288 original works of “Father of Monkey King” 120 years old on display
This year is the 120th anniversary of the birth of “Father of the Monkey King”-Mr. Zhang Guangyu. On December 22, the exhibition “For the Front-Zhang Guangyu’s Art 12 Burning” was unveiled at the Guardian Art Center. The multi-dimensional exhibition also showcased the behind-the-scenes creation stories of works such as “A Harass in Heaven” and “Ma Liang”.
Zhang Guangyu (1900-1965) created an animated image for the classic animation “Havoc in Heaven”, which has influenced generations of Chinese people, and is known as the “Father of Monkey King”; he is also the core image of the National Emblem of the People’s Republic of China One of the main designers.
The exhibition takes Zhang Guangyu’s artistic practice as a clue and is divided into 12 sections. More than 500 exhibits are on display, including 288 pieces of Zhang Guangyu’s precious original works. The time span is from 1918 to 1963, covering Zhang Guangyu’s entire artistic career. .
Among these 12 burning spots, the most familiar to the public is No.11 Raid in Heaven. Around 1960, the Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio was creating my country’s first full-color animation feature film “Havoc in Heaven”. Mr. Zhang Guangyu, who taught at the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts in Beijing, was specially invited as the art designer. There are more than 20 character models designed by Zhang Guangyu, from Monkey King, Dragon King, Jade Emperor to Taibai Jinxing, Taishang Laojun, etc., which have left indelible memories for generations of Chinese people. The exhibition exhibited a large number of art design manuscripts of “Harassment in the Heavenly Palace” created by Zhang Guangyu in the 1960s, and the animated cartoon of “Daisy in the Heavenly Palace” was played live.
The costume and design prototype of the American Monkey King in “Havoc in Heaven” was born out of Zhang Guangyu’s long satirical comic “Journey to the West” created in Chongqing in 1945. This work is a representative work of modern Chinese art, satire The dark rule of the Chongqing Kuomintang government at that time. The colorful manuscripts of “Journey to the West” are displayed at the exhibition site, and at the same time, the exhibition notebook compiled by Zhang Guangyu during the solo exhibition of the same name from 1945 to 1947 of “Journey to the West”, which contains the signatures of exhibitors and admission Coupons, exhibition news clippings, etc.
In the opinion of the curator Wu Hongliang, Zhang Guangyu’s creation “touches the creation of the entire Chinese modern visual art”, but perhaps because his field is so complicated, the three words “Zhang Guangyu” have not been printed in the public’s mind. I hope this exhibition will let more people know this great master of art. The exhibition will be open to the public from December 23 and will last until March 14, 2021.
Text / reporter Wang Yan
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