Exhibition Schedule: June 27th - July 21st

Venue: Halls A & B, 1st Floor, Guan Shanyue Art Museum

Organizers: Shenzhen Guan Shanyue Art Museum, Lingnan School of Painting Memorial Hall

Gao Jianfu, Gao Qifeng, and Chen Shuren are historically known as the "Three Masters of Lingnan". Their disciples, Zhao Shao'ang, Li Xiongcai, Guan Shanyue, and Yang Shanshen, are also hailed as "Art Masters of the Lingnan School of Painting". Among them, Zhao Shao'ang and Yang Shanshen settled in Hong Kong, while Li Xiongcai and Guan Shanyue resided in Guangzhou. They have all made outstanding contributions to the contemporary development of the Lingnan School of Painting in both Guangdong and Hong Kong.

In the early 1980s, the reform and opening-up policy brought about opportunities for artistic exchanges and collaborations among the descendants of the Lingnan School of Painting, who were then in their late seventies and living apart in Guangdong and Hong Kong. During their first reunion at Qingxiangfeng Restaurant near Prince Edward Road in Kowloon, Hong Kong, the four masters of the Lingnan School, who had not seen each other for three decades, immediately proposed to create a series of collaborative paintings to commemorate this reunion. Given their advanced ages and the inconvenience of traveling between Guangdong and Hong Kong, Mr. Yang Qi, then the Secretary-General of the Hong Kong Branch of the Xinhua News Agency, traveled back and forth, exchanging their unfinished works among the four. With profound artistic accomplishments and superb brushwork skills, they collaborated seamlessly, both boldly assuming lead roles and willingly playing supporting parts, diligently crafting and ingeniously conceiving, ultimately completing over a hundred masterpieces that complemented each other perfectly. These works embody not only the collective wisdom of the four masters but also their profound friendship, marked by harmony, tacit understanding, and deep empathy. While artistic collaborations among painters have existed since ancient times, such a large-scale and planned collaboration is rare in the history of painting. This collaboration can be considered an unprecedented feat in the artistic exchanges between Guangdong and Hong Kong. The works have been exhibited in Hong Kong, Beijing, Guangzhou, and other places, causing a great sensation. Mr. Wu Zuoren, then the Chairman of the China Artists Association, praised, "The four masters of Lingnan gathered together, it's truly amazing!"

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to China and the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Guan Shanyue Art Museum, with the support of Li Jinkun, the Director of the Lingnan School of Painting Memorial Hall, we have selected 60 works from the collection of collaborative paintings by the four masters of the Lingnan School and exhibited them in our museum. This exhibition is not only a way for us to remember the sages of the Lingnan School of Painting on such a special occasion but also a significant artistic feast for the general public.