Modernity of art--Regarding to Chinese Contemporary Easel Painting

　　The development of art and modernization process has a lot of relevance. No matter it expanding on the traditional basis or deviating from the traditional art, the changes, breakthroughs and innovations are the production of social development and the spirit of that time. Social environment creates the way of thinking and expression, while cultural background influences on the development direction and the performance of arts and culture. How to display a Chinese version of the modernity of art relying on this time and cultural background becomes an issue, which is worth more deep exploration.

　　There is no doubt that the Chinese version of the modernity of art has more opportunities and challenges in the social process and prosperity in the contemporary culture. Regarding to easel paintings only, we have released the imprisonment of Chinese culture in a short span of three decades, which has last thousands of years, and the culture after the reflection thus become an arts camp in the world's most powerful branch. The excessive using of Humanism more or less, lets us find the breakthrough in the assumed space, but at the same time we are bogged down to find out the right direction and the real idea we want to express.

　　The incomplete aesthetic environment of public and the market operation produced variety of artistic performance, thus some unskilled artists can take the advantages and be ranked into the mainstream. Over reliance on the content, on the form of art and on symbols of the so-called contemporary art is all around in the simple aesthetic environment. Hence, this kind of art performance becomes the mainstream under the misleading of media, the miscarriage of justice of market value and habitual aesthetic. Actually, these artworks only stay on the surface in the statement of modern context, and lack of cultural meaning. They are only a “super imitation show” from western anti-art school after the formation of the inertia of thinking which led to a cultural phenomenon but has lost the most valuable quality of art, missing the essence of painting, missing the spirit of artistic and cultural origins of the works, and thus turns to be a piece of emperor's new suit.

　　What kind of artwork has true artistic value? What is the real artwork referring to the Chinese version of the modernity of art? From an artistic development point of view, it is difficult to develop an effective standard to quantitatively analyze them. However, essentially, on a greater or lesser extent we also are able to be detached from the substantive standards for value judgments. As visual plastic arts, does not painting need the nature of painting? Whether the future development of the arts must come from denying tradition? Whether forms and contents really decide the artistic and aesthetic value? Whether the performance of concept has no need for artistic support? Whether the theme will remain to be guided by the truth, good and beauty? As the main body of culture, should art have the continuity of its culture? Once these substantive issues have been answered, the standard for judging would appear clearly. For the Easel Painting, once the internal artistic expression and external social expression of spirit are effectively combined, the artwork would have more artistic and profound value. Art can not be separated from technical support, without which, it is meaningless for painting being existence!

　　Consideration of the technical level in the painting is not only to emphasize the means and skills, technology indeed should be a comprehensive, broad system. Inherent composition, color, structure, layout, technique of drawing, as well as the use of media and materials etc. are the technical performance, and spirituality, ideology, criticism, conception are also external performance of technique. Only the inherent technical performance has been focused, the external technical performance can have a much higher quality. Many artists often neglected this internal focus on the performance but only emphasizing the external expression, so that their works are more in a variety of symbols and conceptualization. The excessive performance, extreme ideology and concept focus on the external expression however missed the essence of painting. When the external expression has outmatched the essence of art, these paintings are meant to lose their life and soul.

　　"Let art returns to art"! Seemingly only a simple slogan, but in reality it clarifies the nature of art and make a valuable judgments for current artistic modernism. Through the intrinsic artistic expression and external expression of thought and philosophy, the combination of cultural meaning and the modern society, and new schema fully demonstrated the art of East and West to restore the real spirit of art; such works of art become the art with true value, make the real return of art. It will not be a copy from existed art language because of a lack of modern thinking, and also not a total denial due to the breakthrough or throwing away of the essence of art and culture, it should be built on the realization of innovation and reproduce judgments for the value of contemporary art.

　　——Sean Liu