“My works have strayed for years. Today, they are eventually home.” – Chen Tianlong Art Gallery is situated at WKU.
“My works have strayed for years. Today, they are eventually home,” said Mr. Chen Tianlong, a famous oil painter from Wenzhou, at the signing ceremony of Chen Tianlong Art Gallery yesterday.
The signing ceremony was held at the first floor of newly-built Business School Building of WKU. According to their agreement, Mr. Chen Tianlong will donate about 50 oil paintings and 50 traditional Chinese paintings to the art gallery. His drawings, sketch books and other paintings as well as publications like documents about his artistic career were also donated.
Mr. Chen Tianlong
Sean B. Stein ，Consul General of the US in Shanghai， and Wang Dan ，Deputy Director of the Publicity Department of Wenzhou Municipal Committee, attended the signing ceremony.
The Chen Tianlong Art Gallery is designed to be a standardized, professional, stable and well-equipped building where Mr. Chen Tianlong’s works of fine arts can be collected and displayed, systematic academic studies and activities can be conducted, and exhibitions of high-quality art works can be held.
Meanwhile, WKU will achieve education promotion, outside communication, relevant services, etc. via the art gallery by means of Mr. Chen Tianlong’s influence in the art world to actively boost social aesthetic education and the development of fine arts in Wenzhou.
The art gallery, located at the first floor of WKU’s School of Business and Public Management, covering a floorage of about 800 m2, will be open for exhibition in 2018.
Mr. Chen Tianlong is a representative figure of the first generation of oil painters of new China, and also one of the distinctive image oil painters of contemporary China.
Mr. Chen Tianlong said at the signing ceremony that he chose WKU as home to his works because the university conveys a spirit of daring to believe, and moreover, denying itself. This is the attitude one should adopt on the road of pursuing art.
On the signing ceremony, Mr. Chen Tianlong was awarded a letter of appointment as an honorary professor of WKU by Wang Beijiao, the Chairman of WKU Board of Directors.
WKU’s Executive Vice Chancellor Philip Connelly, on behalf of the university, expressed his appreciation to Mr. Chen Tianlong for his donation to WKU. Also, he voiced a hope that Chen Tianlong Art Gallery will be influential in China and even around the world in the future, as WKU will be increasingly recognized by society.
Sean B. Stein, Consul General of the US in Shanghai, said he had seen Mr. Chen Tianlong’s paintings years ago and was deeply impressed by those works of impressionism. Additionally, he said he was proud of the latest development of WKU. On behalf of the U.S. government, he also showed his gratitude for Mr. Chen Tianlong’s donation and offered congratulations on the cooperation between Tianlong and the University.
Chen Tianlong’s profile
Born in 1935 in Wenzhou, Chen Tianlong graduated from Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts (currently named China Academy of Art) and then attended an oil painting training course given by Eugen Popa, a Romanian oil painting master, for further education. Afterwards, he stayed at the university as a teacher.
In 1964, on the request of the Wenzhou Municipal Government, he returned to Wenzhou and devoted himself to the development of fine arts in his hometown. During this period, apart from cultivating lots of outstanding young artists, he created a large number of art works and developed his unique artistic style. His oil paintings are collected by dozens of domestic or foreign galleries/museums, International Olympic Committee and other art institutions.
