Chinese Modern Paintings

Chinese modern paintings have been undervalued for a long time when considering their high level of techniques and spirituality. The current rapid upward re-evaluation is mostly due to the recent growing China economy and monetary wealth but this is a welcome trend as they have high values to be appreciated by people in the world.

There are several reasons why they have been undervalued for a long time.

1) Mass production

Chinese painting artists produce really a lot of paintings in their lives. It is quite easy for them to make more than ten paintings a day because of the materials they use - ink, water and big brushes. And speed is often required to make a painting more vivid, showing movement, force, flow, direction, etc. Even very good and high quality paintings, when they are produced a lot, their values are generally diluted. But the mass production of this type has no relation with the level of quality.


2) Not enough advertisement

Chinese people have not used much time, money and efforts to say to people in the other world "Chinese paintings are very high in quality as you can see easily", etc. And theoretical and systematic explanations (which Western people prefer) why "Chinese paintings are very high in quality' have not been enough.


3) Different sense of beauty

How Chinese people see beauty in nature or paintings are naturally differ from the Western world. Symmetry is not seen as beauty so much and asymmetry or well balanced asymmetry is appreciated more as beauty.





AAG