Due to the broad meaning of human body art, such as dance and sports that use body language, makeup, for example, body painting, and earrings, nose piercings, lip piercings hanging on the human body, etc., and then there is nude art.
Nude art is a kind of performance art created by humans using the image of a naked person as a medium. Such as nude sculpture, nude painting, nude performance, nude photography, etc... There should be many forms of expression related to nude art. Currently, what people refer to as "human body art" actually means "nude art." Instead of defining it as "nude art," the more ambiguous term "human body art" is used mainly due to the specific era background and cultural environment of the country. I believe that with the gradual improvement of the country's material and cultural civilization, nude art will gradually be recognized, understood, and accepted by the public. Recognition ultimately requires a process of updating and understanding concepts. After all, we have just "accepted clothing civilization," and our understanding and concept of "naked" civilization still need a process. Although they are not contradictory. Just like we wear clothes during the day and take them off at night to sleep, currently, we have only just gotten used to taking off our clothes to sleep at night.
Does China need to promote human body art?
At one time, Chinese people regarded human body art as a great threat. With further reform and opening up, the thinking of Chinese people has undergone significant changes, and they no longer view human body art through colored glasses, which is an encouraging major progress. Although Chinese people start to understand and embrace human body art, resources of human models are quite scarce. Take the "Changshou Lake Cup" land, sea, air human body photography competition organized by the Chongqing Photographers Association this time, for example. Among ten models, only Liu Yu, a first-year self-study student in a certain major at Sichuan International Studies University, was willing to appear fully naked. It seems that for Chinese human body art to reach a prosperous era, there is still a long way to go. What then is constraining the development of human body art in China?
1. The ideological concept problem of Chinese people.
Although many people believe that the human body is beautiful, some dare not face the existence of human body art and associate the human body with evil, obscenity, and sex. This is an ideological concept problem. To solve this problem, we need to enhance the aesthetic awareness of Chinese people, strengthen their understanding and appreciation of human body art, and further liberate thoughts and change concepts. Some people confuse human body art with striptease shows and other obscene performances, which is absurd.
So, how should we appreciate human body art?
Firstly, we must clearly recognize that the human body is beautiful, not evil. As early as ancient Greece, people believed that the human body should be something to be proud of and kept in perfect condition. The great German poet Goethe said: "The constantly ascending natural last creation is the beautiful man." Human body art uses the human body as a carrier to convey the artist's emotions, and artists endow the human body with thousands of colors and myriad postures through artistic creation.
Secondly, human body art is noble and sacred, not obscene.
People love human body art because artists use the language of the human body to worship life, praise nature, celebrate youth, sing praises of love, and pursue freedom. This creative expression is the intrinsic driving force for producing excellent works of human body art, and it will not lead people into flights of fancy or sinful thoughts. For example, Michelangelo's "David" moves people with the strength of masculine beauty, while Rodin's sculptures themed on sexual love make people distant from lust and feel the beauty and vitality of youth, establishing the relationship between art and reality, appreciation and desire.
Due to historical and cultural reasons, Chinese people have never considered the naked human body itself as a serious subject for contemplation, which still causes some misunderstandings today and makes us panic and confused when facing human body art. Human body art is sacred and noble, fundamentally different from obscenity.
Finally, we should learn to appreciate the beauty of the human body with an artistic perspective and learn to distinguish pseudo-art.
It cannot be denied that many people nowadays use the guise of human body art to pursue commercial interests, fame, or other undisclosed purposes, disregarding artistic principles, seeking novelty, and pursuing sensational effects. Some even consider displaying ugliness, pornography, and death fashionable. This behavior tramples on artistic principles and is not a celebration of beauty but a complete subversion of traditional artistic concepts and the essence of art.
As normal people, faced with such "human body art," we undoubtedly sneer at it. Compared to normal art, these lack creativity and the spirit of art, filled only with nonsense and absurdity. Besides satisfying others' curiosity and catering to some people's, including the artists themselves, low-level tastes, they are basically unrelated to art. We can easily see that these "artists" have completely strayed from normal life. They do not draw inspiration from the lives of ordinary people but act arbitrarily under the name of art. Not only have they lost the foundation of artistic creation, but they have also abandoned some basic moral norms of humanity, manifesting a state of hysteria, madness, and perversion.
2. A severe shortage of high-quality human models.
According to market research, China's annual demand for human models exceeds 1,000 people, but the current number is far from reaching that. The main practitioners of China's human models are cleaners, nannies, and even "stick armies," who cannot meet the quality requirements of artistic works. Therefore, there is an urgent need to cultivate a group of high-quality human models to improve the level of human body art and promote the development of China's human body art.
3. Lack of top-notch human body art photography masters.
Many of China's human body art photographers are self-taught and lack theoretical guidance in human body art photography. They lack a profound understanding of how to enhance the connotation of human body art.
In fact, the realm of human body photography is divided into three categories: one category is photographing the human body simply as an object, akin to photographing cars, buildings, mountains, and bridges; the second category is photographing the human body like writing a eulogy for a lover or holding a ceremony for the deceased; the third category is examining and contemplating another person's body as if it were one's own.
What China lacks most are the third type of human body art photography masters.
Therefore, China's human body art still has a long way to go, and China needs to vigorously promote human body art!!!
The Trial and Development of Human Body Art in China
"Openly boasting of being the first to introduce models, what is education, what is the school, where is the gentleman an art rebel, he is a heretic! The rooster chasing guests on the street, still in the dark night, Mr. uses money and power, forcing women living on livelihoods to appear naked in broad daylight, allowing anyone to copy and write, making the world's women enter a place without shame. A person is worse than beasts..."
This scathing attack came from Zhu Baosan, the president of the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce who wielded great influence over the political and business circles of Shanghai in the early 20th century. The "gentleman" mentioned in the article refers to Liu Haisu.
Liu Haisu's Experiment with Human Models
In November 1912, Liu Haisu founded the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts (later renamed Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts), the first fine arts academy in China. From the beginning, it did several pioneering things, one of which was the use of nude models.
This was a shocking move at the time, finding human models was harder than climbing to heaven. Forget women, even men were hard to find. Despite generous offers, many people came to apply, but once inside the studio and asked to undress, they fled. The first human model at the academy was a boy named Xiao Shang, who was also the first human model in the history of Chinese art education. It wasn't until two years later that the academy got its first adult male model.
Thus began the famous human body art controversy of the early 20th century, triggered by the exhibition held by the academy in Shanghai in the summer of 1917, which included several human figure sketches.
At the exhibition site, someone loudly cursed Liu Haisu as an "art rebel, a pest of the educational field" and "greatly disobedient, corrupting morals."
A barrage of condemnation articles followed, putting immense pressure on the teachers of the academy until Cai Yuanpei, then president of Peking University, expressed support for the matter and wrote to Shen Enfu of the Jiangsu Education Association, temporarily calming the storm.
The academy's first female model appeared in 1920, after much effort, Liu Haisu finally hired a White Russian girl, thereafter, art institutions in Shanghai and Beijing also started using human models.
This made Liu Haisu joyfully think that people had already accepted human body art, but he was clearly too optimistic. Soon after, his students' exhibitions were sealed, similar incidents kept happening, newspapers were filled with condemnations, people pointed fingers and whispered outside the exhibition halls, visitors hurried past human body works, along with the pornographic filth stirred up by the gangsters in Shanghai at the time, human body art was completely distorted in the eyes of ordinary people, Liu Haisu and his academy were surrounded by curses.
The most dangerous incident happened in 1926 when the county magistrate of Shanghai, Wei Daofeng, invited his classmate from the Japanese Military Academy, "Marshal of Five Provinces" Sun Chuanfang, to intervene. After Liu Haisu's argument offended Sun Chuanfang, Sun angrily issued a secret arrest warrant and wanted to close the academy. Later, Wei Daofeng also took Liu Haisu to court.
After extensive public opinion support from Kang Youwei, Shen Enfu, and others, this human body art controversy that lasted for ten years finally subsided. The academy continued with its human body sketches, and human models and nude art finally took root in China, though limited to the scope of artistic creation and research.
Testing "Legality" in 1988
The exploration of "legal" space for human body art in China encompasses both societal tolerance and the independence of individual artists. During the Cultural Revolution and before, such space did not exist. Although Mao Zedong had twice approved the necessity of human models for art, until 1978, human body art hardly had any room to exist.
This situation persisted until 1988. In this year, not only was the first book on nude art in China, "Nude Art Theory," published, but also a major event occurred, namely the public exhibition of oil paintings featuring human figures at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing.
In fact, as early as the late 1970s, artworks depicting the human body had already appeared, such as Tang Daxi's "Brave Warrior" celebrating martyr Zhang Zhixin with a nude female hero, and Yuan Yunsheng's mural "Water Splashing Festival - Ode to Life" at the Capital Airport showing scenes of young women bathing. Afterwards, in exhibitions hosted by groups like the Beijing Oil Painting Research Society and the Stars Art Group, works with human body themes were also frequently seen. These all sparked considerable debate at the time. "Water Splashing Festival - Ode to Life" was even covered for a period, becoming a domestic and international news hotspot. However, most of these discussions still occurred within small circles of artistic creation and criticism.
On December 22, 1988, the "Oil Painting Human Figure Art Exhibition" was held at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing, marking the first specialized exhibition of human figure paintings in China. This exhibition was planned and organized by over 20 teachers from the Oil Painting Department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, including Ge Pengren, and invited veteran painters like Jin Shangyi and Zhan Jianjun. Because of this grand exhibition, 1988 became the most glorious year for human body art in China.
Ge Pengren stated, "We did not expect the exhibition to have such a big impact after it started. Our thoughts were very simple, and the opportunity for the exhibition arose quite accidentally. All the work was done step by step, somewhat akin to a sudden inspiration during artistic creation."
In fact, soon after the Cultural Revolution ended, all art academies resumed their human figure drawing classes, and related works were often exhibited. Although there had been no specialized exhibitions themed around the human body, whether the chief planner Ge Pengren or the invited painter Jin Shangyi, both thought it would merely be an internal matter in the art circle. Unexpectedly, during the 18 days of the exhibition, approximately 220,000 people visited the National Art Museum of China to watch this exhibition.
Photography critic Liu Shuyong still vividly remembers the grandeur of the scene back then, with long queues twisting and turning at the entrance waiting to buy tickets, "about a kilometer long." Many people traveling to Beijing for business heard about this exhibition and specially went to see this unprecedented "Western spectacle."
On January 31, 1989, the Beijing Youth Daily reported, "(Visitors) involuntarily gathered in front of the realistic works by Jin Shangyi, Yang Feiyun, Sun Weimin, Wang Zhengyi, etc., on the west side of the second floor, seriously contemplating. Among the more diligent ones, their noses were only inches away from the paintings; then moved to the east hall, accelerating their pace as they passed through large abstract works by Meng Luding..."
"At the time, the media heavily promoted it. Both they and ordinary people found this exhibition fascinating, resulting in numerous reports, and the more reports there were, the more people came," recalled Jin Shangyi.
Regarding the social impact of this exhibition, cultural critic Zhang Ning commented in his "Cultural Maladies," "If the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts at the beginning of the last century caused a huge uproar due to selecting human models and exhibiting human figure sketches domestically, then artists like Liu Haisu and Xu Beihong were brave pioneers... Back then, human body art was revolutionary. After a decade of turmoil, the 'Oil Painting Human Figure Art Exhibition' in Beijing in the mid-1980s had a similar significance."
The "Oil Painting Human Figure Art Exhibition" in 1988 was undoubtedly one of the powerful achievements calling for the "Spring of Art" in the 1980s. However, due to the sensitivity of "the human body," it was still caught in various public opinion whirlpools.
In the 1980s, the traditional cultural psychology in Chinese society confined human body art more to creation and appreciation within the art circle. Before the grand exhibition in 1988, there were events like the arrest of a student from an art department at a university in Shanghai in December 1983 for drawing nudes and lending them to others, and in 1986, Zhang Suohua, a model at Nanjing Art Academy, going home for a visit and being driven mad by informed villagers.
"Before the exhibition, there were people who opposed it by approaching departments like the Ministry of Culture and the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee. Fortunately, the authorities did not stop the exhibition during its run," said Ge Pengren. "But after the exhibition began, the reaction from society was strong, leading to events like protests and lawsuits."
Regardless of the attitude people had towards the exhibition, despite heated debates, this exhibition undoubtedly gave the common people of China a real introduction to human body art. Although this popularization itself was arduous: during the exhibition, a model was recognized by the audience and ridiculed, causing her husband to divorce her; another model was recognized by her in-laws on television news, leading to a protracted lawsuit between the model and the art academy...
Ge Pengren also acknowledged, "Indeed, after this exhibition, human content began to appear sequentially in photography, film, and other art forms."
After the 1990s, things picked up momentum.
After the 1990s, both the tolerance of society and the diversified expressions of art were incomparable to previous times. But even as the gold medal-winning model in the work "Loess Land Charm," Tian Jing always kept her oversized sunglasses on, saying to reporters, "I feel very proud. If I get another chance, I will be a human photography model again."
That was at the first China Human Body Photography Art Exhibition held in Guangzhou in January 2001. More than 100 photos were selected from works submitted from all over the country. According to media reports, the criticisms in that photography exhibition were mostly about the artistic level of the submitted works.
Almost simultaneously, in the ancient city of Xi'an, there were several human body art photography exhibitions. Ma Qi, the pioneer of the Xi'an human body photography exhibition and chairman of the Xi'an Youth Photographers Association, recalled a detail from the exhibition at the time, "I didn't know what kind of evaluation people would give after watching it, so I observed from behind. A couple walked ahead, and the husband said, 'Taking these pictures is too vulgar, aren't they hooligans?' His wife countered him, 'Do you know anything? You're just looking at the pictures; others are reading the pictures.'"
These words left a deep impression on Ma Qi, "They reflect that many people appreciate human body photographs from an artistic perspective."
Researcher Chen Zui of the Chinese Academy of Art analyzed the differences between human body art in the early 1990s and in 1988 in his work "Art: A Century Written on the Human Body." One point is that in the early 1990s, photographic human body albums began to appear in large numbers in publications, whereas before, human body art albums were mostly paintings and sculptures, and human body photography was rarely seen, and if it was, it was mostly reproduced from foreign albums.
And when dancer Tang Jiali published her photo collection, it indicated that human body photography art had been basically accepted by Chinese society.
The development of human body art is usually accepted by society in four stages: fine arts, photography, film, and stage drama performances. The development process of Western human body art also followed such a "breaking barriers" journey.
Human body art has been in China for less than a hundred years, yet its sharp edge has already reached the third and fourth barriers. Under the backdrop of conflict with traditional cultural psychology, the condensed and radical development process of this imported art theme appears even more tragic.
During this process, regardless of the time, the excitement of "social events" always drowned out the consideration of artistic influence. Artists struggled in the process of artistic breakthroughs and "counter-encirclement," and the "legal" space for the existence of human body art continued to expand in each conflict.
Tolerance is More Important Than Understanding for Art
★ By Zhang Hong
The dispute caused by the exhibition of female genitalia images in the "Experimental Space" art exhibition by students of Chengdu Academy of Fine Arts in Nanjing, actually has no particularly noteworthy aspects. Such disputes almost accompany the entire history of modern art development.
Every time there is a new artistic exploration, similar disputes arise. The focus of these disputes is generally whether a particular thing or form can be called art. In terms of body art, from hairstyles to breasts, from limbs (arms, thighs) to the torso (stomach, buttocks), all have sparked controversies involving the relationship between art and morality.
This time it’s the turn of the genitals.
Whether the genitals can become objects of artistic expression is indeed a topic worth discussing. From an art theoretical perspective, since other parts of the human body can become artistic objects, and since plant genitals can become artistic objects, human genitals can also.
However, from this debate, the focus does not seem to be on an art issue but rather has turned into a moral inquiry. The opponents’ sharp weapons are not art but morality. Their logical premise first denigrates and defiles human reproductive organs, building a moral pedestal on this basis to proclaim inner sanctity and nobility.
I understand those viewers who express puzzlement at self-portrait behavior art. Art always challenges the public's understanding. Precisely because of this challenge, art expands its possible developmental space and provides new possibilities for people to understand themselves. Moreover, viewers have the right to question things they don’t understand.
But I rarely see rational questions, more often malicious slanders and lewd jeers.
This is a "voyeuristic" morality. Voyeurs have no ability to directly confront any nudity or sensuality. They can only gain a pathological sense of pleasure by distorting the body into something obscene and then furtively peeping in the dark.
While they claim moral purity, they humiliate others with depraved imagination and foul language. Dirtier than private parts are tongues, and dirtier than tongues are hearts.
I believe that the Creator did not create the human body and human genitals merely for urologists to look at, nor to deliberately leave stains on the human image. Fragmenting the integrity and perfection of the body is the greatest desecration of humanity.
It is not easy to fully perceive the perfection of the human body. In fact, art has metaphorically or symbolically portrayed the perfection of the human body (including sexual parts). Today, what the female students of the art academy are doing is nothing more than expressing this in a realistic visual form.
As for whether this method is more sufficient and effective in artistic expression, this is a question that needs discussion. But exploring the perfection of the world, including oneself, is the responsibility and mission of artists. The behavior of the students at Chengdu Academy of Fine Arts has not exceeded the boundaries that artists should follow.
For art, tolerance is more important than understanding. In cases where artistic exploratory actions do not harm others, they are at least tolerable.
From the fierce defamation and insults encountered by the "Experimental Space Exhibition," it is clear that our nation's art appreciation ability suffers from serious "genetic defects." It is understandable that the general public is unaccustomed to and does not understand exposed art. However, the performance of art critics and cultural media journalists is even more disappointing.
In this event, I see that some entertainment media and art critics played a disgraceful role. They most fully demonstrated the symptoms of "voyeuristic" personality disorders. Even they still cling to outdated artistic dogmas to defame art or lecture with a hypocritical moralist's tone. The shrinkage and numbness of artistic perception shown by the general public, as well as their ignorance and brutality in morality, are not difficult to understand. For more information, please visit: http://www.xiaoshiyiluokuang.com