The Symposium of National Academies of Chinese Painting Disciplinary Construction and the Ceremony to Establish Departments in the School of Chinese Painting were held at the audio-visual lecture hall, CAFA, at 9:00 am on November 28, 2013. Disciplinary leaders, directors of departments and representatives of teachers of Chinese Painting from 15 Art Institutions across the nation including the Department of Chinese Painting of China Academy of Art, the Department of Chinese Painting of Xi’an Academy of Fine Arts, the Faculty of Chinese Painting of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, Department of Chinese Painting of Luxun Academy of Fine Arts, Department of Chinese Painting of Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts, Department of Chinese Painting of Hubei Institute of Fine Arts, Department of Chinese Painting of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Department of Painting of the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University, School of Arts of Renmin University of China, Chinese Painting discipline of the Department of Art, People’s Liberation Army Arts College, College of Fine Arts, Capital Normal University, Department of Chinese Painting of the College of Fine Arts, Shanghai University, College of Fine Arts of Harbin Normal University, Department of Chinese Painting of the School of Fine Arts, Shandong University of Arts, School of Fine Arts of Yunnan Arts University, attended the forum and ceremony.

The Symposium of National Academies of Chinese Painting Disciplinary Construction was presided over by Tang Yongli, Dean of the School of Chinese Painting, CAFA, and the ceremony of establishing departments was presided over by Li Yang, Deputy Dean of the School of Chinese Painting, CAFA, Pan Gongkai, President of CAFA, Gao Hong, Party Secretary, Xu Bing, Deputy Dean of CAFA attended the ceremony and gave a speech. Pan Gongkai said, the issue of Chinese painting was the core and important section in the development, study and debate in the whole Chinese art world, this discussion would be of benefit to the development of Chinese painting discipline of CAFA and the development of Chinese painting across the nation. Branch departments of the School of Chinese Painting, CAFA conformed to the historical trend of the time and also in line with the central stress on heritage and development of a new spirit of traditional Chinese painting. Gao Hong said, it was very meaningful to hold the Symposium of the National Academies Chinese Painting Disciplinary Construction and the Ceremony to Establish Departments in the School of Chinese Painting on the 95th anniversary of founding CAFA, and hoped the academic discussion would clear the head and confirm the orientation of the teaching and development of the Chinese painting discipline of CAFA in future. Xu Bing believed that Chinese painting would become increasingly important in the future cultural construction, and it was necessary to build the branch departments of the School of Chinese Painting, hoping experts in the field of Chinese painting from all institutes mutually discuss and support it.

At the ceremonies of building departments and appointment, the School of Chinese Painting, CAFA expanded the former institution of “studio” to “department”, establishing departments in figure painting, landscape painting, flower and bird, calligraphy, in addition there was an initial establishment of two teaching and research institutes which were the Department of Basic and Department of Chinese Painting Study Research. After several careful discussions by the disciplinary group of the School of Chinese Painting and an approval decision by CAFA, it eventually announced Liu Qinghe and Liu Jingui were appointed as the Directors of Department of Figure Painting, Cui Xiaodong was appointed as the Director of Department of Landscape Painting, Yu Guanghua was appointed the Director of the Department of Flowers and Birds, Xu Hai was appointed the Director of the Department of Calligraphy, Wang Xiaohui and Qiu Ting were appointed the Directors of the Department of Basic, Yu Yang was appointed the Director of Research Department of Chinese Painting Study.

After the end of the appointment ceremony, Prof. Tang Yongli, Dean of School of Chinese Painting, introduced the teaching principles and construction ideas of the School of Chinese Painting, Deputy Dean Prof. Li Yang, and Prof. Chen Ping respectively introduced the situations of undergraduate and graduate teaching at the School of Chinese Painting. Prof. Zhang Lichen, Director of disciplinary committee of School of Chinese Painting, offered a conclusion on the content in the morning. In the discussion of the afternoon, the disciplinary leaders, directors of departments and teacher representatives of Chinese painting from 15 institutes spoke on the teaching and development of Chinese painting, introducing the situations of disciplinary construction and the individual experience of teaching.

As the highest summit of Chinese panting teaching and disciplinary construction, and the first seminar for directors of departments in the history of Chinese painting, is just like the final conclusion by Prof. Tang Yongli, the exchanges of various institutions enriched the teaching system, and also offered a lot of nutrients for individual teaching in the future. “Painting for China” – through establishing departments, School of Chinese Painting would continue to aim to deepen teaching reform and academic exploration, through profound artistic heritage and academic enthusiasm to construct and develop teaching, creation and study of the School of Chinese Painting, systematically structuring the systems of teaching and research of Chinese painting, leading the process of teaching and research, this made CAFA better and able to shoulder the historical mission of educational leaders of Chinese painting.

Journalist: Ye Yuanfeng/CAFA ART INFO, Photo: School of Chinese Painting

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