A Research On Chinese Women Oil Painters And Their Creating Work In 1990s

Throughout Chinese history, Chinese women have always been in a subordinate position. In the fields of art and culture dominated by men, male art occupies a major part while female art and culture have long been neglected. According to Bingxin, a distinguished female writer, poet and translator in contemporary China, women holds at least five tenths truth, six tenths kindness and seven tenths beauty of the whole world. It shows that female art weighs a lot in human art and women artists thus in this way cannot be neglected in Chinese art field.At the beginning of the 20th century, influenced by western "Feminist Movement", Chinese women's liberation campaigns in which men and women enjoyed equal rights in employment, etc., were also launched all around China. More and more women broke shackles made by their feudal families and took part in all kinds of society activities. Among them, some women artists represented by Pan Yuliang, began a new history in Chinese women oil painting and made a lot of achievements.In the 1990s, with the changes and development of Chinese political and social environment, especially the later tide of opening and reform, artistic creating began to enjoy more freedom. Frequent communication with western artists also provided a wider platform for Chinese women oil painters to learn and to develop. Emancipating their minds, bravely absorbing the advanced western artistic skills and thoughts and combined with the creating characteristics of themselves, they established the painting awareness of their own gender and painted what they felt and thought from a unique perspective. Breaking the traditional and stylized representations, they emphasized the description about women's spirits and experiences in the real world. With the creative ideas deepened, rigid rational reality was replaced by vivid sensible description and the scope of painting art thus was widened. These women oil painters and their creating work lay a firm foundation for the further development of oil painting and put its reform in ideological field in depths.With women's status being promoted, women oil painters become a major concern. However, both the Chinese and foreign art history have few records and evaluation on women art. Even there are some, usually they are the evaluations dominated by men.With "women oil painting" as a starting point, this paper mainly is a general study and analysis about several women representatives in oil painting in 1990s. Summing up their commonalities and specialties in painting styles, this research aims to further explore the development direction of oil painting and its influences on contemporary Chinese oil painting, and thus provides references for the future researches on women oil painters and their creating work.