ABSTRACT:  

This thesis seeks to explore and understand a rare Chinese art subject, the nude, pursued and expanded by Yang Zhiguang 楊之光 (1930–2016) essentially between 1990 and his demise in 2016. From his artistic lineage, I start with an analysis on his method and style. Subsequently, I take a thematic analysis identifying a total of three categories of Yang’s nudes: Healthy, Bathing and Enigmatic. With this assortment, we can understand more about Yang’s portfolio.        To further understand Yang’s style, I continue to examine Yang’s inheritance form his masters :Xu Beihong 徐悲鴻 (1895-1953) and Jiang Zhaohe 蔣兆和 (1904 -1986) and Ye Qiangyu 葉淺予 (1907-1995) With such a tracing and analysis, I offer an insight not merely on their resemblances in method and style but also their differences especially in modelling and expression.

To highlight Yang’s achievements in installing a nude art in the modern China, this thesis also analyses the pursuits by some of his contemporaries in the same subject: Xue Linxing 薛林興 (1951-) and Fu Xiaoshi 傅小石 (1932-2016). As Yang’s version of Realism empathizes not merely verisimilitude but also sketchiness, a contrast between him and Lin Fengmian 林風眠 (1900-1991),whose nudes are known not for realism but lyricism, is appended for a better understanding of Yang’s “realistic sketchiness” (coined by art historian Lang Shaojun).

To better understand Yang’s nude in the context of the Europe originated Realism, contrasts and comparisons will also be discussed. Three consequential European post-Classical/Modern nude painters, Gustave Courbet (1819 -1877), Édouard Manet (1832-1883) and Edgar Degas (1834-1817), are examined so as to better understand Yang’s performance and significance in the nude.

The conclusion chapter examines Yang’s legacy in art education on the subject nude, and also his limitations in his nude art.

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