Evaluating the oil painting founding ceremony from the perspective of artistic expression.

1953 Once published, founding ceremony, an oil painting created by Dong, generated great repercussions in the society, and was praised by the art circles as a landmark work with revolutionary historical themes in the history of contemporary art in New China. This work was created on 1952 by the Museum of Chinese Revolution (one of the predecessors of China National Museum). In order to complete the creative task, Dong consulted a large number of photos and video materials, and solicited opinions from the art world. With full creative enthusiasm, he completed this epoch-making realistic masterpiece in a short time. With exquisite artistic language, the works vividly show the great historical moment of the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), and also achieve great success in the exploration of nationalization of oil painting art.

one

Oil painting originated in Europe and was introduced to China by western missionaries in Wanli period of Ming Dynasty. However, due to the restriction of the dominant feudal orthodox culture, it did not spread widely except in the imperial court and a few cities in the southeast coast. At the beginning of the 20th century, with the changes of society, some domestic art colleges set up oil painting majors, and many painters returned from studying abroad, which gradually spread oil painting in China. In the process of absorbing and digesting this foreign artistic language, in order to better express China's real life, out of a sense of social responsibility and mission, many artists began to explore and study the nationalization of oil painting gradually from the 1940s, trying to master the oil painting techniques that are good at realism, and at the same time integrate them into the national vein, so as to enrich and develop them continuously, and then form their own national style. Dong was one of the earliest artists to set foot in this field.

Dong (19 14— 1973) was a famous collector of porcelain at that time. Influenced by his family, Dong has been influenced by good traditional culture since he was a child. When I was young, I studied in Suzhou Academy of Fine Arts, Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, and National Hangzhou Art Institute. Studied under famous artists such as Lin Fengmian, Yan, Liu Haisu and Chang Shuhong, and received strict training, which laid a solid foundation for Chinese and Western painting. After the outbreak of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, Dong moved to Guizhou and Yunnan with Hangyi College, and then went to the northwest to engage in research and creation. In the meantime, he fully appreciated the artistic charm of national folk culture, especially during the three years when 1942 was a researcher at Dunhuang Art Institute, he learned rich nutrition from the vigorous and colorful Dunhuang murals through a lot of copying. During this period, the Miao girls rushed to the scene (1942), the life of Tomafu in Yunnan (1943), the camel shadow in Gobi (1946), the Kazakh shepherd girl (1946) and the Central Art. It is precisely because of the long-term accumulation, in-depth understanding and rich creative practice of China's traditional culture and art that he made necessary preparations for his later successful creation of the oil painting founding ceremony.

two

The first element of a work's momentum is composition. In order to fully display the grand occasion of founding ceremony and organically combine the leaders with the people, Dong has made careful arrangements for his composition. Because in the actual architectural pattern, Tiananmen Square and Zhengyangmen are perpendicular to the central axis of Beijing, and according to the viewing angle of the works, if the focus perspective is strictly used, people can only see the back of the main characters, and the space of the picture will be greatly limited. Therefore, the author draws lessons from the multi-point perspective in Chinese painting and skillfully solves the problem of composition. Tiananmen Square and Zhengyangmen in the picture are not parallel on a longitudinal axis, but slightly inclined to the southeast. However, it is this change of angle that enlarges the space of the picture, which not only facilitates the performance of the scenery and characters on Tiananmen Gate, but also enhances the sense of distance between Tiananmen Gate and the square and the depth of the whole picture, and also solves the problem of the balance of characters in the picture composition.

In order to better represent the leaders, Dong also boldly dealt with the relationship between the figures and the buildings in the painting, that is, he gave up a pillar on the rostrum, which made the whole picture feel suddenly enlightened. In the work, Chairman Mao's burly body is located in the center, and other leaders and representatives from all walks of life are on the left side of the picture, echoing the cheering crowd in Yuan Jing Square. The whole picture is outstanding and complete; Not bound by the perspective of western painting, but also in line with the sense of visual stability and realism. It not only shows the grand occasion of founding ceremony completely, but also fully reflects the overall situation of the author's artistic creation. Later, Liang Sicheng, a famous architect, saw the work and said, "Removing a column is a big mistake in architecture, but it is a great success in painting art."

Art originates from life, but it is not simply imitating and copying life, but on the basis of real life, it is refined and processed to reach a higher realm-the truth of art. Art is different from science. Although both art and science pay attention to the study of objective image, science focuses on the general law of objective image, while art tries to reflect the special law of objective image. Its particularity lies in that artists should not only observe with their eyes, but also feel with their hearts, that is, the so-called "learning from foreign teachers and learning from China", which organically combines the nature of learning from others with subjective feelings, is a remarkable feature of Chinese painting.

three

Founding ceremony is a festival for all the people in China. Dong has fully grasped the national appreciation habits and aesthetic taste in the modeling and color treatment of his works.

Traditional Chinese painting often has a decorative style, which does not require naturalistic description of objects, but requires fine and selective modeling, and must be vivid and vivid. In the treatment of characters, founding ceremony focuses on the essential characteristics of the image, strengthens the description of important links in the image, simplifies some appearance details unrelated to the spirit and personality of the characters, and avoids the tedious sense of image description. In the picture, Mao Zedong solemnly read out the proclamation of the Central People's Government. His tall and burly body, firm and powerful hands and brow reveal the boldness of vision of politicians and the temperament of poets, leaving an unforgettable impression on people. Other major figures, such as Zhu De's generous personality, Liu Shaoqi's profound vision, Zhou Enlai's wise demeanor, Soong Ching Ling's dignified appearance and Guo Moruo's elegant demeanor, have also been deeply portrayed. It is precisely because the author integrated Chinese painting into oil painting techniques in the form of depicting spirit that he fully demonstrated the great demeanor of leaders and highlighted the personality characteristics of different characters.

It is the characteristic of oil painting color to be good at describing the subtle light color changes in nature, but how to use it depends on the needs of content expression. China people like bright and warm colors, which is consistent with the theme of founding ceremony. Therefore, Dong's treatment of oil painting color is not limited to the complex changes of pigments in western paintings, but boldly draws lessons from the colors with decorative style in China's paintings: that is, on the basis of realism, he classifies and summarizes the complex colors, weakens the conditional colors that change with light and environment, and highlights the true colors (inherent colors) of objects. The picture is based on red, blue and gold, and seeks the harmony and unity of the tone of the whole painting through various bright color contrasts such as tall and straight red pillars, dignified red lanterns, luxurious purple carpets, gold tassels, chrysanthemums, blue sky and white clouds.

The color of founding ceremony not only pays attention to the contrast of large color blocks, but also pays attention to the description of details. For example, when a painter paints a carpet, he first absorbs the oil in the pigment with toilet paper, and then skillfully adds sawdust and sand to the pigment to obtain a furry texture, which is in contrast with the upright and shiny columns next to it; When painting the white marble balustrade, light brown, gold khaki and other colors are added, which increases the warm-keeping effect, blends it with the surrounding colors, and has a sense of heaviness and vicissitudes, symbolizing the ancient Chinese civilization and setting off her new life.

In order to achieve the overall harmony of the picture and strengthen the effect of decorative style, the author also simplifies the treatment of light source and light and shade, such as weakening the projection and obvious shadow of large blocks in the picture, properly controlling the structure of object volume, focusing on replacing changing light with unchanged types, and expressing their essential characteristics by grasping the main characteristics of various objects. Especially in the characterization, although concise, it is very clear; It is not only simple, but also has vivid artistic effect; In the color relationship of the picture, it has reached the artistic realm of thrilling from a distance and infinite mystery from a close look.

The outstanding achievements of founding ceremony are as follows: the author integrates the national aesthetic concept into the western oil painting techniques, perfectly showing a grand and extraordinary historical scene with distinctive national style: magnificent colors create an auspicious and solemn holiday atmosphere; Pure and bright colors, full of rich ethnic customs; Concise and vivid words show the brand-new mental outlook of China people; The magnificent picture embodies national pride and great country style.

The success of founding ceremony is not only the author's own efforts. When a nation finally gains independence and freedom after a long and arduous struggle, it will inevitably produce a spiritual and cultural demand to express her heroic feelings for liberation and a bright future. It is against this background that founding ceremony came into being. Therefore, it can be said that it is the product of the times, and it will inevitably cause strong condemnation from the broad masses of the people. As Mao Zedong commented after seeing this painting in Zhongnanhai 1953: "China is a big country, and our paintings are all taken internationally. Others can't compare with us because we have a unique national form."