Research On Roger Fry’s Artistic Thoughts

Roger Fry is the forerunner of western modern art theory.He is one of the important representatives of western formal aesthetics,and he has an important role in the art criticism method of formal analysis.At the turn of the late 19 th century and the beginning of the 20 th century,new forms of Western art emerged.Fry’s main work is to create theoretical space for the artistic creation of Cezanne and Matisse.In the process of Western art from the classical realism tradition to modernism,Fry put forward the "formal analysis method" which has a profound influence.The criticism method of formal analysis is that the viewer can watch the work itself from the social and cultural background of the art works,and concentrate on the lines,colors and space of the painting works.The advantage of this method is that the western public did not have the social and historical knowledge of understanding modern art or Oriental Art,but still got a way to watch these works.The core of Roger Fry’s artistic thought is that art conveys feelings through form."Form" is a bridge built by Fry,which leads the feelings of the related people(creators,viewers,different nationalities,etc.)to the works.Fry agreed with Tolstoy that art is the transmission of feelings,and he summarized that line,color,space and other factors are the most basic nature of painting art,and its expression form is from emotion.For example,even if the works of the same subject matter,different painters show different pictures because of their different emotional experience and the final forms of the pictures are different.Fry has many identities,not only an art critic,but also a painter and designer.He is also a writer of important magazines such as Burlington,director and consultant of Metropolitan Museum in New York,Professor Slade honorary and successful curator.These different identities and work behind him make Fry study art from different perspectives.That also facilitates his spreading his artistic thoughts in practice.Roger Fry named the post-Impressionist school,and the two exhibitions planned for it were important events in the history of art.Fry is very highly praised for Chinese art and Japanese art,and actively learn from the formal factors of Oriental Art to realize his artistic ideal against cultural colonization.Xu Zhimo,a famous poet in modern Chinese history,has a close relationship with Roger Fry,and is influenced by Fry’s artistic thoughts.Xu Zhimo,drawing on Fry’s theory,participated in the debate on the "The dispute between Xu Zhimo and Xu beihong",and opened up the open thought and pluralistic situation of Chinese Western painting art.Later scholars have commented that Roger Fry’s formal aesthetics ignores the social and historical nature of art works.If we separate his thought of formal criticism,it is reasonable to say so.But the evaluation of Fry’s artistic thought should be restored to the local environment at that time.Looking at Fry’s artistic theory framework and combining with the western art environment in the 19 th century,it is unfair to make such an evaluation of Fry,and this means we have not understand the core and deep motivation of Fry’s artistic thought.He is not only a formalist,but also a pluralist who has an inclusive attitude towards various forms of art,and a "Intercultural" who advocates the mutual absorption and reference of different cultures.The core of Fry’s artistic thought can be summarized into two problems: the first is the diversity of art;The second is the purity of art.This is due to Fry’s attitude towards art-art is free-he supports the diversification of art forms and seeks theoretical support for it.He advocates the formal factors in painting works to change the public preference for traditional realistic art.In the art environment at that time,the classical interest of the academy still occupied the mainstream.The criterion of judging an art work is usually based on its creation theme and performance techniques(even if it is not like painting).In this context,Roger Fry emphasized the formal factors of painting art,which aims to guide the public to appreciate art works in a way other than the content of the picture,which is his deep motivation to use formal analysis.It can be seen from the logical relationship between the two core issues in Roger Fry’s artistic thought: in Fry’s view,pure works of art can be free and pluralistic in expression.The purity of art is closely related to the creation emotion in Fry’s theory.However,because of the difficulty of emotion interpretation and the purity of art,Fry himself has not explained clearly.This question developed into the theory of "the significance of form" under the interpretation of Clive Bell.The irrefutable "significance" made the theory fall into the aesthetic dilemma of art historians at the end of the 19 th century who were still asking about the essence of beauty.Roger Fry’s contribution to art is mainly reflected in the following four aspects:(1)the public has gained more understanding of art appreciation;(2)More freedom of creation has been obtained for artists;(3)To a large extent,it has expanded the market of various art works;(4)It played a certain role in the later formal aesthetics theory.Roger Fry’s art thought is worth exploring and thinking in the history of art.His artistic thought constantly seeks shelter and creates space for new art forms in practice.Unfortunately,Fry did not integrate all his artistic thoughts and efforts into a whole system of thought.If he can unify his art theory into "pluralism" or "cross-cultural" and put it into the history of art to reflect and consider,his artistic thoughts may not be misunderstood so deep.