Magic Realism

This thesis mainly focuses on magical realism,the common artistic characteristic between the painting of Diego Rivera who was “Father of modern Mexican murals” and the contemporary painting art of Yunnan.By conducting a comprehensive analysis and comparison of the painting forms and images of these two kinds of painting,the thesis has found the historical origins of and relations between these two painting styles.In the first place,the author of this thesis divides Rivera’s painting career into two major stages,first being his early learning of Europe’s classical painting and modernist painting,and second being his drawing on the experience of the Mayan and Aztec plastic art in Mexico in the middle and later period of his artistic creation.On this basis,the thesis goes further to analyze the formal language of Rivera’s works,and summarizes the five principal features of his painting art: the sense of gradation and magic in composition,the unadorned and smooth technique of drawing,the sense of roundness and sturdiness in form,colors with national characteristics and originality,and the spiritual embodiment of magical reality in the national epics.During the study of these features,the author of this thesis has,by comparing the specific images in Rivera’s painting,found that the painter Rivera had not been influenced by modern painting while establishing his own painting style,but more importantly,he had integrated into his creation Mexico’s traditional culture and plastic art,myths and legends and historical realities through the image copying and morphing technique,the multiple time-space overlapping technique,the juxtaposition of fantasy and reality,as well as some other artistic techniques.Such an artistic choice and form have enabled his painting to have exerted a far-fetching influence on the development of Mexican painting and painting in other non-western countries and regions.Yunnan in China is one of the regions that have been affected by Rivera’s art.By analyzing the works of the four leading contemporary painters in Yunnan,including Zhang Xiaogang,Mao Xuhui,Tang Zhigang,and Zeng Xiaofeng,the author of this thesis has found that aside from Yunnan’ unique regional culture and folk art and China’s history and social reality,the Latin-American painting with Rivera as its leading painter has also directly or indirectly influenced these Yunnan artists and thus made their paintings take on the artistic feature of magical realism.In addition to analyzing the formal languages and shared artistic features of Diego Rivera’s painting and the contemporary Yunnan painting,it’s also hoped that this thesis can propose,against the historical background of globalism,some new ideas and methods for China’s contemporary painting so that it could better inherit and carry forward the indigenous culture and artistic spirit.