Abstract:

The DeElitism in China' s Contemporary Paintings(School of Fine Arts, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China)　Abstract： The traditional elite painting is of minority art, which serves the people in the upper society. This kind of art, after undergoing a transformation of era, dies a natural death. Under the condition of contemporary market of art, the difference between elites and nonelites is related closely to social identity and service object. While the elite artist mainly serves the people in the upper society, the nonelite artist takes the people in the lower and middle societies as main service object. Both have more difference in economic income and less difference in artistic quality. Therefore, for China' s contemporary paintings, there is no cultural elite connotation but economic meaning. Of course, in order to seek for survival, part of contemporary paintings will choose a creative mode of the "false elegance". But what most of painters create are "vulgar" works displaying worldly desires. The emergence of these circumstances has something to do with the excessive difference between wealth and poverty. It is the arty fashion from wealthy people and the material incentive means from cultural administrations that make China' s contemporary paintings being the market victims short of cultural indications.

Key words: elite painting, minority art, deelitism, commerce painting, art market