The Image And Isomorphism In The Painting Schema

The forms of painting have experienced various periods. In the long course of history, especially after the emergence and development of modern art between 19 th and 20 th century, persistent efforts of countless pioneers has brought about numerous possibilities to painting. As history moves into the Age of the Image when iconography and painting phenomenology comes into being, painting is experiencing transformation from the traditional style. Complex and diverse modern paintings demonstrate the artists’ reflection and exploration on themselves, social life and human destiny.The present age witnesses daily emergence of new ideas, constantly updated artistic conception and the full development of media. Against this backdrop of cultural diversity, Personalized symbol expression and pluralistic orientation have become inevitable. As an important form of expression, the "imagery" in the painting deserves more attention. “Imagery” is created when the painter integrates his/or personal feeling into the subject of his/her creation. In other words, “imagery” is the combination of “meaning” and “image/shape” and it is the image that carries the unique feeling of the painter and endows the painting with poetic quality. Because of imagery, the viewers’ attention is shifted from the physical painting before them to the spiritual communication with the feelings conveyed by the painting. Imagery is a unique quality of artistic language, which is based on the isomorphic relation between subject and object. This isomorphic relation is both absolute and relative. It is absolute because of the sure bond between the subject and object, and is relative because of the different feelings of different painters. The latter, namely, the different feelings constitute different modes of expressions of different painters.In the image of painting language, isomorphism is one of important ways. The American modern psychologist Rudolf Arnheim discusses "heterogeneous isomorphism" on the basis of gestalt theory and expounds the basic principle of aesthetic experience and art interpretation from a new perspective. This new perspective is the integrated use of the theory of modern science, holistic, cosmology, anthropology, field theory and the method of psychological experiment physics. And by removing the opposition between subject and object, emotion and external things, it sets up an “isomorphic relation” between different areas. Gestalt psychology can be used as important theoretical basis for painting language. “Isomorphic relations” different forms and images convey different visual and emotional associations.This paper is to study the image schema of painting and isomorphic schema; to explore, against the contemporary paining context and my own painting experience, how the intrinsic quality of a painting contribute to the contemporary painting and how behavioral and visual isomorphism leads to psychological isomorphism, and seek the possible manner and orientation of humanistic concern and emotional expression in visual languages.