Huang Binhong

Huang Binhong was born into a wealthy family of scholar officials in Jinhua, Zhejiang province. He developed an interest in poetry, painting, and seal-carving in his early youth, and collected old seals and inkstones. He was the grandson of artist Huang Fengliu. He would later be associated with Shanghai and finally Hangzhou. He is considered one of the last innovators in the literati style of painting and is noted for his freehand landscapes. His early painting style showed the influence of Li Liufang, Cheng Sui, Cheng Zhengkui, Kun Can, Hong Ren and the Yuan and Ming masters. It emphasized on the importance of the unification of positive and negative space; dark and light shades. Each brush line is powerful and precise. The compact touches, the graceful outlines and the elegant styles of Xin’an School of painting had a profound influence on Huang throughout his life. His style before the age of sixty is called the White-period. After sixty years old, Huang went to Guichi. The scenery of Guichi not only attracted the artist, but also had a great impact on his style. Huang changed from focusing on brush and line to focusing on ink and wash. He started to practice the painting style of Wu Zhen. In 1928, Huang visited Guangxi and Guangdong and created a lot of works by sketching the real landscapes. Huang started to transit from his “White style” to “Black style”. At the age of sixty nine to seventy, Huang visited Sichuan. He was inspired by the atmosphere of Mount Qingcheng in rain and the Qutang Gorge under moonlight. He utilized dripping, staining and layers of dense ink to illustrate the misty wet feeling of rain and the nightly view of mountains. Since then, his "black, dense, thick, heavy" style became his significant feature. From 1937 to 1948, Huang lived in Beijing for eleven years and most of his Black period paintings were done during that time. After that, he moved to Hangzhou and started another new horizon in his art. Inspired by Western Impressionism, he integrated the two major Chinese painting systems (Ink and wash painting and color painting) into a unity. Dots of red, green and blue pigment merged with layers of dense ink creating a luxuriant and richly integrated style in which he deftly manipulated solid and void. His varied style and creativity not only won him an honorary title, but also brought light into the modern Chinese art history. He also had significance for creating several societies devoted to painting and calligraphy. He also wrote many books on art history, such as A History of Chinese Painting, A History of Chinese Calligraphy, and A History of Chinese Seals. He died peacefully in 1955 at the age of 90 in Hangzhou. He was widely regarded as a great master of painting and calligraphy and a cultural icon of modern China.