A Study Of The Status Quo Of Pastel In Contemporary China

Pastel,a painting style that took form with the development of oil painting and enventually developed into a distinctive entity,was first introduced into China in the 1920 s by Mr.Li Chaoshi,the visiting painter to France then.The past century saw pastel take root in China and grow vigorously,weathering times of trial though.It enjoyed a golden time in the first decades immediately after its introduction.Then,it was brought into a dark tunnel for more than fifty years from the warring time against Japanese invasion to the late 1970 s.Thereafter,it was blessed with rejuvenation.Today,in this new millennium,pastel exhibits its vigor once again in China.This paper is a status quo study made of pastel in contemporay China to trace its artistic style and characteristics,highlighting its unique artistic language as well as the painting effect resulting from its combined expression techniques adopted from drawing,oil painting,water-based paints,and other art categories.The conclusion is that the future of Chinese pastel well deserves expectation and the efforts made for this study inspire the author in pastel creation.