Western Impact: Chinese art students in France influence modern art in China

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Studying abroad was a notable phenomenon in China's cultural history in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. France was an important destination for art lovers at that time, and that continues today. An exhibition in Beijing is being held to show how these students of art have influenced Chinese modern art history. Li Qiong reports.

These art pieces were created by the founders and drivers of Chinese art's shift from tradition to modernity. Both the artists who explored the classical, realist, and naturalist modes of the western academy, and the artists who held more closely to the western modernists, pursued the goal of modernity by different paths in the twentieth century.

GUO HONGMEI CURATOR "Artists who learned in France and Japan are two very important groups that have influenced Chinese modern art in the 20th century. They imported western painting techniques and concepts that were totally different from traditional Chinese painting, like oil painting, sculpturing and sketching. This also developed into different ways of observing things in China."

More than 100 Chinese artists traveled to this single country in the early 20th century, but what they took from the experience was remarkably varied. When they returned to China, their art developed in numerous directions.

LI QIONG BEIJING "There are more than 200 art pieces in this exhibition hall, from paintings to sculptures. This is, kind of, the epitome of Chinese modern art. Some of the works are entirely of western style, while quite a number of other artists used what they learned in France to depict Chinese own stories."

They either combined the Chinese ink painting skill of lining with western sketching, or revealed Chinese society with a brush.

LI SHIYU VISITOR "I didn't know the historical background of this painting until I noticed the change in painting skills of the artist Chang Shuhong. I think this piece is evidence that the artist was influenced by Gauguin."

GUO HONGMEI CURATOR "The most important skills Chang Shuhong learned abroad is academic classical painting. But he changed to post-impressionism when he wanted to reveal war stories, because this art style is quicker and easier to express passion. This piece has won world acclaim and this is the first time it's exhibited to the Chinese public."

The exhibition of "Chinese Artists Abroad in France and Chinese Modern Art" runs through March 3rd at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. LQ, CGTN, BJ.