Woman and Art 女性与美术

Woman and Art – Jin Qijing[1]

[1] Jin Qijing 金启静. “Nüxing yu meishu” 女性与美术 [Women and art]. Funü zazhi 妇女杂志,15, no.7 (July 1929): 31-33.

女性与美术 — 金启静女士

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.

女性与艺术本有特殊的关系。而纵观现状，一般女子对于艺术的兴味，却是非常淡薄，有的竟至不能领会。故对于本问题的讨论，实在是很有意义的。不学无术的我，既厕身于艺术教育界中，更觉有不吐不快之感！

Women are the darlings of Venus (meishen de chonger 美神的宠儿). 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 美的态度). Therefore, lives of women are more diverse and elusive than imagination.

女性是美神的宠儿。其适于美术，却有天赋之特殊本能。所谓“女子一生爱好天然，”实在可说“一生爱美是天然。”以吾之体验，吾之感兴，无时不居于美的乐园之中。不好分析的认识，而求直觉的感应，不喜直线的呆板，而喜曲线的流动；正因女子富于流动性，故对于美的不见的创作，未来世界的创作，有十二分的同情。且女性在“超越”（Dominent）的强度情绪中，不独于平常的喜乐悲哀中，可以表现其艺术价值；而其心境之真挚纯爱，更乃一最完整的“美的态度。”女性生活的丰富，于此中更有深而不可推测的意味！

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 生命之凯旋门), “The Bridge of Truth” (zhenshizhiqiao 真实之桥). 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 工艺美术) 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 美的意识). 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.

自来美术家的范畴，美术家的物件，都不能脱女性而独立。维娜斯不独在希腊时代为爱神，为美神，有无量数如佛观音之传说与雕像；即至罗丹时代，亦以此维娜斯美的典型，为其学生艺术之规范，谓之为：“生命之凯旋门，”“真实之桥”优美之圈界，其景仰可谓至尽。罗丹的作品，固为壮美之写实者，但其泉源乃导于女性美的维娜斯。不幸在四五世纪之间，被不良之禁欲主义的基督教徒把希腊女性派的著名雕刻全部毁弃，仅存了黑沉沉的比十汀教室中的壁画。女性美遭了劫，就此欧洲也入了强暴的黑暗时代！但是，女性美可说是从古以来消灭暴戾的福音。“文艺复兴，”是人和神的认识时期，实在也就是女性美的复兴时期。达文赛著名的“微笑”出现后，昭示人们说：“天要快亮了，残暴的恶魔没有藏身的地方了！从此人类的幸福，走到光明的路上了！”其不可思议之情趣，较诸世界上的一切，都耐寻味些。所以女性实在是真美的造化物。世界上除了不脱于巴比伦罗马中一时期的暴野性，不要用女性来作艺术的题材，好用什么人头狮身人头牛身的野性题材外，差不多愈迫于现代，愈是趋向于崇奉女性的物件。圣母，天使，和平之神，皆是拿女性来代表的。纵观世界各国美术馆博物馆所陈列写实派的代表作品，十九皆以女性为对象。质言之，愈到现代，女性与美术愈接近，也就是女性对于人类幸福的关系更加紧密了。欧洲大战所给予人类的教训是：“蛮强的残杀，终不能维持人类的世界。”等到战事告终，那背负两翼的和平女神，巍然矗立在人海之上层的时候，艺术家对于负有和平使命之女性，不由得更加的爱好了。就是说到大战后法兰西的工艺美术，虽然反原了，简朴了，但其新流行的式样，——埃及式样，黑人式样——皆以女性的“美的意识”来代表一切。浅见者表现于衣装；里昂的花街，一日而三新其式，不终朝而流行至于小工艺品。不月而形成法兰西工艺美术的主潮。在我国虽则工艺方面似有病恹的现象，然以近数年来上海新装的样式左右一切装饰美术者，亦使一切风好常新，随之而为无尽期的转移了。

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 (银の谐调 Harmony in silver) by Okada Saburōsuke (冈田三郎助 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 (满谷国四郎 1874-1936) portraying a nude women sitting and thinking; and yokugo (浴后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.

本届的全国美术展览会，本未可以据为一切的准则；但看到以女性为题材的作品之多，也可以推知美术与女性在现代的连结之深了。日本在这次会中的出品，共计八十幅，里面倒有四分之一以上——二十四幅——是描写女性的。最有名的如：冈田山郎助的“银之谐和，”写一仰卧的裸女；和田英作的“梯仞梨天的花，”写一裸女俯视之形；满谷国四郎所作之“女，”写一裸女坐思；石川寅治所作之“浴后，”写裸女理装的种种女性表现，更为观众所爱好所注目。我们自己的西画所出品，凡是人体的表现，皆以女性为物件。无论这种一时间的趋向是与不是，但女性对于美术的需要，由此可以推知而确定了。并且这不过说女性与美术的种种关系，还没有说到社会与女性和美术的关系。

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

社会对于女性和美术的关系，一部分是寄托在教育里面。先言美术与教育的关系。抽象的说，美术是表现美情的技术。在教育上，美术蕴藏着无限的深情，和移性的能力。因此在社会和人类生活上，美术就有了很高的地位了。托尔斯泰说得好，艺术能征服暴力，能创造美的王国。门特尔仲也说道，艺术从混乱感情所认识的美，达到真和善的目的，就是道德的完全。蔡孑民先生亦主张以美育代宗教，用美术来培植道德：这皆是说到美术的人生，与人生教育的关系之密切，其目的要使民众都能接触美的清芬，同时努力于人生的正途上去！

Unfortunately, our nation’s women were long fettered by the Confucian ethical code (lijiao礼教) , 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 玉台画史)[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 色粉画) 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 (王静远). 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 性灵) , 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”.

我国女子不幸自来都受了礼教的束缚，不能以天赋的审美观念去正当地发展。因此无形中湮没了很多的天才，消灭了她们在美术上发展的能力，是非常使人惋惜的。但在美术史上，自来也以为美术可以陶冶性情，而女子在美术上有所成功的，倒也不少。宋元清五台画史上所载的女画家，层见叠出，不可指数。然以历来抑处深闺，无同志的观摩，少于伟大的自然相接触，又不大得到外界新的生命力的灌溉，故其作品多因袭陈章，稍有超绝独创，表现自己个性之作。而她们所用的方法，又属太不经济。然而时代的推移，现在又不同于往昔了，女性与美术的关系，既如前节所述；于此展览会中，也有了很显明的结合。这种结合，不但是女性与美术，实在可说是女性本身与美术。这次全国美展，凡去参观过的人均有深刻的印象留于脑际，就是：潘玉良女士丰富而坚实的色粉画，蔡威廉女士劲健而伟大的几幅肖像，以及王静远女士工细的雕刻人像。凡往参观的鉴赏家，莫不异口同声，惊骇这次国展，竟出于意想之外被女性占了相当的优胜。女性之于艺术，有特殊的本能，由此已可证实。社会上对于女性艺术有急切的需要，也可以从此推知一二。现在一般人已公认女子的才能，可以在社会上占相当的位置，在社会艺术上占相当的位置。自来女子不知谋生，被男子供养，不能展开其性灵，振作其精神；充分的锻炼自己的能力，以享受充分美满的人生。现在她们已从旧的环境中解放出来；在走入社会投身职业的途程中，第一她们便受了艺术的吸引。一切如文学，音乐，绘画，等高尚的事业；统统开放来容纳她们；而她们也顺着她们天性最切近的方面得着可惊的发展。将来女子在艺术方面的发展，是未可限量的。

Now it’s the time of the feminist art movement! And fortunately, the gospel (shengyin 圣音) has been already sounded! The goddess of beauty has come to us! “Tortoiseshells and jades are destroyed in the casket.”(guiyu huiyu duzhong 龟玉毁于椟中)[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 金轮) of art.

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

现在女性艺术运动的时期到了！且喜圣音已经在空中呼喊！美神已经临到我们的面前了！天下最柔弱无能的是，“龟玉毁于椟中。”希望大家不要放过去，我们爱好艺术的女性，社会运动绝对不是二三个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!

吾更希望一般从事美术的同志，向高深处研究下去，尽量发展；这样不但人生能得充分的表现，无限的愉乐，就是对于人类进化中世界的一切，亦当有莫大的供献！