The popularity and use of the concept of folk art began in the 20th century.

The popularity and use of the concept of folk art began in the 20th century.

The popularity and use of the concept of folk art began in the 20th century. Folk art refers to mastering established traditional styles and techniques. Folk art is a product created by ordinary workers in the lower class according to their own needs. Then let's take a look at the popularity and use of the concept of folk art since the 20th century.

The popularization and use of the concept of folk art began in the 20th century 1 the popularization and use of the concept of "folk art" in the 1970s. Similar to folk music and folk dance, it imitates the title of folk literature. "Folk literature" used to be called "popular literature", but its name was changed in 1950s.

Since the popularity of "folk art", few people have strictly defined its concept and connotation from the perspective of semantics. When judging whether a specific category or work belongs to folk art, or discussing the characteristics of folk art in general, this word is established. But as long as we calmly think about what folk art is and what categories folk art includes, we feel that this is not a completely solved problem. In many cases, our use of the concept of "folk art" is still in a rather vague and uncertain grasp.

This theory requires as strict as possible. Literally, "folk" means common people, local grassroots and popularization. Folk art is usually relative to court art and literati art, the latter two are popular in court and literati class, and the authors are royal artists and upper-class intellectuals; The former is circulated among farmers and citizens, and the author is an unknown craftsman in the working class. In addition to the particularity of creators, recipients and communication scope, the connotation of folk art is also different from ordinary art, that is, the varieties, categories and materials used by folk art are far beyond the scope of court art and literati art because of its specific nature, form and function.

Among them, only a small part (such as New Year pictures and paper cutting) is similar to pure art, while the vast majority (such as clothing, utensils, entertainment, etc.). ) are different from ordinary art, in this sense, folk art does not belong to the same category as palace art and literati art, but in some popular understandings, folk art completely corresponds to the so-called pure art, such as the common classification of folk art categories: folk painting, folk sculpture, folk handicrafts ... or completely irregular listing: bamboo weaving, straw weaving, batik, clay sculpture, paper cutting, New Year pictures, blue printing. In the final analysis, this inaccurate classification reflects that the understanding of the essence of folk art is not deep enough.

Many researchers often ignore the practical function and essence of folk art intentionally or unintentionally, but only pay attention to its aesthetic characteristics. In fact, the classification of folk art and the definition of folk art connotation are the same problem from two different angles. For folk art, we should not copy and attach to the classification of general art, but should proceed from the characteristics of folk art itself, that is, from the functional sense.

In the process of compiling the Complete Works of China Folk Art, Mr. Wang Chaowen and the editorial board discussed this issue many times, and they agreed that folk art should include and be summarized into the following six aspects or categories. These are the six parts listed in the book. Sacrifice: originally, it is an art that reflects the worship of gods, ghosts and ancestors in the lower classes. Today, although the connotation and function have changed, the folk beliefs reflected in the works still have high academic value. Most of them are sacrifices such as gods, offerings and ceremonial utensils in sacrificial activities.

Residential category: pavilions, bridges, archways around houses or settlements where people live, mausoleum buildings of civilians, and various brick, stone, wood ornaments and indoor furniture attached to or inside them.

Clothing: People use it to decorate their own works of art, that is, clothing, shoes and hats, headdresses, earrings, chest ornaments, wrist ornaments and other accessories. The costumes of 56 ethnic groups in China reflect the customs and living culture of all ethnic groups in China.

Appliances: appliances with modeling significance in people's production and life, such as production tools, transportation tools, household appliances, daily necessities, etc. This is one of the previously neglected categories.

Decoration: seasonal environmental layout and clothing patterns are limited to the plane range of two-dimensional space, such as New Year pictures, cloth pictures, kang pictures, window grilles and patterns. They are mainly used to set off the festive atmosphere and serve as samples for future generations.

Entertainment: apparatus or scene arrangement articles in entertainment activities, such as puppets, shadow puppets, masks, faces, lanterns, musical instruments and toys.

They tend to be more energetic in performance activities. In my opinion, these six categories basically summarize all the contents of folk art from the unique significance of folk art and according to several main aspects of human material life and spiritual activities.

The popularity and use of the concept of folk art began in the 20th century. Folk art is an art form created by ordinary workers at the lower level according to their own needs, which has been continuously developed through collective inheritance and historical accumulation. Folk art in a broad sense includes folk plastic arts, folk performance arts, folk architecture arts, folk rap arts, folk dance arts, folk literature arts and so on. Narrow sense of folk art mainly refers to folk art, including folk painting, folk sculpture, folk architecture, folk crafts and so on.

Folk characteristics of folk art

1 region

China has a vast territory and many nationalities, and its geographical environment, customs and production methods are different. With the gathering and dispersion of cultural centers and the change of their positions in history, the development of cultural forms is also very different, showing multi-type and multi-level phenomena, forming obvious regional characteristics. Folk art is integrated into concrete folk life, so the emergence, development and spread of each folk art form are restricted by geographical factors, production and life factors and humanistic factors in a specific region. Make use of local materials and local material resources to create folk art according to local conditions, thus forming a unique local style, which can be spread stably in the region. Different products in different places have produced rich and colorful folk art.

Folk art is the zero-distance contact point between art and life. It was born from life in the most primitive and simple way, perfected in practice and formed a unique art form. Folk art is not only the source of art, but also the stream of art, which, like folk songs, embodies the workers' love for life, wishes for happiness and pursuit of beauty. The initial activities of human beings are for survival, so the mainstream of folk art is mostly practical. Aesthetics is gradually developed on the basis of practicality, which can meet both practical material needs and aesthetic spiritual needs.

Regional social and cultural traditions have shaped the cultural character of residents in the region, restricted people's living habits and constituted the richness of human culture. Regional characteristics also reflect the connotation of local feelings. Because people in a certain nationality or region always have a long-term psychological effect on the customs and beliefs of their own nationality and region, the stronger the regional formal characteristics, the easier it is for art to arouse this local emotion, so the regional factors also constitute the emotional connotation of folk art. For example, due to the characteristics of living together, ethnic minorities have formed regional color characteristics: Yi and Hani people advocate black, which is the most expensive, and the main color of their costumes is black.

Step 2 be popular

Folk art is a living traditional culture and an art of producers. It is not only a local art, but also a real popular art, which is the most remarkable feature that distinguishes it from other art categories. Folk art has great universality and profound mass foundation, and its creators, consumers, audiences, communicators and successors are all ordinary workers. Therefore, the theme, content and form of folk art are deeply loved by the public.

Popular means that its forms, types and basic paradigms are established in people's lives, and it must have a realistic demand base and be integrated with collective wisdom and talents. His works not only reflect the ideals and pursuits of workers, but also reflect their aesthetic taste. From creation to communication, it has always been closely related to groups. The value of folk art is that it is the creation of beauty by ordinary workers, and every worker will become a creator, performer and appreciator. In primitive society, individuals have absolute dependence on the collective. Collective activity was the only way of activity at that time, and it also became the only source of human strength at that time, which was embodied in folk art, became the basis of collective consciousness and homosexual feelings, and formed the mass characteristics of primitive art.

The popularity of communication means that the creation of folk art is often the result of collective participation. For example, the addition, deletion and modification of ancestors' genealogy and correspondence are all forms of collective participation in creation. For example, the well-known paper-cuts in Ansai, Shaanxi Province are mostly written by peasant artists. Solid basic skills and modeling ability, as well as comprehensive cultivation of folk culture, make paper-cut works more rich and profound.

Step 3: for personal use

Folk art is closely related to people's lives and is created by people to meet their direct needs in material, cultural and spiritual aspects. In many areas, women began to learn embroidery at the age of seven or eight, do housework in their spare time, and begin to prepare embroidery for their future weddings. Over the past ten years, dozens of embroideries have been accumulated, from clothes to home accessories, enough for a family. The self-use of folk art is a reflection of its self-sufficient farming civilization.

Folk art creates beauty and joy. Workers are directly or indirectly inspired and educated by social and cultural traditions in the environment of creating beauty, and get happiness in the process of creation and joy after success. For example, tie-dyeing introduced to Japan in the Tang Dynasty is still popular in Japan. Nagoya City established a folk tie-dyeing research society, named "Le Dyeing Society", which was named "Le" because tie-dyeing brought them joy and made them happy in their creation.

4. Legacy

From ancient times to the present, folk art has been passed down from generation to generation, absorbed, perfected and developed on the basis of inheritance, leaving the brand of each era. The basic meaning of inheritance is the continuation of history, the concentration of nationality and its manifestations, and the foundation and soul of human development. Inheritance is the characteristic of the times in the development of folk art.

The inheritance of China folk culture is based on family. In the family-centered skill inheritance environment, word-of-mouth communication is a direct way to spread the relationship between master and apprentice, father and son, and mother and daughter. Most technical skills are conveyed through "formulas", and because skills are acquired through "ancestral", the aesthetic characteristics of early national culture are more maintained. Traditional folk art's accumulation and inheritance of ancient national culture in aesthetic value has become a dynamic spiritual reference for later artistic creation.

Inheritance is not immutable. The inheritance and continuation of folk art is spontaneous, with habits as the link, so there is no top-down constraint. They freely express their thoughts according to their intuitive feelings. In the process of circulation, it is often accompanied by changes in different degrees, which are caused by geographical conditions, historical conditions, fashion factors and so on. For example, the folk paper-cutting in northern Shaanxi is mostly a folk art behavior that a female elder entertains herself during the slack season and passes it on to the next generation.

The popularization and use of the concept of folk art began in the 3rd century, when UNESCO and the World Intellectual Property Organization deliberated and adopted 1982 "Model Provisions for Domestic Legislation to Protect Expressions of Folk Creation from Abuse" (hereinafter referred to as "Model Provisions"). The model clause describes the object of protection as "the expression form of folk literature and art" instead of "folk literature and art" in general, and does not use the word "work".

"Expression of folk literature and art" refers to all creations that come from a certain cultural community, are based on tradition, are expressed by a certain group or some individuals, and are regarded as expressions that meet the expectations of the community for their cultural and social characteristics. Its norms and values are passed down orally through imitation or other means. Its forms include language, literature, music, dance, games, myths, etiquette, habits, handicrafts, architecture and other arts.

Although different countries' legislation and international treaties have different interpretations of "expression of folk literature and art", the direction of * * * is basically the same, that is, the expression of folk literature and art must be an expression whose author is unknown but can be recognized as a national of that country. The Bangui Agreement adopted in 1977 defines the expression of folk literature and art as something done by "eom people" rather than "authors", thus excluding folk "works" that can be protected by traditional copyright law.

Tunisia's Model Copyright Law (1976) stipulates that the expression of folk literature and art includes creations that can be considered as finished by nationals or tribal groups in a country. Moroccan copyright law stipulates that the expression of folk literature and art only refers to unpublished works that meet the creative conditions. The copyright laws of Algeria and Tunisia do not restrict the expression of folk literature and art to unpublished works. Senegal's copyright law stipulates that the expression of folk literature and art only involves creation in the field of literature and art; According to Bangui Agreement and Tunisia Model Copyright Law, the expressions of folk literature and art also include works in the scientific field.

To sum up, folk literary works refer to tangible or intangible expressions of culture, art, characteristics, styles, forms and methods that the author is not clear about but can be presumed to have originated from a certain country or a certain community. These expressions are considered to meet the expectations of the community, passed down from generation to generation through constant imitation, oral instruction or other means, and maintained and developed by the whole group.

Folk literature and art works have the following characteristics:

(1) collective. Folk literary works are realized by constant imitation of specific groups, and are basically special literary forms created and circulated by the collective.

(2) Long-term. Folk literary and artistic works are collectively completed through long-term uninterrupted imitation and have gone through a long creative period.

(3) variability. Because folk literary works are constantly imitated by groups, they are in a state of constant change.

(4) inheritance. Although folk literature and art have constantly changing characteristics, there are also a series of relatively stable factors, which have been passed down from generation to generation.

From the collective point of view of folk literary works, it is significantly different from the concept of "author" in general works; From the perspective of inheritance, it lacks the "originality" stipulated in the copyright law; In the long run, it is suspected of entering the public domain. Therefore, internationally, folk literary works are generally called "expressions of folk literature" to distinguish them from ordinary works.