| dc.description.abstract | Following far from the 1910 Nanyang Exposition in the late Qing, the 1929 West Lake Exposition, the first national exposition of the Republic China, was held at the West Lake in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. During two decades, China has suffered successive political turmoil. With the establishment of the Nanjing National Government in 1927, and Zhang Xue-liang’s announcement by the end of the next year that Manchuria accepted authority of Nanjing National Government, the unification of China was done, at least in name. The latter then began to carry out a nationwide material and spiritual reconstruction. At the end of 1928, Zhang Jing-jiang, a Kuomintang dignitary, served as the chairman of National Reconstruction Commission and the Zhejiang Provincial Government, attempted to make Zhejiang a model province for national economic development. The West Lake Exposition was a part of the Chinese National Products Movements at the time, and an art pavilion was set up in the exposition to strengthen national identity. The official in charge of the organization of the exposition tried to monopolize the claim of legitimate heir of a long tradition, either political or cultural, through the display of ancient antiquities from all over the nation.
It is worth noting that the art exhibition in West Lake Exposition was closely linked to the newly established National Academy of Art, also at West Lake in 1928. On the one hand, the art exhibition was mainly held in the school buildings of the National Academy of Art. On the other hand, the curator of the art exhibition Lin Feng-mian was also the director of the school, and the original members of the committee preparing the art exhibition were mostly teachers of the National Academy of Art. At that time, the National Academy of Art assumed the weighty responsibility of revitalizing the nation′s art education and the future of Chinese modern art. However, just halfway through the art exhibition, after Dai Ji-tao, another Kuomintang dignitary, expressed his discontent with the exhibition, Lin Feng-mian resigned, or was made resigned, from the position of the curator of the art pavilion. The curation of the art pavilion shifted to a committee where Lin Feng-mian served merely as a committee member, and the curatorial right was transferred to the local Donggao Association in Hangzhou, a Chinese art group with Yu Shao-song as key character. Afterwards, the art pavilion underwent a dramatic restructuring, whereby most of the Western paintings were replaced by contemporary Chinese paintings, in line with the standard of national products. In addition, a new accent was put on Chinese antiquities and ancient paintings.
The art exhibition in this national exposition was expected to bear witness to the artistic achievement at the national level, as did Shanghai National Fine Art Exhibition a month earlier. Prior to the art exhibition in West Lake Exposition, from 1927 to 1928, with the support of Cai Yuan-pei, the president of the University Council, Lin Feng-mian served as the chairman of the Art Education Committee of the University Council. He was responsible for the preparation of the National Academy of Art and the Shanghai National Fine Art Exhibition. However, when Cai Yuan-pei’s reform of the education system broke down, Lin Feng-mian lost immediately the curation of the Shanghai National Fine Art Exhibition, and was removed from the direction of the art exhibition in West Lake Exposition a few months later. Lin Feng-mian’s successive defeats reflect that Cai Yuan-pei’s hope of guiding the Chinese art education by the school’s elite have failed. Compared with the Shanghai National Fine Art Exhibition held earlier in the same year, the art exhibition in West Lake Exposition was much more immersed in a politicized climate under the control of the Nanjing National Government. For an art exhibition which should have had a crucial impact on the Chinese art world at that time, the outcome was almost less than significant. In contrast, political issues began to become more closely linked to art making and dictated the course of art. | en_US |