The Study On Chen Zhifo’s Design Education Thoughts

Chen Zhifo (1896-1962), famous modern design theorist, art and crafts theorist,meticulous flower-and-bird painting master and art educator in China. Who has madetremendous achievements in the design theory research and teaching, was a pioneer andpromoter of Chinese design education. This paper takes Chen Zhifo as a case, focuseson the study of his design education thoughts.Design education, as the infancy stage of Chinese design and art education, ChenZhifo has made great achievement in this aspect. This paper researches on the status ofdesign education in the age that Chen Zhifo lived, analyzes the development of designeducation from the late Qing dynasty to the republic of China, provides backgroundsupports for his thoughts of study. At the same time, summaries the factors which affectthe formation of Chen Zhifo’s design education thoughts. His thoughts were influencedby the ideas of "Western Learning", with the desire of the "industrial salvation",choosing Japan to learn process design, and accepted the design education concepts, anda comprehensive study of western art theories, injected fresh blood to the domesticdesign education at that time. Chen Zhifo’s design education achievement werereflected in the exploration of design theories, in the forty years of his teaching career,his research on the meaning and nature of design, his research methods of design andresearch on design form principles has played an enlightening role for the developmentof theories of arts and crafts. Shang Mei design pavilion, he established, can bedescribed as the first firm which specialized in the design and trained the first graphicdesigner in China, which completely changed the way that thousands of years oftraditional handicraft production, truly realized the combination of theory and practice,it was an actively exploration for new situation of the design and art education. Inaddition, he applied the aesthetic principles of design to the creation of meticulousflower-and-bird paintings, with design programs to deal with the objective realism,strengthened the decorative of meticulous flower-and-bird paintings, and created a new field of flower-and-bird paintings. Chen Zhifo paid attention to the learning of thebasics knowledge in design education, absorbed the design theories of other countriesand critically inherited the heritage of national excellent design, summed up‘Sixteen-character knack’ for design creation. He used the advanced education thoughtsto teach students, trained a batch of design theory experts, such as Zhang Daoyi, whohas made outstanding contributions to the design education in China. Theoretical systemof design set up by the older generation of design expert, such as Chen Zhifo has playeda guiding role in the development of design art education today, especially in days theconcept of design constantly changing and being challenging. And makes us not only beaware of the design as a foundation status of the art and crafts and design and art, butalso make us recognize the importance and urgency of rebuilding the Chinese moderndesign system.