A Study on Realism in Paintings of New Era from Perspective of Chinese Thematic Painting

From 1949 to 1966,Chinese art of painting and drawing,under the profound influence of that of Soviet Union,produced many great realistic works,which gave rise to Chinese realistic paintings.However,as the Western arts of modernism began to influence Chinese culture and arts since the reform and opening in 1978,realistic paintings fell into an embarrassing situation and became marginalized gradually.In the new era,to revive realism in painting,we should make the variety and diversity of realistic arts known to people and never be restricted to painting things as they are and satisfied with the general understanding of life.Now,to bring the merits of such a way of painting into full play and depict people's contemporary life and mentality,we need to not only paint pictures of typical characters and scenes but shape the artistic models presenting different time spirits to satisfy people's need for realistic arts.