Paintings are hung on the wall at CAFA Museum's graduate exhibition The Start of a Long Journey. Photo: Courtesy of CAFA Museum As graduation photos fly across the Internet reminding everyone that another school year is coming to an end http://www.columbusbluejacketsteamstore.com/adidas-brandon-dubinsky-jersey , things are not quite over for students at art colleges. Not only is this a time for handing in thesis papers and taking pictures with college buddies, they must also worry about joining the various graduate artwork exhibitions that are being held around the country. Mostly starting at the end of June, these graduate exhibitions don't just offer a way for the public to examine the quality of an art college as well as its students, but are also meant as platforms for art galleries and critics to find the art stars of tomorrow.
While the number of colleges joining these annual graduate exhibitions has increased both their scale and importance, some within the art industry are concerned that the quality of work coming from the hands of these potential maestros has been declining over the past few decades.
Fancier not necessarily better
Usually entailing a series of related activities such as fashion shows http://www.columbusbluejacketsteamstore.com/adidas-boone-jenner-jersey , design product press conferences and art fairs for the display and sale of artworks, graduate artwork exhibitions - from late May's China Academy of Art (CAA) exhibition to the one held by the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute (SCFAI) in early June, have been getting larger and fancier every year.
In late June, all four floors of the Central Academy of Fine Arts Museum (CAFAM) were filled to the brim with graduation works by a total of 140 undergraduates and master-degree candidates. An astounding number of art works considering when you consider the fact that the department of oil painting held its own separate exhibition elsewhere.
Titled The Start of a Long Journey, this exhibition http://www.columbusbluejacketsteamstore.com/adidas-artemi-panarin-jersey , ending at the end of July and probably the last exhibition of its kind for the rest of the year, along with numerous similar graduate exhibitions help visitors compare and form a general picture of the quality of students graduating from China's numerous art colleges.
However, one issue people have started to have with these graduate exhibitions is that not only are the exhibitions themselves getting fancier and fancier, but so too are the art works themselves. An issue that some feel reflects an overall drop in quality in art students around the country.
Transboundary works in vogue
A majority of graduates today are made up of the so-called post-90s (people born during or after 1990) generation. Often seen as a youthful and energetic generation, these two aspects can often be found in their art. "Transboundary works (art that combines different mediums) are the most common type created by students today http://www.columbusbluejacketsteamstore.com/adidas-alexandre-texier-jersey ," said Lü Shengzhong, a professor of experimental art at CAFA.
"Oil painting combined with installation art, or engraved paintings combined with installation art, it seems that art students in different majors are widely experimenting with transboundary art."
Take the painting Crossroads by a student from SCFAI as an example. Differing completely from traditional Chinese paintings or oil paintings, Crossroads was not actually painted out http://www.columbusbluejacketsteamstore.com/adidas-alexander-wennberg-jersey , rather it's the result of gluing together multiple layers of a new material called clean polyester, which leads to a 3D visual effect when viewing the "painting."
"People always say that we post-90s are brave and at the front of various trends," said Xu Yu, the creator of Crossroads. "When trying to figure out how to underscore this characteristic, I came up with the idea of applying new materials to alter the current flat paintings we usually see. I believe novel ideas matter most http://www.columbusbluejacketsteamstore.com/ ," Xu told the Chongqing Economic Times.
While these dazzling transboundary works underscore young people's creativity in using different forms of art, critics are worried that this may lead to artists neglecting the essence of some of the more traditional artistic disciplines.
"I believe most students' use of transboundary artistic creation comes from their experiences in observing social art works, not from what they are taught in class.
"Transboundary creation or the use of complex materials will mislead students to overlook the spirit of traditional art disciplines such as oil painting and traditional Chinese painting," Lü said, sharing his concern with the Global Times.
Loss of simplicity
While using completely new techniques may underscore an artist's creativity http://www.columbusbluejacketsteamstore.com/adidas-zach-werenski-jersey , art lovers may start to reminisce about classic paintings that, while simple in form, were thought-provoking because of the themes that were depicted on the canvas. No matter if it's the works of early generation artists such as the portraits of oil painting master Jin Shangyi (born in 1934), or the later art works of China's "Four Heavenly Kings" of contemporary art (Wang Guangyi, Fang Lijun http://www.columbusbluejacketsteamstore.com/adidas-zac-dalpe-jersey , Yue Minjun and Zhang Xiaogang), these works are reminders of the social issues of their era and the artistic development of the country at the time of their creation.
Now, while it would be unfair to say that today's graduating students don't care about society - I'm sure they care a lot as many works this year reflect hot social issues such as rampant urbanization and many students took care to make sure they used environmental friendly materials to make their works.
However, most of these paintings only deal with social issues on the surface. Like one oil painting of a traffic jam depicting a long queue of cars on the highway with several drivers and passengers sitting on the ground chatting and taking a rest, in this picture the student has basically taken a scene commonly seen on the the TV news whenever long Chinese holidays come around and simply painted it on canvas.
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20.07.2018 10:43
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