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| This Chinese painting is based on an ancient
poem about a lonely man enduring a long night on a boat moored
near a temple in the outskirts of Suzhou. |
MANY expatriates in Shanghai have a strong liking for Chinese
furniture, but few show much enthusiasm for Chinese painting.
Westerners' lack of interest may stem from the fact that Chinese
paintings do not embrace the basic standards of Western art: proportion,
scenery, the use of light, and so on. Many Chinese paintings,
even masterpieces, would look funny and childish when judged by
these standards.
Why do Chinese still cling to the traditional art form when there
are so many new ways of expression?
An easy answer is that, the art form is in accordance with the
Chinese mentality. But this is only partly true.
"The Chinese people tend to think in images, while Westerners
pay more attention to logic," said Duan Shaojun, a contemporary
artist engaged in both Chinese painting and Western-style oil
painting.
Fallen leaves remind people of autumn and call up emotional yearning
for the flourishing summer. A lonely fisherman on a calm river
brings a sense of solitude. Such emotional associations are so
natural among the Chinese people, that they are almost subconscious.
Chinese artists used to pay great attention to what images they
would evoke. Bamboo, flowers, and lonely hermits near mountain
cottages are the favourite subjects under the brush of Chinese
painters.
The artists put so much thought into their subjects that the
paintings earned the name "Intellectual Paintings".
Quite a few successful painters in ancient times were good poets
as well. And one theme in Chinese painting is "picture in
poetry, and poetry in picture".
The fatal shortcoming of such "Intellectual Paintings"
is the negligible skill with which they are created. When intellectuals
created the paintings, they put great emphasis on the emotion
and value they hoped to express, but somehow they neglected the
way of expression.
"I chose to paint people in oils and scenery in Chinese
painting, because Chinese painting lacks the strong expression
needed to portray people," Duan said.
Duan also mentioned that traditional Chinese artists, most of
whom were intellectuals, lacked devotion and scientific attitude
toward art.
"They were not like Da Vinci, who would anatomize corpses
to learn about the conformation of the human body. This is inconceivable
for ancient Chinese painters. They were too proud to do such things."
Chinese painting had existed for nearly 1,000 years, before it
got the name "Chinese painting" early last century.
The intellectuals of the early 1900s were amazed to find many
new trends and schools in Western art. They found Chinese painting
cliched and lacking vitality.
Many Chinese art masters of that age had studied abroad, some
in Paris, the capital of art.
Xu Beihong, the artist famous for his drawings of horses, was
one of those returned from Paris. "To learn directly from
Nature," and "To keep the good part of ancient method,
and change the undesirable ones" were his oft-quoted maxims
on Chinese painting.
He and several other artists of the same period felt strongly
that new blood from the West had to be transfused into traditional
Chinese art.
They were strongly against books which taught people Chinese
painting stroke by stroke.
Such books prove very useful for beginners in Chinese painting,
but Xu and his colleagues believed that those books led Chinese
painting to stylization and loss of vitality.
But even the most radical of them never thought of giving up
the art form.
Wu Guanzhong, an artist who started with Chinese painting, transferred
to Western art and then combined the two, wrote about his ambition
to build a bridge between Chinese and Western painting.
"I admit that my art is a mixblood," Wu once wrote
as his paintings were exhibited in London.
Wu believed that art is consistent with nature. He was trying
to explore nationalism in oil painting and seek modernism from
traditional Chinese water and ink.
Some people said his paintings remind them of the Impressionists
in the West.
The Impressionists like Cezanne and Monet emphasized the impression
a scene left on the viewer, and added a subjective tone to their
paintings.
A German artist, Michael Dickmann, who participated in this year's
Shanghai Art Fair, even added a stanza of poetry beneath many
of his paintings.
"I want to show people what I felt about the scene instead
of the scene itself," he said.
By painting a simple horizon of the northern area, he hoped to
bring the chill feeling of morning to the viewer, or reader of
his work.
This again reminds readers of Wu's quotation: "Art is consistent
in nature."
West or East, beauty is the eternal theme.
(By Yvonne Zhang, Shanghai Star. )
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