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- others to Europe. Upon their return to China, they set about introducing new art theories and techniques from the West. Soon there were reactions against imitating and copying the traditional painting styles of the old Chinese masters and calls arose to update Chinese painting by incorporating Western art principles. The returning students brought with them Western art theories such as romanticism, realism, naturalism, impressionism, post- impressionism, Fauvism, expressionism and �art for art�s sake.� Some of these artists tried to paint entirely in the Western fashion, but to many the question was not whether to incorporate Western art conventions, but to what degree to adopt. Oil painters and printmakers would also figure prominently in the charge to change the art establishment.
The first group of enthusiastic art reformers to study abroad in search of new platforms and inspiration were the Guangzhou painters: Gao Jianfu (1879-1951) [17], his brother Gao Qifeng (1889-1933) and Chen Shuren (1883-1948) [7], all of whom had gone to Japan with the hope of learning from the success of Meiji Japan�s program of Westernization and modernization, so that they could return home to stimulate a new spirit in their country�s art movement. When they returned to China, their solution to make art more accessible to the general populace and to revitalize and modernize traditional Chinese painting was to combine Western and Chinese techniques and styles. Besides introducing such realistic techniques as perspective and shading, they introduced new subject matter such as telegraph poles, airplanes, bicycles, trucks, and factories as well as scenes of the horrors of warfare into their landscapes to put Chinese painting in pace with contemporary times. These artists founded the Lingnan or Cantonese School of painting and were able to turn Guangzhou into one of the leading artistic centres of China to rival the Jiangnan area and the Beijing-Tianjin districts. At first, they were looked upon as heretics by the art establish�ment for their experiments and revolutionary attempts at breaking new ground, but their innovative theories and practice helped to reconcile the transition of Chinese painting from traditional to modern and helped nurture a vigorous wave of young outstanding artists such as Guan Shanyue (b. 1912) [21] and Li Xiongcai (b. 1910) in China and the prolific teacher Zhao Shaoang (1905-1998) [87] and Yang Shanshen (b. 1913) in Hong Kong. The ideals of the Lingnan school of �synthesizing Chinese and Western art, harmonizing the past and the present� represent an important epoch in the early development of modern Chinese painting. There are numerous followers in the spirit of the Lingnan School to this day, especially in Hong Kong.
Not long after the founders of the Lingnan school had introduced their ideas from Japan, a new group of artists became dissatisfied with what they felt was a second-hand Japa�nese version of Western art, and travelled directly to Europe for inspiration and training. Among the second wave of artists to study abroad were Xu Beihong (1895-1953) [75] and Liu Haisu (1896-1994) [43], who, when they returned to China were responsible for setting up the first modern art schools with a Western-style curriculum. Their classes included lessons in life-drawing, anatomy, perspective, and the use of Western media, such as watercolour, oils and gouache. When Xu Beihong returned to China after studying in Paris, he became an enormously influential painter in the development of fine arts in China and was probably the most important figure in the move towards the Westernization of Chinese art. Xu Beihong was equally at home in oil painting as he was in Chinese ink painting. Even after the Communist takeover, he was highly respected and by 1950 had become the President of the Central Academy of Art in Beijing.
Liu Haisu was also skilled at both oil and ink painting. Even before going to Japan and Europe, Liu Haisu was familiar with Western art through art albums at foreign language bookstores. At the age of only sixteen, he and some friends in art circles set up the Shanghai Academy of Painting and Fine Arts. The academy directed by Liu caused a great deal of controversy by using nude models. He promoted new methods of drawing with pencil, charcoal and oil. For much of his long life, Liu Haisu devoted time and energy to teaching in art academies and nurturing young artists. Liu was very interested in the works by Cezanne and Matisse.
Lin Fengmian (1900-1991) [41] was another extremely talented Chinese artist who studied in Paris and after a lengthy stay returned to China to become a major art educator.
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