| Exhibition Dates |
December 7, 2024 – January 1, 2025

| Exhibition Venue |
Guanshanyue Art Museum, Shenzhen
Central Hall, Halls A, B, and C on the First Floor

Culture serves as a pivotal fulcrum for promoting high-quality development. In the long course of history, the Chinese nation has created a time-honored and profound traditional culture, leaving behind countless invaluable historical and cultural heritage. Behind these cultural heritages lie the historical development of the Chinese nation, showcasing its spiritual demeanor and bearing its cultural confidence. Yangtze River culture is a representative symbol of the Chinese nation, a landmark of Chinese civilization, and an important source for nurturing socialist core values. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping has conducted numerous research inspections along the Yangtze River, gazing affectionately and offering earnest instructions. Standing at a historical and overall perspective, he made the major strategic decision to "promote the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt," guiding high-quality development and fostering the prosperity of Yangtze River culture.

As a national team for contemporary Chinese art creation and research, the China National Academy of Painting bears the mission of protecting, promoting, inheriting, and developing Chinese culture. It has the responsibility to forge fine literary and artistic works based on the great practice of socialism with Chinese characteristics. To this end, the China National Academy of Painting thoroughly implements a series of important speeches and instructions from General Secretary Xi Jinping regarding the protection, inheritance, and promotion of Yangtze River culture. It establishes creative orientations centered around the development goals of the Yangtze River Economic Belt in the new era, conducting research on the tracing of Yangtze River civilization, protection and inheritance, contemporary values, cultural connotations, and other aspects. With practical actions, it eulogizes the country's development achievements and the new look of the times under the leadership of the Party.

In 2023, the China National Academy of Painting actively prepared and planned the Yangtze River Theme Art Creation Project, inviting over 160 renowned experts from the academy and 11 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government along the Yangtze River to participate. It successively organized artists to inspect, gather inspiration, and sketch along the Yangtze River, striving to comprehensively and diversely tell the "story of the Yangtze River" with fine works and depict a new picture of harmony between mountains, waters, and cities with ink and brushwork. At the same time, it promoted Yangtze River culture and continued historical traditions through travel sketches, literary and artistic commentary, seminars, theoretical research topics, and other forms. "Protecting the Beautiful Yangtze River —— China National Academy of Painting's Yangtze River Theme Art Exhibition" is an important achievement of the Yangtze River Theme Art Creation Project. The exhibition is divided into five chapters: "A Natural Landscape of Ingenious Beauty," "A Cultural Destination Shining Like a Galaxy," "Developed and Prosperous Water Conservancy and Shipping," "Affluent and Prosperous River Basin Economy," and "The Path of Ecological Priority and Green Development." After strict scrutiny by the Art Committee of the China National Academy of Painting, a total of 139 thematic works were selected for the exhibition. These works are rich in themes, diverse in appearance and forms, deeply exploring and reflecting the natural scenery, historical culture, and humanistic sentiments of the Yangtze River. They fully demonstrate the colorful appearance and fighting spirit of the people along the Yangtze River in pursuing and creating a better life, with special emphasis on modernity, academia, and innovation. They embody the artists' passion in depicting the beautiful scenery of the Yangtze River, showcasing its charm in the new era, and writing a new chapter of Yangtze River culture!

To better leverage the positive role of excellent artworks in promoting Yangtze River culture, "Protecting the Beautiful Yangtze River —— China National Academy of Painting's Yangtze River Theme Art Exhibition" will be toured in multiple provinces and cities along the Yangtze River in 2024, which is also a concrete practice of protecting, inheriting, and developing Yangtze River culture. This Shenzhen Station touring exhibition is the eighth stop of the series of exhibitions this year, and it has received strong support from the Guanshanyue Art Museum, further promoting exchanges and interactions between the National Academy of Painting and the Shenzhen art circle and artists. Here, we also express our gratitude to the relevant leaders and exhibition team of the Guanshanyue Art Museum for their hard work.

2024 marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Under the guidance of Xi Jinping's thoughts on culture and the leadership of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the China National Academy of Painting will closely follow the pulse of the times, adhere to the people's stance, uphold the principles of upholding tradition while seeking innovation, tell the story of China with emotion and effort, stand firmly on the "plateau" of literature and art with a more high-spirited attitude, strive to reach the "peak" of literature and art, and endeavor to present more and better literary and artistic works to the people.