, Huang Binhong and Zhang Daqian, is more traditional and their works are close to ordinary peoples daily lives; the other is represented by Xu Beihong and Lin Fengmian, and is deeply influenced by Western reformist painters and the artists experiences studying abroad.

Qi Baishi was born in Xiangtan, Hunan Province and grew up in a poor family. He once worked as a carpenter. He started his painting career by making copies of ancient artists works. He studied poetry, essay writing, and calligraphy, and traveled mountains, rivers and places of historic interest. Through lifelong study and work he became a great artistic master of his time.

Qi Baishi believed that paintings should be based on reality rather than imagination. He strived to capture the inner spirit of flowers, birds, insects and fish, and the creatures created by his brush indeed look vivid and real. He theorized that, “Paintings must be something between likeness and unlikeness; too much likeness is vulgar, but too little likeness cheats people,” a statement which sums up the true essence of Chinese painting.

It is generally known that Qi was good at painting shrimp. With simple lines he was able to paint lively impressions of these creatures. Besides painting, he was also a master seal-carver, calligraphist, poet and essayist. He creatively bridged the aesthetic conceptions of ordinary people and traditional literati, helping to eliminate the gap between the two groups. In this way, his works are of universal appeal. Qi Baishi is regarded as an outstanding representative of Chinese painting, and his great contribution to Chinese art has made the international community pay greater attention to Chinese painting.

Huang Binhong was also a famous Chinese painting master. There is a saying – “South Huang and North Qi” – meaning Huang Binhong is the representative painter for south China and Qi Baishi for north China. Huang Binhong was born in Jinhua, Zhejiang Province. He was good at painting landscapes and flowers. From his point of view, it was very necessary to grasp the spirit of ancient artists and learn from them. He also emphasized the importance of studying nature. After he turned 70, Huang summed up the techniques used in Chinese traditional ink painting and applied them in a comprehensive way. He used his skills to paint landscapes that perfectly showed depth and magnitude. As a scholar-artist he also attained great achievements in calligraphy, seal carving, philology and archaeology.

Zhang Daqian, born in Neijiang, Sichuan Province, was a legendary artist of the 20th century. He had a good command of painting, calligraphy, seal-carving and poetry, and was good at all the three traditional painting genres. He preferred freehand brushwork, and created the splash-ink-and-watercolor style whose gorgeous effect brought his art career to its peak.

Zhangs artistic career went through three phases: he learned from ancient artists before he was 40; learned from nature from 40 to 60; and followed his heart after he turned 60. Although his splash-ink-and-watercolor technique was influenced by Western abstract expressionism, his paintings never lost their Chinese spirit, and he finally became a Chinese painting master who had absorbed the essence of Western art.

Xu Beihong, a native of Yixing, Jiangsu Province, is regarded as the founder of modern figure painting. In the 1950s, as realistic paintings depicting Chinas reconstruction and ordinary peoples daily lives became popular, there emerged a group of outstanding figure painters. Xu Beihong was a representative of this group. He advocated improving Chinese painting by using the realistic techniques of French Classicism, and claimed that sketching is the basis of all plastic arts. His opinions had an epoch-making significance for Chinese painting history.

Xu Beihong loved horses and was good at painting them. As with his figure paintings, Xu combined Western realistic styles with Chinese ink painting skills in depicting horses, making the animals come to life under his brush and seem as if they could understand human thoughts. The realistic ink style he initiated became one of the major painting styles of the 20th century.

Lin Fengmian is also known as a pioneer of modern Chinese painting for blending Chinese and Western styles. He observed and imitated Impressionism and other Western painting that followed, combining what he learned from Western art with the traditional elements of Chinese painting. He constantly tried to break the boundary between Chinese and Western arts, in a bid to create a common form. His works covered a wide range of styles and subjects, from human figures, to landscape, to bird-and-flower, to still life. He is widely regarded as a spiritual leader in Chinese art circles of the 20th century, and exerted a great influence over later generations of painters.

A book published in 1972 says that works by Qi Baishi, Zhang Daqian and Xu Beihong sold at RMB 2 to 10 per square chi at that time. The books claims fit perfectly with many old painters memories. However, their works are now auctioned for RMB 200,000 or more per square chi, a 10,000-fold appreciation. How can prices be so high?

The life experiences of the five famous painters mentioned in this article show that none of them became successful easily. They all employed unique artistic styles and made great contributions to their fields. In addition, a painters skills improve as he grows from youth to a mature man. Alongside social development, peoples aesthetic judgments also improve. All these factors bring higher prices for excellent artworks. As for the works of the same painter, the price of his early creations is lower than that of his later ones, and the price of his ordinary works are much lower than those of his top-notch ones. In this way, we can conclude that while collecting, we should focus on fine works of young and middle-aged painters with great potential.