In the books I have read about public art and the master's thesis of this major, many colleagues have deeply felt the lack and confusion of contemporary public art in China, and unanimously praised the realization framework of public art such as "percentage art". However, through searching and reading, the author found that in the literature of public art in China, there are more talks about legislation and implementation, visual aesthetics, and less talks about the choice of intervention forms and humanistic care. Especially in today's "image age", it is almost difficult to find a monograph on how to let contemporary art intervene in our urban life in China. Although contemporary art in China is in full swing, it is still suspected of being an ivory tower, which is actually out of touch with urban public art.
This topic is aimed at the creators, that is, how to introduce the new concept of contemporary art into public art, expand the intervention form of public art, and how to embody humanistic care in the limited space of China City.
"Essay style" is a self-made word. Before it was used in the word "public art", it was a temporary general term for a kind of public art after the author had a certain understanding of the general situation of public art in China. Its specific characteristics are composed of two aspects: first, it refers to non-commemorative, non-functional and non-thematic; Second, it takes up less space. This kind of public art is presented in the state that ordinary citizens are completely relaxed, and it is a kind of "people-friendly" art. The reason why the author wants to talk about "sketch style" is that this type of public art does not involve too many functional meanings and ideological constraints, giving artists and the public more room to play; Second, because this kind of public art is rarely wonderful in the ever-changing big cities of China, it often has the disadvantages of being "fake", "big" and "empty". Some works are loud and demanding in space, and the result is as abrupt as a whisper; Some are too personal, and it is difficult to have a "dialogue" with the public in public space; Others are too popular and have no artistic foresight.
The form of artistic intervention is very important. People talking about a public work of art and Michelangelo sculpture in a museum should be emotionally different. The effect of meeting art unexpectedly far exceeds a pre-rendered visit, and it is definitely a wonderful experience for people who are running around in the city for survival. Especially in today's China, the indifference of vertical layout without punctuation from right to left has almost disappeared, and the city is full of "exclamation marks" and "underscores". Do people need an encounter, a slight pause in life, accept a gift from the artist and share the inspiration brought by this romantic comma and question mark without any previous hints?
"Humanism" is an extremely rich concept, which is difficult to refer to accurately. "Humanism" is closely related to human value, dignity, independent personality, personality, survival and life and its significance, ideal and destiny.
"Humanistic thinking" is an abstract meditation on existence on the basis. Its basic idea is to think about people from the perspective of people and the basis of human existence, which will lead to a series of transcendental problems, such as human nature, the origin of people, the relationship between man and nature, the relationship between man and God, and the relationship between people. Because it thinks about people as classes, we say that its thinking transcends specific interpersonal relationships and limited existence.
"Humanistic care" is the concern and care for the above-mentioned humanistic problems. It is a sign of the progress of social civilization and a reflection of the improvement of human consciousness. Moreover, its connotation is not static, but keeps pace with the times.
There is no doubt that public art needs to reflect humanistic care. Artists play the role of social organizers to some extent, and have the ability to bring spiritual assistance to the public through their works, and to "heal" and soothe the soul in the collective. However, how to embody humanistic care? Is this kind of satisfaction of the public demand only a low-level primitive form, and only cares about "listening" in the general sense? The author believes that this is by no means the case. The reason why we use humanistic care instead of material care or humanistic thinking refers to spirituality and initiative. The publicity of public art is not only a blend, a compromise or a compromise, but a search for eternity and essence in the world. Artists should use their wisdom to maintain the purity of art to the maximum extent, rather than turning it into a product of compromise. Public art should be a leader, a direction, not an obvious result.
As a creator, the famous environmental artist Guan Genshen once said that "art is not a special thing, it is not just a means of self-expression". Contemporary art in China has a strong tendency of criticism and expressionism, which fully and strongly embodies humanistic care, but its integration with the city is a brand-new subject. How to make China contemporary art with cutting-edge consciousness intervene in public space, and let the embryonic form of humanistic care blend into public space and penetrate into urban life will be a very meaningful topic.
Therefore, under the background of the development of public art in China, with Beijing as the key research object, the author will separate some public art works with less utilitarianism and conduct a comprehensive discussion on this type of public art works from the perspective of intervention forms and humanistic care. It also puts public art into the overall discussion of contemporary art, hoping to inject some fresh vitality into the current public art in China.