Feng Zikai has a large number of decorative comics, which are mainly made for books’ bindings and illustrations (of course, including the overall design of books). Feng Zikai’s decorative comics can mainly be divided into two categories: cartoons for books’ front cover and title page, and those for illustrations and fillers. This kind of painting not only occupies a special position in Feng Zikai’s cartoons, but also sets a precedent in the history of book binding art in the New Culture Movement of China (around the time of the May 4th Movement in 1919). In his article On Cover Painting, Tang Shi lists artists who had made high achievements in book binding art around the May 4th Movement, and Feng Zikai is the first artist in that list. Other artists mentioned in it include Tao Yuanqing, Qian Jundian and Situ Qiao. Among them, Tao and Qian are students of Feng Zikai. In fact, Feng Zikai starts his creation of decorative comics very early. As far back as 1920s, there were many decorative illustrations of Feng Zikai in Chunhui, school magazine of Chunhui Middle School by Baima Lake. In 1924, he designed the cover for a magazine called Our July. His famous paintings, After People Left, A Crescent Moon Hangs over the Sky That as Quiet as Water, The Third Class Carriage and so on, are actually published as illustrations. Since then, more and more people have invited him to design covers and draw book illustrations. His illustrations and designs can often be seen in many publications, such as Literary Weekly, General, Oriental Magazine, Middle School Student, New Teenager, Novel Monthly, Literature and Art Front and so on. Bookstores like the Kaiming Publishing House also take his paintings as covers or illustrations of their books. His works have refreshed the book binding form since the May 4th Movement. His designs and illustrations are featured by a novel and unrestrained style and interesting content.
(This article is selected from Wu Haoran’s Feng Zikai’s Binding Art)
