"Ink Present" Historical Themes Of Chinese Painting History Vision Development

With a history of more than a thousand years, Chinese historical paintings haveplayed a significant role of “educating the public, establishing moral ethics, depictingfickle spirit and illustrating unnoticeable matters” in the history of Chinese fine arts.Up to the present, among the main techniques of Chinese painting, both Shui-mo(freehand ink-and-water brushwork) and Gong-bi (precise depiction with highlydetailed brushstrokes), together with oil painting and other styles from the West,constitutes the fundamental landscape of contemporary Chinese historical painting. Asa new approach integrated between Chinese and Western painting, contemporaryink-and-water figure painting has experienced rapid development during the last ahundred years, demonstrating unique artistic style and multi-layered patterns ofillustration.In the first place, the essay makes an elaborative review of the development ofChinese historical painting, following a detailed introduction of the involvement ofink-and-water technique in the creation of historical painting with the analysis andsummarization of its major styles and how they came into being. In the end, problemsand challenges facing creation of contemporary historical painting are presented anddiscussed.With the diversified development of contemporary fine arts today, the authorreckons that we necessitate a re-clarification of the position of historical paintingwhile objectively acknowledging its values in both culture and art in present world.As a unique form of fine arts in China, the prosperity of ink-and-water historicalpainting during the past one hundred years has its own reasons: it benefits from thegood qualities of both Chinese and Western painting, which strongly promotes thecreation of Chinese historical painting to be of abundance and variety. How can wemake ink-and-water historical painting fit into the general environment ofcontemporary fine arts is a long-discussed subject, yet there are always something new to it. The author deems that artists are required to change the intrinsic methodsand ideas in the creation of traditional ink-and-water historical paintings, absorb thenutrition of contemporary fine arts, always strive to innovate and sophisticatedlyintegrate historical themes with artists’ personal characteristics. Only in this waycould we instill new vitality into ink-and-water historical painting and expect it toflourish and blossom in the future.