Shortly after founding the Beijing Jin Shangyi Art Foundation, Jin Shangyi — a noted 92-year-old oil painter — launched the Young Teachers Support Program in 2017.
The program provides financial support for selected participants to travel to Europe, where they study classical works in museums. Upon returning home, they create new pieces for a group exhibition.
Asking Tao and Forging Realms, an exhibition running until Thursday at the Art Museum of the Chinese Academy of Oil Painting, brings together nine artists from the program's fourth edition. In addition to their time in Europe, the artists also undertook field trips to China's vast border regions.
The program is aimed at young teachers from art colleges and universities across the country, grounded in the belief that the future of Chinese oil painting lies in sustained, quiet dedication — an approach to be passed from one generation to the next.
