The Image of a City in Chinese Landscape Painting a Scientific Discourse in Chinese Historiography

Abstract

The article analyzes the phenomenon of the urban landscape, which is a notable phenomenon in modern Chinese art history. In this direction, the researchers consider not only the genre originality of the urban landscape, but also artistic models of the representation of the city image in painting. The urban landscape acquires independent forms within the framework of Chinese art through comparative practices of matching and comparison with Western artistic genesis. Already in the early 2000s, Chinese art historians were actively looking for new models for presentation of traditional art. At the same time, their desire to preserve traditional artistic achievements necessitated the identification of innovative and modern forms of Chinese art, which became notable artistic phenomena during the second half of the twentieth century. In Chinese “urban” painting, one of the central themes is the issue of modernization, which develops from two perspectives: a) urbanistic, which is aimed at the artistic generalization of various forms of urban life and landscape; b) in the direction of retro, which expresses a steady interest in the images of “old” China — urban landscapes and pictures of urban life, representing the aesthetics of the disappearance of traditional “small” China towns. For the current stage of development of fine arts in China, the image of the city in the context of regionalism and ethnic specificity is of great importance. The images of the city are directly related to the characteristic models of visual representation of the regions of China. Regions differ both in ways and norms of life (for example, small towns and conglomerate metropolitan areas) and in the variety of landscapes (for example, sea-side, mountain and plain). This factor is the cause of additional difficulties in defining the urban landscape as a genre of art. Certain features are analyzed on the example of the works of such outstanding masters of Chinese fine arts Yan Wanliang and Dai Shihe.