| Oil painting has been developed in China for more than a hundred years since it was introduced to China on a large scale by international students in modern times.In the process of introduction,learning,integration and improvement,the title has changed from "foreign painting" and "western painting" to "oil painting" and then to "Chinese oil painting".The change shows that oil painting is a variety of art that has been deeply characterized by the qualities and connotations of traditional Chinese culture.During this period,its development has always been closely related to the background of the whole Chinese era,reflecting the continuation and evolution of the traditional Chinese pictorial spirit in the zigzagging and changing context of the times.The term "freehand brushwork" has undergone a colorful development in China.It is two sides of the same coin with literati painting,contributing to each other;and it is also in harmony with Western expressionism painting,becoming a base for the fusion of Chinese and Western art.The essence of "freehand brushwork" is to use intuitive expression to grasp perceptual understanding in rational experience,and it is a kind of artistic narrative means and way of thinking used by the Chinese people when they look at nature and society.The first batch of modern oil painters received strict academy basic training in Europe,and they also saw a dazzling array of modernist paintings and ideas,and after returning to China,they carried out art creation and education with different understandings of art.The group of artists who stayed in France,represented by Lin Fengmian and others,hoped to carry out art reforms in China in the form of art movements,and to awaken the modern consciousness of the people of China in the way of substituting art for religion.They tried to break down the barriers between Chinese and Western paintings,and to complement each other with the strengths of the two kinds of art,so as to create a new form of Oriental art.The overseas prelude of the Opus Society during the period of studying in France and the domestic trial of the Beijing Art Conference,on the one hand,showed the desire and enthusiasm of the first group of oil painters to devote themselves to the social movement,and on the other hand,it also showed the inexperience of the early stage of the art movement,underestimating the complicated and changing political situation at home and the aesthetic taste that the Chinese people had already been accustomed to for thousands of years,and so the main force of the art movement dominated by Lin Fengmian profoundly summed up the lessons and experiences learned from the past.Therefore,Lin Fengmian,mainly the main force of the art movement,after deeply summarizing the lessons learned from the past,under the support of Cai Yuanpei,carried out long-term exploration of the art movement in the form of art education at the West Lake,which was far away from the political whirlpool.They used the National Hangzhou Arts College as a base to organize exhibitions,establish societies,and publish publications,making the National Hangzhou Arts College and the Art Movement Association in the 1920 s and 1930 s the central field of Chinese oil painting.The Hangzhou Art Movement Association,"based on absolute friendship,uniting the new forces in the art world,dedicated to the art movement,and aiming to promote the new art of the Oriental," changed its location from one art movement to another in an attempt to create new art through the study of Chinese and Western art.Early Members of the Art Movement Association including Lin Fengmian,Wu Dayu,Fang Ganmin,Cai Weilian were in the hard and harsh,the national crisis more and more serious environment of the times.They built a solid road for the development of Chinese oil painting freehand brushwork in the China Academy of Art after Hangzhou Art Movement Association.Subsequently,Artists in the China Academy of Art continued to explore along the path of the first generation of Art Movement members,with both inheritance of art forms and many new experiments:Wu Guanzhong and Su Tianzhi reclaimed a new fertile ground for oil painting in the poetic Jiangnan area,Zao Wou-ki and Zhu Dequn explored Eastern-style abstract oil painting inspired by East and West,and Wang Liuqiu and Ma Yuru realized the valuable transition from realism to Oriental aesthetic.The process of localization of oil painting is full of hardships.Among the two major trends of exploration,Realism and Expressionism,the path of exploration that combines Expressionism with the spirit of Chinese literati painting can best reflect the spirit of traditional Chinese culture,which has the characteristics of "giving up form and emphasizing meaning" in literati painting,and the qualities of Western Expressionism that uses color to express emotions,which is both subtle and emotional.It is both subtle and majestic,casting the characteristics of Chinese oil painting as "freehand brushwork".The phenomenon of "freehand brushwork" in Chinese oil painting is a selection of the best of the best after reorganization and research of traditional Chinese art,and it is also a new art form in the world’s art treasury that has common origins and complementary advantages between the East and the West,and it will surely become a brand-new national card that will allow the world to reacquaint itself with China and the ancient oriental art. |
