Learning What Can’t Be Taught reflects on changes in art education in China from the 1950s to the 2000s. It focuses on six artists from three generations who were each other’s teachers and students at the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts in Hangzhou. The school, now called China Academy of Art, was established in 1928 as the first art academy in the country. The exhibition explores how Chinese artists across generations learnt in and outside of classrooms, and proposes lines of continuity among these artists: what guidance did they receive from their teachers, and how did this, in turn, influence the way they taught art? On display are rarely seen artworks, archival materials, and video interviews with Zheng Shengtian, Jin Yide, Zhang Peili, Geng Jianyi, Lu Yang, and Jiang Zhuyun.

The Zhejiang Academy is renowned for the number of graduates who went on to become leading artists in the landmark Avant-Garde Movement of 1985 and 1986, which emerged after the Cultural Revolution. These artists include Zhang Peili and Geng Jianyi, who respectively graduated from the Zhejiang Academy in 1984 and 1985. Zhang and Geng tested the limits of their training in Socialist Realism, creating works that were criticised for having “too much emphasis on individualism.”

The sense of individualism was partly made possible with the ethos embodied by two of the most influential artist-teachers, Zheng Shengtian and Jin Yide, who had studied at the Academy in the 1950s, when China’s art education was heavily influenced by the Soviet system. After China’s split with the Soviet Union in 1960, many artists sought inspiration from Eastern Europe and Latin America. However, freedom in art education was short-lived. Following the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, art became instrumentalised by politics. Those who survived the campaigns became the main driving force for reforming art education.

In the 2000s, China’s economy grew significantly with the impact of globalisation, and university education expanded. Founded in 2003 at the China Academy of Art, the New Media Department became a pioneer in formalising contemporary art education. Zhang Peili served as the head of department, and Geng Jianyi was among the outstanding professors. At the end of the seven years of operation, the department had more than 300 graduates—including Lu Yang and Jiang Zhuyun, who are two of the most prominent artists of their generation.

Learning What Can’t Be Taught contributes to a history of art education in China and traces the relationships between these six artists within a pedagogical context. While the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts promoted diversity and artistic innovation, inspiring generations of artists since the 1930s, its administration and education policies have also been dominated by the Communist Party since the 1950s. This exhibition explores how these six artists were able to carve out space for experimentation for themselves and for others. While they each work with different styles and methods, this project proposes that educational backgrounds can reveal lineages of artistic attitudes, while also complicating conventional narratives about art history in China.

Exhibition Tour in English | Anthony Yung and Özge Ersoy
Exhibition Tour in Cantonese | Anthony Yung
Video: Interview with the artists about the 1980s, 12'27''. Produced by AAA in 2020.
Video: Interview with the artists about the 1960s, 19'54''. Produced by AAA in 2020.

Jin Yide (b. 1935, Shaoxing, Zhejiang) graduated from the Oil Painting Department at the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts in 1959. Jin studied with Romanian painter Eugen Popa from 1960 to 1962 and was Ni Yide's teaching assistant in 1962 and 1963. He worked as a teacher of the Oil Painting Department from the 1960s to the 1990s. He lives and works in Hangzhou.

Zheng Shengtian (b. 1938, Luoshan, Henan) graduated from the Oil Painting Department at the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts in 1958. He was a visiting professor at the University of Minnesota from 1981 to 1983. He taught oil painting at his alma mater and served as the department chair in the 1980s. He moved to Vancouver in the 1990s and co-founded Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, the first English magazine on contemporary Chinese art, in 2002. Zheng lives and works in Vancouver.

Geng Jianyi (b. 1962, Zhengzhou, Henan; d. 2017, Hangzhou) graduated from the Oil Painting Department at the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts in 1985. Geng was a co-founder of the Pond Society, a Hangzhou-based artist collective active from 1986 to 1989, and an important figure in China's '85 New Wave movement. He was a professor in the New Media Department at his alma mater from 2004 to 2010.

Zhang Peili (b. 1957, Hangzhou) graduated from the Oil Painting Department at the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts in 1984. He was a co-founder of the Pond Society, a Hangzhou-based artist collective active from 1986 to 1989. Zhang served as the director of the New Media Department at the China Academy of Arts from 2003 to 2010. He lives and works in Hangzhou.

Jiang Zhuyun (b. 1984, Hangzhou) graduated from the New Media Department at the China Academy of Arts in 2007 and received a master's degree from the School of Intermedia Art in 2014. Based in Hangzhou, he currently teaches at the School of Intermedia Art.

Lu Yang (b. 1984, Shanghai) received a BA and MA from the New Media Art Department at the China Academy of Art in 2007 and 2010, respectively. She is currently pursuing a PhD at the School of Intermedia Art at the China Academy of Art. Lu lives and works in Shanghai.

 

Organised as part of AAA’s twentieth anniversary, Learning What Can’t Be Taught is curated by Anthony Yung and Özge Ersoy, with the production support of Helena Halim and Young One Cheung.

Sponsors:

Wendy Lee & Stephen Li; Virginia & Wellington Yee

Design Partners:

UUH OOH; Going Merry Studio Ltd.

Supporter:

Eric Art Services

Relevant content

Contemporary Oil Paintings from the People's Republic of China (Exhibition Opening)
Zheng Shengtian Archive 鄭勝天檔案
Collections

Zheng Shengtian Archive 鄭勝天檔案

Special29
Materials of the Future: Documenting Contemporary Chinese Art from 1980-1990 未來的材料:記錄1980-1990年的中國當代藝術
Collections

Materials of the Future: Documenting Contemporary Chinese Art from 1980-1990 未來的材料:記錄1980-1990年的中國當代藝術

Special49
Zhang Peili Archive 張培力檔案
Collections

Zhang Peili Archive 張培力檔案

JA Convo_edit
Building Asia Art Archive, Part 3
LIKE A FEVER | Conversations

Building Asia Art Archive, Part 3

How does AAA make decisions about what it collects? Jane DeBevoise and Anthony Yung discuss AAA’s China projects in relation to this query

Teaching Labs_2019_Frog King
Building Asia Art Archive, Part 4
LIKE A FEVER | Conversations

Building Asia Art Archive, Part 4

Susanna Chung and Samantha Kwok discuss bringing contemporary art into classrooms and caring for teachers with Zoom fatigue

10
On Art Education through the Story of Six Artists from China
LIKE A FEVER | Essays

On Art Education through the Story of Six Artists from China

Anthony Yung and Ozge Ersoy ask whether artistic attitude can be taught or passed down from one generation to another

thubmnail
Forget What You Learned: Part One
LIKE A FEVER | Conversations

Forget What You Learned: Part One

Ye Su, Jiang Zhuyun, Nabuqi, and Miao Ying discuss social and ideological shifts in Chinese art academies at the turn of the millennium

homelist
Forget What You Learned: Part Two
LIKE A FEVER | Conversations

Forget What You Learned: Part Two

Ye Su, Jiang Zhuyun, Nabuqi, Miao Ying, Hu Xiangqian, and Liang Shuo discuss social and ideological shifts in Chinese art academies at the turn of the millennium

thumbnail
Gudskul Art Collective: Learning while Nongkrong, Nongkrong while Learning
LIKE A FEVER | Essays

Gudskul Art Collective: Learning while Nongkrong, Nongkrong while Learning

Angga Wijaya reflects on the Jakarta-based art collective’s belief in togetherness and experience-based pedagogy

Performance1983Homelist
Pedagogy as Practice
Programmes

Pedagogy as Practice

3 December 2019–4 July 2020

 Chen Haiyan, Dream, 4 May 1986 — In the Front Desk, 1986 Leah Lihua Wang, Exchange, 1985_600x500
Learning What Can't Be Taught: In Conversation with Leah Wang Lihua and Chen Haiyan
Programmes

Learning What Can't Be Taught: In Conversation with Leah Wang Lihua and Chen Haiyan

Sat, 6 Feb 2021, 10–11:30am HKT

Shapes of Knowledge
Shapes of Knowledge
Exhibition Catalogue

Shapes of Knowledge

Mei Shu (Vol 1, 1982)
Mei Shu (Vol 1, 1982)
Zine

Mei Shu (Vol 1, 1982)

Mei Shu (Vol 5, 1983)
Mei Shu (Vol 5, 1983)
Zine

Mei Shu (Vol 5, 1983)

Our website is temporarily down, and we're currently working to fix this issue. Our sincere apologies for the inconvenience.