The first mannequin in China appeared in Shanghai Art College, founded by Liu Haisu. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

In 1917, several sketches of the human body displayed in the exhibition of the results of the art college suddenly triggered a mannequin storm and attracted Sun Chuanfang's intervention. As one of the first educators to introduce this artistic practice, Liu Haisu was denounced as an "art traitor", and then the struggle against the use of mannequins began.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, due to a specific system and route, the style of nude art creation was forbidden to spread among the general public, and mannequins were strictly controlled in the studio.

Since the convening of the Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee, China has begun to emancipate its mind and move forward lightly.

The cultural circles, literary and artistic circles are blooming and recovering day by day, and various schools and ideas are in full swing. And China's art world has also begun its own development.

In December 1979, a "Stars" art exhibition appeared in old Beijing.

On that cold winter's day, 23 young amateur artists chose the streets full of pedestrians to display 163 works of art. These Chinese paintings, oil paintings, woodcuts, and wood carvings are all expressions of power and beauty, and they have a deep shock to the Chinese people who are still in ignorance.

The picture of an era has to be sketched by many aspirants, just as those enthusiastic young people said in the preface of the "Art Exhibition": "The shadow of the past and the light of the future overlap together, constituting our multiple living conditions today, and it is our responsibility to live firmly and remember every lesson; The world offers endless possibilities for explorers......"

Since the 80s, a large number of avant-garde works of art have emerged in the art world, such as Tang Daxi's sculpture "Warrior", Yuan Yunsheng's mural "Songkran Festival - Hymn to Life", Chen Danqing's "Tibetan Paintings" and so on.

Body art makes up a significant proportion of these works of art.

It's just that under the influence of traditional culture, body art is more limited to the creation and appreciation of art circles, and has not flowed into society.

There are historical reasons for this.

Before the reform and opening up, China paid attention to the concept of collectivity and the concept of the state, and the individual was a screw of the collective, and the individual was a brick of the collective, and it was moved there wherever it was needed. But even in this context, painting as an art form has always flourished, but at that time, painting was more in the service of political propaganda. For example, the painting hanging in the middle of the Tiananmen Gate Tower, which is known to the people of the whole country, is actually a figure painting.

With the reform and opening up and the emancipation of the mind, people began to pursue individuality and freedom, and Gowen's concept of personal life values expanded the value of the individual to the whole social level.

Therefore, whether it is in the field of literature or art, the works created by writers and artists are often works that focus on the individual and reflect the individual.

The recruitment notice for models jointly published in the Beijing Evening News by 10 art academies, including the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and the People's Liberation Army Academy of Arts, that Ge Wen saw was precisely to show the eyes of body art, and it was also the first time that the art category of body art was promoted to the whole society.

The recruitment of models jointly published by 10 art academies, including the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and the People's Liberation Army Academy of Arts, in the Beijing Evening News was very fruitful, and within a few days, several colleges and universities recruited satisfactory models, and the quantity and quality were satisfactory to them.

It's just that with the fermentation of the recruitment posting, a dark tide is already surging in the sun.

Since ancient times, traditional Chinese culture has been very single-minded about the human body.

For example, when you see nudity, you think of sex, and sex has always been taboo in Chinese culture.

Chinese have been subtle since ancient times, and even greetings are made by non-physical contact, rather than handshakes, hugs and even kisses by foreigners, which of course has a prejudice against body art, but more importantly, everyone's genes inherit the conservative of their ancestors.

During the Republic of China, Liu Haisu, the first to eat crabs, recruited models for teaching at the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, and then he became a well-known "hooligan" in the country, not only the common people scolded him, but even the education and cultural circles regarded him as scum.

In the summer of 1917, the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts held an exhibition of art achievements, and because of the nude studies in it, it caused the horror and scolding of the visitors. The president of a university in Shanghai even scolded Liu Haisu as "an art traitor and a thief in the education circles," and even wrote an article calling the exhibition "an exhibition of frenzied worship of genitals," which set off a wave of condemnation. Later, it attracted an investigation by government departments, and Shanghai County Governor Wei Daofeng issued an order to "strictly prohibit nude paintings by the United States". The great warlord Sun Chuanfang first appeased Liu Haisu: "Beauty is also a lot of skills, if you go here to model, people will not discuss the imperfection of your school's art." Later, seeing that the appeasement was ineffective, he secretly ordered Liu Haisu to be wanted and negotiated the closure of the Shanghai Art College.

It stands to reason that at that time, it was the time when the new trends of thought and new ideas of the May Fourth Movement were emerging, and there were so many people with lofty ideals at that time, but there were very few people who supported Liu Haisu. This shows the depth of the feudal residual poison.

In fact, body art doesn't have to be naked. This is a process and behavior of self-discovery and pleasure with the human body as the medium and the purpose of understanding, exploring and harmonizing beauty. Dance, painting the human body, rhythmic gymnastics, aerobics, fitness, body-photography, body painting, etc., which are now familiar to us, are all categories of body art.

In the past few years of reform and opening up, people's concepts have indeed undergone fundamental changes, but some things are deep-rooted and bad habits are difficult to change!

A week after the model job posting, newspapers appeared questioning the behavior of the universities.

Some conservative artists and the apologists of spiritual "purity" were so angry that they wrote articles in the newspapers criticizing the actions of these universities.

Between art and morality, we should choose morality and put morality first. In fact, from an aesthetic point of view, true art is the integration of noble spiritual morality, not decadent, decadent art is actually garbage art, and the same is true of body art.

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The act of recruiting models in newspapers is an open promotion of money and vulgar art, which is offensive to morals, and I think it should be strictly forbidden, and I do not believe that in order to become a painter, you must paint models.

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As an artist, why don't you face up to the needs of popular culture, carry out more art excavation and creation that the public likes to see, and why do you always engage in alternative art in this three-inch "memorabilia"?

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In the face of such unfounded accusations, the young painters who supported the recruitment of models in these colleges and universities, as well as the teachers of the accused universities, were unwilling to be reprimanded, and they immediately began to write articles in the newspapers in response.

Through this incident, I think we should first cultivate a healthy view of art. Body art is not nude-body art, body art is a macro definition, all paintings, sculptures, and sculptures used to show the beauty of the human body can be called body art.

In addition, nudity is not obscene, indecent, ugly, obscene, or evil. Nudity, a simple expression, is not directly related to "immorality". On the contrary, it is precisely because of the long-standing taboo of nudity that nudity has become synonymous with sin.

Now there is such a group of people who think of nudity when they talk about models, and when they think of nudity, they think of voyeurism, and when they think of pervert eyes on the windows of public toilets......

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We recruit models because we love body art.

The artist uses the language of the human body to worship life, praise nature, praise youth, praise love, and pursue freedom. This creative attitude is the internal motivation for the production of excellent works of body art.

However, there is no inevitable connection between really good body art and leading people into thinking and evil thoughts. Isn't Michelangelo's "David" impressing with its masculine beauty and sense of power? Rodin's sculptures directly on the theme of sex-love still make people feel youthful, beautiful, and energetic away from carnal desire......

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I remember that the famous Soviet sculptor Mukhina said about the situation in her country: "Now we have an unhealthy Puritan tendency - fear of nakedness. Why is it that our audience is allowed to see the nudity of the old masters, but not the nudity of the Soviet painters? If we look at the problem with this logic, we would have to deny all ancient and Renaissance art and close all museums. ”

She also said: "The human body can express human emotions and inner appearance most fully, sincerely, and unobscurely (not everything can be added to pants)".

Judging from the performance of some people now, it seems that the Puritans in ancient and modern China and abroad have the same criticism of body art, and the logic of their arguments is roughly the same.

Now the domestic accusations of "immorality" have also happened in the Soviet Union. Now the Soviet Union has gradually made breakthroughs in the fields of literature, painting, sculpture and performance, and I think China is the same.

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This heated quarrel about models and body art lasted for many days.

Then this controversy that happened in the art world slowly made ordinary people aware of it.

After several tabloid newspapers reported on the ins and outs of the matter, the general public also became interested in the debate.

Regarding models and body art, ordinary people have expressed their opinions in newspapers.

There are those who agree and those who oppose, but the uproar and doubts are louder, which makes those defenders proud and even more justifiably accuse these universities.

In the face of the unanimous doubts of the common people, the young painters who originally supported the recruitment of models and the teachers of those art academies suddenly died down because of some factors or because of the orders of the school.

The discussion came to an abrupt halt one day in late May 1985.

All that remains is the boasting of the apologists and the contempt for the models in the occasional letters from readers.

Perhaps the only consolation for those painters and art colleges is that-

The profession of modeling has finally become known to people all over the country.

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Do any book lovers know why the debate came to an abrupt end?

The next chapter reveals the mystery, which is also a big turning point in the book.

I hope everyone is in pairs today, and don't be like a traitor in the office alone in the codeword. Tear......

(To be continued.) )