WONG:
And finally, we examine one of the most unique, and most essential aspects of these competitions: They are based in the artistic style of Realism; rare for modern art, and even rarer in China.
STORY:
[Dai Bing, Competition Judge]:
This kind of work is totally realistic, and thats not so easy to find in China. It's not easy to express yourself this way, within China and the Communist Party doesn't allow many topics to be represented in a realistic way.
Yet these international competitions have seen hundreds of Chinese artists, from the Mainland and overseas, turn their talents towards creating works of realism.
They try to record reality with perfect accuracy, and let their subjects speak for themselves. If modern artists are supposed to have large egos, the opposite is true here: Creating artwork in a Realist style requires one above all to be a humble, honest observer waiting for some artistically meaningful aspect of the world to naturally reveal itself.
[Dai Bing, Competition Judge]:
This photo for example is an extremely good landscape. You can see it is complete, including the form of this arc, a great broad arc and the relative placement of the other elements. The way this light spills forth everything is very successful here.
But to find these hidden truths, an artist might spend an eternity putting paintbrush to canvas, or waiting for the perfect photographic moment.
[Zhuo Qiuchi, Hon. Mention Golden Harbor]:
I was very excited to be able to take this photo this kind of atmosphere is extremely rare to encounter and capture; it only appears in the couple of days before a typhoon arrives.
Many competitors spoke of the great efforts and rewards of this unique form of expression. From one of the youngest of the finalists, who submitted her first complete oil painting, on the theme of childhood
[Vivian Song, Hon. Mention for Purity]:
So what I wanted to express was the pure goodness and pure truth that children and the life around them is so simple. So I wanted to show that. And at the same time the use of the background and the coloring and all that had to reflect that type of pureness.
To competitors who had been painting for decades, drawing inspiration from such classic Chinese tales as that of the moon goddess Change. For many Chinese, these traditional stories are bound up so tightly within their culture, that that to portray the moon accurately is to make reference to its goddess.
[Kan Fu, Hon. Mention for Full Moon]:
In China this is called a legend. It is a beautiful story. Lots of artwork talks about Change.
And still others sought to capture the deeper meaning of their countrys political realities. Competitor Dong Xiqiang won a Bronze Award for his work Zhuang Yan, which portrayed an elderly Falun Gong practitioner preparing a banner for an event. He also submitted the work Tears of the Orphan, depicting a child orphaned by the ongoing persecution of that spiritual group.
[Dong Xiqiang, Bronze Winner for Zhuang Yan]:
For my work Tears of the Orphan, I planned it after watching some reports on the Epoch Times newspapers website, which really moved me, because I too am a father with children of my own.
The photos and paintings on display are united by something that seems a contradiction. They are works of realism completely truthful to the scenes that they portray, yet theyre filled with a sense of beauty and meaning, as though saying that the everyday reality around us is itself a work of art to be appreciated.
Its with this message that we leave the last two of NTDs series of 9 competitions celebrating traditional arts and culture.
This is Ryan Mitchell for NTD, New York.
Loading...
3:00
"Suffering In China," In Art And Lifeby NTDTV1,027 views
amazing pictures!!!!!
TheMightyGuri 2 years ago
No wonder some of the best painters nowadays are chinese, they`re much more humble than europeans & americans & also never got THAT brainwashed by modernisn & "contemporary" art.
Still a long road until we conquer oilpainting again.
trinitaterion 2 years ago
Thanks for posting this. I am a realist painter, and always enjoy being exposed to new artists.
BSproductions45 3 years ago