Reminiscing on the Tradition: The Revival and Reconstruction of Tradition (1980-1999)

At the end of the 20^th century, Chinese painters had a more tolerant and open understanding of multiculturalism and artistic styles. In this period, the most famous schools of panting were “new literati painting” and “experimental ink wash painting”. The “new literati painting” heralded the revival of traditional characteristics and also expressed the great commonality with the old one in dissolving the interaction between the individual, painting and society. While looking at the tradition, some painters adopted a new strategy, the “experimental ink wash painting”, to understand the possibilities of calligraphy, painting, brush and ink from another perspective. Since the 1980s, young Chinese artists have gradually familiarized themselves with Western artists such as Munch, Kirchner, Mark, Bacon, Klein, de Kooning and their works, and applied methods of expression from modernism to Chinese painting. Additionally, more consideration was given to the physical characteristics of ink wash. Linguistic symbols, signs, abstractions, distortions and exaggerations, as well as techniques including paper-twisting, spray painting, dripping, rubbing and broad brush painting were extensively used in works of this period.