A Study Of Hu Mingzhe's Rock-Color Still Life Painting

Rock-color painting is aesthetically significant by virtue of its unique materials and rich colors. Hu Mingzhe is a contemporary artist in China, who has drawn attention and plaudits from academic circle for her refreshing and characteristic rock-color still lifepa intings. Since the beginning of 1990s, she has been dedicated to explorative research of rock-color painting and gained in-depth and unique appreciation of the art. An extensive study and practice in the field of rock-color still life painting enables her to accumulate rich experience and expand the expressive and aesthetical scope of rock-color painting. In her view, those colorful mineral particles, far from merely a material, are dusts of our universe, reflecting a sense of the depth and vastness of life. Such perspective of Hu Mingzhe is a deeper and more progressive concept of rock color,total ly differentf rom the traditional definition.The origination and evolution of Hu Mingzhe's artistic ideas can be divided into three phases, namely, (i) the awakening of an awareness of innovation at initial stage; (ii) the exhibition of self-consciousness and subjectivity in 1990s; (iii) the pursuit of "anatta" since the start of 21st century. Corresponding to the changes in her artistic ideas, Hu Mingzhe has displayed a distinctive painting style in each phase of development. Particularly, the still life painting worked by Hu Mingzhe using mineral pigments have demonstrate her unique artistic style of plan decoration in terms of subject, composition, color and texture. In sum, the ideas and practices ofHu Mingzhe in rock-color painting are of great referential values to the contemporary rock-color painting of China This paper comprises four basic parts:Charter I:The understanding of rock-color painting and its aesthetic value; the contribution of Hu Mingzhe to the theoretic construction of "rock-color" concepts and her artistic appreciation of the materials of rock-color painting.Charter II:A brief introduction of the life of Hu Mingzhe; the origination and evolution of her artistic ideas.Charter III:The illustration of Hu Mingzhe's artistic style in rock-color still life painting by means of painting research and analysis,l iterature analysis,com parative study,etc.Charter IV:A discussion about the theoretic contribution and referential value brought by Hu Mingzhe's rock-color still life paintings.