Lingnan School

The Lingnan School (traditional Chinese: 嶺南畫派; simplified Chinese: 岭南画派; pinyin: Lǐngnán huà pài) was an art movement active in the late Qing dynasty and Republic of China that sought to modernize Chinese painting through borrowing from other artistic traditions. Established by the brothers Gao Jianfu and Qifeng, together with fellow artist Chen Shuren, the Lingnan School has been considered one of the major art movements of 20th-century Chinese painting.

The Gao brothers and Chen were influenced by the teachings of Ju Lian, including the "boneless" technique. They subsequently travelled to Japan, where they learned Western techniques of perspective and colour through the syncretic Nihonga school of painting; these influences remained prevalent throughout their lives. The men joined the Tongmenghui, an anti-Qing nationalist organization with which their movement was closely associated. Returning to China in the late 1900s, the Gaos and Chen participated in the 1911 revolution. Chen later returned to Japan for further study, though the three collaborated on spreading their idea of a "New National Painting" that combined Chinese and foreign influences. Exhibitions and teaching positions allowed them to further promulgate their approach to art, and, by the 1930s, the Lingnan School had broad acceptance and support with the Kuomintang government. Chen, the Gaos, and their students participated in national and international art exhibitions into the mid-1930s. However, during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the movement fell from prominence due to its Japanese influences. Students of the Gaos continued the movement after the Chinese Civil War, both in mainland China and in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Subsequent generations have also been active in British Columbia, Canada.

Stylistically, the Lingnan School was marked by a blending of traditional Chinese approaches and Western techniques, as mediated by Japanese understandings. These included matters of lighting and atmosphere, as well as depictions of subjects rarely found in earlier Chinese works. Members of the movement also had marked differences; Gao Jianfu favoured atmospheric landscapes, Gao Qifeng realistic pictures of large animals, and Chen Shuren delicate bird-and-flower scenes. Subsequent generations of painters varied stylistically and thematically.