In April 2021, “ROUND & DEVELOP: Academic Invitation Exhibition of Comprehensive Material Painting” which was the Communication, Exchange and Promotion Project in 2019 sponsored by China National Arts Fund was unveiled at the CAFA Art Museum. It was the last stop of the national tour for the exhibition. Since the establishment of the Material Studio in 1995, the Central Academy of Fine Arts has conducted diversified explorations in the research and teaching of comprehensive material painting. As a demonstration of related research as well as teaching achievements and academic exchanges with different art schools, with the funding of the China National Arts Fund in 2019, the Central Academy of Fine Arts applied to host the “ROUND & DEVELOP: Academic Invitation Exhibition of Comprehensive Material Painting”. Based on the teaching research and creative practice of the Material Studio at CAFA, this project sorted out the development context and status of domestic comprehensive material painting in the past two decades, and collected over 100 excellent paintings of comprehensive materials from CAFA and other institutions across the country to present tour exhibitions in China.

The term “round and develop” describes the cyclical operation of things. In the context of this exhibition, it refers to the development of painting from the past, present to the future, the internal mechanism of artistic evolution and the laws of language such as the cycle of sun and moon, how the world moves and the four seasons change. The comprehensive material painting is a new art section emerging from the development process of easel painting. Its artistic value lies not only in the blending of painting techniques in materials, but also in the internal connection between different periods and various forms of painting in the “round and develop”.

After the closing ceremony, Pan Shixun, Hu Wei, Zhang Yuan, Yang Jinsong, Wang Shuguang, Gu Liming, Zhang Zikang, Yu Ding, Yin Shuangxi, Wang Huangsheng, Wang Bing, Wang Shujie, Zhang Peng, Guo Li, Yao Erchang, Sun Lei and other artists and scholars took the exhibition as a clue and conducted a themed academic seminar around “the subjective spirit of language in Chinese comprehensive material painting” in the conference room of CAFA Art Museum. This seminar was divided into two sessions: themed speeches and free discussion. The guests at the conference had discussed about the construction and development of the comprehensive material painting, the evolution principles of the expressive language in comprehensive material painting, the exploration of easel painting with Chinese characteristics, the spiritual connotation of contemporary Chinese painting as well as how to promote Chinese material painting from a global perspective.

Through the discussions on the historical evolution of expressive languages in painting, “ROUND & DEVELOP: Academic Invitation Exhibition of Comprehensive Material Painting” has triggered us to rethink about contemporary Chinese painting. Meanwhile, it has also provided a platform for mutual reference and exchange through national tour exhibitions and academic seminars. CAFA will publish an academic catalogue after the exhibition was concluded. In addition to the works by participating artists, it will also include relevant research achievements namely dissertations, seminar records and so on. As the initiator of “ROUND & DEVELOP: Academic Invitation Exhibition of Comprehensive Material Painting”, Central Academy of Fine Arts relies on its academic root, and establishes a platform with the support from China National Arts Fund, to further present the latest achievements of Chinese artists focusing on comprehensive material painting in diversified forms. In the developing process of diversified easel painting, it echoes to the new requirements from a new epoch for the developments in culture and art.

Text by Hu Zihang, edited and translated by Sue/CAFA ART INFO

Photo Courtesy of the Organizer