The 40-year reform and opening-up of China’s fine arts has left a series of changes. As an artist who studied and grew up in this era, many scenes I experienced are vividly in my mind, and now in retrospect, they also have academic and cultural symbolic significance.
In the spring of 1978, “French 19th Century Rural Landscape Painting Exhibition” was exhibited in Beijing China Art Museum and Shanghai Exhibition Hall, which can be said to be the beginning of China art circles’ contact and understanding of western art in a new historical period. With the collection of the Musee d ‘Orsay in Paris as the main part, the exhibition gathers 88 oil paintings from several French museums, which shows the exquisite level of 19th century French painting to China art circles and the public for the first time. It opens a new window for people, thus tracing the traditional origin of European oil painting and arousing the discussion about the relationship between art and reality. During the exhibition, the art circles rushed to tell each other and aroused long-lost excitement. Several generations of artists from old, middle and young went to both places to watch the exhibition, and major art colleges also sent key teachers of oil painting to the venue to copy the original works. Many viewers are even more hungry, with their eyes wide open and amazed to appreciate the unknown western art. To some extent, the local realism paintings that later appeared in China painting circles were related to that exhibition to some extent. China painters saw the artistic depiction of “truth” from the exhibition works, and especially realized that excellent works are always the crystallization of the combination of showing the authenticity of real life and pursuing the artistry of painting skills.
The development of fine arts in China in the past 40 years can be described as “double variation”. On the one hand, the emancipation of the mind has brought about the change of artistic concept, especially the word “truth” in art creation, that is, paying attention to real life, reflecting real feelings and shaping real images. The vicissitudes of China society in the era of reform and opening up have provided abundant themes and materials for art creation. Whether expressing historical themes or expressing real life, the art circles have increasingly formed a new consensus, that is, they should step on the land of China, be close to reality with sincere feelings, and consciously join in the fiery practice of China people’s hard work, pioneering and enterprising, chasing dreams and building dreams, and constantly deepen their feelings with the people. In this respect, a large number of works reflect the magnificent landscape of this historical process. Rich scenes from the city to the countryside, from production and construction to daily life have become vivid materials written by artists, especially showing the brand-new mental outlook of China people in this era. It is the return of art creation to “truth” that makes art works popular among the people and resonates with thoughts and emotions. On the other hand, the 40-year-old art in China is also a process of constantly returning to the art noumenon and exploring the formal language style. The opening to the world has enabled China’s art circles to extensively absorb and learn from the advantages and experiences of world art. After the French rural landscape exhibition, a large number of foreign art exhibitions have flocked to Beijing and other places, greatly broadening the cultural horizons of China artists. Personal perspective and individual expression of artistic creation have become a common practice. There are not only language exploration and form innovation in traditional forms such as painting and sculpture, but also the rise of new art such as animation, new media, installations and images. Artists’ styles are more diverse, and the public’s acceptance of art is more inclusive. China’s art circle has truly ushered in an era of flowers blooming.
In the past 40 years, the creative vitality of China’s fine arts originated from the vivid “scene” of reform and opening-up. Leaving this “scene” and only expressing empty ideas and self-emotions, the works will be pale and powerless, which can’t constitute the dialogue of ideas and the exchange of emotions. Therefore, it is a correct way to return to the fundamental law of artistic creation to advocate the people-centered creative orientation, to go deep into life and take root in the people. In recent years, the art world has set off a creative upsurge of realistic themes. With the concept of “pen and ink should keep pace with the times” and the theme of empathizing with the times, the majority of artists strive to discover the landmark events and typical figures’ deeds in this process, find the “original ecological” materials through in-depth life, generalize and extract the “prototype” of images and scenes from the realistic scenes and people’s life experiences, and shape images and artistic conception with artistic formal language, thus a new phenomenon emerges. The artistic tradition of all ages has proved that from the truth of reality to the truth of art is the key point to be solved in artistic creation, and a large number of artistic classics reflect the real situation of a specific era and become the picture scroll of the times.
Similarly, formal exploration and language innovation, which belong to the art ontology, can’t be separated from the perception of the “scene” of the life of the times. With the arrival of the information society, the convenience of image communication not only brings many possibilities for research and reference, but the image world also brings severe challenges to the image creation and form development of art, especially the impact on the perception of art. The cultural environment of China’s fine arts is changing, and the development of science and technology and the emergence of new materials and new media have an unprecedented impact on the aesthetic form of art. In this situation, the creation of fine arts needs to return to the origin of perceiving the world, especially the expansion and innovation of formal language should be solved from the physical and mental state facing life and nature, and the breakthrough point of expressive language innovation should be found in the narrative of the theme of the times, so that China’s fine arts can show the spirit of the times with a new look of double ensemble of ideological connotation and artistic language.
(Author: Fan Dian, Dean of the Central Academy of Fine Arts)