BEA2015 | Sub Cultured

Wang Shuhui (王叔晖)

Welcome to “Artist Spotlight”, a new column where each month we will be showcasing awesome artists (and their work) from yesterday, today, as well as upcoming artists you should know tomorrow! From fine art and illustration, children’s books to animation, comics and videogame concept art, hey maybe even fashion, we’ll aim to showcase the best of the best, especially underrated or unsung artists whose praise is long overdue. We’ll even dive deeper with occasional interviewers and questionnaires with the artists themselves.

Our first spotlight this summer is Wang Shuhui (王叔晖) (1912-1985) a Chinese Gongbi (meticulous brushwork) and Zhongcai (heavily colored) figure painter and illustrator who rocketed to fame in the 1950’s and 60’s China while at People’s Fine Arts Publishing House for her designs and artwork. While she is well known in China, she is not very well known in America. We’d love to change that.

The portray of Wang Xifeng in “The Dream of the Red Mansion” [cnart.net]

We were first introduced to Wang Shuhui at the People’s Fine Arts Publishing House booth at BEA 2015 this past May where we were captivated by a reprint of her 1954 illustrated version of Wang Shifu‘s Chinese classic romance, The Story of The Western Wing (traditional Chinese: 西廂記; simplified Chinese: 西厢记; pinyin: xīxiāngjì; Wade–Giles: Hsi-hsiang-chi) also known as West Chamber. Since we had never seen her work before, we asked about her and learned she was quite the artist and had a full and interesting life.

Shuhui got her start in illustration at the age of 15 studying at the Chinese Painting Research Institute where she was tutored by other traditional Chinese artists such as Wu Jingting, Xu Yansunand Wu Guangyu. While she pulled heavily from the traditional Gongbi tradition, she in particular also embraced lots of Western painting techniques into her work, including a deeper layered perspective and composition and more balanced sense of anatomy and proportion. We were also told that she was bent on producing authentic coloring for her costumes, studying actual ancient art and documents to make sure her period dress was correct. The ultimate result is a very unique and sensitive look blending the best of both art forms and traditions.

Shuhui’s body of work consist mostly of portraiture of characters from classic literature and history, focusing in particular on delicate but strong heroines or “ancient beauties”, but also used her portraiture skills for lianhuanhua (Chinese picture-story), sequential full page illustrated “comic books” of an often established classic narrative, functionally lying somewhere in between a graphic novel and a picture book. These were an immensely popular art form in the 20th century and are experiencing a revival in interest.

illustration from ‘West Chamber’

Her 16 page West Chamber is one of five lianhuanhua she produced and perhaps her most well known. Upon publishing it was an international best seller at the time and was later a winner of the first National Comics Award specifically for lianhuanhua in 1963. It was, and still is an object of immense pride for the company. She subsequently attempted in 1957 to do a 128 page version of West Chamber but the resulting oeuvre was seen as contentious during the Cultural Revolution so reputedly 118 of the pictures were destroyed, with the ten surviving illustrations currently housed at the National Art Museum of China.

Shuhui never married, working from a modest bedroom studio with a tiny desk until retiring in 1981 after completing new artworks for a series of West Chamber stamps which were published in 1983. She died in 1985.

We were extremely captivated by her work and we hope you’ll explore it. While English results are few, by googling her name 王叔晖 you get many examples and galleries of her work.

Like the artist spotlight initiative? Let us know about any artists both old and new that we should profile!

illustration from ‘West Chamber’

Max Eber
Staff Writer
@maxlikescomics

sources (for more reading):

http://www.womenofchina.cn/womenofchina/html1/2/473-1.htm

http://www.ccnt.com.cn/

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Max here for a BEA2015 roundup!

I flew solo at this year’s BookExpo last week from May 27th to the 29th at the Javits Center in NYC. New York City dwellers, you must have legs of steel because wow it’s always a doozy. This is my third year at the Expo, and as such I went in with my usual expectations of what I was familiar with, and while I found what I was looking for, I also came away with a few surprises.

This year the show was seemingly as large as ever but also at the same time felt smaller than previous years. This was most likely due to the giant China pavilion, an entire area clad in white with stunning minimalist bamboo planters dedicated to this year’s Guest of Honor which appeared to take up more space than usual. Unlike other showcase pavilions from the previous two years China was very enthusiastic with their own journalists and a flurry of presentations and small talks which often garnered media attention. I just don’t remember other pavilions being that busy the last two years.

Unfortunately a handful of presses and stands that had been there the first two years I’ve attended that I was always keen visit did not attend or receive spots this year. While that was disappointing, a lot of my favorite publishing haunts were there for me to peruse for you.

Marvel for instance featured a panel presentation on their current record breaking new Star Wars line of comics (the best selling comics in the last twenty years, like wow) and shared the forthcoming reissues of the original movie to comic adaptations from the 70s to 80s in trade form as well as a brand new printing with updated artwork. They showcased their current series like Kanan – The Last Padawan (which has ties to the hit cartoon series Rebels) and minis such as Princess Leia and talked about their forthcoming mini Lando.

Outside of panels I was on the hunt for Sub-cultured #goodbooks to showcase on our twitter; amazing books, comics or series that stood out and you should keep an eye out for. I was also intent to find out “What makes a good book (for you)” asking any who was willing to share their personal opinions, which luckily a handful of people obliged and you’ll get to see their responses soon.

While there I found many, many great forthcoming #goodbooks; books, graphic novels, picture book and comics that I’ll be doing showcases for. Particular Sub-Cultured #goodbooks finds included;

Sam Gayton’s forthcoming American printing of his children’s novel Lilliput from Peachtree Press

Hexed comic series by Michael Alan Nelson from Boom!

The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schlitz, Symphony For The City of the Dead by M.T. Anderson, Baba Yaga’s Assistant by Marika McCoola and Emily Carroll all from Candlewick Press

Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland Decoded by David Day from Penguin Random House Canada

Painted Skies by by Carolyn Mallory and Amei Zhao from Inhabit Media (an Inuit-owned publishing company with a fantastic, brilliant line of books)

Red by Jacky Colliss Harvey and Atlas of Cursed Places: A Travel Guide to Dangerous and Mysterious Destinations by Olivier Le Carrer from Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers

Fearsome Creatures of The Lumberwoods by Hal Johnson and Tom Mead and Some Very Interesting Cats Perhaps You Weren’t Aware Of by Doogie Horner from Workman

The Good Dog by Todd Kessler (co-creator and director of Blues Clues!) and Jennifer Gray Olsen from Greenleaf Book Group Press

The picture books of Jenni Desmond from Blue Apple Books

With Tako from ‘The Good Dog!”

Tales from the Brothers Grimm by Herbert Leupin and There’s a Little Black Spot on the Sun Today by Sven Volker from NorthSouth

Artbooks of artists Lorenzo Mattotti and Ana Juan from Logos Edizioni

The many offerings of Nobrow and Imelda & The Goblin King by Briony May Smith from Flying Eye Books

Windmill Dragons by David Nytra and Little Nemo: Big New Dreams from Toon Books

And even more. There are many exciting forthcoming books I can’t wait to talk more about!

The China pavilion yielded two more #goodbooks. I was captivated by a booth made up of mostly students from the Colleges of Art & Design, Humanities and Tea Culture at Zhejiang A & F University in Lin’an City, Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province in China. They were there promoting tea culture and were there with their dean, Wang Xufeng, whose book The Stories of Tea from Homa & Sekey Books was my first #goodbooks pick from the pavilion. The entire group was extremely nice and while there, the students performed 10 tea ceremonies including Confucian and Buddhist versions. Afterwards I got to interview Wang Xufeng herself which I’ll be returning to in it’s own #goodbooks feature on her book and the school.

My second find was a beautifully illustrated retelling of Wang Shifu‘s Chinese classic romance, The Story of The Western Wing (traditional Chinese: 西廂記; simplified Chinese: 西厢记; pinyin: xīxiāngjì; Wade–Giles: Hsi-hsiang-chi) (also known as West Chamber) by 20th century painter and illustrator Wang Shuhui from People’s Fine Arts Publishing House. Wang Shuhui was extremely popular as an illustrator during the 1950s and 60’s for the very same publisher. I was graciously given a copy of the lushly illustrated book and will designate Wang Shuhui as my first forthcoming “Artist Spotlight” column artist, a new venture where I’ll explore and showcase the art of artists both past and present.