The Light Is In Front - The Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China (Oil Painting) Li's previous work
The highlights of the 2021 annual art world are projected on how to aesthetically present the historical writing of the centenary of the founding of the PARTY through art creation. Compared with other literary and art disciplines, the hundred-year history of the founding of the Party shown by paintings and sculptures in the art world is more visually solidified, and it is more able to leave a considerable and permanent artistic wealth for history through the creation of visible objects (fine art works). In a sense, the History Exhibition Hall of the Communist Party of China is an inscription for the centenary of the founding of the Party, and the five groups of group sculptures surrounding this building and the large-scale paintings depicting the historical footprints of the centenary of the founding of the Party are all aesthetic engravings of the Party's history and historical memory, and are a high condensation of the artistic achievements of art creation in the new era.
Three years of honing artistic feats
Since its founding, the Communist Party of China has paid attention to the important role played by literature and art in ideological enlightenment and encouragement of progress, revolutionary artists and progressive artists have consciously and sincerely used their paintbrushes to record the party's struggle steps of overcoming difficulties and overcoming difficulties, and the artistic creations related to the expression of the party's historical themes are relatively concentrated after the founding of New China, and these creations have also become the thickest art classics in the history of modern and contemporary Chinese art. Perhaps, only by standing at the height of a hundred years of history can the creation of art on the theme of party history obtain a more far-reaching ideological crossing. Officially launched in 2018, the "Don't Forget your original intention and continue to move forward - a large-scale art creation project to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China" that took three years to gather contemporary art elites was finally completed on the eve of the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. The project finally determined 228 topics, a total of 240 works entered the final review, and finally 202 works passed the expert review, which can be described as a feat of art creation that has never been seen in the history of world art. The project takes the major historical events, outstanding historical figures and outstanding communists in the centenary of the founding of the Party as the theme, vividly reproduces the great course and outstanding merits of the Communist Party of China through a hundred years, which is the first time that the artistic creation of party history covers all periods of the century, and can best reflect the research results of contemporary party history and the standard of contemporary art creation, and almost every work is the crystallization of the artist's individual creation and the collective wisdom of experts.
Red Tide - May Fourth Movement (oil painting) Xu Jiang Sun Jinggang Wu Dayong
From "Red Tide -- May Fourth Movement", "Southern Chen Beili" to "Breaking New Ground", from "Zunyi Conference", "Victory Division" to "Anti-Japanese Beacon", from "Liaoshen Campaign", "Founding Ceremony" to "First Constitution", from "Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee", "Joining the WTO" to "Flying Dreams", these works are huge in scale, open in scene, and numerous in characters, integrating historical events and character shaping, which not only embodies the plastic art tradition of the grand narrative of historical painting, but also embodies the combination of multi-dimensional space. Creation of contemporary art with multiple pictorial metaphors. The contemporary value of history painting creation is not only the visual reproduction of the true and original history, but also the exploration and reinterpretation of historical truth by each era and each artist. These history paintings created on the occasion of the centenary of the founding of the Party all embody the spirituality and sense of the times of the cultural consciousness of the new era in terms of visual characteristics, artistic conception and character image shaping.
China Academy of Art "Attacking Tough Problems" (partial, sculpture)
As a commemoration of the centenary of the founding of the Party, the outdoor large-scale group sculpture of the Party History Museum is another group of outdoor large-scale theme group sculptures with national political significance that have been recorded in history after the relief of the pedestal of the People's Heroes Monument and the outdoor group sculpture of Chairman Mao's Memorial Hall. In addition to the relative abstraction of "Banner" and the use of steel spray painting process, "Attacking Tough", "Faith", "Great Cause" and "Chasing Dreams" are all carved with pure and elegant Han white jade materials and classical realistic round carving as their basic artistic characteristics. These four groups of sculptures take the great struggle, great project, great cause and great dream of the CPC's century-old struggle as the theme, and each group of sculptures has a high degree of condensation of the century-old narrative. Its artistic conception should not only find the archetypes of historical figures that express the meaning of the theme, but also reveal the ideological connotation expressed by the entire group of sculptures more deeply through these character images, so that the historical narrative and image shaping can form an aesthetic transformation of the "four great" theme ideas.
Cabo Academy of Fine Arts "Faith" (partial, sculpture)
The artistic characteristics of the four groups of group sculptures are first reflected in the high degree of condensation of the century-old history, and the group sculptures choose the most general historical plot and character archetypes, and strive to make each character image in the group sculptures form a certain correspondence with the historical situation of the century-old history of the party and the heroic model characters. For example, the plot design of the party, the wedding at the execution ground, the embroidery of the red flag and other plots in "Faith" deepens the theme of "faith"; in "Attacking The Stronghold", a group of plots such as rushing to cross the Dadu River, pioneers, oil battles, and plateau blueprints are used to interpret the theme of "Attacking Tough Problems"; in "Great Cause", the focus on the theme of "Great Cause" is through the character images of craftsmen, peacekeepers, poverty alleviation cadres, scientists, astronauts and other different eras, and "Chasing Dreams" strives to create a 56 nationalities with songs and dances, happy and peaceful atmosphere to "chase dreams" Elaboration of the theme. It can be said that these four groups of group sculptures not only try to condense history through the familiar historical plot and typical props, but also strive to use the images of heroic models that people admire as the prototype to cover the countless imageless heroic models that emerged in the hundred years since the founding of the party. Typical and general, personality and commonality, unique and universal, these artistic opposition and unity law has been fully demonstrated in these classical realistic large-scale circular sculpture creations, so that the abstract theme has obtained a distinct, vivid and full image expression, and give people an aesthetic shock. These four groups of group sculptures also use mountain stones, rivers, rice, flowers and fruits as auxiliary images, thus constituting the symbolism of the overall shape of the group sculptures and the metaphor of the details of the props, which further enriches the historical and cultural imagery of the group sculptures. In the whole square, each group of group sculptures not only forms a narrative historical flow through the design of the plot and scenes, but also forms the undulating curve of the group sculptures as a whole through the alternation of posture, gestures, occupations and costumes. And these dynamic lines eventually let people's eyes focus on "Flag", forming a meeting and sublimation of situation, spirit and aesthetics.
Tsinghua University Academy of Fine Arts "Great Cause" (Sculpture)
The five monumental themed sculptures that stand at the Exhibition Hall of the History of the Communist Party of China are perhaps the most preserved public art in the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. These large-scale thematic sculptures, which took 3 years to carefully create by the domestic sculpture art elite, are precisely because of the strong sense of creation of monumental sculptures that this group of sculptures gives the square a unique significance of commemorating the centenary of the party history.
Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts "Chasing Dreams" (Sculpture)
Extensive participation in the new wave of aesthetic education
The "Great Journey, Picture Scrolls of the Times - Exhibition of Fine Art Works Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China" launched by the Museum of Party History and the classic works of the National Art Museum of China push the century-old poetic history of fine art writing to a climax, and the art classics accumulated in art history and the epic works created in the new era shine in this special time and space. At this dazzling historical node, all provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities across the country have planned and implemented a series of art exhibitions and creative activities to celebrate the centenary of the founding of the party earlier, and artists from all over the country have responded and invested in creation, taking it as their mission and honor to be able to participate in the creation of party history themes, which is a large-scale thematic creation activity rarely seen in art history.
The Right Name of a Great Power: China Restores Its Legitimate Seat in the United Nations (Chinese Painting)
Xu Mo Shen Linfeng Shen Xiaoming
For example, Shanghai is known for "Sunrise in the East - Shanghai Celebrates the Centenary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China Youth Art Creation Project", Guangdong is known for "Guangdong Province Celebrates the 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China", Zhejiang is known for "A Hundred Years of Glory - Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China and 'One Hundred Years of Pursuing Dreams' Zhejiang Art Calligraphy 100 Pieces exhibition", Jiangsu is known for "One Hundred Years of Jiangsu - Exhibition of Large-scale Fine Art Creation Projects", and Guangxi is known for "A Hundred Years of Journey magnificent and magnificent Chapters- Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China Theme Art Creation Engineering Exhibition", Hubei with "Magnificent Voyage - Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China Hubei Excellent Art Works Exhibition", Hunan celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China with 'Centennial Journey' - Hunan Provincial Fine Arts Calligraphy and Photography Theme Works Exhibition", Shaanxi with "Shaanxi Province Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China Fine Arts Exhibition" as the theme of the exhibition. The theme exhibitions held in these localities are, first, to plan corresponding creative topics or provincial-level art creation projects in combination with the characteristics of party history in their provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government, so that the climax of art creation on the theme of party history has been repeated; second, they have made full use of the collection resources of art museums in various places to form a relatively large-scale and serialized theme exhibition. It should be said that the thematic art creation in 2021 has gained a new recognition of artistic value, which is a kind of value return and value guidance of the most zeitgeist of Chinese art in the new era, thus changing the creative pattern of self-expression and market-oriented creation that the art industry once completely fell into.
Battle of Shangganling (oil painting) by Wang Tieniu
The annual coverage of CCTV's newly created column "Party History in Art Classics" and the short video program "Brilliant History of the Times - Party History in Fine Arts Works" released on online platforms such as Learning to Strengthen the Country and China's Art Headlines not only show the classic art classics of party history created since the founding of New China in the form of videos, but also integrate videos, documents, interviews and reviews, so that more audiences can appreciate the classics of modern Chinese art while learning party history. This program of CCTV has constantly refreshed the highest ratings of other channel programs in the country during the same period, and there has never been so many audiences who have systematically studied and appreciated the classic art works of thematic nature by studying party history. Publicity is the most effective social aesthetic education practice, and in 2021, the whole society has gained extensive and in-depth aesthetic education appreciation through classic art.
Social aesthetic education is the key word in the construction of culture and art in 2021. The "Open Classes on Aesthetic Education", "Lecture Hall on Aesthetic Education", "Museum Theory" organized by campuses, communities, enterprises, institutions, groups, etc. have entered the normalized social aesthetic education practice. If we say that in the implementation of contemporary aesthetic education in China, we have always focused on family aesthetic education and school aesthetic education and relatively ignored social aesthetic education, then the online office, online conference and online teaching commonly implemented by the normalization of epidemic prevention and control have largely dissolved the boundaries of the three time and space of family, school and society, and online aesthetic education has become the new favorite of the times and crossed between family aesthetic education, school aesthetic education and social aesthetic education. The concept of social aesthetic education and the rise of the social aesthetic education movement are obviously a common demand for the great improvement of material civilization and the high degree of cultural development in contemporary Chinese society. In April 2021, general secretary Xi Jinping made an important speech on the development of the art discipline after inspecting the teaching and research achievements of the Academy of Fine Arts of Tsinghua University, which not only juxtaposed "fine arts" with "art", "science" and "technology" for the first time, but also emphasized the need to give play to the important role of fine arts in serving economic and social development, and proposed to apply more art elements and artistic elements to urban and rural planning and construction, enhance urban and rural aesthetic charm and cultural taste, and better serve the high-quality life needs of the people.
Indeed, if museums and art galleries are the standard for the construction of urban cultural facilities today, and urban residents can thus obtain a relatively common social aesthetic education, then how can the peasant aesthetic education in the vast rural areas of China be landed and get the compensation it deserves, which is obviously related to the benchmark issue of aesthetic education in the whole Chinese society. The 2021 Chinese Farmers' Painting Exhibition has a continuous climax: in July, the "National Exhibition of Outstanding Works of Honest Farmer Paintings" opened in Sheyang County, Yancheng City, Jiangsu Province; in September, the Chinese Farmers' Harvest Festival held the "National Farmers' Calligraphy and Painting Cloud Exhibition"; in November, the "National Peasant Painting Exhibition" co-sponsored by the China Artists Association was held in Jiaxing, Zhejiang. These peasant paintings drawn by the hands of farmers are unique to China's peasant aesthetic education practice, and their aesthetic education comes from the deep soil of Chinese folk culture and the thousand-year accumulation of Chinese folk art, which is a cultural inheritance rooted in the soil. These innovative peasant paintings draw the nutrients of modernist art, and the well-off life of peasants depicted in the works is far more real than the peasant life painted by professional artists, and it also has more of the aesthetic excitement of the peasants themselves. It is worth remembering that in some of the more developed villages, several peasant painting art museums have been established, which are the most basic but also the deepest and most extensive social aesthetic education facilities built on the ground in China. Only by extending the tentacles of social aesthetic education to the countryside and striving to improve the current situation of aesthetic education for peasants can we truly enhance the quality of life of the entire Chinese society.
People's Epic Contemporary Proposition
Affected by the epidemic prevention and control, the number of special exhibitions in the national art category in 2021 has dropped a lot compared with previous years. According to the data of previous exhibitions, some national professional exhibitions generally ended intensively in the fourth quarter, and some exhibitions could not be held as scheduled due to the impact of epidemic prevention and control in the fourth quarter of this year. The more influential professional exhibitions that have been held include "The 11th National Exhibition of Gongbi Painting Works", "Poetic Jiangnan - National Oil Painting Exhibition", "Light of the Times - The Fifth China Oil Painting Exhibition", "The Great Road Westbound - The Second China Oil Painting Exhibition", "The 24th National Printmaking Works Exhibition", "Watercolor and New Era - China Watercolor Taishan Academic Forum and Chinese Watercolor Masters Academic Invitation Exhibition", "A Hundred Years of Great Changes - Sculpture Works Exhibition" and "Yangtze River Avenue - Yellow River Cultural Theme Art Works Exhibition".
On the Road to Prosperity : The National 87 Poverty Alleviation Plan (Chinese painting)
Li Shipeng composed
Among them, the "11th National Gongbi Painting Works Exhibition" has a great influence, and the exhibition attracts many audiences to enter the National Art Museum of China, which is also a concentrated embodiment of the national Gongbi painting fever presented after the Ninth National Gongbi Painting Exhibition. In a sense, the development of contemporary Chinese painting has emerged as a pattern of single development of Gongbi painting, reflecting the potential of Gongbi painting language to integrate other painting languages and image resources. However, the art community also reflects on this, believing that the Chinese freehand tradition is undergoing large-scale "soil erosion", so some Chinese painting exhibitions and academic discussions often use "freehand" as the topic to explore the ontological characteristics and contemporary confusion of Chinese painting. The main works of "Yangtze River Avenue - Yellow River Cultural Theme Art Works Exhibition" come from the Yellow River theme creation project implemented by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in recent years, and after two years of repeated review and polishing, nearly 100 paintings on the theme of the Yellow River have been completed, with high quality. The long-scroll oil painting "Yellow River" created by Wang Keju for three years reflects another way of creating the theme of the Yellow River. The pictorial on-site sketching of the combination of the human history of the Yellow River and the natural landscape of the painting is nothing less than a new contemporary interpretation of the national characteristics of oil painting.
Founded in 1954, the National Printmaking Exhibition has been renewed for 23 sessions so far this year, and the "24th National Printmaking Exhibition" held in Chongqing in 2021 not only presents the digital image characteristics of printmaking in contemporary development, but also reflects the return to woodblock printmaking. A kind of painting variety from the era of industrial civilization has formed an aesthetic trend against the times in the era of digital images that are over-produced and disseminated, which may be an era of questions about the relationship between the medium and the ideological nature of painting art. 2021 coincided with the 90th anniversary of Lu Xun's advocacy of the emerging printmaking movement, and when modernism swept the art world in the 1930s, Lu Xun advocated the creation of woodcuts with outstanding insight, so as to promote the conceptual transformation of Chinese painting to social reality. He was an early art thinker who advocated art to reveal social reality and depict the labor masses, and Lu Xun became a mentor admired by the young artists of that era, and was elected as a banner of the Chinese realist art movement in the 20th century. In many academic studies to commemorate and sort out the 90th anniversary of the emerging printmaking movement, it has been found that the early practice of China's emerging woodcuts often appears in the face of critical realism, and in their works, they truly describe the living conditions of the general public in China's real society, but this true description is not limited to the reproduction of printmaking language, but more inclined to expressionism, symbolism and surrealism. Lu Xun's promotion of modern art has always embodied the idea of organically integrating the spirit of realism with the exploration of modernism, and this concept has been practiced and confirmed in the creation of contemporary Chinese printmaking.
Flying Dreams (Chinese painting)
An Jia Xia Hesheng Zhao Yunchuan Zhao Yue Xu Xiangqun
The concept of artistic development and the concept of creation has always been a problem of great differences in the concepts of Chinese and foreign artists, and with the increase and return of young art students studying in Europe and the United States, this problem has become more prominent in the ideological concepts of young artists. The exhibitions of the works of previous artists such as "Cultivator - Wang Shenglie Art Exhibition" held by the National Art Museum of China, "Wood and Stone Spirit - Lai Shaoqi Art Documentation Exhibition" held by the China Art Palace and "Art for the People - Liu Wenxi Art Exhibition" held by the National Museum of China have attracted many audiences, especially young artists, to watch and study. Some young artists left a message on the public account of "Art for the People - Liu Wenxi Art Exhibition": "He is the predecessor of my struggle on the road, a predecessor of the literary and art workers who decided to take the people as the center of the struggle." "This is the artist of the people, devoting himself wholeheartedly to this life, without pretense or pretense, until the end of his life." Many young artists, especially some "returnee" art students, are particularly identified with the artistic achievements of their predecessors, and from this identity, they begin to accept that art reflects life and expresses the people's creative views and values.
"Life is the people, and the people are life." This is a statement that General Secretary Xi Jinping made excited by the delegates in his speech at the opening ceremony of the 11th National Congress of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the 10th National Congress of the Chinese Writers Association at the end of 2021. Writing history is to express the people, and the image of the people created by Liu Wenxi's lifelong roots in the Loess Plateau is not only a confirmation of this thesis, but also a model for Chinese contemporary art to sink the heart, feelings, and thoughts of the artistic subject into the people. Writing people's epics is the core proposition of the contemporary development of Chinese art.
(The author is the director of the Art Theory Committee of the China Artists Association and the editor-in-chief of Fine Arts)