The First West Lake Expo: The Design Experiment of the "Oriental Pheidias"

When you hear the name Liu Jipiao, you may not be familiar with him. He and Lin Fengmian founded the National Hangzhou Art School (now the China Academy of Art), and he was also the chief designer of the first West Lake Expo! At the 1929 West Lake Expo, Liu Jipiao was the director of the art department of the preparatory committee. He led the teachers and students of the National Academy of Art's Department of Pattern (the predecessor of the design discipline) to create an important moment in the history of modern Chinese design. The West Lake Expo is Liu Jipiao's representative work of "art architecture", where painting, architecture, and decoration are organically integrated. The gate design at the intersection of the inner and outer lakes of West Lake shows Liu Jipiao's exploration of the integration of two-dimensional and three-dimensional spaces, representing the Expo's position of being based in Hangzhou and facing the world. The gate adopts the facade of a Chinese archway, and the elements of the Chinese archway are translated into patterns in geometric form. The inner facade for people to pass through is decorated with large modern murals, and the ceiling is inlaid with colored glass. The design of the entrances to the eight pavilions, two institutes, and three places shows his absorption of modern design materials and the creative integration with local elements. Liu Jipiao endowed local elements with a new artistic expression, deconstructed and reinterpreted traditional decorative elements with modern design language, and enhanced the tension of contemporary art. Liu Jipiao also cleverly integrated Western aesthetics, such as the beauty of human art, the simplicity of modern design, the rationality of structuralism, the stepped shape of the pyramid in the Aztec culture of Mexico, and the reverse arc commonly used in ancient Egyptian temples, into his design practice, making his works more culturally recognizable in the context of globalization.