Ding Yanyong: His Synthesis of Chinese and Western Art Traditions

This essay provides an overview of the life and artistic contributions of Ding Yanyong, a renowned Chinese painter known for blending Western and Chinese artistic traditions. Born in 1902, Ding Yanyong studied Western painting in Japan, which significantly influenced his early works, characterized by vivid colors and bold lines reminiscent of Matisse. The essay discusses his evolution as an artist, his return to traditional Chinese forms, and his unique style, which incorporated elements of calligraphy and ink painting. It also explores his later works, reflecting a more casual and desolate mood, and his preference for depicting characters from Chinese Opera. The analysis includes specific examples of his paintings, such as his early oil paintings, ink animal paintings, and spontaneous drawings, illustrating his mastery of both traditional and unconventional styles. The essay concludes by highlighting Ding Yanyong's lasting impact on the art world and his ability to seamlessly merge Eastern and Western aesthetics.

Running Head: HISTORY OF CHINESE ART
History of Chinese Art
Student’s Name
University Name
Author’s Note

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The Chinese painter Ding Yanyong has earned high reputation for associating the aesthetics
imbibed in the western art to that of his country. He is often referred to as the Matisse of the
East. This is because of the expansion of his reputation for merging the Chinese as well as the
western styles for achieving a perfect harmony of the two artistic traditions. The remarkable
painter was born on the 15th of April, 1902 in Maoming of China. As a child, his artistic talent
was up-surged by his father who used to feed him with literary aspects of Chinese poetry. He
was a significant member of the initial batch of the Chinese art scholars who travelled from
China to Japan for studying western painting in the earlier part of the twentieth century. In the
time span between 1919 and 1925, he attended the Tokyo School of Fine Arts1. Adopting the
individualistic attitude of Chinese Iterati, as well as the individualist traditions, in the later part of
the 1920s as well as the earlier half of the 1930s, he delved the styles in to the ancient styles of
calligraphy. The works of Yanyang show a strong reflection of some specific works of Bada
Shenren, an eminent 17th century artist. In the year 1949 he started to live in Hong Kong and
there he continued to teach as well as produce art until he embraced death in the year 1978.
The exposure to Western art that he got in Japan had been crucial to the development of
the artist in him. Many of his early works reflect vivid use of colors, flat decorative surfaces as
well as lively lines. These features exhibit the extent to which his works have been influenced by
that of Henry Matisse. In the early phase of his work, he won the repute as “the Oriental
Matisse”.
1 Qin, Ruili, and Zhuo Lin. "Paris, Tokyo, Shanghai: Interaction and Communication of Chinese Modern Art." In
2016 International Conference on Advances in Management, Arts and Humanities Science (AMAHS 2016). Atlantis
Press, 2016.

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Image 1: Early stage painting of Ding Yanyong exhibiting use of bright colors
(Source: Onlinecollection.asianart.org)
As highlighted by Raymond Tang, who is the Assistant Curator of the Art Museum of
Hong Kong, even after the attainment of maturity as an artist he always looked up at the oriental
Chinese forms of art. This is because he had a popular perception that many of the popular forms
of Western art had gained inspiration from the African art like one of the highest grossing art
works of Ding Yanyong (the picture above), but also from the oriental art2. That is why, he also
wanted to reflect the oriental Chinese culture in the art works at the time when he was one of the
finest as well as the most profitable painters.
It is noteworthy to talk about the oil paintings of Ding which pertains to the earliest stage
of his professional career as a painter. The intensely used bold lines reveals his attitude of taking
2 Ho, Selina Chui-fun. "Curatorial agencies and the national museum dilemma at He Xiangning art museum in
China." Museum Management and Curatorship (2019): 1-16.

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resort with the traditional painting culture of the Chinese and then shifting his attention to
straddle the popular art forms of East and West.
In the earlier oil paintings of Ding, the specifications like the “double sized pieces” are
some unique features that were drawn by him when he arrived at Hong Kong in the year 1949.
At that time, he was facing tough times as an artist and as a financially also. In fact he had very
limited cash left with him for purchasing the materials
At a point of time in his career, Ding experienced extreme downfall. From the position of
being the principal of a very famous art school he gradually became the empty handed refugee.
In fact he only had a single piece of board where he used to make paintings over and over again,
the infra red detection of his canvases show signs of more than one painting3.
After he crossed this phase, he dedicated himself to the art form of ink and brushes. The
reflections of life that he had gathered through his practical experience had significantly changed
the form of his painting.
Professor Li, who had once been a student of Ding analyses that most of his works of
this phase are very uptight where he had been exceptionally cautious with his layout as well as
strokes of brush. In the latter part, his works were bearing loose representations of the themes.
As he was maturing and growing older, his started to paint more loosely.
The casual approach in the paintings of latter part of Ding’s life exhibits the use of dry
brush strokes, which were equally simple. This reflection of mood of desolation was particularly
3 Kao, Mayching. Biography of Ding Yanyong.
https://www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/Museum/Arts/documents/10284/10567/DYY_biography_eng.pdf

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evident. Some of the scholars like Pedith Pui, analyses that this is the depiction of loneliness in
his life4.
The center of attraction of Ding’s painting had never been the natural landscape. He gave
preferences to the characters of Chinese Opera “Farewell to My Concubine” in the drawing of
his figures. That is why his portrait figures some characters similar to Zhong Kui or even some
of those which he had never seen himself. However, there is a subtle humor and surreal
representation of the characters.
Image 2: The Ox head and Horse Face Painting by Ding Yanyong
(Source: Info.gov.hk)
This is the painting that he drew very spontaneously when one of his students asked him to
consider drawing Ox Head and the Horse Face. He had drawn this picture immediately without
even considering the theme beforehand or with absolutely no idea about how he was going to
4 Chan, Pedith Pui. "In Pursuit of Rhythm and Spirit Resonance: The Art of Ding Yanyong (1902-1978)." ARTS OF
ASIA 48, no. 5 (2018): 64-75.

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paint it. There are unique touches of the painter in this picture. For evidence, the broken strokes
represent the hairy mixture of human as well as animal features.
The ink animal paintings that were mere and delicate touches of Chinese calligraphic as
well as Iterati painting is properly represented in this painting provided below.
Image 3: Popular Ink Animal Painting by Ding Yanyong
(Source: Info.gov.hk, 2019)
It can be argued to be the form of a free hand traditional ink painted picture or a mad use
of powerful brush strokes that are laid out in the form of cursive scriptures. The same conception
was utilized by him not only in his ink painting, but also in the seal carvings as well as oil
paintings.
Ding died in the year 1978, and by that time, he was one of the best loved artists among
the whole of Hong Kong. He did a wide range of work in his entire painting career. The works
include oil painting, calligraphy, Chinese painting as well as seal carving5. He is a master of
5 Nina, K. Ding Yanyong: Widewalls. Modern & Contemporary Art Resource.
https://www.widewalls.ch/artist/ding-yanyong/

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traditional as well as unconventional styles of brush painting, moving effortlessly between the
eastern as well as western styles. Perhaps the most poised memory that can be taken from his
works include the charm as well as the lightness of his brush strokes.

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Reference List
Chan, Pedith Pui. "In Pursuit of Rhythm and Spirit Resonance: The Art of Ding Yanyong (1902-
1978)." ARTS OF ASIA 48, no. 5 (2018): 64-75.
Nina, K. Ding Yanyong: Widewalls. Modern & Contemporary Art Resource.
https://www.widewalls.ch/artist/ding-yanyong/
Kao, Mayching. Biography of Ding Yanyong.
https://www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/Museum/Arts/documents/10284/10567/DYY_biography_eng.pdf
Qin, Ruili, and Zhuo Lin. "Paris, Tokyo, Shanghai: Interaction and Communication of Chinese
Modern Art." In 2016 International Conference on Advances in Management, Arts and
Humanities Science (AMAHS 2016). Atlantis Press, 2016.
Ho, Selina Chui-fun. "Curatorial agencies and the national museum dilemma at He Xiangning art
museum in China." Museum Management and Curatorship (2019): 1-16.