Culture Beat: Ren Jianguo's Chinese paintings on display

Photo: Courtesy of National Art Museum of China

From meticulous traditional techniques to a new expressive style, artist Ren Jianguo's Chinese paint-ings are showcased at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing.

On Saturday, the Rediscovering Peach Blossom Spring: Ren Jianguo's Chinese Paintings Exhibition opened at the National Art Museum of China. The exhibition is divided into five sections: Restart-ing Memory, Journeying with Objects, Listening to the Wind in the Clouds, Peach Blossoms Still and I Exist on My Own. 

It features over 80 representative works created by the artist over the years, highlighting his artistic achievements from meticulous traditional techniques to a new expressive style since the 1980s.

Entering the exhibition hall, paintings from the 1980s exude a strong scent of fireworks and a hu-manistic spirit. For example, in the painting The Old Man Planting Millet, the artist used a narrative composition to depict an elderly man sitting and chatting with fellow villagers, working with a hoe and resting in the field, composing a beautiful freeze-frame of moments. 

In his early years, Ren created numerous Chinese paintings such as Men Can Cook, Full Moon, Four Scenes of Yanjing, A Journey to Bashu, and The Restaurant We Opened, capturing the emotions of people in urban and rural life, brimming with the vigor and aesthetic life of that era.

In the 21st century, Ren's creations shifted from the modern and vibrant meticulous style to a per-sonalized new expressive style. In the exhibited work Winter Gone, Spring Comes Again, bustling crowds at the fair are depicted, with characters exuding a carefree and dynamic energy. Ren has also visited Liangshan Mountains in Southwest China's Sichuan Province for multiple times, observ-ing the daily lives of the locals, and based on sketches of the areas, he created a series of expressive figures and genre paintings.

The exhibition is expected to last until December 19, 2023.