The Art of Block-Printed Chinese New Year Pictures

木板年画的艺术

As a unique form of folk art, block-printed Chinese New Year pictures stand out in its artistic¹ expression. As far as their artistic creation is concerned,these pictures are free from the limitations of time and space,with masterly generalized themes and sensationally² exaggerated images. In terms of their brushwork or style,these pictures have inherited the traditional Chinese sketching³ techniques,with an accurate and well-conceived composition, simple yet bold lines,unsophisticated yet exaggerated images,bright and lively colors. As regards printing, black, red, green, blue and yellow are the preferred colors. In short,with skillfully contrasted colors, characteristic themes, honest and graceful⁴ figures，these pictures give off a strong local flavor.

作为民间艺术的独特形式，中国木刻年画的艺术表现力脱颖而出。对于它们的艺术创作而言，这些图片都是不受时间和空间的限制，以精湛的通用主题及夸张的图像绘制而成。对于他们的绘画和风格而言，这些图片都继承了中国传统的素描技术，具有准确，周密的组成，简单而大胆的线条，单纯而又夸张的图片，鲜艳和生动的色彩。至于印刷，黑，红，绿，蓝和黄是优选的颜色。总之，随着巧妙地对比的颜色，特色主题，诚实和优美的人物，这些照片散发出浓郁的乡土气息。