|
A traditional Chinese painter and member of the Chinese People's
Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) has made an appeal for a
concerted effort to capture a complete representation of
contemporary China - a country in transition - in the quality of
the masterpieces of the past. Shi Dawei asks, "How else will we
remember today well and accurately?"
"If painters today cannot produce the great works of the past such
as the Riverside Scenes at the Qingming Festival (Zhang
Zeduan, Northern Song Dynasty, 960-1127), how will today be
remembered in 500 years time?" asks the painter and executive
director of the Chinese Painting Institute of Shanghai, Shi Dawei,
who is concerned that local cultural practices like traditional
painting will lose its recognition worldwide if is not practiced
with the same determination and quality as in the past.
In
more than 20 years of reform and greater openness, Chinese culture
has found a wider interest as expressed in popular market appeal.
However, according to Shi, this is not necessarily a good thing for
artists as they can often be driven by the market rather than a
pursuit of excellence and dedication to subject matter. Shi has
called on cultural institutions to pay attention and to guide
cultural representation.
"The fact that we sell some pictures, or host hundreds of
performances doesn't matter if the representation is poor," he
says.
Shanghai possesses a world-class theater and has staged such
success stories as Les Miserable and the ballet, Swan
Lake, but seldom are Chinese works appreciated and liked by
local people in the same way.
"There should not only be quality representations of traditional
subjects like the plum, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum, or even
beautiful women and handsome men, but there should be images of
today and the some of the successes of change. What about the
building of the Lupu Bridge or the Maglev Train? What about our
images of immigrant workers?" the artist said.
Shi has called for greater support of the "theme picture" and
advocates that a topic system be established, much as in the
sciences, to allow the allocation of funds to be handled by
appropriate departments that could supervise the artists. It would
be possible, he said, for the state to make a collection of superb
"theme" subjects as a true representation and historical
record.
Shi has also proposed a contract system for art institutions, where
under formal contract conditions, an artist would be commissioned
only after a period of two years when he/she had proved their
considerable ability. Only in this way should the representation of
Chinese culture go out into the world, the artist said.
(China.org.cn, March 9, 2003)
|
