The Society Of The Spectacle’s Picture And Painting:A Study Of European Painting Since The 1990s

At present,picture has become an important part of our lives,which it is no longer merely a reflection of real life,but has brought profound changes to the way of human vision.These pictures extend and apply into our lives increasingly.Public is surrounded by more intensive pictures: photographs,advertising,film,television,computers,mobile phones,the Internet and so on.These static or dynamic pictures constitute the spectacle of our lives today and promote a profound cultural transformation that is from the traditional language-centered contemporary print culture to the picture-centered visual culture.This transformation has shaken thousands of years of existence and development of painting from the fundamental foundation.Contemporary painting has been developed from the traditional functionality,reproducibility,narrative,symbolic,expressive functions into reflection and critique of social culture.When it comes to the criticism and conceptualization of contemporary painting,this paper defines the research background of the topic “society of the spectacle”,which is the masterpiece of a famous French ideologist Guy Debord,published in 1967 and created a widespread impact.Debord firstly took the spearhead to the public life which had been alienated by picture and his theory remains enlightenment till now.The“society of the spectacle” was during the transitional stage from the post-modern art to contemporary art,all kinds of thoughts rose one after another,Fluxus,happenings,performance art,Arte Povera and other groups had emerged,they emphasized works of art to show the attitude of art,not a certain style,as to express their aspirations to break the taboo.Contemporary art opened the curtain.In this paper,ten European artists are targeted as the research object since the1990 s.Most of them were born in the 1960 s,grew up in the “society of the spectacle,”they try to get rid of the manipulation of picture occupies on human beings,and try to use their own language of painting to make a voice,to create the “alternative” in the era of picture.These paintings are a true record of a living body in the world of picture who reflects and criticizes “spectacle”.The biggest difference between contemporary painting and modern painting is concept.Artists convert “attitude” into a new form of painting,more profoundly reach the truth behind the picture.Rethink the history,traditional culture and realistic context,reorganize the different pictures and styles in the new structure,essentially cut off the original context of diverted pictures,possess a new meaning.On the basis of the concept and problem awareness,the integration of artist’s eyes,mind and matter,makes the brush strokes and lines of the picture change from the inside out.This form of painting language transcends its limitation of formalism of modern art authentically,embodies the culture essence of the times.During the research,the author tries to find historical origin of picture rheology,looks forward to the future development of painting,rethink the human survival situation in the “society of the spectacle” from the view and criticism of contemporary artistic phenomena,try to make our attitude more rational and calm when facing pictures and contemporary art.