How to appreciate landscape paintings

For most people who collect calligraphy and paintings, appreciating landscape paintings only stops at being able to understand them. Their appreciation steps are: What is the painting? Does it look like the painting? What is the meaning of the artist’s shape? What is it? If everyone can answer it, they are considered to have understood the calligraphy and painting. If they cannot answer it, they are considered to be incomprehensible. This way of appreciation is actually a linear way of thinking, which is very one-sided and not in-depth. Use this method to appreciate Chinese landscape paintings. Generally speaking, gongbi landscape paintings are easier to understand because what they depict is more realistic. It would be difficult to appreciate an ink-and-wash freehand landscape painting because it is too concrete and too abstract. Of course, it is completely understandable for ordinary people to appreciate landscape paintings in this way, because if the paintings are similar and can be seen clearly, it is easier to arouse associations and produce excitement. But we must understand that the quality of a landscape painting is not measured by its likeness or unlikeness. As far as art is concerned, when we measure the quality of a landscape painting, or when we appreciate a landscape painting, it is not first about whether it is similar or not, but rather about the theme of the landscape painting, or some kind of emotion radiated from the landscape painting. Whether a concept, a certain thought, or a certain emotion can firmly grasp the heartstrings of the viewer, can it provide people with full artistic aesthetic enjoyment, and enable people to obtain some enlightenment and education from it. It should be said that this is the real purpose of all works of art. Likeness and dissimilarity are only a means to achieve the goal of the work, not the end itself. Therefore, resemblance or dissimilarity cannot be used as a criterion to measure the quality of a work or to appreciate it. So, how do painters look at paintings? As far as traditional Chinese painting is concerned, when experts look at paintings, they generally look at the overall momentum of the picture. In art terms, they first appreciate its charm or spiritual resemblance, and then look at the interest of its pen and ink. , composition, coloring, pen power, etc. Finally, look at its shape, whether it looks like it or not. The expert’s appreciation method of grasping the charm certainly captures the essence, because the charm is a kind of high artistic aesthetic enjoyment, which is often the goal pursued by Chinese painters. Of course, it is not easy for ordinary people to experience a kind of charm from paintings. It not only requires certain aesthetic abilities and artistic accomplishments, but also requires certain basic knowledge of landscape painting, especially through A feeling trained through landscape painting. Therefore, to appreciate landscape paintings well, one must possess various talents and artistic accomplishments. However, it may be more understandable if we appreciate landscape paintings from the following aspects. Some people have suggested that the appreciation of calligraphy and painting needs to go through three stages: aesthetic perception, aesthetic understanding and aesthetic creation, so it makes sense to appreciate landscape paintings from these three aspects. Aesthetic perception requires us to intuitively perceive the aesthetic object, that is, the work of art itself. We can perceive what is painted on the landscape painting? Does it look similar or not, the color is bright or gray, the lines are smooth or It is clumsy, the expression technique is meticulous or freehand, etc. In short, you have to feel it intuitively and calmly in person. The second step is to carry out aesthetic understanding based on aesthetic perception. That is to understand and think on the basis of intuitive feelings, and grasp the meaning, meaning and connotation of the work. This understanding includes an understanding of the artistic form and artistic skills of the work; an understanding of the content of the work and the theme of the expression; and an understanding of the background of the work and the spirit of the times, etc. This requires fully mobilizing our thinking ability . We can think about it step by step: What does the author of this landscape painting want to express? What method is used to express it? Are the artistic methods used appropriate? Can the theme be fully expressed? At the same time, through the picture of the work, we can guess The author's intention is to praise passionately or to satirize bitterly; through the atmosphere of the picture, one can experience the mood of the picture: whether it is deep or bold, optimistic or sad. It can also be analyzed based on the existing knowledge structure, combined with the author's life experience, creative characteristics and the background of the times. Finally, there is a stage of aesthetic creation in the appreciation of landscape paintings. It means to recreate based on the aesthetics of the work through aesthetic perception and understanding, and to create a new image through rich imagination and accumulated beauty experience, cultural knowledge, life experience, etc. Only in this way can you truly appreciate the beauty of landscape paintings.