Fang Ganmin
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Fang Ganmin (; 15 February 1906 - January 1984) was a Chinese French-trained painter, sculptor and educator, who was educated in Paris and spent most of his adult life in China. Regarded as one of the fathers of Chinese oil painting, Fang was born in the
Wenling Wenling ( Wenling dialect: Ueng-ling Zy ; ) is a coastal county-level city in the municipal region of Taizhou, in southeastern Zhejiang province, China. It borders Luqiao and Huangyan to the north, Yuhuan to the south, Yueqing to the west, loo ...
county,
Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , Chinese postal romanization, also romanized as Chekiang) is an East China, eastern, coastal Provinces of China, province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable citie ...
province. He began studying painting in 1924 and went to Paris in 1925, enrolling in the
École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts The Beaux-Arts de Paris is a French ''grande école'' whose primary mission is to provide high-level arts education and training. This is classical and historical School of Fine Arts in France. The art school, which is part of the Paris Scienc ...
, making him, along with Xu Beihong and Sanyu, one of the first Chinese painters to study abroad in France. Upon returning to China, he taught at the National Arts Academy,
Hangzhou Hangzhou ( or , ; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), also romanized as Hangchow, is the capital and most populous city of Zhejiang, China. It is located in the northwestern part of the province, sitting at the head of Hangzhou Bay, whic ...
, becoming a professor at the Western Painting Department. During the
Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goa ...
, Fang was shamed and tortured by the
Red Guards Red Guards () were a mass student-led paramilitary social movement mobilized and guided by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1966 through 1967, during the first phase of the Cultural Revolution, which he had instituted.Teiwes According to a Red Guard lead ...
, and his works were destroyed. He died in 1984. His students include Zao Wou-Ki, Chu Teh-Chun and Wu Guanzhong.


Timeline

In 1906, Fang Ganmin was born in Wenling, Zhejiang on February 15. His father, Fang Yue (also known as Xun Cheng), was an official literary degree holder, who majored in the study of written characters and published several books including "A Simple Approach to The Study of The Six Classes of Characters". In 1920, Fang attended Andin High School in Hangzhou, gradually showing his talent in art. In 1924, he went to Shanghai in the summer to apply for the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts and was accepted to the second level where he was educated with a solid drawing foundation under the direction of Russian teacher V. Podgursky. In 1925, he left Shanghai for France to further his studies. In 1926, after learning the French language at a town outside Paris for six months, Fang was accepted into an art school in Lyon where he took "Paster Casts" and "Future drawing" classes. In 1927, Fang attended École des Beaux-Arts de Paris and joined
Jean-Paul Laurens Jean-Paul Laurens (; 28 March 1838 – 23 March 1921) was a French painter and sculptor, and one of the last major exponents of the French Academic style. Biography Laurens was born in Fourquevaux and was a pupil of Léon Cogniet and Alexa ...
' studio, together with Yan Wenliang. Apart from taking drawing lessons at the studio, he was also a frequent visitor of galleries and museums and developed a strong interest in post-impressionism. In 1929, he married Ms. Ai Lan Su, his fellow schoolmate at École des Beaux-Arts, in Paris. He returned to China in the winter and was hired by the Shanghai Private Xin Hua Fine Arts Academy, but later transferred to Shanghai Fine Arts University and Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts.


Career

Fang Ganmin studied in Shanghai Meizhuan and under
Jean-Pierre Laurens Jean-Pierre Laurens (18 March 1875, Paris23 April 1932, Fontenay-aux-Roses) was a French painter; primarily of figures and portraits. Biography He was the youngest son of the painter, Jean-Paul Laurens. His older brother, Paul Albert Laurens ...
(1875–1932), son of
Jean-Paul Laurens Jean-Paul Laurens (; 28 March 1838 – 23 March 1921) was a French painter and sculptor, and one of the last major exponents of the French Academic style. Biography Laurens was born in Fourquevaux and was a pupil of Léon Cogniet and Alexa ...
(1838 – 1921), at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, from 1926 to 1929, together with Chinese artists such as Yan Wenliang. He taught in Xinhua AFA, Shanghai, and Hangzhou Academy. In or around 1930, Fang Ganmin, along with artists such as Xu Shaozeng, Guo Guni, Li Jingfa and Zhu Yingpeng, founded the Changfeng Society for the Study of Western Paintings. In 1951 and 1952, a campaign against modernist art, condemned in Soviet terms as both bourgeois and formalist, had forced Lin Fengmian and Wu Dayu to leave the art academy in Hangzhou and return to Shanghai. Realism was deemed the progressive style. Fang Ganmin managed to remain, but was nonetheless marginalised and condemned for his modern styles. During the
Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goa ...
, Fang, branded an anti-revoluntary for his modernist artistic style, was paraded around the National Academy of Art in Hangzhou, ink and paint poured over him as students beat and denounced him. Fang was also imprisoned by the
Red Guards Red Guards () were a mass student-led paramilitary social movement mobilized and guided by Chairman Mao Zedong in 1966 through 1967, during the first phase of the Cultural Revolution, which he had instituted.Teiwes According to a Red Guard lead ...
for long periods.


Works

Of Fang's early paintings, two are particularly noteworthy. They are exercises in the
Cubist Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...
manner, and give to their subject, both nudes, the geometrical and sculptural, but not the fragmented, effect of a picture by Braque. One of them is ''Melody in Autumn'' (1934). The other is "White Doves" (1932), which portrays geometric shapes suggestive of Cubism, but with an Art Deco-like structural undertone. In jest, his students called his style fang (‘square’), punning on his surname Fang, which also happens to be one of the characters of the Chinese word for ‘cubic’.


Notable students

* Chu Teh-chun * Wu Guanzhong * Zao Wou-ki


References

{{authority control 1906 births 1984 deaths Republic of China painters Academic staff of the École des Beaux-Arts China Academy of Art faculty Victims of the Cultural Revolution People from Taizhou, Zhejiang Artists from Zhejiang Chinese art educators 20th-century Chinese painters Chinese expatriates in France