Liang Dingming

Liang Dingming (1898 – March 1, 1959), born Liang Xieshen, was a modern Chinese painter and the owner of the Zhanhua Studio. A native of Shunde, Guangdong, he was born in Shanghai in 1898, the older brother of the twin painters Liang Youming and Liang Zhongming. His older sister was Liang Xueqing.
==Biography==
===Education and Employment in Shanghai===
Liang Dingming was born in Shanghai in 1898, and began his education in a private school in 1907. In 1915, while studying at the Nanyang Surveying School, as part of the curriculum he learned perspective techniques. He also studied painting at the Shanghai Painting and Fine Arts Academy. 彭明輝，〈梁氏家族與近代中國藝術論稿──以梁鼎銘為系統〉，《中國美術專 題研究》，台北：台北市立美術館，1984。 In 1916, he began making a living by drawing portraits in Xiamen. In October 1917, his painting “Morning Dressing” won second place in a monthly competition held by the Dongya Company. 申報. 1917-10-31 （中文（臺灣））. He then joined the advertising department of the Shanghai British-American Tobacco Company, where he painted portraits of women. In the autumn of 1919, his older brother Liang Dizhong went to France to work and study art, purchasing art books and copies of artworks to send back to China as study and imitation materials for the family. While copying these works, Liang also taught his twin brothers Liang Youming and Liang Zhongming how to paint.
===Participation in Military Art and Propaganda===
In the autumn of 1925, Liang Dingming quit his job and went to Guangdong to further develop his career. In 1926, he was appointed as the editor-in-chief of the magazine “Revolutionary Pictorial” and opened the “Sui Shi Xiang Painting Studio” in Dashitou, near Guangzhou, where he completed the painting “Bloody Tracks” and began creating large-scale war paintings. Starting from July 1926, he served as the art director of the Political Warfare Department within the National Revolutionary Army Headquarters, the art director of the Eighth Route Army, and the art director of the Art Department within the General Political Warfare Department of the Military Commission. In December, he was transferred to the position of art director of the Political Training Department within the Training Director’s Office. In March 1929, on a training order from the Kuomintang government in Nanjing he set off for France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, and other countries to study art.In April 1930, the Preparatory Committee and Memorial Hall for the National Revolutionary Army Martyrs Cemetery in Nanjing established a painting studio near Linggu Temple, where he created historical paintings. Starting from 1934, he also served as a political instructor in the Political Training Department of the Army Officer School, and his evaluation stated that he was suitable for the position of “Dean of the College of Fine Arts.” 「中央陸軍軍官學校在校服務五年以下及以上堪以調任人員建議表並附其簡歷」，1937年4月13日，〈軍事各學校 （八）〉，《蔣中正總統文物》，國史館藏，數位典藏號：002-080102-00114-007。 In August 1930, he married Li Ruolan. They had two sons, Liang Xiaoding (who died in 1937) and Liang Zhuohua, and five daughters, Liang Danmei, Liang Danfeng, Liang Danping, Liang Danbei, and Liang Danhui, all of whom became figures in Taiwan’s art and literary circles.
===Displacement and Settlement in Taiwan===
During the Sino-Japanese War, Liang Dingming moved his family to Wuhan, and then to Sichuan. At the end of 1941, he went to Hong Kong to prepare for cultural promotion work in the United States. However, with the outbreak of World War II in the Pacific, Hong Kong fell and he was forced to destroy more than 10 large-scale oil paintings, leaving only the work “Blood Blade” in the possession of a friend. In 1942, he successfully escaped from Hong Kong and became the principal of a middle school in Liuzhou, Guangxi. In 1946, he became the principal of the Northeast Jilin Zhongzheng Art School. In the winter of 1947, his full family moved from Shanghai to Taipei. In June 1951, he began work with the Psychological Warfare Department of the Allied Forces Headquarters in Japan, where he came into contact with avant-garde painting. He returned to Taiwan in 1952. In 1955, he took over as head of the Art Department at the Political Warfare School (now the Political Warfare Academy at National Defense University). To improve the pedagogical content of the art department, he personally persuaded Lin Kegong and Lan Yinding to teach at the school. At the same time, he made ink figure painting a compulsory course, added practical art courses, and wrote teaching materials, taught anatomy classes, and produced related drawing instruments. He also served as a member of the Ministry of Education’s Art Education Committee, reviewing art teaching materials.陳慧如. 「復興崗學院」藝術學系與臺灣漫畫的發展. 國立臺灣師範大學歷史學系碩士論文. 2020: 23-25, 60.
==Creative Works==
In his early years, Liang Dingming engaged in commercial creations such as portraits and paintings of attractive women. After art studies in Europe, he focused on creating oil paintings with war themes, which was the pinnacle of his artistic career. He was also skilled in sketching and depicting animals, particularly horses, and he also experimented with printmaking. According to Peng Minghui, Liang combined the strengths of traditional Chinese painting and Western painting, resulting in vivid and lively depictions of figures, landscapes, and animals. He also tried to use various mixed media such as pastels and watercolors in his commercial creations. Additionally, his early paintings of attractive women incorporated traditional clothing, historical themes, and the use of charcoal and ink to highlight the contrast of light and shadow and create a sense of three-dimensionality, showcasing a fusion of Chinese and Western styles. 陳佩佩. 梁鼎銘(1898-1959)大陸時期西畫創作研究. 國立中央大學藝術學研究所碩士論文. 2006 Peng Minghui pointed out that in order to paint horses, Liang conducted detailed studies of their skeletal structure in order to realize both form and spirit. His paintings of horses, known for their suspended posture with hooves off the ground, became famous.
===Historical Paintings===
Chen Peipei believes that Liang Dingming drew inspiration from the Romanticism painting style in terms of subject matter, form, and style, creating visually stunning historical war paintings. Through the arrangement and financial support of the government, his war paintings had a significant propaganda effect and boosted morale. Critics believe that this was his manifestation of the belief in “art saving the country” and “using art to witness the times.” 
He created fifteen large-scale historical paintings, of which only two survive today: the oil painting “Bloody Battle” completed in 1938 (National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts collection) and the oil painting “Yue Fei’s Major Victory” completed in 1950 (National Museum of History collection). In 1971, Liang Danfeng reproduced the painting “Battle of Huizhou” on a smaller scale, reducing it to one-third of the original size (212×798 cm), faithfully recreating the original. Now preserved in the Hwa Kang Museum of Cultural Studies at Chinese Culture University, it is the largest surviving war painting in Taiwan.
===Major Publications===
“Liang Dingming’s Paintings,” Shanghai: Cultural Art Printing and Plate Making Company, 1929.
“Anecdotes of the Chinese Air Force in the War of Resistance,” Nanjing: Zhengqi Publishing House, 1947.
“Sketches of President Chiang,” Shanghai: Zhengqi Publishing House, 1949.
“The Latest Art for Junior High School,” (6 volumes), Taipei: Far East Books, 1956.
“Poetry Collection from the Studio of War Paintings,” Taipei: Liang Dingming Memorial Committee, 1960.
Category:People from Shanghai
Category:1898 births
Category:1959 deaths
Category:Chinese people