Folk art is put forward according to the concepts of academic art and literati art. In a broad sense, folk art is an art created by workers to meet their own life and aesthetic needs, including folk arts and crafts, folk music, folk dance and opera. Folk art in a narrow sense refers to folk plastic arts, including various forms of expression of folk art and arts and crafts.
According to the classification of materials, folk handicrafts are made of different materials, such as paper, cloth, bamboo, wood, stone, leather, metal, noodles, mud, ceramics, grass willow, rattan, paint and so on. They are mainly made of natural materials, local materials and traditional handwork, with strong local characteristics and national style, closely combined with folk activities and life. Folk art is accompanied by life etiquette from birth to death, food, clothing, housing and transportation in daily life all year round.
According to different production techniques, folk art can be divided into painting, plastic carving, weaving, cutting and carving, printing and dyeing, etc.
From the creator's point of view, folk art is a handicraft product with farmers and craftsmen as the main body to meet the creator's own needs or supplement family income, and even make a living.
Judging from the mode of production, folk art is handed down from generation to generation by taking one family as the production unit, with fathers passing on their children and teachers leading their disciples.
From the functional point of view, it includes not only folk art works with ornamental and spiritual pleasure, but also utensils and decorations with practical and use functions. The theme and content of the work fully reflect the aesthetic and psychological needs of the public in civil society. The shape is full and rough, and the colors are bright and rich. It is not only beautiful and practical, but also has the spiritual function of seeking good fortune and avoiding evil.
Classification of folk art
(1) Architectural furnishings and decoration
The main categories of architectural folk houses and their decorative arts are stage, ancestral hall, ancestral hall, temple, folk houses, pavilions, archways, tombstones, tied horse piles, city gates, village entrance architectural decoration, various town objects, bridges at the bridge head by the river, dye houses, well platforms, stone carvings and so on. Urban architecture, shop decoration, signboards, plaques, etc. Can be included. Various building components, such as cornices and arches, tiles, gatehouses, plaques, brick carvings, door drums, door decorations, screen walls, zhaobi, geomantic buildings, shrines, flower walls, flower windows, lintels, riding stones, sitting lions, etc., as well as carvings and decorations in courtyards, have met people's living needs and aesthetic needs through arrangement, combination, decoration and beautification.
(2) Daily appliances
The production of daily necessities and appliances includes farm tools, wagon horses, spinning wheels, craftsmen's appliances, clothing, daily furniture and articles used, such as textiles, textiles (blue calico, tie-dyeing, batik, homespun, brocade, etc. ), clothing and accessories, jewelry accessories; Furniture, lamps, embroidery ornaments, cosmetic boxes, ceramic containers, drinking fountains, tableware, smoking utensils and other daily utensils. They are the product of the combination of beauty and utility, that is, works of art and practical appliances.
(3) Festival etiquette
This kind of folk art includes all kinds of plastic arts needed for festival celebrations, life etiquette and social etiquette. They are not folk works of art used on weekdays, but are used at the right time and on demand, but they are also indispensable decorative items for festivals and ceremonies. For example, auxiliary folk arts and crafts used in life etiquette such as birth ceremony, adult ceremony, birthday ceremony and funeral are carriers of expressing emotions and necessities in various holiday etiquette. Such as weapons used in various performances, props used in festivals and ceremonies, costumes, accessories, dough figurines, suitcases, tableware, gift boxes used in wedding ceremonies, etc. Also belong to this category.
(4) Sacrifice
This kind of folk art mainly refers to decorative art works related to folk beliefs and religions, and some of them are directly evolved from witchcraft props and sacrificial statues, such as various statues, ancestor statues, idols, funerary objects and sacrificial objects. We are familiar with "Big Brother Doll" begging for props, Shi Tian statues, Zhong Kui statues, Kitchen God statues, land and water paintings and so on.
(5) Watch and play.
Ornamental folk works of art are often pure works of art that aim at aesthetics and decoration and meet spiritual needs, such as New Year pictures, paper cuts, paper carvings, lanterns (square paintings), fan paintings, kang paintings, screens, iron paintings, pyrography, painted clay sculptures, dough sculptures, decorative ornaments, various decorative paintings and decorative pendants. Ornamental arts, such as traditional folk toys, are small "toys" that can be played in the palm of your hand for the purpose of pleasing people's temperament, and can also be classified into this category. This kind of folk arts and crafts has utilitarian characteristics beyond material use, and is mainly used for "spiritual practicality" to meet spiritual and psychological demands.
(6) Entertainment performances
This kind of art includes props, instruments, musical instruments and decorations used in martial arts and competitions, temple fairs and flower shows, as well as street floats. The characteristic of this art is that its functions can only be embodied through people's participation, such as pasting, dancing, hanging and wearing. Such as shadow play, puppet show, flying kites, nine-ring and other folk toys, diabolo, playing windmills and so on. All belong to this kind of performance.
The functions of these six kinds of folk arts can be transformed into each other. When the shadow play is finished and hung indoors for appreciation, it becomes an ornamental art again. So are lanterns, puppets and some props. In addition, works that were originally sacrificial offerings are also used for viewing and decoration among the people. The function of folk art mainly depends on where and how it is used in folk activities. The exertion of each function has certain limitations, thus defining the functional attribution of folk art.
The artistic expression of folding editing this paragraph
1. Language is full of symbols and meanings: it is a common technique in folk art to express auspicious meaning by homophonic, moral and symbolic methods. For example, in "Happy Ever After", a goldfish is painted all over the jar, and the goldfish is homophonic with the golden jade. Describe longevity and wealth, and use the homonym of cat, butterfly, peony, cat and butterfly, that is, the 80-90-year-old man symbolizes longevity; Peony symbolizes wealth. Three sheep open Thailand, the picture shows three sheep, and the sheep symbolize auspiciousness. This practice is very common.
2. Simple and simple modeling, exaggerated deformation: the modeling of folk art emphasizes simplicity and simplicity without seeking exquisiteness and complexity, and does not express things according to objective reality, but mainly focuses on subjective, emotional and psychological feelings, highlighting the morphological and physical characteristics of people and animals, and often handles the objects of expression with exaggerated deformation, such as the body of a military commander, and often exaggerates horizontally; There is a saying in folk lion modeling that "a lion with ten catties has nine catties of head and one catty is at the back (tail)". Here, we pay attention to the performance of the head and tail, omitting the character part and highlighting the momentum.
3. Color is mainly subjective and symbolic: the purpose of this is to highlight the function of auspiciousness and avoiding harm. Folk art mostly uses red and warm colors, which is very symbolic. Images such as Guan Gong with red face, Cao Cao with white face, Bao Gong with black face and Zhong Kui with Zhu Yan are all subjective means of color expression.