When the Comprehensive Painting Studio of the China Academy of Art was established in 1994, the Chinese art industry had been baptized by "modern art" for more than ten years. As the public had witnessed, Chinese artists had imitated and experimented with almost all modern, western art forms during this period. However after experiencing such trend, an unavoidable question began to emerge: Does China have its own modern art? Or, how would China ground itself in the "modern" world? Awareness on this issue prompted Chinese artists’ historical thoughts again; they began thinking about issues regarding China’s own “modern art”. "85 Art" was the most urgent plan to answer this question, but the exhibitions of American artist Rauschenberg in Beijing and Tibet, 1985 became a rather important starting point for thinking alternatively. Although different interpretations of the question exist, the concept of Combine Painting proposed by Rauschenberg connects the historical complex of Chinese artists in the 20th century with that of contemporary art.

 

      Although traditional Chinese art is inclusive of comprehensive intentions and rich comprehensive ideas, the concept of comprehensiveness in modern art originated from the west in the 19th century. Tracing its source, both internal and external motivations of art apply. The external reasons are the fundamental changes that the western society has undergone during the 19th century. Not only did the development of science and technology lead to the expansion of knowledge, the consequential of many interdisciplinary subjects and mutual infiltrations of knowledge also facilitated the establishment of global perspectives as well as the crossover studies of ideology and culture. The internal simulants are that the single-point focal perspective and objective replications of classicism can no longer fully explain the volatile external world. As a result, many artists began to engage in the expression of macro and micro world from the perspective of knowledge and concepts. This opened the door to the full comprehensive integration of art in the 1960s. Therefore, the production of comprehensive concepts in art is the result of coefficient of various factors in the modern historical situations – and only under the conditions of modern history, when the language and forms of art have reached their developmental prime, can an artist be able to achieve new artistic comprehensiveness. It is precisely the reason that knowledgeable individuals pointed out that the so-called "death of art" in the 60s was truly unfounded – “art” did not die; it was the traditional classification of “painting” in the western world who embraces its own demise. Contemporary art has surpassed the confinement of traditional painting category, marching towards directions of different artistic comprehensiveness. This theory and phenomenon gradually became popular in the western art world after the 1960s.

 

      Since the 20th century, China has been using the framework of Chinese and Western comparisons to establish its own coordinates, this trend in western art had become a new topic of concern immediately after Rauschenberg's arrival. Nevertheless, China’s problems were much more complicated. After Lin Fengmian formally issued the slogan "Harmonizing Chinese and Western Art" in 1927, the consciousness of syncretism had been imbibed by almost every Chinese artist regardless of how much one agrees with the theory. It has as well become the fundamental starting point for the further advancement of Chinese art today. Surprisingly by the 1980s, Chinese art were confronted by an interesting historical context: In China, realism has established its dominance from creation to teaching, and flat painting is ascending. Meanwhile in the west, easel art industry is fading; the art world was entering an era of intermedia. The Chinses art industry is confronted with such a paradox: if we continue to embrace realism and graphic painting, we may lose the opportunity to conversate with the world; nevertheless, abandoning our own “tradition” might risk art being trapped into the pitfall of western modernism. This was the crucial challenge that China Academy of Art faced when it began its comprehensive painting teaching reform in 1994. Since then, the comprehensive painting pedagogy and creative revolutions had gradually unfolded around this theme.

 

 

 

From Art to Art

 

       The new historical realm lies in front of us; one of the most important issues to be solved by comprehensive painting, as a part of contemporary art, is to define and set the foundation of contemporary art. This question has a clear practical relevance – that is – after decades of training in realism, Chinese artists has become accustomed to the imitation of objects, the following of styles, and the training of techniques, which are obviously far below the standard of comprehensive painting. Although, at that time, many already had clear realization of such issue, it is still necessary to make a decision when incorporating it into teaching. The so-called “comprehensiveness” in contemporary art is not a simple heaping of different forms of language and materials, but rather is a subject with its own independent academic foundation. Lin Fengmian once pointed out the fundamental directions of “fusionism” in his era: "Western art, with its composition of the form tends to be objective, often lacks the expression of emotion owing to its over-developed modality... Oriental art , with its composition of the form inclining to subjectivity, commonly fails to express the much-needed emotions due to the underdeveloped manifestation... In fact, the shortcomings of western art are the strengths of eastern art, while eastern art’s disadvantages coincide with the advantages of western art. Pros and cons complement each other, and the emergence of new art in the world is ongoing. It only depends on the goal of our efforts.” The quote certainly gives us the impression that the “New World Art” which started from forms, enabling the combination of objectivity, is the goal that Lin Fengmian's generation strived to achieve. However half a century later, when Chinese art has established a solid foundation for realism and western modern art has also completed the construction of a modernist modal language system, the expansion of forms and the expression of emotions are no longer a problem for contemporary art. It is now facing a much more complicated circumstance; the foundation and starting point of contemporary art have also showed fundamental changes.

      The concept of “Foundations of the common Science of Knowledge” has prevail in the recent years, but in fact its prerequisite had been established as early as the era of “fusionism”: that the “new world art” is based on the “Chinese-western” interoperability; or in other words, the western “form” (realism) is deemed to be universal and sufficient to meet the Chinese’s “needs for expressing emotions”. No matter how many potential problems there are, this standpoint still seems to be the reality we have to face as of today. After a century of work on realism, the “form” in the western senses has had new expansion, and a complete system had been formed. But the difference today is that certain basic values are being acknowledged worldwide under such international context, while nationalistic identification under this precondition is in crisis. It leads to the emergence of two aspects of “Foundations of the common Science of Knowledge”: universality and nationality – nationality without universality is necessarily illiberal, while universality without nationality can only be imitated and sought after; there will never be a “third cultural consciousness”.

      Comprehensive painting teaching at the China Academy of Art began with clear awareness of the complexity of the problems to be faced, namely how to build on top of “universality” while embodying nationalistic characteristics as well as to achieve their organic integration. Through the basic courses they initially set up we can see their effort to get out of this complexity, which is to build comprehensive painting upon the foundation of four major “compositional expressions”: 1. Elementary compositional expression; 2. Color composition performance; 3. Ink and wash composition performance; 4. Material composition performance. Indeed, there are still many complications worthy of discussion here; but summing up the foundation of contemporary art into the four major “compositional expressions” already embodies the principle of combining universality and nationality in vision and concepts. Based on this, the direction of comprehensive expression in which plane and three-dimensional, drawing and materials are interdependent is established.

      It can be seen from this that the “Foundations of the common Science of Knowledge” is the prerequisite for establishing the infrastructure of comprehensive painting or contemporary art. However: 1. It must be based on the contemporary era, thus establishing a new, universally-applicable disciplinary conceptual framework; 2. It must have universal applicability, not trapped in between “Chinese-western” relationship, nor would it be limited to one or more certain painting types; 3. It must establish a global vision and future awareness, without confinement to the contemporary times; 4. It must have a nationalistic perspective, and thus form a personalized, basic theoretical system.

      It is exactly the forming of such concept that makes this underpinning of the subject so widely applicable and extensible, consequentially forming a rational learning process. Although the original majors have been expanded into three studios of comprehensive painting, comprehensive form design and total work of art since 2003, and have evolved to the level of space and concept, elements like “subjects”, “color”, “ink and wash” and “materials” still possess their basic meaning. In the Department of Comprehensive Art Department of China Academy of Art, the foundation courses’ frameworks present a structural expression relationship of “means (sketching, color, ink, material)-composition-expression”. What has been implied here is that elements, colors, ink and wash, and materials are regarded as the basic means (but not the only measures) of form design; the binary contrast of figurative and abstract, realism and expression, flat and spatial were excluded. The gradual achievement of “expression” was through the training of “composition” – that is, with the “constution” of individual exercises of sketching, coloring, inking, and material application, one would gradually approach comprehensiveness in artistic expression. The so-called “constitution” is not only structural or organizational, but more emphasized on the artist’s comprehensive ability to integrate – aka. The ability to discover the internal structure and relationship of nature or objects, as well as the capacity of detecting the link between such internal structural relationship and the artwork itself. Discovery ability. Generally speaking, this is a process of learning and research from art to art without excluding creativity, which is highly different from the previous artistic elementary education. Here, “sketching is aimed to solve the problem of form design (a kind of generalized form design). “Color” is an indispensable method of modeling and rendering. “Ink and wash” here is a language and tool with certain cultural connotation, with its universality on expression also emphasized. “Material" focuses on the expansion and supplement of the picture, which is also seen as research on the characteristics and expressive power of miscellaneous materials. The abovementioned remind us that the contents of groundings have been greatly broadened compared with that of the past. It is no longer simple skill trainings, mere practices over techniques or facsimiles of objects, but rather explorations of the artistic laws and patterns of the entire human artistic and cultural heritage. This is the difference between contemporary art and traditional art: it builds art upon “art”, and expands the spiritual potential on individual, epochal and national levels – on top of the ground of “Foundations of the common Science of Knowledge”. As Professor Chen Shouyi wrote in his “Teaching Experiment Notes”: “Starting from the analysis and understanding of the laws and compositions of elements like form, color, quality etc., then conducts induction, comprehension, research, and practices. The process not only promotes the development and liberation of students’ form-design-thinking, but also help them to build consciousness of themselves with knowledge of the overall history and development prospects of traditional and modern art. We hope to provide more possibilities for the development of creative potential.” Such pedagogy foundation is built exactly upon the experience of artists provided by the archive of art history, cultures and artistic styles.

 

 

 

From Life to Art

 

      But from art to art is not the ultimate goal of the Department of Comprehensive Art; it must be tested and applied in concrete reality. Therefore, real life is still the inexhaustible source of all art – although it may no longer be the only source. We are all quite unfamiliar with the concept of art comes from life. After the advocacy of realism by activists like Kang Youwei, Cai Yuanpei, Chen Duxiu and Xu Beihong in the 20^th century, “life” has gradually become an indispensable and crucial part of art ever since. Especially since the Yan'an period, life has become almost the entirety of art. Mao Zedong’s thesis in his famous speech quoted: “Real life is the only inexhaustible and unlimited supply for all literary and artistic inspirations.” His calling has brought half a century of prosperity to Chinese literature an art. On the other hand, however, due to the inadequate understanding and excessive emphasis on the topic of life in the past, artists’ pursuit of art was inhibited. This phenomenon was changed quite tremendously when the China Academy of Art began to explore comprehensive painting teaching in the early 1990s – to the extent that even a tendency of denying the meaning of life in art emerged, leading to the opposite extreme: making art behind closed doors. The pedagogical idealism of the Comprehensive Painting Department, CAA once again highlights the importance of life in artistic creation, which is a backwash against this episode.

      Nevertheless, the connotation of “life” today has been greatly expanded compared to the past, including and not limited to “the real life on fire” – with the “on fire” indicating not only the intensity of life, but individuals’ corresponding inner spiritual life or personal experience as well. Such concept of “life” not only expands the scope of life, but also increases potential space for artistic expression – which is required by the comprehensiveness and richness of art nowadays. Different from the personal experience that divorces the individual from reality, the abovementioned inner spiritual or personal feeling is not any individual making a fuss about nothing or being pointlessly sentimental, but a self-observation and in-depth verification based on contemporary reality and nationalistic culture. It possesses cultural latitude that stands at the intersection of reality and history, overlapping society and individual. From this perspective, life is both contemporary and nationalistic. It is a brand-new understanding of the concept of “life” in a novel historical context, which further endows a rational handle for students’ conceptual transition from “art to art" to “from life to art”, preventing them from relapsing into acting blindly. Therefore, “life” here is no longer an objective presentation, but the aggregation of comprehensive inner experiences, unique artistic perspectives and artistic refinements of the artists – who are the sources and starting point of art per se. The emphasis on such kind of life makes CAA’s Department of Comprehensive Art relatable yet unique – to both the past and the western artistic resources – in the building of its own foothold in teaching and artistic creation: that we are not conformed to the western art education’s unbridled pleading of the so-called “freedom to create”. Our education and creation are subjected to life experience, supervised by the principle of stringency and scientificity of fundamental painting trainings – just as the quote in traditional Chinese painting “do whatever you want without exceeding the rules”. We shall always firmly grasp the sense of propriety, rather than to execute the alleged “innovation” that is aloft from life and context.

      “From life to art” is not only the specific application of “from art to art”, but also the realization of artistic transformation and artistic sublimation, as well as the aesthetic journey from the being generic to being “that” in aesthetics – “life” here becomes a personal understanding and comprehension of society and life; it will, in turn, internalizes as an important mediator for the realization of personal values, which also serves ​​as the mediator that connects individuals and the society, history and culture, as well as technology and art. Therefore, those who are clearly aware of this rule firmly set their own lives as the starting point when choosing a creative theme – by paying attention to their own life circles and avoid relying solely on schematism. Starting from life, you cannot create from the schema alone. Indeed, schemas with traditional features are salient because of their highly visual styles that are full of distinctive regional characteristics; but feeding entirely on schemas deprives artists of a crucial vitality in creativity, with it being the most indispensable. It is more necessary than ever to absorb from your own life experience and create on top of it, followed by the gradual deepening of the exploration of spiritual connotation and that of formal language, strengthening the awareness of material selection as well as narrative ability. The effort shall be completed by the enhancement of artistic expression of the picture, with which one could strive to create works that echo with the characteristics of the time, of modern consciousness and personal traits. What is emphasized here is an important tradition established by Chinese art since the 20th century: to build art on the basis of the artists’ personal life gnosis, thus coming into contact with the deepening of the spiritual core, the exploration of formal language, the application of material and improvement of expressiveness of “art” per se. Whereas, difference from the abovementioned, this process is a “from art to art” to “from life to art” procedure rather than the other way around, creating a practical relationship of “art-life-art”. As Gombrich has always stressed: the transition from schema to matching is an essential and important step for artists to complete the goal of changing from art to personal creation – perhaps the same applies to comprehensive painting, or contemporary art.

 

      Although Cézanne opened up a new era for contemporary art, the post-impressionist, as the person who connects tradition to modernity, never gave up his observation of life. He kept turning to Saint Victor which he was so familiar all his life, struggling to ponder and explore, and hoping to find the sort of eternal art he longed for. Painting from life became his only approach for him to fulfill his wish. This template of artistic execution still has high practical significance for the exploration of China’s contemporary art today. Thus, the Department of Comprehensive Art at the China Academy of Art emphasizes the irreplaceable prestige of life in art pedagogy. Such idealism, on one hand, focuses on personal life-related affects while insists on the introduction of painting from life; in this way, artists’ personal feelings become the flowing source of art, eliminating the possibility of entering into a vicious cycle of making art in vacuum. But the painting-from-life here is no longer the traditional passive, realistic imitation of nature, but an untroubled artistic entry and grasp of reality that shall be described as understanding, open and creative. Consequentially, rudiment of personal artistic creation is established.

 

 

 

From Traditional to Modern

 

      In fact, Chinese art nowadays has witnessed self-identification issues as severe as that of the early 20^th century; this has been the case since the 1980s.  After a hundred years of arduous decision-making, identity crisis is still under debate. With the previous dualism being replaced by the flat reality of globalization, the era we live in has made the problem worse. Definition of identity here is not determined by race or gender, but rather with the individual’s cultural background. Moreover, non-mainstream cultures still suffer the dilemma of self-identification and being tagged. Self-identification has been ongoing for the Chinese since the beginning of the 20^th century; however, the efforts seem to end in vain when they kept falling back into the state of being tagged by others consciously or unconsciously. Such downward spiral never ceases. As of today, people are still in desperate need of a clear solution.

      We have seen art taken many mechanisms to embrace traditions since the 20^th century, including but not limited to: deconstructivism, fusionism, revolutionism and essentialism; others came up with miscellaneous measures such as learning-before-applying, making tips for immediate results, and searching for sources. Such complexion, on one hand, proves the openness and infinite extensibility of tradition itself; on the other hand, it manifested the increasingly prominent value and significance of tradition in the contemporary era. Particularly as of today, artists who engaged in all types of art, regardless of their attitudes or standpoint on art, see tradition as an important resource for the growth of contemporary art. In sharp contrast with the looming national nihilism before the 1980s, such transition in idealism today shows that tradition has been interpreted and reinterpreted through multiple layers of integrations and filtrations. Thus, the cosmopolitan and inclusive side of Chinese traditional culture and arts has gained new possibilities of global exposure.

      To the Department of Comprehensive Art, the aforesaid background provides guideline coordinates as well as possibilities for establishing the traditional standpoint of contemporary art. After training in “from art to art” and “from life to art”, the introduction of traditional creates a free space for students to further explore their individuality. teaching, students are given chances to experience the fun and undertone of ink and wash through related exercises, and educated by experiments of decomposition or combination so that they could learn the effects of various statuses of ink and wash. Through ink-splashing, color-splashing experiments and various methodological practices such as stroking, color accumulating, wine-dropping, rubbing, collaging, additive, haloing, color-splashing, flat coating etc., students are further educated, expanding their expressive power of ink painting. The purpose of this arrangement is to provide students with a different way of “speaking”, endowing them to experience – in a language system completely different than its western counterpart – another method, another perspective, and another idealism of expressing the world; in such a way, we hope that they could discover life and self. This is not just simply a “retro” action, but rather an “explaining the retro” movement; with a contemporary standpoint, we ultimately enable students to be nourished by the traditional culture. Besides, the Department of Comprehensive Art also gives much attention to the analysis and research of traditional principles – because the definition of tradition is not only limited to the utility of certain materials, techniques and its consequential effects, but also resides in the relevant relationships and concepts. The department attempts to, through researches and experiences of such relationships and concepts, gradually sculpt endogenous cultural genes in the students’ minds, providing cultural guarantee and self-confidence for their future development. We have realized the significant influence that cultural background has on the practice and development of art; the emergence of any artistic thought or genre is a manifestation of cultural format innovation. Naturally, the developmental path of Chinese painting cannot be separated from the reality of the current world, let alone to be isolated from the foundation of Chinese national culture – this is the necessity for the survival of painting education in China. Painting in China should follow the path of Chinese contemporary art. This fundamental standpoint had set up the traditional cultural orientation for teaching in the Department of Comprehensive Arts, which also corresponds with the cultural context and cultural stance of China Academy of Art.

      For contemporary art, learning about tradition is neither superficial imitation, reproduction of tradition, nor simple appropriation of traditional symbols – the idea of looking for shortcuts and “cheats” is nothing but desecration; one ought to think about what has been giving tradition contemporary universality, and look for possibility and methods for tradition to of conform to modernity. However, such transformation, especially extracting universality from tradition, is not just a conundrum of belief and confidence; it is a comprehensive question. It is certain that at this point, Department of Comprehensive Art has not yet gained full freedom. This is not a department-level problem, but a common issue in the revolution of Chinese painting or Chinese art throughout the 20^th century. In this regard, art in China still has a long way to go.

 

 

 

From Comprehensive to Innovative

 

      Professor Xu Jiang, President of China Academy of Art, commented: “Comprehensive painting is neither a ready-to-use type of painting based on a certain pecularity, nor is it a new painting classification besides traditional Chinese painting, oil painting, and printmaking. Comprehensive art goes beyond categorical, and can only be described as a subject that constantly creates new possibilities on the basis of integration, maximally providing dynamic space for a strong and exuberant creative personality. Therefore, the pedagogy of comprehensive painting shall be an open education project which gear towards artists’ creative qualities.” Compared with previous teaching models, this project is still pioneering and experimental. But the goal for Department of Comprehensive Art is clear: to train comprehensive, innovative artistic talents through new educational methods and concepts.

      Creative thinking is the most valuable and precious thing in artistic creation, especially in contemporary artistic creation. Nevertheless, creative thinking is not a problem to be solved by education, but rather an objective of cultivation – it is unteachable, which needs to be nurtured step-by-step through teaching design and situational stimuli. Therefore, creative thinking mainly comes from the synthesis of the artists’ personal internal qualities, with educators merely providing or creating suitable environments for them. Just as Professor Chen Shouyi epiphanized: "The first step in the exploitation of creative thinking is gaining the ability of knowing oneself. Absence of discernment in the object to be expressed, the medium to be used, or related experience thereof, students should first be reminded to improve the ability of self-experience rather than the skills for drawing. Educators’ duty is to take the most effective means to help students understand themselves, so that they can be immersed into the specific scene of experiencing art. Thus their desire for expression shall be stimulated, their thoughts shall be activated, and their journey of self-experience shall be started.” In order to actualize his educational blueprint, Professor Chen proposed the state-of-the-art teaching concept of “inclusive, comprehensive and innovative” with special attention to the integration of Chinese and foreign cultural ethos, breaking through the boundaries of disciplines and painting types, and eventually achieve “innovation” with the endorsement of comprehensiveness and integration. Therefore, “comprehensiveness” should have a multi-level definition: it not only refers to the coexistence of various artistic forms, languages, materials, techniques and other internal factors, but also includes the integration of different cultures, disciplines, ideas, and available resources. Only when comprehensiveness founded on such theoretical structures could it meet the requirements of both comprehensive art and contemporary circumstances, and further endowed with the possibility of achieving the “comprehensive to innovative” vista - such creative thinking or innovative consciousness is also one of the most vital infrastructures of comprehensive art and contemporary art.

      The above analysis shows that the Comprehensive Art Department of China Academy of Art always regards contemporariness and inclusiveness as the basic prerequisite for training students when establishing the academic path of teaching and creation, so that they can complete the transformation from comprehensive to innovative. Taking inclusiveness as prerequisite enables students to break out of the confinement of regionality and exclusiveness, establishing unlimited vision and mindset. On the other hand, taking contemporariness as the precondition drives students to connect ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign, art and life, as well as the individual and the society, therefore achieving a leap in the process of striving for “comprehensive to innovative”. For this reason, the Comprehensive Art Department has set up a structural connection in the curriculum arrangement, which is the omni-bearing expansion and development of the extension of “foundation”, establishing the basic process of foundation-performance-synthesis-innovation. The process begins with procedures of eliminating individuality: starting from “art to art”, raise students' perception of the basic norms of contemporary art while raising their interests. The second step is to awaken individuality, that is, to provide opportunities for students to express their personal wills, emotions, thoughts, and desires through the tempering and collision of “from life to art”. The third stage is to tap individuality – with the help of learning and experiencing tradition, combined with students’ mastery of the basic norms as well as their specific life experiences and personal interests of contemporary art, we aim to assist their personal artistic pursuits in comprehensive practice. Finally, students’ comprehensive innovation ability shall be gradually achieved through the progression and mutual penetration of the abovementioned stages. The whole procedure should base itself on contemporariness and inclusiveness; they run through the whole process, eventually turning “from comprehensive to innovative” into a mechanism that can grow continuously. We hoped that students can realize: “Creation is not a fabrication, but an innovative activity that starts from existing knowledge, developed by absorbing new information, experiencing new artistic conceptions, and completed by the consummation of knowledge system.” This provides a guarantee for students’ future development.

 

 

 

A New Start

 

      The relocation of China Academy of Art to Nanshan campus In October 2003 – along with the new development of contemporary art, Dean Xu Jiang made a strategic adjustment: renaming the Department of Comprehensive Painting as the Department of Comprehensive Art. On top of that, new studios were established, including Comprehensive Painting Studio of Professor Gu Liming, Comprehensive Modeling Studio of Associate Professor Wei Tianyu, as well as Total Work of Art Studio with Professor Yang Jinsong. This movement established a new and teaching mechanism that adapts to the developmental trend of contemporary art and its pedagogical system.

      The Studio of Comprehensive painting inherited the unswerving academic traditions of China Academy of Art and its educational idealism of the Department of Comprehensive Painting, grounding itself on the research and practice of national culture while paying close attention to the changes and development of contemporary art. It emphasizes the relationship between tradition and modernity and advocates the mutual intersection and penetration between disciplines, aiming to constructs an open teaching model and curriculum system using a comprehensive and comparative present-day way of thinking. In terms of basic teaching, the Comprehensive Painting Studio pays highly aware of the importance of understanding and grasping of various painting languages ​​and laws of art, so that the basic trainings can form an orderly, evolutionary and interlocking teaching structure – a system that stresses on the importance of experiencing life, strengthening the connection between knowledge scaffolding and creation. It also strives to improve students’ knowledge structure while providing them with a broader knowledge platform. We expect to, using the cultivation of creative thinking as the kernel of teaching, give full play to the creative potential of students.

      The Comprehensive Modeling Studio focuses on the exploration of the relationship between human living space and visual space, as well as the influence on the cognition and modeling of visual space, attempting to execute the research on artistic thinking in visual art as well as the various art forms derived from it. It emphasizes the importance of “looking”, believing that the history of the development of visual art is a history in which human vision is continuously being liberated. The studio divides its curriculum into two major modules: the objective and subjective spatial composition of modeling; the purpose of such setting is to eliminate the limitations of art, space-wise (two-dimensional and three-dimensional) and discipline-wise (Traditional Chinese Paining, oil painting, printmaking, sculpting) alike, subjectively forming a new concept of space and discipline.

      The total art studio is constantly reflecting on the precise definition of aesthetics and the methodology of achieving significance. Therefore, it emphasizes the overall understanding of cultural production, and consequentially shifts the focus of education from the mastery of specialized knowledge to the cultivation of the ability of handling such specialized knowledge, breaking the boundaries between pure art and practical art, art and design, avant-garde and tradition. It strives for the establishment of a new “total art” with the integration of disciplines, human perceptions, and cultural concepts. Thus, its teaching stresses on workshop-styles practice and the consequential cultivation of understanding and controlling ability developed in the practical processes. It is also highly interested in the formation of compound thinking in experiments, as well as the application of what has been learned – by combining teaching with cultural products.

      In the history of the China Academy of Art, the concept fusion occupies a prominent position; such concept is also the representation of an important direction of Chinese art in the 20th century. Among them existed the principle of “closeness fusionism” advocated by Lin Fengmian – combining the strengths of Chinese and western art, which undoubtedly created a precedent for the comprehensiveness of Chinese contemporary art, and simultaneously gave inspirations and references for the comprehensiveness of Chinese contemporary art. On the other hand, however, Pan Tianshou insisted on “separation artistic principle” – that is, to create distance between the Chinese contend and that of the west. It incepted fusion from another perspective, and attributed properties to the comprehensiveness of Chinese contemporary art. The Department of Comprehensive Art inherited the legacy of both schools of thought, and established its own academic theory based on the status quo of Chinese art and the characteristics of contemporary art; its basic knowledge system and teaching modules were known as one of the earliest and most complete, The department not only created a new starting point for the comprehensive art department, accompanied by a relatively integrated organic academic structure. This achievement not only serves as the first milestone for the Department of Comprehensive Painting, but also will, undoubtedly, have a profound impact on the development of contemporary art in China.

 

      This article was first published on A Home for the Migrants – 10 Years of Teaching from Comprehensive Painting to the Department of Comprehensive Art, China Academy of Art Press, 2005.