The Modern Transformation Of Chinese Painting In The 20th Century

In the first half of the twentieth century China was in a complex and changing era of social upheaval and chaos,and the country was in a period of social transition.This was a time of vibrant artistic thought and increasingly frequent cultural and artistic exchanges between China and the West.Traditional Chinese painting was subjected to the full impact of Western painting represented by realism,and the question of whether Chinese painting had any value and how to develop was questioned across the board.The pace of development of Chinese painting came to a crossroads of the times.Chen Shizeng,with his dual identity as a traditional literati and a new-style intellectual,examined,responded to and practised the development of Chinese painting.He responded to the radical views of the "revolutionaries" with The Value of Literati Painting,and distanced himself from the "conservatives" by advocating that he should "give up my shortcomings and take the strengths of others";he called himself He was a "decadent" but boldly explored the elements of realism and social usefulness in Chinese painting;he excelled in literati painting but created unique works of customary painting such as Beijing Custom and Reading Pictures,which were widely recognized.In this essay,we try to understand Chen Shizeng’s contribution to the development of Chinese painting from tradition to modernity in the light of the social context of his time and the influence of complex contemporaneous factors,combined with his personal experience,painting ideology and painting practice,and to shed light on the development of Chinese painting today.