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Huang Shaoqiang
黃少強
Self-Portrait on 39th Birthday (detail, 1940)
Born	1901
Died	7 September 1942(1942-09-07) (aged 40–41)
Movement	Lingnan School

Huang Shaoqiang (Chinese: 黃少強; pinyin: Huáng Shǎo Qiáng, 1901 – 7 September 1942) was a Chinese artist of the Lingnan School.

Early life

Huang was born Huang Yishi (黃宜仕) in Xiaojiang Village, Guanyao, Nanhai, Guangdong, in 1901. The descendent of a village official,(SOHA) Huang came from learned family and read poetry extensively. He was also exposed to famed works of art from youth, including works from Europe. He also created his own works, painting No One to Tell (无告人) in 1911 as he was processing the Xinhai Revolution.

In 1919, Huang travelled to Guangzhou to learn painting. He continued to Shanghai the following year, where he first studied under Gao Qifeng before apprenticing under Gao Jianfu. The Gao brothers were known as the founders of the Lingnan School of painting, which blended Western styles with traditional Chinese art. Huang thus learned to combine western approaches to modelling with traditional ink- and brushwork, though unlike his teachers Huang often depicted human figures. He later spent time studying under Liu Haisu at the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts (now part of Shanghai University).

Huang began a tour of China in 1923, making stops in Guangxi, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong, and Shanxi. He observed the experiences of the common people, later drawing on these observations for his depictions of such subjects. By 1926, he had returned to Nanhai, where he became the principal at the Dunmu Primary School and taught at several other local schools. With fellow Lingnan School painter Chao Shao-an, he established an art garden to teach painting to youths. During the 1920s, he also taught at several art schools, including the Foshan City Arts Institute, Nanhai Normal University, Guangzhou City Arts College.

Artistic career

Two paintings by Huang, Dust on an Empty Bed (尘榻空留) and Self-Admiration in Despair (穷途自赏), were exhibited at the First National Art Exhibition in 1929; according to Ye Shuming of the Guangzhou-bazed e-zine Yangcheng.com, these were the only recent works exhibited therein. Following the 1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria, Huang contributed his Floods and Refugees (洪水图流民图) to the National Disaster Painting Exhibition (1932) in Guangzhou. He took first place in the exhibition, sold the work, and donated the proceeds to support the war effort. In 1934, he and several other artists organized another exhibition, with proceeds donated to support the fight against the Japanese.

In 1934, Huang held a solo exhibition, also in Guangzhou. In that city, he frequently met with fellow artists, including He Qiyuan, Zhao Shaoang, and Ye Shaobing. He also opened a small school and exhibition space at his home. He established the Folk Painting Gallery at his home in 1935.

With the fall of Guangzhou in 1938, Huang fled to Hong Kong, where he organized more art exhibitions as fundraisers. With fellow artists Ye Shaobing and He Jiafang, he also established the Sui Han Society. When Hong Kong fell to the Japanese, Huang returned to Guangzhou briefly before travelling to Foshan. There, he continued to paint, while also mentoring the young artist Pan He. He refused, however, to acquiesce to the Japanese. He was detained in 1942, and though released, he became sickly. Huang died on 7 September of that year.

Style and analysis

Huang sought to use traditional Chinese approaches to art to capture modern situations. His early works show the influences of Japanese painting, something that he likely inherited from the Gao brothers; Gao Jianfu had been close to Takeuchi Seihō in his early years. These paintings were characterized by broad swathes of colour, as well as a sense of three-dimensionality.

Huang's art deals primarily with Chinese subjects, often everyday situations and people. Attested in his works include beggars, craftsmen, peasants, peddlers, street performers, and tea house servants. Consequently, Ye describes them as imbued with a humanitarian spirit, taking a critical realist approach to highlighting their suffering while condemning the excesses of luxury. Liu Haisu likewise used these works to highlight art's transformation from a media of the wealthy to something belonging to the masses. Some of his works, however, had religious themes, and several depict arhats (persons who have achieved nirvana) or the Bodhisattva of Compassion, Guanyin.

Death and suffering are common themes in Huang's works, which Wei Chenghong of the Lingnan School of Painting Memorial Hall links with the successive deaths of several family members and the "inescapable nightmare" and "irresistible magic" of Huang's resulting fear of death. The curator Chen Ji argues that, through his explorations of human suffering, Huang was able to "surpass traditional Chinese figure painting not only in form, but also in spirit, speaking directly to the ontology of modern art and completing the transformation of his figure painting into modern meaning".

Gallery

Broken Pagoda in Autumn (1926)
Farewell (1930)
Sketching Guilin on the Way Home (1931)
Martyr (1932)
Guanyin with Child (1935)
Correction of Youth (1940)
Peasant (1941)
Immortality and Oblivion (undated)

Explanatory notes

Original: "无法摆脱的梦魇" and "可抗拒的魔力".
Original: "黄少强的人物画不惟在形式上，而且在精神上超越了传统的中国人物画，直指现代艺术的本体，并完成了他的人物画向现代意义上的转变。"

References

^ Ye 2021.
^ Nanhai Museum, Online Appreciation Issue 42.
Guangdong Museum of Art, Early April.
Jiang 2020.
^ Southern Metropolis Daily, 2009.

Works cited

"Early April". Guangdong Museum of Art. Archived from the original on 12 May 2024. Retrieved 5 September 2024.
"黄少强(1901-1942) 谱家国哀愁写民间疾苦" [Huang Shaoqiang (1901-1942) Wrote About the Sorrow of the Country and the Suffering of the People]. Southern Metropolis Daily (in Chinese). 23 March 2009. Archived from the original on 5 January 2024. Retrieved 5 September 2024. (via Guangzhou Library)
Jiang, Xinchen (26 November 2020). "潘鹤：渔女之父的珠海情缘" [Pan He: The Father of the Fisherwoman and His Love for Zhuhai]. Southcn.com (in Chinese). China South Publishing & MediaGroup. Archived from the original on 1 September 2024. Retrieved 1 September 2024.
"在线品鉴第四十二期—黄少强断塔秋零图" [Online Appreciation Issue 42 - Huang Shaoqiang's Broken Pagoda in Autumn] (in Chinese). Nanhai Museum. 26 November 2020. Archived from the original on 5 September 2024. Retrieved 5 September 2024.
Ye, Shuming (16 August 2021). "为平民而画的岭南画家黄少强" [Huang Shaoqiang: A Lingnan Painter for the Common People]. Yangcheng.com (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 20 May 2022. Retrieved 5 September 2024.