Since the Art Department of the Ministry of Culture initiated the national art museum exhibition season of selected collections in 2012, CAFA Art Museum has successively launched the “Collection Series: Selected Works Created in the Period of the National Beiping Art School” in the past three years, including the “Collection Series: Selected Works of Oil Painting Created in the Period of the National Beiping Art School”, “Collection Series: Selected Works of Chinese Painting Created in the Period of the National Beiping Art School”, “Merging – From National Beiping Art School, Yan’an Luxun Academy of Literature and Art to CAFA (1946-1953)”, and the three exhibitions perfectly reviewed and studied the teaching and creations of the traditional Chinese paintings and Western paintings in the period of the National Beiping Art School, as well as the educational thoughts on art and teaching structure of the National Beiping Art School before and after the liberation and the merging of Yan’an Luxun Academy of Literature and Art, and it has excavated the historical value and realistic significance of the selected works collected in the period of the National Beiping Art School, researching and deepening the study and excavation of the National Beiping Art School. The three exhibitions have won a good social repercussion, and greatly influenced the academic circles.

The above three exhibitions are not only the thematic study of the selected collections, and also the historically researched and study in the process of Chinese art development in the 20th Century, continuing to this year, it will focus on the period after the founding of new China and before the start of the cultural revolution, the study of the development status of the art of new China in the 17 years, namely the study of the history of CAFA which participated in the construction of Chinese art of the 20th Century in the 1950s and 1960s.

In the 1950s and 1960s, it was a major historical period for China to conduct the artistic and cultural construction according to its own political demands and ideology, which does not only have a comprehensive renovation of the so-called pure traditional art types such as traditional Chinese painting, oil painting, etc., but also has a new understanding of the so-called folk arts such as New Year Pictures, comic books, mural painting, etc. Therefore, although it was as short as 17 years in the 1950s and 1960s, the development and changes of Chinese art in the historical period were extremely complex, so that it has become an important historical period for the study of Chinese art history of the 20th Century, attracting the passionate study of many scholars.

The breakthrough point of the research is very special, which is primarily based on two premises, including the situation of CAFA in the process of Chinese art development in the 1950s and 1960s, and the collections of CAFA Art Museum in this period. So that the rich collections of CAFA Art Museum in the 1950s and 1960s were comprehensively inspected, in order to choose a theme as a key point of the exhibition and study, namely the “Learning and Transformation of the Ethnic Artistic Traditions by CAFA in the 1950s and 1960s”.

In this exhibition, it will continue to research the history of CAFA, to study the important scholars, artists, and the teachers and students of the 1950s and 1960s, and aims at finding, completing and reproducing the historical facts and important events of the learning and transformation of the ethnic artistic traditions by CAFA in the 1950s and 1960s, and the art educational thought, teaching structure, as well as the historical value and realistic significance of the artworks, thus continuing to deepen the study and excavation of CAFA. Through this project, using the exhibition, seminar, publishing, and public education to help the young students to understand and remember the history of art, meanwhile it also offers the people with similar interests possibilities and information for further study.

About the exhibition

Art Director: Wang Huangsheng

Exhibition Planning: Cao Qinghui

Overall Plan of the Exhibition: Tang Bin

Assistant Curators: Li Yaochen, Guo Hongmei

Exhibition Executives: Wu Peng, Jing Peng

Collection Managements: Li Yaochen, Xu Yan, Jiang Nan, Wang Chunling

Visual Design: Yi Yi

Venue: CAFA Art Museum, Gallery 4F

Duration: December 9, 2015 - April 24, 2016

Courtesy of CAFA Art Museum, transalted by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO