Line drawing is one of the basic elements of painting. The origin of line drawing can be traced back to the early days of human civilization, such as primitive rock paintings, painted pottery patterns, ancient bottle paintings, murals, silk paintings and so on. Although sketch in western traditional painting can be included in the broad category of line drawing, its concept seems to be broader than line drawing. Even in modern times, people usually classify line drawing in Chinese painting as a kind of painting. Although sketch, as a painting technique, doesn't matter whether it is Chinese or western, and it can be adopted by both eastern and western painters, in history, Chinese and western traditional paintings belong to different plastic arts systems after all. Generally speaking, the traditional oriental painting is dominated by line modeling, while the traditional western painting is dominated by sketch modeling. The sketch of western traditional painting, of course, also depicts objects with monochrome lines, but pays more attention to imitating the realistic modeling of objects and the three-dimensional structure of light and shade; However, the line drawing of traditional oriental painting pays more attention to the procedural expression of the lines themselves and the plane decoration effect of the actual situation and the density. Indian murals and miniature paintings, Persian miniature paintings and Japanese ukiyo-e paintings all belong to the traditional oriental painting system with line modeling as the main body, and Chinese painting is the most typical representative of traditional oriental painting.
The line drawing of traditional Chinese painting is called line drawing or line drawing, especially the drawing method of sketching objects with brush and ink line, which has no color or a little ink, and is mostly used for figures, flowers and birds. This pure pen-and-ink line drawing method is the backbone of Chinese painting. Brush and calligraphy have a close relationship. "Five-color moving ink" (Zhang Yanyuan) is a unique creation of China's fine arts with rich expressive force, simple and ethereal abstract beauty and rhythm of black and white symphony. In the history of China's fine arts, Gu Kaizhi, Cao, Wu Daozi, Wu Zongyuan, Li, Liang Kai, Zhao, Wang Yi, Chen Hongshou and Ren Bonian are all good at painting. Among them, Cao's A Grass Out of Water (dense style) and Wu Daozi's Five Dynasties Party Style (sparse style) are the most famous. Sketches handed down by famous artists, including temple murals and woodcut illustrations, are still templates for beginners to copy. In the enlightenment books of painting in Ming and Qing Dynasties, the clothing lines of line painters in past dynasties were classified as 18 descriptions (some people also classified them as iron line painting, orchid leaf painting and reduced strokes), such as ancient You Simiao, iron line painting, running water painting, nail head and mouse tail painting, deer bend painting and Liu Yemiao. Many flower pictures with lines were also carved in the workshop. These line drawing procedures extracted from natural life and calligraphy and painting practice have formed the norms of line modeling in Chinese painting, marking the high maturity of line drawing techniques in Chinese painting, but also restricting the further development of line drawing art in Chinese painting. As Zong Baihua, a modern aesthetician in China, said, "China's sketch-line drawing and ink painting-was originally a great creation of painting in the Tang and Song Dynasties, brilliant and shining forever, but it gradually became a rigid stereotype after the Song and Yuan Dynasties. The decline of painting art is self-evident. " (Aesthetic Walking in Sketch)
From the 1980s to the early 20th century, the new period of reform and opening-up gave birth to the ideal of Chinese rejuvenation. Contemporary China art presents a diversified development trend of differentiation and integration. Traditional paintings that have declined are revived independently, and at the same time, the available resources of other paintings are integrated. As an independent painting, contemporary China line drawing art also shows a revival trend, which is mainly reflected in the consciousness of theoretical research and the prosperity of artistic creation. At the beginning of the 20th century, China Line Drawing Art Research Association and the first line drawing art exhibition of Chinese painting came into being, which are important symbols of the revival of line drawing art in contemporary China.
Mr. Li Kuizheng, President of China Line Drawing Art Research Association, has made outstanding contributions to promoting the inheritance and development of contemporary line drawing art in China. Mr. Li Kuizheng is a professor, doctoral supervisor and doctoral supervisor at the School of Fine Arts of Minzu University of China. He is not only an innovative painter, but also a scholar with rich theoretical literacy. He has been engaged in the research of line drawing art in China for many years, and published Modern Volume of Line Drawing Flowers and Birds in China, as well as exquisite meticulous flower-and-bird paintings. He believes that line drawing (line drawing) has always been the main modeling expression method of Chinese painting, which has the function of expressing form, quality, light, color and emotion. However, in ancient China, line drawing often relied on fresco pastel and printmaking illustrations, and later line drawing often relied on comic books, or line drawing was only a basic course exercise for art students, and it was still in an affiliated position, and it was rarely created as an independent painting, which inhibited the development of line drawing art in China to some extent. Today, we should promote the development of contemporary line drawing art on the basis of inheriting the traditional line drawing art of Chinese painting, and also absorb the advantages of line drawing art in ancient and modern world to create line drawing art that meets the national spirit and aesthetic needs of the new era. To this end, he also advocated the idea of sketching in natural and social life with "image realism" in teaching. Mr. Li Kuizheng's research on the line drawing art in China provides a clear idea for the all-round development of the line drawing art in contemporary China. Of course, to build an independent painting language system of contemporary China line drawing art completely, we need the long-term cooperation of colleagues and art theorists of China line drawing art research association, and deeply and systematically study China's line drawing art tradition from the technical level to the spiritual level, and study the history and present situation of East and West line drawing art, and timely summarize the fresh experience of contemporary China line drawing art creation.
The first line drawing art exhibition of Chinese painting is the first national line drawing art exhibition held since the establishment of China Line Drawing Art Research Association, which shows the prosperity and latest achievements of contemporary line drawing art creation in China. The name of this exhibition, "Line Drawing Art Exhibition of Chinese Painting", defines the line drawing art within the scope of Chinese painting. The line drawing works with pen and ink as the main exhibits show the leading intention of the exhibition organizers to inherit and carry forward the traditional line drawing art of Chinese painting. At the same time, the selected works, especially a large number of figure paintings and flower-and-bird paintings with realistic images, give new ideas and inject vitality into the artistic tradition of Chinese painting. According to the needs of expressing the spiritual outlook and aesthetic feelings of contemporary China people, both meticulous line drawing and artistic line drawing have broken through the traditional line drawing procedure of Chinese painting and enriched the expression language of line drawing art in contemporary China. From the works on display in this exhibition, we can easily find many explorations and experiments by famous line-drawing artists and rookies in contemporary China. These various explorations and experiments have prepared conditions for the all-round development of line drawing art in contemporary China.