Social Intervention And Artistic Language

Abstract art is the logical terminal point of Western modern art,and the turning point of Western art history to march towards postmodernism,too.It has become an international style,developing quite a few distinctive artistic languages in different areas all over the world and in the practice of artists of different nationalities.It is exactly because abstract art removes themes and images,expresses specific national emotions and thoughtsmore directly in pure language that it becomes the artistic genre that many theorists pay close attention to.This paper aims to expound the uniqueness of Chinese abstract oil paintings.The paper sorts out a large number of theorists’ narratives of Chinese oil paintings,classifies and sums up them,absorbs their achievements and points out their defects.Based on the experience and law in art practice,the author expounds a clue as a theoretical basis for describing the characteristics of Chinese abstract oil painting by means of necessary interviews with representative Chinese abstract oil painters,and makes up the loopholes of existing theories.The paper selects a time frame from 1978 to 2018,divides Chinese abstract oil paintings into different stages,classifies them,and analyzes them.First of all,in terms of time,the author divides Chinese abstract oil paintings into three generations of old,middle-aged and young people:Pioneers of Chinese abstract oil paintings who grew up before 1978;middle-aged painters who grew up in 1980s and 1990s,being dominated by people in their 50s and 60s;young painters of the 70s,80s and even 90s,who grew up after 2000.Secondly,in terms of linguistic features,the author divides Chinese abstract oil paintings into works reflecting the ’true qualities’of the nation and works reflecting globalized and modernized’ environmental color’.Thirdly,in terms of spiritual connotation,the author describes the creation practice of Chinese abstract oil painters as a kind of value orientation that combines personalized expression with social criticism.The paper puts the artist in the logic of art language itself and the specific social environment to analyze,focuses on the artist’s thoughts on social problems and creation of artistic language to discuss,and aims to clarify the relationship between specific social background and unique linguistic patterns.Based on the discussion in the paper,the paper indicates that the language of Chinese abstract oil paintings is originated from the unique social environment and on the basis of art history,it undertakes enlightenment tasks of criticizing Culture Revolution art,criticizing colmercialization tide,criticizing social alienation of landscape,and alike in three social stages:from 1978 to 1989,from 1990 to 2000,and from 2000 to 2018.Two orientation of Chinese abstract oil paintings have come into being in the process of its occurrence and development:one is to get involved in social issues;another is to pay close attention to art language exploration.The paper tries to provide a research perspective in compliance with the law of art practice,in addition to summing up reasons,overall features and unique value of Chinese abstract oil paintings.It strives to establish a perspective of practitioners,no matter whether for the elaboration of’abstract’ significance or for the analysis of ’abstract’ psychological motivation,and unfolds the writing of the whole paper from the perspective as a clue.