User:Chen Junyu/Graduation Project Seminar/ project proposal/outline

Outline

My thesis will base on the process of making the graduation project, discuss what is the process of drawing and how to express the vitality of drawing(or painting) process.

The Process of Drawing(painting)

Drawing is a process more than an object. When we appreciates a great painting, we get the beautiful tone, the shadows and the lights, the points and the lines. But the process is the most enjoyable part of making a painting. What is the process of drawing? For the final result -- painting, it is the linear growing work. For every strokes, it is like "walks" on the paper as Paul Klee says. And all the internal and external factors would effect on or constitute the process：the material, the environment, the physical and spiritual condition of the painter.

For this part, I would like to clarify:

1. What does the "process" literarily mean in drawing.

2. What is the factors which would effect on "process" and how do they interact each other.

3. What is the role "the process" of drawing play in contemporary context.

How to express the vitality of drawing(or painting) process

The vitality of the process of drawing here leads to the general Chinese painting principle : Resonance of the spirit, the vitality. It can be understood as the intension during making a drawing, the coordination of body and mind. It is the spiritual intension and the presentation of lively life, my target is to make this intension visible.

1.The vitality of the process should be defined at the beginning of this part. And how does it relate to Chinese painting principle and the Western art.

2.Depends on different pattern of the work, discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each pattern.

Conclusion

My view of the process of painting and the vitality of the process. Probably should go through some artist who is working with process art but in a different way such as Barry Le Va.

Reading List

Philip Rawson, Drawing

"Drawing" explains what is drawing from a very fundamental level: why drawing is the most fundamentally spiritual art activity, how does it work with human mind( from the painter's view), how to experience a drawing/painting from spectators' aspect. The connection of this book to my thesis/graduation work is, it clarifies the definition of drawing/painting, and the difficulties to get to know all the information from the painter.

Harold Rosenberg, The American Action Painters

The painter no longer approached his easel with an image in his mind; he went up to it with material in his hand to do something to that other piece of material in front of him. The image would be the result of this encounter.

A painting that is an act is inseparable from the biography of the artist. The painting itself is a "moment" in the adulterated mixture of his life—whether "moment" means the actual minutes taken up with spotting the canvas or the entire duration of a lucid drama conducted in sign language. The act-painting is of the same metaphysical substance as the artist's existence. The new painting has broken down every distinction between art and life.

Fritz van Briessen， The Way of the Brush: Painting Techniques of China and Japan :

This book explains the concept behind the Eastern painting, and the general principles of Chinese painting. It talks about what is the gap when people who have western culture background appreciate an Eastern painting, and what is the possible way to decrease this gap. This book explain the vitality clearly in from a western view, it is a good example when explaining this concept of "vitality".

James Elkins, Chinese Landscape Painting as Western Art History

This books focuses on how to look at Chinese painting by Western Art History, what is the possible similarities and the misreadings. It is a good reference while making the connection between vitality to Chinese painting and Western art.

James Elkins, How to look at Mondrian

This article talks the variety in Mondrian's painting, how a still horizontal or vertical line shows the variation. It is the starting point of my thesis, since it is an representative example of the vitality in a still work.