An Initial Survey Of Shi Tao' Art

Shi Tao is one of the most important artists in the painting circles of Qing Dynasty. His painting is full of changes, bold and unconstrained, different from those of his contemporaries (for example, the painting of the main stream at his time—the"Four Wangs"), and has impacted deeply on the later artists. Moreover, Shi Tao is a master in the art field. He is not only adept in drawing landscapes painting, flower-and-bird painting and figure painting, but also good at calligraphy and poetry. Poems, calligraphy and drawing always bring out the best in each other in his works. Additionally, he has made unique contributions to paining theories. He wrote The Analects of Balsam Pear Monk which is known as a classic representative of Chinese painting aesthetics. In this book, Shi Tao relates all kinds of elements dialectically to analyze and expound them. He highly advocates the ideas of guiding artistic creation of"Using the past to give impetus to the present","learning from the nature"and"painting in an unconstrained way"and opposes the degenerate practices of"obstinately following the ancient painting methods and clinging to the habitual manners of their own''. Many of his opinions continues the theories of the artists in Six Dynasties and Five Dynasties, and Northern Song Dynasty. He particularly reflects profoundly over the painting-in-itself, which not only functions as a warning and promotion for the development of the painting in that time, but also plays an active part in the development of the painting at present and in the future.The artistic achievements Shi Tao has obtained are inseparable with his frustrated lifetime. His nostalgia for his homeland as the price of Ming Dynasty forged his distinguished personality and also created his unique"artistic gene", which find best expression in his artistic style. Shi Tao had no fixed residence all his life, his traveling and association with others in different periods and the evolution of his artistic thoughts are embodied in the development of his artistic style at different stages of his lifetime. Taking Shi Tao's artistic achievements as a focus, this paper makes an exhaustive analysis on the artistic origins, painting techniques of his paintings and the impact they exert on the later generations. In the research process, the author corresponds his paintings with his artistic thoughts and summarizes the relationship between the characteristics of his painting on various subjects in different periods and his thoughts on painting.This article falls into six chapters. Chapter one and two give a brief introduction to the social and historical background of the society Shi Tao lived, the status quo of the painting circles at that time as well as his life experiences; chapter three probes into the artistic origins and achievements of Shi Tao's painting, in addition, in the section on his artistic achievements, the author carries out a thorough analysis on his flower paintings and his accomplishments in calligraphy besides the landscape paintings; chapter four is a detailed elaboration on Shi Tao's painting techniques, with his painting techniques and theory combined to rectify the theory from the technical perspective, therefore, the artist's theory can find reliance and embodiment in his painting; chapter five concentrates on the evolution of Shi Tao's painting style. The author of the article divides Shi Tao's painting into five phases in terms of the different stages of his life, and summarizes the main regularity of his changing style which can be demonstrated by the pattern"unconstrained-constrained- unconstrained- constrained- unconstrained''; chapter six sums up Shi Tao's influence on the painting circles of his time and later generations, and the author proposes that Shi Tao's impact should be viewed dialectically and his painting theory should be understood comprehensively.