"The Photography Is Not What’s Important: 

Photographs from the Central Academy of Fine Arts"

From October 1st to November 11th, 2021, CAFAM presents the exhibition "The Photography Is Not What’s Important” featuring photographs from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in the exhibition hall on the 4th floor. The exhibition is co-curated by Cai Meng, Director of CAFA Art Museum’s Image Art Center, and Cao Qinghui, Professor from the School of Humanities at CAFA.

Exhibition View

By Cai Meng, Cao Qinghui

August 29, 2021

When the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) published Selected Artworks from the CAFA Art Museum Collection: Modern and Contemporary Photography in 2018, it was significant not because it was China’s only museum with a photography collection catalogue or because photography was included as a modern artistic medium along with Chinese painting, oil painting, printmaking, and sculpture. More importantly, the volume was a conscious reflection on the current examination of photography in China and in art academies. As another collection-focused research project following Modern and Contemporary Photography, this exhibition deepens and solidifies the meaning of that volume, but it also offers an opportunity to observe more closely the resonances between photography and the academy in the twentieth century, and to highlight the founding of CAFA Art Museum’s Image Art Center this year.

SELECTED ARTWORKS FROM THE CAFA ART MUSEUM COLLECTION: MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY edited by Cai Meng, 2018

In CAFA’s history, the development and evolution of photography, as an embodiment of aesthetics and technology, have never been publicly discussed. However, we have seen that—in the present, as well as in the history of the Central Academy of Fine Arts since its founding—teachers, students, and alumni who are not active as photographers or photography critics have engaged with discoveries or ideas using the methods of photographic practice and criticism. They never stopped, and several became trailblazers in their time. This exhibition is concerned with briefly recalling these antecedents, while also looking to the future. This task cannot be completed in an exhibition, but we want to take this opportunity (and the ones that follow) to discuss a subject that is constantly being perfected: “The photography is not what’s important.”

Feng Mengbo, My Private Museum The Studio, 2012, 100x60cm, Three-dimensional Photography

Xu Bing, Where Does the Dust Itself Collect?, 2014, 45×30cm, Giclee Print for Collection

Ta Ke, A Tree with Flowers on the Ancient City Wall, 2010, 30.4×25.5cm, Platinum & Palladium Printing, Collection of CAFA Art Museum

When we say that “the photography is not what’s important,” it is not a denial or negation of photography. To the contrary, this statement hopes to inspire more people to take up the task, because photography is becoming increasingly important and widespread. As a result, we could say that ink painting is not what’s important, or design is not what’s important. We cannot easily say what is important, but we want to consider and interrogate the answer by stating what’s not important. Furthermore, photography did not come late to CAFA, but the fact that it has never had its own school or department may be related to the art academy’s grounding in the tradition of painting, and perhaps, students and teachers do not find photography to be in such unnavigable waters. Even if they do not need to participate in the art world as photographers and critics, their everyday practice may be closely connected to photography, or they may even have been recognized for using photography as a direct medium or method. As they say, “The seemingly useless is the most useful.” We have also noticed that a group of outstanding alumni from the Central Academy of Fine Arts have recently been recognized for their achievements in photography. If we consider all of this together, we have more than a growing picture of photography; we actually have a view of contemporary art.

Liu Xiaodong, Migration, 2015

Chen Man, Eosin, Twelve Colors of China No. 1, 2011, 80×53.33cm, C-Print, Collection of CAFA Art Museum

A Photo with Wang Chuan and His Tutor Siegfried Mannietta at the Degree Show, Gallery of CAFA at Wangfujing, 1999

In 2011, CAFA Art Museum accepted the donation by Christopher Philips from ICP through The Asia Foundation.

“The photography is not what’s important” is not purely a backward-looking discussion; it also embodies a forward-looking hope. The exhibition’s sections are focused on what’s not important—the medium, the professionalism, the point of view, the exhibition, and the photography—as ways of explaining the development and predicaments of photography at the Central Academy of Fine Arts. We hope that this self-reflective attitude will inspire everyone who sees the show to think and converse beyond the exhibition’s walls.

It is reported that during the exhibition presenting in CAFAM, several events around the topic will be organized. Besides, the exhibition will later attend the “Chinese Pulse” chapter of “JIMEI ARLES 2021” with a more comprehensive scale, which is scheduled from November 26th, 2021 to January 3rd, 2022 in Xiamen.

Edited by CAFA ART INFO

Text and Image Courtesy of CAFAM.

最新英文国际月刊新鲜出炉

👇

免费订阅请主页对话框留言“订阅”

 CAFA ART INFO 

 英文版 

Facebook/Twitter

国际同步全部资讯

@CAFAartinfo

https://www.facebook.com/CAFAArtInfo

https://twitter.com/cafaartinfo

最新国际月刊已出

订阅请留言

版权声明：所有发表于“中央美术学院艺术资讯网CAFA ART INFO” 中英文版(http://www.cafa.com.cn) 及所属微信公众号“中央美院艺讯网”的内容均应受到国际版权条例的保护，未经授权不得擅自转载使用。

如需申请获得合作授权和内容转载许可，可后台留言“转载”，查看细则并留言联系，或邮件联系editor@cafa.edu.cn(中文)/artinfo@cafa.edu.cn (英文)。获得授权使用的转载，并注明“来源：中央美院艺讯网／CAFA ART INFO)。未经许可不得擅自转载或摘录编改文字和图片，违者本网将依法追究责任。

Copyright notice 

© CAFA ART INFO, 2020. All Rights Reserved. 

All of the information in the various pages of CAFA ART INFO web site and WeChat is issued by CAFA ART INFO (http://www.cafa.com.cn) for public distribution. It is protected under international conventions and under national laws on copyright. For application of cooperative authorization and reproduction permission, please contact editor@cafa.edu.cn(CN)/artinfo@cafa.edu.cn(EN). Any use of information in the web site or WeChat updates should be accompanied by an acknowledgement of CAFA ART INFO as the source, citing the uniform resource locator (URL) of the article. Unlawful copying and re-using parts of our copyright protected texts and images will result in legal action.