FLOWER-AND-BIRD PAINTING
Xu Xi and Huang Quan may be the best representatives of Chinese flower-and-bird painting from the era of the Five Dynasties(907-60).The former was noted for his quiet elegace and the latter for his brilliant colours. In the Yuan dynasty(1271-1368)artists such as Qian Xuan and Wang Yuan broke feresh ground with their vigorous but supple brush strokes and quiet colours, a style that was followed by many later artists. In my opinion, flower-and-bird(and figure)painting can be categorized in a same wasy as landscape painting, by the brushwork of famous artists of different periods.
Chinese painting, which ranges from strong-colour realism to softcolour xieyi, from meticulous brushwork to free and uninhibited styles, has developed through thousands of years. Traditionally, Chinese paintings have been divided into four categories: animated, skilful, ingeious and natural.An animated painting is one that has successfully captured the spirit or essence of a subject. A skilful painting accurately reproduces the subjest's form while an ingenious one possessed the subject's intrinsic charm and appeal.A natural painting has something of the origianl aura of the subject. I think there should also be a fifth category, called'crude'.I do not mean clumsy or naive but unsophisticated in appearance because seeking a higher artistic plane.
'Poetic sentiments, picturesque language', 'painting in poetry, poetry in painting'-these are some common sayings on the affinity between painting and peotry. Put another way ,a painting must have a soul and that is the artist's original conception. A good landscape painting is one that gives the viewer the feeling that he is actually in it. It should hve an ever-present aura. It can be compared to a good portrait in which not only the physical likeness of the sitter is captured but also, more importantly ,the spirit.
There are similarities between Chinese and Western painting as far as types of brush mark are concerned, but the two are very different in their methods of presentation. In both Chinese and Western painting, a distinction is made between formal likeness and spiritual likeness, and in both forma likeness is achieved dirst. But Chinese painting has long freed itself from the constraints of form and shifted its focus to the spirit. However, the process of mutual assimilation between Chese and Western styles has been going on for at least a thousand years; it is a matter of international cultural exchange as well as an aesthetic problem and is,of course, on-going. No doubt new schools and style will appear in Chinese painting in the future.