Traditional Culture and Modern Design (1)

This article is the author's research on the relationship between modern art design and traditional culture, as well as the impact of traditional cultures from different countries and regions on the modern artistic design of different countries and regions. These ideas have gradually emerged and accumulated. These thoughts made me feel In the context of the globalization of so-called modern cultural convergence and traditional cultural crisis theory, what is our modern art design supporting? Why do we want to search the world for the most unique national characteristics, local characteristics of art and design treasures? Why does the Americans only give a "like New York Manhattan" evaluation to our favorite buildings in Shanghai's Pudong district? Why do foreign scholars circulate around traditional cultures and arts that we often overlook? So everything is related to people’s dependence on traditional culture. Thus, I began to linger between history and today, between tradition and modernity, and find their inborn relationship.

The author will publish his own research and conclusions through the "Design Online" party treasure to discuss with more of my colleagues interested in this. The manuscript is to be divided into five parts and published one after another. The original manuscript was originally provided with corresponding illustrations so that the readers of the public can have a more intuitive interpretation of the modern art design of traditional culture. Here only the text of the manuscript is published. Please forgive me. The manuscript division is as follows:

Part I: Introduction: We live in the world of traditional culture. Part II: I: European traditional culture and modern design Part III: II: American traditional culture and modern design Part IV: III: Traditional Chinese culture and modern design Part V: Conclusion: Traditional culture will continue to affect world development

Introduction: We live in the world of traditional culture

Design is a product of the combination of culture, art and science and technology, while art and science and technology belong to the broad cultural category. Culture is the sum of material civilization and spiritual civilization created in the course of human society's historical practice and has irreversible inheritance. Although generation after generation of artists and designers always try to get rid of the shadow of traditional culture and create their own artistic milestones, traditional culture can be seen everywhere. Therefore, we can say that any traditional culture will inevitably have a profound impact on the development of art and science and technology, and through art and technology, either directly or indirectly, will have a huge impact on modern design.

What is traditional culture? We must have a new concept. The results of all civilizations created by human social activities yesterday are traditional cultures for today. The cultural achievements created by human social practices today are also traditional cultures for tomorrow. Therefore, we cannot recall the traditional culture and think backwardness. In fact, in the process of creating culture, humankind has already eliminated those backward dregs; what has been retained, which has a tremendous impact on today and tomorrow, is indeed the essence of human culture. China's Yangshao culture is 7,000 to 5,000 years old today. Its colorful pottery patterns are rich in fish, birds and frogs. Can you say it is behind? Ancient Egyptian culture is far from 5,000 years old. Today, isn't it amazing?

Therefore, the famous Chinese painter Mr. Huang Yongyu said: “Yangtze-colored pottery 6,000 years ago left us with so many superb works of art – pots and pots. There are people who dare to boldly say that they can transcend it and advance beyond it. "So he said:" The law of science is the law of progress. Art is more prosperous and richer, and art does not need to make progress." ("Huang Yongyu Tan Yi Lu")

In fact, human beings have never abandoned traditional culture in their own development. Archaeology developed on the basis of robbers is enough to show that mankind favors traditional culture. Zhuangzi, an ancient Chinese philosopher, has vividly explained the relationship between traditional culture and modern culture as early as 2000 years ago. Zhuangzi described such a story in Zhuangzi Foreign Matter.

Chinese Confucian disciples, on the surface of poetry and book ceremonies, have very good and righteous demeanor, and they are very beautiful. But in the back ground, they are digging graves and digging graves and stealing treasure. One night, Confucius led his students to the tomb. Confucius looked up at the wind and the students looked for treasure under the tombs below. As the day dawned, the students had not completed the theft. Confucius was anxious and said, “The sun is rising, how is the matter going?” The student said under the tomb: “The under skirt and underwear have not been untied, and a pearl that is in the mouth has not yet appeared. The ancient poem said: "The young green wheat growers grow on the hillside. They don't want to pay for others before they die, and they still have Baozhu when they die!" When Confucius heard that the deceased had an orb in his mouth, he could not wait to say: "The clothes don't The first thing to do is to squeeze your two beards, press his beard, and hit his chin with a hammer, slowly separate his cheeks, and then take out the orb. Don't damage the Orb in your mouth!"

The story of this fable told by Zhuangzi was to satirize the Confucians of Confucius and Mencius. They said that their doctrine was nothing more than saliva from the mouth of the ancients, but also made clear the inheritance relationship between human cultures. In fact, many of our knowledge today are saliva from the ancients. From the so-called modern art and modern design of today, we often see the shadow of traditional culture.

Modern design, which we acknowledge today, originated largely from the industrial revolution in the West. It was something in the 18th century. Modern design, as a response to the industrial revolution, began to take its place on the stage of history. Later, as a kind of cultural movement, and still has a strong theoretical guiding significance today, or the effect of practice, it is the modernist design movement since the early 20th century.

At the beginning of the 20th century, it was a turbulent but still exciting time in the history of mankind. The direct result of the industrial revolution - a large number of new industrial products invented, including airplanes, automobiles, ocean-going ships, lights, telephones, telegrams, etc. For the birth of the Art Nouveau style and the new design method, it has had a very positive impact; for the new exploration of modern art and design and the liberation of the mind, it is also an important influencing factor. This is the science and technology for art and design. The driving force is also a counteraction to the liberation of human minds. At that time, the great turbulence, great polarization, and great reorganization of the society directly promoted the emergence of Art Nouveau styles and new design methods. The Dutch style school, the Russian school of composition, the Italian futurist... contributed to the development of modern art and design; the design of Scanvar’s Alvar Aalto, the streamlined design of the United States... Bringing modern design movements closer to the integration of art and technology; Le Corbusier of Switzerland, even with his "Towards New Architecture", pushed the modernist design movement to the extreme. Corbusier is the founder of mechanical aesthetics theory. He emphasizes the beauty of machinery, highly praises the crystallization of new technologies such as airplanes, automobiles, and ships. He believes that the design of these products is not constrained by any traditional style and is entirely in accordance with new functions. Designed as required, they are only constrained by economic factors and are therefore more reasonable. Corbusier said: “...in the past 50 years, steel and concrete have taken a dominant position. This shows that the structure itself has enormous capabilities. For architectural artists, the old classics in architectural design have been overturned. With the challenges of the past, we should realize that historical past patterns have ceased to exist for us. A new design style that belongs to our own era has emerged. This is revolution."

This argument by Corbusier fully shows that artists and designers in the climax of the industrial revolution face the urge to resist new ideas, new techniques, and new technologies, even though the impulse is somewhat Lost reason. Indeed, the architectural revolution led to the emergence of new buildings, and the new construction movement was connected with the modernist movement. It is changing at a rapid pace and changing Europe's masonry that has lasted for thousands of years. So, in 1851, the "Crystal Palace" of the London World Expo became a milestone in the world's new architectural movement and the modernist movement. From then on, the architectural world began to move toward new materials, new processes, and new designs of building methods. keep appearing. The sponsors of the new building known as the “three pillars of modern architecture”, Walter Gropius of Germany, Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe of Germany, and Le Cobb of Switzerland Le Corbusier laid the foundation for the design of modernism both theoretically and practically.

However, in the passionate modernist art and design movement, there is also a review and clarification of traditional culture. In his book Handbook of Ornament (1883), Franz Sarez Maya of Germany stated the classification of decoration and expressed the preference of historicism and traditional culture and art. This book was once translated into several languages. It was published and republished in many countries in the world. It was recognized as one of the classic classics of decorative art and was welcomed by artists, designers, and manufacturers. The book's best-selling, it fully shows that even the most avant-garde artists and designers believe that traditional culture and art are essential for modern design. Because of traditional culture and art, it brought us cultural and artistic information of the ages of ancient Egypt, ancient Greece-Roman, medieval, Renaissance, and royal rights. Obviously, they not only provide us with direct design information, but they can also inspire our creative inspiration.

It is true that as the industrial revolution has swept the entire Western world and the new trend of thought inspired by the technological revolution has caused countless people to join the modern design movement, if we look back on this unsuccessful modern design movement, we will find that In theory, or in practice, a truly all-encompassing influence on our design culture today is Germany's Bauhaus. Bauhaus' far-reaching influence on modern design not only greatly exceeds its founder Walter Gropius, but also far exceeds its borders - from Germany to Europe and from Europe to the world. Even after the story of the Bauhaus happened 72 years ago, in 1991, the Englishman Frank F. Whitford recounted the story of the Bauhaus in his book “The BAUHAUS”. The preface wrote: "Obviously, the influence of Bauhaus still exists." "Those who design our living environment continue to draw inspiration from Bauhaus's works. There are many arts all over the world. In colleges and universities, Bauhaus’s art education methods still affect their current teaching.”

In fact, our attachment to Bauhaus has irrefutably proved one point: we have entered the information age, we have not lost traditional culture and art, and even sought to stimulate or guide the traditional culture and art. We are today art and design events. In fact, this idea of ​​not ruining traditional culture and art is the consistent cultural spirit of Bauhaus. For example, Grothus, the founder of Bauhaus, advocates the unification of art and technology, the equal emphasis on practical abilities and theoretical literacy; the emphasis on the idea of ​​designing people rather than products, and so on, stems from the ancient Greek-Roman culture and artistic spirit. The "people-oriented" concept of modern design is the "humanism" emphasized by ancient Greek philosophy. It is also rooted in the Chinese classical philosophy - Laozi and Zhuangzi's "Heaven and Man togetherness" and "human-valuable" thinking; art and technology Uniformity, Practice, and Theory