Seeking Modern National Design from Traditional National Art

Abstract

By comparing the advantages between traditional culture and national art, this thesis analyzes the status of national art in modern design. It then points out that as the essence of Chinese civilization, national art has been created after a long time, and that traditional culture and national art, as long as endowed modern design ideas, can reproduce and show their national feature, becoming world-famous Chinese designs with Chinese feature. National art is the art created by the forefathers in the production and living. Every national artwork contains our ancestors’ understanding and reorganization on lives, nature and eternity, reflecting their realization on beauty. Because of the difference of their living environment of geography, nature and humanity, national art also presents different manifestations and creations. The forefathers, who sought water and grass to live, created splendid ceramic culture and farming civilization, while those who lived on the center of grassland created wonderful nomadic civilization. Created in the process of production, living and laboring, these art forms have been enriched, inherited and innovated, becoming the root of Chinese civilization and the ultimate source sought by designers in their work.