Analysis and Thought on Status of Folk Art in Henan

Abstract

The Henan folk art penetrates in various aspects like the social production and living, daily necessities, customs, ritual, belief and taboo, being the living fossil of Chinese history and culture. In this paper, starting from the realistic value of Henan folk value, the author deeply analyzes the status of Henan folk art and proposes several countermeasures for protection. I. Realistic value of Henan folk art The Henan folk art works are of various forms, with high artistic quality and strong human interest, and this traditional cultural and artistic resource still has continuous vitality and extremely high realistic value till now, mainly reflected in the following four aspects: (I) Practical value Utilitarian is the main purpose of folk artistic work creation in the early period, especially for some craftworks with practical value in life, for example, embroidered shoes should both wear comfortable and look beautiful in appearance; blue and white porcelain jars can be used to fill things and also used for appreciation. Upon the efforts of countless generations of folk craftsmen, a beautiful form has been formed in the folk art, and presented in various aspects of life, for example, the folk paper cutting art in Henan can be associated with festivals, and this reflects its practical value and is also the main reason for inheritance till now. Another example is the perfume satchel art widely popular in Henan. Perfume satchel is generally woven with the colorful wires, with various vanillas in it, and its practical value is mainly reflected in parasite expelling and dispelling diseases. Besides, perfume satchel can also be used as the love pledge between lovers, and this manifests its aesthetic value, i.e. the organic unification between utilitarian and aesthetics, it is because of the existence of such value that the Henan folk art is endowed with immortal life. (II) Artistic value At present, there are still a lot of primitive and traditional things reserved in Henan folk art, which reflect the simple aesthetic concept of Chinese nation. Most of the folk craftsmen take everything in the nature as the carrier and use their own wisdom and artistic talents for improvisation, when we feel the folk craftwork carefully, we can relax ourselves greatly both physically and mentally, our emotion can also be upgraded, and these are all closely associated with the artistic value of the folk art. The life habits in Henan reserve many oriental cultural atmospheres of the ancient t times, and some painters combine these atmospheres with the organic artistic means and styles to form their unique painting style, and have created a lot of artistic works with rich national characteristics. Although the contents and forms of the folk art will be changed with time passing by, the artistic value contained in them is immortal.