Timeless craft
A government-backed National Folk Arts and Crafts Exhibition was held in 1953 in Beijing to unfold a comprehensive picture of handicrafts at the time, and to promote the study and development of these techniques and how they could contribute to the economy, education and international exchanges. The exhibition also anticipated the foundation of the Central Academy of Arts and Design three years later, now the Academy of Arts and Design of Tsinghua University in Beijing. Homage to 1953, an exhibition at Tsinghua University Art Museum, shows a selection of objects displayed at the 1953 event to review its importance to the evolution of Chinese arts and crafts, as well as the education and research in the field and its industrialization throughout the decades. A section focuses on ceramics produced in seven hubs across the country, to present the differences in technique, function, motifs and shapes from area to area. Another section is about textiles, especially those colorful pieces woven by ethnic groups and preserved among generations. Some of these embroidery skills have long been extinct. The exhibition will end on Aug 30.
9 am-5 pm, closed on Mondays. Tsinghua University, Haidian district. 010-6278-1012.
His time
Memories of His Time, an exhibition at the art museum of Beijing Fine Art Academy, navigates the life and work of Gu Yizhou (1923-87) whose rich experience saw him transforming from a revolutionary and fighter to an art student and career painter. Growing up in a time when his country was dragged into difficult situations and war, Gu joined the troops amid the fight against Japanese aggression. Meanwhile, because of an interest in art since childhood, he attended painting schools and created posters and illustrations for magazines and theater plays calling for people to stand up against the invaders. In 1954, Gu was sent to brush up his painting skills at the capital's Central Academy of Fine Arts, focusing on the training of classic Chinese painting. He later became one of the earliest resident painters of the Beijing Fine Art Academy, and produced works to reflect socialist development and people at the grassroots. The exhibition runs through to July 9.
9 am-5 pm, closed on Mondays. 12 Chaoyang Gongyuan (Park) Nan Lu. 010-6502-5171.
Breeze of art
For years, Wang Jianguo, a professor of oil painting at Jilin University of the Arts, in Changchun, the capital of Jilin province, has been dedicated to combining the expressive presentation of Western painting with the spirituality of Chinese art. His ongoing exhibition in Shanghai, titled Breeze Blowing Across the Earth, shows more than 100 paintings in which he has explored the distinctive cultural temperament of his country, its people and urban cultures. Growing up in Northwest China, Wang never ceases to depict the extensive natural scenery of the region, which has nurtured his temperament and feelings of the world. Meanwhile, his work embodies concerns with people living on the land, the farmer endeavoring in the field, people chatting in old residential communities and workers in factories, by which he guides the audience's attention to the history of the Northwest and its present. The exhibition runs through to July 10 at the gallery of the Institute of Management in Arts and Design (Shanghai), Central Academy of Fine Arts.
9 am-4:30 pm, Tuesday to Saturday.1099 Huanhu Nan Er Road, Pudong district, Shanghai. 021-6828-3369.
