Woman and Art 女性與美術

Woman and Art – Jin Qijing[1]

[1] Jin Qijing 金啟靜. “Nüxing yu meishu” 女性與美術 [Women and art]. Funü zazhi 婦女雜誌,15, no.7 (July 1929): 31-33.

女性與美術 — 金啟靜女士

There is a natural special relation between women and art. However, most women are not enthusiastic about fine art in reality, some even can not comprehend it at all. Therefore, it is necessary to discuss this topic. And I, who was involved in art education, have to get this off my chest despite limited knowledge.

女性與藝術本有特殊的關係。而縱觀現狀，一般女子對於藝術的興味，卻是非常淡薄，有的竟至不能領會。故對於本問題的討論，實在是很有意義的。不學無術的我，既廁身於藝術教育界中，更覺有不吐不快之感！

Women are the darlings of Venus (meishen de chonger 美神的寵兒). First of all, women have an innate special instinct about art. The saying “Women love nature for a lifetime” should be interpreted as “Women are born to appreciate beauty for a lifetime”. The experiences and sensations of women are always derived from the paradise of beauty as women prefer intuitive over analytic thought and flowing curves over rigid lines. Due to this high sensitivity of flow, women have a high degree of empathy for the beautiful but unseen creative works, the works of future days. In addition, women always show their artistic values in both the emotion of “Transcending” (chaoyue 超越) and the worldly joys and sorrows, while their nature with sincerity and agape is exactly the perfect “attitude on beauty” (meidetaidu 美的態度). Therefore, lives of women are more diverse and elusive than imagination.

女性是美神的寵兒。其適於美術，卻有天賦之特殊本能。所謂“女子一生愛好天然，”實在可說“一生愛美是天然。”以吾之體驗，吾之感興，無時不居於美的樂園之中。不好分析的認識，而求直覺的感應，不喜直線的呆板，而喜曲線的流動；正因女子富於流動性，故對於美的不見的創作，未來世界的創作，有十二分的同情。且女性在“超越”（Dominent）的強度情緒中，不獨於平常的喜樂悲哀中，可以表現其藝術價值；而其心境之真摯純愛，更乃一最完整的“美的態度。”女性生活的豐富，於此中更有深而不可推測的意味！

Women will always be an integral part of the world of art, as both artists and their objects. In the Greek era, Venus had as many legends and statues as Guanyin does in China.[1] Venus is not only a god of love and beauty in the Greek era, but also in the time of Rodin, when Venus was still regarded as beauty and the norm of art for students and called: “The Arc de Triomphe of Life” (shengmingzhikaixuanmen 生命之凱旋門), “The Bridge of Truth” (zhenshizhiqiao 真實之橋). The admiration of the Venus is endless. Although Rodin was a realist, the sublime of his work is still derived from the feminine beauty of Venus. Unfortunately, in the 4th and 5th centuries, Christians imprisoned by asceticism destroyed almost all famous sculptures of the Greek feminist school, only leaving the murals in the dark Byzantine churches. Feminine beauty was plundered, and Europe entered the cruel Dark Ages! However, feminine beauty can be considered as the gospel of eliminating violence. The Renaissance was a period when people understood God, and it was also a revival of feminine beauty. The famous “smile” by Da Vinci seems to indicate that “The sky is about to dawn! There is no place for brutal demons to hide! Henceforth, humans are on the road to light and happiness!” The charm is even more incredible and intriguing than everything in the world. So women are incarnations of truth and beauty. Apart from the wild themes of a human head with the body of a lion or a bull, which people usually use in Babylonia or ancient Rome, the closer they are to modern times, the more they tend to regard women as the objects of creation. For instance, the Virgin Mary, angels and Eirene are all represented by women. 90% of the representative works of realism displayed in galleries and museums around the world are exhibits of women. In other words, the more modern it is, the closer women are to art, which means women have a closer relationship with human happiness. The European war[2] showed humankind that brutal slaughter cannot sustain the world of humankind. When war ends, when the goddess of peace stands towering above humanity with two wings, artists love women more as they embrace peace. Although the applied arts (gongyimeishu 工藝美術) of France after World War I returned to the natural and simple, the new popular styles-including an interest in Egypt and négrophilie (negrophilia)-showed everything through women’s “consciousness of beauty” (meideyishi 美的意識). This consciousness was quite apparent in fashion. Clothes from the fashion district (huajie 花街) in Lyons were updated several times in a day, before the dusk the new styles spread to small crafts and then formed a trend of applied arts of France in no more than a month. Although the applied arts in China is in depression, the styles of clothes in Shanghai also influenced the decorative arts and promoted the idea of communication in recent years.

[1] Translator’s note: Guanyin is the most commonly used Chinese translation of the bodhisattva known as Avalokiteśvara. Guanyin is the Buddhist bodhisattva associated with compassion. The Chinese name Guanyin is short for Guanshiyin, which means “the one who perceives the sounds of the world.”

[2] Translator’s note: European war refers to the World War I. Since the main battlefield is on the European continent, it is often called European War in Chinese in the early 20th century.

自來美術家的範疇，美術家的物件，都不能脫女性而獨立。維娜斯不獨在希臘時代為愛神，為美神，有無量數如佛觀音之傳說與雕像；即至羅丹時代，亦以此維娜斯美的典型，為其學生藝術之規範，謂之為：“生命之凱旋門，”“真實之橋”優美之圈界，其景仰可謂至盡。羅丹的作品，固為壯美之寫實者，但其泉源乃導於女性美的維娜斯。不幸在四五世紀之間，被不良之禁欲主義的基督教徒把希臘女性派的著名雕刻全部毀棄，僅存了黑沉沉的比十汀教室中的壁畫。女性美遭了劫，就此歐洲也入了強暴的黑暗時代！但是，女性美可說是從古以來消滅暴戾的福音。“文藝復興，”是人和神的認識時期，實在也就是女性美的復興時期。達文賽著名的“微笑”出現後，昭示人們說：“天要快亮了，殘暴的惡魔沒有藏身的地方了！從此人類的幸福，走到光明的路上了！”其不可思議之情趣，較諸世界上的一切，都耐尋味些。所以女性實在是真美的造化物。世界上除了不脫於巴比倫羅馬中一時期的暴野性，不要用女性來作藝術的題材，好用什麼人頭獅身人頭牛身的野性題材外，差不多愈迫於現代，愈是趨向於崇奉女性的物件。聖母，天使，和平之神，皆是拿女性來代表的。縱觀世界各國美術館博物館所陳列寫實派的代表作品，十九皆以女性為對象。質言之，愈到現代，女性與美術愈接近，也就是女性對於人類幸福的關係更加緊密了。歐洲大戰所給予人類的教訓是：“蠻強的殘殺，終不能維持人類的世界。”等到戰事告終，那背負兩翼的和平女神，巍然矗立在人海之上層的時候，藝術家對於負有和平使命之女性，不由得更加的愛好了。就是說到大戰後法蘭西的工藝美術，雖然反原了，簡樸了，但其新流行的式樣，——埃及式樣，黑人式樣——皆以女性的“美的意識”來代表一切。淺見者表現於衣裝；里昂的花街，一日而三新其式，不終朝而流行至於小工藝品。不月而形成法蘭西工藝美術的主潮。在我國雖則工藝方面似有病懨的現象，然以近數年來上海新裝的樣式左右一切裝飾美術者，亦使一切風好常新，隨之而為無盡期的轉移了。

Though this year’s National Art Exhibition could not considered as the criteria by which we judge everything, the deep connection between art and women in modern times can be inferred from a large number of works on the subject of women. More than a quarter of the 80 Japanese works displayed at the First National Exhibition depict women. Including the Gin no kaichō (銀の諧調 Harmony in silver) by Okada Saburōsuke (岡田三郎助 1869-1939), describing a nude woman lying on her back; Chūrippu (チューリップ Tulip) by Wada Eisaku (和田英作 1874-1959), depicting a nude women looking down; Onna(女Woman) by Mitsutani Kunishiro (滿谷國四郎 1874-1936) portraying a nude women sitting and thinking; and yokugo (浴後After the bath) by Ishikawa Toraji (石川寅治 1875-1964) tracing various actions of naked woman when she’s dressing up, which attracts the attention of the audience. All of our figure paintings in Western-style depicted females as the object. Whether this is a temporary trend or not, the need of women for art can be inferred from this exhibition. And I have only mentioned the various connections between women and art, but have not yet discussed the relationship between society, women and art.

本屆的全國美術展覽會，本未可以據為一切的準則；但看到以女性為題材的作品之多，也可以推知美術與女性在現代的連結之深了。日本在這次會中的出品，共計八十幅，裡面倒有四分之一以上——二十四幅——是描寫女性的。最有名的如：岡田山郎助的“銀之諧和，”寫一仰臥的裸女；和田英作的“梯仞梨天的花，”寫一裸女俯視之形；滿谷國四郎所作之“女，”寫一裸女坐思；石川寅治所作之“浴後，”寫裸女理裝的種種女性表現，更為觀眾所愛好所注目。我們自己的西畫所出品，凡是人體的表現，皆以女性為物件。無論這種一時間的趨向是與不是，但女性對於美術的需要，由此可以推知而確定了。並且這不過說女性與美術的種種關係，還沒有說到社會與女性和美術的關係。

The relationship between society, women and art is partly entrusted to education. Let us first consider the relationship between art and education. Abstractly speaking, art is a technique for expressing beauty (meiqing 美情) while art contains infinite affection and the ability to change temperament (yixing 移性) in education. Therefore, art is placed in a high position in society and life. Tolstoy had a good sentence[1] that art is “a tool to remove violence and create a world of love” [2] while Mendelssohn said that “art is the carrying forward of the beautiful, obscurely recognized by feeling, till it becomes the true and good. The aim of art is moral perfection.”[3] Cai Jiemin (蔡孑民 1868-1940) also advocated to replace religion by aesthetic education (meiyu 美育) and improve moral by art. Those perspectives are all talked about the close connection between art and education that art enable people to be in touch with beauty while trying hard to be on the right track (zhengtu 正途)!

[1] Translator’s note: The author made a mistake. The sentence is adopted from the preface that Zheng Zhenduo wrote for the Chinese version of Tolstoy’s work, What is love.

[2] Translator’s note: Sullivan, M. (1996). Art and artists of twentieth-century China. Berkeley: University of California Press.

[3] Translator’s note: Adopted from Leo Tolstoy, The Kingdom of God is Within You, What is Art?, trans by Aline Delano (2013). Retrieved from http://www.gutenberg.org/files/43409/43409-h/43409-h.htm

社會對於女性和美術的關係，一部分是寄託在教育裡面。先言美術與教育的關係。抽象的說，美術是表現美情的技術。在教育上，美術蘊藏著無限的深情，和移性的能力。因此在社會和人類生活上，美術就有了很高的地位了。托爾斯泰說得好，藝術能征服暴力，能創造美的王國。門特爾仲也說道，藝術從混亂感情所認識的美，達到真和善的目的，就是道德的完全。蔡孑民先生亦主張以美育代宗教，用美術來培植道德：這皆是說到美術的人生，與人生教育的關係之密切，其目的要使民眾都能接觸美的清芬，同時努力于人生的正途上去！

Unfortunately, our nation’s women were long fettered by the Confucian ethical code (lijiao禮教) , and their aesthetic talents could not be properly developed. Therefore, many talents virtually disappeared in the history and their possibility to develop art has been eliminated, which is very regretful. However, in the history of art, many women also found success because art is considered as an approach to edify sentiment (taoyexingqing 陶冶性情) of all the time. According to Jade Platform Painting History (yutai huashi 玉台畫史)[1], there are a large number of female painters of Song, Yuan and Qing Dynasties. But most works were in a rut because they had always been trapped in boudoir without communication with other people, contact with the great nature and vitality from the outside world. For the occasional creations with unique features, the methods were not affordable. Times are not what they used to be. As in the previous section, the combination between women and art, which indicates that women are not only considered as the objects but also the contributors of art, has been distinctly expressed in this exhibition. All attendees of the National Art Exhibition were impressed by these works: the colorful and solid pastels (sefenhua 色粉畫) of Pan Yuliang (潘玉良 1899-1977), vigorous and great portraits by Cai Weilian (蔡威廉 1904-1939) and delicate carved portraits from Wang Jingyuan (王靜遠). All the connoisseurs were unanimously shocked that this national exhibition was unexpectedly occupied by women with considerable weight. Thus, the fact that women have a special instinct for art has been verified. It also can be confirmed that society needs female art urgently. Although most people now recognize women’s equal standing in society and the arts, restrictions on the women of the past kept them dependent on men and unable to develop their natures (xingling 性靈) , stimulate their minds, train their capabilities to enjoy a happy life. Now that they have been liberated from the restrictions and now that women are entering society to seek occupations, they are attracted by art. If the lofty undertakings of literature, music, painting, and the arts which are the most conformable field with women’s instinct open for women to promote a surprising advancement, women will have a brilliant future in the development of the arts.

[1] Translator’s note: It is obvious that the author made a mistake, the original should be “玉jade” instead of “五 five”.

我國女子不幸自來都受了禮教的束縛，不能以天賦的審美觀念去正當地發展。因此無形中湮沒了很多的天才，消滅了她們在美術上發展的能力，是非常使人惋惜的。但在美術史上，自來也以為美術可以陶冶性情，而女子在美術上有所成功的，倒也不少。宋元清五台畫史上所載的女畫家，層見疊出，不可指數。然以歷來抑處深閨，無同志的觀摩，少於偉大的自然相接觸，又不大得到外界新的生命力的灌溉，故其作品多因襲陳章，稍有超絕獨創，表現自己個性之作。而她們所用的方法，又屬太不經濟。然而時代的推移，現在又不同於往昔了，女性與美術的關係，既如前節所述；於此展覽會中，也有了很顯明的結合。這種結合，不但是女性與美術，實在可說是女性本身與美術。這次全國美展，凡去參觀過的人均有深刻的印象留於腦際，就是：潘玉良女士豐富而堅實的色粉畫，蔡威廉女士勁健而偉大的幾幅肖像，以及王靜遠女士工細的雕刻人像。凡往參觀的鑒賞家，莫不異口同聲，驚駭這次國展，竟出於意想之外被女性占了相當的優勝。女性之於藝術，有特殊的本能，由此已可證實。社會上對於女性藝術有急切的需要，也可以從此推知一二。現在一般人已公認女子的才能，可以在社會上占相當的位置，在社會藝術上占相當的位置。自來女子不知謀生，被男子供養，不能展開其性靈，振作其精神；充分的鍛煉自己的能力，以享受充分美滿的人生。現在她們已從舊的環境中解放出來；在走入社會投身職業的途程中，第一她們便受了藝術的吸引。一切如文學，音樂，繪畫，等高尚的事業；統統開放來容納她們；而她們也順著她們天性最切近的方面得著可驚的發展。將來女子在藝術方面的發展，是未可限量的。

Now it’s the time of the feminist art movement! And fortunately, the gospel (shengyin 聖音) has been already sounded! The goddess of beauty has come to us! “Tortoiseshells and jades are destroyed in the casket.”(guiyu huiyu duzhong 龜玉毀於櫝中)[1]is the weakest and most helpless situation in the world. I expect that women comrades who intend to research art strive to root out inner vanity and make a real effort to develop women’s talents, instead of waiting to see men pioneer art. We should use our innate talent, to go forth and grab the golden key (jinlun 金輪) of art.

[1] Translator’s note: Tortoiseshells were used for pyromancy – a form of divination, while jades were used in worship in ancient China.

現在女性藝術運動的時期到了！且喜聖音已經在空中呼喊！美神已經臨到我們的面前了！天下最柔弱無能的是，“龜玉毀於櫝中。”希望大家不要放過去，我們愛好藝術的女性，社會運動絕對不是二三個人的力量所能奏效的。

I sincerely hope that comrades worked on art could do all they can to explore much deeper and further which not only can achieve individual values with pleasure but also make a profound contribution to the evolving world!

吾更希望一般從事美術的同志，向高深處研究下去，儘量發展；這樣不但人生能得充分的表現，無限的愉樂，就是對於人類進化中世界的一切，亦當有莫大的供獻！