Chinese Painting
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TOPThe Main Artistic Features in the Development of Chinese Painting
The earliest Chinese painting, which probably originated during the Western Zhou (BCE 1027-771) Dynasty (several intact artifacts bearing witness to this claim have been excavated), was not intended as artwork to be viewed for its own sake, i.e., not as a picture, or scroll, to be hung on a wall, but was instead ornamental in nature, being used to decorate various utensils. Traditional, or "picture-art", Chinese painting (also called "national", or "native" painting), typically rendered on scrolls, involves applying the paint medium to the surface in much the same way that calligraphy is done, i.e., with fine strokes. Indeed, calligraphy may itself be either ornamental or in the form of traditional painting, and is often combined with traditional imagery both in ornamental painting as well as in traditional painting.
In terms of motif, besides portraits of human figures, early Chinese painting generally involves landscapes, animals (typically deer, birds, fish, and frogs), flowers – including blossoms – grass and insects, etc.* Traditional painting can also be found on albums or on walls, or as lacquer work on a variety of media.
Chinese painting is not only the oldest continuous artistic tradition in the world, it represents a unique medium in the field of fine arts, worldwide: it is painted on rice paper or on thin silk. The paint, which may be Chinese ink or Chinese painting dyes – not oil paint – is applied with brushes, just as are oil paints and other paint mediums in Western art, although the paint medium will naturally have an influence on, if not completely determine, the type of brush stroke. Similarly, the paint medium will influence the type of brush used to apply it; just as in Western art different brushes are used depending on whether one employs oil paints or watercolors, in Chinese art, the brush used to apply the thinner Chinese paint mediums is finer still than that used for watercolor work in Western art, thus permitting the tracing of very fine lines.
Chinese painting differs from Western painting in another significant way. Whereas in Western art, the illusion of depth, or the third dimension, is achieved through a mathematical arrangement that apportions the size of the objects represented according to a fixed relationship, thus creating what is termed a vanishing point (usually involving a foreground, a middle ground, and a background), Chinese art creates the same illusion not by a fixed-relationship vanishing point, but rather, by means which allow the viewer's eye to roam about the picture examining it from any number of different vantage points, as it were. Other techniques to achieve this end, such as the alignment of objects in such a way as to lead the viewer's eye along a certain line, or path, though this may only be one of several paths in a typical Chinese painting, are common to both Chinese and Westerm art.
There are two paint-application techniques in Chinese painting: meticulous (gongbi) and freehand (xieyi). As the name suggests, the meticulous technique involves meticulously careful application of the paint medium with great attention to detail, while the freehand technique is reserved for a less delicate touch involving subject matter – including large-font, as it were, calligraphy – that is cruder, or more general in shape. One might argue that the degree of detail in the subject matter itself determines the painting technique, and this is undeniably true to a large extent, though the meticulous technique can be applied, if laboriously so, to any subject matter, however crude or fine in detail, while one obviously cannot paint in fine detail with the freehand technique.
Not surprisingly, the two different painting techniques have spawned a number of different brush types. Broadly speaking, brushes are divided into two main categories: those for "painting" and those for writing, where the latter are understandably made of very fine material such as sheep's hair or rabbit hair. But "painting" brushes can be subdivided into coarser-to-finer categories, depending on the intricacy of the motif to be painted. There are accordingly special brushes for painting common flowers, for painting orchids, and for painting the details of bamboo.
Chinese painting continued to develop through the Qin-Han Dynasties (BCE 221 - CE 220). During the Six Dynasties period, which spanned CE 220 – 589, painting was used to adorn Buddhist shrine-like figures depicting the Buddha surrounded by bodhisattvas, or devotees (a bodhisattva is one who has devoted himself to becoming enlightened).
During the Sui (CE 581 - 617) and Tang (CE 618 - 907) Dynasties, painting dyes which had formerly been imported were developed by the Chinese themselves. The period of Five Dynasties (CE 907 - 960) and that of the Song Dynasty (CE 960 - 1279) witnessed the rise of many genres and rapid developments in Chinese painting. Much later, during the Yuan (CE 1279 - 1368) Dynasty, the technique of ink-wash drawing, in which a light layer of diluted ink, or bistre, is carefully and evenly spread, leaving no brush traces, became very popular. During the rest of China's imperial dynastic period up to the modern era, Chinese painting mainly followed the regulations or rules prescribed in earlier dynastic periods, yet in each dynastic period, especially after the introduction of Buddhism into China, innovative painters emerged.
In the realm of fine arts worldwide, Chinese painting is recognized as having developed a unique national style involving unique media as well as unique painting techniques and practices. For example, as regards the sketching of images, Chinese painters were fond of the use of simple lines and colors – usually various shades of black – to reflect nature, including the form and structure of objects, both animate and inanimate. Chinese painting combines with many art forms such as poems, ditties and odes as well as with calligraphy to add an extra dimension to the appreciation of the art form in question. Chinese lacquer art, or the art of preserving imagery with a special lacquer derived from the sap of a tree called rhus vernicifera (a variety of sumac), is near-indestructible; it not only repels insects – and most liquids – it also creates an impregnable bond on porous surfaces, especially on soft woods, pentrating deeply into the grain.
TOPProminent Chinese Painters
WU DAOXUAN (WU DAOZI)
Wu Daoxuan was a renowned painter who lived during the Tang Dynasty. Styled DaoZi, Wu Daoxuan came from a poor family in Yangzhai County in Henan Province during the rule of Emperor Gao Zong. Wu Daozi had started painting in the previous ruling period, that of Emperor Xuan Zong (at the close of the 7th Century/ the beginning of the 8th Century). The painted figures by Wu Daozi – images of immortals and monsters and of birds and beasts – as well as representations of terraces and pavilions, were seen as exquisite works of art, even during the artist's own time. Wu Daozi painted over 300 religious frescos and was considered as well by later generations of fellow painters as a "Master of Painting" and an honored "Ancestor of Painting".
The painting style of Wu Daozi exhibited power, vigor, boldness, and variation. The artist thus broke with the painting style that had hitherto been "standard code" and which involved drawing thin, delicate lines. The bold brush strokes of Wu Daozi became famous for their ability to convey a sense of motion and rhythm. The artist's bold style caused others to refer to him as "flying sleeves" Wu Daozi. In addition to this distinction, Wu Daozi, together with a contemporary, Wang Wei, were known for developing the lighter, or monochrome, inkwash method.
But Wu Daozi, who is perhaps best known as a great saint painter, achieved his famous status because he had begun his painting career as a humble artisan and was therefore revered by subsequent generations of artisan painters as their "patron saint", as it were, much in the same way that later generations of textile workers revered their profession's "founding father", Huang Daopo (a female), or later generations of carpenters and building workers revered Lu Ban, a famous architect of the Spring and Autumn Period (BCE 770 - 476) of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty.
GUAN SHANYUE (1912 - 2000)
Guan Shanyue, whose original name is Guan Zelu, was an outstanding painter of the second generation of the Lingnan School, a painting school that originated in what is present-day Guangdong Province, with roots going as far back in history as the Tang (CE 618 - 907) Dynasty. Born in Yangjiang County of Guangdong Province, the artist also became an influential painting teacher, and eventually became vice-president of the Chinese Artists Association and president of the Guangdong Studio of Painting.
XU BEIHONG (1895 - 1953)
Xu Beihong was in the forefront of the reform of Chinese painting, believing that only by bringing to Chinese art the realist approach of contemporary Western art would Chinese art regain its former prominence as a serious contemporary art form, rather than a glorious relic from the past. As a young man, Xu travelled abroad, initially to Japan. Later, in 1919, he went to Europe on a government scholarship, studying in France and in Germany where he mastered the technique of European oil painting. Returning to China some years later where he was assigned to an important education post, Xu stressed the importance for Chinese art students to relearn, as it were, the art of drawing, having come to the conclusion that this was the key ingredient that separated excellence from mediocrity in the art of painting.
The disciplined, scientific approach to painting introduced to Chinese art students by Xu Beihong has since become standard teaching practice in art schools throughout China today, putting contemporary Chinese art on an even footing with the best art of the West. Xu Beihong himself came to specialize in painting horses, especially dramatic "snapshots" of what can only be wild horses in motion, or poised on the verge of bolting, yet Xu's works, which are prized the world over, retain a distinctive Chinese flavor, which, from a distance – except for the motif, of course – might resemble any classical Chinese inkwash drawing.
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* It goes without saying of course that almost all early painting in all cultures – going even as far back as the Upper Paleolithic prehistoric period of Cro Magnon (viz: the Lascaux Cave in the village of Les Eyzies, Dordogne, France) – including Chinese culture, but perhaps excluding aboriginal culture (the aboriginal rock-painting equivalent of Lascaux has more of an abstract quality about it – eg., a swirl might represent a watering hole, geometrical figures and lines might represent a landscape, etc.) was representational.
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