Remembering Zhang Guangyu

He was one of the founders of China’s first cartoon society. He pioneered China’s commercial art, authoring the country’s first book on modern industrial art in 1932. He published a dozen art journals which served as the launch pads for several artists who later became masters. His last major work was designing the characters and settings for the timeless 1960 classic animation film, Da Nao Tian Gong or Havoc in Heaven.

Yet the name of Zhang Guangyu (1900-65) is unknown to many who have seen his works and have also been influenced by them.

And it has taken five decades since his death for the first comprehensive exhibition of Zhang’s works to be held in China. On Nov 20, the show opened in Shanghai where the long-forgotten figure of modern Chinese art spent most of his life, developing his distinctive style. It runs through Dec 20.

Master of Chinese Modernism Art, the exhibition at the Long Museum, celebrates Zhang’s creativity and versatility in painting, illustration, design, publishing and animation.

A display of more than 300 of his works show how he helped Chinese art make the transition from the classical age to a modern world in the first half of the 20th century.

Born in Wuxi, East China’s Jiangsu province, Zhang took no interest in the family business of traditional Chinese medicine of his paternal side, or the private banking business of his maternal side.

After basic schooling in Shanghai, Zhang, at age 15, was exposed to a thriving, dynamic cultural landscape. There, he was nurtured and became a celebrated figure in the following decades.

Zhang stretched out one hand to Chinese folk art, while he offered the other to the art movements of Europe that were also closely followed in the cosmopolitan metropolis of Shanghai.

Zhang’s painting skills were self-taught and he gained his early inspiration from watching Peking Opera performers wear makeup backstage. He once lived close to a Peking Opera theater.

He was greatly inspired by Western art and industrial design while working at Shanghai’s art companies and in the advertisement departments of foreign tobacco companies in the 1920s.

Zhang gradually developed a unique style that was described by fellow artists as “Picasso plus Chenghuangmiao”. Chenghuangmiao is the City God Temple in Shanghai considered a symbol of folk culture.One can see the influence of Cubism in his work from the simple, neat lines, the abstract forms and bold composition. The rich palette and vivid contents of his work suggest that Zhang, far from abandoning his folk roots, like some artists of his time, embraced the essence of traditional art forms. His animation works exemplify his research into Chinese operas, folk tales, the Ming Dynasty woodcuts (1368-1644) and the Qing ones (1644-1911).Li Dajun, an art collector who co-curates the exhibition, says: “He carved out a name for himself in painting, cinema, stage art, media, furniture and costume design. He loved trying crossover things. He was a master with a great vision.”He describes Zhang as the “Walt Disney of China”.“What Disney did then were the same things that Zhang had done or was doing at the same time,” Li says. (This is because) Shanghai was in a narrow gap between Paris and New York in the 1930s. The fashions of Paris and New York would appear in Shanghai’s streets in just a day or two.”The values Zhang created for Chinese art are no less than what Disney did for his land.”A four-volume publication, titled Complete Collections of Zhang Guangyu, was published in September. At a discussion on the book, its chief editor Tang Wei said that Zhang believed the paths of art should be wide and interlinked, but he didn’t mean that Chinese artists adopt foreign ideas without choice or without criteria.”He believed Chinese artists should fuse useful elements from outside while not losing our own cultural identity.”Zhang was an artist with a pretty clear mind. He said that to create art, one can’t be a selfish person, otherwise, one is ‘planting the seeds of evil in this world’,” Tang adds.