
December 11th, the first session of the academic forum series "Imported Oil Paintings – A Retrospective Exhibition Of The Maximov Oil Painting Training Program At CAFA (1955-1957)", titled "Origin and Prism – Realism, Modernism, and Contemporary Painting", was held at the Auditorium of the CAFA Art Museum.

This academic forum features artists Liu Shangying, Liu Xiaohui, He Jing, Song Jiayi, and Wang Guangle in a dialogue, with Wang Jing, Deputy Director of the Curatorial Research Department of the CAFA Art Museum, serving as the host.

Liu Shangying
Artist, Professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Deputy Director of the Oil Painting Department
Teacher Liu Shangying shared his understanding and comprehension of the former Soviet Union's oil painting teaching system and painting characteristics based on his own learning experience. The "Soviet school" of oil painting advocates a scientific and rigorous system of light and shadow composition, excels at depicting direct and vivid life experiences, and has strong realistic features. Its paintings are rigorous and orderly, making them very easy for audiences to understand and engage with. Liu Shangying elaborated on the mutually complementary and highly unified relationship between "color" and "form" in the oil painting teaching system of the Maksimov Training Class. This focus on integrity has also been integrated into the long-term teaching system of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, with far-reaching influence. Even today, it still plays an important role in training students' creative cognitive abilities of "observing, understanding, and expressing".


Exhibition site

Song Jiayi
Artist, Director of the Oil Painting Department, Academy of Arts, Capital Normal University
Teacher Song Jiayi talked about the historical origin and practical influence of "Su-style" oil painting in the oil painting teaching system of New China. He believes that Soviet experts represented by Maximov introduced the realistic creative spirit and materialist view of history into China's oil painting creation, laying an important foundation for the construction of a systematic teaching methodology. Faced with the rich oil painting creation systems in the art world in the mid-20th century, the introduction of the positivist philosophical perspective contained in Su-style oil painting is beneficial for Chinese artists to sort out the development context in contemporary, experimental and diversified painting languages, and find a foothold that combines national traditions and the characteristics of the times in the classical and modern world. It can be said that the Su-style oil painting teaching system represented by Maximov has broadened and improved the historical vision of Chinese modern oil painting and helped Chinese artists find their own creative direction.

Exhibition site

Liu Xiaohui
Artist, Professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Deputy Director of the Mural Department
Teacher Liu Xiaohui introduced the important guiding role of Soviet-style oil painting in his early learning and creative practice. He believes that the holistic color system of Soviet-style oil painting integrates the scattered and random form and color languages in modern Chinese oil painting creation. With the progress of history, even from a contemporary perspective, there is still huge room for continuous deepening of the understanding of Soviet-style oil painting creation, which can lead to new understandings in the process of creation and teaching.

Exhibition site

Wang Guangle
Artist, Graduated from the First Studio, Department of Oil Painting, Central Academy of Fine Arts
Teacher Wang Guangle also shared the inseparable connection between his personal creative history and Soviet-style oil painting, and his experience is highly representative. Soviet-style oil painting was crucial for breaking the tradition of "local oil painting" and initiating a modern understanding of oil painting creation, helping China's early realistic oil painting creation reach a new level. In Wang Guangle's current creative practice focusing on contemporary and abstract art, the traditional plastic stance represented by Maximov still provides ideological and conceptual guidance for painting expression in the new historical period. As the "origin" of contemporary painting, it will not only not become outdated but also accompany the new generation of young artists to go further.

Exhibition site

He Jing
Art critic, curator, Assistant Professor at the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University
Professor He Jing elaborated on her understanding of Maximov and Soviet-style oil painting from the perspectives of a theoretical researcher and critic. Soviet-style oil painting represents not only a specific creative school but also a kind of creative thinking and method. It decomposes the learning, training, and creation of oil painting into stages and procedures that are easy to understand and master in a scientific and rational manner. This set of procedures has profoundly influenced Chinese oil painting creation both at that time and later. Behind this highly scientific teaching and creation method, it also reflects the major historical background and demands of Soviet-style painting adapting to the industrialization and modernization of the Soviet Union. Therefore, from this perspective, it was also highly in line with China's practical needs and the historical context of that era. In addition, Soviet-style oil painting introduced the consciousness of "collectivity" into China's oil painting creation—whether it is collective creation or the expression of creative content related to specific classes or groups. From this perspective, we can understand why Chinese contemporary oil painting after the 1980s saw a pivotal shift towards a focused attention on "individual" consciousness and individual care. Therefore, we should examine the Soviet-style oil painting system and its historical significance with a dialectical and historical attitude.

Exhibition site
Wang Jing summarized Maximov's system and methods as a "toolbox" for oil painting creation. In the process from tradition to the contemporary era, and from the collective to the individual, artists have drawn on the strengths of various sources in their practice. They have combined their respective life experiences and subjective understandings, and utilized the valuable thinking methods and paths provided by this toolbox to address different artistic issues and express different spiritual pursuits. The "Maximov Training Class" is not merely a history of higher art education for the exploration of the modernity of Chinese oil painting, but also the starting point of a set of realist aesthetic methodologies concerning "how to see," "how to construct," and "how to narrate." In the subsequent exploration of diverse and specific painting formal languages, some artists have explored modernism, pursuing connections between psychology, abstraction, and structure; others have continued the realist tradition, depicting new themes and opening up new painting dimensions belonging to the contemporary era. All these are individual expressions unfolded in China's own context starting from this "origin," reflecting a rich and varied range of artistic colors.

Looking back from the present, in an art environment that has undergone drastic changes and become increasingly complex along with the real world, the realities of globalization, visualization, and medialization present challenges where multiple contexts intertwine and value systems are fluid. How to address and express these complex modern situations, and achieve creative transformation and expression by integrating the characteristics of the times and contemporary values, is a crucial question facing contemporary artists. At this level, the systematic methodology emphasized by the "Maximov Workshop" – which prioritizes reality, observation, and personal experience – along with its inherent materialist and empirical rational perspective, provides an important ideological tool for navigating the fragmentation and chaos of contemporary visual culture. It teaches artists how to establish order amidst chaos, extract structure from phenomena; express contemporary situations and embody the spirit of the times.


Exhibition site
Today, when we look back at the "origin," we are not seeking to replicate the historical style of Soviet-style oil painting, but rather to flexibly adapt the realistic ways of seeing and constructing it. This prism not only illuminates the path forward, but also refracts new directions toward the future. "Origin and Prism" signifies that history is not a closed legacy, but a resource that remains always open— in the modernist long march of Chinese oil painting itself, those fundamental questions of how to see, how to construct, and how to narrate still echo vividly at every moment.
This exhibition will continue to be on view until January 3, 2026, and welcomes visitors.

Imported Oil Paintings – A Retrospective Exhibition Of The Maximov Oil Painting Training Program At CAFA (1955-1957)
Exhibition Dates: November 15, 2025 – January 3, 2026
Exhibition Venue: Exhibitions 1F/3A/4F, CAFA Art Museum
Editor-in-Chief / He Yisha
Responsible Editor / Du Yinzhu
Editor / Yan Yuxi
