A Summary Of "80’s School"

Realistic painting has enjoyed a development history of a hundred years in China. With the accelerating process of China’s reform and opening up and the increasing frequency of cultural exchanges, Chinese oil painting presents a diversified and market-oriented development trend. In such social context, "80’s School", a group of young realistic painters is developing and growing.Founded in 2005, "80’s School" has covered a 10-year course so far, with 39 painters now. They stick to their initial determination in the present clamorous society, and concentrate on realistic painting with their unique artistic insights of “post-80s”. Their works not only reflect the exploration and innovation of realistic techniques but also demonstrate the potential of the young realistic painters in arts. With the continuous growth of the School, their influences are also extending increasingly. They have fueled the development of Chinese realistic oil painting with their own perseverance and love to realistic painting.With the methods of literature research, case interviews and work analysis, this thesis combs and summarizes the establishing background, creative themes, style characteristics of “80s’ School”and so on. At the time of establishing the School, influenced by contemporary art and art market, Chinese painting is booming with a trend of diversification and market-orientation, and realistic oil painting is meeting creation bottlenecks which is in badly need of “fresh blood”. In the chapter of introducing the establishment and the members of the School, the author analyzes the market condition, makes an exclusive interview about three most representative painters(Wang Longjun, Gu Tianlong, Zhou Lixuan) in “80’s School”, and describes the formation of the painting style and artistic philosophy of them in detail.In the chapter of work analysis, the author explores the overall painting style of the members’ works, holding that their works have four characteristics including cross-national and cross-cultural inclusion, creation theme from microscopic perspective, favor of beautiful image-building and emotional expression of surreal style. Then the author discusses the formation causes of art style of the School, believing that painting members are influenced by both Western and Chinese traditional cultures, inherit the art concept of mentors of "Chinese realistic painting", and integrate their unique feeling of life and the nature, thus creating the work style which belongs to the “post-80s” realistic painters exclusively.Finally, the author analyzes realistic significance of the growth of the “School” combing with the contemporary context. He believes that the growth of "80’s School" not only enriches the creation themes of realistic painting but also proves the artistic potential that the School members have in realistic painting with their own efforts. In addition, the most important artistic value of the young team of realistic painters lies in that they are shouldering the important mission of “carrying on the past and opening up the future” of the development of Chinese painting.However, the growing path of art is long and full of obstacles. Focusing on the moment, what problems still exist during the development of "80’s School" ? Asking the future, what course should "80’s School" follow? The author has presented personal suggestions about the development direction of the School combining with the existing crisis in oil painting area and the problems during the development of oil painting.