Sponsored by Chinese Academy of Oil Painting and the Central Newsreel and Documentary Film Studio, “My Road of Sketch: Su Gaoli’s Solo Exhibition” was inaugurated at the Art Museum of the Chinese Academy of Oil Painting, at 15:00 on May 18, 2013. As one of the “Academic Studies of Oil Painters”, it features more than 100 works by Su Gaoli, along with the publication of the album of the same title, by combing through the art of Su Gaoli from the perspective of the sketch, observing his art research and creative process.

“Academic Exhibition of Oil Painters” series, planned by the Chinese Academy of Oil Painting, has featured the exhibitions of noted artists including Chen Danqing, Chao Ge, Xie Dongming, Duan Zhengqu, Jiao Xiaojian, Xin Dongwang, and caused huge repercussions in oil painting circles due to their academic quality and artistic standards. With exhibition, publication, transmission, and communication, it is an academic research of an artist from different aspects, attempting to go deep into the individual, to comb through the contemporary figurative paintings in China based on the academic, producing a great view of Chinese figurative painting, guiding Chinese oil painting so it develops in the right direction.

Born in Shanxi Province, in 1937, Su Gaoli graduated from the High School Affiliated to CAFA in1957, and was sent to study in the Department of Oil Painting, CAFA. He participated in overseas studied in the Soviet Union from 1960 to 1966 and graduated from Melnikov Studio of Repin Academy of Fine Arts. He went back to China to teach in CAFA and is still there today. He is a professor in the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), a member of Chinese Artists Association. He had been the Deputy Director of the 2nd Studio of the Department of Oil Painting, Director of the Seminar Studio of the Department of Oil Painting, and currently he?serves as?the teaching advisor of the School of City Design, CAFA. In 1997, the teaching in the Seminar Studio of the Department of Oil Painting won the Adult Educational Achievement Award, hosted by the state Education Commission and Beijing Municipal Education Commission. In 1999, the State Council issued him with a special government allowance and certificate of recognition. His artworks are widely exhibited, published and collected. The publications include “Su Gaoli’s Album of Sketches”, “Teaching of Sketching”, etc.

Since his study in High School, Su Gaoli goes to practice in the countryside or plants every year, understanding the social life, especially sketching and sketches. Returning to his hometown each winter and summer vacation, to sketch. I sketched in Aru Buka town when overseas and studied in the Soviet Union in the 1960s, in Dazhai and Pingding when back to China.

Su Gaoli said: “In short, I have never broken away from the social life I enjoyed when I was a student, studying in the class, and sketching outdoors, especially the experience of the countryside which has always firmly grasped the developmental direction of my art, playing a decisive role in the eventual direction and achievement of my art.”

Like talking with a friend, Su Gaoli proudly introduces his hometown and folks through his paintings, and we recognize the vitality of the village and the families, displaying the courtyard and furnished caves full of human touch, from an unique perspective. At the same time, we can see his wisdom and emotions, as well as loveliness from the images, pen, color, and processing of the whole screen. Su Gaoli had a rigid training in his sketching technique, however, rather than expressing the fine technique, he prefers his real feeling in painting without any trace of the technique.

––?Du Jian, Professor of CAFA

Artistic creation is absolutely inseparable from the artist’s emotional investment, and it’s an art practice that painting started with an emotional expression. The so-called emotional investment is actually that an artist always cares about human nature and humanities in the process of painting.

––?Artist Su Gaoli

It’s obvious that Su Gaoli’s early sketches and drawings displayed the master talent, of general processing of the screen, skillful use of a pen, and a high grade of ability. I am ashamed in face of Su’s sketch, because I lack his full interest in sketching, and rustic emotional qualities. He performs vividly and freely in a the language of bright and rich colors, impressing the viewers. His paintings have a strong sense of order and structural consciousness, novel structure, delicate arrangement, no matter how complex the scene, he summarizes it in order, so that no part of the screen is an isolated substance, or a trivial detail, completing the whole construction, which is in a pristine natural mood, leading people to feel the deep, honest, comfortable and majestic sense of his work.

　　––Yang Feiyun, Dean of Chinese Academy of Oil Painting

About the exhibition

Host: Chinese Academy of Oil Painting

Organizer: Art Museum of the Chinese Academy of Oil Painting

In cooperation with Shandong Ginza Art Museum, CAFA Art Museum, National Art Museum of China, Chinese Oil Painting Art Fund

Opening: 15:00 pm, on May 18, 2013

Duration: May 18 – June 9, 2013

Venue: Art Museum of the Chinese Academy of Oil Painting (No.1704, Gaobeidian Cultural Arts Street)

Translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO