Make a slogan for art history

As the only masterpiece of Dong Yuan in the Five Dynasties, Riverside Map was bought by Xu Beihong in Yangshuo, Guilin in 1938. In the early autumn of the same year, Zhang Daqian went to Guilin, but he just "carried my giant frame of Dong Yuan". 1968, Zhang Daqian and Wang Cancan exchanged Riverside Map, which was bought by Tang Kui again in May 1997. In August of the same year, The New Yorker magazine published a signed article, quoting Gao Juhan, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley and a famous art historian in China, who thought that River Map was a fake of Zhang Daqian, causing an uproar. At the seminar, Gao Juhan made a speech on "Fourteen Questions about Riverside Map", and once again pointed out that the Riverside Map was forged by Zhang Daqian. China scholars retort that it was at least written by Song people. According to common sense, not many people are interested in this highly professional seminar, but not only nearly a thousand people attended, but also the Americans present applauded for a long time after the high speech. Americans "don't understand" when experts from China state their views. After learning, I, like me, have no doubt about the appraisal and have no chance to see the true face of "Xitu". I dare not say anything about it. However, after reading the relevant reports, I feel like a sore throat and I want to vomit. Needless to say, the western "scientific" appraisal method may not be superior to the traditional "empty-looking" and "eye-looking" method in China when appraising China's paintings and calligraphy. Some phenomena in a single seminar have shown that strong western culture bullied China culture. In this regard, even Croig Cluns, an American art historian, pointed out that this seminar "can even be interpreted as an unpleasant and racist Western scholar challenging China scholars." Therefore, I also think that there are similar problems in the field of art history research and art criticism. In the field of art history and art criticism, we have introduced a large number of western art theory systems in the past hundred years. In the study of contemporary China art history and art criticism, there is indeed a great degree of emptiness and mystery. Especially in artistic criticism, The Eight Diagrams of Zhouyi, The Book of Hutuluo, The Thought of Laozi and Zhuangzi, and The Metaphysics of Wei and Jin Dynasties are all like lofty chapters, absolutely wonderful, but they are all illusory. The reader doesn't know what to say in the fog, and the author himself doesn't know the true meaning. The introduction of western art theory undoubtedly played an important role in correcting the development of China's art history research and art criticism. Naturally, the more introductions, the better. However, with the introduction of a large number of western art theories, should we calmly reflect on the western art theories based on the evolution of western art, and whether we can move to China intact and simply establish China art? As far as Chinese painting is concerned, after thousands of years of development and evolution, Chinese painting has formed its own complete aesthetic system, value standard and appreciation mode, which is very different from western painting, such as six methods, exquisite theory, vivid description, artistic conception style, white background as black, five strokes and seven inks, layout as chess, three distances and seven views, etc. More importantly, it is not the "scattered perspective" assumed by modern people. Simply applying the western painting theory that has not been really understood and digested to the evaluation of Chinese painting is tantamount to fiddling with rubber columns. The relative strength of western economy and military does not mean that culture is necessarily profound, but under the violent impact of strong culture, many people are at a loss. On the one hand, they didn't make an in-depth study of China's cultural spirit, and they didn't understand the deep connotation of China's art, but they were self-righteous when they didn't enter the cultural palace of China. On the other hand, they don't really understand and thoroughly understand western culture. They read several semi-translated western works, blindly borrowed some foreign terms that they didn't understand, and criticized China's traditional art. Therefore, there are people who emphasize the "scientificity" of western painting and think that "Chinese painting is unscientific", those who hold high that "pen and ink are equal to zero" and those who deliberately pursue novelty, strangeness and wildness. Dazzle people's eyes and ears, lead the wolf into the room, but it is still difficult to convince the public, and it is even more idiotic. The cultural heritage and aesthetic style of Chinese and western art are at the same pole, and they are independent artistic systems. Many wise and sober artists have realized that it is impossible to save traditional art by blindly looking for "real classics" from the West. The profound connotation of China traditional art makes it have unimaginable vitality and vigor. It is indispensable to absorb the experience of others, and more importantly, to tap and develop one's own fine traditions. Should we also reflect on our art history research and art criticism? We don't have to obey the laws of our ancestors, and we shouldn't abandon them. Today's art historians should pay more attention to the in-depth and comprehensive study of China's traditional art theory while introducing the western art theory accurately and systematically, so as to revive it and apply it to the current art history research and art criticism. In this way, many disadvantages in this field are expected to be improved. Art criticism needs communication and dialogue. Li (associate professor, flower and bird painter, Fine Arts Department, Shaoxing University of Arts and Sciences) There is no eternal model or absolute center for human culture. When discussing the dialogue between Chinese and Western art theories, theorists should have China's local problem consciousness and specific context requirements. The object of artistic criticism is usually works of art and artists, so it should be closely related to artists. In today's era, when material pursuits such as desire and money become the key words of daily life through market consumption logic, some painters favor artistic criticism for the purpose of packaging and selling themselves, driven by money interests. Other artists are indifferent or even dismissive of artistic criticism. There are artists' own reasons, such as low theoretical quality and narrow academic vision, which make them have no interest in art criticism. But there are also reasons for dissatisfaction with the present situation of art criticism. A painter said to me, "Those who write art criticism articles read a few theoretical books and get confused everywhere." . They may have rich knowledge of philosophy, aesthetics and art history, but they don't know painting. How can they know why I use this color, and how can they see the beauty of this color? "Although this statement is a bit extreme, it is also reasonable. For art theorists, it is necessary to strengthen equal communication and dialogue with artists and even readers with a tolerant academic mind. Here I take the liberty to talk about some superficial views on some phenomena in art criticism. First of all, many articles lack concrete analysis or the analysis of visual form characteristics is unconvincing. In the artist's mind, everything he sees and hears is transformed into the form of artistic media that he understands and grasps, while other factors are relegated to the potential background of artistic creation. Without in-depth analysis of the "particularity" of this artistic aesthetic creation form, it is difficult to cut into the ontology of the work. We should realize that most of the influential theoretical works in China's painting history were written by great painters. For example, China's earliest theoretical monographs on painting and painting were written by Gu Kaizhi and Sheikh; The author of Lin Zhi in the Northern Song Dynasty is Guo; Lv Wang, the author of Preface to Huashan Sword in Ming Dynasty, Dong Qichang, who advocated the theory of Northern and Southern Dynasties, and Shi Tao, the author of Quotations of Paintings by Bitter Melons and Monks in Qing Dynasty, are all famous painters. These works are not only regarded as classics by painters of past dynasties, but also shine brilliantly in the aesthetic history of China. It is not easy to feel and understand various visual forms. As the saying goes, "Interlacing is like a mountain", even a professional painter can't fully interpret his works of art outside his major. When a China painter looks at oil paintings, most of them can only stay at the appreciation level, and it is difficult to make a profound analysis that convinces the oil painters at the formal level. The scope of criticism of art critics involves China, oil, India, sculpture, year, serialization, propaganda, wall painting, folk art, art design and even architecture, calligraphy and so on. We can't expect theorists to practice all artistic styles, but critics must make great efforts to study the characteristics of their formal language in order to truly gain the right to speak. If you can't get to the point, it doesn't make any difference for an artist to scratch his boots. It is a common phenomenon in art criticism that critics write articles praising works, but painters think that they are not necessarily good paintings. Some recommended articles don't have much analysis of the works themselves, but they write a lot of historical knowledge about literature, art and even philosophy in a rambling way, which is strictly related to the object he wants to comment on, giving people the impression that he can't comment on anything and insists on what to say. There are also some comments on artistic phenomena, which are hard to be recognized. For example, an article said: Qi (Baishi) style descendants "represented by Wu Zuoren"; Ink figure painting is divided into two schools: Xu () and Jiang (). In terms of light and shade modeling methods, Xu is mainly dyed, and Jiang is mainly bian, which is listed as Xu School, and a large number of painters such as Liu Wenxi are listed as Jiang's disciples. This statement is quite arbitrary. Because in the eyes of China painters, Jiang's figure painting is suspected of using a brush instead of charcoal. "Edge", as a special brushwork of Chinese painting, is completely different from the light and shade in western painting, and the technique of dyeing has been used in portrait painting for a long time. How did it become the patent of ginger? Who used Bian's method to become his disciple? Secondly, since the mid-1980s, great changes have taken place in the discourse mode of art criticism, and a large number of new terms, terms and concepts of western cultural trends have been introduced. Based on this appearance, some avant-garde theorists, who regard themselves as elites, think that the process of China's fine arts should also realize the transformation of the same mode, but they despise the local national culture and realistic painting style. They do not treat western modern culture with an equal attitude and make a critical understanding, but are immersed in modern superstitions and eager to establish a modern utopia. Some theorists are proud of their submission to the western discourse center. They impose the value standard of western culture on the colorful local art under different historical backgrounds and cultural traditions with a single linear thinking of either or. According to dissipative structure theory, evolution does not follow a single trajectory. Therefore, human culture has neither an eternal model nor an absolute center. When discussing the dialogue between Chinese and Western art theories, theorists should have China's local problem consciousness and specific context requirements. There are still some unsatisfactory places in art criticism. For example, some articles are mysterious and the language is obscure. Who should this article be written for? There should be room. Reading some articles is far more difficult than reading Hegel's works, and painters can't understand it, let alone ordinary readers. If you just read it to people in your own small circle, there is no need to publish it in some articles. If you think about it carefully, it turns out to be very common and simple, with little knowledge and deep articles, which will only make people hate it. More importantly, some critics have a condescending attitude. They think they are telling the truth and can't tolerate other voices, which is certainly disgusting. There are also some impetuous theorists who are communicating with some painters for mutual benefit, which will inevitably lead to the vulgarization of artistic criticism and the decline of academic personality. These are all limited by space, so I won't go into details here. Business card of art critic Gu Liu (editor of Henan Fine Arts Publishing House, art historian) Real art critics should have the minimum historical consciousness and critical ability. They have a sacred sense of mission and a quiet and free soul that does not serve things. This is the business card of a real art critic. All history is contemporary history, and all comments on art come from the inner or subordinate myths of shepherds. Shepherds can be not only gods, but also art critics. To some extent, without a shepherd, there would be no sheep, no sheep, no shepherd, no world and history about this world, and no food and water necessary for shepherds and sheep. Since there is a shepherd, there must be his sheep, his food and his water. In order to find and get food and water smoothly, art critics don't have to care about face, and they are too embarrassed to rape and occupy the original meaning of artistic creation with a rather decent circle discourse that sometimes even artists applaud, and call it guiding creation and guiding fashion in the name of imperialism until they spoil excellent artists to the point where they can't draw. I feel sorry for all the artists in the world, but I told the shepherd that he was too embarrassed to stop business and take stock. It is one of the bounden duties of art critics. Art is the creation of a real artist and a real genius, and it is an original and valuable discourse text, but there are good and bad. As the British art historian Gombrich said in "Art and Self-transcendence", "The amazing Rembrandt works in the Stockholm National Art Museum-for these works, we are worth coming here-have different values from the Watto treasures in the same art museum. "However, in any era, artists like Hua Tuo, even painting practitioners who can't be compared with Hua Tuo at all, are really a dime a dozen, and this has given birth to the so-called hotbed of art critics. Nowadays, there is a popular view that the art world is composed of artists, galleries, art critics and art dealers. In the logic of artistic situation in the noisy market, art critics even act as art brokers without shame, so that the price of craftsmen is often mistaken for valuable. Misleading comments seem to have a halo of value, even higher than the original words-the value of real works of art. In fact, the real works of art in this case are often scarce or even absent, and the critical discourse is often not original-it has no diachronic value, only its practical significance. Zhao's Who Criticizes Pictures defines the simple standards of artistic criticism: descriptive news reports; Explanatory notes are auxiliary notes; Analysis is the real academic art criticism. Believe it! This is also a proverb. So, what kind of person should be a real art critic? He is neither a totalitarian nor an art market speculator, nor a lover of art theory or a self-deprecating participant without the breadth and depth of professional knowledge. On the contrary, they should be literary scholars who really have profound practice and insight into the present era-such as art historians, writers and related research scholars who specialize in a certain art field. They should have the minimum historical consciousness and the ability to distinguish and criticize. They have a sacred sense of mission and a quiet and free soul that does not serve things. This is the business card of a real art critic. Unfortunately, most noisy people don't have cards today! What's more, there is no card at all! What I play is actually "borrowing" other people's cards! What a pity! What a pity!