| Both Lin (1900-1991), a pioneer of modernism of Chinese fine arts, and Kaii, the most famous Japanese modern painter of scenery, are the explorers of Oriental Beauty in 20th century. During the last century, basing themselves on the own nation, they endeavored to search after the new way of national painting via syncretizing the fine arts of the Oriental and the Occidental, and produced a large amount of works of art that not only reflect the national aesthetic taste but also participate of the modem flavor. Starting from questioning the Oriental arts while longing for the Occidental arts, they retrospect the Oriental culture and thus result in a deeper understanding of the Oriental culture by dint of experiencing Occidental culture which is genetically unrelated to that of the Oriental. They both chose their artistic pursuit after making a thorough comparison between the fine arts of the Oriental and Occidental. They both set store by the tradition but do not follow it blindly; they develop the useful and discard the useless and at the same time pay attention to the relevance to the times. They both maintain that the fine arts should advance with the times, absorbing the alien culture so as to enrich one's own. In spite of their different life experiences, they so resemble each other both seeking consistently to integrate the Oriental and the Occidental and having made great achievement—both have won great success in exploring the beauty of Oriental and Occidental today. As scholarized painters, they are knowledgeable and familiar with the literature, history and philosophy of the east and the west. Both have devoted their whole life to fine arts and adhere to their ideals of art by earnestly practicing what theyadvocate. They produced the works of art fusing the nationalism, individuality and the spirit of times through integrating the alien culture into their own to perfection. Although their works adopted different materials and techniques and demonstrating different styles, yet their works smack of oriental sentiment and modernism.Lin and Kaii's success in the explorations of modern oriental arts shows that each nation should base themselves on their own tradition when searching for the modernization of arts; and at the same time one should guard against conformism as well as the tendency to downright westernization regardless of the cultural background; and equal importance should be given to both absorbing and selecting, integrating and creation. |
