Traditional Chinese Plastic Arts and Modern Design

-- Peng Mei (Graduate School of Design, Southern Yangtze University)

Before the birth of the script, human beings began to use graphic symbols to express their feelings. The pottery patterns of the Neolithic Age and the rock carvings carved on the cliffs all recorded the human understanding and understanding of the natural world, and they Inner hope and expectation. These figures have evolved over time, changes in history, and the continuous evolution of science and technology, materials and crafts, as well as the continuous extension and evolution of foreign cultures, which have formed a unique Chinese plastic art system. This plastic art system embodies the wisdom of the Chinese nation for thousands of years, and also inherits the unique artistic spirit of the Chinese nation.
Today, we are in a highly modernized, information-based society. The constant emergence of new materials and new technologies has left us with a dizzying array of new ideas, new ideas, and a variety of foreign art trends. In this situation, we face the question of how to understand the relationship between traditional plastic art and modern design, that is, the traditional plastic art in our modern design. The question of where to go. It is obviously not desirable to completely deviate from the tradition. Pure imitation and simple embezzlement of western modern art will cause our art to lose its national identity; while it is necessary and inevitable for traditional inheritance, the creation of any new things is based on On the basis of tradition, China’s modern design art must embark on its own path. It must be based on China’s traditional foundation. The road to success of some famous designers in Hong Kong fully illustrates this point. However, inheritance does not mean rigid feelings. The history of civilization of thousands of years has left us with a treasure trove of artistic treasures. However, we are obsessed with being indulged in traditional traditions and are simply pursuing the "occupationism" in our designs. "Without the injection of fresh blood, it will lead to the stagnation of the development of traditional ethnic art. Ultimately, it will only leave a large number of antique copies of our time without design."
The inheritance of tradition is inevitable, and how do we inherit it? This first requires us to make a deeper consideration of traditional Chinese plastic arts.

From the history of “shape”, we will discover that from the primitive society’s graphics and symbols all the way to the late-stage feudal society, there are always some constant themes, and their manifestations are their modeling methods. However, with the change of each historical dynasty, it always adapts to the local materials and crafts, artistic skills and social trends at that time, and often has distinctive characteristics of the times and regions.
For example, the image of the most representative dragon in traditional graphics can be said to be different from the DPRK and the DPRK. It has changed from generation to generation. The dragon's embryonic form appeared as early as in the Neolithic Age. After experiencing the formation stage before the Shang Dynasty, the Shang Dynasty had basically established its shape: the big head, the big mouth, the long body, the claws, and the first-born twin horn. The period of time is the beginning of the period of bronze ware. The styling of the dragon is also adapted to the decorative style of the bronze ware at that time. It is mostly patterned sideways, single-angle, and single-claw. The beauty of the pattern and the structural features of the pattern in this period make Dragon's ever-changing and gorgeous style has been brought to an end. In the Han and Wei period, the shape of the dragon developed to an important stage. The regime in the Han Dynasty was consolidated, the state was strong, and the rulers claimed to be the dragon's son, which enabled the dragon to show a new mental outlook. The dragon was strong in this period, or Mercedes-Benz, or soaring, realistic style with moderate exaggeration, both form and spirit, romantic and free and easy, these features are not only reflected in the rough style brick portrait, in the beautifully painted Western Han Dynasty can also be clearly seen on the painting. In the Tang dynasty, the country was unified, the economy was developed, exchanges with foreign countries increased, and Buddhism prevailed. These all enabled the dragon's image to be enriched and developed. Tang Long was plump, full-bodied, with dorsal fins, plastrons, claws, and elbow hairs. All organs and organs such as crickets and crickets are fully prepared and are very rich. After the Song Dynasty, as the emperor who was the “Real Emperor of the Dragon” issued a strict ordinance restricting the use of dragons, he pushed the dragon to a supreme position, further standardizing and fixing the image of the dragon, although this standardization of the dragon pattern became more uniform. It is perfect, but it has lost the majestic momentum and vision of the Han-Wei period. The dragon's dragons in the Yuan Dynasty have changed from the Song Dynasty. They are physically and mentally strong, with long necks and long sleeves, freely flowing postures, and lively images. They are the most exotic dragons after the Tang and Song dynasties. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, China's feudal society began to decline. The artistic style became more and more trifling, and the dragon symbolizing the kingship became dignified and gradually became old.
Not only the dragon's changes, but also other representative traditional Chinese figures, such as phoenix, moire, fish, vortex, etc., we can all explore the development and evolution of its manifestations in various historical periods. This "shape" extension is the inheritance and continuation of the original motif, and it is also the derivative and expansion of its external form.
In addition, we can also see that the convergence of foreign and local cultures is also the source of the birth of artistic forms. The Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang have a variety of colorful and colorful scroll patterns (also known as “Tangcao”). The period was created on the basis of the Western grassland introduced into China's honeysuckle; and the most typical pattern of the Tang Dynasty is based on the lotus of our country. It combines the peony and the sea pomegranate introduced by Persia. Patterns of the characteristics, and gradually formed a very Chinese style of ethnic patterns. In addition, the grape pattern, the pattern of the lotus flower, and the lion pattern were patterns that were introduced into China from the area of ​​Central Asia. However, these patterns were not copied from the foreign art, but were integrated with Chinese and foreign cultures and gradually became the traditional Chinese plastic art. Part.

The reason why the extensions of "Italian" people have repeatedly depicted a figure in the past is not only because of its aesthetic appearance, but also behind these graphic symbols we can see, there are often deep symbolic meanings and graphic symbols. It is only the external way in which these intrinsic meanings are expressed. It is "the externalization of ideas." Most of these meanings originated from natural worship and religious worship, which led to the auspicious symbolism of "life reproduction, prosperity, recreation, and disaster relief." It is precisely because of people's longing for and hope for a better life. It is precisely because people The persistent pursuit of this kind of "idea" enabled the "form" to be handed down from generation to generation, and led to the development of many left-wing branches. It can be said that the historical extension of "idea" spawned a historical derivative of "shape." For example, the legend of "Urumu in the midst of Japan," and "The Mysterious Bird of the Heavens, descending from the commerce," the people's worship of the yang bird's totem made the traditional bird pattern of China have the historical evolution of the yang bird--Suzaku--the phoenix; The "fish-shaped ornamentation" of the "Yin-Yang" motif in the Taiji diagram has its different manifestations in the decoration of the dynasties.
From the historical extension and evolution of this “shape” and “meaning” of the graphical symbol, we can see that the evolution of “form” in each historical period is not a complete negation of its original “motif”, but rather The new aesthetic concept gives it a new form, so that these "motifs" are continuously enriched and expanded.

Although "God" inherits the fact that the changes of "Form" in each period are often quite different from the previous period, we can still feel the ethos that is unique to these various forms, whether it is infancy or not. Birds and frogs, sturdy enamels on bronze wares, or the phoenix patterns on the lacquerware of the Han dynasty, after a long time of panning, still engender an astonishing vitality that touches our modern people. . The inheritance of the charm of this charm comes from the Chinese traditional concept of styling, that is, the unique philosophical concept and aesthetic consciousness of the Chinese nation.
Starting from Plato, Western culture has always been about the subject and the guest. Therefore, the prominent feature of Western aesthetics is "being individual as the beauty," emphasizing the image, vividness and novelty. This is different from Westerners' aesthetic taste. The Chinese traditional aesthetics emphasizes more on the "integral consciousness" of the subject and the guest. They believe that everything is a harmonious unity and all follow the same essential laws. Therefore, Chinese ancient artists have always been committed to the creation of "being as a whole." Think of heaven, earth, people, art, and morality as a dynamic organic whole, giving human emotions to the forms of objects, borrowing things and expressing emotions, “taking shape and expressing meaning” and “having both form and spirit”.
Under the view of this "world-man and unity" whole world outlook and the aesthetic concept of "me and me", China's plastic art manifestation does not emphasize "realism" and "transmitting the word of God," and does not emphasize "reproducing" and stressing " "Performance" pays attention to the momentum of the performance of the overall model, rather than a complete picture of the objective object. The styling of the dragon is a typical representative. This literary image that does not exist in the real world, regardless of dynasty, whether it is sturdy, graceful, or mighty, is full of life. The phoenix lacquer on the lacquerware of the Han dynasty even took off the original shape of the performance object, and only extracted some styling elements embodying the characteristics of the phoenix bird to make changes and combinations, making the pattern resemble a phoenix like cloud, comfortable scroll, emphasizing a romantic and elegant temperament. In addition, in the artistic conception of the traditional plastic arts in the pursuit of "big voices and thin voices, invisible elephants, Daqiao Ruoqiang" realm, focusing on the performance of material things, often intended to be so far, never delay, "just right." For example, in the Han Dynasty, the graphic symbols on the watts, the portrait stone, and the various shapes on the portrait bricks are simple but general but without losing vitality.

Through the historical extension of traditional plastic arts, we can see that plastic art itself is an open system, constantly updated and expanded under the impact of new technologies and concepts, and the subsequent connotation and spirit are ethnic The result of long-term historical accumulation is unique to the Chinese nation and is also the soul of the national form. Therefore, in order to allow China's traditional plastic arts to be extended and developed in modern design, and to create new national forms, we should adopt its "form" and extend its "idea" on the basis of understanding so as to spread its "god".

Take its "shape"
To take its “shape” is not simply copying and copying, but recreating traditional forms. This kind of re-creation is based on understanding, using modern aesthetic concepts to transform, refine, and apply elements of traditional forms, giving them the characteristics of the times; or applying the modeling methods and expressions of traditional forms to modern times. Designed to express the design concept, it also reflects the national personality. In terms of the extension of the “form”, there are already many excellent examples. For example, the logo of Phoenix TV’s Chinese station borrows the bird's figure on the painted pottery, and uses the unique Chinese “happiness” structure to reflect the A rich cultural heritage, and the relative rotation of the wings of the phoenix bird is very dynamic, reflecting the characteristics of modern media.

Extension of "Italian"
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