Tribute to an artistic pioneer
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.
