The Image of Su Tianci Oil Painting Language

Abstract. Su Tianci is a painter who develops a school of his own in the artistic thought and practice in the Chinese painting in the twentieth century and he has the extensive and profound influence. His oil painting language replaces the objective sketch with writing the impression and he uses the image description which is not representational or abstract to express the subjective emotion to blend the individual emotion and eastern charm as one body and achieve the perfection. It has reference and enlightenment significance on how to inherit the Chinese traditional culture spirit and the oriental aesthetic atmosphere to explore the national character of oil language through studying the language of art of Su Tianci .

Key words: Su Tianci, The language of oil painting, Intentionality.

"Every step forward for the development of history, is often accompanied by the backward step to explore the origin."①The development of art is to find a way out in this kind of "to explore the origin" constantly. For Su Tianci, exploring the origin is not only making an in-depth study of western painting from the contemporary to the classical painting, but also the spirit connotation of the Chinese culture which infuses Su Tianci’s heart deeply. "The specific art is always the specific universal consciousness constructs the cultural psychological structure conscious or unconscious externalization." ②The different culture determines the different forms of art. For Su Tianci, this kind of culture is derived from the kernel spirit of Chinese traditional culture and aesthetic scale-image. As it is, Su Tianci replaces the objective sketch with writing the impression and uses the image description which is not representational or abstract to express the subjective emotion. He uses the mind to reflect the image to show the mutual blend of the subjective life emotional appeal and the objective natural sights and it has formed the pure and fresh and meaningful aesthetic artistic conception." ③As Su Tianci puts that "I seek the combination of form and line and the combination of form and god to put my feelings in the paintings as far as possible to draw a rhythm of life."

1. Pursuing the expression of the artistic conception

The artistic conception is an important category of Chinese traditional aesthetic thought and it is the depiction of the works through the space and time condition in the traditional painting works to embody the artistic realm. Mr Zong Baihua proposes in the "Walking Aesthetics" that the sentiment and scene are blended mutually in an artistic performance, so the deepest love is sent out, the affection is deeper and deeper, at the same time it is penetrated into the deepest scene, the scene is more and more glittering and translucent, the scene is full of affection, the affection is full of the scene, so a unique universe and a new image emerge. It increases the rich imagination for human and opens up a new territory for the world... this is his so-called artistic conception.

The artistic conception of Su Tianci works is generated from intermixing of the actual situation. The virtuality represents a state of the "heart" and it is a subjective description of scenery. The fact is just an artist "to see a reflection of the deepest heart of himself" (Zong Baihua) and it is a foreign object. The "YouHuang near the Water" is the representative work of the literati painting, there is the green and tender wood swaying with the wind; the distance is like a water mist haunting wonderland. The full and delightful line, concise, lively and rich change color and the virtuality and fact processing which reach the acme of perfection give the painting the poetic charm of Chinese culture. "Cold Wood Momo" is the late work of Su Tianci, he uses the concise color and color difference to get the aesthetic psychology that "the simplicity and the world can not battle with it in the beauty." Few or even a single color is not the natural and real reflection, it is the show of the literati character of Su Tianci. The scene of "withered rattan, aged tree, dusk crow" gives a person a kind of quiet and comfortable feeling. The interest of the east and the west actual feelings deduce the nature which is full of the life emotional appeal.

"The painting can't show the fact without the virtuality, it can not have the virtuality without the fact, it can not become the density without the spacing and it has not the spacing without the density. The virtuality and the fact are the interpromoting relations and the spacing and the density are used mutually, so the painting is finished. "④ The traditional Chinese painting pays attention to the constrast application of the virtuality, the fact, the spacing and the density and it is shown in the works of Su Tianci incisively and vividly. The Dongting Xishan uses the method of it to describe the early spring scene of Xishan Mountain. The broad river and mountains reflect the high-degree generality in this painting. The pale blue hue presents the hazy feeling. The color of the horsehead walls and trees is bright, the new yellow, pale green and dark green embellish the early spring season, sometimes the branches are vigorous, sometimes the branches are soft and they shuttle between the bright color piece. These lines not only form the contrast of the virtuality, the fact, the spacing and the density and the rich images, but also it gives the painting a life vigor. The "Early Spring" is the winning work of Su Tianci in the seventh national arts exhibition, the painting depicts the quiet and beautiful scenery of Jiangnan Watertown in the memory. The calm lake accounts for nearly two-thirds of the proportion to highlight the characteristics of water. The branches on the left side of the lake shore stretch into the islet on the right side of the lake shore. The rich color and a large area of the lake form the harmony and the islet which is faintly visible in the lake and is seemingly connected with the day adds the leisurely artistic conception for the painting. It forms a colorful and ethereal remembrance.

In the early 1940s, Su Tianci was inspired by Lin Fengmian and he seeks a Chinese and western road combination. In a long search, Su Tianci chooses the line in the copper of Shang and Zhou, the mural of the Han, the modelling of figure of Buddha and western Botticelli, Leonardo and Da Vinci to seek breakthrough, in the end he found the line attribution in the mural of the Han Dynasty. This line is not fully attached to the objective entity, but it can let a person feel a kind of rhythmic tremor, convey the clever vitality and reflect the main body of the emotional expression. So it has independent sense of beauty. Since then, Su Tianci started a series of attempt. "Tina" uses the powerful, concise and lively line and outlines the hair and facial contour and it sweeps the line constrast of the piece and the line of the blue color and foils the face which is full of youthful vitality. The "New Green" and the "Autumn Willow” are the late works of Su Tianci. Compared with the painting style of previous period, this period has greater detaching the nature attribute and the "ink painting" in his works is epic. He uses the liquidity characteristics of oil painting, joins a variety of media to make the painting have the flowing effect and it is similar to the accidental effect of water ink. The flowing color can become the theme of the picture, then the pen that seems casual drops for the painting. The spirit of literati paintings which give priority to the "grace" is shown in the writing. The language of the landscape painting "Snow Charm" and "Not-frozen Stream" is more concise, a few pen has the image expression and have a good taste of Liang Kai. His student Shen Hanggong said, "Su Tianci uses the abstract point, line and plane combination to do the imagery processing on the natural scenery. The trees in the painting is not so much a part of landscape as a symbol in the schema. Because of the factors of the shape, color, direction, arrangement and strength of the calligraphy of these symbols present the variety and change of the scheme, it has the emotional performance."

Su Tianci creates the rigorous and natural artistic conception by his unique painting language.

As Wu Weishan said: "What he reveals is the correspondence of art form and art soul form and it is close to the pure spirit and pure form. He is beyond the imagination, beyond himself and gets the perfection from the poetic charm in the eyes to the mind images to the assimilation of the spirit and form. "

References

[1] Zong Baihua. Walking Aesthetics[M]. Shanghai: Shanghai People's Publishing House. 1982

[2] Feng Xiao. The cultural spirit of Chinese and western art[M]. Shanghai: Shanghai Calligraphy and Painting Publishing House.1983

[3] Gong Yunbiao. Su Tianci: the colorful and empty spirit - Shanghai DuoYunXuan oil painting is colorful[N]. The Yangtze Evening Post, 2012-12-9 (A35)

[4] Pan Tianshou. The talking essays in Tingtian Pavilion[M]. Shanghai: The People's Fine Arts Publishing House, 1980