| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立屏東師範學院 === 視覺藝術教育學系碩士班 === 93 === Abstract
Research on the Formation and Manifestation of Ink and Wash Paintings with Freehand Brushwork During the Southern Song Dynasty
After making a comprehensive survey of Chinese painting from silk paintings from the Warring States Period and Western Han Period to tomb chamber murals from the Tang Dynasty and chamber Dunhuang Grotto murals, we can see that after the manifestation of Chinese painting was basically formed, it started to pursue objective images and realities. Figure paintings from the Tang dynasty and flower-bird paintings from the Song dynasty were exquisite and luxuriant, especially in Huitsung's reign, the realism painting skill of the artists in the imperial art academy reached an unprecedented level of excellence. However, as Chinese painting skills peaked in the Tang and Song dynasties, another painting style called Freehand Brushwork which did not pursue natural representation was developing at the same time, during the Southern Song dynasty, a multitude of famous Freehand Brushwork painting artists came forth.
This research will discuss the factors that affected the formation of Freehand Brushwork during the Southern Song dynasty, the development of Freehand Brushwork and the simplification principles of Freehand Brushwork on the basis of such research methods as “Literature Analysis”, “Sociology of Art” and “Style and Shaping Analysis” etc. Besides which, it will also study the characteristics of Chinese ink and wash paintings using Freehand Brushwork from the angle of Gestalt Psycology, and the perceptual process in admiring paintings with Freehand Brushwork.
Findings of this research:
(1) When viewed from the angle of sociology, the factors that affected the formation of Freehand Brushwork include political background, religious thought, Classical Prose Movement, and the literati’s painting concepts etc. Besides which, what should not be neglected is the key man—Liang Kai's- influence, the natural law-- “Things will develop in the opposite direction when they become extreme” cannot be neglected.
1. Political and religious factors:
Since the founding emperor of the Song dynasty had lain great importance on the literati and neglected military affairs, thus the literati unprecedentedly prevailed during the Song dynasty. People became vacuous as a result of the prolonged unrest in the political situation, many artists turned to religion for consolation of spirit. Zen was the hottest religious sect; artists were influenced by the vacant thought of Zen which passes thought from heart to ear without leaving any literature when they communicated with monks, thus the Freehand Brushwork principle of “taking one as ten” and making it better with fewer lines.
2. Classical prose movement and the literati’s painting concepts
Rhythmical prose prevailed at the beginning of the Song dynasty, it mainly pursued luxuriant form but neglected content, so this style was criticized by intellectuals, who hoped to restore classical prose style. The intellectuals who promoted the classical prose movement also additionally discussed paintings to be engaged in politics and writing. Therefore, their pursuance of “simplification” also affected their discussion on painting, most of them advocated “pursuing no similarity in form”. Under the influence of this concept, painting styles such as “simplified form with reduced lines” and “get the meaning and neglect the form” were deemed as lofty and refined works, “Simplification”, which was one of goals pursued in the classical prose movement, was accepted by both the literati and artists, and this helped the rise of Freehand Brushwork.
3. Liang Kai’s modeling effect:
Liang Kai, an artist from the imperial art academy, had excellent skills in realistic painting and Freehand Brushwork with simplified lines. As he was an outstanding artist with free and easy characteristics, his unique painting style drew attention at that time, and many people started to imitate his painting style of Freehand Brushwork.
4. The natural law--“Things will develop in the opposite direction when they become extreme”.
When the realistic painting skill had been highly developed and predecessors’ achievements could not be exceeded, artists would look for a new way out and change the painting style. During the Song dynasty, landscape painting, flower-bird painting, animal painting and figure painting were high developed and they were absolutely lifelike and natural, some artists started to give up the pursuance of form and turned to lay stress on the content of the work. As a result, painting styles gradually developed into the style characterized by Freehand Brushwork. It is possible to say that the development and flourishing of paintings using Freehand Brushwork during the Song dynasty is the result of the natural law-- “Things will develop in the opposite direction when they become extreme” this cannot be neglected.
(2) After analysis of the development of Freehand Brushwork during the Song dynasty, we can see that the three factors “simplicity”, “speed” and “meaning” had not been formed within a short time, the achievements of paintings with Freehand Brushwork made by Liang Kai, Mu Hsi, and Yu Chien were created under predecessors’ knowledge and experience which had accumulated over a long period of time. Painting styles of the famous artists such as Chang Sengyao, Wu Taoztu, Wang Wei, Wang Mo, Li Lingsheng, Shi Ko and Li Kunglin before the Southern Song dynasty also had a great influence on the development of the Freehand Brushwork painting style during the Song dynasty, though these styles are not known as Freehand Brushwork. Liang Kai, Mu Hsi and Yu Chien promoted the maturing of Freehand Brushwork painting during the Song dynasty with their own creations on the basis of the predecessors’ knowledge and experience.
(3) In Freehand Brushwork painting, such elements as form, texture, hierarchy, colors and object are simplified, the picture contains fewer elements and can be seen clearly at a glance, but the artistic concept of the painting provides a limitless space for viewers to imagine.
(4) When analyzing Chinese ink and wash painting with Freehand Brushwork from the view point of “Gestalt Psycology”, we can find that people are congenitally competent in simplifying objects under the “law of simplification”. The simplified Freehand Brushwork painting does not have a complete profile; viewers can initiatively increase or decrease relations between stimuli of the painting according to their own experience under the Law of Closure to increase their features, in order to obtain a meaningful or sequacious perceptual experience. Therefore, viewers will not be blinded to the painting by its simplified object. Besides, the reappearance of the disappeared lines during curve closure is similar to the Gamma motion suggested by Anhai, in terms of human perception, this gives an effect of a glittering light at night, giving you a dynamic sense. Therefore, Freehand Brushwork painting may not seem as stable as collaborate-style painting, but it often provides people with a dynamic sense.
In addition to the research on the formation and manifestation of ink and wash paintings with Freehand Brushwork during the Southern Song dynasty, the author also found that it is the “brush strokes” that caused unfavorable comment to be leveled at Freehand Brushwork paintings during the Southern Song dynasty. The literati pursued “forming with simplified brush work”, however, this “simplification” was only used in the form, texture, hierarchy, colors and object of the painting, excluding the simplification of brush strokes. But theorists insisted on brush strokes, this is why Freehand Brushwork was criticized as “coarse and unclassical”, and was not accepted by the public at that time.
Freehand Brushwork paintings of Southern Song dynasty used fewer elements to express limitlessness, used simple materials, concise structure and single objects to express an artistic concept that incite people to fancy. It is simple in form, but it is rich in meaning with deep artistic concepts. In the tide of modern art with digitized and complicated materials and diversified manifestations, Freehand Brushwork painting with their open and quiet nature may be an artistic expression that will purify human souls. Freehand Brushwork painting is a treasure in Chinese ink and wash paintings.
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