The paper "Reflections on the Combination of Image Art and Shelf Art" and its related contents.

The influence of public images and new media art on easel art

In the traditional oil painting creation, the image of the picture is mainly obtained by sketching the real life. It is based on this principle that traditional oil painting teaching has formed a complete teaching system. After the invention of the camera, although many artists will also use new technological achievements, that is, taking pictures instead of sketching, the creative method of "from life to art" has never been fundamentally shaken. For example, during the "Cultural Revolution", newspapers and periodicals often emphasized that photos were only an auxiliary means for artists to experience life. If artists don't experience life and rely entirely on photos to create, they will go astray by reversing the relationship between source and stream. Many people must remember this clearly.

However, the above-mentioned creative principles are being severely challenged. In recent years, contemporary easel art, especially contemporary oil painting, has proved that with the great change of cultural background and the great influence of foreign culture and new media art, a new creative method has emerged. Among many young and middle-aged artists, some people rely more on popular images and symbols made by modern media to get the artistic image in the picture, while others use the intersection of art, photography and computer to get the image in the picture. It can be considered that their art is not only an image, but also a direct reflection of the current living environment. It seems that in the face of the new changes of the times, some young and middle-aged oil painting artists have established brand-new image rhetoric when giving new meaning to oil painting. For example, Wang Guangyi's masterpiece "The Great Criticism" uses the headlines of the Cultural Revolution and mass goods to mock the large-scale invasion of the weak culture by the strong culture. Zhang Xiaogang's famous work "Big Family" used family photos which prevailed in China in 1950s and 1960s, and subtly involved the cruel obliteration of public personality by the ultra-left culture. However, some "younger generation" painters who appeared in the contemporary art world in the middle and late 1990s did not directly misappropriate the popular images of Rainbow Guangyi and Zhang Xiaogang, but created their works according to the production methods of popular images. From the perspective of art history, the former is more influenced by American "Pop Art" and the latter is more influenced by German artist richter.

The so-called "post-generation" refers to people born around 1970, and their world outlook is basically formed in the process of reform and opening up. They grew up in an era of steady and rapid economic growth. They have never been baptized by the Cultural Revolution, suffered from going to the countryside or pursued lofty ideals. They only have deep feelings about contemporary urban consumption culture, electronic network culture, modern media culture and western foreign culture. Therefore, their artistic concerns and expressions are obviously different from those of the previous generation of contemporary artists in China. In dealing with the subject matter, they oppose the traditional mode of "grand narrative" and express their value ideals, spiritual pursuits and humanistic care more from the perspective of expressing their personal survival experience. For them, the individual is just a link in a long chain of existence. If you leave such a concrete, real and vivid link, you will often be too big to pursue some irrelevant grand ideals. Undoubtedly, this is fundamentally different from the way that artists of Wang Guangyi and Zhang Xiaogang pay more attention to using public image symbols to think about major social issues. For example, in the "Image of Image-2003 China Contemporary Oil Painting Invitational Exhibition" hosted by Shenzhen Art Museum, many artists skillfully involved the common spiritual problems of the "later generation" by describing the living conditions of the current youth. Through the pictures, we can feel that facing the reality, they are either full of confused, sad and helpless feelings; Or be shrouded in fear and decadent emotions; Or present a self-splitting adolescent state; Or there is no ideal or trouble at all, only the pursuit of instant pleasure and the publicity of personality.

In terms of artistic treatment methods, some later artists started with "virtuality" and created a special atmosphere, which not only enabled them to fully highlight their thoughts in their respective subjective frameworks, but also cut into the essence of reality, and also made the so-called "post-production" technique appear in the painting process of later artists and even become an indispensable step. Originally, "post-production" is the post-work that people who are engaged in photography, video recording and computer image processing must do after obtaining first-hand information. But now this practice has been widely adopted by some "younger generation" artists. Their specific method is: often shoot surreal scenes, and then put them into the computer for technical processing. Their works are the reproduction of computer "products". It is precisely because the "later generation" artists basically do not directly sketch the "copy" in life, but accept the influence of new media art, therefore, the modeling vocabulary, expression techniques and organization methods in their works also show a new trend. As far as the picture combination is concerned, the "younger generation" artists prefer to create works with popular effect, comedy, absurdity and half dreams and half awakens by means of free association games. Moreover, in photography, it is more to borrow large close-ups and medium foreground shots. As far as the modeling and expression of pictures are concerned, the "later generation" artists like to freely combine different artistic traditions such as Dada art, surreal art and pop art with different types of pop culture such as comics, advertisements, photography and videos. As a result, they also created their own different artistic styles with distinctive characteristics of the times. According to traditional standards, people may not like their works, but when we analyze their works in a specific cultural background, we will feel that this change has historical inevitability and no one can stop it. We even think that the reasonable reference to foreign culture, popular culture and various new art styles, including performance art, installation art and new media art, is the cultural strategy adopted by the "later generation" artists in the face of the pressure of the new situation. This also gives a brand-new development space for oil painting, a traditional medium. There is no need for people to blame them.

Here comes a question, that is, since "later generations" artists are so keen on learning new artistic styles, why not engage in the creation of new artistic styles? Why do they make oil paintings neither fish nor fowl? As far as we know, an oil painter raised a similar question at a national academic seminar. In this regard, we want to answer: First, the "post-generation" artists are not only professionally educated, but also obsessed with oil painting, a traditional art medium. In their minds, oil painting on the shelf is still an effective way to observe nature and know themselves. Because they pay attention to expressing individual experience and resist the phenomenon of mechanical reproduction, they cherish the personalized and manual characteristics of oil painting; Second, there is no distinction between good and bad media. As long as the unique ideas and survival experience are integrated into the creation, oil painting still occupies an important position in the pattern of contemporary art. For example, in London and Berlin, oil painting is still a common and important medium in contemporary art, and artists such as glenn brown and Leon golub, who are very popular today, have always used oil painting as the main expression tool. But this does not affect their academic status at all; Thirdly, in the international contemporary art pattern, China contemporary oil painters have considerable advantages. A person who lacks both image background and painting professional knowledge does not need to give up his advantages in order to catch up with the new international art fashion; Fourthly, the works of the "later generation" artists obviously have the visual characteristics of popular culture, which cannot explain the degradation of oil painting. On the contrary, the form they create is not only a hint and norm to the current cultural environment, but also a sign that their art tends to mature. (Simple English)

The oil painting art created by contemporary oil painting artists in China once again shows us the great power of ideological value. It is in the repeated encounters with the basic problems of China people's existence that their works form a special cultural symbol system, which further involves the eternal question about the meaning of life, which is undoubtedly gratifying. Of course, the embezzlement of public image is not limited to the contemporary oil paintings on the shelves. In fact, we can also see this phenomenon in other contemporary works of art on the bookshelf. For example, Huang, a Guangdong artist, in contemporary ink and wash creation, on the one hand, misappropriates and juxtaposes public images, on the other hand, borrows advertisements, computers and cartoons, resulting in a very ingenious cultural theme about "new mankind".