Exhibition period: June 22, 2011- July 3, 2011

Exhibition location: Central Hall, 1st Floor, Guanshan Yue Art Museum

Hosted by: Guan Shanyue Art Museum, Peking University Visual and Image Research Center, Wu Zuoren International Art Foundation

 Since the 20th century, in the context of social change in China, Chinese painting art, as a traditional cultural form, has also faced tremendous pressure of change. Social celebrities such as Kang Youwei, Lu Xun, Chen Duxiu, and Cai Yuanpei have successively advocated the introduction of the realistic spirit of Western painting to eliminate the traditional Chinese painting practices at that time. In the art world, Xu Beihong and others have influenced and promoted the transformation of Chinese art through their own artistic practices. As a student and close friend of Xu Beihong, Mr. Wu Zuoren followed and supported Xu's artistic proposition of transforming Chinese painting, and was committed to introducing Western classical realism methods as a "good remedy" for the transformation of Chinese painting. Therefore, sketch training, as the foundation of realistic painting, became the starting point for the transformation of New Chinese painting. As the president of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Mr. Wu Zuoren not only promoted basic sketching training in the teaching system of Chinese painting at the Academy of Fine Arts, but also combined traditional calligraphy and sketching foundations, and practiced Chinese painting by example, forming a different artistic landscape from Xu Beihong's Chinese painting practice.

When Xu Beihong published "On the Improvement of Chinese Painting" in Beijing, Gao Jianfu, Gao Qifeng, and Chen Shuren founded the "Lingnan Painting School" in Guangzhou, advocating for the collection of the strengths of Chinese and Western painting studies and the renovation of the old. The sages of the north and south jointly shoulder the banner of the transformation of Chinese painting. Their efforts have had a profound impact on the transformation and development of Chinese painting in the mid to late 20th century. In the 1940s, Guan Shanyue and Wu Zuoren met while sketching in the northwest. The two gentlemen exchanged sketches and portraits, showing mutual admiration. Over sixty years later, we held an academic exhibition of Mr. Wu Zuoren at the Guan Shanyue Art Museum. This was not only a historical coincidence, but the artistic realm they created for the reform of Chinese painting has been passed down through the fine arts academy.