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 19th and early 20th centuries. France was an essential destination for art lovers at that time, and that continues today. An exhibition in Beijing is held to show how these students of art have influenced Chinese modern art history.

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 western modernists, pursued the goal of modernity by different paths in the 20th century.

Xu Beihong's ”Family of Yang Zhongzi”. /Photo courtesy of the Central Academy of Fine Arts

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

More than 100 Chinese artists traveled to this 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. They either combined the Chinese ink painting skill of lining with western sketching or revealed Chinese society with a brush.

Wang Rujiu's “Portrait”. /Photo courtesy of the Central Academy of Fine Arts

"The most important skills Chang Shuhong learned abroad is classical academic 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," said Guo.

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

(Top image: Zhou Bichu's "Clouds above the Yellow Mountain". /Photo courtesy of the Central Academy of Fine Arts)