Pan Yuliang (潘玉良) was born in Jiangsu Province, China. After
her parents dead her uncle sold her to a brothel, where she was raised to
become a prostitute. Pan Zanhua, a wealthy customs official, who redeemed
her from the brothel. He married
her as his second wife and helped with her education. She adopted his name as
her surname. Actually, Pan does not have a beautiful face like Gong Li. But how
could she get so many supports from Pan Zanhua. Pan Zanhua is part of
Tongmenghui that is known as Chinese Revolutionary Alliance. He was working hard for the equality of man
and women also he is open-minded. He
supports her to learn painting and she gets into Shanghai Art Academy in 1918.
Due to her excellent work in art Pan gets the official scholarship to study in
France in 1922.
As we could see from the pictures that she is not an attractive women but
in the movies and dramas people would like to make the actress who plays her look
nice. Because people would like to believe that women like her could only depend
on a man instead of her own hard working. The thing people like to believe is that she has
a pretty face and then she changes her life due to a man who was attracted by her
appearance.
There is some reason that people will believe this. At that time, women
do not have that much right to choose her life. There are 6 famous female
modern artists and all of them came from upper class family except Pan Yuliang.
I was wondering the reason why a woman like her could be success as an artist.
I found out couple of stories about her. At that time concubines are treated
like a baby machine. However, she does not treat herself like that. She finds
out her dream and keeps working on it also if it’s necessary she will fight to
protect her husband. Her husband is part of Tongmenghui. This identity could
lead lots of trouble to them. When Pan Zanhua was in dangerous she held a gun
and woke up whole night to be ready to protect him. Also when she was in
Shanghai Art Academy someone finds out that she was a prostitute and said
something bad about her, she directly slapped that person on the face. These
stories show that she is a strong women and this character help me to
understand her paintings.
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"Nude was finished in 1951the artist is in her mature stage of the development in melding oil and ink paintings, during that time. the amount of her oil painting creations gradually reduced because she was more into the study of ink paintings. the background of this painting reflects the white space concept in eastern paintings, used darker lines to draw the outline of back of the nude lady."(Lingnan School of painting) leaving white space is a typical Chinese drawing concept. We could see that Pan is using this concept into this painting. Ladies in this painting are natural and relax. This shows that Pan enjoys her body as a woman.
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| Pan Yu-liang self-portrait 1963 |
Link to show her paintings. Pan Yuliang
this picture is her self-portrait which shows that she is drinking like a man. Her face shows that she is really enjoying the wine and the way she sit shows that her personality. In this picture she looks like a man enjoys the wine after whole day work. also in this painting she does not only use white space but also fill the blank with some color. this shows that she is combining Chinese and western painting into one.
“In
addition, Pan was challenged for her use of non-traditional methods related to her
choice of art form and subject throughout her career in China. Despite the
progress made by modern artists in the early twentieth century, the extent and
actual influence of Western art on Chinese society was limited, and the
modernist art which Pan practiced was understood only by a small group of
Westernized elites. While Western painting was seen as a foreign cultural expression,
the nude, a subject she specialized, was considered taboo and indecent. While
Euro-American concepts of modernity had inspired China, the actual
implementation of disparate foreign methods into the Chinese how uncomfortable
it was for both men and women to break completely with past traditions at this
time. Struggling in predominantly male and conservative art circles, pan felt
rejected in this restrictive environment and left for France.”(Teo 69) "She devoted her
life to art had been pursuing the ideal of “combining Chinese and western
painting into one”
work cities
PHYLLIS TEO "MODERNISM AND ORIENTALISM: THE AMBIGUOUS NUDES OF CHINESE ARTIST PAN YULIANG." New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies (2012): 65-80. Web.
"Pan Yuliang - Portrait of Chinese Masters." Pan Yuliang - Portrait of Chinese Masters. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Apr. 2015.
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