The Four Great Academy Presidents (or The Four Great Art Academy Presidents) is the title earned by four pioneers of Chinese modern art:

Yan Wenliang Yan Wenliang (; 20 July 1893 – 1 May 1988) was a Chinese painter and educator, who is regarded as one of the fathers of Chinese oil painting and an important art educator of his time. Born in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, Yan began studying painti ...

Lin Fengmian Lin Fengmian (; November 22, 1900 – August 12, 1991), originally Lin Fengming (), was a Chinese painter and is considered a pioneer of modern Chinese painting for blending Chinese and Western styles, he was one of the earliest Chinese painters ...

Xu Beihong Xu or XU may refer to: People and characters * Xu (surname), one of two Chinese surnames ( or /), transliterated as Xu in English * ǃXu, a name for the ǃKung group of Bushmen; may also refer to the ǃKung language or the ǃKung people * ǃXu ...

and

Liu Haisu Liu Haisu (; 16 March 1896 – 7 August 1994) was a prominent twentieth-century Chinese painter and a noted art educator. He excelled in Chinese painting and oil painting. He was one of the four pioneers of Chinese modern art who earned the titl ...

. These artists were revered in the early Republican Era due to their effective stewardship of the Soochow College of Art, the Hangzhou National School of Fine Art, the Art Department of Central University and the Shanghai Academy of Arts respectively.

Careers

(20 July 1893 - 1 May 1988) was a Chinese painter and educator, who is regarded as one of the fathers of Chinese oil painting and an important art educator of his time. Born in

Suzhou Suzhou (; ; Suzhounese: ''sou¹ tseu¹'' , Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Soochow, is a major city in southern Jiangsu province, East China. Suzhou is the largest city in Jiangsu, and a major economic center and focal point of trade ...

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, Postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an Eastern China, eastern coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is o ...

province, Yan began studying painting in 1909, founded the Suzhou Art Academy in 1922 and went to Paris in 1929, enrolling in the L'Ecole Superieure Nationale des Beaux Arts, making him, along with

and Sanyu, one of the earliest Chinese artists to study abroad in France.

(November 22, 1900 – August 12, 1991), originally Lin Fengming, was a Chinese painter and is considered a pioneer of modern

Chinese painting Chinese painting () is one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world. Painting in the traditional style is known today in Chinese as ''guó huà'' (), meaning "national painting" or "native painting", as opposed to Western style ...

for blending Chinese and Western styles. He was also an important innovator in the area of Chinese art education.

(16 March 1896 – 7 August 1994) was a prominent twentieth-century Chinese painter and a noted art educator. He excelled in

and oil painting.

(19 July 1895 – 26 September 1953) was a Chinese painter born in Yixing,

province. He was primarily known for his Chinese ink paintings of horses and birds and was one of the first Chinese artists to articulate the need for artistic expressions that reflected a modern China at the beginning of the 20th century. He was also regarded as one of the first to create monumental oil paintings with epic Chinese themes – a show of his high proficiency in an essential Western art technique.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Four Great Academy 20th-century Chinese painters Republic of China painters Victims of the Anti-Rightist Campaign Victims of the Cultural Revolution