Higher Art Education In The Status Quo, From The Historical Development Of Chinese And Western Academy Of Fine Arts

Academy of Fine Arts had undergone more than four hundred years of development from the appearance of the term "academy" in 1427 to the foundation of the first Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, Italy in 1563. Bohorse School founded in Germany in 1920s can be regarded as the beginning of modern design education.Fine arts education in systematic scale in China can be traced back to the beginning of Spring and Autumn Periods. At that time there were state schools for aristocratic children and country schools for the subjects. Modern education in China set off a surge of abolishing imperial examination and initiating schools. In 1905, the royal government of Qing Dynasty gave orders to set up new schools all over the country. Until then fine arts education in Qing Dynasty broke away from the mode of the ancient feudal education. The development of the new schools required more adaptive new teachers, which sowed the seeds of the development of normal fine arts education in China. In 1912, oil painter Liu Haisu founded the first fine arts school—Shanghai Fine Arts School in China with the help of some other oil painters; and in 1922, Yan Wenliang, a pioneer of oil painting, set up Su Zhou Fine Arts School. Among so many painters, Xu Beihong, a famous painter and educationist in fine arts, made the greatest contribution to Chinese fine arts education and had the greatest influence on Chinese fine arts education. As early as in 1928, Xu Beihong, who just returned from French, was appointed as a professor and in charge of painting teaching in the Special Course of Fine Arts in Education Academy of Chinese Central University.From the founding of new China till to now, Chinese fine arts education has achieved great development. However, since 1980s and 1990s, the merging of universities and the increase of recruit students in number have made Chinese High Colleges of Fine Arts too overstaffed and unwieldy; the bureaucratic administration in universities have made Chinese High Colleges of Fine Arts too inflexible and dogmatic. Accordingly, a great crisis is hidden behind the superficial prosperous fine arts education. The crisis of fine arts education implies the need for the reform of the current educational system.