Born in Hong Kong in January 1955, Fan Yang is one of the top Chinese painters majoring in landscape painting.
In 1978, Fan was admitted into the Art Department of Nanjing Normal University. Upon his graduation from the university in 1982, Fan chose to stay at the school and became an instructor. Later in 1997, Fan was filling in the position of the dean of the Art School of the university, and he became a famous professor in a short time.
Fan now is director of the Landscape Studio under the China National Academy of Painting, as well as a member of the China Artists Association.
The China National Academy of Painting was established at the end of 2006, with the aim of becoming "the largest and most influential entity for the research and education on traditional arts" in the country.
Previously known as the Research Institute of Traditional Chinese Painting, the academy will be refurbished and expanded for ink painting, calligraphy and seals.
It has been, since its establishment, acting as a major center for traditional arts exhibitions and international cultural exchanges.
Established in 1981 with master Chinese ink painter Li Keran as the first president, the research institute brought together some of the best artists of traditional Chinese art, including Liu Haisu, Wu Zuoren, Ye Qianyu, Li Kuchan, Huang Zhou, Jiang Zhaohe and Guan Shanyue.
Fan's works of art has been long praised as precious possessions, thanks to the artist's outstanding skill of traditional Chinese painting and mighty innovative thoughts.
According to art critics, Fan has been striving to maintain a delicate, harmonious balance between tradition and innovation, in terms of his creation of art.
"Fan's works always stresses harmonious character, coordinated and balanced composition, and simple but elegant coloring," said art critics. "These are quite different from some Western styles of art, which pursue rich colors so as to create a powerful vision."
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Viewing From Atop the Tianmen Mountain Paintings by Fan Yang
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"Harmony is China's philosophy of life, and art is integrated with life of the Chinese people," said Fan.
Next to the supremely difficult art of calligraphy, the Chinese have for centuries seen painting as the highest form of art. Chinese paintings have an air of living nature, harmony, and peace that is not always found in the art of other civilizations.
Fan also said he believes that patience combined with diligence is necessary to success.
To practice this philosophy, Fan always led his students out of metropolitan life, heading to the countryside and village and painting the picture from nature.
Fan has been participating in a series of renowned exhibitions and forums, and also published a number of books regarding its works and art idea.
As a veteran professor, Fan owns a deep understanding of and insight into the art education in China and the development of traditional Chinese paintings.
Fan said, the art education had been paid high attention in China for a long time. At that time, institutes had provided training programs on arts and crafts, and traditional Chinese painting had particularly become a major subject.
Because of the influences of artists who had come back from studying in Japan and France, together with the introduction of Western style drawings, the art education in China had grown into two main streams, northern and southern, Fan said.
Schools, like the China Central Academy of Fine Arts from the North and the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts from the South, had become popular for cultivating artists. They possessed different values towards traditional Chinese paintings in their objectives, according to Fan.
Simultaneously, the diffusion of the Western style drawings, in later period, had deeply affected the education system, which still could be found at the present time.
Nowadays, although the artists studying in the United States have not resulted in any specific impact, Fan expected that, sooner or later, under the spread of design and multimedia art, great changes would be brought about to art education in China.
