What are the characteristics of Yangliuqing New Year paintings?

Nianhua is one of the most popular artworks in China. At the end of each year, most places have the custom of posting Nianhua, door gods and couplets. New Year's paintings are called "New Year's paintings" because they are changed once a year, or posted for a year's enjoyment. The woodblock prints originated in Yangliuqing, Tianjin, are popular in the northern part of China, with a unique artistic style and strong local characteristics.

Yangliuqing was called Liukou in the Ming Dynasty, named after the abundant production of willows; it is located along the Canal, Ziya River and Daqing River, with convenient transportation and a large number of marketplaces, and it was a famous town in the north of China during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Yangliuqing New Year's Paintings was founded during the Chongzhen period of the Ming Dynasty, and has a history of more than 300 years. The earliest workshops were the Dai Family in the Ming Dynasty and the Qi Family in the early Qing Dynasty. The Dai family paintings were passed down to Dai Lianzeng in the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty for nine generations. The Qing Dynasty was the golden period of Yangliuqing New Year paintings. Only Dai Lianzeng's family printed and painted more than one million pictures every year. The products of Dai Lianzeng and Qi Jianlong and other painting stores were sold to Beijing, Tianjin, North China, Northeast China, Northwest China and even abroad. Moscow and other museums have the largest collection of Chinese woodblock prints, most of which were printed and painted by Yang Liu Qing Dai and Qi New Year's Paintings Workshop at the end of the Qing Dynasty. In the history of China's printmaking, Yang Liuqing and the southern Suzhou Peach Blossom Wood New Year's Paintings and known as the "Southern Peach and Northern Willow".

Yangliuqing year paintings have gone through several disasters. During the Japanese invasion of China, Yang Liuqing New Year's paintings were forced to be transported out of the road to fill in the use of the late 1960s, many of the paintings were used as a superstitious products destroyed by the torch. However, the destruction did not make Yangliuqing New Year Paintings extinct, because it is closely connected with the living customs and psychology of the common people, so the production and sale of Yangliuqing New Year Paintings are still very prosperous. Many people at home and abroad who love folk art collect it enthusiastically.

Yangliuqing New Year's Paintings mostly express people's beautiful feelings and aspirations, reflect current events and customs, and are full of a strong flavor of life. They can be roughly categorized into five types: first, ladies and dolls. This is the main content of the early works. The picture is often a single or two or three figures. The images of dolls are all Buddha's face, child's body, martial arts frame, and theater posture. The second is opera and historical stories. The third is the theme of joy and auspiciousness. Fourth, secular life. For example, the famous painter Gao Tongxuan of Yangliuqing, who painted for Cixi in the Qing Dynasty, painted a yearbook entitled "Celebrating the Lantern Festival", which is full of festive atmosphere: some of the children are banging gongs and beating drums, and some are blowing trumpets; some of the women are holding babies and teaching them to beat the drums, and some of them are running with their children to make fun of the lanterns. The halls and huts were decorated with gold and blue, depicting the scene of the Lantern Festival in a colorful manner. Fifth, the emerging things. Such as the end of the Qing Dynasty New Year's paintings "Tianjin Railway Station", "Tianjin road cycling", painted are new things.

Yangliuqing New Year's Paintings are rich in national characteristics. The interesting conception, the combination of allegory and realism, the full and proportionate layout, the upright and smooth line drawing, the aesthetic and rhythmic modeling, and the distinctive and elegant coloring all highlight the practicality and decorative nature of the paintings, as well as the "big", "old", "middle", "old", "middle", "middle", "middle", "middle", and "old", The characteristics of "big", "old", "middle" and "full" have made it win the favor of the public. "Big", the image is big, through contrast, reflection and metaphor, highlighting the main image, highlighting the main parts of the image. Such as the "two fish auspicious celebration" painting, in the lotus, grapes, accompanied by two big-headed fat body dolls holding a big fish, eye-catching and evocative, overflowing with auspicious meaning, to meet the public on the peaceful, festive expectations. "Old", the theme of the old, blessed life and happiness, longevity are people's eternal pursuit of the goal; but the performance of the old theme to highlight the continuity of good things, lasting, and therefore the longevity of the star accompanied by the child, the mountains and forests of fierce tigers, lions and dogs are all vitality of the appearance of vitality. "In", the composition of the center point as the origin of the coordinates, with the central axis as the axis of symmetry, so that the picture is stable, balanced and harmonious, which also responds to the people's mindset of seeking stability and peace of mind. For example, in the traditional Yangliuqing New Year's Painting "Fortune", the God of Fortune and the Treasure Pot are in the center axis, with the civil and military ministers standing symmetrically on both sides, and the ornaments around the characters are full. "Full", the layout of the picture is full, whether it is with the object of harmonic composition of the text of the painting title, or symbols, allegorical techniques for painting, so that the picture occupies the full picture space at the same time, occupy people's psychological space.