Differences between Eastern and Western Painting

The differences between Eastern and Western paintings mainly lie in the two kinds of paintings in the basic techniques and methods of expression, as follows:

1, Eastern and Western cultural traditions, different modes of thinking, which leads to their respective paintings in the aesthetic concepts of the differences will inevitably occur. The basic thinking mode of Chinese culture is "the unity of man and heaven". The so-called "unity of heaven and man" means that the world is a harmonious unity of heaven, earth and man, and man is a part of nature. From this point out, the Chinese culture in the relationship between man and nature, man and society, especially emphasize conformity to nature, emphasizing that the individual's "small self" must be integrated into the national and even the universe's "big self". This cultural spirit is reflected in the concept of painting, that is, between man and nature, between spirit and matter, is the relationship between you and me, I have you; that the highest level of art is not to stand outside the objective to grasp the characteristics and laws, but as far as possible to integrate into the object within the object to understand the object, experience the object, so that the subject and the object into one, and ultimately to achieve the realm of the two things are not forgotten. Thus, Chinese painting has never aimed at reproducing nature and pleasing the eyes, but emphasized on the "intention", making the work a carrier of the painter's cultivation, personality and emotional theory. Therefore, Chinese painting has always favored the expression of the author's feelings, focusing on the subjective feelings, but not overly strong objective, the painter is often painted in the "like and unlike between", without constraints.

The thinking mode and philosophical tradition of Western culture, part of the body is based on the opposition between man and nature, that is, the concept of man and heaven are divided. In the West, the relationship between man and nature, either God's presence in nature, the supremacy of the power of religion, or man to harness nature, conquer nature. Although these two concepts are different, but they are heaven and man are opposed to each other, heaven and man are divided. From this conception, the ultimate goal of Western humanistic ideals is to recognize and conquer nature, so as to obtain happiness in life; Western natural science since Galileo's 400 years have been on an analytical path, always constantly dividing the objective material world into two. This spirit penetrates into the art of painting, which emphasizes the objective expression of real objects. Western painting has always applied science to painting, requiring painters to grasp nature in a purely objective way, i.e., what the painter paints must be consistent with what he sees.

2, Chinese painting, line is the basic modeling means, color is subordinate. And it never paints light and shade. Chinese painting, whether it depicts landscapes, birds, flowers and figures are inseparable from the use of line. Painters always rely on thick and thin lines to outline the shape, and then apply color. These colors are sometimes black, sometimes colorful, and they are often carefully differentiated into dry, wet, and thick, and these differences are usually not clearly emphasized. Chinese paintings are often meant to allow the viewer to appreciate the colorfulness of the world from the not-so-rich layers of color, to imagine the concavity and convexity of objects. This feeling does not come from visual intuition, but relies on the involvement of association and imagination.

The boundaries of objects in Western paintings are not distinguished by lines, but by shades of color, light and darkness, just like the objects we see with our eyes. Western painting uses linseed oil to mix various pigments, which are very colorful. Through the careful use of these colors, the painter can show the difference between light and darkness of the object, the volume, texture and spatial sense of the object, as well as the visual effect of the object under a certain light source. That is to say, Western painting always deliberately emphasizes the richness of color and structural differences. What it pursues is to create an intuitive visual effect in the multiple sets of relationships between cold and warm, thick and thin, deep and light, light and thick colors. As a whole, this aesthetic pursuit is more optically meaningful and richer in geometric spirit and rational thinking.