Introduction

      What would painting be in this era of new media and post-digitalism? That is a question which challenges art academy education globally. The fading-away of painting is not new to us; the development of artificial intelligence and the fundamental change of cognition in the traditional field transformed painting into a seemingly utopian character.  Although painting still possesses the expressiveness and vitality which no other independent language can replace, the challenges it faces — equally in art pedagogy — is fairly realistic. Under such background and with the comparative research between Chinese and Western Art in mind, Department of Comprehensive Painting aims to tap into the potential of mixed-media painting language with the idealism of “tolerance, diversity, comprehensiveness and creativeness”. Meanwhile, we also tried to solve current issues with practices in ideology, concepts, skills and methods. Therefore, Department of Comprehensive Painting and Institute of Contemporary Comprehensive Painting (ICCP) are holding international workshops together, inviting European and American art professors as well as active artists to give a series of lectures in modules such as systematic comprehension, case studies and project researches. These modules will help participants to visually and profoundly understand and experiment with the commencement and development of contemporary western art, while rhetorically inquiring ourselves. We expect to deepen the development of such subject with of cross-cultural, cross-perspective and intermedia ideas and methodologies, cultivating contemporary artists with multiplicity in artistic qualities.

       The International Workshop of Comprehensive Painting received strong support from the school and the Foreign Affairs Office and was nominated as one of the “The Double-Ten Training” international workshop projects. Designed for first and second-year postgraduate students from the School of Painting, the workshop celebrates its fourth year of commencement. Six American and European art professors and over 100 students participated, while the 6 rounds of lectures were enrolled with more than 200 audiences. The workshop held three students’ art shows and published 2 academic papers on Level 1 journals.

1.Role and Impact of the International Workshop in Discipline Construction

       The International Workshop of Comprehensive Painting was gradually built upon the school’s “Big Painting: Skills and Methods” teaching framework. Different from applied arts who aim to achieve detailed designs with futuristic new concepts, new materials and considerations of practicality, traditional painting methods in this era of information are always challenged with the query of “what painting is”. How much power shall artists deliver via their works, with ideology and neo-media creativity, can the society respond to their artistic responsibilities? Not only is it a question for art education, but also a necessary topic to reflect on as artists. At this exact moment, geographical concepts of eastern and western, or Asia, America and Europe have been blurred; such proposition is commonly shared between each and every one of us.

       Back to the subject of painting, the characteristics of comprehensive painting is believed to enable potential for feasible breakthrough. Therefore, the International Workshop of Comprehensive Painting starts with the transition and status quo of western and contemporary art, striving to profoundly discuss and arrange connotative knowledge of the relationship between such as concepts and painting, media and its transformation, making and matching, patterns and images, photography and painting, representation and re-expression etc.  Aiming to demonstrate the difference between eastern and western art and culture as well as their influences, the workshop is designed to introspect through the comparative study of creative methodology and media language, identifying problems in mundane life events, examine minutely the value orientation and meaning of painting in this age.

       The International Workshop of Comprehensive Painting is an extension of academic teaching and research. Its courses are not some generic skill-level tutoring and practice, but more of a brain-storm which help students to effectively think out of the box with inspiration from another perspective. Breaking the limit from the angle of media and its transformation, the workshop pushes participants to complete research goals phase by phase with time limits. While enriching current teaching contents with novel curriculum concepts and schema as well as effectively constituting interaction between art students and professionals, the workshop also catalyzes new bilateral comparative research of cross-cultural and multidisciplinary topics. Thus, the workshop puts positive influence with its reflexivity on the present and an outlook to the future.

2.Module Features and Commentaries on The Workshop

      Established in 1995 as the pioneer among all Chinese art academies, Department of Comprehensive Painting in CAA witnessed drastic changes in both domestic and international art ecologies. Modelling ideas in comprehensive painting discipline along with modernist concept of form and material composition have been adjusted, veered and expanded, while new developments in ideology and media have changed the philosophy of artistic creativity. Possibly, as the most direct response to the-current development of art, comprehensive painting is facing questions as follows: How to teach professional skills in a connective way in a world of globalization? How to grasp the appropriateness of merging eastern and western thoughts as well as methods? How to raise awareness to current issues and, as a result, invent effective teaching with new contents?

      With full support and assistance of the school and the Foreign Affairs Office, the International Workshop of Comprehensive Painting adjusted its course settings and faculty choices based on the subject’s dynamic development. The past four workshops in the last three years chose to begin from two aspects: material media and methods, and conceptual and pictorial expressions, each of which was held twice a week bilingually, accompanied with related lectures. Structurally speaking, the workshop plans to interconnect facades such as painting thinking, material media, form composition, language expression, spatial presentation and even social intervention. With a time-limit, the courses expect students to answer current questions with unconventional thought processes and means while experiencing a complete set of methodologies for artistic creation. Invited instructors are from various walks of life, such as well-celebrated performance artists or composite painters with distinct characteristics, expecting to lead students onto a new path of thinking with sharing their specific understandings of their experiences in art and art pedagogy. Results gave us clear evidences that students’ comprehension and abilities of contemporary art were significantly enhanced, theoretically and practically, through painting, discussion and summarizing; they were more capable of activating their potential, discovering motives of creation, develop chains of logic in their works, and acquire brand new power and thinking for their art. Meanwhile, instructors claimed that they gained experiences which differs from teaching in western classrooms, and these responses, in turn, intensified their understandings of eastern-western distinctions as well as the development of China. All the abovementioned facts opened a window for us to reflect on the internationalization of the school, appealing us to examine the world.

3.Future Plans

      Considering the school’s developmental background, international communication and collaboration programs are held regularly. School of Painting, for example, has been hosting inter-youth painting exhibitions and international painting seminars for four consecutive years, welcoming artists and professors from major art academies from China and overseas alike. Such programs provided stages and incentives for international youth artists, receiving positive feedbacks from all over the world. In 2018 and 2019, the program’s national tour was sponsored by the China National Arts Fund (CNAF). All these measures lead the school’s international teaching onto a higher vision and a bigger platform. The International Workshop of Comprehensive Painting shall be the avant-courier of stable, long-term international collaboration, supporting the integration of school-grade and international level resources. Extending its class modules and faculty size, the program will fuse effective courses into supplemental curriculums for the Research of ICCP. Besides, the workshop runs exchange programs which sends faculty members and students abroad for collaboration and communication. The workshop also adopts undergraduate pedagogy into its system.

      Last but not least, current workings on “CAA Golden Classes” is another opportunity for painting education development. Fine arts education nowadays is challenging instructors with foresight and practices, on aspects not limited to mere skill-level teaching, but facades like knowledge structure expansion and media language deepening as well. International level course construction is, to some extent, an auxiliary and reference for the said subject of study. Though the new historical context has seen changes in the diversity and blending of cultures, the ultimate questions exist: Who are we and where are we going? Pedagogy is the science of passing down the “Dao” and disabusing; we as artists uses paintings per se. In the post-Internet era of this flattened earth, one could see the query for technology, society, culture, identity differences and identity approval as a pathway of inquiry for the meaning of life. Painting bears the “Dao” but also opens passages led to the “Dao”. We hope that the road we lead students onto is as such.

      Article originally published in A Glimpse of The World: China Academy of Art International Teaching Exploration, China Academy of Art Press, 2020.

      Translated from Chinese by Zhao Jun