2024-01-27 19:05:00
broad realism
——Potential links between Chinese and Spanish contemporary paintings
Author: Cao Yiqiang (Professor of China Academy of Art)
Spanish oil painting has a long tradition, while Chinese oil painting started late and is relatively young. It was not until the 1950s that oil painting became an art subject that keeps pace with Chinese painting. Initially, Chinese oil painting mainly imitated the French system. From the 1950s to the 1980s, Russian painting style almost shaped the basic appearance of Chinese oil painting. After the reform and opening up, Chinese oil paintings have absorbed nutrients from various European and American oil painting schools and are committed to integrating Chinese spirit into them to create oil paintings with their own characteristics. However, the influence of Russian oil paintings still exists. In this process, the concepts and techniques of Chinese oil painting were linked to Spanish painting through the Spanish painter Velázquez. Velazquez represented a peak of the Western painting tradition. He not only impressed France in the 19th century It provided inspiration for Marxist painting and also profoundly influenced the Russian painter Repin who had a wide impact on Chinese oil painting. As we all know, the older generation of oil painters in New China, such as Quan Shanshi, Jin Shangyi, Zhan Jianjun, etc., were all influenced by Repin. Some of them studied at the Repin Academy of Fine Arts in the 1950s, and some participated in Maximov’s oil painting training class in Beijing. This generation of painters laid the foundation for the teaching and creation of Chinese oil painting and trained the following three generations of Chinese oil painters. Although there were few opportunities for direct communication between Chinese and Spanish oil painters before the 1980s, there have always been potential connections between Spanish oil paintings and Chinese oil paintings through the above-mentioned common indirect source-Velazquez’s paintings. .
Tajik girl Ayiguli in full dress (oil painting) Quanshanshi
This potential connection between Chinese and Spanish contemporary paintings was presented to the audience in a clear way in the recently held “Broad Realism – Chinese and Spanish Contemporary Oil Painting Exhibition”. The exhibition brings together 118 works of oil painters from four generations of China and Spain. After being exhibited in Hangzhou and Beijing, China, it will also be exhibited in Madrid, Spain.
The name “Broad Realism” can reflect the contemporary exploration and development of realist painting in Spain and China. Indeed, the concept of “realism” has different meanings in different cultural and artistic contexts. In Western art, it usually refers to an art style from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century that emphasizes objective depiction and true representation of realistic themes. With the rise of abstract art and the popularization of modern media such as photography and videography, realism has been dismissed as an “outdated thing” that faithfully records the appearance of objects. However, in Chinese art, the concept of realism has important differences from that in the West. This concept was introduced to China in the first half of the 20th century, highlighting the depiction of social reality and revolutionary historical themes, and praising heroes and typical people’s lives. This gave rise to a creative method that combines social realism and revolutionary romanticism. This art form plays a leading role in contemporary Chinese art culture.
Although realist painting was once derogated in the West, it was this denial that stimulated a new hunger for figurative painting and prompted artists to re-examine the value of the realist art tradition. Spanish painters were no exception. They re-examined the Renaissance art in Italy, the birthplace of European oil painting. It was during the inspection that they suddenly discovered that there was something in their own tradition that Italian painting lacked. Just like the Spanish artist Antonio Lo Pace Garcia said, “an element that is very close to reality, which is fully reflected in the realist qualities in the paintings of Velazquez, Subaran, Rivera, Goya and others.” In the final analysis, painting is an art that reproduces perception rather than embodies cognition; perception creates the vividness of art. At this time, Arika, an Israeli painter who had made great achievements in abstract painting, also returned to the path of realism. Following Velázquez as a model, he insisted on sketching and painting based on reality, capturing the moment of real perception. His exploration also expressed the same relationship with Spanish painters. Same belief.
Gran Via on August 1 at 1 pm (oil painting) Antonio López García
In the 1960s, when Western realist painting was completely marginalized, realist art, especially oil painting, developed vigorously in China, producing a large number of eye-catching works, including some of the most outstanding works to date. The pinnacle. At the same time, Spanish artists returned to the path of realism from their attempts at modernism, striving to inherit the tradition of Velázquez, integrating modern techniques, expressing contemporary life, conveying contemporary emotions, and returning realism to the main body of art. Chinese and Spanish painters coincidentally conducted diversified explorations into realist painting at the same period. This historical coincidence is the inevitable return of oil painting to its original characteristics. In this process, oil painters from the two countries, while adhering to the reproducibility of oil painting, explored the subject matter, techniques and styles of realist painting in a new attitude, greatly expanding the scope of realist art. As the works in the exhibition show, the scope is all-encompassing: illusionistic, realistic, romantic, poetic, surreal, photorealist, and more. It turns out that realism is not only an important art form with unique expressive power and aesthetic value, but also has unlimited possibilities to convey incomparably rich emotions and incomparably deep meanings through the observation and reproduction of the real world. . As can be seen from the works in the exhibition, many of them attempt to build a bridge between modern and contemporary avant-garde art, especially abstract art, and Europe’s long tradition of representation to express new contemporary emotions and new visions. From this point of view, no matter what form of realism, as long as it adheres to the creative aesthetic quality, it must have unique artistic value and art historical significance.
Fine arts have always played the role of beautiful cultural envoys between countries. This exhibition is hosted by the China Academy of Art and co-organized by the Quanshan Stone Art Center in Zhejiang, China, the National Center for the Performing Arts, and the Chinese and Western Art and Cultural Exchange Center. It shows the gratifying achievements of Chinese and Spanish painters on the path of realist painting over the past half century. This gives art as a special envoy a double meaning: on the one hand, in a complex international environment, it helps to promote mutual understanding and trust between the two peoples; on the other hand, in the context of contemporary art, it provides a The exhibition provides an opportunity for them to communicate with each other and discuss the art of oil painting to promote the prosperity of art and culture in both countries.
“Guangming Daily” (January 28, 2024, page 12)
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责编：邱晓琴 ]
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