In 1996, Prof. Sun Jiabo rebuilt and presided over the teaching of the First Studio in?the Department of Sculpture at CAFA, and Yu Fan, Wang Wei, Tang Hansheng, Cai Zhisong, Xiao Li, Shang Xiaofeng, Mu Boyan, Duan Haikang, Li Zhan all successively teach at the studio and it is currently a professional studio with the longest duration of teaching in the Department of Sculpture. On March 3, 2017, “From the Beginning”:? Teaching Exhibition from the First Studio at the Department of Sculpture, CAFA opened at CAFA Art Museum, and the exhibition is a retrospective on the 20 years of teaching at the studio.

Studio teaching is the most prominent feature of the teaching for the Central Academy of Fine Arts and it has the longest history in the higher art education in China, after the accumulation of several generations of famous artists and professors, it has formed a good tradition which we are proud of. The President of Central Academy of Fine Arts Fan Di’an wrote a preface for the exhibition that states “Since it was directed by Prof. Sun Jiabo in 1996, the First Studio at the Department of Sculpture, CAFA has been actively exploring the topic of the times for sculptural teaching, both focusing on the heritage of the local sculptural tradition, and actively learns from the language of the sculptural form with the modern West, both adhering to a rigorous training in shaping and encourages students to form a personality in the concept.” President Fan said that, whether it was for local resources or absorbing foreign nutrition, the teaching of the First Studio at the Department of Sculpture, CAFA has always paid attention to grasping of the artistic quality and style, emphasizing the cultivation of aesthetic quality in the shaping, so that students form an internal unity of the “broad” vision and “fine” skills, the “l(fā)oose” academic environment and “tight” self-demand.

Wang Shaojun, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Wang Xiaolin, Assistant to the President of the Central Academy of Fine Arts and Dean of the Academic Affairs Office, Yin Shuangxi, Executive Chief Editor of the “Art Research” and Secretary of the Academic Committee, Prof. Cao Chunsheng from the Department of Sculpture, Sui Jianguo, Deputy Director of the Academic Committee, Sun Jiabo, the former Director of the First Studio, Ma Lu, Dean of the School of Plastic Arts, Cao Qinghui, Deputy Director of the library, the specially invited curator, Pan Chenghui, Director of Administrative Office, Yue Jieqiong, Director of the Collaborative Innovation Office, Prof. Wang Zhong, Dean of the School of Design, Prof. Wang Chuan, Director of the Division of?Development?and?Planning, Jin Rilong, Director of the Division of Personnel, Prof. Tang Hui, Director of the Department of Mural Painting, Prof. Yao Lu, Director of the Department of Photography at the School of Design, Wang Huangsheng, Director of CAFA Art Museum and Tang Bin, Deputy Director of CAFA Art Museum attended the opening ceremony of the exhibition, which was presided over by Lv Pinchang, Deputy Dean of the School of Plastic Arts and Director of the Department of Sculpture.

This exhibition is named “From the Beginning”, as what Lv Pinchang said, that it did not only represent the beginning of reediting the sculptural practice for the Department of Sculpture, but also officially kick off the discipline construction of the Department of Sculpture at CAFA. Wang Shaojun addressed the opening ceremony and said that, it was necessary for CAFA Art Museum to research the teaching of the school, and “this ‘big thing’ should be continued, each discipline should research their own subject, allowing inter-disciplinary exchanges, so that the society can also better understand the Central Academy of Fine Arts.”

The First Studio?of the Department of Sculpture is inseparable from the artistic feelings of Prof. Sun Jiabo, who addressed the opening ceremony and said that, the basic education and heritage of the academy was in need of focusing on the basic ability of students. It is obvious that the exhibition focuses on and presents this basic teaching and it unfolds around the theme of teaching, which is generally divided into 3 parts, including classes of study, copying of traditional sculpture, creations, supplemented by the programme of teachers and their students, an introduction of excellent courses, restoration of the teaching site and video screening, etc. It has a rigorous academic attitude, with a diverse form and rich theme, comprehensively summarizing and reviewing the teaching and history of the First Studio at the Department of Sculpture, CAFA over the two decades. Through the “20 years of review of teaching” for the First Studio at the Department of Sculpture, CAFA will start on the relevant academic discussion and thinking, so that the audience can examine the developmental track of contemporary Chinese college education from the long time coordinates, to explore the connotation of “basic training” of the college teaching of sculpture in a contemporary context, as well as the relationship between basic teaching and artistic creation in college.

The exhibition remains on view till March 26, 2017.

Text by Lin Jiabin, Photo by Hu Sichen/CAFA ART INFO

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