China Academy of Art

China Academy of Art is the most influential academy of fine arts with the most complete range of degree offerings and programs of study in China. It houses a diverse pool of artistic talent, has a distinctive structure integrating theory and practice, focuses on human care and social needs, and combines modern technical and cultural disciplines with traditional artistic ones. The academy features the study of theories and offering Ph.D., Master’s and bachelor's degrees of fine arts, design, architecture, film and new media, which constitute the humanities and reflect the Chinese national spirit and creative theories of the era.

There are 7,000 undergraduate and graduate students in three campuses with a faculty and staff of 800. The administration is headquartered in the Nanshan Campus, which is on the West Lake in Hangzhou. Students in the Master's program live on the alternate campus 40 minutes away, on the outskirts of Hangzhou. A free bus is offered to transport students to and from the campus from the dorms at designated times.

Undergraduate students typically spend one year in general education courses in the Department of Foundation and then three years in the core courses of their particular majors. Graduate courses are typically three years long and include experience in the studio and research with mentoring faculty.

In 1928, the National Academy of Art (國立藝術院) was founded in China on the bank of the West Lake in Hangzhou by the educator Cai Yuanpei with Lin Fengmian. It was administrated by Yi Tingbai and Zhuang ziman during the 1940s. Over the decades, the location of the academy has changed ten times; its name changed six times, as follows:

• 1928 - National Academy of Art (國立藝術院)
  • National Academy of Art was the first Chinese art university and graduate school
• 1929 - Hangzhou National College of Art (國立杭州藝術專科學校)
  • The Western painting department was divided into several studios, most of which practiced modern, semiabstract styles. The atmosphere was very similar to an American art college in its freedom of expression. After the second year of their five-year program, students chose a studio in which to continue their studies. Lin Fengmian advocated a synthesis of Chinese and modern Western art, and insisted that students not emulate his work but develop their own styles. Among the other professors, Wu Dayu taught late impressionist and cubist styles; Fang Ganmin was influenced by Cubism; and Guan Liang taught a style derived from Fauvism. Although the students were strictly trained in academic drawing, they were encouraged to be free and creative.[2]
• 1938 - National College of Art (國立藝術專科學校)
  • The War of Resistance Against Japan broke out, National Peping School of Art merged into National Hangzhou School of Art, a new national school formed.
• 1945 - After the Japanese surrender in 1945, the Academy had been reestablished in Hangzhou with the Chinese painter Pan Tianshou as director.
  • The establishment of the People's Republic of China saw a shift in the government's attitude to and policy on art and artistic education. Many of the senior faculty of the then National Academy of Art, particularly practitioners of modern Western art, failed to understand or refused to accept the revolutionary ideologies and principles. Many, including Lin Fengmian, Fang Ganmin, Wu Dayu and Guan Liang, gradually drifted back to Shanghai. Others, including the traditionalist Pan Tianshou, were reassigned to minor administrative positions, no longer permitted to teach. Lin Fengmian applied for permission to leave China but was refused. The vacant teaching positions were soon filled with fresh graduates who had successfully mastered revolutionary styles and principles.[3]
• 1950 - East-China Campus of Central Academy of Fine Arts (中央美術學院華東分院)
  • after Chinese Civil War, CPC (中國共產黨) controlled mainland China and founded a new art academy CAFA in Beijing to cement Beijing's new capital position. As a national academy founded by the KMT (中國國民黨) government, CAA was ordered change its name to East China Campus of CAFA. CAA changed its name, but did not merge with CAFA; the two academies possess independent personalities and are not be subordinate to one another.
  • similar circumstances were Shanghai Conservatory of Music (上海音樂學院), whose first name was National Conservatory of Music (國立音樂院), Shanghai Theater Academy（上海戲劇學院）were ordered change their names into East China Campus of central academies.
• 1958 - Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (浙江美術學院)
• 1993 - China Academy of Art (中國美術學院)
  • China National Academy of Fine Arts, called China Academy of Art for short on November 16, with the endorsement of the Ministry of Culture, PRC. Finally, CAA rehabilitated its national appellation.

China Academy of Art

• Nanshan Campus, 218 Nanshan Road, Shangcheng District, Hangzhou
• Zhangjiang Campus, Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park, Pudong New District, Shanghai
• Xiangshan Central Campus, Zhuantang Sub-district, Xihu (West Lake) District, Hangzhou (Its south part was moved to current location in 2007 from Xihuan Road, Binjiang District.)

• Lin Fengmian
• Fang Ganmin
• Huang Binhong, Chinese painting master
• Pan Tianshou, Chinese painting master
• Li Keran
• Dong Xiwen
• Beohar Rammanohar Sinha, modernist painter from India
• Wu Guanzhong
• Sha Menghai, calligrapher
• Zao Wou-Ki, Chinese-French modernist painter
• Chu Teh-Chun, Chinese-French modernist painter
• Wang Shu, first Chinese architect to receive the Pritzker Prize.
• Ying Miao, internet artist
• Sun Xun, visual artist
• Huang Yong Ping
• Fang Zengxian and Zhou Changgu, founders of the Zhe style
• Liu Wenxi

• Chinese fine art

• China Academy of Art