It took Westerners nearly 500 years before their realistic art, or classical art, reached its peak. In the second half of the nineteenth century, artists slowly began to abandon realism. Aesthetically, there was a departure from a focus on the object and more attention was paid to the basic visual art form elements. The form was reshaped, and there was an emphasis on the artist’s subjective arrangement of the image, which led to the creation of abstract art. The phase of Western modernist art had begun. Modern art was a revolution. This revolution started with Cezanne, followed by Gauguin, Van Gogh, Picasso, and Matisse. One after the other, they created a new painting language. No longer was there a pursuit for realism, as there was in classical art, but instead there was a pursuit for natural beauty, which meant creating more “significant forms”. With the pursuit of “artistic beauty”, artists started to make “art for art’s sake”. In the history of art, the definition of “Modern Art” mainly refers to the era of 1860 to 1960. After 1960, the emergence of pop art meant that art had entered yet another new phase. It was now possible to completely disregard the form and not pursue beauty or the form that modern artists emphasized. The important thing was for the artists to convey their ideas and express their concepts. Furthermore, this medium could embody any method or object you could think of, or simply life itself. Art could be ugly, lost, revolting, even anti-beautiful or amoral. The stage was now set for “contemporary art”. But in fact, the reality was that “Classical Art” could not be said to have been lost, or that there was no “Modern Art” after 1960. Up until now, Classical Art and Modern Art still exist, but they are no longer part of the mainstream, but both have become art categories. Works of formalism and conceptual art are constantly being created, enriching the historical development of art. 

Was Modern Art halted by the abstract? Can current art all collectively be called contemporary art? Danto once said, “For a long time, I think, ‘contemporary art’ would have been just Modern Art that is being made now.” As more and more artists with a variety of methods for creating anti-art appeared, he slowly came to realize that “contemporary has come to mean an art produced within a certain structure of production never, I think, seen before in the entire history of art…I wish to draw a very strong distinction between ‘modern’ and ‘contemporary’." Modern Art promotes artistic beauty. This is judged primarily by its innovation in form, which ultimately is how contemporary art can be distinguished. After the 1960s, conceptual art became very popular. There are still some artists who are exploring in the direction of modern art, without departing from easel painting itself, without departing from formalism or the pursuit of “artistic beauty”. On the premise of not departing from easel painting itself, the possibility for more artistic beauty was explored. The entire process of modern Western art going from the realistic to the abstract took nearly a hundred years. The Chinese modern art phase started in 1985, mere two or three decades, and cannot possibly have reached its end. In present-day China, apart from dynamic and genuine contemporary artists who with a positive attitude engage in image, behavior, installation, and new-media creations, there are many artists who adhere to the core of modern art development, without departing from formalism. In this context, I invite seven post-80s artists, namely: Zhou Dong, Guo Jian, Zhao Bo, Tao Fa, Xu Guipin, Ju Fang, and Zhang Ziye. An attempt is made for more sustainable concept of Modern Art. Particularly in China, the Western modernism period is not a part of past history. Instead, emerging, young artists continue to emerge and express themselves in different ways through easel painting. Combined with diverse personal geographical or cultural backgrounds, more substantial art is created, and a diversification in modern art is taking place. 

In my opinion, for an artist to not give up on painting, means that they haven't given up on the expression of modernism. The final presentation still pursues "artistic beauty," and has not given up on formalism's emphasis of form over content. The artistic styles of the seven artists invited are all uniquely different from one another. The only point of similarity is that they were all born after 1980 and have all chosen easel painting as their primary method of creation for the realization of modern art. During their journey in creating and using painting as a language, these young artists born after the 1980s, have managed to present their stories from their constant artistic explorations with strongly unique methods of expression, to enrich the different aspects of modern art, and bring the audience a new, refreshing visual experience.