Scar painting ( Chinese: Shanghai Meishu伤痕 美术) is an artistic movement that emerged in the late 1970s as a reaction to the consequences of the Cultural Revolution , in which artists moved away from images of heroes to images of the fate of ordinary people during the cultural revolution, artists moved away from idealism to tragic realism. The movement contributed to the transformation of aesthetic consciousness, the experience in an artistic form of the bitterness of losses suffered during the Cultural Revolution.
The appearance of the term
The translation of the term follows the precedent existing in Russian literature: “painting of scars” is considered to be part of the main phenomenon, parallel to the existing in Chinese literature and art until the end of the 1980s, known as “art of scars”. This term first appeared as a designation of a realistic trend in Chinese literature, which arose after the end of the “cultural revolution” and marked the revival of the creative process. In fact, it is from the " literature of scars " that it is customary to count the beginning of the Chinese "art of scars." The name of the literary direction arose after the appearance in August 1978 of Lu Xinhua ’s story “Scars”, which exposed the harm caused by the Cultural Revolution to the younger generation [1] .
Current Specifics
The Cultural Revolution destroyed the high ideals of culture and art, which for many centuries distinguished the work of Chinese artists. Masters who worked in the style of “painting scars”, reproducing the recent era with realistic means, wanted to comprehend it and free itself from its tragic legacy. Vivid examples of works in the style of "painting the scars" can serve as the works of Chen Zonglin "Snow on one of the days of 1968" or a series of numerous illustrations for the novel "Feng Tree". The peculiarity of such works was a return to the origins of realistic painting, to the basic rule, which was followed by the great Russian painters (Repin, Surikov, Levitan), who were still especially revered in the Chinese artistic environment. Since that time, artists began to turn to the reflection of the inner world of a person, his psychological characteristics, which was impossible during the “cultural revolution”.
This direction is associated with the "early stage of recovery" of Chinese culture and with some Chinese "thaw" in society, and also note a critical attitude not only to the past "cultural revolution", but to the entire Chinese heritage, and characterize it as a return of people to eternal values [2] .
To the most interesting artists in the 1990s. continuing the theme of “scars”, includes Zhang Xiaogang ( Chinese.张晓刚), the author of the series of paintings “The Big Family” and “Photos of the Beloved” (1994–1998). He uses the artistic effects of old photographs in oil painting. In one of the works of the series “Big Family”, the “photographs” of the parents who died during the cultural revolution appear on the canvas as shadows, more alive than their real descendant - a helpless baby, like a painted doll. The artist 's works were demonstrated at the 2007 exhibition , held at the State Tretyakov Gallery .
Similar works of this trend show that already at an early stage, modern Chinese art had an inherent desire to solve abstract artistic problems, clearly manifested in the work of such a romantic master of the older generation as Wu Guanzhong , until the end of the 1990s. productively working in the technique of oil painting, graphics and watercolors, modernizing Chinese painting [3] .
The course of Scar Painting does not offer innovative forms, but focuses on the content side - criticism of the events of the Cultural Revolution. In the era of the “post-cultural revolution” (the term proposed by Gao Minlu) it was considered possible by traditional academic methods to consider the recent past, but now in line with the “present”, unbiased psychological realism, which would allow “not to resort to the superficial denial of such landmark historical figures of a specific historical stages like Lin Biao and the “ gang of four ” and not “demonize such negative political characters as Lin Biao or Jiang Qing ”, but present their real image. The names of the exemplary paintings of the mid-70s speak for themselves: “You got down to business, I’m calm” (that is, the departed Chairman is not worried about his undertakings) or “I angrily stigmatize the heinous crimes of the“ gang of four “”, and protest the dominant era of the "cultural revolution" - "art is in the service of politics." In this capacity, “painting of scars” did not last long, the 3rd plenum of the Central Committee of the CPC of the 11th convocation in December 1978 proposed a similar policy of “free thinking” and “practical search for truth” [4] .
Sources
- ↑ Spiritual Culture of China // Literature. Language and writing. Volume 3 / Titarenko, M. L. .. - Moscow: Oriental literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2008. - S. 577-579. - 855 s. - ISBN 978-5-02-036348-9 .
- ↑ Guo S.B. The influence of Soviet painting of the 1950-1960s on the development of Chinese fine art: reception and tradition in the artistic life of China. // Culture and art. - 2017-02. - T. 2 , no. 2 . - S. 1–5 . - ISSN 2454-0625 . - DOI : 10.7256 / 2454-0625.2017.2.22148 .
- ↑ Neglinskaya M.A. On Actual Trends of Contemporary Chinese Art and the Prospects for its Study // Society and State in China: XL Scientific Conference / Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences. - M.: Institute of Oriental Studies, RAS. - 2010.
- ↑ Gao Minlu. China's contemporary art: crisis? // Art & Collection Group, Ltd. : article. - 2011. - Issue. Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art.№6 .