What does artistic conception mean in art

As the core concept of China's classical aesthetics and art theory, "artistic conception" contains China's unique cultural and psychological factors. In the field of China classical art, artistic conception is not only the principle of artistic creation, but also the standard of artistic evaluation. However, with the exchange and integration of Chinese and Western arts, the word artistic conception began to break away from the boundaries of China's art and became a universal concept for evaluating art, and there must be something wrong with it. Can the artistic concepts generated in different cultural contexts accurately summarize the artistic connotation and charm of different cultures? Specific to artistic conception, we can't help asking, does western painting have artistic conception? What does the so-called "artistic conception" in western painting mean? Because this concept originated from the unique cultural context, we also try to talk about this issue from the cultural origin and aesthetic connotation of the concept of artistic conception.

First, the cultural origin of "artistic conception"

Artistic conception, as a concept, was put forward in the Tang Dynasty, but as an artistic creation principle and aesthetic concept, it has a long history and is the crystallization of China's traditional philosophy, cultural concept and way of thinking.

From a philosophical point of view, the connotation of artistic conception, such as the blending of scenes, the unity of things and me, and the coexistence of reality and reality, is closely related to the cosmology of China's traditional culture. In the Book of Changes, it is said that the gasification of Yin and Yang generates everything, and the qi of heaven and earth breeds everything. All objects can be said to be a kind of "gas accumulation" This endless stream of Yin and Yang weaves into a rhythmic life, [1] is the "vivid charm" in Chinese painting and the key to forming "artistic conception"; Two basic ideas in Laozi's philosophy: First, "Tao" is the noumenon and life of all things in the universe, and the care (interest) for all concrete things will eventually enter the care (interest) for "Tao". Secondly, Tao is the unity of nothingness and existence, emptiness and reality. Tao contains images, but the existence of images cannot fully reflect Tao, because images are limited, and Tao is not only existence, but also existence. As far as the nature of Tao is concerned, Tao is wonderful. [2] Here, "Tao" is an unspeakable feeling and understanding beyond the specific image, and the experience of "Tao" constitutes the life and essence of artistic conception aesthetics. The world outlook embodied in these ancient philosophical thoughts is obviously different from the philosophical concept of western metaphysics. The former contains infinity in finiteness, while the latter transcends finiteness and pursues infinity. The former is "not enough talking", "doing my best to set up an image" and "getting carried away", while the latter is to perceive the universe and God's light in quantity, proportion and order. Therefore, the former is practical and the latter is speculative; The former is subjective and the latter is objective.

Artistic conception, as the core concept of art theory, benefits from the philosophical concepts of Taoism, metaphysics, Buddhism and Zen in ancient China and the analysis of the relationship between words, images and meaning, and more directly comes from the discussion of the relationship between meaning and context, emotion and context, thinking and context, and meaning and context in art theories of past dynasties. For example, Liu Xie, a famous literary critic in the Southern Dynasties, pointed out in Wen Xin Diao Long that "it is not enough to say that writing is pure and beautiful, and pure feelings are not enough to say beauty. People who are good at writing must be in love, and things must be in harmony "(see Liu Yongji's" Wen Xin Diao Long ")" Or touch feelings with feelings, or spread feelings with feelings, or write things with feelings, or separate things with things, and there is no definite method at first, so you should understand your ears when studying irony. " In these two paragraphs, although Liu Xie did not say the specific concept of the word "artistic conception", the "image" form of "scene blending" he put forward undoubtedly reflected the most general aesthetic characteristics in the aesthetics of "artistic conception" in later generations.

The concept of "artistic conception" appeared in the Tang Dynasty, which is closely related to the spread and formation of Buddhism and Zen thought. "Jing" was originally a concept in Buddhism. In Buddhism, climbers who travel by "heart" are called "Jing". There are five kinds of "environment", namely color, sound, smell, taste and touch. Buddhism believes that the five realms are illusory. Only by breaking the obsession with these five realms and entering the realm of law can enlightenment be achieved. The wisdom of Zen accepted the influence of China's traditional culture and changed the Indian's idea. He believes: "Buddhism is in the world and inseparable from the world." Making "realm" no longer means the division between this world and another world, nor the division between the phenomenon world and the ontology world, but means that the universe ontology can be directly presented in ordinary daily life and life phenomena. Therefore, the meaning of "artistic conception" is not the general meaning, but the embodiment of "Tao". The so-called' artistic conception' is to directly present some metaphysical significance in perceptual (physical) daily life and life phenomena. " [3]

The concept of artistic conception has been enriched with the development of culture since it came into being. Especially at the end of 19 and the beginning of the 20th century, Wang Guowei, Zong Baihua and others defined the concept of artistic conception, which made this concept break through the limitations of artistic genre, classical art and classical aesthetics and have the character of modern aesthetics. Nevertheless, the concept of artistic conception is not divorced from the foundation of China culture, and gradually shows more and more attractive light in the mapping with western culture and art.

Second, Chinese and Western painting and artistic conception

"Art, as art rather than other departments of culture, must improve, concentrate and refine the content of life while expressing beauty. This is its task. According to this task, various arts have different internal laws due to different material conditions. " [4] The material conditions of Chinese and Western paintings are different, so the inherent laws of their expression techniques are also different, so I don't need to go into details, but they all create the same brilliant artistic beauty with different material techniques, which is beyond doubt. Although the beauty displayed by art is transnational, the sweetness of honey brewed by art flowers rooted in different cultural soils is different. From the perspective of Chinese and western classical art, they have the same feelings, scenes, reality and movement, but the paintings they convey have different aesthetic characteristics.

1. the combination of "virtual" and "real"

China painters pay attention to the expression of "reality". First, influenced by China's two ancient philosophies: Confucius and Mencius are still seeking truth from facts. Confucius said "gentleness" and Mencius said "enrichment is beauty". Laozi and Zhuangzi still believe that "Tao is the noumenon and life of all things in the universe". However, they are not contradictory in their view of reality, either from reality to reality or from reality to emptiness, and ultimately they all pursue a wonderful artistic conception of combining reality with reality. Second, because of the unique artistic creation concept of ancient painters in China: respecting the spirit and rhyme, emphasizing "writing the spirit with form" and "being forced by the real scene and born in the spiritual environment"; Still empty, as the saying goes, "the real scene is clear, the mountains and rivers are empty", "the reality and the reality coexist, and no painting is the beauty."

Therefore, there is a saying in the theory of Chinese painting that "the blank space in painting is the empty space of composition, and the relationship between painting and no painting in painting constitutes the' virtual and real' relationship of Chinese painting. However, the blank in this picture is not empty, but like "listening to thunder." The master of blank space in painting will show the technique of blank space very beautifully. Such as water, smoke clouds and sky, these real scenes are shown as virtual scenes in the painting, which makes the picture ethereal and beautiful, and can show the wonderful feeling of virtual scenery and floating smoke clouds, where there is no pen and ink. This is a unique artistic expression of Chinese painting.

The dryness, wetness, coarseness and lightness of the pen used in Chinese painting is another manifestation of "reality". Literally it looks simple, but in fact it is so profound. In painting theory, the emphasis on "pictographic representation of things" and "pen is the bone method" depends on the change of pen and ink. The proper use of water, ink and brushwork shows the impact and feeling of the picture on human vision; Show the shape and charm of the scenery; Showed a fresh and free and easy personal painting style.

In terms of color, China painters were influenced by Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi's theory that "mystery is mystery, which is the door to all miracles". Darkness is black. Therefore, although Chinese painting has the saying that "color follows the class", color does not hinder ink, ink does not hinder color, and color is supplemented by ink, but it is the basic formal criterion of color beauty. The use of color in Chinese painting is not an objective expression, but an expression of subjective feelings. This is the true and false expression of China's painting colors.

And "the main foundation of western culture is in Greece, and the foundation of western painting is also in Greek art" [5] Greeks have a unique thinking tendency because of the uniqueness of Greek civilization: they oppose subject and object, put nature in the position of torture, investigation, analysis and manufacturing, and put themselves outside the object. This kind of thinking tendency is manifested in painting: paying attention to the true description of objective things.

Therefore, western paintings also pay attention to "truth", but its "truth" is mainly expressed in the form of perspective and composition according to the laws of nature. The perspective of western painting comes from people's basic visual law: close to reality and far from emptiness. Shown in color: near brightness and purity are high, far brightness and purity are low; Modeling: big near, small far, clear near, fuzzy far. The performance of reality in composition is that the subject is real and the object is virtual. Objects exist to set off the main body, so they are always arranged in a secondary position in the picture.

In western painting, natural light, shadows and clouds can also be used to further enhance virtual reality. Rembrandt's Night Patrol is an excellent example: the midday sun shines on people living in the center of the picture, but the light at the gate of the city wall is dim and some people wander in the dark. Light and shadow strengthen the main part of the picture and weaken and melt the secondary factors. The change of reality and reality created by "light and shadow" makes the picture show a strong dramatic color. In addition, subjective use of pen is also an auxiliary means to express reality.

In a word, the "truth" of Chinese and western paintings depends on the influence of different philosophical concepts and ideologies, and is presented in their own unique painting languages. The difference is that the "truth" of Chinese painting is the pursuit of a formal beauty, which is the expression of the painter's inner temperament and tolerance; The "truth" of western painting is to create a kind of true beauty, which is the embodiment of the painter's feeling of reality and painting skills. So in the end, there are two kinds of feelings, two kinds of beauty.

2. The combination of "dynamic" and "static"

Under the influence of China's traditional aesthetic thought, ancient painters in China thought: "Beauty can only be fully expressed if it transcends vision and integrates the soul with the universal spirit for a period of time." [6] Therefore, the combination of "dynamic" and "static" has become a basic feature of Chinese painting. Landscape painters in China like to express the spatial changes of their pictures with the viewpoint of height, distance and flatness. Because "far" can make painters and viewers "have the universe in their hearts and think about eternity", and enter infinite time and space from limited time, thus triggering a philosophical sense of life and history. In addition, they also use the composition form of ups and downs of Yin and Yang, and create a dynamic situation; With chic, hearty and full of human feelings, it embodies the personalized line combination of everything in the world, life and death, and implies the skeleton, vitality, movement and rhythm of life. Their creative process is dynamic. Landscape painting, while walking, watching and painting. Searching Qifeng for a Draft shows a flowing and fantastic world. The image of creation is also moving. Most of the images in the paintings come from "seeing stories", showing living flowers and trees, moving birds, animals and insects, and various figures with both form and spirit. Mountains and rivers in different regions can be combined to express escape; Flowers and birds from different seasons and regions can also be combined in the same picture to convey new meanings.

Polish aesthetic historian tatar Kevic said, "Greek artists combined the pursuit of science with the pursuit of aesthetics. They believe that ... the purpose of artists is not only to bring subjective pleasure to the audience, but also to make their works objective and perfect. " [7] Although western painting points to the accurate imitation and realistic reproduction of objects, it also pays attention to the artistic treatment of picture effects, in which "combination of static and dynamic" is an important means to pursue picture effects. The "dynamic combination" of western painting is reflected in the choice of scenery, composition and pen, the combination of dynamic and static, the dynamic combination of image and form, and the general trend of pen direction.

The combination of Chinese and western painting is derived from the pursuit of formal beauty, but the movement in Chinese painting is the embodiment of the painter's mind and his perception of life, while the movement in western painting is the pursuit of perfection in painting art.

3. "Love" and "scenery" blend

China's traditional philosophy regards "holistic thinking" as the principle of understanding things and forms China's "methodology". Therefore, China painters regard "harmony between man and nature" as the ideal realm of artistic pursuit. Therefore, China's paintings pay attention to the blending of "emotion" and "scenery", and "emotion" enters the scene and "scenery" is expressed. The "scene" of Chinese painting is not the real scene, but the "scene" in the painter's mind, which is a symbolic language to express the painter's feelings. The image of Chinese painting is almost symbolized and conceptualized. The purpose of writing poetry in the framework of Chinese painting is also to remind the brushwork in painting with calligraphy and to set off the artistic conception in painting with poetry.

Western philosophy takes the absoluteness of "number" and the thought of "demonstration" as the principle of understanding things, thus forming the western "methodology". Western painters are influenced by western philosophy, and their way of thinking is reflected in painting, which is absolute "figuration" and absolute "abstraction".

Of course, they also have the pursuit of "love" and "scenery" blending. In the process of depicting nature, western painters use different viewpoints, different positions and different artistic effects to depict objects from different angles in order to express their feelings and pursuit of life. Looking up, the horizon rises, and the subject and object are tall and majestic, giving people a sense of sacredness; Looking down, the horizon is lowered, making people feel their own smallness while seeing the vast space; Looking up, we will experience the peace and tranquility of life. In order to achieve the blending of "emotion" and "scenery", the characters written by western painters are not purely true, but a collection of "typical". In addition, western painters think that different colors have different meanings, and different tones make people have different emotional experiences. The color of western painting is the true and general expression of natural color, and also directly expresses the painter's inner experience and emotion.

In a word, the "scene blending" of Chinese and western paintings is that the painter expresses his inner feelings through pictures, but the difference is that the feelings in Chinese paintings are real feelings, while the scenery is the scenery in the painter's heart, not the natural scenery, while the "scene" in western paintings is the real feeling.

To sum up, although both Chinese and western paintings have the performance of pursuing the external characteristics of artistic conception, they have not achieved the same result in the end. As Mr. Yu Min said: "To reach the realm, we must take the road of' rumor' and strive to be realistic in form and image; Instead, look inward, take the road of' inward transmission', or forget yourself, or cross shapes, images, words, sounds, pens and paintings, and be proud of it. " [8] This internally identical way is the aesthetics of Qi, which is the key and core of the aesthetic formation of artistic conception. Western painting emphasizes realism, which satisfies the visual desire of painters and viewers, but gives up the advantage of excavating the deep dynamic factors of painting, which is probably the reason why western painting has scientific rigor and great craftsmanship, but lacks charm and poetry. Therefore, it is difficult for western paintings to reflect the true connotation of "artistic conception". We can say that western music and poetry have artistic conception, but we can't say that western painting has artistic conception.