Li Hua

{{Short description|Chinese artist}} {{family name hatnote|Li|lang=Chinese}} {{other people}} {{Infobox artist | name = Li Hua | image = | image_size = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = March 6, 1907 | death_date = {{death date|1994|05|05}}{{citation needed|date=September 2011}} | death_place = Beijing | nationality = | known_for = Printmaking | training = Municipal Guangzhou Art School (1926)<br/>Kawabata Art School,{{Clarify|date=September 2017}} Tokyo (1930) | movement = | notable_works = ''Roar China!'' ({{lang|zh-hans|怒吼吧中国}}) | patrons = | awards = }}

'''Li Hua''' ({{zh|s=李桦 |t=李樺 |p=Lǐ Huà}}; March 6, 1907 − May 5, 1994) was a Chinese woodcut artist and communist known for his participation in left-wing activities. He was born in Panyu, Guangdong.

==Career==

He graduated from the Municipal Guangzhou Art School in 1926 and remained there as a teacher.<ref name="cafa-li-hua-en">{{cite web|title=Li Hua (1907-1995)|url=http://www.cafa.edu.cn/aboutcafa/lan/?c=1104&N=3034|publisher=China Central Academy of Fine Arts|access-date=2011-09-08|archive-date=2012-03-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120319071250/http://www.cafa.edu.cn/aboutcafa/lan/?c=1104&N=3034|url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1930, Li went to Japan to study fine arts at {{nihongo3|"Kawabata Art School"|川端画学校|Kawabata ga gakkō}} in Tokyo.<ref name="cafa-li-hua-zh">{{cite web|script-title=zh:李樺(1907－1995)|url=http://www.cafa.edu.cn/aboutcafa/lan/?c=1404&N=3139|publisher=China Central Academy of Fine Arts|language=Chinese|access-date=2011-09-08|archive-date=2012-04-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120402083526/http://www.cafa.edu.cn/aboutcafa/lan/?c=1404&N=3139|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>McCloskey, Barbara. ''Artists of World War II''. London: Greenwood Press, 2005, {{ISBN|0313321531}}, page 10.</ref>

Li returned to Guangzhou in 1932, after the Mukden Incident broke out, and served once again as a teacher at the art school where he had studied. At that time, he began to learn woodcutting art. He was influenced by Lu Xun who regarded him as one of the most promising woodcut artists of his generation.<ref name="cthung" /> In June 1934, Li founded the Modern Woodcut Society at the Guangzhou Art School with an initial membership of 27.<ref name="cthung" /><ref name="CvdB">{{cite book|title=The art of contemporary Chinese woodcuts|year=2003|publisher=Muban Foundation|isbn=978-0-9546048-0-6|pages=39|author=Christer von der Burg}}</ref>

He produced many woodcuts to protest against the invasion by the Japanese army and the decaying government that was led by Chiang Kai-shek. In 1935, Li produced the woodcut ''Roar, China!''<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Tang |first=Xiaobing |date=2006 |title=Echoes of Roar, China! On Vision and Voice in Modern Chinese Art |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/4/article/202399 |journal=Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=467–494 |issn=1527-8271}}</ref>{{Rp|pages=467-468}} The woodcut depicts the front view of a "taut, muscular, and naked male body, bound and blindfolded".<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=468}} Another one of Li's notable woodcut series was ''Raging Tide'' from 1947.<ref name="sbc">{{cite web|title=Li Hua 李桦 ( 1907- 1994 ) Panyu, Guandong |url=http://www.artgallery.sbc.edu/exhibits/00_01/chinesewoodblock/lihua.html |work=Chinese woodblock |publisher=Sweet Briar College |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20091108131121/http://www.artgallery.sbc.edu/exhibits/00_01/chinesewoodblock/lihua.html |archivedate=November 8, 2009 }}</ref>

In 1949, he became a professor of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, and continued his artistic creations.<ref>McCloskey, Barbara, page 10.</ref>

Despite Li not officially joining the Chinese Communist Party until 1953, his work had been associated with the leftist cause for many years.<ref name=cthung>{{cite journal|title=Two Images of Socialism: Woodcuts in Chinese Communist Politics|journal=Comparative Studies in Society and History|year=1997|volume=39|issue=1|pages=34–60|url=http://repository.ust.hk/dspace/bitstream/1783.1/1264/1/bladerunner_REQUNIQ1082534920REQSESS2195312118200REQEVENTREQINT11894REQAUTH0.pdf|author=CHANG-TAI HUNG|publisher=Cambridge University Press}}</ref> Li died in Beijing at the Peking Union Medical Hospital in 1994.{{cn|date=May 2024}}

==Selected publications== *{{cite book|title=Chinese Woodcuts|year=1995|publisher=Foreign Languages Press|isbn=978-7-119-00388-7|author=Li Hua |editor=Chen Yousheng |translator=Zuo Boyang}}

==References== {{reflist}}

==Further reading== *{{cite book|title=Origins of the Chinese Avant-Garde: The Modern Woodcut Movement|year=2007|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-24909-7|author=Xiaobing Tang}}

==External links== *[https://combatfilms.com/assets/woodblock_art.pdf Modern Chinese Woodblock Prints & Revolutionary Art] *[http://www.britannica.com/bps/media-view/128/1/0/0 ''Fleeing Refugees'' (1944)], Li Hua *[https://web.archive.org/web/20120321235300/http://img1.artron.net/biz/201008/2010081712180230749.jpg ''Struggle'' (c. 1946)], Li Hua print from his ''Raging Tide'' series *[https://web.archive.org/web/20120321235327/http://img1.artron.net/biz/201008/2010081712123729540.jpg ''Arise'' (c. 1947)], Li Hua print from his ''Raging Tide'' series *[http://pm.findart.com.cn/bigimg.php?aid=1919435 ''Efforts to Accelerate the Four Modernizations'' 为加速实现四化而努力 (1958)] * [https://www.cafamuseum.org/en/artist/detail/186 China Central Academy of Fine Arts: Li Hua]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Li, Hua}} Category:1907 births Category:1994 deaths Category:Chinese communists Category:Academic staff of the Central Academy of Fine Arts Category:People from Panyu, Guangzhou Category:Artists from Guangzhou Category:Chinese printmakers