Between Tradition and Modernity: The Continuity of Garden Motifs in Chinese Art of the 1940s–1970s

Abstract

The article examines the transformation of the garden motif in Chinese painting from the 1940s to the 1970s in the context of the dynamic interplay between traditional imagery and modernization processes. The analysis begins by considering the garden in Chinese culture as a deeply symbolic space associated with philosophy, literature, and spiritual experience. Particular attention is given to the methods of preserving and reinterpreting classical iconography amid the cultural, ideological, and aesthetic shifts of the mid-twentieth century. Special emphasis is placed on the work of two iconic artists – Fu Baoshi and Yan Wenliang – who represent contrasting visual strategies for renewing the garden theme. In the work of Fu Baoshi, who develops the tradition of East Asian painting, the garden appears as a metaphysical space in which nature, architecture, and human presence merge into a unified philosophical landscape. The artist formulates his own iconography of the “landscape garden with a hermit.” Fu Baoshi reinterprets traditional imagery by introducing innovative techniques and asymmetrical compositions dominated by dense ink masses, improvisational line and dynamic texture. In his painting, the garden becomes a site of inner enlightenment, a refuge for the mind and soul, combining cultural memory with modern reflection. By contrast, in Yan Wenliang’s landscape painting, the garden emerges as a modernized space of artistic experience. Educated within European artistic practices, Yan Wenliang approaches the garden as a tangible, urban, and contemplative environment. Influenced by Impressionism, he turns to plein-air painting, capturing the play of light, seasonal transitions, and everyday scenes. His works from the 1950s to the 1970s demonstrate the evolving image of the garden: from classical motifs to a “buffer space” mediating adaptation to new socio-cultural realities, and later to an intimate, personal landscape full of emotional depth and lyricism.