Gu Yuan (1919-1996) Zhongshan, Guangdong

ln 1938 Gu joined the Communist forces in Shaanxi. He attended the Shanbei Public School and in 1939 studied woodblock printmaking at the Lu Xun Academy of Literature and Arts in Yan'an, before being sent to work in a village as Party secretary. He was reassigned to Yan'an as a teacher at the academy in 1941. After the war with Japan ended, in 1945, Gu went to Northeast China, where he performed with the local culture groups and worked as a journalist and artist. He was also active in land reformation projects. Gu was a member of the First Congress of the All-China Federation of Literary and Art Circles. Xu Beihong thought him an outstanding antist, and he was made a professor in the print department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Gu later became president of the academy, as well as honorary chairman of the Chinese Printmakers' Association and a standing director of the Chinese Artists' Association. Gu Yuan was one of the founders of the Yan'an style, but he also worked in the central European expressionist style.

27. Burning the Old Rent Contracts 1947 28.3 x 18.2 cm Black and white; oil-based ink on Chinese paper Signed and title inscribed by the artist The redistribution of land from landlords to poor and landless peasants was one of the first activities of the *People's Liberation Army after it won a rural district from the Guomindang. The burning of the leases was performed dramatically, with drums announcing the public nature of the event.