A Study on Lyricism Expression of Color & Realistic Expression reflected in Oriental Painting of flower & birds

전통화조화의 사실적(寫實的) 표현과 시정적(詩情的) 색채표현

Colors change in time corresponding with the value system and aesthetic consciousness of the time. The roles that colors play in painting can be divided into the formative role based on the contrast and harmony of color planes and the aesthetic role expressed by colors to represent the objects. The aesthetic consciousness of the orient starts with the Civility(禮) and Pleasure(樂), which is closely related with restrained or tempered human feelings. In the art world of the orient including poem, painting, and music, what are seen and felt from the objects are not represented in all. Added by the sentiment laid background, the beauty of the orient emphasizes the beauty of restraint and temperance, which has long been the essential aesthetic emotion of the orient. From the very inception of oriental painting, colors had become a symbolic system in which the five colors associated with the philosophy of Yin and Yang and Five Forces were symbolically connected with the four sacred animals of Red Peacock, Black Turtle, Blue Dragon, and White Tiger. In this color system the use of colors was not free from ideological matters, and was further constrained by the limited color production and distribution. Therefore, development in color expression seemed to have been very much limited because of the unavailability and unreadiness of various colors. Studies into the flow in oriental painting show that color expression in oriental painting have changed from symbolic color expression to poetic expression, and then to emotional color expression as the mode of painting changes in time. As oriental painting transformed from the art of religious or ceremonial purpose to one of appreciation, the mast visible change in color expression is the one of realism(simulation). Rooted on the naturalistic color expression of the orient where the fundamental properties of objects were considered mast critical, this realistic color expression depicts the genuine color properties that the objects posses, with many examples in the Flower & Bird Painting prior to the North Sung dynasty. This realistic expression of colors changed as poetic sentiments were fused with painting in later years of the North Sung dynasty, in which a conversion to light ink and light coloring in the use of ink and colors was witnessed, and subjective emotion was intervened and represented. This mode of color expression had established as free and creative coloring with vivid expression of individuality. The fusion of coloring and lyricism was borrowed from the trend in painting after the North Sung dynasty which was mentioned earlier, and from the trend in which painting was fused with poetic sentiments to express the emotion of artists, accompanied with such features as light coloring and compositional change. Here, the lyricism refers to the artist's subjective perspective of the world and expression of it in refined words with certain rhythm, the essence of which is the integration of the artist's ego and the world. The poetic ego projects the emotion and sentiment toward the external objects or assimilates them in order to express the emotion and sentiment of one's own ego in depth and most efficiently. This is closely related with the rationale behind the long-standing tradition of continuous representation of same objects in oriental painting from ancient times to contemporary days. According to the thoughts of the orient, nature was not just an object of expression, but recognized as a personified body, to which the artist projects his or her emotions. The result is the rebirth of meaning in painting, completely different from what the same objects previously represented. This process helps achieve the integration and unity between the objects and the ego. Therefore, this paper discussed the lyrical expression of colors in the works of the author, drawing upon the poetic expression method reflected in the traditional Flower and Bird Painting, one of the painting modes mainly depending on color expression. Based on the related discussion and analysis, it was possible to identify the deep thoughts and the distinctive expression methods of the orient and to address the significance to prioritize the issue of transmission and development of these precious traditions, which will constitute the main identity of the author's future work.