A Study Of Guan Zilan’s View Of Art And Paintings

As one of the Chinese pioneers of western art in the early time, Guan Zilan was very influential among those Chinese artists of western paintings. Guan was a master of combining the oriental and occidental art, that is, blending the modern styles like Fauvism and Post-impressionism with the aesthetic interest of Chinese literati paintings and integrating the scientific attitude of western art which focused on the reality with the aesthetic pursuit of eastern art which emphasized the liberal style. Greatly influenced by Japanese painting style and more inclined to modern art, Guan formed her own style after learning good qualities from others. Her paintings infused a new trend into the early Chinese oil paintings and laid the earliest foundation for the transmission and development of the academic concept "make foreign things serve China", including the current "experimental" painting.As western philosophy, religion, ideological trends, art and artistic conception poured fully into China in the early20th century, western painting education developed vigorously and private schools sprang up along with art societies and art magazines. Thus, the introduction of western culture led to an unprecedented challenge for traditional Chinese culture. Against this background, Chinese and western painting began to integrate and co-exist instead of conflicting with each other. Chinese artists of western painting also experienced a complicated process of conflict and shock between foreign and local, between traditional and modern, of integration and coexistence. The formation of Guan’s artistic vision and painting both carried the stamp of her times featuring the transplantation of foreign art and the introspection of one’s own culture. Therefore, it’s of great historical and realistic significance to study the formation of Guan Zilan’s artistic vision and how her artistic vision was reflected in her paintings.Taking the Chinese craze for studying abroad in the20th century and the new art movement During "May Fourth Movement" as the starting point, this article discusses the issues related to the formation of Guan’s artistic vision such as the social environment, the background of the times of the combination of eastern and western art and the influence of western art. By analyzing Guan’s paintings, the article unravels how her artistic vision was reflected in her creation. Starting from studying her artistic vision, the conclusion will be made that it’s an inevitable trend of development that eastern and western painting skills and concepts will be combined, explored and practiced after analyzing the cultural significance of exploring the combination of eastern and western art during the period of the Republic of China and in such a context the connection of artists’choices and their own cultural background. It should be pointed out finally that the basic motivation for artistic development lies in the fact that art should be characterized by diverse cultural elements, inclusiveness and uniqueness. Without inclusiveness, it’s impossible to achieve a solid and rich result for artistic accumulation. Without uniqueness, there’ll be also no possibility for artistic works to last. Guan Zilan’s inclusiveness, artistic view of combining eastern and western art and loyalty to subjective artistic feeling have not only guaranteed the depth of paintings but also provided a very helpful example for all artists nowadays and in the future.