Hua Nie Beauty Sketch (Imitation) Hua Nie Beauty Sketch (Original) □ Text/Figure An interesting thing happened in Linlin recently. He bought two almost identical paintings and calligraphy works with the inscriptions of two contemporary painters. Who copied who? Earlier, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported that the Japanese government had revoked the annual art award awarded to Tian, a famous Japanese artist, because it was revealed that many oil paintings had copied the works of Italian artist ALBERTO SUGHI. Regarding "plagiarism", there are two completely different views in the art world: one thinks that art must be original, and the mutual "plagiarism" between peers or direct "reference" from the outside world makes the art market mixed; Another view is that art must be passed on, especially China's paintings and calligraphy have the tradition of archaizing, which can't be regarded as plagiarism. So how to define plagiarism of artistic works? How to distinguish plagiarism from imitation? Focus 1: copying the ancients: traditional art should pay tribute to the master. Curator Wu believes that the art world has always formed two diametrically opposite views on plagiarism. One thinks that all art must be brand-new, and the other thinks that art can also learn from each other and even "pay tribute to the master": "Just like Beijing Opera, there are only a few back and forth aria, so it is difficult to be original. But different artists have different understandings of the same Peking Opera and different performances. " He believes that artistic creation is not necessarily original, but also innovation, improvement and transformation on the basis of predecessors. But plagiarism is completely different from this innovation and improvement: "plagiarism is abhorrent in the art world. Plagiarists imitate the works of other painters and sign their own names. " However, in the history of China's fine arts, there is a painting tradition-future generations are proud to imitate the works of their predecessors better, and even if their own names are added to the imitations, their artistic value and market value are often recognized. There are two such works in the Guangdong Provincial Art Museum. One is the portrait of Yang Guifei by Hua Nie, a painter in Qing Dynasty, and the other is the portrait of Yang Guifei by Huang Junbi, a painter of Guangdong Traditional Chinese Painting Research Association at the beginning of last century. "The similarity between the two works reached 99%, so it can be judged that Huang Junbi copied Hua Nie's works intact. Huang Junbi copied all the money on Hua Nie's original paintings and left his own money. " Zhu, a researcher at the Guangdong Provincial Museum, told the author, "In the process of copying, although the brushwork may have added its own things, it has not been' recreated', and the composition and artistic conception of the work are exactly the same as the original painting." From a certain point of view, it may be a "tribute to the master", but for Zhu, he believes that the significance of the work lies in showing his exquisite artistic skills in copying ancient paintings, and it also confirms that the study of Chinese painting began with copying. The skill of copying has always been regarded as a traditional skill of China's painting and calligraphy. The ancients copied, first for practice, and second to show their ability to copy ancient paintings accurately, rather than to show their artistic level for re-creation. "For the ancients, the highest realm is nothing more than copying 100% similarity of ancient paintings, which is not bad at all with the original paintings, and even copying each other's faults and failures." Zhu believes that this cultural and aesthetic tradition has always influenced the field of Chinese painting. Even in modern times, there is still the phenomenon of copying. Some painters even copy all their lives. "It's just that some people are lucky. After copying, they found their own way out and formed their own skills." Therefore, he believes that the standard to define plagiarism or plagiarism is that if the plagiarized work is displayed as his own work, it is of course suspected of plagiarism, but if it is a work made by others, it is understandable. Focus 2: Copying with the West: Oil painters have both fame and fortune. "In different cultural environments, the definition and treatment of plagiarism are different." Zhu believes that, for example, western classical oil paintings pay attention to portraits, copying nature, objects and human bodies instead of paintings by Leonardo da Vinci or Van Gogh, otherwise they will be criticized or even attacked by the world. At the end of last century, a famous oil painter discussed plagiarism in his undergraduate thesis, and compared some famous works of domestic artists with the original works of western works. This paper caused an uproar and reflection in the art world at that time. After a lapse of 20 years, Wu believes that it is meaningful for artists in China oil painting to imitate the works of western masters at that time: "In different contexts, the comparison between eastern and western works is only that the latter borrows the images and symbols of the former, which can be said to be plagiarism or borrowing images. I prefer the latter view. " "Since the 1980s, the East has been imitating the West, and it has always been so." This phenomenon is called "picture album phenomenon" in the industry. Wu explained that at that time, China didn't know much about foreign art circles. Some artists took the lead in getting western picture books, saw good works, and quickly changed this style into their own before others got the information, making them famous. "The phenomenon of taking this shortcut to become a famous artist does exist, but it has not been criticized or severely reprimanded in the art world." He believes that one reason is that the oil paintings of national art exhibitions have very similar styles and styles every year, but it has not affected their finalists and awards, which proves that the industry is tolerant of this kind of "plagiarism". Secondly, there are many successful cases of copying western works among the leaders of famous painting academies, which makes this a common phenomenon in the art circle. "Plagiarists are often likely to gain fame and fortune. This extremely unreasonable phenomenon is a manifestation of backward intellectual property rights. " Xuejun Gan [Weibo], general manager of Huachen Auction, stressed that this should be legislated, but the definition of plagiarism is a difficult problem. "It should be defined in composition and painting, with the focus on how to change traditional concepts." In his view, in the era of underdeveloped printing, Chinese painting regards copying as a method of inheritance and continuation. Therefore, the extremely serious plagiarism in the world has been "diluted" in China because of this historical tradition. He believes that modern China art creation and art market need creation and unique personality, so the present China art market, facing the opportunities and challenges of the world market, should consider how to follow internationally accepted rules. "Traditional calligraphy and painting can be inherited and have a portal style, but modern creation will definitely suffer if it does not follow the internationally accepted principles." Focus 3: How similar is plagiarism? "Even in the western art circle, there is no 100% originality. Even the brand-new and even subversive art advertised once existed in the context of predecessors. Even if it was only the existence of opposites at that time, it must be related to the things of predecessors. " Wu said so. In fact, in the western art world, plagiarism is proportional. According to curator Xiong Bin, those with a general similarity of 30%~40% are suspected of plagiarism, otherwise they are just the same. However, in China's paintings and calligraphy, this ratio does not apply. "How to define a painter's works as 20% of Qi Baishi's, 25% of Zhang Daqian's and 15% of Fu Baoshi's?" Mr. Liu, an art dealer, said. Xiong Bin said: "Most of China's oil paintings are copied from foreign countries, and even contemporary China ink paintings may be influenced to some extent. The painter Guo Runwen once said that there is no room for innovation in oil painting, only the depth of learning it. There is some truth in this sentence. Many famous artists are integrating ancient and modern China and foreign countries, copying first and then seeking new ones. " Therefore, artistic innovation is a kind of learning and integration. "The sun has a history of so many years, but our understanding of the sun is still deepening. This kind of understanding is not innovation, but it already exists, so it is the same for art. However, many students in art colleges innovate, not to strengthen their study, but to be unconventional and meaningless. "Cultural products always have practical effects. They assume different cultural roles in different contexts. In different time, space and context, the same works and styles are used by different artists and bear different cultural roles and functions, so it is not accurate to use the word' plagiarism' in the art world. Plagiarism in academic circles is very clear. One is one, one is two. Yours is yours and mine is mine. However, it is difficult to define cultural products in this way because the language of images and symbols is very limited. " Xiong Bin said. An art circle veteran put it more bluntly: "Contemporary art allows this kind of' learning', which is not illegal and impeccable. This is how China people learn and create. Contemporary artistic creation methods allow the use of existing images, such as Zhang Xiaogang [Weibo] and family photos taken in1960s, which is misappropriation, such as Zhou Chunya or other artists. But they created new meanings by stealing existing images. " Some market participants believe that the ability of plagiarists to "eat" in the market has something to do with the low level of collectors and their inability to judge. Xuejun Gan believes that collectors and consumers should have the ability to identify and consume artworks, but in the final analysis, the reason is not the collectors, and collectors can't know all artists and artworks. Only by enacting laws, creators, that is, producers, can the problem be fundamentally solved.