Beijing Symposium Marks Chen Banding’s 150th Anniversary

Beijing Symposium Marks Chen Banding’s 150th Anniversary

On July 2, 2026, the Beijing Fine Art Academy and the artist’s family convened an academic symposium at the academy’s museum to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of Chen Banding, one of the great masters of 20th-century Chinese painting and calligraphy. More than twenty specialists took part, representing the China National Academy of Arts, the China National Academy of Painting, the National Art Museum of China, the Guardian Art Center, the Beijing Fine Art Academy, Rongbaozhai, and the Capital Museum.

A Master Between Two Traditions

Chen Banding carried the Shanghai school’s (haipai) southern manner north, where his art matured into a refined, serene, and gently elegant style — warm, honest, and quietly cultivated. In the 1950s and 1960s he produced stately large-scale works for state halls and diplomatic occasions. Alongside Qi Baishi, he is regarded as a defining figure of traditional painting in the 20th century.

New Readings of His Art

The symposium was hosted by Lü Xiao, vice president of the Beijing Fine Art Academy, with a welcome address by academy president Wu Hongliang. In the morning session, theorists including Chen Chiyu of Tsinghua University, Chen Ming, Wang Xuefeng, Deng Feng, Fan Shengli, and Wang Boxun reassessed Chen Banding’s style, themes, and reforms — especially the quality of his small-format works — and compared him with Wu Changshuo and Qi Baishi.

A second group — Zhu Jingsheng, Feng Zhijun, Yang Canwei, Lin Jianshou, Zhang Yameng, and Zheng Shiru — argued that Chen Banding’s place in art history has been understated, and underlined his pioneering contributions to the founding of the Beijing Fine Art Academy and to art research institutions.

In the afternoon, Xue Liang, Li Xiangyang of Rongbaozhai, Ma Xuedong of the Guardian Art Center, and Beijing-school collector Xu Xianfeng discussed exhibitions, scholarship, and the art market, noting the striking gap between Chen Banding’s prices and his artistic standing.

A Hub of the Beijing School

After the school’s leaders Jin Cheng and Zhou Zhaoxiang, Chen Banding was the connective figure of the Beijing school in the 1930s and 1940s. After 1949 he championed the founding of a national fine arts research institute and of the Beijing Chinese Painting Academy, helping the school move from its earlier societies into the era of the Beijing Fine Art Academy. Family representative Chen Hui closed the meeting with thanks, and commentator Ma Mingchen proposed a more coordinated research plan, which the assembled scholars endorsed. A 1956 photograph shown at the symposium records Chen presenting a painting to the head of a visiting Mexican artists’ delegation.

Source: https://www.cntizi.com/26664.html