On December 13, Sichuan Fine Arts Institute released an obituary, and Liu Guoshu, a famous contemporary Chinese art educator and oil painter, passed away in Chongqing at about 20 o'clock on December 12 at the age of 104.
Liu Guoshu was born in October 1919, a native of Chongqing, the second generation of oil painters in China, and is known as the father of Sichuan American oil painting. He was born in an enlightened family, his father Liu Longxiang was the first generation of middle school art teachers, and had a certain study of painting, calligraphy, crafts, etc., under the influence of the family, Liu Guoshu was exposed to Xi art since childhood. After graduating from junior high school in 1935, Liu Guoshu worked as an art teacher in middle school, and was admitted to Wuchang Art College in 1938, where he studied under famous teachers such as Tang Yihe, Feng Faci, Xu Dungu, and Zhou Duo, and received professional Western painting education, and laid the foundation for realist painting creation. In 1942, Liu Guoshu's "Blind Woman" and "Beggar Woman" and many other works were selected for the "Spring Art Exhibition" held by the All-China Art Association.
Source: Sichuan Fine Arts Institute.
In 1950, Liu Guoshu became a teacher in the Fine Arts Department of the Southwest People's Art Institute (the predecessor of the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute) and began to serve the art education of New China. The 1950s and 1960s were the peak of Liu Guoshu's paintings, the most famous of which is Flying Over the Luding Bridge (1959).
Flying Luding Bridge is a compulsory text for generations of Chinese in primary school, and the oil painting "Flying Luding Bridge" is the picture of this textbook, which has accompanied generations of Chinese in their childhood. Liu Guoshu has mentioned the creation process of this oil painting in a past interview, and he made a special trip to Luding County, Sichuan Province to experience life, and at the same time went deep into the villagers to understand the fierceness of the battle. After returning to school, he used bamboo poles to simulate the shape of the chain bridge in the studio, and invited models to imitate the shape of the soldiers crossing the river at that time, which led to the birth of "Flying Luding Bridge". The painting is now in the collection of the Military Museum. In addition, Liu Guoshu's "Sending Rice" (1953), "Red Army to Northern Sichuan" (1957), "County Party Secretary" (1964) and "Dismissal" (1965) also left a strong mark in the history of Chinese oil painting.
Flying to capture the Luding Bridge
Liu Guoshu had a profound influence on the formation of art education and art style in Sichuan and the United States, and served as the director of the drawing teaching and research group and the oil painting teaching and research group at the school. During this period, he implemented the sketching method he Xi learned at Wuchang Art College, and was extremely strict with students' styling, and advocated liberalization in terms of expression skills, advocating the use of large brushes to paint, and the picture should be imposing. A large number of well-known artists at home and abroad, such as Luo Zhongli, He Duoling, Cheng Conglin, Gao Xiaohua, and Pang Maokun, have been carefully cultivated by Liu Guoshu. As one of the early founders of the oil painting major of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Liu Guoshu, Liu Yisi, Ye Zhengchang and others laid the academic tradition of Sichuan American oil painting, and the Soviet and Russian art education system that Liu Guoshu borrowed from became the source of the early stage of Sichuan American oil painting.
Pang Maokun, president of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute and student of Liu Guoshu, delivered a eulogy on the 13th to remember his teacher, he said that Mr. Liu Guoshu is a monument to the memory of the past and the United States, and it is the backbone of the times that flourishes and students look up to. He attaches great importance to the harmony and unity of artistry and reality, and his tireless enthusiasm for education and artistic character of excellence will deeply influence and inspire our generation and future generations.
Yangtze Evening News|Purple Cow News reporter Shen Zhao.
Proofread by Xu Heng.