The promotion of traditional Chinese art has been stepped up this month with a symposium discussing Chinese painting and calligraphy in a modern context held yesterday and new magazine Chinese Master of Calligraphy and Painting launched July 29.

Held at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, the symposium was attended by art masters Jin Shangyi, Han Meiling and Liu Dali as well as other big names in the Chinese calligraphy and painting circles. The meeting focused on today's art creation in China, as well as the innovation of traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy.

Speaking at the symposium, director of the Central Research Institute of Culture and History, Yuan Xingpei, said that painters and calligraphers should maintain the spirit of traditional art while continuing to be innovative.

"Traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy can only be developed by innovation, but we should never go to an extremity," Yuan said, noting that the most important thing was to learn from Western art but not to imitate it.

The symposium saw most attendees agree that China's contemporary art market was disorganized and that a mature system should be gradually be established.

(Global Times August 20, 2009)