China

Embroidery is a very special branch of traditional Chinese handicrafts. It occurs not only in a workshop, but more commonly in a family environment. This ensures that the space for making embroidery is one of leisure providing a pure, free and quiet environment, yet paradoxically it also serves to limit the innovation and its development. As a genre of female needlework, embroidery has not been recognized by the art world for a very long time. There has been a perennial lack of theoretical interest in the art form and the research field. Generally speaking it has been ignored by generations of cultural historians in China. However, in addition to the practical, decorative and technical aspects, Chinese traditional embroidery has been able to maintain close connections to calligraphy and Chinese painting over the course of its development. This can be traced from the embroidered paintings in the Song Dynasty to Gu embroidery in the late Ming Dynasty. In fact, many female embroiderers were described as "needle sages". A number of preserved, ancient embroidered painting pieces present the perfect combination of skills and painting techniques and with a high artistic research value. We can also discover an intimate connection between embroideries and paintings when we trace the source of Chinese traditional embroidery. The comparison between the origin of embroidery and painting reveals a positive link between these two kinds of art since ancient times. The name of the tool of embroidery – “needle” also implies the cultural connotation of embroidery.

Embroidered painting refers to painting-like embroidery works favored by literati today. With special skills in embroidery, embroidered paintings show similar effect as paintings, or even supercede the real ones. They can be viewed as paintings drawn by silk, emphasizing the scope and spirit of painting. 

Embroidered painting matured in the Song Dynasty. THE Embroidered Painting Branch was established in THE imperial court in the Northern Song Dynasty. At that time, Emperor Huizong organized over 300 embroiderers to produce high-quality embroidered paintings. The development of embroidered painting reached its peak in the late Ming Dynasty with the unique weaving style of the distinguished family, Gu Embroidery School (Gu Embroidery for short) as a main representative, in Songjiang (Shanghai nowadays). Meanwhile, a masterpiece on the history of painting, History of Silent Poems (Wusheng shishi), written by Jiang Shaoshu, includes a section on embroidered painting. This meant that embroidered painting was recognized formally as a part of painting. It also meant that female artists of Gu Embroidery were recognized in a male-dominated society at that time. However, in the Qing Dynasty, embroidered paintings only existed as ornaments of Suchow Embroidery in regions south of the Yangtze River. This art started to decrease from the Song Dynasty and since that time has been produced and circulated as commercial merchandise.

 The most important phenomenon of embroidered painting is the Gu Embroidery. The most significant reason why Gu Embroidery became a unique school in the history of embroidery, is that it was recognition in the history of painting due to its excellent combination with literati paintings. This combination embodies two aspects. One is that, all embroiderers of Gu Embroidery were well-educated ladies who used literati paintings as the drafts for their works. Since these embroiderers were able to paint the drafts themselves, the degree of creative freedom was enhanced. The female embroiderers were skilled in poetry, literature, calligraphy, painting and embroidery. They understood and realized the mix of painting and embroidery in the making process. The second, and more important aspect is that, a number of celebrities and litterateurs in the late Ming Dynasty contributed positively to the creation and appreciation of embroidered paintings. Dong Qichang, Chen Zilong and many other famous figures once wrote poems or essays for the works created by Han Ximeng, a skilled embroiderer of Gu Embroidery.

These traits of Gu Embroidery combine with three distinctive features, namely the combination of painting and embroidery, exquisite skills, the use of high quality material in wonderful colors make it known nationwide and played an influential role in the embroidery field until the period of the Republic of China. Until 1936, Gu Embroidery still dominated the embroidery field in regions south of the Yangtze River. Representative artists of Gu Embroidery in its early stage were Ms Miu and Han Ximeng while in its late stage were Ms Gu (Zhang Lai’s wife) and Gu Lanyu. 

Buddhism has been one of the main subjects of embroidery since ancient times. In the past, weaving Buddha was a religious activity the same as chanting sutras, praying and practicing Buddhism. This practice held a special meaning of “weaving blessings”. Every stitch could be seen as a blessing and the final work was an accumulation of merits and virtues. By worshiping these embroidery works, the person that the worshipper prayed for would be blessed. The main subject of Gu Embroidery in its early form was also Buddhism. 

The importance of embroidered painting not only lies in those female poets, painters and the presentation of their works, but also in a masterpiece that combs the cultural connotation behind embroidered paintings. It was a theoretical book named  A Compendium Of Embroidery Patterns (Xiu Pu) by Ding Pei published in Yunjian (Songjiang nowadays) in 1827. It was the first professional book concerning the history of embroidery that had been preserved until today. The book concludes theoretically by citing embroidered painting in a tone of an elegant lady who is proficient in poetry and painting. It does not include any particular type of stitch so it is not a technical handbook therefore it escapes the books that place a limit on skills. In her book, Ding compares embroidery with other categories of art, like poetry, painting and calligraphy. She, imitates the quality of painting by creatively dividing embroidered paintings into five categories (“Five Quality of Embroidered Painting”) and according to quality and style. There are six chapters in Ding Pei’s Compendium (Xiu Pu): Choice of Place (environment and inner mind), Choice of Styles (subject and draft), Choice of Materials (materials and tools), Choice of Colors (pick up suitable colors), Process of Embroidery (requirements on skills) and Selection of Works (quality and style). There is no doubt Ding constructed the verbal world of embroidered painting from these six perspectives.

During the period of the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, Gu Embroidery was almost unrecognized and valued due to the wave of commercialization. However, another new branch of embroidery appeared at the same time, inheriting and developing the tradition of embroidered painting in regions south of Yangtze River. A group of embroiderers emerged at the threshold of a new historical period and served as a link between the past and the present. The first was the emulational embroidery created by Shen Shou. This was followed by a number of female schools in regions south of Yangtze River. It had famous graduates like Yang Shouyu, the creator of crewel embroidery, Song Jinling, a disciple of Shen Shou, and Jin Jingfen, an embroidery master in the new period. They absorbed western concepts, theories and skills and were bold in innovation. Thus, their styles were different from the former embroidered paintings that pursued traditional aesthetics and vivid artistic conceptions of the Song and Yuan dynasties

In the late Ming Dynasty, Zhenhu, the so-called “hometown of embroidery” belonged to Suzhou Prefecture, the most economically developed area in regions south of Yangtze River. At that time, almost every woman in the villages in Suzhou Prefecture produced embroidery works in order to economically support the family. Currently, there is a new generation of female embroiderers in Zhenhu who inherit embroidered paintings of Gu Embroidery. They have solid foundations In painting and are full of creativity and courage. In this topic, I mainly focus on the Liang Xuefang Embroidery Studio, the only embroidery workshop in Zhenhu area that cooperates with the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University. Liang Xuefang, who established the studio some twenty years ago, was once a visiting scholar in the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University. She majors in fiber art and has taken part in foreign exhibitions for many times. Her mother, Ma Huirong, has been engaged in embroidery for over sixty years works in the studio every day from morning to night and become a famous figure in Zhenhu. The works created by these two generations can be deemed as collisions between traditional and modern embroidery works. We can still vaguely see the signs of Gu Embroidery. I do hope that they rejuvenate the art of embroidered painting.

This thematic exhibition will display the history and the present of “embroidered painting”, an art field that was once as exquisite as painting, in three parts. The first part is Illustrated Embroidered Painting. By tracing the historical origin of embroidery and painting, needle and proverbs, and by collecting and comparing the biographies of ancient women who were both good at painting and embroidery, this part will take Suzhou embroidery, one of the symbols of traditional embroidery in the Jiangnan region, as the main subject, and focus on Gu embroidery and Xiu Pu [Embroidery art] written by Ding Pei, showing the “art” behind embroidered paintings with images and texts. The second part is Mother-Daughter Embroidered Painting, which exhibits works of Ma Huirong and Liang Xuefang, two well-known female embroiderers from Zhenhu, today’s Suzhou embroidery town. The third part is Embroidery Tools in Workshops. This part mainly exhibits several tools, materials and pieces of embroidery in Zhenhu area. These seemingly ordinary things from embroidery workshops vividly narrate joys of boudoirs behind creation as well as poetic enjoyment and interests of women.  

“The Essence of Embroidered Painting(Xiu Hua Duo Ying)”

Xu Jia