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Chapter 1: Model Essay on the Art of the Times
Abstr: Based on the means of artistic reproduction, the rise of cultural industry, the prosperity of mass media and other phenomena, this paper attempts to analyze the crisis of gradually alienated contemporary art by using the theory of alienation, so as to observe the relationship between art and technology.
McLuhan, a famous Canadian communication scholar, mentioned in the preface of the first edition of his works: times , we have completed the extension of our body in space. Today, after a century of electric technology development, our central nervous system has been extended to embrace the world... just as our sense organs and nervous system have been extended by various media. "
In the contemporary society, digitalization is constantly alienating us from the technology and consciousness levels. While they continue to improve our living standards, they also further control our lives, even the way we think and act, so that even we are beginning to confuse ourselves. More and more high-end digital projects and the popularity of computers and networks related to them, Whether it has been used by us or finally led to the situation of "artificial material service".
1 Alienation of art object world
In Marx's view, alienation means that the subject produces its own opposite due to its own activities at a certain stage of development, and this opposite becomes an external force of dissidents and turns against the subject itself. "Labor is external to the worker, that is, something that does not belong to his essence; Therefore, he does not affirm himself in his own labor, but denies himself... His labor is not voluntary labor, but forced forced labor... External labor, in which people externalize themselves, is a kind of self sacrifice, self torture labor... Animal things become human things, and human things become animal things.
A group of representatives of new Marxism directly accepted the theory of alienation from Marx's Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts in 1844. They believed that Marx's alienation theory was not outdated in the 20th century, but had more important value and significance. This was because, under the conditions of developed industrial civilization, the rapid development of science and technology and man's conquest of nature did not, as expected, lead to the liberation of man from alien forces and the free and comprehensive development of man. On the contrary, People are trapped in the deeper alienation of people. Almost all human creations have become the alien forces that dominate people under specific conditions, thus forming the living conditions and cultural patterns of human alienation.
In the thought of Baudrillard, the master of postmodernism, it is repeatedly emphasized that the period of modernity dominated by production has ended and replaced by the postmodern period composed of simulacrum and new forms of technology, culture and society. In this consumption centered society characterized by people being surrounded by rich things, consumer goods have become a sign, people's consumption of goods is no longer a real demand, consumer goods have become the signifier system of signs, goods as symbols no longer have a real signifier, and the signifier system has never been more active. This situation is reflected in social life, which makes us seem to live in an era of simulacrum. Simulacrum is no longer a simulation of a field, or referential existence or essence. It uses simulation to produce reality. The simulacrum is not to change nonexistence into existence, and falsehood into truth, but to "destroy any contrast of truth and absorb truth into itself".
In our previous ideas, art is something that comes from the truth but is higher than the truth that artists present to us. It is a display of artists' special subjective thinking. In the past, artists were eager to be understood and accepted in their potential creative consciousness. It can be said that in traditional art creation, from the 4th century to the 6th century BC, Plato and his student Aristotle established the theory that art imitates nature, which influenced and restricted the development of western literature and art in the past 20 centuries. Until the end of the 19th century, "imitation" was almost always the main line of western literary and art circles. Artists always hope to use the reality we are familiar with as a copy and create a series of artistic images in order to "purify" the spirit of the audience under the influence of art. But now, the influx of a large number of technical means has replaced the focus of the writers' subjective consciousness in artistic creation. The sanctity or elitism of art and artists themselves has also been subverted because of the influx of a large number of technical means.
"Replication" has become the beginning of artistic alienation in the contemporary environment, which is both a quantitative concept and a means name. As Benjamin described in his "Works of Art in the Age of Mechanical Replication", in the "era of mechanical replication", although the restrictions of time and space on works of art have been solved, the "authenticity" or "flavor" of the original work has been damaged or even disappeared. The machine in the post-modern era is a "copying machine rather than a production machine", which puts forward completely different requirements for our aesthetic reproduction ability. The aesthetic embodiment of the process tends to slide back more comfortably to the theme reproduction of the content - back to the narration of the copying process.
With the improvement of technical means, modern society has been increasingly filled with a "simulacrum" that is "more real than reality". "Reality has not only become something that can be copied, but also something that has always been copied:" super reality ", so the nature of our life has changed, and the whole world is approaching to a super reality. "Reality is no longer something ready-made, but something artificially produced. It does not become unreal or absurd, but becomes more real than reality", just like "ideal clothing advertised by advertisements or fashion TV dramas; ideal computer technology provided in computer books, etc. In these cases, the model has become the decisive factor of reality, and the boundary between super reality and daily life has been flattened... The elephant begins to construct reality ".
At this time, the world that art imitates gradually fades away from authenticity and becomes "super reality" under high-tech means.
2 Alienation of artistic creation
High end technical means not only alienate the object world of art that we are familiar with, but also alienate the current artistic creation into a kind of production, and give birth to a phenomenon called "cultural industry".
The term "explosion" is often used to describe the amount of information provided by the electronic media system. Perhaps it can be said that the so-called "cultural industry" of Hockheimer and Adorno only came true in the electronic age. In some historical periods, cultural production is an "other" of daily reality - cultural production means pointing to another dimension beyond daily reality. Raymond? Williams believed that the "culture" or "art" of a certain period in the 19th century once played the opposite role of market and industrial civilization; Culture or art is respected as the patron saint of human nature in the world with material desires running high. However, in today's electronic era characterized by information "explosion", cultural production has finally merged into the logic of industrial production, followed the cycle between industrial production and consumption, and become an organic part of daily social production. Like industrial production, cultural production finally identifies with commodities and profits. In fact, it is the commodities and profits that maintain the huge expenditure of electronic media and the expanding scale of symbol production in the electronic age.
As Adorno described, the introduction of technological factors has intensified the cultural and business orientation. Creation is no longer an individual independent act, but a mass production relying on several industrial technologies and market orientation. This "cultural industry", marked by cultural production, takes the public as the consumption object and modern media as the means, gradually tends to materialize until it becomes a pure commodity, and inevitably has the characteristics of "commodity fetishism". The inevitable result is that on the one hand, the cultural industry, in the name of art, peddles cultural goods that can make profits. In the past, the arts that belong to the ideological field and the process of their production and acceptance are all included in the material production field. The creation of artists is to earn money, and the leisure time of the traditional public has become another kind of exploited labor; On the other hand, the cultural industry has a strong and hidden bourgeois ideology, which covertly manipulates people's physical and mental and even subconscious activities when people enjoy culture in an ecstatic way. It is a kind of "social cement" that makes the control more airtight and the ruling order more solid. The charm of culture itself disappears, and the production of culture is to exchange and realize value, which is diametrically opposite to the principle of artistic autonomy. Artists are worried about this change, but they are also unconsciously involved in it.
"The internal life regulated by the devalued deep psychology shows us that people are turning themselves into omnipotent machines, and even emotionally they are no different from the models provided by the cultural industry. The most internal response of human beings has also been completely ossified, and any special personality has become an abstract concept: personality is just a shining bright Teeth, refreshing body odor and mood, this is the complete victory of the cultural industry. "
When cultural products enter the field of daily consumption. Like all kinds of daily necessities, the symbol production industry that comes from the electronic media system has been comprehensively embedded in all aspects of society. It can be said that the social organizational significance of electronic media is gradually emerging. In this sense, Baudrillard radically believes that the scale of symbol production today is enough to break the history again: the society with industrial production as the organizational core begins to return to the symbol society.
3 Alienation of cultural reading
McLuhan said that "the media is the information", and a culture must include the communication mode of this culture, and even be shaped by the communication mode. The overall prosperity of mass communication brought about by the technological revolution and the "cultural industry" promoted by the electronic age have caused "different from the free age, the industrialized culture can vent its dissatisfaction with the capitalist system like the national culture, but cannot fundamentally threaten the capitalist system, which is the essence of the industrialized culture." Because "the whole world has to pass the filter of cultural industry", everyone in the society is difficult to escape its manipulation and control. They seem free but not free, active but passive, "Every public who listens to public radio programs spontaneously will be controlled and influenced by talented people, competitors and selected professionals who spread out from microphones and various radio equipment." "The cultural industry enables all departments of spiritual production to influence people's idea of leaving the factory in the evening until they have to go to work the next morning in order to survive in the same way. The public has lost their judgment, and people increasingly use the media to understand the outside world. The" simulation environment "created by the media has become a new alienation force in a substantive sense, "Media reality" has replaced "social reality". Contemporary people living in the "media environment" have become far away from "real" life and lost the critical spirit and transcendence dimension. Media and its products restrict the development of human subjectivity. Fragmented media information and colorful media products gradually confuse the "eyes" of modern people. They are accustomed to soft "surface entertainment" instead of pursuing "deep meaning".
Chapter 2: Model Essay on the Art of the Times
（1） Integration of film and television art and music art
Film and television art flourishes with the progress of society and the development of science and technology. In the era of increasingly fierce competition, people's life will be reflected through film and television art works. The so-called film and television music is the high integration of film and television art and music art. Film and television music can reflect the center and theme of film and television with abstract and generalized thinking, thus giving film and television art new vitality. By analyzing numerous film and television works, it is not difficult to find that classical symphony has always been the music commonly used in film and television works, and can be reflected in film and television works of different ages. For example, in the cartoon Cat and Mouse, it not only realizes the integration of film and television art and music art, but also realizes the integration of classical music and modern music. In the vast space and time of music, lasting music and instant music are important components of film and television works. These two music styles are different. From their different music styles, we can recognize a variety of social forms. For example, the work "Banquet" directed by Feng Xiaogang, the light music forms a sharp contrast with the scene of bloody murder, Along with the continuous progress of the massacre scene, the music also has the violent impact of the gentle classical orchestral music into piano music and symphony. During this period, the strong visual picture also blends with the music, highlighting the noble femininity and royalty in the film. Looking at the current film and television works, we can realize that music and screen film and television art are integrated and interacted with each other, and the integrated effect of sound and painting has become an important part of film and television works. The audience has unconsciously accepted the impact of this fusion art, and is attracted by the pictures with light and shadow and flowing music. The classic film "Lotus in the Water" and "The Sound of Music" have always been well received by the audience. What factors affect and move the audience? No one can give an exact answer. In fact, this appeal comes from the special charm brought by the combination of film and television pictures and music art.
（2） The Integration of Music and Literature
There is a close relationship between music and literature. At the same time, both of them can show human sincere feelings. On the one hand, music can stimulate people's inspiration for literary creation and give people endless imagination. On the other hand, literature is the basic language of music creation, which can express the theme of music. He Zhanhao and Chen Gang in China adapted the literary work "Butterfly Lovers" into a violin concerto, and Tchaikovsky in the West adapted Shakespeare's play "Romeo and Juliet" into a symphony fantasy. These are all examples of the integration of music and literature. Life is like a wonderful song. There will always be wonderful and deep melodies in life, and these melodies are just like the interlude in the movement, or a few jumping notes. Although there are some differences between literature and music, it is the difference between them that makes them more attractive. Literature and music are both forms of artistic expression, and art has commonness. On the basis of this commonness, literature, art and music art have their own different characteristics and ways. If these two kinds of arts are combined to learn from each other, interact, learn from each other, and learn from each other, then whether from the perspective of literature and art, From the perspective of music and art, both will receive good results. It can be said that the combination of the two can achieve the goal of win-win. Songs are the best example of the combination of literature and music. Songs absorb the characteristics of the two arts, and express human emotional experience well. To a certain extent, the emotion expressed by music is more abstract, but it has a strong vividness. On the contrary, the emotion expressed by literature is exquisite, but the vividness is poor. In this way, the ultimate goal of creating songs is to use music to exaggerate literature, use literature to explain music, and achieve the effect of learning from each other.
（3） Mix and match of various forms of expression and styles in music art
In music art, there are many forms of artistic expression, such as instrumental music, vocal music, melody music, rhythmic music, classical style, national style, popular style, etc. The mix and match of various forms of expression and styles has become the trend and tide of music art in the new media era. This "art mix and match" appears in many platforms. For example, the integration of song singing and rhythmic music has become the art of rap, and the mixing of national style and popular music has become a new genre of new folk songs. In the variety show and some large-scale art performances, TV directors have also tried to use various mashups to enrich the screen.
2、 Conclusion
Chapter 3: Model Essay on the Art of the Times
[Key words] Visual culture era; Narrative structure of artistic text; Aesthetic existence
[DOI]10.13939/ki.zgsc.2015.13.130
1 From picture to picture, a glance of ten thousand years: the artistic turn in the era of visual culture
When we stare at the relics of the ancient times, they highlight not only the path of human activities, but also the desire and ability of human beings to record and control nature. "Drawing and reading pictures is the greatest step for human beings to walk out of ignorance and separate from ordinary animals" Wang Hailong. Visual Anthropology [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House, 2007:4. The "narrative" behavior of drawing its shape and drawing its shadow has become one of the ways of human existence. With the ups and downs of natural choices, human finally stumbled into this new generation. Thanks to the development of economy and science and technology, the constant introduction of new technologies and the growing expansion of media have created an atmosphere of high dominance of visual mechanism and wide penetration of visual culture.
When the Mona Lisa's smile lasted more than four centuries, it was reluctantly attached with the label of "L · H · O · O · Q" in the 20th century; When Monroe's charming portrait reappears in the form of chameleon, we seem to have smelled the integration of visual culture immersed in the narrative pattern. From the picture to the picture, at a glance, the visualization and visualization of the world of life once again favor mankind. The difference is that the realm of human existence has split into the arena of visual culture - the rational form centered on words and language is gradually replaced by the perceptual form centered on images, and people's subjective cognitive style of text is then shifted from intensive reading to skimming From concentration to eyeball effect, the image slides step by step to the dependency of discourse and the stimulus of sense.
2 Aesthetic Existence on Poetic Habitat
Those who have not lost their poetic nature can not really sink into the world, will not be immersed in the daily running and busy and ignore the call for existence, will not bow to the small interests of their feet and not look up to the sky all their lives. Zhang Guofeng, Wang Fengzhen. An exhibition of European and American literary theories in the 20th century [M]. Beijing: China Social Sciences Press, 1998:259
-- Heidegger
In such an era of image proliferation and erosion of visual culture, "the planning of visual culture has always been committed to trying to fill the space with various obstacles and unknown images... It is always full of unacknowledged obstacles, which never allow us to actually" see "what exists beyond our expectations." Luo Gang, Gu Zheng. Visual Culture Reader [M]. Guilin: Guangxi Normal University Press, 2003:13. In Haishi, "living poetically" has a power of concealment.
Indeed, how to achieve two-way interaction and in-depth communication between aesthetics and reality, art and life in the context of today's reconstruction of public experience and transformation of aesthetic paradigm; How to make the narrative structure of artistic text between daily experience and aesthetic significance, aesthetic pleasure and value promotion, balance the unbearable lightness of the depth caused by the decline of images, so as to realize the aesthetic survival of poetic habitat, has become the responsibility and performance of contemporary art. Shi Tao said that "pen and ink should follow the times". The artists who are involved in it immediately adjust the turning pace of the narrative structure of the text. Zhu Shuxian, who looks straight at the eye, "opens the door to the senses with a sense of level vision". Chang Ling, who is affectionate and cold eyed, began "one flower, one world, poetic stirring". They absorbed wisdom in a three-dimensional way of hypertext, While promoting the humanistic expression and aesthetic construction of artistic creation, the spiritual coordinates of local culture are constantly determined at the level of academic care.
3 Narrative Structure of Artistic Text -- Concern and Prospect: One shore and the other shore
The simple "mirror theory" of art since the Renaissance has no doubt about the consistency of words and objects; Since entering the era of visual culture, the difference between writing and reality is inherent in all languages, and there is no set of words that can describe the world can contain the truth of the world. Contemporary art is carrying out the action of breaking through the siege of Mirror City. It constantly erases "virtual reality" and "real reality", and moves towards "super reality". People are creating reality and constructing an ideal world, striving to approach the spiritual "other shore". This "super reality"/"illusion" was born on this shore, lived on the other shore, and grew up on the journey from this shore to the other shore. In the world built by Buddhism, this shore and the other shore are the poles of the present world and the afterlife, the sea of suffering and the Buddhist country. While the author is talking about this shore and the other shore at the moment, it refers not only to this and that, but also to the concept of cross-border and connection in regions (such as local and overseas, East and West, etc.). That is to say, artists should not only take an attitude of learning after joining the WTO, but also care about it in their daily life and creation. They should also look from one side to the other, and touch the other side. Through the network screen of order, they should make Hongmeng's view: Historical Facts of the Development of Ancient Chinese Painting Theory by Li Yuan and Lin Lin, Shanghai: Shanghai People's Fine Arts Publishing House, 1997 edition, Page 307: Shi Tao said that "the heaven and earth are dense and beautiful, and they hang down from dawn to dusk at four times. Through the theory of the great dream, they can stay for hundreds of generations.". Shining.
Zhu Shuxian, with the help of the seemingly ordinary realistic situation derived from his own experience in the text narration of Black Fog and Black Seed Shooting, interpreted the relationship and perspective between this case and the other side as the suspension and support between "romance" and "reality". "Whenever I perceive romance, I feel that its existence is like a transparent film, suspended on the surface of real things, making things look sometimes real, sometimes unreal, and then disappear in the next moment." This is an excerpt from Zhu Shuxian's article "Romance - a film suspended above reality". Both works set us a scene atmosphere of "black" night and "white" light, and the intersection of black and white is an endless "gray" theme. The artist regards creation as "reproduction of mist like romance", but this romance is not attached to the eye-catching new form, not wearing heavy makeup and heavy colors, but permeated in the main color gray filled in the image - the subject and object are shrouded in a gray tone with low purity and insufficient brightness.
Returning to the color noumenon, because it seems obscure gray to black and white, it is like romance to reality. It is different from the extreme of black and white, but in a hazy, introverted and mysterious shape, it is more flexible between the two. "Grey gives people a stronger sense of distance in time and space, and its distance is the distant past" [Germany] Eva Heller. The Character of Color [M]. Translated by Wu Tong. Beijing: Central Compilation and Translation Press, 2008: 330. If the "black" night and the "white" light respectively correspond to the "shelter of this being" and the "brightness of that being", then the suppression of the visual effect represented by the gray posture of branches and tendrils will undoubtedly help the artist to break through the "black fog" and condense the implementation of the case and looking at the other side into a "black seed" that breaks through the ground and sprouts.
Changling, who has been in France for ten years, thought about Sichuan but was not happy when he was here in France. His memory of his mother land haunted him, and he couldn't help being fascinated by the warmth of the other side; Back in Taiwan in 2005, the social structure, reality and cultural situation of Taiwan's hometown on this side have changed fundamentally. At the moment, Taiwan cannot establish an immediate connection with Taiwan on the other side of the memory. The jump from this side to the other side is essentially a transition from the absence of the mainland to the presence of the present. In memory, there is a real gap between the mother land context. As a result, the artist's original expectation of being there has not been realized, and this kind of disappointed mood has prompted Changling to start his pursuit of identity with Taiwan's special diet - "five flowered meat" as the visual identification code. Chang Ling looked back with warmth and ingeniously switched between "foreign land" and "original land". He used a special subtraction method to sprinkle the traces of writing and flow the paint of oil painting, and the resulting expression effect similar to ink and wash directly brought into the spiritual elements of literati paintings.
From the warm color with full composition to the cold color in the middle, from the evolution and reincarnation of the five sub themes of "meat landscape", "meat flower bird", "meat city", "meat weapon" and "meat religion" in the "five flower meat" series, Changling's artistic text constantly presents the psychological response and interpretation desire of the narrator, with a kind of story representation of "symbol infatuation". This narrative strategy arouses the audience's great emotional expectation and narrative fantasy, and then makes them indulge in the narrative of the text. As a result, the case and the distant view on the other side are here, and the image turns into high-speed static, exquisite and broad, deep and thick, long and continuous, and infinite.
4. Narrative structure of artistic text -- the preset direction of certainty and uncertainty
The text creation of art exists in the dynamic process from creation to work acceptance, in the "successive process from the creator's image - language sign thinking to the reader's language sign - image thinking" Zhu Liyuan. Introduction to Reception Aesthetics [M]. Hefei: Anhui Education Press, 2004:305. In this process, the work is the intermediary and connection point of the respective thinking activities of the creative subject and the receiving subject. It is not only the materialization and result of the writer's creative activities, but also the starting point of the reader's acceptance activities and the re creation of materialization works.
According to such cognitive criteria, the artist, on the one hand, should provide the recipient with a subtle combination of meanings, in which there is both a sense tendency that can be directly perceived and a meaning "blank" that needs to be filled by the recipient's imagination. Below this, the narrative of this article swings between the preset directions of certainty and uncertainty, precision and chaos. The determined preset direction makes the viewing thinking of the viewer and the original consciousness of the creator consistent on a certain level; However, the chaos and uncertainty of the preset direction require the active thinking of the viewer to complete the consciousness of the screen. From this point of view, on the contrary, it perfectly determines the spiritual grafting and translation of creators.
Zhu Shuxian's philosophical way of thinking with a sense of poetry and mystery in real life flows through his works Black Fog and Black Seed Shooting. He didn't set up character dialogue in it, and the direction to be determined and the slow moving "Chiba" background music nourish each other. The artist gets enlightenment on the element of "silent film" from Paul Auster's novel "Phantom Book", which is philosophical and obscure. In his opinion, although silent films lack language expression, they have an exclusive expression like poetry. "Silence, black and white color, intermittent and accelerated rhythm of silent films. These are obstacles, which increase the difficulty of viewing, but also reduce the burden of what the intention represents." See: "Bad Child Power" Exhibition Album, Zhu Shuxian's "Romance -- A Film Suspended on Reality", Taipei: The Future Gallery, 2009:136. Zhu Shuxian extended this "common text" gap with the possibility of multi-directional and unlimited growth to many links with mysterious conditions, such as the quiet and repeated plot promotion, the sense of distance between silent films and the audience, and the religious color of the "Chiba" musical instrument itself.
"It exists in the current of this era. I don't criticize it. I just crack my mouth and laugh." In Changling's view, the universe itself is in a state of chaos, and all things and phenomena in it include yin and yang, exterior and interior. He hopes that his artistic creation is a mirror that can provide a neutral way of thinking rather than an overly clear and explicit direction. The artist uses a special subtraction method to make the existence of living things present past, present and future cultural topics through historical thinking. Here, he also responds to Shi Tao's painting quotations of "setting the spirit in the ink sea" and "emitting light in chaos".
Zhu Shuxian and Changling's artistic language entered from the normal state
Blank, from blank to normal. Their profound poetic language, on the one hand, leads the viewer to a transcendental imagery; On the other hand, multiple barriers have been set up on the path of this guidance, blocking the audience from the meaning of the words themselves. Just as Ye Xie said that poetry "lies between the words and the unspeakable, its meaning lies between the comprehensible and the incomprehensible, and words here mean that", they adapt and mobilize the creativity and initiative of the viewers to reconstruct the aesthetic objects of the works by increasing the number of narrative structures, from the semantic, image to the "blank" and "uncertainty" of the theme at all levels.
reference:
[1] Gao Qianhui. Contemporary Culture and Art [M]. Taipei: Artist Press, 1998
[2] Ni Zaiqin. Humanity Observation of Taiwan Art [M]. Taipei: Artist Press, 2007
[3] Lu Meifen. The Development of Contemporary Aboriginal Art in Taiwan [M]. Taipei: Artist Press, 2007
[4] Li Qinxian. Taiwan Art Tour [M]. Taipei: Xiongshi Books Co., Ltd., 2007
[5] Liu Yichang, Gao Yerong, Fu Chaoqing, Xiao Qiongrui. Outline of Taiwan Art History [M]. Taipei: Artist Press, 2009
Chapter 4: Model Essays on the Art of the Times
Today is the age of images. Images are everywhere. In the process of visual art creation, artists often use images to complete their own creation. In the image age, works of art rely on the expression of ideas, the tempering of modeling symbols, and the use of free creative techniques to complete and give new visual communication.
Keywords: image; Concept; Symbol; technique
We live in a visual world full of images, and images are everywhere. As the image characteristics that can be felt by vision, images are widely used in many art forms, such as plane, three-dimensional or multimedia. Flat images are included in advertisements, paintings, photography and other works; Three dimensional images are included in signs, buildings, sculptures and other works; Multimedia images are included in movies, television, animation and other works. In today's era of fast information media, many images play a unique visual significance and rich artistic appeal, and guide the rapid interpretation of vision, becoming the forerunner of text expression. Image conveys eye-catching visual information to people, which enables people to quickly remember visual information and inspire their association with its content. It can be said that today is the era of images. In the image age, the expression of ideas is the inner core of the image visual culture and art, simple visual vocabulary and symbolization are the artistic characteristics of the image age, and free creation is the artistic creation technique to realize the artistic interpretation of the original image.
1、 The concept of art in the image age.
Since the 20th century, conceptual art in the West has been pioneered by artists such as Duchamp of France (1887-1968) and Boise of Germany (1921-1986), who advocated turning works from visual images to thinking and studying the essence of art. Dushan once said: "A work of art is not only for people to appreciate, but also for people to think." Boyce proposed: "Art is people, people are art; art is life, life is art; art is politics, politics is art; art is everything, everything is art." COSCO has deviated from the traditional definition of painting. It is a photographic image work created with a fashionable dressed woman as the material and equipped with a glass frame. The glass has a new visual effect after the natural earthquake. The photo of this work became the cover of American Vogue magazine in July 1945, It has led the pure painting in art to the concept of visual art era expressed by images; In his creation, Boyce takes materials as the carrier of ideas. He uses objects in nature to create, endow them with cultural meaning and life connotation, and transform them into images of works. Boyce put forward the idea that art is "social sculpture", which transforms the most ordinary life action into art. From the perspective of all mankind, he created a large number of installations, environmental arts, performances, occasional acts and sculptures with a deep post-modern spirit.
7000 Oaks is a group work of art directed by Boyce after the opening ceremony of the 7th Kassel Document Exhibition in Germany in 1982. It was completed at the opening ceremony of the 8th Kassel Document Exhibition in 1987. This work is completed by the group of "artists" in the form of sculpture. Greening the environment is not his only purpose. The work contains the prospect of future high-level spiritual activities. The object is transformed into an image through artistic expression. Duchamp and Boyce can be called thinkers. Their artistic concepts and ideas have been extended to the 21st century and continue to be digested and applied by artists all over the world. In today's image age, conceptual artists continue to use and develop the creative ideas of Duchamp and Boyce. Through their works, they think about and express issues in society such as history, politics, economy, culture, environment, ecology, human rights, and art itself. Conceptual artists believe that art is no longer a problem of beauty and ugliness, but a mirror image of life. Artists should have a sense of social responsibility, coexist with the times, make their own art enter the society, integrate the society into their own art, explore new possibilities, and take it as a way to intervene in the contemporary era. Modern and contemporary Chinese artists Xu Bing, Gu Wenda, Cai Guoqiang, etc. also use images to express ideas in their works, such as Heavenly Book, United Nations, Venice Rent Collection House, and pay attention to and study the problems in real society from different perspectives. In the era of image art, artists' creation emphasizes sociality. They replace images with conceptualized vision and guide the audience to make visual interpretation. The expression of ideas is the author's concept, the premise of artistic creation, and the internal core of work communication.
2、 The symbol in the art of the image age.
The main information characteristics and marks that things show are their symbols. People's memory of the main information characterized by things can be called symbolic memory. The appearance of symbol is arbitrary, which can be a certain image, sound, color, etc. In the image age, artists constantly use, refine and symbolize an image through their works, which is one of the characteristics of modern art. The shape of Beijing Tiananmen has become the main visual image symbol representing China through the transformation of film, television, painting and other artistic techniques, and the image of the Eiffel Tower represents Paris in France; The opening music of CCTV News Network is a familiar audio-visual symbol; Chinese film director Zhang Yimou is good at using exaggerated red in his works. Red is the color symbol of his works; The image of Mickey Mouse created by Walt Disney (1901-1966), an American entertainment giant, and Donald Duck created by Argentine painter Daniel Blanca (1952-2005) is a cartoon modeling symbol that the artist has refined and strengthened the original image. The mouse and duck are symbolized by anthropomorphic art, which directly highlights its external main characteristics and is easy to remember. Later artists also used these image symbols to create cartoon, cartoon advertising, toys and other visual images again; In the representative works of Chinese contemporary artist Yue Minjun, the figures with their hands covering their mouths and smiling foolishly, and the bald and naughty figures in Fang Lijun's famous works are the image symbols of their works respectively; The logo of Mercedes Benz and Marlboro cigarette box are trademark symbols; The short curly hair of Hollywood movie star Marilyn Monroe is the modeling symbol of her as a sexy female star in those days; The character "Sanmao" in "Sanmao Wandering" created by cartoonist Zhang Leping (1910-1992) is the symbol of character characteristics. In the later extended film and television works, the character characteristics are stereotyped "Sanmao". The use of symbols strengthens the features of the work itself, which is unforgettable. This is the power of symbols.
In modern and contemporary visual art forms of various categories, artists are constantly studying and exploring the use of symbols. In the image age, artists refine the characteristics of an image to sublimate the visual meaning. This transformation of the original image into a visual art image with conceptual significance has become an art symbol performance feature in the image age. (carried forward to page 135) (continued from page 129)
3、 The technique of art in the image age.
Since the 20th century, visual art works are full of a lot of image information, and the use of images has become a way of expression for artists to express their creative ideas. Images are often used by artists as the carrier of ideological expression in film, television, photography, painting, commercial advertising, multimedia and other art forms, and play their own unique visual expression. In film and television works, images are cut, combined and connected to produce a new visual art effect, which is called "montage"; There is a method of image combination in the advertising pictures; There are realistic and freehand techniques in painting; There are documentary techniques in news photography, and the realization of these techniques is inseparable from the use and processing of images. The Little Girl with Big Eyes by Xie Hailong, a Chinese photographer, truthfully records the image of a rural girl with big eyes, pencil in hand and eager for knowledge.
American spectrum artist Andy Warhol (1928-1987) created Marilyn Monroe and other characters based on the portraits of contemporary American stars by using color dislocation printing technology and advertising flat painting techniques. The work is a visual transformation of the original image. Christo, a modern and contemporary German artist, makes full use of the images of buildings and scenery and changes their artistic visual appearance. His work Packaging Congress is to wrap the Capitol with silver white chemical fiber cloth and thick rope. The work transforms the ancient, concrete and dignified square into a modern, abstract, beautiful, spectacular and magical earth sculpture, adding new vitality to the original objects, injecting new image meaning and giving people a broader space of thought. This art technique is called "landscape art". With the development of the times, the free spirit of artistic creation guides artists to subvert the old experience and techniques of creation again to continue to innovate. In the multimedia art, integrated art, installation art, video art, photography art, conceptual art, landscape art, custom art and other art forms produced in the post-modern culture period, the original image has realized the artist's attention to the real society through various artistic creation techniques. For artists, various techniques are tools between ideas and reality (material world). As a means of realizing ideas, they are widely used as new media of art. Breaking through the old visual experience and seeking new visual language to create freely are the artistic means to realize the recognition of images.
4、 Conclusion.
With the continuous development of modern information, media and other scientific and technological means, the massive use of images is the requirement of the visual culture revolution. Art is no longer a matter of artistic style, but an interpretation of reality at the cultural level. The use of images has developed from the combination of pictures and words, static to dynamic, three-dimensional, multimedia and other forms of art media. The image realizes artistic visual reconstruction by means of the expression of ideas, the tempering of symbols, the use of new techniques, etc., making the work full of artistic appeal and attracting or educating the audience, giving enlightenment. Image is the main fast channel for contemporary people to obtain cultural information. It is an image that guides people to have an interest in specific cultural content and to obtain its internal visual interpretation.
Chapter 5: Model Essay on the Art of the Times
At the beginning of the 20th century, the artistic concept was rich and complex. The conflict between the two systems of Eastern and Western cultures and the challenge to the matrix of calligraphy art have led to the emergence of a variety of phenomena in the calligraphy world, such as traditional classical, modern aesthetic and avant-garde exploration. We have to think about the following: the historical background, social psychology and thinking mode of the aesthetic orientation of contemporary calligraphy creation; The aesthetic reference system of contemporary calligraphy creation, its foresight and marginality; The modern cultural characteristics of the core value of contemporary calligraphy; The aesthetic evaluation mechanism of contemporary calligraphy creation.
The important duty of aesthetic culture is not to satisfy people's entertainment function of releasing their senses, but to guide people to surpass their own perceptual existence, rise to the realm of free life, purify people's soul, and cultivate good quality. The transformation of traditional aesthetics to modern form, first of all, its creation and acceptance objects have changed, from literati art to mass art. Therefore, its internal mechanism must be transformed accordingly. As far as calligraphy is concerned, it is necessary to change the state of mass movement, strengthen discipline construction, and enhance the academic content of artistic works. Secondly, the aesthetic transformation has brought about changes in the way of communication. The split between reason and sensibility is the main feature of modern industrial society. The stylized and flat mass entertainment art occupies people's aesthetic mind, which is in line with the mentality of the general public in a competitive society. Therefore, the impetuous, floating and superficial mentality of calligraphy creation has produced the "cultural fast food" effect. Thirdly, the change of social life rhythm is not only a cultural phenomenon, but also an important feature of aesthetic evolution. The culture of the flourishing Tang Dynasty was bold and unconstrained. At that time, the pace of urban life was light and intense, and the carriages and horses were hot, so there was "wild grass" in calligraphy, "whirlwind" in dance, and "bamboo and silk" in music.
The pursuit of calligraphy art is the pursuit of "meaning", which should not stay in the copying or repetition of form. When we look at ancient classic books, it is not difficult to see the artistic conception, verve and momentum of the creators' unique personality and intense emotions in their works. The elegant and refined charm of Wang Xizhi's Preface to the Orchid Pavilion, which is characterized by "peace of mind, no encouragement and no fierceness", is the expression of the Taoist ideology of the Eastern Jin Dynasty scholar bureaucrats following nature. Yan Zhenqing hastily wrote the "second running script in the world" and "Nephew Tribute Manuscript" from his nephew Ji Ming. He was impressed by the overwhelming grief and indignation, read it in the text, show it in the book, and enter the realm of emotional selflessness. In his Cold Food Calligraphy, Poe poured the bitterness of exile into the hard and heroic strokes; Yang Ning's "Immortal Living Method" expresses the author's deep sorrow of pretending to be crazy and avoiding the world.
The meaning follows the words, and the book is free and deep. The great and brilliant calligraphers are all from writing the form and meaning, excavating the deep connotation, reaching the realm of writing the gods and appreciating the hearts, reaching their feelings, forming their sorrows and music, and expressing their feelings with objects!
The calligraphy art of modern China has experienced the greatest turbulence in history. The closure and singleness of the vertical history conflicts with the intersection and pluralism of the horizontal era. Different cultural references shape artists of different grades. The calligraphy works of ancient masters are tacit understanding with the cultural psychology of the ancients, which is caused by historical situations. The standard of aesthetic value is temporal. Contemporary calligraphers should look at contemporary culture at this point and establish a new value scale. The social mentality of the new century is to yearn for novelty and pursue individuality. The traditional classicism will adapt to the evolution. The aesthetic appreciation of "the spirit of spirit is superior, and the function of beauty is inferior" will be strengthened, and it will develop into a modern romantic color of "focusing on the divine color, but not the shape". So today is an era of "freehand brushwork" and "making falsehood". The pursuit of calligraphers will be more pioneering, intense and lyrical. As the ancients said, "style and feelings are the first, while techniques are the second". Therefore, today's calligraphy creation will focus on style, connotation and taste. Pay attention to spirituality. Oppose the mediocrity and vulgarization of creation, express your spirituality with a broad and free mind, and improve the level of freehand brushwork. Generally speaking, it will show four characteristics: (1) tap the deep instinctive temperament of the Chinese nation and pursue more interesting charm. Write more about heart, freehand, personality, and God. (2) Seek dynamic thought flow. In the calligraphy category, we will seek a cursive script with high performance, free and unrestrained, and internal self expression. Seal and clerical script are also "cursive". Seeking flight and rhythm with side danger and density. Kung Fu characters are no longer common. (3) Express stronger masculinity. There must be a combination of inscriptions and calligraphy, with many different styles. The book style focuses on broadness, magnificence and strength, and flying simplicity. (4) The thinking pattern of bipolar advancement. Due to the influence of people's visual psychology (from inheritance to pursuit of novelty) and social mentality, it determines the bipolar promotion of calligraphy art creation, which is more traditional in tradition and more modern in modern times. The diversified life determines the diversified calligraphy form, with fast rhythm and short periodicity. At present, all kinds of calligraphic arts (including hard pen calligraphy and lettering art) are boldly exploring their styles and competing with each other, which is an era when the distance between calligraphic arts and practical functions has widened after entering the computer age. Chinese calligraphy will enter the world cultural circle with a new oriental artistic style.
Chapter 6: Model Essay on the Art of the Times
As we all know, before entering the modern era, Chinese art has already gone through a period of development that is brilliant enough. As the essence of cultural tradition, a large amount of artistic heritage left behind during this period is undoubtedly an extremely precious treasure. But paradoxically, from the standpoint of modern transformation, it may also become a burden. In the face of the "unchangeable situation in thousands of years" (Kang Youwei 149) since modern times, we - step by step from "implements" to "systems", and then to "culture" level to find a way out. Especially the reflection on the cultural level makes us pay more and more attention to the modern transformation of art itself. For example, literature, a revolution from classical Chinese to vernacular Chinese, completely changed the basic form of its artistic language. Since then, no matter how obsessed we are with classical forms of poetry, lyrics, songs and fu, they can not enter the writing sequence of modern literary history. For example, painting looks more complicated, but it is similar to literature in the trend of the times. While traditional Chinese painting is constantly seeking for the possibility of change, new painting forms are also introduced into China comprehensively. In short, in an era of exploring the possibility of the future through the cultural level, any art activity with the value of writing art history must contain a modern position of turning away from tradition and facing the future. The complexity of the problem lies in that tradition is not only an object that must be completely abandoned in this context. To be specific, modern society must take tradition as its own frame of reference in order to exist. To be more precise, "there is no gap between tradition and modernity. In fact, tradition and modernity are an inseparable 'continuum'. Any society is in this' continuum 'and is' dual' or 'mixed', that is, any social system is a combination of tradition and modernity". Therefore, no matter what kind of modern position we face with tradition and what kind of burden tradition poses, it is destined to participate in the process of modern transformation in some way. According to Hobsbaum's point of view, the so-called tradition is actually a response to "new situations". These new situations just refer to the way of the old situation, and establish their own past by some kind of quasi obligatory repetition. In this sense, tradition is just something we constantly invent according to practical needs. "Where traditions are invented, it is often not because the old ways are no longer effective or exist, but because they are deliberately no longer used or adjusted". According to this, the significance of art theory in its existence is not only to explain various art practice activities with modern transformation significance, but also to summarize various art "rules" that are consciously different from traditional art for these art activities. There is no doubt that one of the core roles of Chinese modern art theory, which stands in the tension between tradition and modernity, can be understood as Baumann's so-called "legislator". This role '' consists of the construction of authoritative discourse, which arbitrates and makes decisions on disputes over opinions, and ultimately decides which opinions are correct and should be observed. But the premise is that we must pay enough attention to and fully understand the tension relationship and its complexity.
If the tension between tradition and modernity is the inevitable result of the change of times, then in the context of China's modern transformation, the West is also a key word that cannot be avoided. As a common sense, we know that the transformation of China's modern society can only be fully explained with the help of the specific cultural vision of "the West". From the perspective of the historical evolution of Chinese modern art, the fierce collision between Chinese and Western cultures in the field of art is not only at the level of skills or means, but also at the level of ideas and concepts. In terms of techniques and means, the influence of the West on Chinese modern art practice is undoubtedly significant and far-reaching. Taking visual art as an example, both the realistic oil painting developed from the western classical realism oil painting and the Chinese "contemporary art" developed from the western contemporary art introduced in the 1980s directly borrowed the basic artistic creation methods from the West. Even traditional Chinese painting, in this process, constantly seeks artistic breakthroughs with the help of western artistic means of expression. What is caused by this is the fierce collision and confrontation between Chinese and Western art at the ideological and conceptual levels. The complex tension between China and the West behind it has also become another basic context for us to grasp the overall context of Chinese modern art theory. To a large extent, the development track and theoretical composition of art theory in modern China are constructed under the guidance of western ideas. But at the same time, this construction process is full of what Said called "theoretical travel". As the saying goes: 'First of all, there is a starting point, or a starting environment similar to the starting point, which enables ideas to emerge or enter discourse. Second, there is a distance that can be traversed, a channel through various text pressures, which makes the concept move from the front space-time point to the rear space-time point and re highlight. Third, there are some conditions, which can be called acceptance conditions or resistance conditions as an inevitable part of acceptance. It is these conditions that enable the transplanted theories or concepts to be introduced and tolerated no matter how different they appear. Fourth, the idea that is completely (or partially) contained (or absorbed) has been transformed to a certain extent due to its new position and new usage in the new space and time "(Said 138-39). As a diachronic process, the introduction of western artistic concepts in China deserves special attention. Among them, the rejection and confrontation, dialogue and identification, adaptation and transformation between different cultures are not only the important basis for combing the development track of Chinese modern art theory, but also one of the many clues to understand how China in the modern transformation period consciously responds to the invasion of strong culture in the cultural dimension. No matter from which angle, the "theoretical travel" of western ideological resources in China is one of the core issues that we must pay attention to when we grasp the theory of Chinese modern art.
The tension between theory and reality is another dimension that needs special emphasis. In the final analysis, Chinese modern art theory has gradually formed its development context in the process of concern and response to reality. The so-called reality includes at least three levels. First, artistic reality. It centers on artistic creation activities and includes all specific links involved in artistic activities. Here, art, as an overall concept, not only starts from various arts, but also has a broader academic pursuit. To sum up, the theoretical discussion based on this reality requires to reflect a "grand view of art", that is, not only specialized research within a single category of art, but also a cross category theoretical vision, a macro theoretical vision that focuses on the universality and regularity of art activities. The second is the cultural reality. It requires attention not only to the art activity itself, but also to the cultural context of the art activity. Since entering the modern era, Chinese culture has been in the process of profound transformation and continues to this day. As one of the most representative cultural phenomena, art is an important part of understanding Chinese modern culture. On the contrary, cultural reality is also an important reference system for us to understand modern art and its theoretical demands. The sorting of Chinese modern art theory can also be regarded as an organic part of the construction of Chinese modern cultural history and ideological history in a sense. The third is social reality. The social changes experienced by modern China are undoubtedly extremely rich. Based on the relatively special context of modern transformation, the social reality appeal of Chinese modern art has always been very strong. Complementing each other, Chinese modern art theory also reflects a strong practical pertinence. Therefore, the evolution track of social reality also objectively and profoundly affects the development track of art theory. No matter from which level, the realistic concern of Chinese modern art theory is extremely prominent. How to respond to reality has also become one of the most basic contents of its theoretical demands.
From the tension relationship of the above three aspects, we should fully realize that although in terms of historical stages, we are more accustomed to using modern, modern and contemporary to divide historical stages after ancient times; But in a more macro cultural sense, since modern times, there has been a historical evolution clue throughout, which is social transformation. Externally, this transformation process has a cultural reference system which is summarized as "the West"; Internally, this process has a clear object of reflection, that is, "tradition". The combination of these two aspects constitutes the unique situation of the times in Chinese society for a century. There is a view that today, we are in a society where the pre modern, modern and post-modern are mixed in the same time and space. This is an appropriate explanation of the Chinese society which is still in the process of transformation; It also shows that 'modern', as a macro concept, is in fact enough to dominate this historical period. In fact, there is a more academic concept that can be used to summarize this unfinished stage of social life in terms of "modernity", that is, "modernity".
As Carlinescu said, "In the semantic star cluster surrounding the concept of 'modern', the most important member is undoubtedly the 'modern word' formed recently.". As one of the key concepts to describe, explain and diagnose the transformation of western modernity, modernity is actually a theoretical category with multiple connotations: as a concept of historical stages, it marks a fracture or the current or present nature of a period; As a sociological generalization, it is inseparable from the process of modernization; As a cultural or aesthetic concept, it reveals the internal contradictions and crises of modern social life; As a psychological category, it reflects the specific experience of modern people for the great changes in social life. With this as a reference, the process of modernity in Chinese society has its own uniqueness, and there is no lack of universality similar to that in the West. As far as the modern evolution of Chinese art theory is concerned, this concept is enough to help us understand its complex connotation.
First of all, modernity is certainly a time dimension here. As a concept of time, modernity means "being modern", and it especially emphasizes the transformation characteristics and process of social life. We know that since Chinese society opened the door to modernization due to external forces, it has inevitably entered the modern transformation period. In terms of time, this transformation process has continued to this day. The so-called modern, modern and contemporary historical stages are all contained under this topic and can be viewed as a whole. It is in this sense that China's modern art theory should include all the art theories that have lasted since modern times. In this historical process, there are not only the continuous change of political order, but also the fierce confrontation of cultural positions, and of course, the mutual echo of artistic practices. All these realities can serve as the basis for staging the centennial development of art theory. But what is important is that, internally logically, these foundations have never been separated from the context of modernity and exist alone. Just taking "contemporary" as an example, we know that the western society takes the post-modern turn in the middle of the 20th century as an important reference. But aside from the fierce debate between modern and post-modern in the western academic circles, the so-called "contemporary" in the Chinese social context also needs careful consideration due to its complexity. Whether the period of regime change in 1949, the reform and opening up, or the artistic practice as a clue to find the basis for staging, in fact, we need to grasp its internal evolution logic in the context of modern transformation. In terms of time dimension, it can be said that "becoming modern" is the unchanged era appeal of Chinese society since modern times. To accurately sort out the development track of Chinese modern art theory, it is necessary to understand the social life since then as a whole with orderly inheritance in time.
Secondly, modernity is a problem of concept dimension. It emphasizes that not all theoretical thinking existing in the time frame of 'modern' is inherently modern. From the perspective of modernity, whether a theoretical expression can consciously respond to and reflect on traditional, western and realistic issues is an important measure to measure whether it has modern meaning. This scale includes our cognition of our own state of existence and our grasp of the external reality. On the whole, it can measure our consciousness of reflecting on our own historical stage. At the lowest level, it reflects an attitude that we consciously face the social life of the times. Foucault's remark on modernity can well illustrate the problem: "Whether people regard modernity as an attitude rather than a period of history. The attitude I said refers to a way of relationship with modernity. People's voluntary choices, ways of thinking and feeling, ways of action and behavior". Especially when our social life is constantly encountering various difficulties and crises at the cultural level, this attitude of putting itself in a conscious position of modernity is particularly important. Just as Jaspers emphasized when discussing the spiritual state of the times: "The spiritual state of our times contains great danger and great possibility. If we are not competent for the task we are facing, then this mental state indicates the failure of mankind". This particular mental state in the face of the era environment is undoubtedly one of the core issues that deserve most attention for the Chinese people who have been trapped in the "unchanging situation for thousands of years" since modern times. The theoretical carding based on the reality of artistic activities must be carefully examined in this dimension.
As far as the art field is concerned, we should not only express this reflection with the help of works through creative activities, but also rationally explain and interpret it through theoretical thinking. The combination of these two dimensions of modernity requires that China's modern art theory must be based on a conscious macro cultural vision of art history writing, and constantly seek, reveal and explain its own modern values in art activities. Still taking visual art as an example, it is not difficult to find that a logical clue to the innovation of the form of painting language with the change of the times is clearly discernible when looking at the evolution of the history of painting. Chinese modern art is no exception. The important problem is that behind the formal innovation of art language is actually the cultural value-added effect in art history, as well as the conscious resistance to "technical replication" in art practice. The so-called technical replication mainly refers to the conventional schemata of various painting skills, skills, emotions and concept expressions that can be mastered through learning at the technical level. The cultural appreciation effect is the basic requirement for the uniqueness of works in the sense of writing art history. For Chinese art in the context of modernity, the most fundamental point is that it must reflect a certain unique cultural value that is different from tradition, independent from the West and standing in reality. From this point of view, the dramatic characteristics of art practice with the help of formal innovation is actually an effective way to highlight the specific cultural values given by the times. The most prominent feature of this radical change in the theoretical level is how to break through the simple "identification" with tradition, effectively "explain" the modernity of art, and then "legislate" it.
In fact, not only in the field of visual art, Chinese art has undergone qualitative changes in almost all categories due to modern transformation. Some artists engaged in creative practice will not only express their modern consciousness in their works, but also explain or discuss this modern consciousness with the help of words. Of course, there are more intellectuals who take art as the research object and consciously participate in the theoretical elaboration, demonstration and summary of new artistic phenomena. It can be said that these two types of people dominate the keynote of understanding Chinese modernity from the perspective of art theory. What they have in common is that most of them have deep traditional accumulation, broad western learning background, and great enthusiasm to join the times. Taking the field of literature as an example, from Liang Qichao's "revolution in fiction" to the vernacular movement promoted by Hu Shi, Chen Duxiu and others, literary modernity is presented in an extreme way to completely transform the language media and literary genre. In the history of Chinese literature, there has always been a saying that "style changes with style" and "literature of one generation", but the continuity of language media and literary genre is relatively obvious. In modern times, one of the most intuitive consequences of the complete transformation of literary language and style in literary history is that although there are still many fans of traditional poetry, songs and fu, and some people are still engaged in poetry creation, there is almost no room for writing traditional poetry in literary history. From the perspective of the history of literary theory, Liang Qichao's On the Relationship between Novels and Mass Governance (1902), Hu Shi's On Literary Reform (1917), Chen Duxiu's On Literary Revolution (1917), etc. can all be regarded as classic documents. However, it needs to be pointed out that the so-called modern art theory here is expressed in a more macro perspective of art. Because, although the discussion of art as a plural concept can start from a single category of art, there must be a theoretical appeal beyond the outside category.
In other words, the so-called Chinese modern art theory is a theoretical thinking aimed at the macro art issues related to the process of modernity. This is the basic position that we should adhere to when carrying out this work from a far broader theoretical perspective, starting with the triple tension relationship between tradition and modernity, China and the West, and theory and reality; At the same time, it is also the inevitable requirement of the development logic of art theory history itself. Especially when we examine this issue in a more specific context of disciplinary development, this point will be easier for us to understand.
Based on the above modernity standpoint, we will have sufficient basis to outline a clue of the development of modern art theory that mutually corroborates with the history of Chinese modern art, culture and even thought. However, in a more microscopic perspective of academic history, this historical stage, as a theoretical development period full of disputes and confrontations, opportunities and challenges, has its specific track of operation at the disciplinary level. This is an important issue that we must face when we further think about Chinese modern art theory. Specifically, the academic development history of Chinese modern art theory is mainly presented in the form of discipline. The problems involved in the explanation of the orientation of art theory at the disciplinary level are undoubtedly very complex. Among them, a series of issues, such as the disciplinary attribute of art theory and its relationship with related disciplines, disciplinary research fields and methods, and even the identity of researchers, are important issues that need to be investigated. In fact, in the context of the upgrading of the macro art theory discipline named "Art Theory" to a first-class discipline, the debate and discussion on these issues are not only still in the process, but also have become one of the key factors related to the future development of this discipline.
First, as mentioned earlier, the development of art theory in modern China has its specific traditional background, western vision and realistic context. Throughout the history of Chinese art theory over the past hundred years, there is a relatively clear historical context. To be specific, because of the needs of the times and environment, Chinese modern art theory had to use western discourse to comprehensively reflect on the tradition from the beginning. With the change of social conditions, artistic practice and its theoretical concerns have also changed from time to time, and gradually formed its own track of operation. As far as disciplinary clues are concerned, we can at least sort out the following different historical stages: its origin, from the establishment of China's modern disciplinary system to the founding of New China. The main feature of this period is to introduce and gradually attach importance to the significance of art as an independent discipline. To some extent, it mainly relies on "bringing doctrine" to actively digest the nutrition from the western art academia. Second, the quiet period, from the founding of New China to the end of the Cultural Revolution. During this period, the development of art disciplines was mainly dominated by various arts. As a discipline, art theory not only did not advance, but also declined compared with the drafting period. Third, the recovery period, from the end of the Cultural Revolution to the mid-1990s. At this stage, the development of art theory as a discipline system is still relatively slow. However, the attention and discussion of many theorists on art issues has provided an important theoretical reference for the institutionalization and systematization of subsequent art theory disciplines. Fourth, the finalization period, from the middle and late 1990s to now. With the official promulgation of the 1997 edition of the Catalog of Disciplines and Specialties for Doctoral and Master Degrees and Postgraduates by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China as a symbol, art theory has entered a critical stage of development at the institutional level, that is, it has officially become a secondary discipline under the first level discipline of art. Since then, the discipline of art theory has entered the stage of systematic and large-scale development, and has finally become a multi level discipline in the name of "art theory" because of the upgrading of art science into a category. From its development track, the modern discipline history of Chinese art theory is based on the early 20th century, formed in the early 21st century, and has a long time span. During this period, countless artistic theoretical achievements were produced, especially in the leaping development stage after the 1990s, the speed of knowledge production became more and more amazing. Without a relatively clear sense of theoretical history, it is likely to fall into a mass of texts and lose the overall control of the development of modern art theory.
Secondly, what needs to be focused on is undoubtedly the positioning of art theory at the disciplinary level. In fact, doubts about the legitimacy of the subject of art theory did not disappear with the establishment of the first level discipline of art theory. Dialectically, art theory has become an independent discipline, which has both its historical inevitability and practical complexity. We usually trace its disciplinary history to the academic tradition of German scholars such as Federer and Dessau. In fact, the beginning of the early art theory discipline in China was indeed deeply influenced by this tradition. But there is a more worthy question to consider is that, as far as the discipline system is concerned, the academic tradition's pursuit of the so-called "general art" discipline has not been actively responded to in the construction process of the western modern discipline system. This has not only caused a certain dislocation in the disciplinary correspondence between Chinese and Western academic circles in the field of art theory; Moreover, it objectively makes the theory of art more like a subject field of Chinese style self production and self marketing. Therefore, it must be emphasized that we cannot fully rely on the early disciplinary history of western art theory to verify its legitimacy at the disciplinary level. Because its fate in the West seems to imply that the top-down research of philosophy and aesthetics on art and the bottom-up research more accustomed to art research -- on this basis, of course, it should also include interdisciplinary research on various art activities, which roughly covers the basic path of art research.
In terms of related disciplines in China, before art science was upgraded to a category, the discipline similarity between art science as a secondary discipline, aesthetics under philosophy discipline, and literature and art under Chinese discipline was relatively high. How to clarify their differences at the disciplinary level has always been one of the key issues of concern and debate in the art academia. With the upgrading of disciplines, "Art Theory", as a first-class discipline, naturally has a broader disciplinary horizon and a broader research boundary than the latter two. This is determined by the realistic basis of the discipline's own development. At the same time, a more important problem lies in that since other categories of art have also been upgraded to first-class disciplines, various categories of art theories will also be greatly strengthened. Therefore, how to effectively distinguish these categories of art theories in terms of discipline construction and provide them with macro theoretical guidance has become the core task of art theory to reflect its own discipline value. This means that although the relationship between the discipline of art theory and other disciplines such as aesthetics, literature and art needs to be clarified, it is more urgent to clarify the difference and relationship between the discipline of art theory and other disciplines below the discipline of art. In fact, the doubts about the discipline status of art theory are more from researchers of various art disciplines. In their view, there does not seem to be too much room for "artistic theory" as a discipline except for art theory, music theory, dance theory, film theory, drama theory and other categories of art theory.
From the above domestic and international academic backgrounds, the current academic framework of art theory has not been built completely, which is directly related to the complexity of its subject objects and research fields, as well as the existing academic stereotypes. These disciplinary factors remind us that there must be extremely close academic connection between the discipline of art theory and aesthetics and art research; It also reminds us that art theory should look for its own discipline orientation beyond the above two disciplines. Perhaps, we can understand it as an intermediate discipline between aesthetics and art research at a macro level. As has been pointed out above, the discipline of art theory must have a broader 'grand view of art'. Therefore, we may not necessarily follow the trend of the West, and we may not be confined to the troubles caused by various arts. What is important is that we must be clear about the inevitability and necessity of the existence of 'theory' in the art discipline. Here, any academic research with the meaning of pure theoretical speculation should be based on certain art knowledge; Any discussion based on various arts also needs an academic direction with a comprehensive meaning of theory. The so-called theoretical integration means that as an intermediate discipline with both aesthetic and artistic research colors, it is born with an interdisciplinary academic vision and theoretical integration appeal. Because of this, when we examine the basic composition of Chinese modern art theory, we should not only fully consider the complexity of art theory as a discipline, but also pay special attention to the differences between it and various art studies.
In addition, the research fields, methods and the status of researchers in the discipline of art theory also need to be further considered on the basis of the above positions.
To be specific, at the level of discipline organization, the specialty setting of art theory discipline is still in the process of finalizing. The common division method still refers to the relevant discussions of Wellek and Warren in Literary Theory. Under the name of the first level discipline "Artistic Theory", there are three core majors, namely, art theory, art history, and art criticism. On this basis, art and cultural industry management and related interdisciplinary majors are added. Obviously, under such a professional framework, the "art theory" based on disciplines is actually a far broader university discipline system, not limited to the narrow sense of art theory. In fact, referring to Wellek and Warren's understanding of literary theory, "art theory" is enough to include necessary "art criticism theory" and "art history theory" (Wellek Warren 30-39). Of course, the complexity of the problem still lies in that "art", as a kind of concept, is different from literature as an artistic style. This inevitably requires us to have a broader artistic vision, and at the same time, we should not be confined to a single artistic category. At least the study of art history is still the study of art history to a large extent, only with reference to western academic habits. This obviously cannot cover the whole territory of Chinese modern art theory discipline in the study of art history. As a professional field with practical significance, art criticism needs fresh art phenomenon as its foundation for development. Therefore, although there is a clear theoretical support for this division at present, its research boundary is still in the process of construction. Especially after considering the art industry activities and related interdisciplinary majors, the top-level design of the entire art theory discipline still needs to be constantly adjusted and revised through academic practice activities. The investigation of Chinese art theory over the past century should undoubtedly take into account the complexity of this discipline and its construction demands, and appropriately broaden our academic vision.
Chapter 7: Model Essays on the Art of the Times
Marxist theory of art production is one of the important theoretical sources of reception aesthetics. In a sense, reception aesthetics is the reference and transformation of Marxist theory of art production; Marxist artistic production theory has been deeply studied and vigorously promoted by western Marxist literary theorists in the 20th century. Western Marxist literary theory has inherited and developed Marxist artistic production theory; Marxist theory of art production has been comprehensively studied and systematically explored in China since the 1980s. Chinese scholars have constructed a sinicized Marxist theory of art production in combination with the practice of contemporary Chinese literature and art.
In the history of human literature and art theory, literature and art theorists and thinkers of all ages have examined the nature and characteristics of art from different perspectives, and put forward different theoretical propositions and ideas. Marx and Engels examined art from the perspective of production theory and believed that art was a special spiritual production of human beings. Marxist theory of artistic production, which highlights the free and conscious nature of artistic creation, has both great historical significance and important contemporary value. It is a historic change in the history of human literary theory.
I. The Reference and Transformation of Reception Aesthetics to Marxist Theory of Art Production
In the past, when the theorists talked about the theoretical origin of reception aesthetics, they generally believed that its theoretical origin mainly had two aspects. One was the view on literary appreciation in traditional literary theory. Although the traditional literary theory does not place the reader in an important position and does not form a systematic reception theory, there are sporadic discussions on appreciation and reception. For example, the "purification theory" put forward by Aristotle in Poetics has come into contact with the aesthetic effect of literature in the process of acceptance. In the Middle Ages, Aquinas' argument on Christians' acceptance of the Bible: no matter what religious people accept, their understanding of truth and God's revelation is based on their own yardstick, which has involved the issue of acceptance initiative. Later, Lessing's interpretation of Aristotle's view and his emphasis on the audience in Hamburg Drama Review provide enlightenment for reception aesthetics. Kant's exposition of the nature and characteristics of aesthetic judgment in Critique of Judgment also provides valuable ideological materials for reception aesthetics. The second is Heidegger and Gadamer's hermeneutic theory. Heidegger believes that the historicity of existence determines the historicity of understanding: we understand everything not with a blank mind to accept, but with active consciousness to actively participate. In other words, interpretation is based on what we have first, foresight and grasp first. This "pre structure" of consciousness makes understanding and interpretation always contain elements determined by the interpreter's own historical environment. In terms of interpretation of literary works, Gadamer's view is that the meaning and value of works are not inherent in the text of works, but the product of readers' contact with works in the process of reading. He said: The meaning of the work is not the original intention given by the author, but determined by the historical environment of the interpreter and even all the objective historical processes. This view fully affirms the important influence of history on people's consciousness activities, negates the invariable absoluteness of works and the only correctness of understanding, regards interpretation as a dialogue between readers and authors, and pays attention to the creative role of readers in meaning. It can be said that hermeneutics theory provides direct inspiration for reception aesthetics. Of course, some people think that the theoretical origin of reception aesthetics is not only the above two aspects, but also many aspects. To sum up: "The predecessors' theories that have influenced reception aesthetics probably include: 1. Russian formalism literary theory; 2. Prague structuralism literary theory; 3. Ingerton's phenomenological aesthetics (should be Ingarden - the initiator); 4. Gadamer's hermeneutics." ② Undoubtedly, the past theoretical circles' views on the two theoretical sources or the four theoretical influences of reception aesthetics are very reasonable. In fact, the relationship between production and consumption in Marxist art production theory is also one of the important theoretical sources of reception aesthetics. The exposition of reception aesthetics that works are finally completed in the reading of readers is undoubtedly the reference and conversion of Marxist art production theory that products are finally completed in the consumption of consumers.
In the Introduction to the Critique of Political Economy, Marx pointed out that "consumption produces production from two aspects:; Therefore, a product is different from a pure natural object. It only confirms that it is a product in consumption and becomes a product. Consumption is the final completion of a product when it is consumed, because the product is not a materialized activity, but an object of the active subject. (2) Because consumption creates new production needs, it creates the intrinsic motivation of production in the concept, and the latter is the premise of production. Consumption creates the power of production; It also creates objects that act as the things that determine the purpose in production. If it is obvious that production provides the object of consumption externally, then it is also obvious that consumption puts forward the object of production in the concept as the inner image, as the need, as the purpose of power. Consumption creates production objects that are still in subjective form. If there is no need, there will be no production. And consumption reproduces needs. "③ Marx's statement that "consumption produces production from two aspects" contains four important points of view. That is, only through consumption can products become real products; Only in consumption can products be finally completed, and only with the participation of the main body - consumers can they be finally completed; Consumption creates the need and premise of production; Consumption creates the power of production and the subjective form of production objects - image products.
The main views of reception aesthetics on the impact of reception on works and creation are directly inspired by Marx's statements on the impact of consumption on products and production. According to reception aesthetics, there are three main aspects of the impact of reception activities on works and creation. First, works can become real works only through reading. "For example, a novel, before being read by the reader, is nothing more than a stack of printed type and bound paper, just like a film, before it has relations with the audience, is nothing more than a pile of positive film; the statue stored in the museum warehouse is nothing more than a stone, wood or metal with a certain shape." ④ Second, The work is finally completed after acceptance. Reception aesthetics believes that the works created by the author, without the participation and acceptance of the subject receiver, are only "frame structures" containing many uncertainties and gaps. Only when this "frame structure" is experienced, processed, supplemented and created by the receiver can the works be finally completed, and the social significance and aesthetic value of the works be reflected. As Yaos emphasized, "In the triangle of authors, works and readers, the reader is not only a passive part, not just a chain of reactions, but a force to form history. Without the active participation of the recipients of works, the historical life of a work is unimaginable. Because, it is only through his intermediary that the work enters a continuous changing experience vision, where there is an eternal transformation from simple acceptance to critical understanding, from negative to positive acceptance, from recognized aesthetic norms to new creation beyond these norms. "⑤ This kind of work is finally completed through acceptance. In Iser's words, it is a change from "artistic pole" to "aesthetic pole". "Literary works have two poles, we can call them artistic poles and aesthetic poles. The so-called artistic poles refer to the works created by writers; the so-called aesthetic poles refer to the realization process completed by readers. This polarity makes literary works neither equal to themselves nor to their realization, but should be between them. A work is not just a work, because only when it is realized can it show its vitality. The realization process depends on the personality of the reader - although he is in turn affected by other format works, the integration of works and readers makes the works survive. "⑥ Third, acceptance activities promote the emergence of new creative needs and preconditions. According to reception aesthetics, the reception activities of literary works will react on the author, which is the driving force for the author to generate new creative needs and preconditions, and the potential factor affecting the author's specific writing activities. The expression of reception aesthetics is the theory of "implied readers". In his article Readers as an Important Element of Novel Structure, Iser said: "In the writing process of literary works, the author always has a 'hidden reader' in his mind, and the writing process is the process of telling stories to and talking with this hidden reader. Therefore, the role of readers has been embedded in the structure of the text." ⑦
In the comparative study of reception aesthetics and Marxist theory of the relationship between production and consumption of art, we see that "Marx's theory of the dialectical relationship between production and consumption can not only serve as the basic theoretical framework for scientific research of reception aesthetics, but also the theoretical content of all aspects mentioned above can be transferred into the analysis of literary and artistic production and acceptance" ⑧. Of course, in the process of the construction of this theoretical framework and the transfer of theoretical content, reception aesthetics has realized the shift from economic criticism to the focus of aesthetic analysis, and the theoretical development from production consumption of material production to creation acceptance of artistic production.
II. Western Marxist Literary Theory's Inheritance and Development of Marxist Artistic Production Theory
Art production is not only an economic term in Marxist economic theory, but also a literary concept in Marxist literary theory. When talking about the relationship between art production and material production, the founders of Marxism believed that the whole process of art production, like material production, has the characteristics of production: "not only art communication is productive, but also art conception is productive; not only art creation is productive, but also art consumption is productive. There is only a difference between material and spiritual production. "⑨ In other words, in the Marxist theory of literature and art, art is in essence a special kind of spiritual production. Marxist theory of art production has been deeply studied and vigorously promoted by western Marxist literary theorists in the 20th century, especially Walter Benjamin, Pierre Marshall, Terry Eagleton and others. They have carried forward Marxist theory of art production from different aspects and made outstanding contributions to the development of Marxist theory of art production.
Benjamin constructed his own art production theory according to the Marxist classic writers' statements on the dialectical relationship between productivity and production relations, economic foundation and superstructure. The focus of his art production theory is to study the productivity and production relations of art. The basic content of Benjamin's theory of art production is that art is a form of social production. Like material production, art production is "a special production activity with laws to follow, that is, they are also composed of production and consumption, producers, products and consumers, and are also restricted by the contradictory movement of productivity and production relations." ⑩ The most innovative part of Benjamin's art production theory is to fully recognize the important role of modern science and technology in art production, regard science and technology as the new productivity of art development and art popularization, and regard the relationship between art producers and art consumers established on this basis as the new production relationship. The most influential viewpoints in Benjamin's art production theory are shown in two aspects. First, art production technology based on modern science and technology has developed art productivity and promoted art progress. Benjamin's speech "Writer as a Producer" at the Paris Institute of Fascist Studies on April 27, 1934 proposed that art production is the same as
Material production also depends on production technology, and art production technology based on modern science and technology constitutes an important part of art productivity, representing a stage of art development. Benjamin's discussion on the relationship between art production technology and art production contains the following three meanings. First, "literary tendentiousness can exist in the progress or retrogression of literary technology." 11 Benjamin believes that the technical problem in art production is not only a problem of form, but also a problem of the integrity of art production related to form and content, artistry and ideology. The tendency of art depends not only on the artist's world view, but also on whether the artist uses progressive art production technology. Second, "for a writer as a producer, technological progress is also the basis for his political progress" 12. Benjamin believes that the basic requirement for an advanced writer is not only to pursue political progress, but also to pursue the progress of art production technology. The latter is even the basis of the former. Third, writers should guide other producers to produce art and provide them with an improved instrument. In a word, the production technology in art production is the most important productive force in art production, and is the necessary condition and foundation for the tendency of artistic works and the political progress of artists. Second, the art production technology based on modern science and technology has liberated the artistic productivity and promoted the popularization of art. In the book "Works of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction", Benjamin believes that the transformation of modern art production technology has a very important impact on art production and art acceptance. Through mechanical replication, the artistic productivity has been liberated and the popularization of art production has been promoted. He said: "In a word, replication technology liberates the copied things from the traditional field. Because it makes many copies, it replaces the unique existence with many copies; because it enables the copies to be appreciated by the recipients in their own environment, it gives the copied objects realistic vitality." 14
Machele constructed his own theory of art production according to the Marxist classical writers' thoughts on the ideological attribute of art, the relationship between art production and ideology. The focus of his art production theory is to study the relationship between art production and ideology. It develops Marxist theory of artistic production from the aspect of ideological production; The basic view of his theory of artistic production is that literature is the production of ideology and the processing of ideological raw materials; The innovation of his art production theory is to turn Marxist literature into the production of ideology and ideology. He said: "The work is really determined by its relationship with ideology, but this relationship is not a similar relationship (like replication); it is more or less always contradictory. A work is written to resist ideology, or it can be said to be produced from ideology. The work will implicitly help reveal ideology." 15 In other words, While producing ideology, literary creation confronts and disintegrates ideology. Based on his understanding of the contradictory relationship between literary production and ideology, Machele highly praised the works of the 19th century critical realism masters Balzac and Tolstoy, and believed that the creation of the two masters typically reflected the contradictory characteristics of literary production using ideology to heckle ideology. He further developed Lenin's thoughts on Tolstoy's evaluation, pointing out that Tolstoy's "works have an ideological content, but it gives this content a special form. Even though this form itself is ideological, the ideological system has taken advantage of this doubling to appear an internal transposition: it is not the ideological system that is thinking about itself, but the mirror effect that exposes ideological defects reveals differences and confusion, or significant inconsistencies. " If we borrow Lenin's words, Tolstoy is a mirror of the Russian revolution, but this mirror is a broken mirror. It does not reflect the integrity, uniformity, and coherence of Tolstoy's ideological system, but tears, confronts, and deviates from Tolstoy's ideological system, making Tolstoy's works contradict Tolstoyism in his works, "With the help of works, it becomes possible to escape from the field of spontaneous ideological system and get rid of false consciousness about itself, history and the times." 16 In a word, Marcheley's theory of art production, on the one hand, is influenced by the theory of artistic ideology attribute of the founder of Marxism, on the other hand, exceeds the thought of the founder of Marxism on the attribute of artistic ideology, It "runs through a basic train of thought that reveals the opposition and confrontation between literary creation and criticism and the existing ideology,... it coincides with the thought of the entire Western Marxist trend of thought that highlights the negative relationship between literature and art and the existing society, and reflects the strong critical spirit of the ideology of capitalist reality" 17.
Eagleton constructed his own theory of artistic production according to the views of Marxist classical writers on the relationship between artistic production and ideology, artistic production and material production. The focus of his art production theory is to study the relationship between art production and ideology and material production; The basic view of his art production theory is that art has both ideological attributes and economic basic attributes. Art production is both ideological production and economic production; The innovation of his art production theory is that he attaches great importance to and dialectically analyzes the multiple attributes and relationships of art production. Eagleton put forward: "How to explain the relationship between the 'foundation' and the 'superstructure' of art, that is, the relationship between art as a production and art as an ideology, is one of the most important issues facing Marxist criticism." 18 On the one hand, as the "art of ideology", it has a close and complex relationship with ideology, "It is contained in ideology, but we try to keep ourselves away from ideology so that we can 'feel' or 'perceive' the ideology that produced it" 19. On the other hand, "art as production" is part of the economic foundation. Artists, as producers, cannot get rid of the status of wage labourers in capitalist society. Art production, as an economic production, is an integral part of capitalist manufacturing. Artwork, as a market circulation, is a commodity. Of course, "art as ideology" and "art as production" are not diametrically opposed, but intertwined. They have multiple attributes and forms. "Literature" can be an artificial product, a product of social consciousness, a world view; but it is also a manufacturing industry. Books are not only meaningful structures, but also goods that publishers sell in the market for profit. Drama is not only the integration of literary scripts: it is a capitalist business that employs some people (writers, directors, actors, stage designers) Produce profitable goods for audience consumption Writers are not only dispatchers of the structure of super personal thoughts, but also workers employed by publishing companies to produce goods that can sell for money. "20. Eagleton constructed a Marxist critical method with "general mode of production" and "literary mode of production" as the main contents and various ideological elements, It overcomes the drawbacks of many Marxist critics who "apply the ready-made definitions of political economy to annotate artistic phenomena" 21.
The creativity of western Marxist theorists is manifested in that they "explored the ideological origin of Marx's relevant exposition that has not yet been launched, clearly raised the issue of art production, and applied the production theory of Marxist political economy to art", studied art production and artistic productivity, art production and modern technology, art production and material production Multiple attributes and relationships between art production and ideology. "It has opened up a new thinking space and theoretical space of Marxist literature and art" 22, opening up a new field of Marxist literature and art. Of course, we should also see that while developing the artistic production theory of the founders of Marxism, they also deviated from the original intention of the artistic production theory of the founders of Marxism in some aspects. For example, although the founders of Marxism believed that artistic creation was a kind of production, they also emphasized that it was a kind of personalized and creative spiritual production. However, Western Marxist art production theory, when viewing art creation as a kind of production, pays insufficient attention to the spirit and particularity of art production, and tends to equate art production with ideology or general commodity production. Even so, we should still emphasize that the artistic production theory of Western Marxists, after all, has promoted the development of the artistic production theory of the founders of Marxism from different angles and sides and has enriched it. Fundamentally speaking, the artistic production theory of Western Marxists is still a logical extension of Marxist classical writers' artistic production theory in modern western society, which conforms to the development of the trend of the times.
The interpretation and construction of Marxist art production theory by contemporary Chinese scholars
Before the 1980s, Chinese scholars did not pay enough attention to Marxist art production theory. Although the academic circles discussed the unbalanced relationship between material production and art production in the Marxist theory of art production in the late 1950s, due to the interference of non academic factors, the discussion did not go deep and ended in less than a year. In the late 1970s, the old words were mentioned again, and the discussion on the unbalanced relationship between material production and art production development in the Marxist theory of art production continued, but there was no substantive depth on the level and no substantive expansion on the scope. It is after the 1980s to truly and comprehensively understand the systematic composition and significance of Marxist theory of art production, and to construct a Chinese Marxist theory of art production in combination with contemporary Chinese literary and artistic practice.
In the 1980s, Dong Xuewen was the first person to study Marxist art production theory in China. From 1983 to 1985, he successively published many papers such as Marx's Theory of "Art Production", Marx's Concept and Theory of "Art Production", and Theory of Art Production. In these papers, he particularly emphasized the importance of the scientificity and methodological significance of the artistic production theory of the founders of Marxism. He pointed out that Marx's concept of "artistic production" was not a polysemy and ambiguous everyday term, but a strictly prescribed scientific language. This new term of literature and art and aesthetics seems to be common today, but its emergence and development, its true meaning and basic content, and its revolutionary significance in literature and art and aesthetics have not received due attention. In the 1980s, Cheng Daixi, Xiao Junhe and other scholars first proposed to guide our socialist literary and artistic practice, research and theoretical construction with the Marxist "art production" theory. Cheng Daixi further discussed the issue of artistic productivity in his review of Dong Xuewen's Marx and Aesthetic Problems published in 1985. He believes that artistic productivity mainly refers to artists engaged in artistic production, and the development of artistic productivity is to mobilize the enthusiasm and creativity of artists. Developing productive forces - mobilizing the enthusiasm and creativity of artists is the need to build socialist spiritual civilization, prosper socialist literary and artistic creation, and solve the new problems and requirements in the current art development in China. The development of artistic productivity is ultimately reflected in the prosperity of literature and art; As for how to develop artistic productivity, he believes that the core issue is to "reform the relations of production in the field of literature and art". Xiao Jun and his article "Guiding Literature and Art with Marx's" Theory of Production "published in 1986 put forward:" People say that Lenin's theory of reflection is the specific theoretical basis for guiding our literary and artistic thinking and literary and artistic creation. Is that right? Not right. The specific theoretical basis for guiding our literary and artistic thinking and literary and artistic creation should be Marx's theory of production, not the theory of reflection. Today, when the concept of literature and art is renewed, we should replace the theory of reflection with the theory of production in order to effectively guide literary and artistic thought and creation. " The author firmly believes that under the guidance of the Marxist theory of production, China's literary and artistic thought and literary creation will certainly have "an open and prosperous new situation".
Dong Xuewen is an early proponent of building a "contemporary form" of Marxist literary theory, and also a faithful practitioner of building a contemporary form of Marxist literary theory from the logical starting point of Marxist production theory. He proposed to define the "logical starting point" as "production", which seems to be closer to the systematic spirit of Marxist literature and art theory. He "chose 'production' as the logical starting point" and "concentrated on organizing a new model of Marxist literary and artistic theory based on the trinity process of 'art production - art works - art consumption'" 25. His Literature and Art Towards Contemporary Form, published in 1989, takes the concept of "art production" as a logical starting point, and establishes a dynamic structure to grasp literary and artistic phenomena from multiple perspectives and levels from three dimensions: "macro setting of contemporary form", "micro presentation of contemporary form", and "theoretical basis of contemporary form". Its content involves "morphological investigation of literature and art, discussion of various categories of literature and art theory, and critical absorption of various modern literature and art views". This work is a work of Marxist literary theory in contemporary form, and its achievements are outstanding: "First, it found the theoretical starting point for the transition of literature and art from 'classic form' (or 'historical form') to 'contemporary form', namely 'art production'; second, it explored a more complete category system of art production theory, making Marxist literature and art more comprehensive; Third, it has opened up the multi-dimensional thinking space of Marxist aesthetics. " 26 If Dong Xuewen's Literature and Art Towards Contemporary Form is still the "rough" of contemporary Marxist literature and art theory, and there are still some "gaps" and areas worthy of further improvement, then his Research on Contemporary Morphology of Literature and Art -- "Marxism Literature and Art with Chinese Characteristics" published nine years later It is close to the "finished product" of contemporary Marxist literary theory. The book fills in the "blank" of Literature and Art in Contemporary Form and perfects the deficiencies. The book is divided into five parts and fifteen chapters. Part I: The logic and historical inevitability of the emergence of contemporary forms; The second part: the ontological perspective of literature and art; Part III: Active reflection and subject construction; Part IV: Value generation and value orientation; Part V: Between reality and the future. The whole book has a broad vision, a big body and a thoughtful mind. Taking "production" as a logical starting point, it further improves the construction of the Marxist literary and artistic theoretical system of "contemporary form" on the basis of "new synthesis". He Guorui is also one of the scholars who construct the Marxist theoretical system of literature and art in "contemporary form" with the theory of art production as the backbone. The Principles of Art Production edited by He Guorui has attracted great attention from the academic community. Under the guidance of Marxist theory of literature and art, the book integrates useful ideological materials in the history of previous literature and art theories, transforms relevant theoretical views in the history of previous literature and art theories, takes the generation, development and characteristics of art production as the noumenon, the essence, creativity and production tendency of art producers as the subject, and the nature, category and relationship of artworks as the object, With the media, attributes, types and artistry of art production as the carrier, and the consumption essence, consumption psychology and consumption mode of art consumers as the receptors, a Marxist art production theory system with "contemporary form" has been constructed, and a big step has been taken towards the direction of "more comprehensive and correct access to art characteristics, essence and laws" 28.
Taking "production" as a logical starting point to construct a contemporary form of Marxist theoretical system of literature and art, not only makes the study of Marxist theoretical theory of literature and art "return to the Marxist track, scientifically balances the nature and social functions of literature and art, but also makes many convincing interpretations of the essence of Marxist theory of production", "Full attention has been paid to the law of literature itself - the whole process of artistic production and consumption, which has brought the theory of literature and art to a close with the reality of literary and artistic activities." 29 However, there are also two aspects worth further consideration for the contemporary Marxist literary and artistic theoretical system constructed from the logical starting point of "production". First, the relationship between "production theory" and "reflection theory". What is the relationship between "production theory" and "reflection theory"? "Is it a parallel and equal relationship, or a contradictory and antagonistic relationship, or an inclusive and complementary relationship, or other relationships?" He Guorui put "production theory corresponds to general reflection theory", It is not seen that Marxism "art production theory based on historical materialism is higher than art reflection theory based on dialectical materialism in logic, content and nature." Therefore, there is still some ambiguity in understanding the relationship between production theory and reflection theory. Dong Xuewen has "made more efforts" in deepening the theory of reflection, trying to decipher the cognitive structure and creative psychological mechanism of the subject, determined the "relationship between the theory of reflection and the theory of subject", clarified the "tortuous and complex" "relationship of reflection" "between literature and life", and incorporated the theory of artistic reflection into the contemporary Marxist theory of literature and art (art production theory) Middle 31. However, the internal relationship between the theory of reflection and the logical starting point of art production still needs further explanation and deepening. The second is the overall relationship between "production theory" and "art production". When using the "production theory" to construct the contemporary form of Marxist literary and artistic theoretical system, how to avoid "using the" production theory "to regulate artistic creation, it is necessary to decompose the indivisible art as a whole into artistic elements of components, and turn artistic creation into a process, as Benjamin advocated," cultural industry "is also worth further thinking and exposition32" 。
In the 1990s, Chinese scholars thought more deeply about Marxist art production theory and had a broader vision. During this period, the most representative scholars are Zhu Liyuan, Wang Jie and others. Zhu Liyuan published a group of papers from 1991 to 1993, including Discrimination of the Relationship between Artistic Production Theory and Artistic Reflection Theory, Artistic Production Theory and Historical Materialism, and On the Relationship between Artistic Production and Artistic Consumption. These articles have made a three-dimensional and comprehensive investigation and study of Marxist art production theory, and put forward many new ideas, especially some constructive opinions and ideas on how to build the art production theory with Chinese characteristics. Wang Jie's article "On the Mode of Literary Production in the Primary Stage of Socialism" explores the issue of "the mode of literary production in the primary stage of socialism" in the era of cultural globalization and under the conditions of socialist market economy, and comprehensively examines the theoretical provisions of the mode of literary production in the primary stage of socialism, Answered the question of how to make our literary and artistic works have "literary modernity in the socialist cultural era" 34.
Since the 1980s, Chinese scholars' interpretation and construction of Marxist theory of art production benefited from the political reform and opening up in the new era and brought order out of chaos in theory. The Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee held at the end of 1978 established the ideological line of seeking truth from facts, emancipating the mind and the strategic policy of reform and opening up. This ideological line and strategic policy, when embodied in the study of Marxist literature and art theory, is to seek truth from facts, which is to fully and accurately understand Marxist literature and art thought: restore the rich connotation of Marxist literature and art thought; Emancipating the mind is to break the forbidden zone in the study of Marxist literary and artistic theory and boldly explore Marxist literary and artistic thought. Reform and opening up is to introduce foreign academic ideas, including Western Marxism, and absorb all excellent literary and artistic theoretical resources. In this context, Chinese scholars "began to look for new clues from the relevant statements of Marxist classical writers, and then began to explore the theory of art production" 35. The interpretation and construction of Marxist theory of art production by Chinese scholars, although in some respects, has drawn on the research achievements of Western Marxist theorists and other scholars, is not the mainstream. In contrast, scholars pay more attention to digging theoretical resources from the source, and their attention is more focused on the art production theory of the founders of Marxism, looking for research topics from the art production theory of the founders of Marxism, and interpreting and constructing Chinese art production theory under the guidance of Marxist art production theory.
Marxist theory of art production, as a unique category in the literary theory system of the founders of Marxism, belongs more to the future. It can be predicted that in the long history of the future, the Marxist theory of art production will receive more attention, have a stronger impact, and show more important value.
notes
① ⑦ Guo Hong'an, et al., Research on Western Literary Theory in the 20th Century, China Social Sciences Press, 1997 edition, page 301, 333.
② [Federal Germany] H. R. Jauss, [United States] R. C. Horab: Reception Aesthetics and Reception Theory, Translator Foreword, Liaoning People's Publishing House, 1987 edition, page 3.
③ [Germany] Marx and Engels: Selected Works of Marx and Engels, Volume 2, People's Publishing House, 1972 edition, page 94.
④ Literary Theory Research Office of Jiangxi Federation of Literary and Art Circles and other units: Methodology of Foreign Modern Literary and Art Criticism, Jiangxi People's Publishing House, 1985 edition, page 269.
⑤ ⑥ Edited by Hu Jingzhi and Zhang Shouying: Selected Western Literary Theories of the 20th Century, Volume 3, China Social Sciences Press, 1989 edition, pages 152 and 185.
⑧ Tan Haozhe: Literature and Art and Ideology, Shandong University Press, 1997 edition, page 237.
⑨ Li Zhongyi: Marx and Engels Literary and Art System, Central China Normal University Press, 1999 edition, page 69.
⑩ Ma Chi: "New Marxism" Literary Theory, Shandong Education Press, 1998 edition, page 162.
11 12 13 Hu Jingzhi and Zhang Shouying, editor in chief: Selected Western Literary Theories of the Twentieth Century, Volume 4, China Social Sciences Press, 1989 edition, pages 250, 257 and 259.
14 [Germany] W. Benjamin: Artistic Works in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, Zhejiang Photography Press, 1996 edition, pages 4-7.
15 Quoted from Tong Qingbing, Marx and Modern Aesthetics, Higher Education Press, 2001. See also Lu Meilin's Selected Works of Western Marxist Aesthetics, Lijiang Press, 1988
Edition, pp. 612-613, slightly different versions of the two books. 16 Quoted from Lu Meilin's Selected Works of Western Marxist Aesthetics, Lijiang Publishing House, 1988 edition, pp. 612-613. 17 Jiang Kongyang, Zhu Liyuan, General History of Western Aesthetics, Volume 7 (II), Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House, 1999 edition, page 581. 18 [Britain] Eagleton: Marxism and Literary Criticism, People's Literature Publishing House, 1980 edition, page 81.
19 20 Zhu Liyuan, Chief Editor in Chief: Classical Texts of Western Aesthetics in the 20th Century, Volume 3, Fudan University Press, 2001 edition, pp. 241, 242 - 243.
Ma Hailiang: Cultural and Political Aesthetics -- A Study of Eagleton's Critical Theory, China Social Sciences Press, 84 (2004).
22 35 Feng Xianguang: Modern Interpretation of Marx's Aesthetics, Sichuan Education Press, 2002 edition, pp. 186-187, 201.
Cheng Daixi: A Book of Aesthetics Worth Reading -- A Review of Dong Xuewen's Marx and Aesthetic Problems, Journal of Guizhou University, 1985, Issue 1.
Xiao Junhe: To Guide Literature and Art with Marx's "Theory of Production", Literary Contention, 1986, Issue 4.
25 31 Dong Xuewen, editor in chief: Contemporary Morphology of Literature and Art Studies -- Research on "Marxist Literature and Art with Chinese Characteristics", Peking University Press, 1998 edition, pages 5, 123-127.
26 Wang Deying: Marxist Methodology and Contemporary Form Construction of Literary and Art Studies - with a review of Literary and Art Studies Towards Contemporary Form, Dongyue Essay Series, 1990, Issue 6.
27 Dong Xuewen, editor in chief: Contemporary Morphology of Literature and Art Studies -- Research on "Marxist Literature and Art with Chinese Characteristics", Peking University Press, 1998.
He Guorui, Editor in Chief: Principles of Art Production, People's Literature Publishing House, 1989 edition, page 15.
29 32 Tong Qingbing and other editors in chief: 50 Years of New China's Literary Theory, Anhui University Press, 2000 edition, page 75, 76.
Zhu Liyuan: Understanding and Dialogue, Huazhong Normal University Press, 181-186 (2000).
Chapter 8: Model Essays on the Art of the Times
Key words: Frankfurt School of Modern Art and Cultural Criticism
The problem consciousness of Western Marxism has a process of adjustment in its history of development. The cultural and ideological criticism of the Frankfurt School is an important part of the cultural and ideological criticism of Western Marxism. Through an examination of the cultural theory of the Frankfurt School, we realize that the cultural criticism of the theorists of the Frankfurt School is centered on art criticism. "In the field of culture itself, art is the first thing that consumes the main intelligence and talent of Western Marxism.". Of course, it should be noted that the Frankfurt School theorists we refer to here are the first generation representatives of the Frankfurt School.
The modern art defended by the Frankfurt School is, to be exact, modernist art or modernist art. Modernism is, first of all, a Western cultural tendency, cultural sentiment or cultural movement. This movement is full of rebellion and subversion. It is closely linked with "negation", and the combination of the two has expanded into a "myth" of the 2p century, which is widely rooted in the daily life of Westerners. So Owen Howe believes that to define modernism, we must use negative terms and regard it as an "all inclusive negative word". From this basic concept, he believes that modernism "exists in the rebellion against popular ways, and it is an unabated angry attack on the orthodox order". But precisely because of this, modernism is faced with a dilemma: "Modernism must constantly fight, but it must not completely win; then, it must continue to struggle to ensure its own failure. Daniel Bell's understanding of the existence and dilemma of modernism is similar to this, and he further confirmed that modernism is a response to two social changes in the 19th century - changes in the social environment at the level of perception and changes in self-consciousness; However, as a whole, modernism is strikingly similar to a common theory of social science in the late 19th century - the irrationality of realistic basis and the rationality of superficial phenomena. After a strict diagnosis of the overall contradiction of capitalist culture, Bell noticed that the most serious rupture and reversal of capitalist contradictions occurred between the economic foundation and the ideological field that was higher in the air. The modernist movement is the cultural crystallization of the conflict between the contemporary economic, political and traditional cultural camps. Moreover, the modernist culture has gained a hegemonic position in the contemporary western cultural life. Especially after the 1960s, the trend of modernist literature and art has merged with popular culture and commodity production, so after a hundred years of rebellion and subversion, modernism has finally "supremely" dominated the entire cultural field. However, when Bell examined the "quasi religious" cultural hegemony represented by western modernist culture in the typical scale of cultural conservatism, he showed an unusual cultural pessimism. He believes that western modernist literature and art, as a substitute for religious thought after its demise, can not withstand the impact in essence. Facts have proved that, after blindly renovating and resisting, the modernism trend of thought is like an empty bowl of water, and its criticism and negation of capitalism have lost creativity, leaving only a rebellious shell; Moreover, with the invasion and transformation of the middle class cultural interest, the profound and serious modernism has become a "Midcult". The rise of postmodern culture eventually led to the "end of thought" of modernism. Just because he is conservative, Daniel Bell lacks a radical spirit of cultural resistance. Contrary to Bell's pessimistic cultural mood, the theorists of the Frankfurt School did not adopt the overall cultural logic of their one-sided comments on the existing phenomena or facts of culture when thinking about culture. Instead, they defended modernist art with a cultural mood of subjective confrontation against contemporary capitalist culture.
It is an important part of Frankfurt School's literature, art and aesthetics theory to defend modernist art and make a cultural and philosophical interpretation of western Marxism on modernist art. In the Frankfurt School, cultural and aesthetic issues are mainly the special research fields of Adorno and Benjamin. Among them, Adorno defended modernism most. "Adorno's art theory is equivalent to a kind of modernist theory or avant-garde theory. The modernist art idea is actually Adorno's art ideal. So why do the theorists of the Frankfurt School defend modernist art? Or what is the fundamental reason why they praise modernist art?
Chapter 9: Model Essay on the Art of the Times
Key words: contemporary China; Cultural construction; Art; Art theory; Discipline construction; Theoretical innovation; guide; Cultural consciousness; Core value; Artistic spirit
CLC No.: J0 Document ID Code: A
Since the founding of New China, especially since the reform and opening up, the construction, development and change of the discipline of Chinese art have always been closely linked with the specific historical conditions and the specific practice of contemporary Chinese cultural construction. At present, the theoretical construction of various disciplines in the field of humanities and social sciences is constantly strengthened. The changing background of the times and the urgent requirements of real life are constantly giving new practical significance and applied social value to the theory of art. Art theory is a rich system with independent character, especially in the development of contemporary society, it is a disciplinary system with great potential. The theory of art should not be an empty theory like a castle in the air, but should focus on solving practical problems. To build art theory into a real discipline system, it must realize the transformation of its own research paradigm, that is, from a single text research, research in the study to field investigation and empirical research. At the same time, it needs the discipline support of basic theories such as art genesis, art taxonomy, art philology, art sociology, art anthropology, etc, The basic academic construction of art history, art theory and art criticism with a macro perspective of art science is required. It has become an important mission of contemporary art academia to build a discipline system of theoretical research on art with Chinese characteristics.
At present, in China's academic and cultural circles, there are a lot of academic discussions and research achievements on the theoretical research of art and the construction of the theoretical discipline of art. However, the development and construction of art theory are considered and studied less in the context of cultural construction, especially contemporary Chinese cultural construction. In view of this, this paper believes that it is necessary to think deeply about the significance and role of artistic theory in contemporary Chinese cultural construction.
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