The innovative practice of contemporary oil painting language from the perspective of media transformation

Abstract

Against the background of media transformation, the intervention of digital technology has caused the language of contemporary oil painting to face a structural migration from materiality to information. Traditional oil painting relies on a material substrate composed of pigments, oils, and supports, and its tactile representation and optical depth are established through light propagation and mechanical feedback in a heterogeneous medium. The digital interface reconstructs the painting surface through pixel arrays and algorithmic logic, thereby forming a dematerialized visual field. Between pigments and pixels, a grammatical translation takes place between subtractive color mixing and additive color mixing, as well as between continuous media and discrete units. Fluid simulation algorithms attempt to reconstruct the rheological behavior of oil painting in the digital domain. Parametric design, real-time rendering, and interactive installations further transform brushstroke morphology, color temporality, and the rules of image derivation. The screen as a canvas alters perceptual distance and embodied adjustment. Digital archiving redefines the aura of the original work, and the mode of algorithmic collaboration gives rise to a creative modality of the distributed author.