On December 24, 2015, the opening ceremony of “Chinese Criticism Base in Literary and Art Circles” at CAFA and “Seeking truth from facts, attacking the bad and praising the good deeds” contemporary art review symposium was held at the library lecture hall in CAFA, Pang Jingjun, Director of the Theoretical Research Room at the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, Deputy Director and Secretary General of China Critics Association of Literary and Art Circles and the Director of the Criticism Center of Literary and Art Circles at the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, together with President of CAFA Fan Di’an unveiled the plaque, CAFA becomes one of the first 22 “Chinese Criticism Bases in Literary and Art Circles” and is the only professional academic institution. Deputy Party Secretary of CAFA Wang Shaojun, Director of the journal editorial at CAFA and Director of the base Yin Shuangxi, Dean of the Institute of Arts Administration and Education at CAFA Yu Ding, Deputy Dean of the School of Humanities Shao Yiyang, Director of CAFA Art Museum Wang Huangsheng, Deputy Director of CAFA’s library Cao Qinghui, Vice President of the Academy of Arts & Design at Tsinghua University Zhang Gan, etc., attended the opening ceremony and seminar.

In recent years, the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles actively expanded battle fields, building platforms, to vigorously promote the construction of literary and art criticism, setting up the China Critics Association of Literary and Art Circles and the Criticism Center in Literary and Art Circles at China Federation of Literary and Art Circles. Last April, it started the declaration work of “Chinese Criticism Base in Literary and Art Circles” throughout the country, after the serious declaration, CAFA finally passed the investigation and evaluation by experts and became one of the first group in “Chinese Criticism Base of Literary and Art Circles”.

Implementation of Xi Jinping’s speech spirit at the literature and art symposium, actively promotes the development of critical works of literarature and art

President of CAFA Fan Di’an gave a speech at the opening ceremony, and he said General Secretary of CPC Xi Jinping’s speech at the literature and art symposium points out the direction of the healthy development and active prosperity of literary and art circles and he also attached great importance to the role of literature and art criticism in the speech at the same time. Fan Di’an also put forward several suggestions for the building of the “Chinese Criticism Base of Literary and Art Circles”: often organizing experts inside and outside of the academy to analyze the new situation of art development; taking the advantages of the academy teaching to strengthen the training in the talent of art criticism; combining practice with criticism, so that art criticism was rooted in the soil of art development.

Pang Jingjun, Director of the Criticism Center of Literary and Art Circles at the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles congratulated the formal establishment of “Chinese Criticism Base in Literary and Art Circles”, at the same time, in order to further strengthen the cooperation with CAFA, Pang Jingjun put forward suggestions and thoughts: firstly, bringing the superiority into full play, highlighting the characteristics of CAFA; secondly, widely building platforms to foster talent; thirdly, to strengthen planning, and standardize the management.

The New situation and new attitude of art review under the background of internet culture

At the “Seeking truth from facts, attacking the bad and praising the good deeds” contemporary art review symposium which was held at the end of the opening ceremony, the participating experts offered an intense discussion on the new situation and outlet on art reviews around the contemporary internet cultural environment. Director of CAFA Art Museum Wang Huangsheng pointed out that literary and art criticism was the powerful supervision of the construction of art museums, it not only reflected the control of the academic construction of art museums, but also reflected the implementation and execution of cultural policy. Vice President of the Academy of Arts & Design at Tsinghua University Zhang Gan focused on the question of the standard value of literary review and pointed out that art review was currently disturbed by the market, and the inner concept was not clear. He also said that the critical standards were diverse, directing the industry and the public, in order to promote the overall growth of social aesthetic education. Dean of the Institute of Arts Administration and Education at CAFA Yu Ding said, along with the rise of the new internet platform such as the self creating media, experts’ comments become submerged in the noise of the media, and at the same time it also emerges copycatting phenomenon, Yu Ding thought that professional comments should stick to academic claims, keep a serious attitude, rather than being a slave of the market. Cao Qinghui responded that the media was the product of the times and it also had certain advantages and people should reflect on the previous “relationship between teachers and students” for new media and critics, transferring to cooperative relations, to commonly form a resultant force. The Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Art magazine Sheng Wei said that the internet brought a change of platform and a transformation of medium which also shunted readers and even some voices replaced the previous comments, which was a change of the times, demanding that art critic circles actively respond to it. Deputy Dean of the School of Humanities Shao Yiyang said the impact of the internet culture was a phenomenon that happened both at home and abroad, so people shouldn’t care about it, both professional and ordinary voices had their own audiences. Head of the Department of Curatorial Research of CAFA ART Museum curator Wang Chunchen considered dialogue as the key for art reviews, it was necessary for art critics to have an exchange in an international context, rather than the emphasis on “China”. Yu Yang said an art review was different from the study of art history, for it was necessary to have a position and attitude, commentators did not have any authority, but there were good or bad comments, while the good ones should be out of respect for the facts and accessible to resonation, as it was a guide.

Text by Zhang Wenzhi, Photo by Yang Yanyuan/CAFA ART INFO

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