Part 14 Illusionist Painting in the Era of Globalization

(1)

In Chinese history, there has never been an era where China is so closely connected and integrated with the world as it is today. The transformation of China is a historical trend and an inseparable process from the international community. In the current context of globalization, how should Chinese painting face such complex, diverse, and even contradictory artistic phenomena, works, and practices? In this era, what will Chinese art look like to adapt to the international context?

Wang Chunchen proposed: firstly, can one agree that Chinese art is a fact that occurs in China; The second is to directly face the art in the scene (i.e. new and unfamiliar artistic creations and creations); Thirdly, today's cultural revival in China requires cultural creativity and open thinking.

The intersection of Eastern and Western art has been ongoing since the 16th century, with Eastern art represented by China and Japan and Western art represented by Western Europe and the United States interacting and influencing each other. From this perspective, today's Eastern or Western art is no longer the original meaning of Eastern and Western art. Today's modern art has broken through regions and cultures, further breaking the limitations of the image age on humans and giving humanity more penetrating power.

Moore believes that the art that adapts to this era is digital art. Moore's idea was inspired by Benjamin. Benjamin once distinguished the art of the mechanical replication era from traditional art, believing that traditional art values worship value, while the art of the mechanical replication era values display value. Traditional art that values worship and emphasizes the uniqueness of works. Promote the art of reproduction that showcases value and emphasize the mass production of works. For the art of reproduction that advocates display value, the larger the amount of reproduction, the more opportunities it has to meet with the public, the more valuable it becomes. For traditional art that values worship, any reproduction will damage its mysterious aura. However, in Moore's view, the era of mechanical replication in which Benjamin lived has passed, and today is an era of digital synthesis. The art of the digital synthesis era neither worships value nor showcases value, but values operational value. According to Moore's vision, today's artists should be experts in computer application software, knowing how to uniquely utilize and process various databases. The artist became the operator who retreated behind the scenes. Of course, it is worth exploring whether Moore's ideas transcend the boundaries of art.

As is well known, the boundary between art and non art was challenged by artists and theorists in the 20th century. Nothing is not art, and nothing is art, has become a fashionable term in the art circle. However, if the boundaries of art are truly lifted, there is no doubt about all activities related to art. Art has always been different from non art, and with the changing times, the differences between art and non art have changed, but this cannot be denied as a result. For example, in the era of Plato, art was seen as a shadow because reality was not a shadow. Now in the era of digital synthesis, reality seems to have become a "shadow". According to the principle of the difference between art and reality, art should not be a shadow, but a "reality". Therefore, we can envision a new art that truly adapts to the era of digitization and globalization. This new art is not abstract Western art or traditional Chinese painting, but illusionist painting.

Baumgarten advocates that art and beauty are the perfection of perceptual understanding. Sensory understanding is both "chaotic" and "clear". 'Chaos' refers to the absence of logical analysis, while' clarity 'refers to the presentation of vivid images. Dense artistic language is a chaotic and clear language that can give people a "clear" image, but cannot be analyzed to exhaust its meaning, and therefore cannot provide people with "precise" knowledge.

The Goodman aesthetics, established in the mid-20th century, can support all forms of art in principle, but relatively speaking, it is only most appropriate when applied to abstract art. Goodman clearly opposes reproduction and similarity, so his theory does not support any form of realistic art. Goodman's emphasis on the density of artistic language also sets him apart from pop art and conceptual art. For Goodman, who once ran a gallery, the rise of abstract expressionism in the 1950s will inevitably affect his aesthetic ideas.

According to the principle of dissimilarity, the art of this era happens to be the art of showcasing life. In this regard, abstract art has its unique advantages. When abstract art is detached and elevated from external objects, it can more freely record the artist's life rhythm and spiritual trajectory. For artists, this rhythm of life and spiritual trajectory is non repeatable, an event that occurs at a certain time and place, and we cannot analyze it with precise language, or even describe it in everyday language. It's just a spontaneous presence, there's no need to say. If there are no "facts" in the digital era, then the presence and eventfulness of abstract art will make it the "facts" of this era. In other words, in the digital age, reality becomes a virtual composition, and art pursues the presence of reality. This is exactly the opposite of the Platonic era.

(2)

However, this does not mean that Liu Youju's illusion painting art is a return to the abstract movement of a hundred years ago. Due to significant changes in social background and completely different "targeted" approaches, today's abstractions will take on a new look, which we may call "new abstractions". Let's briefly review the history of abstract art.

In fact, abstract factors in art have existed for a long time. However, abstract art, as an art movement or as an art genre, was formed in the early 20th century. On the one hand, due to the maturity of photography technology and the popularity of cameras, painting has to consider what cannot be replaced by photography; On the other hand, due to the decline of religious influence, art tends to replace religion, or people have developed a religious understanding of art.

In 18th century Europe, Kant attempted to distinguish between fields such as science, art, ethics, and religion. However, in the 19th century, there was a trend of combining these fields, especially religion and art. According to Fraser's observation, many religious aesthetic theories emerged during the Victorian period in England, attempting to reconcile Christian claims with beauty and art. Elliott also observed this phenomenon, pointing out that "during that period, the differentiation of ideas, the separation between art, philosophy, religion, ethics, and literature, was interrupted by various attempts to achieve an impossible comprehensive utopia." In the early 20th century abstract painting movement, we can see that the integration of art and religion moved towards replacing religion with art. According to Golding's research, the pioneers of abstract painting, such as Mondrian, Kandinsky, Malevich, and others, were once fervent followers of the theology founded by Madame Bravatsky. Theosophy is a religious philosophy and group that advocates for an absolute transcendent existence, where philosophy, science, art, and more can bring people closer to that absolute existence. In Mondrian's view, theosophers could never obtain absolute experience, and therefore "could never experience true and complete human harmony." It was precisely because he realized certain shortcomings of theosophy that Mondrian began to replace religion with art, because art was even purer than theosophy and therefore more like religion than any form of religion in reality. As a pure creation of human spirit, art is manifested as a pure aesthetic creation reflected in abstract forms.”

Bell's "Art" published in 1914 is often regarded as a theoretical summary of post impressionist art, but in fact, many of its viewpoints are more appropriate for abstract art. In Bell's view, art is not a representation of the external world, but a meaningful form. According to this new definition, Bell opposes artistic reproduction, the creation of illusions, and the display of technology, making creating meaningful forms the primary purpose of art. So, what is a 'meaningful form'? Especially what does the "meaning" refer to? Bell put it bluntly, it is the metaphysical 'thing in itself' or 'ultimate reality'. This' thing in itself 'or' ultimate reality 'is both the object of religion and the object of art. Of course, in the eyes of artists and theorists in the early 20th century, the art here was only a new art represented by abstract painting. It can be said that without believing in the metaphysical 'absolute', 'thing in itself', or 'ultimate reality', one cannot understand the works of the pioneers of abstract painting, especially those of Mondrian.

Abstract art, developed by artists from various European countries in the early 20th century, was revived in the United States in the mid-19th century. Although Pollock still draws inspiration from theology, the theoretical basis for supporting American abstract representionism is not as religious theology, but as philosophical psychoanalytic theory, especially Jung's collective unconscious theory. Pollock is a typical Jungian, and his paintings can be seen as traces of the unconscious, especially the collective unconscious. [15] Compared to the metaphysical 'absolute', 'thing in itself', or 'ultimate reality', the unconscious or collective unconscious touches on human desires and instincts, appearing too 'metaphysical'. However, they share a common characteristic, which is that they both transcend consciousness or reason. Theosophy transcends upwards, while unconsciousness transcends downwards.

Whether it is theology or unconsciousness, it will not attract too many believers in today's flat mass or consumer era. Abstract art has declined, replaced by pop art. This is an undeniable fact. However, with the advent of the era of globalization, abstract art will usher in a revival opportunity.

(3)

The era of globalization has ushered in the exchange and integration of different cultures, and many thinkers and artists are looking forward to a new culture that transcends cultural identity and believes that this new culture will be based on aesthetic consensus. In my opinion, this aesthetic consensus will become the theoretical basis for new abstract art. Let's do some in-depth analysis on this.

According to traditional aesthetics, aesthetics is related to personal taste and is one of the most difficult areas to form consensus on. Kant defined aesthetic judgment as reflective judgment to distinguish it from prescriptive judgment in cognitive activities. The so-called prescriptive judgment is a typical form of cognitive judgment that ranges from general to special. Reflective judgment is a typical form of aesthetic judgment, ranging from special to general. Due to the lack of predetermined concepts and guidelines to follow, reflective judgment is completely free. In fact, even if there are certain aesthetic standards, people will not take them seriously because violating standards will not cause serious consequences. In other fields, violating standards may result in public condemnation and even legal punishment. Due to the lack of abstract standards and the absence of serious consequences from violating standards in aesthetic judgment, personal preferences can be fully demonstrated. The so-called aesthetic consensus is neither possible nor necessary. However, it is precisely this looseness that makes it easy for people from different cultural backgrounds to reach consensus on aesthetic judgments. We can apply Kant's special rhetoric and refer to aesthetic consensus as a consensus built on the basis of no consensus.

The reason why different cultures exhibit different characteristics is because they have different limitations and internal consensus formed based on these limitations. Cultural diversity is actually the diversity of limitations, the diversity of internal consensus. The greater the degree of limitation in a certain aspect, the stronger the internal consensus, and the more obvious the cultural style or differences reflected. The difficulty of reaching consensus among different cultures in this area becomes greater. In other words, the stronger the consensus within the same culture, the harder it is to form consensus between different cultures. The question now is: can we conversely say that the weaker the consensus within the same culture, the easier it is to form consensus between different cultures? The current trends in international aesthetics and art support this judgment to some extent. Whether in the field of aesthetic research or artistic creation, it has been found that people with different cultural backgrounds are most likely to reach consensus on aesthetic judgment issues.

Why do humans form a consensus on beauty? Today, many aestheticians like to seek theoretical support for this issue from aspects such as evolutionary psychology, neuroscience, and epistemology. In the eyes of some cross-cultural aestheticians, human aesthetic consensus has a genetic foundation. The human preference for beauty was formed during the Pleistocene period two million years ago, and relevant information is preserved in human genetic genes. However, some multiculturalists are concerned that a strong universalism may put pressure on certain non mainstream cultures. In order to avoid this pressure, there has been a recent trend towards cross-cultural aesthetics. Unlike cross-cultural aesthetics that simply pursue aesthetic consensus, cross-cultural aesthetics strives to maintain aesthetic diversity while pursuing aesthetic consensus. How can we achieve both consensus and diversity? For cross-cultural aesthetics, although aesthetic consensus remains crucial, unlike what cross-cultural aestheticians advocate, this consensus is predetermined (such as determined by genetic factors), but rather an unrealized or perhaps impossible ideal, a utopia. In other words, aesthetic consensus is an ideal pursued by people from different cultural backgrounds, rather than a fact of the present or past. Given that this ideal cannot be achieved, it can still protect the diversity of aesthetic judgments. If postmodern aesthetics emphasizes the diversity of aesthetic judgments, cross-cultural aesthetics emphasizes the universality of aesthetic judgments, and cross-cultural aesthetics emphasizes a certain universality that can accommodate diversity.

Both the aesthetic consensus determined by genetic factors and the aesthetic consensus as a utopia can be reflected in abstract art. If the aesthetic consensus determined by genetic factors, similar to Jung's collective unconscious, is a "downward" exploration, then as a utopian aesthetic consensus, it is similar to the "absolute" transcendence in theology, which is an "upward" transcendence. Just as Jung's theory of collective unconsciousness supports Pollock's hot abstraction and Madame Bravatsky's theology supports Mondrian's cold abstraction, the aesthetic consensus determined by genetic factors and the aesthetic consensus as a utopia will also support the application of new abstract art in the era of globalization.

The era of globalization requires an art that transcends cultural identity. Abstract, as a refined artistic language, has inherent advantages in transcending cultural identity. As the famous scholar Zhu Qingsheng once said, "The purpose of art is no longer to convey meaning, but to gradually break through the limitations of human spirit. The norms formed by classics sometimes become a constraint on human creativity, but this shackle is made of gold. Art is about breaking it down.

The aesthetic consensus excavated by Liu Youju's illusionist painting, rather than relying on a certain religious belief or philosophical theory, and no longer based on a specific cultural tradition, can be said to be a "de enchantment" of modernist abstract art. The new abstract art pursues pure visual language and expresses the true life feelings of contemporary people. On the surface, there are various associations between illusionist painting and modernist abstraction, but due to different circumstances and problems faced, they present different appearances and temperament.