Twentieth Century Chinese Realistic Figure Painting Study

Throughout the long histories of Chinese and foreign art, every excellent artist has his own unique artistic undercurrent, each artwork has its own extraordinary artistic expression and each artistic genre has its different statement. But there is one thing in common is that they have maintained deep thinking on the core spirit of the times.In 20th century, Chinese painting is facing an unprecedented impasse. The fundamental reason is traditional skills of creation cannot meet the artist's own requirements and the times'demands. Realistic portrait painting becomes the best breakthrough of this awkward situation.In this paper, from the perspective of the humanity, using the 20th century Chinese figure painting, this particular historical period artwork, as an example explains the historical inevitability that the 20th century Chinese portrait painting transforms from traditional to realistic reflection of mundane life. Through sorting out the critical realism in 1930s and 1940s, socialist realism of national early stage for political service, and diversified artistic styles in the late 1970s as a result of various social lives and urbanization intensify, this paper will indicate not only realistic painters must have sense of the times and social responsibility, but also the great social and historical significance of the existence of realistic painting, and will look into the "urbanization" phenomenon in cultural context.