Envisioned as a practice-based research, this paper explored Chinese traditional folk arts and crafts with a focus on traditional decorative patterns, vivid colors, and symbolic motifs that enliven Foshan style paper-...Envisioned as a practice-based research, this paper explored Chinese traditional folk arts and crafts with a focus on traditional decorative patterns, vivid colors, and symbolic motifs that enliven Foshan style paper-cuttings, New Year wood block prints, paper kites, festival lanterns, and Shiwan pottery figures from the areas of Foshan and Shiwan, near Guangzhou, China. The goal of this research was to create a series of original paintings by investigating Chinese traditional folk arts and handcrafts and integrating them physically or ichnographically on Ho＇s new body of paintings. Chinese traditional motifs including Chinese characters and Buddhist iconographies had already been important motifs in the contemporary Western paintings of Kong Ho for the past 10 years. This paper examined not only the artistic, cultural, and historical values but also the impacts of Chinese traditional folk arts and era~ on Ho＇s painting through a personal research travel and studies of a certain amount of Chinese paper-cuttings, folk prints, pottery, and handcrafts found in the famous Foshan Folk Art Studio and Foshan City Shiwan Ceramics Factory in Foshan, China. Furthermore, this paper investigated the symbolic meanings founded in Ho＇s spiritual paintings with strong Chinese heritage and how he reinterpreted those artifacts in a contemporary context.展开更多
文摘Envisioned as a practice-based research, this paper explored Chinese traditional folk arts and crafts with a focus on traditional decorative patterns, vivid colors, and symbolic motifs that enliven Foshan style paper-cuttings, New Year wood block prints, paper kites, festival lanterns, and Shiwan pottery figures from the areas of Foshan and Shiwan, near Guangzhou, China. The goal of this research was to create a series of original paintings by investigating Chinese traditional folk arts and handcrafts and integrating them physically or ichnographically on Ho＇s new body of paintings. Chinese traditional motifs including Chinese characters and Buddhist iconographies had already been important motifs in the contemporary Western paintings of Kong Ho for the past 10 years. This paper examined not only the artistic, cultural, and historical values but also the impacts of Chinese traditional folk arts and era~ on Ho＇s painting through a personal research travel and studies of a certain amount of Chinese paper-cuttings, folk prints, pottery, and handcrafts found in the famous Foshan Folk Art Studio and Foshan City Shiwan Ceramics Factory in Foshan, China. Furthermore, this paper investigated the symbolic meanings founded in Ho＇s spiritual paintings with strong Chinese heritage and how he reinterpreted those artifacts in a contemporary context.
