Seeking literature: appreciation of Chinese painting works of art

Appreciation is a process in which people feel, understand and judge artistic works. In this process, starting from the concrete feelings of artistic images, the viewer's thinking and emotion have achieved a leap from perceptual knowledge to rational knowledge. This process is not only restricted by the image and content of the artwork itself, but also imagines, supplements and enriches the artistic image according to one's own aesthetic taste and artistic accomplishment, so there are differences in appreciation. Different people can draw completely different or even opposite conclusions about the same work. Appreciation is actually a combination of two different concepts. Appraisal is mainly to judge the authenticity of works, which belongs to the category of appraisal; Appreciation is to evaluate the quality of works, which belongs to the category of art appreciation and belongs to two different disciplines. Appraisers may not be able to appreciate the work in depth; Appreciators may not be able to judge authenticity. However, it is difficult to learn from it without reward; A reward without lessons is not a real reward. Reference is the premise of appreciation, and appreciation is the depth of reference; Wisdom is greater than reason, appreciation is greater than sensibility. The general appreciation of Chinese painting, based on reliable common sense, focuses on the introduction of the painter's life, apprenticeship and genre style. More importantly, we can appreciate and feel the painter's temperament, style, aesthetic taste and artistic conception through the works, and explore the life and soul contained in the works. Although the different hobbies and viewpoints make the viewers have different perspectives and viewpoints, there is no doubt that appreciation is an act of artistic re-creation.

Chinese painting appreciation has become the basic principle of learning and tasting Chinese painting for thousands of years since the advent of Sheikh's "Six Laws". Yuan Tang's "Painting Guide" said: "Today people don't know the six methods, so they write books to praise them, or ask them about their beauty and don't know how to answer them. It is a pity to meet by chance, or to become attached for a while, and I don't know its source. " However, at the beginning of the Six Methods, although it was used for tasting, later generations often confused the application of the Six Methods with the study of Chinese painting, which easily made beginners irrelevant. As far as vividness is concerned, Sheikh lists it as the first of the six laws, and thinks that the vitality and charm of a painting are the most important, but vividness is the comprehensive feeling after a work is completed. It is independent and the highest grade when judging works. However, applying the six methods to learning is the ultimate effect and pursuit. Qingshan said: "Charm is something that is painted. Every stroke represents charm. Where to start? If you are an expert with verve first, not a writer. " Therefore, if these six methods are used in Chinese painting creation, the general order should be: business position-pictographic image-using pen as bone method-using color to follow the class-vivid charm. Migration and imitation are learning, learning from teachers and learning from teachers. As the standard of tasting, the six methods are the highest level. Although the other five methods are inevitably interrelated in the process of forming, they are essentially independent and have high and low levels. In this order, the general law of Chinese painting appreciation should be: vivid charm-bone brushwork-business position-pictographic objects-class coloring-vivid modeling. However, the appreciation of contemporary Chinese painting is influenced by visual psychology, but the law of evaluation is not the same.

The aesthetic feeling and artistry of painting art are based on the intuitive presentation of art forms. No matter how precise the painting form is, it must be accepted by people through telepathy generated by visual organs and visual nerves. It is human nature to observe and accept the outside world through vision. It can be said that visual observation, cognition and feeling are the best ways to understand. The visual function's ability to accurately judge and respond to various components such as shape, momentum, orientation, color, sense of strength, momentum, etc. provides the most basic conditions for both the creative way of painting art and the appreciation of painting art. Generally speaking, the visual understanding and feeling of the external world is an abstract and comprehensive method that simplifies the complexity of things, starting from the overall focus, starting from the local cognition, and then synthesizing the overall impression. People's visual thinking can be from the whole to the part, and can also grasp the whole from the part. The visual activity of the eyes is produced after the instinctive reaction and conscious reaction cooperate with each other. Due to the limitation of visual energy, we can only perceive objects in a sequential or separate way. The first thing that vision notices is the most striking thing, the intentional arrangement and selective intake of functional vision, and also a concrete reaction of human subjective initiative. Therefore, it also leads to a certain order of visual perception of objects.

This order of visual understanding is carried out in the appreciation of Chinese painting, and its general appreciation order is: verve-composition (composition) modeling-pen and ink-color-comprehensive impression.

First, charm

Vivid charm, as the highest standard of Chinese painting appreciation, has had different understandings since ancient times. Some people think that charm is unknown. This theory first came from Guo in Song Dynasty. He said: "The following five things can be learned with a pen in the bone method. For example, its charm must be known in life, not coincidentally. If it can't be saved by time, then it will be understood tacitly, but this is unknown. " (Guo Song Xu Ruo's "Picture Knowledge") Dong Qichang said, "Charm can't be learned, it's innate knowledge and natural talent." (Dong Qichang's Essays on Painting Zen Rooms in Ming Dynasty) Some people think that vivid charm runs through the other five methods, which is not feasible from the perspective of grammar and logic at first. Because it is a rule of grammatical logic that concepts with cross relations cannot be juxtaposed, if verve is understood vividly as the synthesis of other five methods, then there is no need for six methods, five methods or one method. Sheikh not only talked about six methods, but also regarded them as six products, and said: "Although there are six methods of painting, it is rare to see what can be done, but since ancient times and today, each has its own good festivals." Obviously, vivid charm is one of the highest standards, and it is an independent product, not mixed with the other five methods. Otherwise, there is no need to say "each to his own advantage." The above statement is understood as appreciation from the concept of creation in six ways. It was also suggested that vivid means using ink, which is based on the fact that Sheikh didn't talk about using ink, but in fact he didn't pay attention to the change of ink color in Sheikh's era. Those who hold this view ignored the development process of Chinese painting. The vivid essence of charm is inseparable from the premise of its appearance. Although the six methods have become the basic standard of evaluation in the development of Chinese painting, they first appeared for the evaluation of figure painting. "Qi" is a concrete concept with vivid charm. Qi was first used in China's ancient philosophy, which was put forward by Laozi and has a wide range. However, after Wei and Jin Dynasties, "Qi" paid more and more attention to people's spiritual temperament, and at the same time, combined with the atmosphere of judging characters, it focused on people's temperament and demeanor. Sheikh's six methods are aimed at figure painting at that time, so the "qi" he said should also have factors that show the spirit of the characters in the Central Plains. In the Catalogue of Ancient Paintings, Sheikh talked about Qi six times, not only about the bearing of the characters in the painting, but also about the temperament of the painter himself, so I won't describe them one by one here. However, the viewer's appreciation of paintings is not limited to the object itself, but also includes the understanding of the author to strengthen appreciation. Painting is character. That's the truth. Therefore, the focus of vivid expression should include the charm of the objects in the painting and the temperament and spirit of the author. Because there are many factors in the application of "Qi" in literary and artistic creation, it has been linked with the style of literary and artistic works since Wei and Jin Dynasties. Spiritual writing refers to temperament and personality for readers, and various works become the style of works. Influenced by this, Sheikh talked about painting with gas, and the meaning of gas should be the same as that of paper. During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, people paid great attention to character evaluation, and literati had to work hard on personal cultivation if they wanted to gain social recognition. At that time, the study of personality was also very important. A person's temperament and talent is a person's style. And a person's style shows a person's temperament and talent. In the view of Wei Jin people, style is a person. People's personality, intelligence and tolerance are all displayed through personal style. Under the influence of this social factor, Sheikh put forward "vivid charm", putting the painter's style, temperament and personality first, and emphasizing the shaping of typical images and the expression of inner charm, which should be very reasonable. He pays attention to the style formed by the inner spirit of painting, and pays more attention to the people who form the style. It is precisely because of the combination of the two that painting has achieved extraordinary artistic effects. Charm is not only the presentation of the mental state of the author and the object of expression, but also the symbol of vitality; Charm, more importantly, reflects the mental state of the object and is a symbol of ideology and culture. When commenting on Gu Kaizhi, Sheikh called it "verve and strength, which failed to catch up with the former sages", and explained it qualitatively with the rhyme of God. The expression of verve should be vivid and vivid as the standard of verve expression. Mobilization requires that the mental state of the object should have vitality to be moving, which is still widely used in literature and art. Then, the vivid charm used in the evaluation of Chinese painting works at least includes the following contents: First, it refers to the spiritual connotation of the object depicted in the work. God's foot is full of rhyme, rhyme is more complete, and charm is vivid. Second, it refers to the artist's personality and artistic style in his works by using his unique artistic temperament such as talent and emotion. The third refers to the overall artistic effect created on the screen after the combination of the first two-that is, the creation of artistic conception. The creation of artistic conception is like a machine *, which has far-reaching influence and naturally has distinct personality characteristics. The appreciation of Chinese painting, whether meticulous or intentional, or figures, landscapes, flowers and birds, has a vivid grasp of the charm.

Second, composition

Painting and composition, as the sum of all artistic languages to show images, are not only the center to attract the audience's visual attention, but also the source of vivid charm. The ancients said that Chinese painting "looks at the potential from a distance, but looks at the pen and ink closely", in which "potential" refers to the overall composition of the composition. Composition law is not only a complete system structure, but also various elements of unity of opposites restrict this specific picture creation method from different angles and in different ways. It can be said that the artistic creation and composition of painting is the most basic condition to express the painter's inner feelings and show the painter's performance skills. From the perspective of Chinese painting appreciation, the composition of the picture charm, the creation of artistic conception and various intertwined and interrelated artistic expression means are all under the unified restriction of composition. Therefore, the appreciation of composition of Chinese painting should not only be based on its grasp of the composition rules, but also on "drawing from the strange peaks" (Qing Shitao), painstakingly managing and "seeking perfection" outside the rules (Su Songshi), so that the management of composition can be brand-new and unique. But the innovation of composition depends on its combination with creative content. Only by properly expressing the composition form of creative thoughts can we establish a realistic artistic creation order, which not only breaks the law, but also preserves the law itself. The essence of creative composition form is the construction of law, not the destruction of law. This is also the fundamental constraint of composition on blind innovation.

Third, modeling.

In the appreciation of Chinese painting, modeling is more specific. There are many elements in the reproduction of meticulous painting modeling, and intention is more important than performance. Although the distinction between meticulous painting and meticulous painting in contemporary Chinese painting has already broken through the above concept in modeling, meticulous painting, whether in modeling reproduction or performance, basically has to focus on similarity rather than plate, and be generous in stretching to be vivid; Although the intentional pen is similar, it is not similar, but compared with the meticulous pen, it can only represent differences and the essence is the same. If the similarity and dissimilarity of appearance are regarded as the standards of appreciation, it seems that Chinese painting can never unify the appreciation of pictographs. Form is not only the visual arrangement of the appearance of an object, but also the concrete realization of the painter's image on the screen. The treatment of form is only appearance, and the pursuit of God is the essence of pictographic things. Whether God writes in form or not, form is the material basis on which God depends. God exists in form, but God dies in form. Appreciating the meticulous brushwork or skillful brushwork of Chinese painting, such as similarities and differences in form, is to give up the root and seek the end. People who are interested in shapes should be more vivid, so as to be worthy of the expression of shapes. Pay attention to the generalization and exaggeration of form, which leads to similar and different people, and emphasize the dominance of God. Although there are similarities and dissimilarities in appearance, they are more authentic. God is the master, purpose and life of form. Whether writing in public, the pursuit and expression of God is the goal pursued by the author and the highest standard for connoisseurs to judge the form. However, the concept of God not only refers to the image God, but also includes the painter's subjective thoughts, which is the unity of the image God and the painter's subjective God. If we can master the appreciation of Chinese painting modeling, we will have a clear evaluation standard for hieroglyphics.

Fourth, pen and ink

Pen and ink are the skeleton of Chinese painting. In appreciation, pen and ink, as the concrete embodiment of bone-based pen in Chinese painting, is of great significance to the level of a work. The appreciation of pen and ink is mainly based on the appreciation of skills, and the change of pen and ink is also an important content of appreciation. The so-called "water is light with ink" and "charm still exists", and the level and taste of pen and ink are often important principles for evaluating a Chinese painting. Using a pen as the technical expression of Chinese painting, the fluctuation of pen force is wrong, and both lifting and pressing are turning; The pen-shaped Fiona Fang is straight, thick and short; The severity of the illness caused by the pen and the dryness of the hair are closely related to the overall feeling. As an integral part of brushwork, ink painting has always been integrated with brushwork in Chinese painting theory. Ink painting is the material realization of pen action. Through the rich changes of ink color and ink quality, it reflects the dialectical laws of yin and yang, such as the strength of reality and the severity of shade, and the infinite changes after self-harmony. Therefore, the specific embodiment of pen and ink in the appreciation of Chinese painting is: pen represents its form and quality, and ink sees its yin and yang; The author's pen and ink are very handsome, and the ink is filled with a pen. When you look at the brushwork with ink, the ink is wet; The brushwork is ink, and the brushwork is smart. Farsightedness is like ink, and myopia pens are not chaotic; Use a pen to grow hair at will, and use ink on the side; Muddy and harmonious without losing clarity, endless brushwork. Only in this way can we achieve the unity of independent appreciation value and artistic value of pen and ink.

Verb (abbreviation for verb) color

Color is also an important expression language of Chinese painting, and many factors with vivid charm in meticulous painting are related to color. The color appreciation of meticulous painting can generally start from several points: the coordination between tone and artistic conception creation, and the harmony of tone itself; The contrast of color to primary and secondary, virtual and real, cold and warm, strong and weak, and the application of the style level formed by color itself. The color collocation of Chinese painting includes not only the inherent color attribute of the object, but also the subjective image color attribute of the author. Based on the latter, the role of color in application is full of personal characteristics, which is also an important aspect of color tasting. In terms of gorgeous colors, Italian brushwork is not as complicated as meticulous brushwork. Pay attention to ink is color, color Jimo; Color does not hinder ink, and ink does not hinder color; Mainly based on ink, supplemented by color. However, the harmony and contrast of colors are also related. Moreover, in today's painting world, many people paint with Italian brushwork, and their appreciation and evaluation of color is similar to that of meticulous painting. But because ink painting is the basic factor, it is easier to relax than meticulous painting.

Sixth, comprehensive impression

The orderly tasting of Chinese paintings will eventually form a complete impression, which includes both the final evaluation of the appreciation of the works and the affirmation and pointing out of the advantages and disadvantages of the works. For example, the transfer mode is the last of Sheikh's six laws, which roughly refers to the inheritance of teachers. But learning from teachers can only be an aspect of appreciation, not an advantage. A teacher should have his own will. This is what Liu Daochun called "Six Essentials". "Six methods", as the general law of Chinese painting appreciation, are both independent aspects-that is, works have their own strengths, that is, Xie He said, "each has its own strengths." A work can have several aspects at the same time. Sheikh himself thinks that the works of Lu Tanwei and Wei Xie are complete in six aspects of the old dictionary. Of course, it goes without saying that the more aspects of a Chinese painting conform to the law, the more wonderful the work will be. In particular, the comprehensive impression of Chinese painting appreciation is the result of an orderly tasting process, but it varies from person to person and from environment to environment. Appreciators have different artistic accomplishments, different aesthetic likes and dislikes, and even different moods, and can draw completely different conclusions about the same painting. This is due to the uniqueness of abstract subjective images in the artistic creation of Chinese painting, and it is necessary to resonate with the knowledge and connotation of the viewer in the appreciation of the works in order to complete the tasting process. Therefore, the exchange of aesthetic experience and thoughts and feelings between creators and appreciators is an opportunity for the integration of subject and object in the appreciation of Chinese painting art.

In a word, Chinese painting came into being in a special and ancient civilized environment, and it has gone through a long evolution process from its origin, naivety, maturity to sublimation. Chinese painting is one of the concentrated expressions of China people's wisdom and creativity, which in a sense marks the highest level of China civilization in the world classical culture. The Chinese nation's understanding of the universe and nature, its attitude towards society, and its pursuit of beauty and eternity are all manifested in Chinese painting. The video recording of the artist's spiritual dialogue with the subject and object world in an aesthetic way has won the recognition of hundreds of millions of people in China. For such a rich, long-standing, exquisite and wonderful work of art, it is not easy to grasp its author profile, time environment, psychological state, genre inheritance, style evolution, technical characteristics and even historical evaluation. Therefore, the so-called general law of appreciation can only be outlined, and the self-cultivation of the appreciator is the key to sublimate the appreciation skills of artistic works. The diversified development trend of contemporary painting circles puts forward more realistic and specific requirements for the appreciation of Chinese painting. Therefore, it is undoubtedly the most basic work to popularize and improve the artistic accomplishment and basic quality of the whole nation.