On September 26, 2017, the opening ceremony of “The 10th Anniversary Celebration of the China Academy of Oil Painting at the China National Academy of Arts and the Special Exhibition of the 10th Anniversary of the Founding of the Academy” was held in the auditorium of humanities of the China Academy of Oil Painting, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the founding of the China Academy of Oil Painting at the China National Academy of Arts, with an exhibition, dialogue, concert and lecture.
Zuo Zhongyi, Member and Vice President of the Chinese Federation of Literary and Art Circles, and Secretary of the Secretariat, Wang Wenzhang, former Vice Minister of the Ministry of Culture and Honorary President of the China National Academy of Arts, Lian Ji, President of the China National Academy of Arts, Tan Ping, Vice President of the China National Academy of Arts, Jin Shangyi, Honorary Chairman of the China Artists Association and Prof. Jin Shangyi from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Fan Di’an, President of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Prof. Zhan Jianjun, Prof. Zhong Han, Prof. Shao Dazheng, Prof. Wen Lipeng, and Prof. Su Gaoli from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, as well as many celebrities from art circles attended the ceremony.
The academy is an institutional organization in the field of art, established after the founding of the People’s Republic of China. On the one hand, it solved the problems of life and creation of the artists under the planned economy system; on the other hand, it was also responsible for the country’s work in art creation and research. After the reform and opening up, a strong vitality emerged when it was combined with the market economy. In 2007, the China Academy of Oil Painting was established, which is part of the China National Academy of Arts, which integrates the art research, creation and education, bringing together the backbone of contemporary Chinese oil painting to promote the innovation and development of Chinese oil painting. Over the past decade, the China Academy of Oil Painting has not only trained talent through the research group training class, the invited residency of young artists, Chinese and foreign further training classes; but also through the creative practice, theoretical research and exhibition planning to offer an in-depth study. At the same time, the China Academy of Oil Painting insists on taking the art of oil painting as the object of essential research, and tries to incorporate the art of painting into the history of art and even the cultural history, placing it in the interdisciplinary humanities for interdisciplinary research, to make unremitting efforts in constructing the school system with a higher artistic quality and the institutes with a stronger academic advantage.
From 2007 to 2017, the China Academy of Oil Painting has experienced a hard and glorious decade. During this decade, the China Academy of Oil Painting encountered a new era of all-round rapid social development in China, catching up with the strategic opportunity of Chinese top-down promotion of cultural power, and the active phase of the creation & ideas of the three generations of excellent artists in China. In this era of great opportunities, the China Academy of Oil Painting pursues the nuclear values of “the truth, good and beauty” and “seeks the source and way” as the academic purpose, united the outstanding old, middle-aged and young oil painters, to commonly explore the development of oil painting in China, so that the worldwide language of oil painting vividly develops in the Chinese cultural earth, the excellent works started from the realism working towards abstract, from the classical to modern, have become widespread.
To celebrate the 10th anniversary celebration, the China Academy of Oil Painting exhibited a total of more than 220 pieces of Chinese old, middle-age and young oil painters at the Art Museum of the China Academy of Oil Painting, Exhibition Hall and Youth Hall at the same time, respectively showing the representatives of the works of the professional artists, specially invited artists, artists of the research groups, and specially invited young artists, and so on, to comprehensively showcase the development process, academic philosophy and research context of the China Academy of Oil Painting, through a form of a combination of documentaries and works. The exhibition also shows the academic activities of the China Academy of Oil Painting over the past decade in a multi-faceted form of text, revealing the three-dimensional artistic and cultural ecology of the China Academy of Oil Painting.
The exhibition showcases a decade of history of the China Academy of Oil Painting, and Yang Feiyun, President of China Academy of Oil Painting addressed the opening ceremony and talked about the challenges of Chinese oil painting in the future, such as how multimedia brings a big bang of information, causing the confusion and lack of judgment of art; the global multiple cultures? coexist in a place, gathering, blending and confronting, which causes the nuclear values to weaken and the direction & confidence becomes shaken; our lives are surrounded by cheap images which confuses our understanding of the essence of paintings. These problems question our understanding and choice of oil painting in the future.
The exhibition remains on view till October 22, 2017.
Text by Zhang Wenzhi, translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO
Photo courtesy of the organizer
