Tribute to an artistic pioneer

Chinese ink-brush painting master Guan Shanyue. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The National Museum of China is holding an exhibition, Infinite Ranges of Mountains, which traces artist Guan Shanyue's evolution from a young talent in the 1930s to being a pathbreaker. Lin Qi reports.

The 9-meter-long inkbrush painting, Jiangshan Ruci Duojiao (How Beautiful the Motherland Looks) is undoubtedly the best known work of Guan Shanyue (1912-2000). The painter from Guangdong province co-produced the grand landscape with art master Fu Baoshi (1904-65) in 1959, after being inspired by one of Mao Zedong's poems. And it bears its title in calligraphic hand writing of the late chairman.

The painting was a State commission to decorate the newly built Great Hall of the People. And even today, it hangs in one of the meeting rooms of the grand building.

But one painting is not enough to get a comprehensive overview of Guan's accomplishments.

It needs an exhibition.

And the National Museum of China is holding one, Infinite Ranges of Mountains, which traces Guan's evolution from a young talent in the 1930s to a mature artist who still painted in his last days.

Three years before he died, Guan donated some 870 of his paintings and calligraphic works to the city of Shenzhen, in Guangdong province.

Then, based on the donation an art gallery named after him was built.

The bulk of the works at the Beijing event are from the gallery's collection.