With all the festivals coming and going in April, it is quite energetic in Weifang City. Besides the worldwide reputation of International Kite Festival, Weifang also has the reputation of “Painting Capital”, and China Painting Festival in Weifang becomes increasingly flourishing. On April 20, the 8th Session of China Painting Festival was kicked off at Shandong-Taiwan Convention and Exhibition Center in Weifang. Numerous masters and works jointly presented us a “high-end, precise and top-notch” visual feast.
The 7th session in the last year was organized under the exhibition thought of “small plate and big pattern”. The 8th Session of China Painting Festival continues the principles of being professional and academic, and takes “Walking into the new era and singing for China with brush and ink” as the theme. It is divided into five major exhibition zones, namely theme exhibition, specialty exhibition, special theme exhibition, special invitation exhibition and master exhibition, and composed of over 100 units, exhibiting over 8000 works. Although the amount sounds huge, every exhibition zone features in many bright spots, clearly-layered contents and sharp contrast. Both ancient and modern works were exhibited. There were works of ancient masters including Tang Bohu, Ni Zan, Huang Binhong and Ren Bonian and also works by contemporary masters including Liu Dawei, Long Rui, Yang Xiaoyang and Lu Yushun. For “south and north integration”, there were both ice landscape works peculiar to the northern school and bright flowering peculiar to the southern Lingnan School. There were both teacher-student exhibition and couple exhibition, and both giant products including the two 35m giant works by Yang Xiaoyang and simple small products such as the 100 dedicate fanning sectors by Lu Yushun. General Planner Wang Juming said: “Large exhibition zones seem to be majestic. For example, the over 400 fine works brought with ‘Time Prosperity﹒2018’ in Chinese Painting Institute Exhibition Zone are quite magnificent. There are also small-size work exhibition zones where small-size works are exhibited for audience to appreciate. We have done a lot while selecting themes and styles of artist works, and every exhibition zone has its wonderful points.”
Compared with previous sessions of China Painting Festival, this session paid more attention to contemporaneity, and highlighted the two major themes of “new” and “ode”. The concept of “new” indicates high and new technologies applied to promote traditional culture and fusion of the two. Besides electronic exhibition form, the entire exhibition zone also applies WeChat and other network platform promotion modes. Planning of the entire exhibition area brings a brand-new feeling to the audience in terms of vision, highlighting the style of “being simple, elegant and magnificent”. Meanwhile, this concept is also reflected in a big batch of works reflecting times characteristics and styles. The concept of “ode” is to highlight positive energy, reinforce public welfare and academy, and truly create China Painting Festival into a high-end communication platform exhibiting Chinese painting art. For example, several Chinese painting masters lead by Liu Dawei and Long Rui entered Weifang Goertek to draw labor models and craftsmen to praise their deeds.
