At the beginning of its establishment, the Department of Experimental Art opened up a case study of artists and works in China's contemporary art practice, especially focusing on the contemporary narrative of China symbols and the exploration of international context.
As for the use of China symbols, there are different opinions in the critics. Some people think that it caters to western cultural curiosity, while others just think that it is a manifestation of cultural self-confidence. We believe that everything depends on people, which is nothing more than cultivating the mind and nourishing the nature. China culture should be a part of human culture. As a rich resource, it is natural for anyone to use it in today's creation. What should be concerned is the quality of the new result rather than its origin.
In the past artistic creation practice of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, many famous international and domestic artists and their works have emerged, and there are also many cases of proper use of China cultural symbols. Exploratory research topics that have been carried out and are being carried out by the Department of Experimental Art include:
First, the research results of Chinese character modeling and writing art:
In 2003, Lu's Jiang Yiwen (two volumes) was published.
Second, the exploration and research of papermaking
Since 2004, Professor Hu Mingzhe of our department has led students to Sichuan bamboo and paper producing areas for many times to experience the essence of traditional papermaking, and accumulated rich experience through exploratory creation.
Third, the research results about the traditional architectural art in China:
In 2007, Li Jing (graduate student) wrote "Research on Official Color Painting in Qing Dynasty";
"Liuhe Gate in Old Town of Lijiang", a survey report of Bado (graduate student), with a total of six volumes.
Fourthly, the study of China people's modeling.
In 2008, Wang Yuyang (graduate student) investigated the report "Pursuing Face-Traditional Folk Portrait" in five volumes;
In 2009, Du Yan (a graduate student) made a five-volume survey report on "Human Form in China Traditional Plastic Arts";
Liu Gang (Postgraduate) Thesis "Research on Figure Painting in Ming and Qing Dynasties".
Verb (abbreviation of verb) Preliminary investigation and research results of gunpowder art in China;
In 2009, Ouyang Xuefeng (undergraduate) investigated the report "Fireworks Clothes" in five volumes.
6. Research on traditional farming culture in China.
In 2007 and 2006, undergraduates collectively visited agricultural tools in the countryside of Longxian County, Shaanxi Province.
In 2009, Chloe Wang (graduate student) inspected the report of Traditional Agricultural Tools in Western Henan.
These research results are a long-term resource storage, and some of them have been derived from specific concepts by teachers and students to generate works of art, such as Jing Li and Ouyang Xuefeng's graduation works "Convenience of Officials" and "Eternal Brilliant Moment".
Second, dyed red-a modern case study of traditional language conversion
As early as the brewing stage of experimental art specialty, a topic about China's artistic modernity, Dyeing Red —— A Modern Case Study of Traditional Language Transformation, has been launched in the Central Academy of Fine Arts.
"Dyeing red" refers to some art forms that were originally in a non-mainstream position in traditional culture. After the May 4th New Culture Movement in China, they were gradually adopted by the mainstream culture, experienced the ups and downs of "improvement" and "transformation" for nearly a hundred years, and experienced the changes of adapting to the social system and the culture of the times, thus marking the experience traces of cultural changes.
For example, during the deepening of the New Culture Movement, Li Dazhao, a famous revolutionary, participated in the innovative practice of using shadow play to publicize new ideas. 19 18 When he returned to Peking University to do library work, he returned to his hometown one year and wrote a shadow play "An Zhonggen Stabbed Ito Bowen" for the shadow puppet artist Sun, praising An Zhonggen, a righteous North Korean who was not afraid of violence and resisted imperialist aggression.
Of course, the modern transformation and transformation of traditional shadow play lasted for a long time, which once established some cases for the reality of the modern transformation of traditional artistic language. This kind of research is undoubtedly a very necessary boundary for today's and future China Art Tree.
Regarding this research project, the achievements of several graduate students led by Professor Lu are as follows:
In 2004, graduate student Liang Si's graduation thesis "Evolution of 20th Century Traditional New Year Pictures" was 5 1000 words;
In 2005, Wu Jian 'an, a graduate student in the direction of traditional language conversion, made a survey report. The first book, A Record of Searching for Shadows-The Changes of Beijing-Hebei-Gansu-Shaanxi Cinema, consists of seven volumes. Graduation thesis "Red Shadow's Drama Research" is 48,000 words;
In 2006, Han, a graduate student in the direction of traditional language conversion, made an investigation report on "Cutting the ribbon from a new beginning-the modern transformation of traditional paper-cutting in China", with a total of eight volumes; Graduation thesis "Research on New Paper-cutting" has 49,000 words;
In 2007, Zhang Yu, a graduate student in the direction of new media language, made a survey report on the duet in Northeast China, with a total of nine volumes.
The research results of these topics confirm that no matter whether individual cases show the success of transformation or not, the process they go through shows the spirit of experiment and the necessity of practical test in the construction of new culture. Regardless of the success or failure of the result, it is the cultural wealth left by our predecessors, and it will certainly become a useful supply for our new start today.
Third, folk and local-listen to the warning of art mother
Traditional folk culture is not a part floating in the mainstream of culture, it is deeply buried and there are many things to be discovered. Especially in today's social transformation and cultural diversification, it is necessary for us to pay attention to it, not only to re-understand the true face of China culture, but also to pay attention to the constant warning of "mother art" for cultural successors who want to immerse themselves in the contemporary era.
China local folk's artistic creation is for people's own spiritual utilitarian purpose, and they use their artistic behavior to adjust the balance between the ideal world and reality. There are no professional "artists" and pure "artworks" among the people. Folk art ignores the eternity of artistic "goods" and embodies a realm beyond the material world. Civilized society concentrates art in museums and galleries, and more places outside museums naturally become barren places of art or cultural deserts. Nowadays, the professional label of artists will inevitably disturb the true nature of artistic creation as a "spiritual product" from time to time, and also lead to more and more "artistic unemployed" in the world.
Therefore, paying attention to the position of folk art in experimental art teaching in China is not because of its unique external form, but because many of it show the original quality of art, which will be a good reminder for us to rebuild a new culture.
With regard to the research and study of folk art, the Department of Experimental Art clearly has courses such as "Investigation of Folk Culture" and "Transformation of Traditional Language" in the syllabus, and encourages graduation thesis to involve topics of folk art. The exploratory research topics that have been carried out and are being carried out are:
In 2004 (former), Lu Zhongsheng's Farewell to Tradition (1-4) was published by Life, Reading and New Knowledge Sanlian Bookstore; Lu published four volumes of Baby Straps and Colored Clothes published by Guangxi Fine Arts Publishing House.
In 2006 and 2005, a delegation went to hua county, Dali and other places in Shaanxi Province for a 30-day "study tour of the art of eating-folk flower buns".
In 2007 and 2006, he went to Xi and hua county in Shaanxi Province as a famous folk shadow play artist, and recorded and studied the shadow play powder on Shaanxi East Road. These achievements have been collected into 20 volumes.
In 2008 and 2007, I went to Xi 'an, Shaanxi Province with a delegation, and recorded and studied Zhang Weizang's shadow play box in Qing Dynasty. The results have been included in the album "Zhang Weizang's Shadow Play on Shaanxi East Road in Qing Dynasty".
In 2009, Li Hongjun (graduate student) wrote "Research on Shaanxi Folk Embroidery Skills".
It is worth mentioning that the emergence of the experimental art department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts is actually a rational turn to the original "folk art department", so there are deep reserves and successful cases of innovation. For example, Lu's paper-cut "Little Red Man" is popular all over the world. Young teacher An was born out of the ancient shadow play art and belongs to cowhide carving. Young teachers were inspired by folk pasta art, and so on.
The emphasis on "originality" in the course of "Original Modeling" of the department's professional foundation is precisely to reduce the distance between ancient traditional art and modern and contemporary art to zero. Therefore, students can't help showing the infection of traditional folk art spirit in their homework. For example, Chloe Wang's hand-woven toilet paper, and Yuan Qiu's A Man's Story, an overseas student, etc.
Fourth, starting from life-the standpoint of paying attention to the public aesthetic and artistic publicity.
In the post-modernism period, the real significance of the change of artistic style and concept lies in the restoration of artists' sense of social responsibility. Today, artists not only use humanized artistic language to express their closeness to nature and concern for social life, but also try their best to eliminate the distance between art and the public.
Therefore, it is necessary for modern art to meet the cultural demands of the public. The efforts to popularize modern art embodied in the dialogue between artists, artistic activities or works of art and the public are strengthened by this process and continue in the whole field of aesthetic culture.
The process of modern art and public acceptance has begun to actively turn to two-way dynamic communication. The barriers between art and daily life, artists and the general public, artistic process and cultural reality have been pushed down; The feasibility of "art for art's sake" is generally questioned in the field of modern aesthetic culture. The deep involvement of modern art in life makes it work hand in hand with the public without hesitation, * * * face the complex reality and * * * communicate with each other's complex emotions, which has become a spiritual field that people generally need in the process of modern culture.
From the international cultural background, the efforts to popularize art have lasted for more than half a century. After modern art has completed the transformation from "style (formalism)" to "concept (expressionism)", the achievements made by this effort can be described as a drop in the bucket.
The Department of Experimental Art fully understands the existing facts about the publicity of modern and contemporary art in China and the world, and determines its own way to face this problem. This is a relay course in undergraduate teaching since 2006: the aesthetic investigation of China's popular families-exploring and studying the topic of popular aesthetics from the perspective of sociology and working methods. During the summer vacation, each undergraduate visited 10 families through interviews, records, collection, etc. Finally, the relevant data were sorted out, analyzed and summarized in class, made into charts and filed, and collectively made this year's survey report. This work plan will last for at least ten years. First of all, this job is to quit the "art circle" immediately after students enter the professional department, and experience the transcendence of art from the perspective of sociology; In addition, we should get involved in the topic of popular aesthetics and conduct rational analysis and research, so as to obtain the context of dialogue with the public.
In the summer vacation of 2006, after completing the homework of "Popular Family Aesthetic Survey", the sophomores collectively completed the large-scale installation Bo Gu for Home Use, and won the Shanghai Biennale or the Silver Award that year. From a discipline that emphasizes sociological significance to artistic creation, we regard it as a successful challenge of creative teaching.
In the winter of 2006, based on the creative idea from life and the exploration of the public direction of art, the Department of Experimental Art hosted the "First College Experimental Art Literature Exhibition" with the theme of "from life". In this exhibition, Chen Shaofeng, a graduate student, attracted the attention of the society with his two sets of oil painting boxes. Instead of communicating with the object by one-way sketching, he gave a set of painting boxes to the farmers to settle down.
In the winter of 2008, the Department of Experimental Art planned a special exhibition "Super Food" with the theme of food to be exhibited in Wangjing Store of Huatang Shopping Mall, and made an interesting discussion on the relationship between art exhibition and mass consumption. Replacing the public commercial space with the experimental exhibition space of contemporary art, on the one hand, creates an opportunity for people who come to the mall to meet art unexpectedly, on the other hand, explores the possibility of communication between experimental works of art and the general public. The exhibition lasted for one and a half months and caused great social repercussions.
In this direction, the department of experimental art tries to have a "dialogue" with the public in daily life, and has achieved good results-aiming at the * * * knowledge reached by both parties in the same cultural and living environment-art and artists are no longer candlesticks in the dark.
This article is written by Quan Zi, and the work of consulting literature is undertaken by the Experimental Art Reference Room.
The difference between "experiment" and "experiment" is that the experiment may be a tentative behavior without any experience, and the experiment is more inclined to verify a rational conclusion through its behavior.
Experiment is the beginning of a lot of practice. If it means "avant-garde" and "pioneer", he will never be a foolhardy and reckless person, but more like a pioneer who is willing to contribute to truth and justice. The adventure and unknown results of the experimental process can not affect the beliefs and will of the experimenters, because they have seen the inevitable future.
Experimental space originally exists in social life related to culture, science and art, which is the consistent way of human cognitive accumulation and the foundation of continuous creation of human material culture and spiritual culture. It can be a building with a full set of precision instruments, which is specially studied by authoritative experts and scholars; It can even be opened up among thousands of households in towns and villages without special rooms, equipment and funds; It can also be established in the college, which will inevitably take on its own academic color and add vitality and passion to the teaching structure of the college. It could be a book. Every volume, every episode, every article, every paragraph and even every section, their respective attributes, energy and the combination of literary and artistic calligraphy are bound to construct a new plot. ...
Come on in! This is an era full of experiments, a community that advocates "the movement of constant innovation and constant innovation (Lu Xun's words)", a place that connects historical and cultural traditions and lives for contemporary people, and a world that shows the wisdom and creativity of young people-spring is coming.
—— Quoted from A History published by Lu in Jiangsu Fine Arts Publishing House in 2007.