Chinese oil painting has gone through a development path of over a hundred years. In this process, Chinese painters have been able to deeply study and learn from Western oil painting, whether it is various classic paintings from the early Renaissance to the Post Impressionist period, or trendy art in the 20th century. They have explored and borrowed from multiple forms of painting language. Oil painting comes from Europe. After hundreds of years of practice and communication by several generations of Chinese oil painters, it is deeply rooted in the fertile land of China and is loved by more and more countrymen. Oil painting has an internationally recognized language, which can effectively tell Chinese stories, embody Chinese spirit, and demonstrate cultural confidence.
Ramming Song (Oil Painting) by Wang Wenbin
Internalize the Eastern aesthetic realm
As early as the 19th century, there was a divergence in representation and expression in Western painting, which led to the departure of oil painting art from traditional painting after C é zanne, and thus entered the journey of modern art in the 20th century. Among them, the influence of Eastern painting is one of the factors. In modern times, the "East Wind to the West" and "West Wind to the East" have promoted the development of each other's painting, allowing oil painting, an international painting language, to fully demonstrate its charm in both the East and the West. Cultural exchange and mutual learning have been confirmed in the field of oil painting. In the international perspective, painting is unprecedentedly active, and figurative oil painting has shown strong vitality in China. In addition, conceptual realism, Chinese expression, imagery oil painting, freehand painting, etc. have emerged successively, injecting new impetus into painting both in theory and practice. Unfortunately, most of these explorations only stay at the formal level and have not touched on the essence. The Chinese spirit expressed in oil painting should be an internalized Eastern aesthetic realm, rather than a superficial effect similar to Chinese painting.
Chinese painting can be divided into artistic and literary styles. The traditional Chinese literati painting conveys the author's thoughts, emotions, and spiritual realm through the beauty of imagery, providing room for metaphysical abstract thinking and imagination. Lines, brushstrokes, and color blocks are organized together through the painter's layout, not to emphasize the reproduction and depiction of the objective world, but to express the invisible reality through the visible world. The Chinese people pay attention to the integrated cosmology, and it is not difficult for Chinese painters to understand the aesthetic thought of "Tao follows nature" and "Heaven and Man are one". Chinese painting has always focused on issues such as artistic conception, rhyme, composition, brushwork, and the harmonious balance between various painting elements. Factors such as yin and yang, strength and weakness, virtuality and virtuality, rigidity and softness, lightness and heaviness, size, squareness, warmth and coldness, rhythm, etc. are transformed into a vivid and internally unified life form in the whole. The "Six Laws of Sheikh" (vivid charm, brushwork, pictographic representation of objects, coloring according to categories, management position, and transfer modeling) summarize the core issues of painting, which are not only applicable to Chinese painting, but also to Chinese painters creating oil paintings.
We should approach the accumulation of traditional culture with the correct attitude. If we blindly emphasize discarding burdens, it can easily lead to superficial and impetuous tendencies, causing today's art to go astray. Consciously re examining traditional culture and rediscovering the aesthetic temperament and meaning of Eastern art has become the interest of many oil painters.
After a century of development, Chinese oil painting has formed a unique artistic appearance, blending metaphysical thinking into artistic language forms, presenting the aesthetic quality of Eastern art, and placing the beauty of meaning and spirituality first. Currently, China is in the process of modernization construction, and the integration and intersection of Eastern and Western cultures will definitely generate new sparks. There is still a rich and great possibility to cultivate in this ancient oriental garden, which can fully nurture artistic fruits that are inclusive and integrated.
Farewell My Concubine (oil painting) by Lin Fengmian
Calmly facing the challenges of new technologies
In the era of images, painting faces many challenges. I work on the front line of oil painting teaching and often participate in various academic exhibition review work. Based on my years of observation, young people nowadays are quite adept at using modern electronic devices, and there are many methods to obtain images: one is to directly use Photoshop to piece together images and directly copy photos; Another approach is to use design methods to achieve various cool effects, and then proceed with production. These are all technical means, and there is still a gap between them and the expression of the language of oil painting itself. Nowadays, visual resources are extremely abundant, and what we can see is too complex and needs to be screened and selected, without being overly interfered with. Excessive pursuit of stimulating and cool visual desires, mixing freedom with indulgence, can easily lead people into absurdity and despair.
In recent years, the application of artificial intelligence technology has posed new challenges to painting. In this situation, where will Chinese oil painting go? I personally maintain an optimistic attitude towards this. Overly technical paintings may be eliminated, while emotional and spiritual expressions may become more precious. The language of form and the techniques of painting gradually emerge from the soil of thought. Innovation does not come out of nowhere, new technologies bring new possibilities. In the context of economic globalization, we still need to draw inspiration from reality and tradition, whether from the East or the West. Art history is vivid and dynamically developing, and art needs to constantly explore new possibilities. The invention of the camera in 1839 made many people feel the crisis of "painting death", but nearly 200 years have passed, and painting has not died, but instead presented more distinct characteristics and vitality of the times. I think that new technologies will also have new impetus and influence on Chinese oil painting in the new era.
Light up the light of the soul
The times move forward, and the waves behind push the waves ahead. This is a historical inevitability. We hope to see the future of oil painting, where the foundation lies in the present. Every era presents new challenges and opportunities, and today's painters must face them with their own wisdom.
In the early 1990s, Chinese oil painting had already presented a diverse range of styles, including ideal, realistic, local, critical, and worldly, reflecting the various emotions of artists through their works. The real world is a social background that artists cannot escape from, and any type of painting reflects the artist's realm, style, and level. In the late 1990s, with the expansion of university enrollment, in addition to the traditional eight major art schools, various comprehensive universities also competed to establish art departments, resulting in a significant increase in the number of art graduates. Correspondingly, the number of oil paintings created by artists has also increased significantly, but this increase in quantity has not fully translated into an improvement in quality. There are many works that lack humanistic care and blindly pursue the market, resulting in a tendency towards homogenization and losing their unique connotations.
The highest spiritual level of artistic pursuit in Eastern and Western art is actually consistent, and great literary and artistic works have authors' deep spiritual awareness and thinking. Beyond tradition and modernity, East and West, facing common human issues, the future of Chinese oil painting also needs to return to the soul. In reality, one may encounter various objective constraints, but a soul with independent personality can fly freely, and thoughts can gallop freely in the sky of art. Painting is a silent language, where silence surpasses sound. Where words cannot reach, art can reach. Works can "shine" and provide viewers with unlimited imagination space. Painting is a 'useless use', purely for satisfying spiritual needs, and should not be aimed at practical utility, because precisely these 'useless uses' have promoted social civilization and progress in historical time and space.
Art is the intersection of humans and nature. There is no art in nature, only rich changes that require artists to discover and capture. Mountains, rivers, clouds, falling into the heart, once cut, become art. A painter is a person who achieves the unity of senses and spirit, integrating rational thinking into sensory creation. The gifts of life and nature are inexhaustible. Painting is a dialogue with nature and one's own inner self, seeking treasures in life and beauty in the ordinary.
The environment is created by the heart, and there is nothing outside the heart. Painting is a visual art that cannot be separated from light. Black and white, light and shadow, color, and all other factors in shaping cannot be separated from the dependence and perception of light. This is a requirement for the light of physics, and more importantly, for the induction of the light of the soul. The soul is illuminated by light, the heart is illuminated by light, and only then can the paintbrush be illuminated by light. We may have all seen that many paintings are dull labor. If there is no light in the heart, it is difficult to impress people by using dim brushes to exhaust techniques. Although the individual artist may be humble and insignificant, in front of the canvas, you are the master. You can declare in front of your own works: there must be light, and thus there is light. This light is not only physical light, but also a spiritual light that emanates from the inside out. Even a faint light can bring warmth to people.
