1993 APT1 Conference : Identity, tradition and change

living Chinese a rtis ts , the re a re virtually none who could be said to p re se rv e a pu rity of a rtis tic 'exp ression '; th a t is, who have not absorbed something of w estern a r tis tic thought form or technique. Of course there are many a rtis ts who begin by s tr ic tly adhering to w este rn a rtis tic standards or norms and then experience 'en lig h tenm en t' and turn to ink painting . They then re g re t the ir previous devotion to w este rn a r t and th e ir lack of in te re s t in Chinese a rt and s ta r t to oppose those who wish to learn from th e West. If we look a t th e cu rren t situa tion in China today, the melding or assim ila tion of eas te rn and w estern a r t rep resen ts a process of continuation and developm en t or opening-up which is a t once affirmed and negated. It may be likened to th e melding of a block or red colour and a block of blue colour - the re a re many tona l va ria tions within th e colour field, which like th e concept of 'E a s t m ee ts West' covers a very broad a rea . In the fu tu re , th e process of assimilation will continue giving Chinese a r tis ts and th e ir audiences a g re a te r understanding of western a r t and an ab ility to borrow freely. Chineseness will be more strongly expressed, no m a tte r w he ther th e a r t is ink painting with a Chinese form and charac te r, or oil painting and o the r a r t works which adopt a Western form. These appearance of 'n a tion a l ch a rac te ris tic s' fu rther emphasises th a t the assim ilation of w estern a rt amounts to more than the simple adoption of w estern a r t m a te ria ls and forms to dep ict China's ancient civilisation, ra th e r it con s titu te s an expression of a r tis tic consciousness and the process of melding th e cu ltu re and history of a people with concepts Western modernism. The p roduc t will be a modern Chinese cu ltu re th a t has emerged form the womb of trad itiona l Chinese cu ltu re , bu t which can also be compared with and looked a t in the con tex t of w estern cu ltu re . The mode of expression will be recognisably Chinese in order to bring ou t and acknowledge its special or unique charac te ris tics. Despite th e th re a ts and traum a th a t Chinese ink painting has experienced throughou t th e tw e n tie th cen tu ry it has, surprisingly, managed to p reserve its individual ch a rac te r. (When talk ing about Chinese painting I am re fe rring to th a t which uses brush, ink and xuan paper or silk as the primary media to express th e individual's relationsh ip to the na tu ra l world and the cosmos) Con trary to many people's expec ta tion th a t Chinese painting would becom e v irtua lly ex tin c t by th e end of the century , not only has this not happened, r a th e r th e re has been a rev iva l of in te re st. A t p resen t the most devoted studen ts of Chinese ink painting a re children and re tire e s . They proceed with g re a t conviction in th e hope th a t one day they will become g rea t a rtists. Chinese painting is becom ing so popular amongst ' t h e masses' th a t it looks s e t to rival taijiquan (shadow boxing) as a mass movement. But th e core sp irit or consciousness has been eroded leaving only th e form, which anyone can tak e on and m aster. The loss of trad ition a l consciousness in Chinese painting may also be a ttrib u te d in p a r t to a r tis ts such as those of the 'N ew L ite ra ti Painting' school, which em erged in th e la te 1980s in response to the influx of western influenced Chinese a rt. Whereas