Former Site of Suzhou Art School

Former Site of Suzhou Art School

The former site of Suzhou Art School is a Jiangsu Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The former site of Suzhou Art School is located to the east of the Canglang Pavilion at Sanyuan on Renmin Road. It was designated as a Suzhou Municipal Cultural Relics Protection Unit in 1987 and as a Jiangsu Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Unit in 2002.

Suzhou Art School was founded in the summer of 1922 by painter Yan Wenliang. Initially set up at Haihongfang, it later rented the former site of Zhengyi opposite the Canglang Pavilion. Two years later, it leased the Three Sages Shrine at Zhongzhou on the west side of the Canglang Pavilion. In the autumn of 1927, the Public Welfare Bureau entrusted the management of the Canglang Pavilion to the art school. Several art exhibitions were jointly organized by artists from various regions at the Canglang Pavilion during that time.

In the winter of 1927, school board member and traditional Chinese painter Wu Zishen funded a comprehensive renovation of the Canglang Pavilion to serve as the school building. On October 11, 1928, the Suzhou Art Museum was officially established and also located within the Canglang Pavilion, with Yan Wenliang serving as its director. Two years later, Wu Zishen generously donated funds again, and under Yan Wenliang’s personal planning, an empty plot of over three acres was purchased to the east of the Canglang Pavilion, where a new-style school building was constructed. The foundation was laid in October 1931, and the building was completed on August 13, 1932. Both the art school and the museum moved into the new building. In 1952, following the national restructuring of university departments, the school merged with the Customs School and the Art Department of Shandong University to form the East China Art School, which was first relocated to Wuxi, then to Nanjing, and renamed Nanjing Art Institute. The former site of the art school was long used as offices by the General Labor Union. To rebuild the Suzhou Art Museum on this site, the municipal government allocated funds in 1995 for a comprehensive renovation of the former school building.

Commonly known as the "Roman Building," the former school building features exquisite architecture, scientific lighting, and a grand scale, making it one of the finest school buildings among domestic art institutions in the 1930s. The three-story structure has a semi-basement on the ground floor. It has a flat roof, gray-white exterior walls, and faces north-south. The layout is symmetrical, spanning 35 meters in width, with a central depth of 19 meters and side depths of 13 meters, forming a north-facing convex shape. The southern façade has clean, straight lines, while the northern façade features a 2-meter-deep colonnade with four evenly spaced imitation ancient Greek Ionic columns supporting the entablature. The building remains well-preserved and stands out uniquely among Suzhou’s modern architecture.

Further Reading:

· Fifth Batch of Jiangsu Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units