Life and Aesthetics: The Artistic World of Kangwei Paintings in Northern Shanxi

Kang Wei painting is a form of traditional folk art, and very popular with villagers in the rural areas of Northern Shanxi Province. This comprehensive art form is a product generated in the primitive living environment, and demonstrates the local people's instinctive pursuit and yearning for beauty. The rock paintings appeared during the Paleolithic period can be regarded as its embryonic form. The abundant subject matters and distinctive artistic style of Kang Wei painting have been shaped by the unique natural environments and traditional aesthetic consciousness of the local residents. People in northern Shanxi try to break the silence and sweep away dreariness in the long and cold winter with the passionate and bright-colored Kang Wei paintings. They paint their good wishes for life and interpretations of their inner spiritual world on the walls of their bedrooms to obtain emotional compensation and spiritual consolation. In the course of drastic changes experienced by the traditional Chinese rural society, the material carrier of Kang Wei painting is gradually disappearing, and the local people's aesthetic orientation has taken a new and different turn. As a result, the inheritance crisis of Kangwei paintings occurs since the art form is fading out of the local people's vision, and the folk artists are switching to other professions to earn their living. At present, the situation for rescuing, protecting and inheritance of Kang Wei painting is particularly pressing. Therefore, joint efforts should be made actively by, the government officials in Yuanping country at different levels, the researchers, the painters and the local people to help the traditional art to rejuvenate and adapt to the modern tendency of social development by means of new media.