November 27, 2016, “Beijing Academy of China Xieyi Oil Painting” was established at Lotus Art Museum in Chaoyang District, Beijing. Fan Di’an, President of the Central Academy of Fine Arts (abbr. CAFA), Vice Chairman of the China Artists Association, Vice Chairman of the China?Literary?and?Art?Critics?Association, Honorary Chairman of the Institute; Xu Li, Secretary of the Party Committee of the China Artists Association, Vice Chairman of the Association and Secretary General; Zhang Zuying, Vice President of the Institute of Oil Painting at China National Academy of Painting, Vice President of China Oil Painting Society; the famous artist, Prof. Yuan Yunsheng from the Central Academy of Fine Arts; Yang Songlin, the famous artist, former Vice President of the Shandong University of Arts, and many artists from all over the country attended the opening ceremony.

The establishment of “Beijing Academy of China Xieyi Oil Painting” is both the necessary of the times and the historical necessity, marking the birth of an important emerging academic art group that meets the needs of the times in the developing road of Chinese oil painting art. To help the creation and academic activities of Xieyi oil painting to continue unfolding, and promoting the deepened research on the Xieyi oil painting, offering a new platform to contact and invite more young artists to participate, and carry out domestic and international art exchanges. This session of council has appointed 8 honorary directors who are highly respected in the Chinese oil painting circles, and appointed 91 art masters as members of the council of the Institute, among 46 artists are executive directors and so on. The Council also elected and established the people of the first session of the committee of the institute, including Honorary Presidents: Fan Di’an, Xu Li; President: Dai Shihe; Vice Presidents: Ding Yilin, Ma Lu, Wang Kun, Jing Shijian, Yan Ping, Sun Jianping, Zhang Jin, Zhang Lujiang, Chen Weihong, Zheng Gong, Yang Canjun, Duan Zhengqu; Executive Vice President: Wang Hui; Secretary-General: Zhang Jin (concurrently); Deputy Secretary General: Wen Zhenfei, Li Jiangfeng, Yuan Wenbin, Tang Mansheng. The list of the Academic Committee: Consultants: Fan Di’an, Xu Li; Director: Dai Shihe; Deputy Directors: Ding Yilin, Ma Lu, Wang Keju, Jing Shijian, Ren Chuanwen, Duan Zhengqu, Zhang Dongfeng; Executive Deputy Directors: Sun Jianping, Zheng Gong; Members: Wen Zhenfei, Wang Hui, Wang Kun, Mao Daizong, Bai Yuping, Li Jiangfeng, Sun Gang, Liu Shangying, Chen Hexi, Chen Yiming, Chen Shudong, Zhang Jin, Zhang Lujiang, Zhang Liping, Zhang Xinquan, Zhao Peizhi, Cui Guoqiang, Yuan Wenbin; Secretary-General: Zhao Peizhi (concurrently); Deputy Secretary-Generals: Shi Yu, Huang Liyou, Guan Puxue.

Along with the establishment of the “Beijing Academy of China Xieyi Oil Painting”, planned by the Organizing Committee, the “Academism and Inheritance – 2016 China Xieyi Oil Painting School First Excellent Young Artists ‘Phoenix Award’ Selected Works Exhibition” was unveiled at the same time. The famous artist, the executive vice president of the Institute Wang Hui presided over the opening of the exhibition. It has collected the works from across the country in the early stage of the exhibition, and selected 60 outstanding young artists from the hundreds of competitors, including the 10 artists Wang Qiong, Li Kexia, Yang Jifeng, Deng Yuanyuan, Tai Haoran, Liang Huiqing, Yue Lei, Ma Jiawei, Chen Weiguo, Ouyang Cairong who receive academic awards of the exhibition, and they will participate in various follow-up academic activities organized by the Xieyi Oil Painting, to become important new forces of China Xieyi Oil Painting School, which fully embodies the idea of “Inheritance in Context · Inheritance of School” for the running of an institute, which can be described as an important academic symbol in the developing process of Chinese oil painting.

Fan Di’an pointed out that, “‘China Xieyi Oil Painting’ is an academic concept which is gradually clear and defined, and it is a dimension and orientation of the practice of Chinese oil painting, focuses on drawing the knowledge, philosophy and visual modeling methods from the tradition of Chinese culture, integrated with various experiences of Western oil painting, embodying the main body consciousness based on the feelings of the times and the local culture in the ideological concept.” Chinese Xieyi oil painting started when the Western oil painting settled in China, it was endlessly surging in the last century, and China Xieyi Oil Painting has a better development condition on the basis of the relentless pursuit of generations of oil painters and enjoying an increasingly wide-ranging cultural vision and the general acceptance of the oil painting art, countless oil painting predecessors who took Chinese cultural spirit as the root, converged their unyielding artistic practices to a strong cultural and artistic trend. Fan Di’an also stressed that: “Many art colleagues are of a mind of consensus, working hard, to search the truth and collecting the wisdom of the group, to make the exploration of Xieyi oil painting presented a thriving imposing manner.”

Since Chinese Xieyi Oil Painting School was established in 2002, a large number of artists have gathered and inherited the context in the consensus of Xieyi oil painting, deeply studying Chinese and Western art tradition in the contemporary artistic vision, adhering to the Chinese expression, continuing the creative practice of Xieyi oil painting. After the “Re-Sketch · Xieyi – Chinese Oil Painting Masterpieces Exhibition” was held in March, 2013, it first launched the concept of “China Xieyi Oil Painting School” in the circles of oil painting, which was initiated by Shenzhen Guan Shanyue Art Museum and in cooperation with the Institute of Oil Painting at the Hall of Literary and History in the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in September, 2015, invited nearly 50 representative artists across the nation, entitled “Inheritance in Context”. In 2016, “Inheritance In Context – Research Exhibition On Chinese Artists Of Impressionistic Oil Painting School” started again at the Beijing Today Art Museum. Over the past two years, the exhibition has been exhibited in the provincial and municipal art museums in Guangdong, Shaanxi, Fujian, Hubei, Beijing, Chongqing, Inner Mongolia, Shandong and Jilin. And it also invited the local artists to participate in the touring exhibition, arousing enthusiastic responses.

After the end of the ceremony of establishing the institute and the opening ceremony of the exhibition, the academic discussion of “Academy and inheritance – 2016 China Xieyi Oil Painting School First Excellent Young Artists ‘Phoenix Award’ Selected Works Exhibition” was held. The discussion was hosted by Zhao Peizhi, and the invited theorists Deng Pingxiang, Wu Hongbin, Wu Yangbo, Sun Xin, Fan Xiaonan, and all members of the academic committee, together with nearly 50 outstanding young artists who were present at the opening ceremony attended the discussion.

Text and photo courtesy of the organizer, translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO