DRAWING ON A WIDER CANVAS
Three exhibitions at the National Art Museum show the evolution of the country and its artistic expression, Lin Qi reports.
In 1944, an overturned boat near Chongqing brought a premature end to the ambition of Tang Yihe, an artist and educator. He was on board, traveling to attend a conference of the China national fine arts council, before falling victim to the Yangtze River at the age of 39. He had directed the oil painting department of the Wuchang Fine Art School where he graduated, and he would have been elected a standing member of the council at the meeting.
Born in Wuchang, now a district of Wuhan, Hubei province, Tang took little interest in inheriting the family-operated traditional Chinese medicine practice. Rather, he engaged with the arts, and he saw art education an important means to empower his people and his country.
