By Ren Zhongxi

An exhibition featuring the late Chinese modern art master Liu Haisu opened at the Yanhuang Art Museum in Beijing on August 2. The exhibition will run until September 10 and be free of charge. About 100 paintings will be on display, with one third of them open to the public for the first time. The exhibition also includes a documentary of Liu's life and a book show of his works.

The entrance of the exhibition [China.org.cn]

There will be three lectures regarding Liu's relationship with Chinese fine art in the 20th century. The lectures are "A Different Master Liu Haisu," "Liu Haisu and Modern Times of Shanghai," and "Liu Haisu's Contribution to Chinese Modernism from an Eastern-Western Artistic Perspective."

Liu Haisu (1896-1994) was crowned with the title of "master of oil and Chinese paintings". Meanwhile, he was a renowned art educationist.

Liu's works adopted expressionism and abstract art from the West and he combined them with traditional Chinese art to form a unique style. His paintings were drawn from life experiences but were not precisely limited to concrete objects. Liu's works also include a series based on his two trips to Europe in 1920s and 10 trips to the Mount Huangshan in 1918-1988.

Liu put a lot of effort into running art schools in China. He was considered a pioneer in Chinese art history. In 1912 Liu founded Shanghai Art School and in 1920 he hired the first Chinese female nude model, Chen Xiaojun. He took his students to sketch outdoors, breaking the tradition of painting indoors.

Liu's exhibition is just one of a series of Chinese modern art masters featured at the Yanhuang Art Museum this year. Others include the works of Xu Beihong displayed in March and the works of Fengmian to be displayed later this year.