Etiquette·Sincerity

Li Tiefu, the pioneer of Chinese Oil Painting creation, is one of the Chinese who went to the western to learn the art of painting and gained profound attainment in the beginning of20th century. The meaning of studying Mr. Li Tiefu’s art is to clarify the development process of Chinese Art and provide reference for the present artistic practices in China. This paper focuses on Li Tiefu’s oil painting language by analyzing the connotation and aesthetic value behind, which includes the formation of Li Tiefu’s art ideas, the development of his painting style and the impact of both on the development of modern Chinese Art.This paper consists of two parts and the first part forms the basis of research on Li Tiefu’s oil painting language. The first part gives an introduction of Li Tiefu by focusing on the review and combing of researches regarding Li Tiefu, which includes the meaning, methodology and achievements of current research as well as some existing problems. Analysis of research data concerning Li Tiefu will be conducted to confirm some basic information about Mr. Li Tiefu, such as information about his study experiences and learning institutions at different ages. In addition, this part will also establish Li Tisfu’s position in the history of the development of Chinese Art with an analysis of the factors that may restrict the impact of Li Tiefu’s art. The second part studies the oil painting language revealed from Li Tiefu’s works. There are two elementary propositions in this paper which are Etiquette and Sincerity.In terms of Etiquette, the foundation of Li Tiefu’s oil painting language will be studied from the perspective of regular pattern of western art modeling and the tradition of western art, by combining his creations when he was in America. Furthermore, the methods and approaches used by Li Tiefu in exploring the western art will be discussed. Followed by that will be the analysis of multiple impacts of his mentoring relationship, which includes the impact on how he can inherit the tradition of western art, absorb new experiences of the art circle and his oil painting ontology language practice. At the same time, the important influence of the environment of the western art and the learning institutions during the period when he was studying in the west will also be analyzed, together with how he established his eclectic realistic painting style under certain artistic development concept.As for Sincerity, this mainly focuses on the analysis and research of his works after his returning back to China. From the aspects of culture and life, the impact of traditional Chinese culture will be studied, which introduces the change of his creating concepts, the development of his painting style, and the establishment of his painting oil language system on the basis of his practice in various subjects and types of painting.Li Tiefu has successfully created a new type of oil painting language with Chinese characteristics and opened the door for Chinese oil painting creation through application of the aesthetic ideology and expression techniques of traditional Chinese art into the creation of oil painting. More importantly, he gained the social value of realism creation by means of combining the typical Chinese intellectual feelings with the exploration of western art.Constructive analysis and iconography are utilized in this paper to discuss the works and artistic ideas of Li Tiefu. While at the same time, it gives an observation and analysis of his art in the perspective of history and culture, with the aim of restoring the historical background of Li TIefu’s art, presenting his art and life as well as comprehending the ideas and style of his art as a whole. The collection, organization and analysis of the first-hand data regarding Li Tiefu is emphasized in this paper, while at the same time further interpretations regarding some wrong information concerning the his biographical information, work content, etc. will be made.