The Contemporary Aesthetic Horizon, Animation Art

Animation was established in early time of the twentieth Century. During a long time, it was considered as an embranchment of cinematic. But after its development of the times, animation’s own aesthetic significance has come to the surface. And at last, animation has become an independent artistic form. Since the end of twentieth Century, the innovation of technique has pushed the development of animation into a greatest time. Nowadays animation art has greatly expanded its own living space, its audiences have covered all over the ages, and animation came to be one of the most important forms of dissemination medium.What is the cultural connotation of current animation, and which kind of aesthetic value does it have? The answer of these questions is what this paper would like to search. And how to lead China’s animation industry to a more broad space for development in a healthy and positive way, is also a starting point of this paper.This article will be divided into four parts, and the discussion of animation art is based on the view of contemporary aesthetics. The first part is introductions of animation’s definition, basic characters, the significance and methods of animation research. Then the second part will introduce development of animation art simply. It will take the mainstream animations of the different period as examples to analyze the changes of aesthetic characteristics of animation art. In reference to mass culture theory and the carnival theory, this article has used the methods of literature, aesthetics and iconography study to search for the unique aesthetic qualities which animation art has. And reveal the aesthetic characteristics in the creation and appreciation process of animation art through this way. Then this part placed the animation culture which driven by the animation art in the context of popular culture and visual culture studies, analyze permeability of the animation art to other cultural dimensions, as well as the current popular aesthetic changes. And the last part will contact the situation of industry to make analysis and outlook on the current development of Chinese animation.