Research On Tianjin Yangliuqing Folk Artist Gao Tongxuan In Late Ch’ing

Gao Tongxuan(1835 A.D.- 1906 A.D.) is a folk professional painter who was active in the districts around Beijing during the middle of the 18 th century to the 19 th century. He is also a famous painter engaged in New Year woodblock prints in Yangliuqing Town. Gao has a wind range of painting creation areas, from folk portraits to New Year woodblock prints and achieved great success. Gao travelled around among the court of the late Qing dynasty, the country and the urban during all his life. This kind of art experience makes him not only intends to absorb the artistic skills of palace paintings of the late Qing and western perspective method, but also mixes the traditions of the ancient literati paintings and the aesthetic tastes of the folk woodblock prints derived form the late Ming Dynasty into his painting creations, forming a totally different style from the traditional New Year woodblock prints of Yangliuqing. Especially those created in his old age are deeply influenced by the palace paintings and also highlight the traditional aesthetic tendency of the literati painting. The works borrow the image elements from the palace painting, which means they make use of the western perspective skills and multicolour especially with gray printing technology to show the paintings’ space, light and shade performances. The content of the paintings combines great scenes and delicate carving styles, which realizes the integration of the elegance and vulgarity aesthetically. Especially the New Year woodblock prints themed of the seasons and festivals, not only they relate to the folk society’s spirit but also the perspective close to the folk life make the works unique artistic appearances. The bran-new artistic style that blends the tastes of the court aristocrats with folk cultures and customs, differring form the palace paintings, literati paintings and traditional New Year woodblock prints of Yangliuqing, has a significant historical influence on the creation and the development of the folk New Year woodblock prints of Yangliuqing in late Qing Dynasty. Gao and his works also highlight the superexcellent cultural significance in the gradually decline process of the New Year woodblock prints of Yangliuqing. Gao made the accumulation of his life painting experiences and his personal painting ideas into the compilation of the book Mo Yu Suo Lu. The book is about the painting theories that and created by a folk professional painter in the history of China. It not only can help the creation practices of the folk paintings but also is the summary of the experiences that the folk painters learn from the collective painting practices. Therefore, it bears the important meanings for the study of the Chinese folk art, especially the portraits and the creation and inheritance of the folk New Year woodblock prints. As a representative of the folk painters, Gao also expressed his critical position and aesthetic attitude to the elite literati paintings. It can help take a just attitude to the academic content that may be ignored and simplified and reproduce objectively the special aesthetic painting styles, the creation processes and humanistic way of views that are resulted from the factors such as era, region and the artist himself. All those are the bases of discovering the traditional artistic spirits of the folk painters.