Origin and Development of Batik

Origin of Batik The dyeing and weaving process in China has been greatly developed as early as in the Western Zhou Dynasty (ll century BC - 771 BC).

According to the Book of Rites and other documents, silk, dyeing at that time, there were officials in charge of the production of indigo, the State of Chu also has a presided over the production of indigo "blue Yin" worker officials.

It is clear that the silk weaving and dyeing process was already quite large.

Batik, known as wax val, is a wax pattern painted on the linen, silk, cotton, wool and other fabrics, and then put into the dyestuff cylinder dyeing, wax can not be dyed in color, remove the wax that is now beautiful pattern.

This is an ancient anti-dyeing process in China, which has a long history.

Batik is an ancient and unique hand-painted dyeing art of the Miao people in China, originating in the Qin and Han dynasties and flourishing in the Sui and Tang dynasties (581--907 AD).

There is an inexhaustible source of art here, which has been passed on from generation to generation, and it can be said that from the inception of dyeing and weaving technology in China, batik has been called a part of the ancient civilization of the Chinese nation as the oldest handicraft.

Batik artifacts found in ancient times in China, there are the Northern Dynasty (396-581 AD) blue waxed valerian wool fabrics blue waxed valerian cotton fabrics unearthed at the site of the ancient city of Yutianya Yulaike in Xinjiang, and the Xiliang (400-421 AD) blue valerian silks unearthed from the northern tombs of Astana in Turpan, Xinjiang, and the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) blue valerian silks unearthed from the northern tombs of Astana in Xinjiang. 618-907) several kinds of waxed valerian silks and waxed valerian yarns; and a large number of waxed valerian remnants of the Tang Dynasty, which were discarded and found under the first layer of mural paintings in Cave 130 of Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang.

Among this batch of surviving batik objects, the wax val weaving of the Northern Dynasty and the Western Liang are all dark blue ground appearing white flowers, with smooth and clear patterns, simple and elegant; the ground of the wax val silk and wax val yarn of the Tang Dynasty is brown, deduction, yellow, ochre, etc., and most of them are white patterns.

Batik craft has been passed down from generation to generation in China's southwestern minority areas, especially in Guizhou minority areas, which inherited and carried forward the traditional batik craft, and it is very popular, and has become an indispensable art in the life of minority women.

The minorities here use batik as the main decoration of Huangping, Chonganjiang area and Danzhai County's Miao women, their headscarves, bibs, dresses, skirts, bindings, bindings, are made of batik, others, such as umbrella covers, pillowcases, rice baskets, coverlets, bags, bags, backpacks, etc., are also using batik; Anshun, Puding area of the Miao women in the batik pattern decorative in the sleeves, lapels and clothing before and after the The edges of the sleeves, lapels and the front and back of the clothes are decorated with batik patterns, and the batik straps of the children they carry are dyed delicately and meticulously, and in addition to blue and white, some of them are also dyed with red, yellow, green and other colors, making it a bright and colorful multi-color batik.

The batiks of various ethnic minorities in Guizhou have their own characteristics, for example, some of the batik patterns of the Miao still use the patterns of the ancient bronze drums and the themes of folklore, and some of them are the flowers, birds, insects, and fishes that are in contact with in their daily lives; and the Buyi like to use geometric patterns.

The batik of each ethnic group has a unique style.

Hometown of Batik The hometown of batik is Anshun, Guizhou, China.

Anshun is a famous tourist city in China, with many famous attractions such as Huangguoshu Waterfalls, Longgong, Tunbao culture (Tianlong Town, Yunfeng Bazhai, etc.), Tianxing Bridge, and Huajiang Canyon.

Anshun has the reputation of being "the throat of Yunnan, the belly of Guizhou, and the lips and teeth of Guangdong and Sichuan", with an important geographic location, convenient transportation, and "business in the province".

Anshun successfully held the first Batik Festival in 1992, which attracted many guests from home and abroad, and since then the art of batik has gone to the whole country and the world.

There are a large number of batik workshops and factories in Anshun, and a number of famous batik artists such as Hong Fuyuan have emerged.

Batik in Anshun is constantly innovating while inheriting the tradition.

The development of batik The traditional batik is used as the decoration of clothes and daily necessities, from the batik clothes in "Lady Guo's Spring Journey" and "Mashing and Training" of Zhang Xuan in Tang Dynasty to the batik patterns drawn by Miao girls in modern times, which has a long history and leaves us a rich history. history, leaving us a rich heritage.

But as a purely ornamental artwork - batik wall hanging, also known as "batik painting", is a young art, which was born in the 1970s, and in the 1980s, as a modern decorative painting, entered the hotels and galleries, and is entering into the homes of common people in thousands of households step by step. Step by step into the thousands of ordinary people's homes.

Some people assert that, following the "Yunnan heavy color painting", "batik painting" will be popular all over the world, there will be a new peak of art.

Regardless of whether this prediction is correct or not, but as a new kind of painting, to be recognized by the community, a number of masters must emerge, create a number of high-quality, weighty works of art.

This is the most fundamental.

Currently, batik can be divided into three categories: - class is the Southwest ethnic minority areas, folk artists and rural women self-supporting white painted for their own use of batik products, this type of product should belong to the category of folk crafts.

The other category is batik products produced by factories and workshops for the market, which should belong to the category of arts and crafts.

The third category is purely ornamental works of art produced by artists as the center, that is, "batik paintings". These three categories of batik co-exist and influence each other at the same time, presenting a situation of blossoming of a hundred flowers, which is a complex and diversified phenomenon that is rare in the art world.

With the development of society, traditional batik is undergoing new changes in the face of the tide of market economy.

The young generation is not satisfied with the old traditional patterns, but try every possible way to draw materials from the new life full of changes, to be transformed and used in batik, with the rise of "batik fever", some folk "batik masters" have to go abroad to hold exhibitions and make live performances. With the rise of "batik fever", some folk "batik masters" have gone abroad to hold exhibitions and make live performances, and the straight lines they drew on the cloth with wax knives out of thin air can be measured with a straight foot, and the circles they drew can be examined with a round gauge.

They strive to break through the programmed modeling in art, they believe that the traditional pattern is too dull, and strive to paint the flowers realistically, 'painted "smile" up; the birds painted alive, painted to fly.

As a result, the decorative interest of batik was lost, the artistic characteristics of batik were lost, and it became the pattern of bed sheet made of batik and the pattern of machine embroidered pillow.

Traditional batik is mutating and batik as a work of art is emerging and flourishing.

In Taiwan, "artistic batik" and "craft batik" have long been separated. Craft batik is the batik sarongs produced by workshops, while artistic batik is the batik paintings created by artists.

The works of the old generation of batik artists obviously have the charm of Chinese landscape painting, while the works of young artists have more modern colors.

In the UK, as a separate genre of plastic arts, artists create their own batik paintings, which are sold through exhibitions and galleries at very high prices.

In Japan, artist-centered batik workshops use traditional techniques to produce fine art created by artists.

In Asia, India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia; in Africa, Nigeria, Ivory Coast.

The art of batik as part of modern art.

The art of batik as a part of modern art has shown great vitality.

The development of the art of batik has its own special rules.

Because most of the processes of batik production are handmade, so far it is still impossible to replace them with mechanization and automation.

Facts show that it is not feasible to develop batik art with the production method of modern big industry.

Batik factories have the advantage of producing large quantities of batik fabrics.

As for batik as a work of art, it is often the case that only a few wall hangings are produced from a single drawing, or even just one wall hanging.

At present, there is an artist-centered batik workshop, the advantages of this workshop, they have a great deal of flexibility in the production, production, sales, and can best reflect the artist's creative personality and artistic style.

This is not a retrogression, but a progress for the development of batik art.

In Japan and England, where modern industry is quite developed, there are still a lot of artists' home workshops.

The owners of these workshops are both painters and craftsmen, entrepreneurs, who create works of art that cannot be replaced by the products of big industry, and the price of these works of art is often ten times the price of industrial products, or even hundreds of times.