Looking back with fondness at Pang Hiunkin's legacy

Twenty-five years after he died, Pang Hiunkin is still the most valued artist at Changshu Art Museum, in Jiangsu province.

Since the museum re-opened late last month after the completion of its second phase of construction, an exhibition of Pang's designs and a collection of traditional Chinese patterns has taken up two of the nine exhibition halls.

Pang's (1906-1985) greatest contribution to Chinese art is that he gave traditional decoration art a modern context, according to Beijing-based art critic Zhu Qi.

After studying fine art in Paris in the 1920s, Pang returned to traditional Chinese culture and used what he learned about Western aestheticism to develop Chinese art. He searched for decorative patterns and images in ancient documents and artifacts and made systematic studies of them.

In the exhibition halls, his rendering of fishes, horses, dragons and other legendary animals from more than 2,000 years ago still looks refreshing and vivid.

The French Art Nouveau movement, which emphasized sinuous natural curves, had a great impact on Pang.

"I realized for the first time in my life, that art was not just a few paintings, everywhere in life one needs beauty," Pang wrote.

In the 1940s he made use of ancient Chinese images and patterns in the industrial design of carpets, vases, textile fabrics and so on. The elegance and clarity of these designs are still striking today.

Zhu believes that Pang's paintings and his contributions to Chinese art and design are underestimated.

"Instead of copying designs from Western countries, Pang's designs absorbed lots of nourishment from traditional Chinese art, and managed to cultivate modernism," Zhu says. "Few contemporary artists have managed to achieve the same heights he did 70 years ago."

In another part of the museum collection are Pang's original paintings, some featuring portraits and country scenes of southwestern Chinese ethnic groups, others inspired by the Dunhuang fresco art style.

Changshu Art Museum is the only town-level player in the national art museum academic committee. Receiving a humble collecting budget of 100,000 yuan ($14,600) per year from the local authorities, it manages to have a strong role and has put on many outstanding exchange exhibitions from other museums, largely thanks to its collection of Pang's art.

Last year Pang's designs were exhibited in Belgium and his paintings were shown at the Beijing Fine Art Academy, winning high praise among artists and critics.

9 am- 5 pm, until July 28

8&9 Exhibition Hall, Changshu Art Museum, 117 Ximen Dajie, Changshu, Jiangsu province

0512-5222-3202