On The Influence Of Zhao Wuji's Painting Forms On Chinese Contemporary Painting

Chinese-French painter Zao Wou-Ki studied abroad in 1948. Known as a representative painter of the Abstract Expressionism in the East, he developed his own way of art creation by assimilating and making an integration of both Western and Eastern culture.By clarifying the evolution of Zao's painting style, combined with all aspects during his time, we can make such a conclusion that his art creation process has a clear development context, and that not only the ideology of Western expressionist but also traditional Chinese philosophy and aesthetic has made important contributions to his painting style.Traditional Chinese art has its unique characteristicsin expressing subjective emotion and individuality. The way Zao Wou-Ki used in painting, which make a mixture of Eastern and Western characteristics, not only puts Chinese culture into the international field but provides a new option for the Chinese to judge the foreign culture. Zao has made his significant success in artistic exploration.Under the background of cultural globalization, and through discussing the affection of Zao's painting style, we can see that traditional Chinese culture has made an comprehensive comeback and oriental humanistic spirit is gradually show its influence on the world.The research methods of this article include literature research, image analysis, comparative study etc. The article mainly focuses on Zao's lifetime and experiences during his study period.It introduces and compares Zao's abstract works of different stages,combined with the oriental thought and the aesthetic ideology, in order to find out the rules, reasons of his change of painting style, and to observe and study its impacts on the contemporary Chinese painting in depth.The body of this article is divided into four parts. In the first part, the formative factors of Zao's style are discovered according to his growing environment, his influences during the study abroad and the three masters who had ever exerted effects on him. The second part mainly gives an account of the evolution stages, including the figurative description-to-symbolization period, the poetic abstract-space period and the dreamlike abstract-expressionism period. The third part is about the connections between Zao's works and Chinese painting in the 20th century, along with the development of recent painting in China. The influence which Zao's work has affected on Chinese modern painting are embodied in the fourth part, including the returning of traditional culture, the highlight of Chinese culture's discourse power in the world and the valuable reference Zao's expressing skills has provided for the form of the contemporary Chinese painting.