Shenzhen museum spotlights xieyi-style oil paintings

The Guan Shanyue Art Museum in Shenzhen of Guangdong province has held an exhibition of oil paintings done in the xieyi style every year since 2015, and taken it across the country.

The effort has inspired oil artists to integrate the semi-abstract technique of xieyi ("expressing the meaning"), of classic Chinese painting, into the creation of oil paintings, seeking to present a beauty of extensiveness and serenity.

Fan Di'an, president of China Artists Association and chief curator of the exhibition, says the endeavor of introducing the xieyi style in oil painting has encouraged more painters to explore the forms and the soul of Chinese art traditions, and it has pushed them further into the brace of great nature and the realities of life to express in their work the majesty of the country.

The exhibition is part of a diverse program to mark Guan Shanyue Art Museum's 25th anniversary and the 110th anniversary of the birth of Guan Shanyue, a master painter of modern Chinese art.