Guangdong artist Liu Youju has been elected an honorary member of the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno, or the "Academy of Drawing Arts", an academy of artists in Florence, Italy, according to an announcement from the Accademia in August this year.

Liu Youju (Photo: Nanfang Plus)

Anna Balzani, chairman of the Italian Association of Contemporary Artists and honorary member of the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence, is the referrer of Liu Youju. She pointed out that the being an honorary member of the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno is a top honor and title in Italy's art circles.

The Accademia delle Arti del Disegno was founded in 1563 by Cosimo I de' Medici along with Giorgio Vasari being one of their consultants. A national comprehensive institution for art research and creation, it is the first academy of the arts of drawing in the world with a history of 450 years. The Accademia is made up of five schools or classes: painting, sculpture, architecture, history of art and humanities and sciences. There are four classes of membership: emeritus, ordinary, correspondent and honorary. The Accademia awards the lifelong title of Accademico d'Onore, or honorary member, to those it considers notable in culture and arts. Now there are only two members of the Accademia in China, including honorary member Liu Youju and correspondent member Yang Feiyun, professor of the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA).

Liu Youju's work (Photo provided to Newsgd.com)

The appointment was announced in July last year, and the appointment ceremony was originally scheduled for this year in Florence but was postponed until next March due to the pandemic.

Liu said that he was glad to be granted the honorary title by a world's top art academy and hopes that he can contribute to the art exchange between China and western countries. At present Liu is planning an exhibition at the renowned Philadelphia Museum of Art in the US next year, to further showcase Chinese art to the world.

Liu Youju's work (Photo provided to Newsgd.com)

About Liu Youju

Liu Youju, China's famous calligrapher, avant-garde painter and founder of illusionist painting, was born in Jieyang, a city in eastern Guangdong in 1955. Liu has been engaged in illusionist painting for years, and is an expert at using colors and creating mysterious spaces, leaving a lot of room for the audience's imagination.

Liu has held solo exhibitions at many world-class art venues, including the Decorative Arts Gallery of the Louvre Museum, the British Museum, the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence, the Palazzo Medici Riccardi, and the Centre Georges-Pompidou. Both the masters club of the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence and the Centre Georges-Pompidou have held seminars on Liu's works. Three of his works have formed part of the permanent collection of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, the British Museum and the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence respectively.

Author | Monica

Editor | Jerry