"New Woman" Painter

In the early20thcentury, females of Republic of China began to be consciouslyawake with the introduction of such western ideas as Independence, Democracy andNatural Rights, as well as the New Culture Movement. Encouraged by such ideas as“gender quality” and “individuality liberation”, they came to regain the due esteem todo a wide variety of work. Consequently, in the field of Fine Arts, there emerged a lotof “New Woman” painters. They either entered the society instead of staying atboudoir, or entered colleges to learn more, or go abroad to further their studies,playing an active role in artistic creation. The numbers and quality of their worksimproved dramatically. However, in the traditional society of male chauvinism,educated females tended to be ignored for they existed as individual entities. It is untilthe First National Art Exhibition in1929hosted by the Ministry of Education ofRepublic of China that many “New Woman” painters presented themselves as a wholewith extraordinary achievements in traditional calligraphy and painting, westernpainting, inscription, sculpture, and photography. Their group demonstration greatlyrefreshed the art world in the early days of Republic of China. Therefore, from theperspective of the First National Art Exhibition in1929, this thesis, with thebackground of Republic of China (mainly in1920s and1930s), presents a preliminarystudy on the “New Woman” painters of the very Art Exhibition, as well as the “NewWoman” painters as a whole of Republic of China, aiming to clarify the origins anddevelopments and analyze their artistic characteristics, contributions and influences,thus providing a new and comprehensive understanding of the “New Woman”paintings of Republic of China.