On the afternoon of April 9, 2017, hosted by the School of Plastic Arts, CAFA, Jingdezhen Ceramic Culture Tourism Group, organized by Taoxichuan Art Museum, CAFA, Jingdezhen Taoyi Cultural Development Co., Ltd. “Come Straight to the Point – First Taoxichuan Academic Invitational Exhibition of the School of Plastic Arts, CAFA” opened in the CAFA Art Museum, Jingdezhen. Fan Di’an, President of CAFA serves as the academic chair of the exhibition. Liu Libin, associate researcher fellow of the Institute of Fine Arts serves as the curator, to present the 55 works recently created by the 21 first-line teachers from the School of Plastic Arts, which is a concentrated presentation of the creative achievements of the School of Plastic Arts in the Taoxichuan Art Park.

Gao Hong, Party Secretary of CAFA, Jiang Weihui, President of Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute, Ning Gang, Vice President, Zhou Guozhen, a senior professor, Liu Zili, Chairman of the Jingdezhen Ceramic Culture Tourism Group, Qin Jianping, Minister of the Propaganda Department, CAFA, Shi Ling, Deputy Director of the Office, and the participating artists Ma Lu, Wang Yingsheng, Wang Huaxiang, Sun Wei, Yang Hongwei, Yu Fan, Sun Lu, Sun Tao, Bai Xiaogang, Chen Ye, Shi Yu, Kong Liang attended the opening ceremony, and the opening ceremony was presided over by Lv Pinchang, the exhibition director, Deputy Director of the School of Plastic Arts, CAFA, and Director of the Department of Sculpture.

Gao Hong delivered a speech and said that the exhibition showed the artistic exploration of teaching and creative aspects of the first-line teachers from the School of Plastic Arts, CAFA and demonstrating the cooperation between?CAFA and Jingdezhen city and Taoxichuan Art Park, this exhibition and a series of exhibitions of the Taoxichuan Art Museum of CAFA that all made contributions to the exchange practice of the porcelain city of rich cultural heritage, as well as the development of Taoxichuan Art Park and the further expansion of porcelainart. Gao Hong hoped that through the academic exhibition, CAFA and Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute, and Taoxichuan Art Park to explore the mechanism of in-depth exchange and cooperation, learning from each other in the fields of porcelain art and plastic arts, to promote the development of traditional ceramic art in the current period and the future.

Jiang Weihui delivered a speech and said that, CAFA was the top art institution in China, Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute was the top ceramic institution and the two schools took Taoxichuan Art Museum of CAFA as the platform to jointly promote the development of the ceramic art of the millennium porcelain city Jingdezhen, while the exhibition of the teachers from the School of Plastic Arts, CAFA also offers the teachers and students from Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute opportunities for learning, communication and observation.

“The oil painters have absorbed a lot of things from porcelains, and all oil painters should pay attention to the gloss of the screen, the layer of gloss covering the oil painting is like the ceramic glaze”, Ma Lu, Dean of the School of Plastic Arts, CAFA and Director of the Department of Oil Painting delivered a speech and talked about the relevance of ceramics and plastic arts, “Although oil painting is a category of Western paintings, we have the accumulation of traditional Chinese culture, so we stand on a different level.”

Since the 1950s, groups of graduates have gone to Jingdezhen, and made contributions to the local ceramic art and art education, and now a group of graduates follow in the older generation’s footsteps, making efforts in contemporary development of traditional ceramic art. Zhou Guozhen, a senior professor from the Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute graduated from CAFA in 1954, affectionately described their experiences of studying and creating in Jingdezhen, “I witnessed the industrial base of Jingdezhen which was lacking in cultural and artistic cultivation that had developed to an artistic creative platform gladly yearned for by nearly ten thousand people, I would like to thank my alma mater, and I am also full of emotion for Jingdezhen, I hope that there are more and more such exchanges, which can promote the development of Jingdezhen ceramic art.”

Liu Zili said that Taoxichuan is an industrial base of a century-old tradition and Jingdezhen is a city with millenary ceramic culture, CAFA and Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute injects the modern cultural elements to a place which is full of heavy historical accumulation, while the Taoxichuan Art Park also offers a larger, broader platform for the future of young people, introducing modern academic atmosphere to traditional craftsmen.

Fan Di’an, President of CAFA wrote a preface for the exhibition and explained the connotation and significance of “Come Straight to the Point”: the door opens outwards, to present the thoughts and practices of the teachers from the School of Plastic Arts in the space at the art museum, with a form of visual arts and documents, completely displaying the art achievements of the teachers from the School of Plastic Arts; the door opens inwards, supported by the Jingdezhen city government and Taoxichuan Art Park, CAFA established an institute and art museum of ceramic art, and it needs to strengthen the display and communication with other art categories in the ceramic cultural atmosphere, in order to have mutual inspiration, mutual benefit, and striving to achieve a high-end lead benefit; “Come Straight to the Point” is actually the overall characteristics of the art of the teachers from CAFA, who have a solid foundation of shaping and a superb ability of shaping, and the most important thing, a pure aesthetic cultivation, and therefore it also has the self-confidence of artistic expression. Whether facing history or life, whether facing nature or the self, they all donate enthusiasm to the narration of shaping, quickly frankly speaking, “come straight to the point” is the embodiment of artistic expression of self-confidence. At the same time, today’s art is in need of continuously accepting the feedback from the new cultural context to achieve self-regulation, in this sense, “come straight to the point” also reveals that organizers of the exhibition intended to promote academic exchange.

After the opening ceremony of the exhibition, the exhibiting artists went to Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute for an academic exchange, and a thematic forum of “The Road of Plastic Arts – The Way of the Masters from CAFA and Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute” was held and a face-to-face exchange with the teachers and students from the Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute.

Text by Wu Qiong from the Propaganda Department, translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

Photo by Zhang Shaowen from Taoxichuan Art Museum of CAFA