China Artists Association

The China Artists Association (Chinese: 中国美术家协会), originally the China National Art Workers' Association (Chinese: 中华全国美术工作者协会), is the official national association of Chinese artists, with its headquarters in Beijing. It was established in July 1949, with Xu Beihong as its first chairman. It has 6,000 members, and the current chairman is Liu Dawei.

The China Artists Association is under the leadership of the Secretariat of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, and managed by the Central Committee Publicity Department. It previously operated provincial-level branches in all of China's provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities, but in 1990 the provincial branches were reorganized into provincial artists associations and admitted into the national association as group members. The national association oversees many specialized subordinate committees, including those for Chinese painting, oil painting, sculpture, architecture, ceramics, print, fresco, animation, ethnic art, and children's art.

The association organizes the national art exhibition, China's largest art exhibition, every five years. Ten sessions have been held as of 2011. Regional artists associations would select works from artists in the local area and submit them to the higher level for consideration. For individual artists, having works selected for the national exhibition brings fame and improves prospects for promotion. Many of them become heads of lower-level artists associations.

The association's headquarters are located in the National Agricultural Exhibition Hall in Beijing. Its official publication is Fine Arts, a monthly magazine.

The China National Art Workers' Association was established on 21 July 1949 in Beijing's Zhongshan Park. The association's inaugural meeting elected Xu Beihong as its first chairman, with Jiang Feng and Ye Qianyu as vice chairmen. After Xu Beihong's death in 1953, a special meeting was held on 4 October, which elected Qi Baishi as the new chairman, and Wu Zuoren and Cai Ruohong 蔡若虹 as vice chairmen, in addition to Jiang and Ye. Hua Junwu 华君武 was elected general secretary. The representatives also passed resolution to change the organization's name to China Artists' Association.

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Wikipedia