Materiality and Cultural Identity in Chinese Mixed-Media Painting after Western Neo-Expressionism
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54097/4rrx1v88Keywords:
Chinese mixed-media painting; materiality; cultural identity; cultural memory.Abstract
This paper explores how Chinese mixed-media painting developed materiality as a means of constructing cultural identity after the influence of Western Neo-Expressionism. While artists such as Anselm Kiefer demonstrated how materials could convey history, memory, and trauma, Chinese artists transformed this approach within their own cultural context. Materials including ink, xuan paper, mineral pigments, soil, ash, fabric, and industrial debris became more than technical tools or visual effects. Through layering, burning, cutting, and recontextualization, they express cultural memory, regional experience, modernization, and social change. The paper argues that Chinese mixed-media painting shifted from “material as technique” to “material as meaning,” forming a local visual language that connects tradition, modernity, and contemporary Chinese identity. It also warns against formal imitation, technical display, and superficial cultural labeling.
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