Afraid of getting others involved, he destroyed the painting with his own hands
In 1966, the Cultural Revolution began! Immediately afterwards, Mr. and Mrs. Fu Lei, Lin Fengmian’s best friends for more than 20 years, both killed themselves at Home. After receiving the news, Lin Fengmian could not believe it and sent his students to Fu’s house to confirm. Sensing that he would not escape, Lin Fengmian decided to destroy all the paintings he had made over the decades in order to put an end to his problems.
It was an ironic and cruel scene in the history of Chinese art: the painter closed the doors and windows tightly, and the smoke from the burning paintings smoked his face black. Fearing that the smoke from the chimney would be discovered, he changed his mind and tore up the paintings, soaked them into pulp, and flushed them down the toilet. According to the recollection of his righteous daughter Feng Ye, Lin Fengmian’s face was resolute and determined, contrary to his usual amiable face, and the students who helped him destroy the paintings could not bear to tear a few of them. I will destroy it with my own hands, and I will paint it again…”
Refusing to “confess” to the crime, he was tortured in prison
In 1968, Lin Fengmian, who had just been released from the museum to live at home for a few days, was taken away by public security officers. He did not know that he was accused of being a “secret agent” until the preliminary hearing. In fact, Lin Fengmian did not have any political problems, but one of his students was a vice minister of a certain ministry at that Time, who was hunted down before the liberation and stayed in his house for three days. During the Cultural Revolution, this person was said to be a defector and Lin Fengmian was asked to confess his problems, so he was imprisoned.
Because he refused to admit his “crime,” his hands were handcuffed behind his back, and his wrists were so swollen that the handcuffs were embedded in his flesh. When he ate, he was not uncuffed, so he put his mouth to the rice bowl to survive. Many of his friends committed suicide. He said, “I will never kill myself. I want to live with integrity.”
He was saved by Zao Wou-ki, a rebellious student whom he defended.
At the end of 1972, Lin Fengmian was released after Zhou Enlai intervened. He dared not paint anymore, and lived a hard Life with his injuries and illness. One day, he suddenly received a notice that a foreign guest wanted to receive him. He rushed there, but the guest was Zao Wou-ki, a student he had not seen for more than thirty years. Zao Wou-ki was a rebellious student at the Hangzhou Art College, and he especially disliked the compulsory Chinese painting class, jumping out of the classroom window to escape. On the final exam paper of Chinese painting, he painted a big ink ball and signed it “Zao Wou-ki painted a stone”, which made Pan Tianshou, a professor of Chinese painting, furious and awarded him zero marks, and he was almost forced to withdraw from the school.
Lin Fengmian, who loved Zao Wou-ki’s talent, was determined to keep him and let him stay on as a teaching assistant after he graduated. Later, Zao Wou-ki went to France to study and settled there, and became a “foreign guest”. In full view of everyone, Zao Wou-ki ran to his mentor and knelt down, while Lin Fengmian, in tears, bent down and cried with his teacher and student. Afterwards, Lin Fengmian told people that this was Zao Wou-ki’s way of saving him, that the “foreign guests” attached such importance to him that the rebels would not dare to do anything to him again.
He tried to paint from memory the paintings that were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution
“After the end of the Cultural Revolution, Lin Fengmian was allowed to leave the country to visit his Family with the help of Ye Jianying. He was allowed to take 34 of his old paintings with him in exchange for a one-way ticket from Hong Kong to Brazil in foreign currency, and he made four connections and flew more than 40 hours to Brazil to visit his wife and daughter, who had been separated for 22 years. Before his departure, he gave all the paintings he could not take away to his friends. His good friend Ba Jin received a picture of a heron, which is still hanging in the living room of Ba Jin’s former residence at 113 Wukang Road, Shanghai. Wu Guanzhong, a student, received a painting of a reed pond and a returning goose, and when he thought of his departure, he could not help but weep.
In his later years, Lin Fengmian lived in Hong Kong and repainted from memory the works destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, almost until the end of his life. He had no time to compile his paintings, let alone publish a complete collection, so that today there are countless forgeries of Lin Fengmian’s paintings on the market. Although Lin Fengmian is famous with Xu Beihong and Liu Haisu, his works are far behind in price because they are difficult to distinguish from the genuine ones.
Lin Fengmian in the eyes of Huang Yongyu
In July 1991, a heart attack in the hospital, Lin Fengmian, at the request of Fu Cong, inscribed “Fu Lei Memorial Concert” a few words, inscribed Lin Fengmian. This is his last explanation to his old friend, is also his last words to the world.
Huang Yongyu in the book “Older than me”, wrote this about Lin Fengmian’s death.
At 10:00 a.m. on August 12 at the age of ninety-two, Lin Fengmian came to the door of heaven.
“What for? With many whip marks on your body?” God asked him.
“A painter!” Lin Fengmian replied.
Recent Comments