The artistic expression of Chinese folk auspicious designs

Abstract: Chinese folk auspicious patterns always maintain the spirit of up-and-up view, and are unique in their romantic imagination and strange auspiciousness. They form a unique vocabulary in terms of form, composition and color. Exploring its artistic expression helps promote the traditional culture of the Chinese nation and promote the development of modern Chinese art.

Keywords: auspicious pattern image modeling emotional color

Chinese folk decorative designs are unique in their romantic imagination and strange auspiciousness. They are the works of art created by the working people in addition to production labor and social activities to meet the needs of spiritual life. Chinese folk auspicious designs have maintained the spirit of up-and-up view almost from the birth date, which is closely related to the ancient Chinese philosophy. Although the laborers of all ages have been living in an extremely poor living environment for a long period of time, they have never disappeared from the pursuit of beauty and yearning for it. They have always treated the future with optimism, always pinning their hopes on the future of grain, living a prosperous life, and making children more happy. Above fantasy. Its spiritual value of comforting spirit makes it show "the common nature of human beings that can survive for the longest." Chinese auspicious patterns are closely related to the basic concepts, values, functional structures, and quality forms of the Chinese nation's culture. They are both the representation of the Chinese cultural concept and the media of the Chinese cultural spirit. To explore its artistic expression, we can feel the Chinese nation’s colorful creation ideas and artistic achievements.

First, the idea of ​​modeling

Chinese folk artists are less ideological when creating their own images. Their creative methods are filled with strong ideas, they are good at self-discipline, and they can experience the real world with their own life experiences. This kind of cognitive attitude that focuses on self-centered feelings and focuses on self-willing makes the creative subject always put the external world into the order of subjective ideas without hesitation, allowing the objective objects to be reconstructed in accordance with the ideas of the self. When dealing with objects like prototypes, they exhibit a high degree of subjective arbitrariness. People are accustomed to this form of modeling as "imagery modeling." Imagery is the community of thought process and visual creation. It is an expression of ideas and feelings. "Like" is the carrier of "meaning" and "meaning" has the meaning of "image". They adopt innovations such as choosing, compressing, emphasizing, exaggerating, superimposing, and alternative arts to form basic aesthetic features of innocence, romance, shape, decoration, bright colors, overlapping images, and liveliness. The so-called "not seeking shape, but like God" is this principle.

This idea-based styling technique in the creation of folk auspicious designs is the crystallization of thousands of years of accumulated experiences of collective creative consciousness and inherited artistic labor. Folk artists use primitive images as mental genes, and use keen visual observation, full imagination and skilled techniques as creative means. Therefore, the artistic image created is often not tied to the natural form and is not tied to the real space. For example, the images of dragons, phoenixes, and unicorns in animal prints, the tangled pattern in the plant motifs, the image of Bao Xianghua, etc., are all new images created by breaking the shackles of natural forms. These have given imagery of auspicious cultural connotations and become representative patterns in China, especially the images of dragons and phoenixes, which can be directly interpreted as symbols of the Chinese nation.

Second, the stylized performance

Chinese folk values ​​focus on the real life, emphasizing people’s utilitarian needs and personal interests, and pursuing the subject’s material or spiritual utilitarian purpose. This is a kind of utilitarian value concept. This utilitarian willingness seems to be a red line running through the people. In the aesthetic consciousness, the creation of folk aesthetics tends to be a complete aesthetic pursuit. The folk decoration patterns of various categories are the auspices of Auspicious subjects. Most of the contents are auspicious, rich, survival, evil spirits, etc., and are people's pursuit of ideals and aspirations. This expression does not use the concept of abstraction, but uses the symbol of ethical morality, that is, an idealistic object to express this ideal. Although not a single expression, this type of expression often has a stylized character. For example, painting chickens and sheep - for good luck; painting pines and cranes - meaning longevity; painting hibiscus, peony - express wealth; painting pomegranate, lotus - symbol of many children, and so on. Due to the stylistic constraints, the composition, characteristics, and occasions used for certain images are conventional.

The stylized performance of Chinese folk auspicious designs, on the one hand, is influenced by ancient art and philosophical thoughts of the nation; on the other hand, it is closely related to the long-term, ultra-stable, closed, feudal agricultural economy. In spite of this, the attitudes adopted in the performance techniques are inclusive and not constrained by fixed aesthetic thoughts. They create more freedom, bold techniques, and various styles. They have the decorative features of both taste and elegance.

Third, full composition

The pattern of patterns is a way of human grasping the world and is a manifestation of the materialization of aesthetic consciousness. It embodies the aesthetic concept of nationalism in a certain form of composition. Chinese traditional aesthetics emphasizes the unity of the subject and the audience and the concept of "pursuit of perfection." They believe that everything is a harmonious and unified whole and follow the same essential laws. Therefore, Chinese folk artists have always been committed to "taking the whole as the beauty." His creation, in the form of patterns, reveals the philosophy of life of the people in our country. This aesthetic concept influences the form of the auspicious patterns of Chinese folk, making it have two distinct features: one is the form of fullness; the other is the scientific and rational layout, such as continuous, fit forms. The question of the rich, symmetrical and centripetal pattern of the auspicious patterns of the people not only makes the picture harmonious and unified, but also expresses a complete and rich aesthetic ideal. In their works, they are often happy to put rich image elements on the same screen, so they display their charm on the composition and show a full and lively posture. Such as the folk paper-cut pattern, the composition is often based on the functional requirements of the paper-cut pattern and their own performance themes with the shape of the operation, the screen is stable, dense, but clearly structured. Because decorative patterns are often restricted by the pattern of various objects to be decorated, we must create a variety of auspicious patterns in a limited space. Only folk artists can fully mobilize their imagination and limit their freedom to being passive and active. The creation of diversified or continuous, or suitable patterns, can be described as the most ideal form of composition, and it also reflects the essence of auspicious designs.

Fourth, a variety of carriers

China has a vast territory and many ethnic groups. Geographical conditions and natural conditions are all different. There are also obvious differences in customs, historical and cultural backgrounds. The abundant local products are the material basis for the development of folk auspicious designs. The ancillary materials of the folk auspicious designs are very broad. A large variety of folk auspicious patterns are drawn from the local people. Ordinary paper, cloth, wood, clay, etc., are under the hands of folk artists, ordinary people are miraculous, and “because of material skills” becomes The important means for the expression of Chinese folk auspicious patterns.

The recognition structure of folk artists on materials is formed in long-term labor. It is a cognitive structure full of various humanistic ideas, full of emotions and ethical colors, and it is repeatedly cultivated in scientific rational consciousness. Regardless of the materials chosen, people are all good at making things happen, making full use of them and demonstrating their natural beauty, so that the subjective creative intentions are perfectly combined with the natural forms of materials. Such as paper cutting in Shaanxi, batik in Guizhou, and so on, all show the simplicity of the hurricane's beauty.

Fifth, emotional color

The color of folk auspicious patterns is focused on subjectivity and symbolism of color. It comes from the psychological accumulation of color emotions in people's long-term life: red expresses enthusiasm and lucky celebration; yellow represents power and harvest. "Red, green, and figure auspicious" is a direct expression of psychological emotions. A large number of folk auspicious patterns and tints reflect this lively color atmosphere and psychological willingness. In the civil society, color is associated with and linked to the concepts of nature, society, and life. The cultural consciousness it embodies is sacred, purposeful, good, and therefore beautiful.

The color of Chinese folk auspicious designs emphasizes color matching, contrast, coolness, and area contrast. The most commonly used coloring rules are reflected in the mouthpieces of folk entertainers: “red to yellow, hibiscus”, “yellow purple, stinking shit”, “purple is bone green and ribs, coupled with red and yellow renewal”. The laws of visual form all express people’s pursuit of aesthetic pleasure. Although the folk auspicious designs pursue positive and upward color and emotional expression, they are not merely red and green, and the elegant tone still expresses a vivid and energetic aesthetic pursuit. Both pursue passionate and joyous contrasts. At the same time, it emphasizes harmony and unity. The overall color effect is bright, warm, relaxed, and lively.

Due to the restrictions of tools and materials, folk auspicious designs also have many monochromatic expressions. For example, folk paper-cutting is often dominated by red color. Although it appears to be monotonous, the choice of colors not only follows the symbolic meaning of color, but also highlights the paper-cutting. Functional purpose.

The artistic expression of folk auspicious patterns is various and diverse, and it is a manifestation of group wisdom, ontological awareness and national spirit. As we all know, to make a nation strong, it must be based on a reasonable examination of its own culture and critical succession. Through the unique perspectives and skillful skills of folk artists, exploring their artistic expressions and methods and tapping their own artistic treasures will help absorb the rich artistic nutrients of the Chinese nation, thus making Chinese art more robust. Going to the world and going to the future.

Zhu Shan School of Packaging Design, Zhuzhou Institute of Technology Information Source: Journal of Zhuzhou Institute of Technology