Art, Historical Constructions, With The People Themselves

Project of Art Creation of Great Theme of History in China is a collaborative project conducted by Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Finance. With a national investment of over billions of RMB and a time span of five years, many major historic events of our country in the last 160 years have been artistically represented through image creations. As one of the major cultural projects of great significance in the 21st century, it requires a comprehensive research and discussion.All the 104 pieces of work in the Project can be categorized as history-theme paintings. Centered on historic events, history-theme paintings focus on representation of grand historic scenes and complicated details, documentation of historic facts and seeking historical significance. The cognitive and educational functions of arts are mostly realized through history-theme paintings. The excellent history-theme paintings, domestic and abroad, past and present, all explicate the inner truth of history in an artistic way.Chinese history-theme paintings in the 20th century were accomplished under the background of cultural merging of China and the West. Back then, realism was a historic choice and the main characteristic of Chinese painting in the whole century. In the first 17 years after the foundation of P. R. China, there were many excellent pieces of work which had a distinct ideological meaning and depicted the features of the time. In the period the Cultural Revolution, art was degenerated into a form of political ideas and taught us a profound lesson. Since the opening-door policy, art creation has becoming more diversified, but still there is a tendency of lacking in vitality and order.In the 21st century, the Project of Art Creation of Great Theme of History in China tries to integrate the historic revolutionary events into the whole national great themes of history, which, as a matter of fact, indicates the inner demands of contemporary dominant ideology. The effects of the Project should finally be measured by the quality of the art creation. How do artistic merit and thoughts expression reach a unity? How are the deep theme and contents explored and artistic language innovated? And how does the realism style answer various challenges from image creation techniques?Obviously, there are some regrets and shortcomings in the whole Project such as missing of some important themes, lack in openness and comprehensiveness in application qualification, and lack in diversity in terms of artistic expression. How to make up and set up an open, long-term collection funding system should be placed on the agenda as soon as possible. Helping to collect the art creations of great themes of history which reflect the laws and rules of history, the works which reflect the reality and feelings, the paintings which pursue the truth, the virtue and the beauty of humanity, a more effective long-term collection funding system will construct a contemporary visual memory, thus shouldering the social and historical obligations. This will be an obligation not only of artists, but of our cultural professional staff as well.