"Freehand brushwork" is a unique artistic concept in traditional Chinese painting, especially after the rise of literati painting, the spirit of freehand brushwork has become more focused on transcending and reproducing the direct expression of one's mind, thus forming an aesthetic system that is different from that centered on the West. As an imported type of painting, oil painting has gradually matured through the learning and exploration of generations of Chinese oil painters, thus giving rise to a conscious pursuit of the formal language of our own nation. Oil painting absorbs the spirit of freehand brushwork in Chinese painting, creating a new language style of oil painting - freehand brushwork oil painting, bringing artistic understanding beyond reproduction into oil painting, thus injecting new vitality into the sinicization of modern oil painting.

In recent years, the topic of freehand oil painting has gradually become the most concerned topic in the art category of oil painting, and even attracted the attention of the art community as a flag with local ethnic colors. In 2012, the School of Art at Renmin University of China opened a course on "Freehand Spirit" in oil painting sketching and creative research, proposing to "grasp and explore the methodology of freehand brushwork in traditional culture more deeply on the basis of in-depth study of the origins of European oil painting"[1]；Since 2015, the Guan Shanyue Art Museum has launched an annual "ThPassing on the Torch of Cultural HeritageA Study Exhibition of Famous Masters of the Chinese Freehand Oil Painting School" and has held exhibitions throughout the country, becoming a relatively fixed display mode and a growing group of artists. In October 2016, the Guangdong Freehand Oil Painting Society was established and held its first exhibition, which was the first academic group to focus on "Freehand Oil Painting" as its creative theme; [2] In the same year, the Beijing Contemporary Chinese Freehand Oil Painting Research Institute was also established successively; In December 2017, Jilin Academy of Arts launched the "Northern Freehand Oil Painting Creation Talent Training Project" course.[2]In the same year, the Beijing Contemporary Chinese Freehand Oil Painting Research Institute was also established successively; In December 2017, Jilin Academy of Arts launched the "Northern Freehand Oil Painting Creation Talent Training Project" course.[3]At the same time, research papers on freehand oil painting have also shown an increasing trend. According to incomplete statistics from the "China National Knowledge Infrastructure" retrieval system, there are more than 480 related journal papers and 130 master's theses. The establishment of professional groups, training courses, series of exhibitions, and various levels of research triggered by freehand oil painting indicate that freehand oil painting has become a new academic growth point in contemporary Chinese oil painting, and also means that in the process of nationalization of Chinese oil painting, it has begun to move from practical exploration to a stage of theoretical sorting and self-awareness. Therefore, this article attempts to start from the generation of the concept of freehand oil painting, based on the existing research on freehand oil painting, and review the important path of freehand oil painting as an oil painting nationalization process. It reveals the dual effects of the integration of Chinese and Western cultures and the impact of foreign civilizations on the absorption and integration of oil painting, the choice of artistic language by Chinese oil painters, and its current significance.

"Chinese learning for the foundation,Western learning for practical use." has been a way of thinking and methodology for Chinese people to cope with the impact of Western culture since the late Qing Dynasty. Of course, the influence of this concept on art was initially proposed by pioneers in the improvement of Chinese painting, such as Kang Youwei, Gao Jianfu, Xu Beihong, and others. The concept of "Chinese style and Western style" also exists in our learning of foreign painting genres, including oil painting. It should be said that the stimulation from the War of Resistance Against Japan, the rise of national emotions, the nationalization of art, and the discussion of ethnic forms have attracted people's attention as conceptual issues in literature and art. Zhang Anzhi expressed his views on the issue of ethnic forms in Chinese painting in the 1940s, pointing out:

To evaluate whether a work is a national form, one cannot simply distinguish it from the perspective of "tools". Regardless of whether it uses Chinese or Western tools, as long as its methods can fully reflect the simple and honest style of the Chinese nation, while expressing the characteristics of national life, and are understood by the public and needed by the times, it is truly a painting of national form.[4]

In Mr. Zhang's view, ethnic style, ethnic lifestyle characteristics, and public acceptance are the fundamental elements of ethnic form. "The Chinese ethnic form of oil painting" was explicitly proposed by Dong Xiwen in the 1950s, which can be said to be a reflection and response to the realistic oil painting of the Soviet style. He pointed out:

Regarding oil painting, due to our efforts to learn from the oil painting experience of the Soviet Union and other countries, we have made significant progress and produced many works that can truly express life. However, in order to make it not always a foreign thing, to enrich it, and to gain more and more people's deeper love, in the future, we not only need to continue to master a variety of oil painting techniques, play to the multi-faceted performance of oil painting, but also absorb it, digest it into our own blood, that is to say, we need to turn foreign forms into our own things of the Chinese nation, and make it have our own national style.[5]

Internalizing foreign oil paintings into his own national style is the basic idea for him to construct his own national style oil paintings. He noticed the correlation between the form of painting in his own ethnic group and the history, customs, emotions, temperament, etc. of the ethnic group, and also pointed out the characteristics of traditional Chinese painting such as non naturalistic depiction techniques, line based modeling methods, decorative painting styles, etc. Oil painters should learn and learn from traditional Chinese painting creation methods such as single line flat painting, blank space in the picture, and weakening contrast between light and dark, promote ethnic characteristics, and fully consider the artistic factors of the ethnic group.

If Dong Xiwen's idea of a Chinese style oil painting is just a macro program, then Luo Gongliu's discussion on oil painting undoubtedly provides a relatively clear and specific development direction. He noticed the correlation between Chinese landscape painting and landscape painting, and believed that "there is still a vast virgin land waiting for us to explore in the field of oil painting scenery. Bringing oil painting scenery into the realm of poetry will be a development of oil painting scenery with infinite prospects."[6]At the same time, it highly affirms the subjective selection of objects and the pursuit of charm, believing that "truthful description can never reach the level of vivid charm, unable to draw emotions and spirits.”[7]In his later practice, Luo Gongliu continuously enriched and clarified the characteristics of "freehand oil painting" and its differences from traditional freehand painting. At the same time, he also pointed out the similarities between Chinese and Western painting traditions, believing that:

Freehand oil painting should fully utilize the expressive power of brushstrokes and oil colors rather than weakening its expressive power compared to classical realistic oil painting. Oil painting does not need to imitate the freehand brushwork of ink and wash, but should utilize and create the freehand brushwork of oil painting itself It is incorrect to use ancient literati freehand brushwork as a prior model for transforming oil painting. Freehand brushwork oil painting is a form of creation. For the topic of "freehand oil painting", Chinese painting tradition and Western modern painting tradition are interconnected. So, it is necessary to conduct in-depth research on the traditional Western modern oil painting and firmly grasp the characteristics of oil painting; We must delve deeply into the traditional Chinese painting and firmly grasp the spirit of freehand brushwork.[8]

Obviously, in Mr. Luo's understanding, "freehand oil painting" is not just a simple combination of "freehand spirit" and "oil painting", but also a mutual connection between Chinese painting tradition and Western modern painting tradition, and fully utilizes the advantages of Chinese and Western painting. Although Luo Gongliu's discourse and practice on freehand oil painting were formed in the 1950s and 1960s, and were somewhat influenced by political and cultural factors at that time, especially the framework of realism, in his later creative practice and teaching promotion, a group of oil painting works and artists with Chinese style were indeed produced, expanding our understanding of oil painting language and laying the groundwork for the construction of freehand oil painting as a school of thought.

In the preface of the "2016 China Freehand Oil Painting School Famous Masters Research Exhibition",Van Di'an wrote:

In the context of global cultural convergence, agitation, and collision, Chinese oil painting needs to find its own path of development. In recent years, a large number of oil painters have attached great importance to promoting tradition, staying rooted in their homeland, and exploring creativity at the cultural and spiritual level, reflecting a new cultural consciousness. Freehand oil painting is a new academic phenomenon in contemporary Chinese oil painting, which also reflects the new cultural choices of Chinese oil painters.[9]

As a unique artistic spirit and local ethnic form of traditional Chinese painting, freehand brushwork is becoming increasingly well-known to the world. The formation of freehand oil painting, in terms of artistic form, is an attempt to combine the unique artistic concepts of traditional Chinese art with Western oil painting techniques, in order to create a unique Chinese oil painting art. Behind this artistic concept lies the instinctive response of Chinese culture in the face of the impact of the West and the changes of ancient and modern times since modern times.

 Oil painting, as an imported product of Western art, has been accepted, familiarized and mastered by the Chinese people for over a century, even expressing their own national artistic spirit and ideological concepts. From nationalization of oil painting, to imagery oil painting, and then to freehand oil painting, we are all exploring the transformation and integration of this imported art into local art. The ideological concepts behind promoting this transformation and integration are precisely the unremitting efforts of Chinese culture to consciously seek its own cultural positioning in the tide of modern and contemporary transformation. The freehand oil painting conveys the conscious exploration and development path of Chinese oil painting towards the world and its integration into globalization in the cultural background of the integration of China and the West in modern times. How to truly achieve the integration of Chinese and Western cultures, rather than rigid grafting; At the same time, the establishment of the boundaries of "freehand brushwork" in freehand oil painting and other academic rational discussions will be an important issue that freehand brushwork oil painting, as a strictly defined school of Chinese oil painting, must face in order to enter the world.

[1] "Research Course on Oil Painting Sketching and Creation with the Spirit of Impressionism", Art, 2012, Issue 1.

[2] Li Yanxia's "Guangdong Established Freehand Oil Painting Society", Art, 2017, Issue 1.

[3] Zhao Kun's Introduction to the Talent Training Program for Northern Freehand Oil Painting Creation, Journal of Jilin University of Art, 2018, Issue 6.

[4] Zhang Anzhi and Zhu Xihua, "The Ethnic Forms of Chinese Painting", Music and Fine Arts, Volume 2, Issue 1-2 (1941), page 12.

[5] Dong Xiwen's "On the Chinese Style of Oil Painting from the Perspective of the Expression Methods of Chinese Painting", Fine Arts, 1957, Issue 1.

[6] Luo Gongliu's "Miscellaneous Discussions on Oil Painting", Art, 1962, Issue 2.

[7] ditto.

[8] Luo Gongliu's oral narration and Liu Xiaochun's compilation of "Luo Gongliu Talks about Freehand Oil Painting", Guan Shanyue Art Museum's compilation of "Passing on the Torch of Cultural Heritage - Collection of Works from the 2016 China Freehand Oil Painting School Famous Masters Research Exhibition", Guangxi Fine Arts Publishing House, 2016, p. 14.

[9] Van Di'an  "Passing on the Torch of Cultural Heritage: Preface to the 2016 China Freehand Oil Painting School Famous Masters Research Exhibition", same as above, page 1.