The Genre of Seascape in the Guohua Technique (An Example of Song Mingyan’s Art)
Authors: Ли Ю. 
Published: November 2023

Статья посвящена анализу художественных особенностей морских пейзажей китайского художника Сун Минъюаня – основателя данного жанра в национальной живописи – и их эволюции по мере профессионального становления художника и изменения его эстетических предпочтений. Базу исследования составили работы китайских и российских искусствоведов, изучавших творчество китайского мастера в период с середины 1980-х гг. по начало XXI в. Художник стал первопроходцем в использовании художественных средств выразительного языка гохуа, который ранее считался не способным передать в полной мере всю силу и мощь величественной, порой яростной морской стихии. На примере творчества Сун Минъюаня и его серии картин «Ода морю» определяются возможности и перспективы использования традиционной техники гохуа для создания морских пейзажей, осмысляется процесс ее эволюции в начале XXI столетия, а также выделяются специфические черты китайской версии марины в контексте общемирового художественного процесса.

The study examines the emergence of the seascape genre in Chinese art on the example of the works of its main representative, the marine painter Song Mingyuan. The author analyzes the artistic features of his seascapes and their evolution as the artist develops professionally and his aesthetic preferences change. The materials of the study were research of art historians on the works of the Chinese master from the mid-1980s to the early 21st century. The research methods are artistic and stylistic analysis and the iconography of Song Mingyuan’s sea paintings at different stages of his creative life, and the study of documentary materials. The author consistently studies Song Mingyuan’s early works made in the guohua technique and then those created under the influence of his acquaintance with the principles of Western oil painting. Further, the author analyzes the mechanism of the “birth” of the artist’s specific manner in creating maritime paintings through the synthesis of Chinese and Western traditions. The analysis begins with Song Mingyuan’s first work, Unrest at Sea (1986), which already shows the artist’s special attitude to the sea element and manifests hiss search for a new language of artistic expression. Particular attention is paid to the 1980s – the time of the official formation of the “school of the seascape”, when the artist skillfully combines Chinese and Western features, applied innovation in terms of technique and motives, and showed various artistic styles. After acquaintance with oil painting in the 1990s, Song Mingyuan uses color much more boldly and departs from the compositional scheme characteristic of his early works – a combination of rock and sea elements; he increasingly turns to the image of boundless waves and sky. In 2002, Song Mingyuan founds the Sea Stone painting school. During that period, the artist tends to depict coastal waters, but then returns to the sea element again. His image of water becomes more dynamic, complex in color, which is typical for se-i painting. On the example of his works, the artist showed other Chinese painters unique methods and techniques that formed the basis of his authorial system of artistic expression, which absorbed the traditional techniques of Chinese national painting in combination with Western expressive techniques. His students (Zhao Xiyun, Deng Zijing, Lin Qian, and others) now devote their watercolors and oil paintings to the sea and navigation, which reflects the heyday of China’s maritime power.