Views on Contemporary Realist Art

Views on Contemporary Realist Art

“Views on Contemporary Realist Art” is a talk jointly held by Soka Gakkai Malaysia (SGM) and Malaysia Institute of Art (MIA)， with Heng Artland as the co-organiser. The talk took place on 22 August 2009 at the International Conference Hall, on the 11th floor of Wisma Kebudayaan SGM. The speaker was Prof Liu Xiao from Xu Beihong Art Institute in Renmin University of China and the session was chaired by the then President and CEO of Malaysia Institute of Art, Dr. Choong Kam Kow.

Liu Xiao was born in Hebei province in 1957. He graduated from the fine arts department of Hebei Normal University, majoring in oil painting in 1982. Upon graduation, he taught at Hebei University of Economics and Business and Hebei University of Science and Technology as an art teacher, associate professor, and head of the fine arts department. In 1999, he studied abroad in Russia at St Petersburg Repin Arts Academy, majoring in oil painting, landscape painting, and the history of Russian art. Returning to China in 2002, Liu Xiao taught in his alma mater, Studio 2 of Xu Beihong Academy of Art, Hebei Normal University. While abroad, he visited many cities in Russia more than 20 times, experiencing their local cultures and producing many oil paintings. Hence, he was renowned as an artist who travelled widely through Russia. Prof Liu’s artworks have been exhibited in many countries, including Japan, Russia, Singapore, and Malaysia.

On the development of Arts and Realism in China
During his talk, Prof Liu spoke about his art practice and the experiences he has gained from it, with the aim of inspiring the audience to better understand the relationship between everyday life and art. As a realist artist, he explained that his inspiration for creating art comes from nature. “Every theory of art is one-sided; it can only represent a single perspective. Yet the world is boundless, and people around the world create art in diverse ways.” Therefore, Professor Liu’s approach is to seek out beauty in everyday life and capture it in his artwork.

Prof Liu first explained the history of art education in China. He explained that the complete formation of China’s art education system began in the 20 and 30s of the last century with the efforts of Xu Beihong, Liu Haisu and other prominent artists, while the whole art education system was well established in the 50s and 60s. He drew a sharp contrast between the forming period of the art education system in China and Europe. Affected by historical and systematic factors, the Soviet Union heavily influenced the art education system in China. In the 50s, art education was conducted based on the system in the Soviet Union. What makes this educational model highly exceptional was, Prof Liu added, that it brought in teachings of European classicism, impressionism, academicism, rigorous training in sketching, colour study, anatomy and perspective that were well developed in the 18th century. During this period, art education in Europe implemented the same standard, imposing strict rules that restricted artists’ growth and identity.

Prof Liu also explained the development of realism in art. He saw two characteristics of realism in China; firstly, the paintings emphasise humanism and justice. Secondly, from the perspective of artistic techniques, it is realistic, and expresses everyday lives through the art content. However, Prof Liu mentioned that realism in China once took a detour. In the 50s, a social change in China saw content expressed in realism art being overtaken by political service, resulting in artworks that emphasised content but lacked the form of art. Realism became a political contribution for the proletariats and a service for those in power, leading to an image of realism art as a political tool that was further developed during the cultural revolution. According to Prof Liu, this distortion of realism lost its essence as it became a tool for politicians to express their views. To him, it is no longer true realism in art. He firmly believes that true realism emerges when artists have sufficient creative freedom. Through their everyday lives, artists extract elements of truth, goodness and beauty in creating art forms that are enjoyed by the general public.

Characteristics of Realism and Realism Artist
As the talk continued, Prof Liu answered the question “Do realistic paintings fall under realism?” To him, there is a distinction between realistic drawing and realism art, and they are different from naturalism. Naturalism depicts realistic objects in a natural setting. He likens it to taking photographs using a camera. The camera objectively presents images of natural scenery and objects, with the possibility of capturing something less beautiful, like garbage, for instance. But when realism artists paint, they subjectively choose the content based on their artistic view and cultivation, removing unattractive objects from their image. In his opinion, the image presented by realism artworks are higher, more beautiful and elaborated than everyday life. In his ideal view of realism, what is more important is the spiritual personality possessed by the painter, characterised by a great heart for humanity. He stressed that the spiritual world of a painter should be complete, and filled with compassion and love. Prof Liu said that realism artists can be summarised in three words:, “authentic, kind, and wonderful”, contrasting with “fake, evil, and ugly”.

Furthermore, Prof Liu also addressed the issue of many young artists who are impatient for quick success and hoping to gain overnight fame. He advised them to build a solid foundation of knowledge instead. In conclusion, he highlighted a few qualities that a realism artist should possess: firstly, humanistic values based on compassion; secondly, the philosophy that art originates from everyday life; thirdly, constant improvement in artistic skills; and fourthly, an open-hearted embrace of everything.

Before concluding his talk, Prof Liu took the opportunity to share his collection of realism artwork with the audience. Engaging both senses of sight and hearing, we hope that the audience gained new insights in life and art.