The Shimin Painting "imitation",

Abstract: This thesis mainly research into the imitation painting of Wang Shimin from the point of practice. In the painting history of Qing dynasty , Wang Shimin is the greatest of Four Wangs. From the beginning of the twentieth century, Four Wangs paintings have been the object of Art Revolution launched by Kang Youwei and Chen Duxiu. Long after that Four wangs were regarded as the representative of returning to ancients, fogyism and conservative, although the viewpoint was disputed by many artist at that time. Since 1990s, Chinese Art world has already had objective evaluation over Four Wangs , but in practice drastic opposite opinions still existed.. All these facts urged me to ponder the present worth and meaning of Four Wangs.Wang Shimin, the eldest painter of Four Wangs, will be the research object of this thesis and his imitation painting will be discussed and deeply analysed. Positive and negative influence of imitation painting on Chinese painting will be observed by outlining the origin, characteristic and cultural significance of imitation painting. We will have more proper insight into Four Wangs represented by Wang Shimin and will obtain more considerable contemporary understanding about his paintings.A great number of imitation paintings were found in Wang Shimin's paintings, so he was often regarded as the representative of "copy ancient " painters. By concrete analysis of his imitation works , I think the so-called imitation represented by Wang actually came into being in the late Ming Dynasty. Imitation is not the simply copy of the former masters, but the imitation of the former masters' painting characteristic just for creating the original painting styles.