REPRESENTATION OF “SHANSHUI” IN CONTEMPORARY CHINESE OIL PAINTING

Abstract

An analysis of the transformation of the traditional genre of “shan-shui” (山水, “mountains and waters”) in ontemporary Chinese oil painting represents trends in the development of plastic language in landscape painting. In the second half of the 1980s, in China, swept up in the spirit of reform, a group of artists appeared who were fascinated by experiments in oil painting, as well as by blurring the boundaries between the real and the unreal. Combinations of these characteristics can be seen in the works of well-known artists such as Wu Guangzhong, Chen Hesi, Chen Songmao, Zhu Sha, and others. Modern interpretations of the “mountain-water” motif in Chinese oil painting depart from the classical “shan‑shui” with its principle of “three distances” and low horizon line, replacing the traveler’s view with a bird’s‑eye perspective, symbolizing detached, objective view of nature as an independent system, bringing the composition closer to abstract thinking and philosophical generalizations. This approach transforms the forms of mountains and waterways into geometric, schematic signs, emphasizing rhythm and structure through dynamic lines and planes, preserving the energy and flow of traditional aesthetics, while the contrast between the stable “shan” and the changing “shui” finds new expression in modern forms. Stylistically, paintings reveal features of several trends: the airiness of the environment reveals traces of impressionism, the expressiveness of the texture reveals expressionism, and the allegorical nature of the images reveals symbolism. This evolution, unfolding from the abstract meditativeness of traditional “shan-shui” to the narrative expressiveness of the European landscape tradition, testifies to the synthesis of Eastern aesthetics with modernist influences, demonstrating how the “mountain-water” motif adapts to new materials and the sociocultural context of 21st-century China.