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Artist Introduction

Sangpeng Ran (Chinese: 冉桑蓬) is a Chinese researcher specialising in the history of Russian art, with a particular focus on the Peredvizhniki (the Partnership for Travelling Art Exhibitions). His research draws on the sociology and psychology of art, focusing on the choices and works of artists and artistic communities at pivotal moments in history, as well as on contemporary commentary surrounding those choices.

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His academic training began in 2016, when he enrolled in the School of Humanities at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), Beijing. During his undergraduate studies, Ran completed coursework in the history of Chinese art, the history of Western art, aesthetics, art historiography, museology, and cultural heritage studies. Through this broad training, he gradually identified the history of Russian art as his principal research interest. In 2020, he was awarded a Bachelor’s degree in Art Studies.

In the same year, Sangpeng Ran received the Outstanding Undergraduate Graduation Project (Thesis) Award of Higher Education Institutions in Beijing and the First Prize for Outstanding Graduation Thesis of the Central Academy of Fine Arts for his thesis on Ilya Repin’s Sadko and its historical controversies. This thesis was permanently acquired by the CAFA Art Museum. Under the supervision of Professor Runsheng Yu, the research was subsequently revised and published in a Chinese academic journal, marking Ran’s first peer-reviewed publication.

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Also in 2020, Sangpeng Ran was admitted with full funding to the Master’s programme in the History of Arts at the Institute of History, Saint Petersburg State University. Between 2020 and 2022, he completed nearly forty examinations in subjects including artistic interactions between Ancient Rus’ and medieval Europe, the history of Russian architecture, Russian landscape painting, the history of art education in Russia and Europe, theatre in Russian art from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century, philosophy of art, art historiography, source studies, and cultural heritage preservation. The intensity and breadth of this training provided him with a rigorous methodological foundation in art history. In 2022, Ran was awarded a Master’s degree in Art Studies with a thesis on the late works of Vasily Surikov, under the supervision of Dr Mikhail Evsevyev.

Sadko

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During the same period, Sangpeng Ran won first prize in the Open International Olympiad for Students and Young Professionals, “Petropolitan Science (Re)Search”, in the field of art history, organised by Saint Petersburg State University, becoming the first Chinese student to achieve this distinction. He was subsequently granted the opportunity to continue his studies as a doctoral candidate in the Department of the History of Russian Art at the Institute of History, Saint Petersburg State University.


From 2022 to 2025, Sangpeng Ran conducted doctoral research on the artistic and organisational crises of the Partnership for Travelling Art Exhibitions in the context of Russian art from the late 1880s to the early 1920s. During this period, he has authored seven academic publications. He has also delivered three international conference presentations at events organised by Saint Petersburg State University, Lomonosov Moscow State University, the State Hermitage Museum, and the National Museum of China. His most significant works have been published in English, Russian, and Chinese, and are indexed in Web of Science, Scopus, VAK, and CSSCI. Having passed all three doctoral qualifying examinations (Russian Language, History and Philosophy of Science, and History of Art) with excellent results, Sangpeng Ran is currently preparing for the defence of his PhD degree.

Selected Publications:

  • Ran, Sangpeng. (2025). Battle of Reconciliation? The Historical Context of the Incorporation of the Peredvizhniki into the Imperial Academy of Arts in the 1890s. Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Arts, 15 (4): 537–547.

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  • Ran, Sangpeng. (2025). Valentin Serov at the Crossroads of Russian Art: Between the Peredvizhniki and the Union of Russian Artists, 1894–1910. The Urgency of Art, 2 (10): 56–63.

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  • Ran, Sangpeng. (2025). Little-known Aspects of the Artistic Biography of Vasily Surikov: From the Partnership for Travelling Art Exhibitions to the Union of Russian Artists (1908–1915). Iskusstvoznanie (Art Studies Magazine), (2): 288– 305. (In Russian)

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  • Ran, Sangpeng. (2025). The Split of the Partnership for Travelling Art Exhibitions and the Formation of the Union of Russian Artists in the Early 1900s: A Historical Reconstruction. Dekorativnoe iskusstvo I predmetno-prostranstvennaja sreda. Vestnik RGHPU im. S. G. Stroganova (Decorative Art and Environment. Gerald of the RGHPU), (2, pt. 1): 202–215. (In Russian)

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  • Ran, Sangpeng. (2025). Little-known Aspects of the Artistic Biography of Valentin Serov: From the Partnership for Travelling Art Exhibitions to the Union of Russian Artists [abstract]. In I. A. Aleshkovsky, A. V. Andriyanov, E. A. Antipov, & E. I. Zimakova (Eds.), Proceedings of the International Youth Academic Forum “Lomonosov–2025” [Electronic resource]. Moscow: MAX Press. (In Russian)

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  • Ran, Sangpeng. (2024). The New Academicism: Reflections on the Educational Activities of the Peredvizhiniki at the Imperial Academy of Arts at the Turn of the 19th and 20th Centuries. Dekorativnoe iskusstvo I predmetno-prostranstvennaja sreda. Vestnik RGHPU im. S. G. Stroganova (Decorative Art and Environment. Gerald of the RGHPU), (3, pt. 1): 197–208. (In Russian)

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  • Ran, Sangpeng. (2022). Study on Surikov’s Identity Choice in His Later Years and the Split of the Peredvizhniki. Art Magazine, (7): 130–135. (In Chinese)

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  • Yu, Runsheng & Ran, Sangpeng. (2020). A Study on the “Failure” of Ilya Repin’s Sadko. Arts Exploration, 34 (5): 6–19. (In Chinese)

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