The beginning of art

The Tai family has lived in Nanxiaoli, Fengxiang County, Baoji City, Shaanxi Province for generations, making a living by carving New Year pictures. Fengxiang woodblock New Year pictures originated from the Tai family in Nanxiaoli. This folk art began in the Tang and Song Dynasties and flourished in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. In the second year of Zhengde in the Ming Dynasty (1507), eight households in the Tai family were engaged in engraving and selling New Year pictures. At its peak, Fengxiang New Year pictures had more than 70 workshops, with an annual output of up to 6 million pieces. "The best, the biggest and the highest level" is Tai Liping's evaluation of the "Shixing Painting Bureau" founded by his grandfather Tai Shiqin.

Fengxiang folk woodblock New Year pictures have little influence from external art, and basically maintain the artistic style of the original ancient woodblock New Year pictures. The New Year paintings are rough and exaggerated, with partial matching of thickness and full composition. The door paintings are powerful in shape. The compositions of the genre paintings are full of life interest. The colors are bright red and green, with strong contrast. They are magnificent after being coated with gold and silver. The hands and faces are even more beautiful after being hand-dyed. Appear realistic.

Tai Liping, the 20th generation descendant of the Tai family, was born in 1952. He learned coloring from his grandfather at the age of 6. At the age of 9, he began to systematically learn the family New Year painting craftsmanship under the instruction of his father Tai Yi. During the Cultural Revolution, Tai Liping's home was ransacked 17 times, and thousands of New Year picture plates were destroyed. In 1979, Tai Liping began the reproduction of woodblock New Year paintings. When the economy was extremely difficult at that time, Tai Liping once took out a loan to buy 20 yuan of pear woodblocks and worked overtime day and night to carve the blocks. By 1984, 28-year-old Tai Liping officially took over the ancestral woodblock New Year paintings and founded Fengyi New Year Painting Society.

Art Development

After Tai Liping's father passed away, the task of copying the drawing boards fell on Tai Liping alone. Tai Liping said: "My father left, and I was the only one left to copy these things. I had to rush for time. So, I engraved during the day and sealed the color at night. I did this for about six or seven years. At that time, I could do it continuously for at least one day. 21 hours of work." In addition to copying the paintings, Tai Liping and his wife also had to do farm work on 9 acres of land. Otherwise, it would have been difficult to make ends meet just by relying on New Year paintings. By 1986, Tai Liping had to slow down his progress because his body couldn't bear it anymore. In addition to printing and selling New Year pictures, Tai Liping designs, draws New Year pictures, and collects materials. In just three years, he copied more than 170 sets of ancient prints from Shixing Painting Bureau. This is almost the work that he has done for two generations in three years.

Artistic Difficulties

When offset New Year pictures emerged, woodblock New Year pictures declined rapidly. In Shaanxi Province, there were three places in Hanzhong, Pucheng and Fengxiang that were rich in New Year paintings. Later, the New Year painting families in Hanzhong and Pucheng gave up completely, and only Tai Liping from Fengxiang still struggled to support them. Tai Liping's grandfather, Tai Shiqin, and father, Tai Yi, have been engaged in the rescue work of woodblock New Year pictures for many years, constantly restoring varieties and improving the accuracy of the pictures. In Tai Liping's generation, he continues this lonely rescue. In the family-style "Fengyi New Year Picture Society", only Tai Liping and his wife Wang Huifang stick to this smallest New Year picture creation society in China and continue to protect and inherit Fengxiang woodblock New Year pictures.

In 1990, when the New Year picture market was stagnant, Tai Liping was ready to give up the production of Fengxiang woodblock New Year pictures and switch to a small business to make ends meet. After hearing the news, some artist friends, scholars and teachers extended a helping hand to him, allowing him to continue on the path of inheritance and innovation of woodblock New Year paintings. Fengxiang's woodblock New Year paintings also temporarily escaped the fate of extinction. With the improvement of people's living standards and cultural taste, New Year pictures have not only entered people's lives as a carrier of festivals or blessings, but the cultural charm of New Year pictures is also being accepted by many cultural people. By continuously improving the quality of Fengxiang woodblock New Year paintings, Tai Liping has gradually ranked them among the high-level artworks in China.

Art takes off

In 1992, Tai Liping compiled and published the hand-printed "Selected Fengxiang New Year Paintings" in two volumes in 1992, with a total of 168 works, becoming Fengxiang Mu. The most complete historical data on printmaking in history. Tai Shiqin, Tai Yi and Tai Liping were awarded the title of "Shaanxi Folk New Year Painting Family" by the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Culture and others. Tai Liping was hired as a "Folk Art Creation Researcher" by the China Academy of Art in May 2005.

In the following years, Tai Liping was invited to display Fengxiang's woodblock prints and templates at exhibitions such as the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts, the Central Academy of Fine Arts, the Shaanxi Artists Gallery, and the Shanghai Exhibition Center.

In 1994, Tai Liping went to Australia and Hong Kong to hold the "Collection Exhibition of Chinese Folk New Year Paintings". Tai Liping's New Year paintings were included or collected by 156 art academies and art units at home and abroad.

In 1999, Tai Liping went to Paris, France with the "Chinese Art Delegation" to participate in the "99 Paris-China Culture Week" to exhibit and demonstrate Fengxiang woodblock New Year paintings. There were 17 prints around the UNESCO building in Paris. Banners with Fengxiang woodblock New Year paintings, horseback riding Qin Qiong, and Jingde are hung around and in the central hall as iconic works of traditional Chinese folk art. Chinese folk New Year paintings, an ancient folk art, have had a strong appeal and shock to European people. "Selected Woodblock New Year Pictures of Fengxiang" has been collected by the Sinology Laboratory of the Collège de France and New Year picture enthusiasts, and there was a long queue of people asking for signatures. At the end of the exhibition, the exhibition was extended from noon to 7 p.m. due to the reluctance of visitors to leave.

What made Tai Liping happy was that when he went to Wuhan to demonstrate and give lectures, a graduate student from Hubei Institute of Technology provided him with 10 ancient samples of the original Shixing Painting Bureau, which were also reproduced in Tai Liping's New Year paintings. No new varieties were collected. In Nanjing, collector Mr. Gao Jianzhong gave Tai Liping the ancient New Year painting "Dragon and Phoenix Money Horse" from Shunxing Bureau and a paper horse from Suzhou that he had collected for many years. Basically all 310 kinds of Fengxiang woodblock New Year paintings collected by Tai Liping and his son have been reproduced.

Art inheritance

Tai Liping has been committed to continuing this family tradition in his family. Among his three children, the youngest daughter who studied at Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts has become independent. Engraving, but other skills cannot be compared with Tai Liping. Tai Liping also had no apprentices, and he was worried that Fengxiang's woodblock New Year paintings would be lost in his hands. At the same time, he was also very helpless about the reality of folk art. The Central Academy of Fine Arts originally had some connections, but they were later withdrawn. Many people in society also dismiss folk crafts. “In fact, folk art is the root of national culture. If it is continued, If the roots are gone, the culture will also dry up.”

Tai Liping was very envious of the New Year painting creators in Wuqiang County, Hebei Province. Local leaders attached great importance to the protection, excavation and development of New Year paintings. In October 1983, the Ministry of Culture approved the establishment of the Wuqiang New Year Painting Society, which was awarded Publication rights. In 1992, the Wuqiang County Government invested more than 1 million yuan to build the country's first New Year Picture Museum, which expanded the influence of Wuqiang New Year Pictures.

"Protecting folk art is not just about allocating some money to make a few VCDs. In fact, the most important thing is the protection of creators and the cultivation of subsequent talents." After Tai Liping said these words, Jing Staring quietly at the New Year paintings in the exhibition hall that embody the wisdom of the Tai family for more than 500 years, he may be thinking about a more bumpy future.

Art popularization

Tai Liping believes that as the country pays more and more attention to folk arts and crafts, the general climate is getting better and better, but the popularization work needs to be further promoted. When he took the Fengxiang New Year paintings abroad several times and saw the enthusiasm of overseas friends for the New Year paintings, he gained a deeper understanding of the charm of Chinese folk arts and crafts, and it also made him more careful to maintain the original flavor of the Fengxiang New Year paintings. Tai Liping returned to the countryside of Fengxiang and found a carpenter to make more than 30 50 cm square woodblocks. He hopes to complete the re-stereotype work of nearly 30 old blocks in two to three years, truly protecting traditional Chinese folk culture. Art is responsible.