Folk Genre Paintings - CULTURE OF CHINA SERIES

Foreword

By: Jiao Yongfu, Chairman of the Chinese Folk Art Association.

The two hundred and more paintings in this album were chosen from about ten thousand folk paintings done in recent years in various parts of China, so it is no exaggeration on my part to claim that they are the best. The aim in compiling them into an album is to give the art collector, connoisseur and general reader an opportunity to peruse the work of peasants, herdsmen, fishermen and housewives, familiar as they may be with the orthodox Chinese tradition, oils and graphic art; to take them into the mountains and the wilderness, to a world with a totally different charm and attraction from that of the secluded Palace of Art. It has also given us as compilers an opportunity to look back over the folk painting of recent years and to broaden our horizons.

In recent years folk painting has come very much into the foreground of cultural activities in China. One spring at the end of last century fifty-one counties notable for their output in the field were designated "Homes of Painting" by China Social Culture Bureau of the Ministry of Culture Since then dozens of others have applied for thee title on the ground of distinguished achievements, and investigation has shown each, whether or not the title has actually be conferred, to boast anything from a dozen to a hundred painters working in forms varying from ethnic folk painting to traditional Chinese painting, oils, graphic art and cartoon This album includes paintings from sixty-six counties a towns, mostly those designated "Homes of Painting." The work offers a general picture of recent folk painting in China.

One may be forgiven for wondering whether the sudden boom in folk painting in China is financially motivate but it is not. Although several exhibitions of Chinese folk painting have been held at home and abroad in recent ye and some pieces have fetched large sums from connoisseurs, this amounts only to acknowledgement of the artistic value of the paintings rather than any avarice in the painters. In nutshell, the prosperity of folk painting in China simply reflects government concern for the happiness of the people, resulting in a more affluent peasantry seeking beauty and artistic satisfaction.

In the 20-some years since the end of the 1970s, when reform and an open policy have been followed in China, a socialist commodity economy has developed and the people's livelihood greatly improved. At the same time the spiritual vista of the broad masses of peasants, herdsmen others has undergone tremendous expansion and uplift. They are no longer passive listeners to songs and viewers of paintings by others. They want to participate in creative themselves. They sing before audiences and take up painting brushes in search of the value of life and to demonstrate their talents. I dare say that when readers skim through this album of paintings in a variety of styles they be forcibly struck by the rich imagination and varied expression of these peasants, herdsmen, fishermen and housewives.

Some may ask how such unsophisticated people, who have never so much as set foot in an art academy, come to paint so well. It is because they are close to production. They till the land, ride the vast plains, sail the rivers, lakes and seas and are intimately involved with nature, so that they have at their fingertips the rich material of productive activity, and this frees them from conformity They paint their feelings or whatever they care to paint, freely, constrained solely by the need for fulfillment and tempted no further. This does not mean that they paint merely for their own enjoyment. On the contrary, they seek to reach out for sympathy. It seems that recently professional artists are increasingly interested in imitating and studying folk painting and that market traders are paying attention to its monetary value. Although this shows that this folk art form has acquired status in the eyes of professionals and laymen, it also causes unease that it may become mercenary and crude. Thus it was with mixed feelings of pleasure and anxiety that I urged the compilation and publication of this album and write this foreword, in the sincere hope that a book of the best in the field will not only draw attention to Chinese folk painting but also contribute to the preservation of its good name.