Tang And Tang Before The Dunhuang Frescoes And Color And Its Influence In Modern Painting

This dissertation will study the coloring concepts and techniques in the traditional Chinese art of painting from the perspective of painting practices. In the Dunhuang mural paintings, there exists a great amount of information about coloring practices during and before Tang dynasty. Aesthetic journey of learning transcends time and space. The old Dunhuang murals bring us face to face with the unique poetic form of colors in the ancient East.This thesis elaborates in four chapters. Chapter One discusses the overall situations of the murals, including the emergence of themes, the materials used, artisans and the geographical situation. Chapter Two analyses the coloring styles during and before Tang Dynasty through works in which images are almost entirely done with linear colors, and therefore explore the aesthetic understanding of fine trueness and significance of form in the traditional Chinese art. Chapter Three focuses on the color variation of the ancient murals resulting from chemical changes, and the new visual experience it brings about. Chapter IV expounds the impact of the coloring techniques of Dunhuang murals on modern art, including the inspirations that the modern artists may get through copying the murals, the new image-based way of viewing, and the correspondence of ancient and modern art across time and space. All the above can help us explore the traditional meaning of art and its vitality while extending to new fields.Here, representational paintings of the early Dunhuang fresco art are selected through the eyes of a painter. These paintings make it possible to explore the poetic senses that have appeared in the past. The "significance of form" and "fine trueness" combined is a force which creates many developing possibilities for modern painting.