Naked Ambitions

A group photo from 1920s Shanghai, and currently on display at the China Art Museum is somewhat atypical of the era it portrays, but was a pioneering snap all the same.

In among the crowd of people, all teachers and students from Shanghai Fine Arts College (SFAC), is a naked woman who is the only figure not looking at the camera. Their eyes are on us, but our eyes are unsurprisingly drawn to her incongruous presence.　

And this photo offers a perfect symbol of the avant-garde ambitions of the college, founded in the city in 1912, and which was also the country's first private fine arts school. Today, the institution has left the city and is known as Nanjing University of the Arts.

The photo is one of the exhibits on show at an exhibition to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of SFAC and is among some 150 artworks created by early teachers and students. There are also more than 100 historical artefacts, written documents and videos which all tell the history of the college.

Sketching classes

Of course, today, such a photo would barely raise an eyebrow, but how did such a daring shot come about almost a century ago? The clue lies in the fact that SFAC was the first college to arrange nude model sketching classes in China, and this happened as early as 1914.

Liu Chan, the daughter of one of the founders of SFAC, Liu Haisu (1896-1994), told the Global Times: "It was very hard to find nude models in Shanghai at that time, and even less so female models. My father was only 16 years old, and he and his friends were reduced to asking people in the street to do it. But passersby were mortified and avoided them like the plague. And even if people did occasionally agree they would normally beat a hasty retreat when they got into the studio. It was said that one nude model had a breakdown afterwards because of the ignominy she felt she had brought on her family and society."

And it wasn't just public opinion that was outraged. Local authorities criticized the college and a Shanghai government representative of that time, Jiang Huaisu, wrote a scathing article in the city's then leading paper, Shen Bao. As a result, some of the college's studios were broken into and vandalized.

"My father and his friends were under huge pressure at the time, but they never considered giving up," added Liu. "I still remember him saying, 'If you have a good body, why not show it off? It is your beauty and it belongs to you.'"

SFAC was also a pioneer in breaking down other taboos in society: it was the first co-educational institute in the country allowing men and women to study together in the same classroom. And it was the first arts facility to take students outside of the classroom so that they could carry out sketches from nature. "My father and his fellow teachers picked up all the ideas for the running of the school from Western art schools where most of them had previously studied," added Liu.

Zhu Qi, an art theorist from the China National Academy of Painting told the Global Times that since the founding of the SFAC roughly coincided with the founding of the Republic of China (ROC, 1912-1949), the school itself parallels the development of art in the ROC. This was also the time that China began to be more accessible to the West after many centuries of feudalism and dynastic monarchies.

　Hugely influential

"Many artists appeared in this period who then went on to hugely influence art in China such as Lin Fengmian, Pan Yuliang, Huang Binhong and Feng Zikai. And they all had experience teaching at SFAC," said Zhu. "In addition, when poster design, cinema and photography, were first popularized in Shanghai in the 1920s, the SFAC was at the forefront of propagating these art forms. Zhao Dan, the film star, and Sha Fei, the renowned photographer, both studied at SFAC in the 1930s."

The history of SFAC in Shanghai lasted 40 years. In 1952, under a nationwide adjustment of colleges and related faculties in China, SFAC was amalgamated with the department of fine arts and music of Shandong University and moved to a new site in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province where it then became known as the East China Arts College. And the year after that, this college was relocated to Nanjing, becoming the Nanjing University of the Arts which it still is today.

Zhu told the Global Times that many aspects of the first 40 years of SFAC in Shanghai still need to be researched in depth, especially the fact that a wholly private institution was able to survive during that period.

"It was something of a miracle in the history of the ROC and can still provide important lessons for private education today," he said.

Date: Until December 9, 10 am to 5 pm

Venue: China Art Museum, Shanghai

中华艺术宫

Address: 161 Shangnan Road

上南路161号

Admission: Free, but visitors should book the admission ticket on artshow. eastday.com (for individual visitors) and ticketing.exposhanghaigroup.com (for group visitors)

Call 400-9219-021 for details