Chang Cheng, The Changing Trend Change Novelty

"Everything is definitely changeable. Being traditional is to carry forward which is easy while being changeable is to innovate which is hard. But tradition derives from non tradition and innovation begins with tradition, both of which can't be achieved within a short time." (《Memoirs of Guan Liang》P78) The above is the relationship between development and innovation brilliantly summarized by Mr. Pan Tianshou, which is the inevitable pattern of the development of everything, and of art as well. Modern and avant-garde art is always constantly developing forward following the track of "denying→developing→denying→developing……", so is the traditional Chinese painting art. For thousands of years the traditional Chinese painting art has moved into a brand new field with the mixing of Chinese and Western cultures in the 20th century.This thesis is about the study of the works by Guan Liang, the leading innovator and practitioner of Chinese figure painting in the 20th century, starting with his ink paintings of traditional opera figures (shortened as "opera painting" below) to explore how to develop and innovate Chinese painting. This thesis is to seek solutions from the aspects of both Chinese and Western painting art, with the study of the process of how Guan Liang carried forward tradition and made innovation in his opera paintings and the surface-to-centre and step-by-step analysis and discussion of painting language in art practice such as pen line, gradation, shape and so on. At the end, the innovative features of Guan Liang's paintings and its inspiration for modern painting are summarized on the basis of the above discussion.Analogical reasoning method, analytical synthesis method, induction and deduction method, abstract epitome method and experience-gaining method and other methods are applied for argument in this thesis. This thesis is divided into three parts:1. discussing the carrying forward of Guan Liang's ink paintings of traditional opera figures from the view of traditional Chinese art; 2. further analyzing the innovation of Guan Liang's ink paintings of traditional opera figures by comparing with the Western modern painters Matisse and Picasso; 3. a general discussion of the influence and inspiration of Guan Liang's ink paintings of traditional opera figures.