Department of Fine Arts

The predecessor of the Department of Fine Arts can be traced back to the Painting Department of Shanxi Textile school, which was established in 1958. It was renamed Shanxi Textile Industry School in 1979 and merged into Taiyuan University of Technology in 2000. It is one of the professional directions of the Design and Art Department of the former College of Light and Textile Engineering and Fine Arts. The Department of Fine Arts has trained a number of professionals since its establishment. Now we have a group of painters with great influence in the art circle of our province. With the studio led by these teachers as the main teaching structure, we have formed a strong teaching and scientific research team, and gradually developed into a comprehensive specialty integrating teaching and research. At present, there are 16 teachers in the Department, including 1 professor, 4 associate professors, 10 lecturers and 1 teaching assistants. There are 1 doctor, 12 masters and 7 master tutors in our department.

The idea of the Fine Arts Department is to rely on the profound humanities and social sciences of Shanxi Art Heritage Research Center and the advantages of national experimental center. Based on the background of contemporary cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries, the department draws on, digests and absorbs the excellent traditions of ancient and modern China and foreign countries, inherits the academic spirit of its predecessors, and takes the essence of Chinese and Western art to explore the development path of Chinese painting art in the new era.

At present, the Department of Fine Arts has two majors: Painting as well as Arts and Crafts. The major of painting includes two directions of traditional Chinese painting and oil painting. The department deeply studies the connotation of higher art education, combines with the essential law of artistic creation, strengthens scientific research ability, explores teaching methods with features and regional characteristics, and strives to bring regional advantages into play in teaching work. In the process of running the school, a mature and distinctive studio teaching, scientific research and creation system has gradually formed.

I. Training Objectives & Curriculum

In the direction of traditional Chinese painting in the major of painting, there have four studios (figure painting, landscape , flower and bird, rock painting ) and a traditional painting copying laboratory. While inheriting and carrying forward the national traditional culture, this direction pays attention to the advantages of tradition in the contemporary era, follows the realistic creative methods, goes deep into life, reflects life, advocates innovation and breakthroughs, and creates diversified teaching models. In this direction, we cultivate students' ability of artistic perception, modeling, creation and social practice. On the basis of skillfully mastering traditional painting techniques, we have a group of application-oriented talents with certain research and exploration ability of new painting language who can skillfully carry on the art creation of painting. The main courses include sketching characters, landscape foundation, meticulous (ink painting) birds,  meticulous (ink painting)figures, green (ink painting) landscape copying, calligraphy, seal cutting, rock color painting techniques, professional sketching,  series creation, graduation entrepreneurship and thesis, etc.

In the direction of oil painting in the major of painting, there are the first, the second studio and a comprehensive painting laboratory. It mainly trains applied talents who have the ability of painting (oil painting) artistic creation and teaching research, and can be engaged in teaching, creation and research in the fields of culture and art, education, design, research, publishing and management units. The main courses include sketch (bust, full body, human body), comprehensive painting materials, oil painting techniques, figurative oil painting characters (human body), oil painting combination characters, small oil painting creation, oil painting landscape, painting language research, realistic oil painting creation, expressive oil painting creation, graduation creation and thesis, etc.

The major of arts and crafts has four studios ( lacquer art, dyeing and weaving, ceramic and sculpture). This major pays attention to enlightening students' innovative thinking, encouraging personality development, strengthening hands-on training, and improving students' ability to use modern design means to solve practical problems. Applied talents who can engage in all kinds of traditional and modern arts and crafts design and production as well as related teaching and research have been trained for cultural and art departments, traditional craft processing fields, design companies, schools and other enterprises and institutions. The main courses include: sculpture material technique, ceramic technology foundation, manual printing and dyeing, lacquer art foundation technology, clay sculpture breast sketch, sculpture human body sketch, ceramic decoration and production technology, ceramic design modeling design and production, pattern design, soft decoration design and production, graduation creation and thesis, etc.

II. Teaching Characteristics

The direction of traditional Chinese painting: this direction is committed to the theoretical research and artistic practice of Chinese painting teaching and creation, inheriting and carrying forward the spirit of traditional culture and art, training talents in Chinese painting as its own responsibility. In addition, the direction pays attention to the integration of traditional culture and modern ideas, adheres to the combination of skill training and artistic innovation, implements studio teaching, takes characters, flowers and birds, landscape and rock colors as the research direction, and carries out sub-subject teaching to develop unique teaching mode of Chinese painting. Undergraduates spend the first and second year to learn the basic course, master traditional painting techniques and understand the spirit of traditional aesthetics. In their junior year, they enter the four studios of figure painting, landscape painting, flower-and-bird painting and rock color painting (students voluntarily choose their professional direction) to consolidate and improve their basic ability, correctly master and understand the language of professional painting techniques, and deepen their understanding of the spirit of traditional aesthetics.

The direction of oil painting: this direction is based on the exploration of the basic theory and method system of oil painting art, studies the artistic tradition of world oil painting, integrates the spirit of Chinese art, explores multiple artistic styles, pursues the artistic spirit of the times, and emphasizes the research and teaching process of combining the concept and skill of oil painting with creative practice. It adopts the combination of class system and studio system as the teaching method. Undergraduates spend the first year learning basic course and the second year learning professional basic course, which includes the study of Chinese traditional painting and theory. Juniors and seniors enter the studio to study. It is advocated that we should learn from other people's strengths, make an extensive comparative study between Chinese and Western artistic language, and explore artistic language in the broad field of Chinese and Western culture.

The major of arts and crafts pays attention to the combination of traditional theory and practice of handicrafts. While mastering the extensive knowledge of art and design, we adhere to the professional principles of various training directions, combine with the unique heritage and culture of Shanxi, through the cultivation of design thinking, design art expression, design professional skills training and other design abilities, so as to comprehensively master the theories, knowledge, methods, techniques and skills necessary for the professional direction of arts and crafts design, and possess the basic qualities of this major. The first-year undergraduates mainly study the basic courses, while the second-year students take the professional basic courses. The third and fourth grades enter the lacquer art, dyeing and weaving, carving, ceramic studio to study.

III. Platform Construction

The College of Arts is composed of the Department of Design, the Department of Fine Arts, the Department of Digital Media Art, the Department of Art Theory and the Department of Foundation. There are also academic research institutions such as Art Heritage Research Center as well as Design Art Research Center. There are 107 full-time teachers, and more than 70% of them have master's degrees.The college has more than 2000 undergraduates and more than 100 graduate students.

At present, the college has a national experimental teaching demonstration center of design art (including 18 music and dance centers in China, and no more than 10 fine arts centers in China), a key research base of humanities and social sciences in colleges and universities in Shanxi Province, and a research and development base of arts and crafts in Shanxi Province. In 2011, the college jointly established the "Shanxi Art Design Postgraduate Education Innovation Center" with four well-known cultural and creative enterprises and institutions in the province-Taiyuan Vanke Real Estate Co., Ltd., Shanxi Painting Academy, Shanxi Bo' ao Animation Production Co., Ltd. and Shanxi Zhongde Ancient Architecture Planning and Design Institute Co., Ltd.. The establishment of this center is conducive to improving the level of postgraduate education in our college, innovating the mode of postgraduate education and cooperation between production, education and research, speeding up the pace of enterprise personnel training, and promoting the college to serve the economic transformation and leapfrog development of our province.

IV. Teaching staff and some achievements

The Fine Arts Department has 1 professor, 4 associate professors, 10 professional teachers and 7 master's tutors.

Relying on all kinds of scientific research and teaching platforms, in recent years, the teachers of Fine Arts Department have published 9 monographs, obtained 2 professional qualification certificates of textile fabric division, undertaken more than 20 provincial and school-level scientific research projects, more than 10 horizontal scientific research projects, published more than 20 papers in national core journals, obtained more than 10 patents and won more than 60 awards in competitions. Students have won more than 10 awards in large-scale competitions. To undertake more than 50 production projects such as mural design and drawing, traditional Chinese painting, oil painting, lacquer painting, fiber art and sculpture.