On 25 December, 2019, the opening ceremony for the Joint Exhibition featuring Kang Lei and Liu Qing, winning teachers of the CAFA “Jin Shangyi Creative Awards for Young Teachers” was held in the West Hall of the History Museum of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Jin Shangyi, Professor and former President of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Liu Qian, Secretary-General of the China Arts Foundation, Gao Hong, Party Secretary and Chairman of the Foundation in the Central Academy of Fine Arts, President Fan Di’an, Huang Huaying, former Deputy Party Secretary of CAFA, Sun Wei, Vice Chairman of the Foundation, Yin Shuangxi, the Curator of this exhibition, Kang Lei and Liu Qing, the winners of the first “Jin Shangyi Creative Awards for Young Teachers”, as well as the heads of relevant departments, functional departments, professional teachers and the public attended the opening ceremony. The opening ceremony was presided over by Sun Wei, the Deputy Director of the CAFA Foundation.

On behalf of the Academy and the Foundation, Party Secretary Gao Hong expressed his gratitude to Mr. Jin Shangyi and the China Arts Foundation. He pointed out that at present our art creation has entered a new stage. Now is exactly the time when we need to give full play to the enthusiasm and creativity of teachers and students and leave the better works of this era as handed down on the land of China. After the centennial celebration of CAFA, the ability of young and middle-aged teachers needs to be fully cultivated and improved. At this stage, it is also necessary to pay attention to nurturing and vigorously supporting the growth of young teachers while providing more motivation and encouragement. The “Jin Shangyi Creative Awards for Young Teachers” have carried out Mr. Jin Shangyi’'s expectations and hopes for the young teacher community. Gao hoped that young teachers would learn from Mr. Jin Shangyi and other senior artists, inherit and carry forward the patriotic and ethical fine arts tradition. CAFA has implemented the new century strategy as an opportunity to encourage young artists and teachers proactively to create art in the new era, serve the country and people with art creations and achieve their own artistic lives.

In his speech, Fan Di’an, President of CAFA, pointed out that this year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China and it is also the 70th year since Mr. Jin Shangyi started to teach art. Along with the development of fine arts since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, Mr. Jin Shangyi created a large number of fine works of art at different stages and they became classics of New China’s fine arts. In 2018, Mr. Jin Shangyi donated all the prizes he received at the first “Xu Beihong Award” from the Central Academy of Fine Arts. With the joint support of the China Arts Foundation, Mr. Jin set up a “Jin Shangyi Creative Awards for Young Teachers” to encourage and support young teachers to create art. This is of far-reaching significance, reflecting Mr. Jin’s artistic feelings which have been concerned with the cause of literature and art and the growth of the young teacher community for many years and the purpose of the China Arts Foundation is to promote the prosperity of the country’s literature and art. On the occasion of the centennial celebration of the China Central Academy of Fine Arts, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out in an important reply to the senior professors of the CAFA, “cultivating students with great love, painting classic works with grand beauty”, and “the grand beauty” has become the goal pursued by all teachers and students of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Kang Lei and Liu Qing, these two award-winning teachers selected this time, in their creations, feeling the epoch with their hearts, going deep into life, getting close to the people and innovating artistic expressions, which have been praised and affirmed by others. He hopes that in the future, a long-term mechanism can be established to continue to give full play to the leadership and demonstration of the awards, encourage more young teachers to study and explore, improve their ability and techniques in forging their own “grand art”, and draw more classic works in the new era.

Mr. Jin Shangyi reviewed the developing stages and process of national art being undertaken since the founding of People’s Republic of China. He pointed out that since the reform and opening up, China’s economy has developed rapidly and its literary and artistic undertakings have also enjoyed unprecedented prosperity, especially since the 18th National Congress of the CPC was held, the economic and cultural developments have entered a period of rapid development. At this time, the continuing promotion of the long-term development in literary and artistic work requires not only the government dominance, but it also requires a large amount of private capital injection. The establishment of the “Jin Shangyi Creative Awards for Young Teachers” is a concrete practice actively responding to domestic and international situations and deeply implementing the spirit of the important instruction of General Secretary Jinping on literary and artistic careers. He hopes that through the support of donation awards, he can promote the growth of outstanding young artists in the Central Academy of Fine Arts, enhance their creative ability, guide young teachers to grow roots in life, tell Chinese stories, and praise the great era.

Liu Qian, the Secretary-General of the China Arts Foundation, congratulated the opening of the first exhibition of CAFA “Jin Shangyi Creative Awards for Young Teachers”. She expressed that since the establishment of the China Arts Foundation, it has always been concerned with promoting the healthy development of China’s cultural and artistic undertakings and the Foundation is responsible for supporting the cultivation of cultural and artistic talents in the new era. As the highest academic institution of art education in China, the Central Academy of Fine Arts has cultivated backbone talents for art in society over a long period, and they have created a large number of outstanding works worthy of the great era in the great nation, which has a profound impact at home and abroad. This funding for the “Jin Shangyi Creative Awards for Young Teachers” is a specific measure of the Foundation to support the Central Academy of Fine Arts in implementing the important instructions of General Secretary Jinping’s internship and supporting national thematic art creation and the cultivation of outstanding young art talents.

Professor Yin Shuangxi, Curator of this exhibition, spoke highly of the creative ability and social influence of the two award-winning teachers. He said that young and middle-aged teachers are the mainstay of establishing and developing the new century’s academic status and international influence of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. The establishment of the “Jin Shangyi Creative Awards for Young Teachers” at the beginning of the new century, which encourages and supports the growth of young teachers and has an important practical significance.

The two award-winning teachers said that in the future, they will continue to uphold the fine traditions of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, keep learning and improving, and making breakthroughs and innovations. They will combine their teaching creation with the development of the Central Academy of Fine Arts as well as the development of the country and society, they will keep conducting in-depth research and creation.

The “Jin Shangyi Creative Awards for Young Teachers” was initiated by Professor Jin Shangyi, former President of the Central Academy of Fine Arts and co-funded by the China Arts Foundation. It aims to encourage young teachers to actively participate in national major themed art creations, create masterpieces and further promote the professional ability of young teachers and the faculty construction of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. This award selects two outstanding young teachers who have extraordinary performance in art creation each year, each will be awarded 200,000 yuan and exhibitions will be held for the award-winning teachers to build an art creation communication platform. This exhibition is the first duo exhibition of Kang Lei, a teacher from the Department of Oil Painting, School of Plastic Arts and Liu Qing, a teacher from the Department of Sculpture, School of Plastic Arts, CAFA. In the national themed art creations based on the 70th anniversary of the founding of People’s Republic of China and the 40th anniversary of the Reform and Opening up, these two teachers took into account tradition, explored artistic language innovation and created a group of artworks with distinctive themes, they are both artistic, academic and innovative. Their outstanding works show the professional standards and artistic creativity of young teachers in the Central Academy of Fine Arts.

The exhibition remains on view till 9 January, 2020.

Text and Photo by the Foundation, edited and translated by Sue/CAFA ART INFO