A Case Study Of Li Keran's Ink Style

The formation of Li Keran's ink style had an inner logic connection with the " May-fouth Cultural Movement" and the belief, which worshipped science, of the art's revolutionary movement. The initiate occurrence of Li Keren's ink style originated from the view of point that a painter should look into and represent the nature scientifically. At the same time his pursuit of spirit realm and his emotional complex toward Chinese tradition made him changing from the reprentation of nature to the " brush and ink "as an ontologiy. This dissertation displays and researchs the development history of Li Keran's ink style by analysing the concrete art works. The analyses will mainlly focuses on "texturing", "rubbing", "dotting", "dyeing" used in Li Keran's art works in different period and on the base of the analyses concluded that, "texturing" was more emphasised in Li Keran's earlier works, and then "rubbing", "dotting",and "dyeing" were more important in his later works, besides , there is a kind of progressive link among the three methods and it was the result of natural development of his ideas concerning art creation. Wholly speaking, the development of Li Keran's ink style was a kind of procedure in which he has converged the methods of "texturing", "rubbing", "dotting", "dyeing". Li Keran has developped the traditional method of "piling up ink" with his discovery of the levels of light and shade, he has created new methods with specific styles which can be described as "crumbling" and "piling up ink with light and colour". The dissertation gives more pages on the argumentation of Li Keran's method of "piling up ink" and points out that Li's method of "piling up ink" is a kind of inheretance of the ink style of Huang Binhong. But at the same time this method has been influenced by the skills used in western sketch, oil painting and water and colour paintings, although with the elements of light and colour, it has decisive meaning in the creation of the spiritual realm. Finally the dissertation discusses Li Keran's ink methods on the cultural aspects and points out that Li Keran's innovation in 1950s was in a passive form, Li's ink style was a very important tool which was used to challenge the representation power of the western paintings. Thus our conclusion is, on the base of inhereting and sustaining the Chinese traditional painting methods of brush and ink, converging ingeniously the western painting's formational elements into Chinese paintings, frequently researching and summarizng, Li Keran has finally transcended the traditional method of "piling up ink". Li Keran's research and pratise on the ink style provides a new reference for the contemporary Chinese painting' formational language. His ink style was closely concerned with the development of his "texturing", "rubbing",and "dyeing"methods and finally united as a complete whole.