Background
Huang Du-feng was born in 1913 in Jieyang, Guangdong, China.
黄独峰
Huang Du-feng was born in 1913 in Jieyang, Guangdong, China.
At age six or seven, Huang Dufeng learnt to draw by tracing out classical portraits of Guanyin and Buddha. When he was 12 years of age, a Chinese scholar Chen Jie-long taught him classical Chinese literature. At the age of 16, Huang Dufeng began to do flower and bird painting. His teacher Kuang Bi-bo was a student of Ren Bo-nian, who became a member of the Shanghai School after 1855. Therefore, the painting style of the Shanghai School can be considered the first artistic influence that Du-feng followed. In 1931 (at age 18), Du-feng entered the Spring Awakening Art Academy (Chunshui Huayuan), a Ling-nan style art academy run by Prof. Gao Jian-fu. There, Du-feng was trained under the personal instruction of Gao, who with his younger brother Qi-feng and Chen Shu-ren, was a student of the famous artist Ju Lian, who excelled at painting birds and flowers.
Early in his own career, Huang Dufeng went to Japan to further his studies and was influenced by the merging of the Westernderived realism and Japanese Nihonga style painting. He adopted the most interesting aspects of this style as he was maturing as an artist. As a result, Huang Dufeng painted in a new style commonly known as eclecticism, or, regionally speaking, the style of the Ling-nan School, which through its characteristic of discarding the old and founding the new was widely considered at the time as the most advanced school of art.
In 1936 (at age 23), Du-feng made his first overseas voyage to Japan. He studied Japanese painting in the Kawabata Studio in Tokyo with the aim of exposing himself to something new. At the age of 24, Du-feng returned to the mainland and began his frequent national painting trips, manifesting his great ambition and youthful spirit.
In 1950 (at age 37), Du-feng decided that it was a great mistake to rely solely on sketching to form his ideas for painting and neglect absorbing traditional experience from other sources. Du-feng became a disciple of Prof. Zhang Da-qian at Windy Hall to obtain the kind of artistic nourishment he felt he was lacking. This move greatly surprised his friends and teachers because it is very unusual for an artist in China who has followed the teachings of a particular school and distinguished themselves in that circle to move to the opposite extreme. Thus, Du-feng was risking his already established fame and causing himself some trouble by starting over again. However, Du-feng had the courage to make this move.
In 1960 (at age 47), after his last overseas exhibition "Joint Exhibition of Indonesian Paintings and Chinese Paintings" organized by the "Indonesian Chinese Literature Association", Du-feng felt that it was time to return home. As soon as he got back to the mainland, he was assigned the important post of deputy professor in Guangxi Institute of Fine Arts.
Life is busy in Guangxi since he had to teach Chinese painting there. However, the habit of going out to observe and paint which he acquired in his youth and became an indivisible part of his life lured him to look for such opportunity to try his skill. In 1972 and 1973, he attend the two National Art Exhibitions held respectively in Beijing and Guangzhou. He also frequently went out to make visitations to a lots of places.
Since 1975, Du-feng has been invited to paint for national guesthouse all over the country. Those were contributions of large paintings. His work during 1975-1990 exemplified the "ever striving spirit" which he upheld throughout his life.