The Research Of Shanghai’s Western Painting Exhibition In 1930’s

Shanghai’s western painting exhibition stepped into a prosperous era in 1930’s.Under the impact of western culture and the turbulent political situation, modern Chinese society experienced a significant change with its culture and concepts. At that period, the exhibition witnessed the heyday of western painting, the coming depression and finally the recovery of artists’ hard work for seeking its new development. The features like urbanization, college-style, internationalization and stylization are among the key parts to interpret the western painting exhibition in Shanghai with its cultural background, academic policy, propagation and exhibits.First, we focused on urbanization. The combination of elite culture and popular culture happened under the urbanization in modern Shanghai, which created the cultural preconditions for the occurrence and growth of the western painting exhibition. Meanwhile, the social-gap effect of the different concessions in Shanghai provided it the geographic advantage. Thus,the western painting exhibition generated in Shanghai and radiated to the southern region and the Lingnan region.At the second part, we discussed its college-style. As the major producer and source of the exhibits, academic painters are still classified as elite. On the other hand,the trinity-like propagation model of exhibition,publishing, and education provided time and space for achievementt,league and personal exhibitions.The third one is the internationalization. Under the international propagation perspective, the western painting exhibition referred to the formation of European and Japanese exhibition which brought it into modern status. At the same time, it also had the Chinese characteristics of bottom-up development.Last but not least is the stylization. The artistic manifesto for diversity acclaimed by the western painting exhibition is an expression of the diverse styles of the exhibits in Shanghai.The western painting exhibition in 1930’s left us with relevant historic heritages and numerous classic art pieces. Its equal and free creation atmosphere and the propagation system combined with time and space are also worth mention. However,the fact of its being ignored and marginalized reflected the ‘Amnesia’ of Shanghai Urban Art. Only by accelerating its digitalization will give the art heritages of western painting exhibition a better protection and transformation.