What's on

Teacher and students

Qi Baishi, a prominent Chinese artist of the 20th century, once said,"Painting is a course of loneliness."He valued people with whom he could enjoy exchanges on art and life, and made some his lifelong friends. He taught his students art techniques and cultivated them in terms of cultural accumulation and morality, and advised on their career paths. Qi set a good example of maintaining such relations with Wang Xuetao and Yu Fei'an, two of his most accomplished disciples. Dozens of ink-color paintings by the trio are now on show at the Beijing Fine Art Academy, where they all once worked as resident painters. It is a celebration of their closeness and mutual understanding, as well as their contribution to the flower-and-bird genre of classic Chinese painting. Of all his works, Qi is most popular for his depictions of plants, flowers and small animals, which reflect his open outlook on the world. Qi emphasized studies of ancient artists and learning from different living things that was inherited by his two students but with different approaches. Wang is known as a master of the gongbi technique characterized by precise delimitation and vibrant colors. Yu was dedicated to reviving the temperament of grace and serenity of Song Dynasty (960-1279) paintings. The exhibition runs through to Sept 18.

9 am-5 pm, closed on Mondays. 12 Chaoyang Gongyuan Nan Road.010-6502-5171.

Video art

Some viewers have said it is boring, however, Zidane, a 21st Century Portrait is among the most acclaimed films at the Cannes Film Festival. This unique collaboration between two artists, Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno, captures soccer star Zinedine Zidane from multiple angles provided by 17 cameras, over the course of a match that took place in 2005. The production doesn't hail him as a legend on the field but rather tries to reveal his faces as a real, ordinary man, reminding people of the portraits made by Francisco Goya, Diego Velazquez and Andy Warhol. It is to discuss intimate moments of people, whether famous or not, and how they deal with privacy and exposure in a time of social media. Zidane, a 21st Century Portrait is on show at Video at Large-Intimacy, an exhibition jointly presented by the Red Brick Art Museum in Beijing and the City of Paris Museum of Modern Art. A total of 16 videos works from the Paris museum's collection are on display to address changes in people's private lives and interpersonal relationships, brought by the popularity of social media, reality shows and taking selfies. Featured artists explore people's renewed ideas of self-identity and the boundaries of privacy by presenting in their works daily objects, collective memories of ethnic communities and urbanities and a digitalized world. An event of this year's Festival Croisements, the exhibition runs through to Aug 21.

10 am-6 pm, before Oct 1; 10 am-5:30 pm, Oct 1-April 30, closed on Mondays. Hegezhuang village, Cuigezhuang, Chaoyang district, Beijing.010-8457-6669.

Cutting craft

The style and motifs of Chinese paper-cuts vary from region to region to reflect distinctive local history and folk cultures. Shanxi province is such a place that has cultivated rich paper-cutting traditions and generations of folk artists. Soul of Taihang, an exhibition now on at the China National Arts and Crafts Museum and China Intangible Cultural Heritage Museum, celebrates this legacy of scissors by showing works by Zhang Yongzhong, a seasoned artist who is committed to the inheritance of the paper-cutting craft. The title is named after the Taihang Mountains which are partly seated in Shanxi. Zhang's output is imbued with his deep love of his hometown's scenery and folklore, featuring mountains and plants and mythological and celestial characters. And he re-creates the scenes of celebrations, ceremonies and customs of daily life to hail his people's peaceful attitude toward life. The exhibition runs through to Sept 2.

9 am-5 pm, closed on Mondays. 16 Hujing Dong Road, Chaoyang district, Beijing. 010-8799-1800.