The Realistic Painting and Life Drawing by Liu Xiaodong—On-site Painting Beginning from Tunghai

• Main Authors: CHEN Yu Mei, 陳友梅
• Other Authors: 吳超然
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/tpt4dv

碩士 === 東海大學 === 美術學系 === 102 === The present study intends to examine contemporary Chinese artist Liu Xiaodong by exploring the “on-site” painting technique he has been using for more than a decade and by analyzing his painting style and the significance of the painting behavior in his field creation. The purpose of this study is to discuss why Liu insists on creating sketches on the spot warrants exploration. While Liu’s painting techniques he employed during his early years were referencing photographs and showcasing interior landscapes. Liu transited his style to outdoor sketching, which most of artists seldom apply now. The scope covering from Liu’s background and how he learned to paint, the time when he served as a guest lecturer in the Department of Fine Arts at Tunghai University, Taiwan, and his background as an artist during his early years and how the Liu sketching style was established subsequently. Specifically, the processes where Liu creates realistic on-site paintings, documentaries, photographs, acrylic on photo papers, and diaries were examined to identify the understanding elicited by these works and that the artist elicits, as well as the artistic attitudes communicated through these creative processes. Among his creations, Liu was more capable of engaging in meticulous conceptualization and balance when situated in China, where he was born and raised, and a neighboring island. That’s why we focused on art projects that conducted in China and Taiwan. The introduction and scope of this study were focused on the “Liu Xiaodong in Tunghai” project, which he created during the two-month stay at Tunghai University, Taiwan, in 2002 as a guest lecturer. In these works, he used the students at Tunghai University as his models to create on-site realistic images of the teaching interactions. Liu’s work “ Eighteen Lohan” in Jinmen Bunker Art Show in 2004. As the first artist who was permitted to observe Chinese and Taiwanese armies, Liu sketched 9 soldiers from China and Jinmen island (of Taiwan), respectively. In the “Three Gorges” project, Liu created the Three Georges: Displaced Population, of which the idea was initiated in 2002. In 2005, Liu painted Three Gorges: Newly Displaced Population and Warmbed No.1 & 2. In 2011, Liu returned to his hometown Jincheng, a town in Northeastern China; the trip inspired the “Hometown Boy” series. In 2013, Liu created the “Liu Xiaodong in Hotan” series during his stay in Xinjiang. Liu demonstrates his care for human life and quest for truths in life experience through brushes, with the most simple and original tool. In all of his art projects, the artist treaded on parts of the world conducting field research. During this process, he observed the people and the living environment reflected in real society from various cultures, and filmed documentaries simultaneously. True emotions and perceptions arising naturally from the bottom of his heart are what Liu frequently expresses and reveals in his works. By understanding Liu’s background – born and raised in an agricultural society- and how the agricultural culture influenced and transformed the modern Chinese society, we can see how Liu demonstrated the preciseness and exquisiteness in his works. Given the current status and spiritual environment in China, how to use more pluralistic and diverse realist art functions and formal expressions in Liu’s realist paintings is worth exploring. Employing Liu’s works as an example, we investigated the historical significance he has in the history of Chinese realistic painting. Furthermore, the progress and value of the modern elements in Liu’s paintings were analyzed.