Chen Le, Head of the Department of Fine Arts, School of Fine Arts, Second Guangdong Normal University, Guangzhou, PRC, e-mail: faicean@163.com
Elvira P. Chernyshova, PhD in Philosophy, Docent, Associate Professor of the Department of Art History and Pedagogy of Art, Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia, St. Petersburg, AuthorID: 473321, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5086-5713, Web of Science ResearcherID: C-2843-2016, Scopus AuthorID: 55967058400, e-mail: ch-elvira@bk.ru
Dmitrii A. Tkachenko, Associate Professor, Department of Decorative Art and Design; Director of the Institute of Art Education, Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia, St. Petersburg, AuthorID: 722278, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4000-5466, e-mail: d.a.tkachenko@yandex.ru
Andrey D. Grigoriev, Cand.Sc. (Pedagogy), Docent, Head of the Department of Design, Nosov Magnitogorsk State Technical University, Author ID in RSCI: 659081, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9842-1254, e-mail: g_ad77@mail.ru
This article presents a comprehensive comparative study of the teaching methodology of academic realism in China’s professional art education system, using four leading art academies as examples: the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA, Beijing), the China Academy of Art (CAA, Hangzhou), the Sichuan Academy of Art (SAFA, Chongqing), and the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts (GFA, Guangzhou). The study identifies three dominant pedagogical paradigms: 1) CAFA’s classical academicism, emphasizing fundamental training in drawing and oil painting, preserving the traditions of Xu Beihong’s school; 2) CAA’s synthetic approach, seamlessly combining Western realist techniques with traditional Chinese art practices (gohua, calligraphy); 3) experimental and applied methods of SAFA and GFA, adapting realism to contemporary artistic trends — in the case of SAFA it is integration with Sichuan folk aesthetics, while GFA is characterized by an emphasis on commercial art, taking into account the specifics of the South China region. Special attention is paid to the dialectics of development from formal mastering of realistic techniques to the formation of a holistic artistic worldview, as well as modern trends in the digitalization of the educational process. The study, covering the period 2015–2023, is based on the triangulation of methods: comparative analysis of curricula, in-depth interviews with teachers and comprehensive study of graduate qualification works, which allowed us to identify the unique features of the formation of the Chinese school of realism, where academic principles receive a new reading through the prism of national cultural tradition and the challenges of the modern art market, which is essential for improving the methods of art education.
Keywords: academic realism, art education, teaching methodology, Guohua (Chinese painting), art pedagogy, comparative analysis, Chinese art academies, tradition and innovation, digitalization of teaching
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