The best Chinese art academy, the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), is full of talents and star alumni. Looking back at the academy’s history, we’ll discover many glorious graduating classes behind individual successes. All these graduates are well accomplished. It was collective force that enabled individuals to go further and more steadily.
We could review these excellent graduating classes through museum collections and find the keys to their success. Will your class be a brilliant graduating class in the future?
The Chinese Painting Postgraduate Class that enrolled in 1978 was the first CAFA postgraduate enrollment when the National College Entrance Examinations were recovered after the Cultural Revolution ended.
Academic Year: 1978-1980
Tutors: Masters including Ye Qianyu, Li Kuchan, Jiang Zhaohe, Li Keran and Liu Lingcang; Famous tutors including Liang Shunian, Lu Hongnian, Shi Lu, Huang Zhou and Ya Ming; as well as middle-aged teachers such as Huang Runhua, Li Qi, Lu Chen, Yao Youduo and Liu Boshu.
List of students: 16 graduate students from the 1978 Chinese Painting Department of CAFA (ranked by age):
Chu Daxiong, Zhu Zhengeng, Lou Jiaben, Li Shaowen, Yang Lizhou, Wang Yingchun, Xie Zhigao, Li Yansheng, Weng Rulan, Hu Bo, Han Guozhen, Liu Dawei, Yang Gang, Nie Ou, Hua Qimin, Shi Guoliang.
All of these fascinating tutors and famous students are truly admirable. We can learn how they studied at the time from Mr. Shao Dazhen’s comment:
There was a warm current that flowed in my heart when I wrote down the characters of “1978 · Chinese Painting Graduates" . How unforgettable the year 1978 is! Having just suffered from the Cultural Revolution, we still couldn’t understand the true meaning of "Reform and Opening-up” when we first heard the slogan. However, everything that was happening around us not only touched our sensitive nerve, but also blowed our mind: overthrowing all false cases, seeking truth from facts, recovering college entrance examinations, respecting science and knowledge…and so on. We began to vaguely realize that a new era of social change was arriving. The great change would completely overthrow the decade-long Cultural Revolution, bid farewell to the governing conceptions guided by the conflict philosophy, and embark on the journey of making people richer and country stronger.
The arts circle is an epitome of the Chinese society. Devastated in the Cultural Revolution, CAFA gradually returned to regular teaching routine and began serious researches on pedagogy and art practice. In 1978, the academy made a great decision, to recruit postgraduates in Chinese Painting, Oil Painting, Printmaking, Sculpture, and Art History. The news spread soon, received strong response from across the country. There were many applicants, whose high quality greatly encouraged the teachers. The academy planned to recruit only a little more than 20 students, but the quota was extended again and again with the approval of Ministry of Culture, and 53 students in total were eventually admitted. This is the largest number of postgraduates enrolled in the history of CAFA. There were 16 Chinese painting students. They (ranked by age) are Chu Daxiong, Zhu Zhengeng, Lou Jiaben, Li Shaowen, Yang Lizhou, Wang Yingchun, Xie Zhigao, Li Yansheng, Weng Rulan, Hu Bo, Han Guozhen, Liu Dawei, Yang Gang, Nie Ou, Hua Qimin and Shi Guoliang. The oldest was 39 and the youngest 22. They come from all over the country, and some had received higher or secondary artistic education before the Cultural Revolution, while some were self-educated. Many experienced Down to the Countryside Movement during the Cultural Revolution, possessed relatively solid modeling ability and considerable creativity. Some of their works had been displayed in national or provincial art exhibitions, and some had been published in newspapers and magazines. We could imagine how excited and longing for knowledge they were when they became postgraduates fortunately.
The faculty and staff of CAFA overcame all difficulties to greet warmly these spirited and practiced students. The old professors of the Chinese Painting Department who were in their late sixties, Ye Qianyu, Li Kuchan, Jiang Zhaohe, Li Keran and Liu Lingcang, etc., devoted greatly in teaching; Liang Shunian, Lu Hongnian, Shi Lu, Huang Zhou, Ya Ming, and middle-aged teachers like Huang Runhua, Li Qi, Lu Chen, Yao Youduo and Liu Boshu also participated in the art education. The dynamic learning atmosphere of the Central Academy of Fine Arts and the advocacy of innovative spirit, as well as the inclusive approaches to teaching and art creation, have broadened the horizons of graduate students and improved their self-consciousness of establishing themselves in national tradition, caring about social reality, extensively absorbing external nutrition and brining their artistic individuality into full play. After two years of intense study, they handed in perfect answer sheets. In the autumn of 1980, their graduation exhibition was widely praised by the arts circle and the public. Some of them were novel, innovative and trend-setting.
- Shao Dazhan, "Rewarding the Glorious Era of Reform and Opening-up Exhibition - Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the Graduation of the Chinese Painting Postgraduate Class of the Central Academy of Fine Arts
