The Chinese culture is a very interesting topic to learn about. They have many beliefs, customs and traditions that make them unique. Art was very important to the Chinese culture. It was a way to express or symbolize emotions. The Chinese display many different styles as well as techniques to express who they truly are and believe. Art began in China in stone structures. Large carvings were carried out by families rather than one particular person. Throughout the years, Chinese art has evolved into carvings, weavings, ceramics, wall paintings, silk paintings, sculpture, and a technique known as origami.
The International Exhibition of Chinese Art which opened on November 27th, 1935, formed a remarkable collection of Chinese art. It illustrated the culture of China for many years. Carvings were a very popular Chinese technique of displaying art. Many of these carvings were inspired by Buddhist, a sacred Chinese religion. They are very rare and priceless works of art. In early China, cauldrons of bronze were also carved with maps and pictures of products of the provinces of China. Carvings were essential to China.
Another form of art in China was the weaving of textiles. The earliest Chinese silk weavings were found by Sir. Aurel Stein during his third Central Asian expedition in the year 1914. They display much of the tradition and exquisite customs of China. Many symbols were also demonstrated in these silks. Dragons, animals, birds, horsemen, cloud-scrolls and floral stems were all incorporated in the textiles. Throughout China a great number of paintings have been come across over the years, however not all survived.
Three hundred wall paintings by the greatest of Chinese masters, WuTao-tzu were all destroyed. Also, a vast collection of silk paintings were unfortunately burned. Many Chinese paintings, fortunately, are in fact preserved. The exhibition at Burlington House held a selection of the treasures that China had to offer. There is a wide variety of old Chinese paintings but some are not certain as to the date created and authorship. Also, in the British Museum is a painting attributed to Ku K’ai-chin which represents the design of the period of the Chin Dynasty.
Chinese paintings were and still are today, of great importance. Ceramics of the Chinese culture displayed the finest works of craftsmanship. Pottery was a procurable material for the Chinese and showed the changing phases of thought. Architecture and sculpture are difficult to access and have perished with the lapse of years. Early art must be studied but some ceramics are too destructible to illustrate the spirit of their time. Chinese sculpture has come a long way over the years. The sculpting of the human form was not of great importance to the Chinese.
Their greatest sculptures were not done as glorifications of individual beauty or physical movement. The Chinese art was essentially conventional. The Chinese were quite free from the tendency towards anthropomorphic idealization and they had a stronger feeling for the essential unity which underlies all the changing manifestations of material life. A great number of Chinese sculpture represents religious motifs, many times of Buddhist origin and not infrequently in human form. It was very abstract and unique in its own way.
Origami is the art of paper folding. It began in China by Ts’ai Lun, a servant of the Chinese emperor and rapidly spread to Japan. At first, there was very little paper available so only the rich could afford it. The samurai would exchange goods known as noshee. It was a paper folded with a strip of dried fish or meat. It was then folded into many artistic things. Over the years, paper became less expensive as easier papermaking methods were developed. In the 1900’s origami spread from China and Japan into England and the United States.
It was truly a unique and creative way for Chinese to express feelings or emotions by simple folding paper into beautiful works of art. As you can see, Chinese art has truly had a great impact on the Chinese way of life for centuries and centuries. The styles and creativity of the art express what the Chinese people were feeling at the time they made it. The Chinese showed great skill in every piece of artwork which they beautifully displayed. Chinese art began many centuries ago and will continue to flourish for many years to come.