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- Introduction
China underwent many tumultuous changes during the 20th century. Suffering through foreign aggression, civil war, revolution and fanatical Communism, China is now experi�encing a strange form of socialist capitalism. The establishment of the Republic of China in 1912 put an end to the imperial regime in China but ushered in four decades of disunity, warlordism, war with Japan and, finally, civil war. The civil war ended with the founding of the People�s Republic of China in 1949 and with the exile of the Chiang Kai-shek govern�ment to the island of Taiwan. Under the Communists, China went through severe growing pains, culminating with the devastating effects of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution of 1966-76, causing much destruction to China�s traditional culture. Not long after this, China opened up to the West and just when things were improving in the country and with the West, the Communist government�s massacre of protesters at the Tiananmen Square in 1989 caused international condemnation and loss of prestige and respect for China. All the turbulent events that shaped 20th century China, were to have a tremendous impact on Chinese painting. Since Chinese artists had to deal with constantly changing political situations, the progression of their art can, in some cases, be viewed as a biographical statement reflecting their daily tensions and outside pressures.
Twentieth century Chinese painting is the outcome of a rich ancient painting tradition which has been developing largely uninterrupted over thousands of years. The Chinese, while admiring a man�s originality, demand first and foremost that the artist display a reverence for past accomplishments. One of the most important principles of the famous Six Canons of Chinese painting as laid down by the artist Xie He, who lived around 500 CE, was to live up to tradition by transcribing and copying the ancient masters. The highest praise a painter could receive was to be told that his paintings were indistinguishable from those of his master or from that of a master who lived centuries before him. Once artists acquired the necessary skills and experience, they could develop their own original style. In short, to copy or borrow someone�s style is not considered unethical, as it might be in the West, but rather a foundation for building a fresh new style.
Not only must Chinese painters master brushstroke techniques but they are also required to understand something of the philosophy and aesthetics involved. The tradi�tional Chinese painters of the past were impressionists in that they felt free to omit objects which were not essential to their thought and to paint using the fewest possible brush�strokes. Often in their landscapes, bird-and-flower pictures and vegetation subjects, there are large blank areas. Unlike Western painters, Chinese artists were not interested in volume, light, shadow, perspective and in producing a photo-likeness of their subject. To give the impression of distance, the traditional Chinese artist used two methods. First, they place the point of view of their composition very high, then arrange in groups, one above the other, the objects or persons depicted. The dimensions of the objects and figures become smaller and smaller in proportion as they approach the upper border. The other method for depicting depth is the use of graduated ink. Objects in the foreground are painted with dark ink, and those further away with lighter shades of ink.
One should not compare Chinese paintings to the famous realistic oil canvas painting of Europe as there are two different philosophies involved. Chinese painters try to realize the essential beauty of things and give a representation of the spirit of what is depicted rather than realistically copy the image. If comparisons must be made, perhaps it would be best to
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