Mental Performance And The Form Of Modern Chinese Ink

Chinese Painting is one of the art forms with a long history. Long before more than one thousand years ago, it already stepped into its period of great prosperity. Many master painters have appeared since then and so have numerous masterpieces. Chinese Painting reached an insurmountable peak in terms of artistic values at that time. Since the 20th century, with China's reforming and opening policy and the increasing awareness of learning from the western culture, different western art philosophies entered China and exerted unprecedented impact on the previous philosophy of Chinese Painting. At the crossing point of the eras, the most crucial and widely discussed issue, to those who are devoted to contemporary Chinese Painting, becomes how to develop the contemporary characteristics of Chinese Painting while at the same time carrying on its valuable tradition.Focusing on the discussion about the spirit of painting, the author presented in the thesis her own analysis and speculation on the development of contemporary Chinese Painting.Through the analysis on the origin, purpose and social function of art pieces, the author firstly discussed that the essence of art should be its spirit. Then the author made further analysis from the perspective of Chinese Painting. All the painting theories from different dynasties put tremendous emphasis on the characteristic of Chinese Painting: expressing the spirit. This characteristic was also considered the primary criterion when making judgment on a piece. As from the example of the history of Chinese Painting, the most representative masterpieces all reflect the spirits of their times. Since Chinese Painting has a profound philosophic background, the combination of painting and philosophy determines the spiritual nature of Chinese Painting. However, the contemporary lifestyle has changed the environment for the development of Chinese Painting. Contemporary movies and TV programs, music, drama, and western modern philosophy have all brought tremendous influence to the overall structure of the contemporary human life. But, western art's emphasis on the spirit of a piece is exactly the same as that of Chinese Painting. Therefore, the research on the spirit should still be the priority of contemporary Chinese Painting study. In the conclusion, the author stated that the development of contemporary Chinese Painting should take reflecting the inner spirit of the contemporary human being as the principle; and create new visual languages that are different from the past ones. We should be positive that the development of contemporary Chinese Painting has a broad and splendid future.