Sponsored by Chinese National Academy of Arts, China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, China Literature and Art Foundation and Chinese Artists Association, an oil painting exhibition of the 2010 year entitled Return to the sketch is currently on view at the National Art Museum of China. Meanwhile, an exhibition of copies by the oil painters of three generations entitled Return to the origin .
The exhibits comprise a number of artworks by the oil painters who resided in Europe and the former Soviet Union in the 20th century, the artists arranged by the Oil Painting college of Chinese National Academy of Arts to undergo coping activities abroad and also contemporary oil painters.
The techniques of painting from life and copying classical works were the basic methods of education and creation in the early stage of the Chinese oil painting and also were the most effective ways of introducing European oil painting into the nation. In the 1930s, the modern artists of the first generation including Xu Beihong, Lin Fengmian and Liu Haisu flocked to Europe to copy the original classics in the museums; in the 1950s, the artists who studied in the former Soviet Union also copied the classics in Saint Petersburg.
The two exhibitions reflect the sketches and the copies by more than a hundred oil painters from different generations, such as Xu Beihong, Wu Zuoren, Dong Xiwen, Luo Gongliu, Jin Shangyi, Chen Danqing and Liu Xiaodong. The shows are expected to provide an overview of the history of the China oil paintings with an attempt to answer the questions of "Why should we paint from life? and Why should we copy classical works?". The sharp contrast embodied in the shows reflects the development of the Chinese oil painting in the fields of artistic education and aesthetic concepts.
The oil painting exhibition opens at Hall 1, 8 and 9 until Dec. 15.
