A Successful Example of the Combination of East and West in Modern Contemporary Cultural History--On the Art of Chinese Oil Painter Zao Wou-ki

Abstract

Literature and art are an essential part of contemporary cultural history, and Chinese technology, poetry, drama, fiction, calligraphy, painting and sculpture are the quintessence of Chinese culture. In his image, Zao Wou-ki has achieved outstanding success by combining Chinese folk art with Western oil painting. After he settled abroad, his homesickness and his reflections on Chinese culture and art prompted him to consciously take into account the philosophical and aesthetic outlook of Chinese national art in his oil paintings while striving to incorporate the sentiments and aesthetic standards of Chinese national art into his oil paintings with varying degrees of success. The conscious pursuit of Chinese national art is, therefore, fundamental to the in-depth analysis of the characteristics and connotations of the works of overseas Chinese oil painters. This article attempts to analyse the influence and embodiment of Chinese folk art in Zao Wou-ki's oil paintings in terms of composition, brushwork and the pursuit of mood and to study the conscious incorporation and tracking of Chinese folk art in the works of Chinese oil painters.