Chen Ping, head of the school of Chinese painting at the Central Academy of Fine arts. [Photo provided to China Daily]

A painting exhibition featuring leading professors from Chinese arts academies is running at the Yang Mo Tang Art Gallery in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, through Dec 28.

A total of 19 art professors from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, China Academy of Art, Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts, Capital Normal University and Nanjing University of the Arts are presenting their paintings at the exhibition.

Among those invited are Chen Ping, who chairs the school of Chinese painting at CAFA; Wei Xiaorong, head of the school of Chinese painting and calligraphy at CAA; and Li Xiaoxuan, dean of the school of Chinese painting at TAFA.

Wu Weichao, curator of the Yang Mo Tang Art Gallery, said he hopes to strengthen the cultural identification of China's traditional art system in the world by holding this event.

Art education in China has been greatly influenced by the Western system since the beginning of last century, especially in basic training. Critics have argued that this has dragged students away from the cultural tradition and lost the national aesthetic for beauty and value.

Yuan Yunsheng, a professor at CAFA, proposed to introduce Chinese traditional art forms, like bronzeware and copies of ancient sculptures, into art classes to replace Greek and Roman plaster models that have dominated basic art training in China.

The "academicism" in arts dates back to Italy in the 16th century and has gained popularity in Britain, France and Russia since the 17th century. Emphasis is on basic skills training and the norm of themes, techniques and artistic languages; the approach calls for a salute to tradition and promotes the inheritance of convention by training artists systematically.