Details

Woodblock New Year print is a unique genre of printing that has its roots in traditional Chinese folk art. Showing Chinese ethos and changes of the times, these prints played an important role in the lives of ordinary Chinese people, who would often use them for decoration during the Chinese Lunar New Year to add to the festive atmosphere. They usually depict auspicious and joyous indicators that echo the New Year saying, “Goodbye to the past and welcome the future.”
The origin of the New Year print can be traced back to the pictures of Door Gods that were popular in ancient China. The first stage in the production process of a typical print would be to engrave the entire outline of the desired picture on a printing plate after sketching the lines of the original draft. Basic colors would then be added, before the final, more intricate color-adding process was carried out. While New Year print is popular throughout China, Yangliuqing woodblock New Year prints are widely considered to be the crown jewel of this art form, not only in terms of production quality and artistic value, but also in terms of influence.
The Yangliuqing woodblock New Year prints take their name from Yangliuqing, the town in Tianjin where the practice originated. They first became popular around 1628 during the reign of Emperor Chongzhen, towards the end of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). It was during the reigns of Emperors Yongzheng, Qianlong, and Jiaqing (1723-1820) of the Qing Dynasty (1616-1911), however, that these prints really began to flourish. At that time, almost every household in or around Yangliuqing was involved in the business of woodblock New Year printing.
This tradition has a history stretching over 400 years.
The styling of the Yangliuqing woodblock New Year prints is deeply influenced by the modeling and artistic style of detailed Chinese brushwork and folk prints.
Due to its geographical proximity to the capital, Beijing, talented artists from Yangliuqing were often recruited to the imperial court throughout the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties (1206-1911). Artists from the town were heavily influenced by the fastidious style of Song Dynasty (960-1279) Academy Painting, and the influence of this celebrated artistic style is especially prominent in the Yangliuqing woodblock New Year prints.
The procedure of making the Yangliuqing woodblock New Year prints can be summarized as half printing and half painting. The first few production processes are similar to all of the other woodblock prints - engraving and printing. The last process is what sets it apart from other printing styles: painting the pictures in colors manually. When combined, these processes perfectly unite the beauty of woodcut engraving and brush painting. The treatment of portrait processing is dramatically exquisite.
Most of the detailed elements found in these prints are manually painted using the gongbi technique - a fine brushwork technique that literally translates to “detailed strokes”. Facial elements, for example, may involve up to six or seven steps in the painting process alone. The artist applies a layer of white powder on the figure’s face and then dabs rouge on the cheeks. The twisting technique with an oblate brush (bianbi) does not come to an end until the best hue is achieved. Artists refer to subdued and slight coloration as soft color,while strong and striking coloration is called hard color. Yangliuqing woodblock New Year prints are characterized by the presence of both soft color and hard color.