• Visual Form and Composition

Visual Form and Composition examines how visual meaning is constructed across different artistic traditions and media. Drawing on significant works from art history, the course is organised around four areas of study: Digital Culture and Image, Material and Space, Pictorial Language, and Classical Visual Traditions, including both Western and Chinese perspectives.

Students investigate the relationships between form, material, medium, and technology while exploring the underlying structures and visual logic of artistic expression. Through studio projects and cross-media experimentation, they develop individual approaches to analysing, deconstructing, and reconstructing visual language.

The course encourages students to reinterpret historical visual traditions within contemporary creative practice, strengthening both conceptual thinking and technical confidence. By combining practical experimentation with critical reflection, students gradually establish their own distinctive approaches to artistic expression.

• Colour

The Colour course introduces the fundamental principles of colour through studio practice, colour theory, and the study of historical and contemporary artistic examples.

Students explore colour as a visual, spatial, and emotional language while developing an understanding of its diverse applications in artistic practice. Observation from life forms the core of the course, encouraging close engagement with natural light, materials, and the changing qualities of colour in the surrounding environment.

Through sustained studio exercises, students learn to observe, analyse, simplify, and interpret colour in ways that support personal artistic expression. The course develops technical proficiency alongside visual sensitivity, enabling students to use colour confidently as a primary means of representation, communication, and creative exploration.

• Fundamentals of Traditional Chinese Painting and Calligraphy

Provincial First-Class Course

This foundational course is designed for over a thousand first-year students across the Fine Arts, Image and Media, and Design, serving as a core disciplinary foundation course for multiple programs in the context of the new liberal arts and new arts. Guided by the educational philosophy of "drinking from the source and walking with the greats," the course engages students in the study of traditional Chinese calligraphy and painting, fostering a deep appreciation for China's artistic heritage while encouraging students to connect their professional practice with contemporary social realities and cultural developments. The course promotes the transmission of traditional culture and aesthetic sensibility within the context of modern artistic education.

Course Link：https://gmjk.caa.edu.cn/detail/JK71

• Workshop Courses

The Department of Foundation Studies offers a diverse programme of workshops, ranging from year-round research-led studios to intensive Short-term Workshops and International Workshops. Together, these initiatives provide students with open and collaborative environments for experimentation, interdisciplinary exchange, and creative practice beyond the core curriculum.

1. Long-term Workshops

The studio encourages curiosity, sustained engagement, and personal exploration in a supportive learning environment beyond the formal curriculum.

Drawing Studio

The Drawing Studio expands students' understanding of drawing beyond technical training, exploring it as a way of thinking, observing, researching, and engaging with the world.

Through sustained studio practice and experimental projects, students investigate drawing as both a fundamental artistic discipline and a flexible creative methodology. The studio balances close engagement with drawing traditions and contemporary approaches, encouraging students to develop individual working methods while discovering new possibilities for artistic practice.

Traditional Chinese Painting and Calligraphy Studio

The Traditional Chinese Painting and Calligraphy Studio offers students the opportunity to engage with the techniques, aesthetics, and cultural traditions of Chinese painting and calligraphy through sustained studio practice. Offered alongside the regular curriculum, the workshop is guided by the principles of fostering interest and experience through immersive, organic engagement—creating a relaxed, diverse, and sustained learning environment.

Open to students across the China Academy of Art, the studio provides specialist instruction in bird-and-flower painting, landscape painting, figure painting, and calligraphy. Alongside regular studio sessions, students participate in lectures, field projects, community engagement activities, and educational outreach, fostering a deeper understanding of Chinese artistic traditions within contemporary practice.

2. International Workshops (Short-Term Workshops)

The International Workshops bring together internationally recognised artists, designers, curators, and educators to explore global issues through collaborative studio practice.

Working across different cultural contexts and disciplinary perspectives, students engage in project-based learning, international collaboration, exhibitions, workshops, and academic exchange, developing cross-cultural awareness and an expanded understanding of contemporary creative practice.

Mutual Perspectives International Workshop

The Mutual Perspectives International Workshop promotes dialogue between foundation programmes at leading art schools worldwide through collaborative teaching, studio practice, and cultural exchange.

The programme encourages students to engage with different educational traditions and artistic methodologies while developing international perspectives and cross-cultural communication skills.

New Dimensions of Artistic Language: Media Language

Led by Professor Andrea B. Del Guercio, Brera Academy of Fine Arts.

Using self-portraiture as a point of departure, the workshop combines art historical research, studio practice, and exhibition-making to explore the evolution of visual language and contemporary artistic expression. Students deepen both self-reflection and creative practice through critical and experimental inquiry.