October 18, 2025

The 24th Shanghai International Art Festival in China

Opening Ceremony of the "New Life - Guangdong Art Centennial Exhibition"

Shanghai Art Museum (Chinese Art Palace) held a grand event

The exhibition gathers over 800 pieces/sets of Guangdong art masterpieces, covering an exhibition area of nearly 20000 square meters. It features interwoven narratives of "seven major theme sections" and "three special projects", supplemented by rich and detailed historical documents and visual materials. With a broad academic perspective and systematic curatorial framework, it comprehensively presents the innovative process and brilliant achievements of Guangdong art over the past century.

Among the three special projects

Case Study of Lingnan Artists "by

The Mountain Moon Always Shines - A Case Study of Guan Shanyue

The Three Borders of Pine Wind - A Case Study of Li Xiongcai

Combining the charm and expression of the works of two famous Lingnan artists, Guan Shanyue and Li Xiongcai

Among them, "The Mountain and Moon Always Shine - A Case Study of Guan Shanyue", 28 important collections including Guan Shanyue's "A Hundred Miles of Li River", "Rafting in Autumn Creek", and "Light Boat Over Ten Thousand Mountains" from the collection of Guan Shanyue Art Museum in Shenzhen were sent to Shanghai to contribute to the successful presentation of the special exhibition.

This is also another deep and exciting interactive cooperation between two important art institutions in Guangdong Province - Shenzhen Guanshanyue Art Museum and Guangdong Art Museum.

The collection of the Guanshan Yue Art Museum in Shenzhen is not only a highlight of the exhibition, but also an important carrier connecting the academic context of the two museums and jointly interpreting the exhibition theme of "its life is new". It not only showcases the outstanding achievements of the Lingnan School of Painting, but also highlights the cultural accumulation and contribution of Shenzhen as a modern city, becoming an important link connecting the two regional cultural circles.

In the "Eternal Brightness of Mountains and Moons - A Case Study of Guan Shanyue" project, the project is divided into three parts: "Sketching · Battlefield Chronicles", "Hongtu · Homeland Mountains and Rivers", and "Heart Images · Poetic Flowers and Trees". The aim is to highlight the artist's romantic feelings of using mountains and rivers as bones and the bright moon as soul, present his broad atmosphere of reshaping traditional mountains and rivers in the era of war and construction, and explore the deepening of the Lingnan School of Painting's "Sketching Innovation" concept in Guan Shanyue's works. At the same time, it connects Guan Shanyue's humanistic spirit with the current ecological, national, and global context, and inspires the audience's resonance with the times and cultural confidence.

Krakow Nova Lake Tower Steel Plant

Guanshan Yue 32.5 × 43.3 Cm 1956

The seven main theme sections of the "Life is New - Guangdong Art Centennial Exhibition" are as follows:

Brave Leading the Tide - The Western Painting Movement in Guangdong

Art Revolution - Lingnan Painting School and Chinese Painting Research Association

Dagger Throwing Gun - Emerging Woodcut Movement and Comics

Passionate Years - Serving the People and Eulogizing the Times

Opening up and Reform - Guangdong Art in the Reform and Opening Up Era

Hundred Flowers Compete for Beauty - Innovation and Creation Build New Peaks "and

The Wind Rises in the South - Contemporary Art Practice

And the special project "Starting from Guangzhou: Guangzhou Triennial Literature Exhibition"

The grand exhibition landing in Shanghai is a reunion of a century old cultural heritage. The Lingnan School of Painting, hailed as a cultural treasure of Lingnan, was the pioneer of its innovation in the open and fertile land of Shanghai.

The hosting of this exhibition is a tribute to this period of history and a contemporary continuation of cultural cooperation between the two regions. Shanghai and Guangdong work together, using exhibitions as a link to build an art dialogue platform, promoting cultural exchange and collaborative development between the Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area and the Yangtze River Delta, vividly showcasing the fruitful achievements of the two places in promoting the creative transformation and innovative development of excellent traditional Chinese culture.