The "Presence" and "Trace" of Media: on the Reconstruction of The Materiality of Oil Painting in the Digital Age
Abstract
In the "post-media era" where digital image production, dissemination and consumption dominate, virtual images have constructed a universal "virtual presence". This article focuses on the inherent materiality of oil painting, arguing that it is not a remnant of nostalgia, but an aesthetic resistance that confirms “real presence” in the digital void. It evokes the embodied perception of the integration of body and mind through the visuality of touch, the condensation of time and the decisive traces of creation. The article reviews the revival of materiality theory from modernism to contemporary times. With the help of phenomenology and material culture research, it analyzes the contemporary return of the "aura" of oil paintings. Through artist cases and personal practice, it explains how materiality is actively "reconstructed" into a positive aesthetic strategy and philosophical statement.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Visual Culture and Art Theory
Art
Aesthetics
and Perception
Politics
and Modernism
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Arts Studies and Criticism
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 502–502
- Publication date
- 17 January 2026
- Language
- EN