Loss of simplicity

While using completely new techniques may underscore an artist's creativity, art lovers may start to reminisce about classic paintings that, while simple in form, were thought-provoking because of the themes that were depicted on the canvas. No matter if it's the works of early generation artists such as the portraits of oil painting master Jin Shangyi (born in 1934), or the later art works of China's "Four Heavenly Kings" of contemporary art (Wang Guangyi, Fang Lijun, Yue Minjun and Zhang Xiaogang), these works are reminders of the social issues of their era and the artistic development of the country at the time of their creation.

Now, while it would be unfair to say that today's graduating students don't care about society - I'm sure they care a lot as many works this year reflect hot social issues such as rampant urbanization and many students took care to make sure they used environmental friendly materials to make their works.

However, most of these paintings only deal with social issues on the surface. Like one oil painting of a traffic jam depicting a long queue of cars on the highway with several drivers and passengers sitting on the ground chatting and taking a rest, in this picture the student has basically taken a scene commonly seen on the the TV news whenever long Chinese holidays come around and simply painted it on canvas.

"The era where we could glimpse the future masters of tomorrow through their graduation works is gone," said Lü.

Putting aside the period during the 1950s when a generation of masters like Jin Shangyi and Han Meilin (born in 1936 and the designer behind the 2008 Beijing Olympic mascots) were predicted to be future maestros of art while they were still in college, even in the 1980s and 1990s graduate exhibitions were still regarded as a place to scout out the artistic masters of the future.

However, since the turn of the century things seem to have changed.

"Students of this generation are their families' only child, compared to earlier generations of art students, they lack enthusiasm for art," said Yang Canjun, head of the oil painting department at CAA.

"They don't seem to care as much about artistic creation, or whether their art work is actually complete. The respect and pursuit for art earmarked by our generation has been lost in them."

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