“Highly Expressive Art——Guan Liang Painting Art Exhibition” which co-hosted by China Artists Association, Beijing Artists Association, China Art Museum Shanghai, Shanghai Chinese Painting Academy, Beijing Fine Art Academy will open in Art Museum of Beijing Fine Art Academy on April 10,2015. This exhibition is the second communication between capital audience and art master Guan Liang who created the drama theme painting after the personal exhibition in 1956. The exhibition gathers the drama figure paintings in the early exploration period of Guan Liang in 1930s and 1940s, and personalized style works in 1950s and 1960s, and the mature works in 1970s and 1980s. what’s more precious is that the landscape, still life paintings, painting from nature works, revolutionary model operas and other theme works which rarely been seemed in the art of Guan Liang, and provide a valuable opportunity for audiences to learn about the developing process of Guan Liang’s art.

       Guan Liang talks with audiences about art

       Guan Liang is the master of ink drama figure painting in 20th century. He created a lot of works during his life, including stage sketch, oil painting, ink painting and so on. His ink drama figure paintings combine the Chinese and western painting techniques, adopt drama figure as creating subject, and surprise people by their simple painting style. Therefore, Guan Liang must be the first people who painted drama subject with traditional ink painting. For the theme of Chinese painting, it is a great development. His ink drama figure paintings are similar with the performing arts. At the same time, his paintings do not pay too much attention to character modeling, and look like the graffiti of children, can not be understood by common people. So, how did Guan Liang think about the grasping of figure model? Why he choose drama figure as the main subject of painting? How did he combine the oil painting, Chinese painting and drama art? Many questions were put forward in this exhibition, and Guan Liang will answer these questions by himself.

       Guan Liang and his friends

       It is a turbulent society in 20th century China, and most Chinese lived a touch life at that time. What fortunate is that many masters come forth in that times. In the years which Guan Liang lived, Qi Baihi, Guo Moruo, Li Keran, Ni Yide, Gai Jiaotian and many other artists are all friends of Guan Liang. They learnt from each other in arts, communicated on drama and paintings, traveled and painted together, and talked about ideal with each other. Guo moruo inscribed poems on Guan Liang’s works; two drama figure ink painting which painting Guan Liang gave as a present to Ni Yide at 1939 were the first time for him to research this subject; another painting which was written “guided by Baishi” by Guan Liang himself in 1953 was collected by Baishi for many years; Guan Liang and Li Keran visited Berlin in 1957, painted from nature in Weimar, Dresden and other places, created many works. In order to display the art researches of Guan Liang and his friends, the exhibition shows these works based on Guan Liang Memoirs, many of these paintings are exhibited for the first time. What’s more, this exhibition shows the painting from nature works of Guan Liang and Li Keran in Germen by the form of contrast, in order to help audiences learn about the different art languages of the two artists. Exhibition combines the stories and works in the exhibition hall on first floor, let audiences back to the times of Guan Liang, and have a look at the artistic life of Guan Liang.

       The unique art style of Guan Liang

       As the representative figure who studied abroad in the early years, Guan Liang researched to add Chinese traditional culture factors to paintings in the beginning of last century, especially the combination of Chinese drama art and oil painting language. His open-minded art practices offered new model for the innovation of Chinese painting. In modern society, Chinese contemporary paintings are surrounded by a kind of “mass carnival age”. In such a open art environment, through the deep research of Guan Liang’s painting art, especially the analysis of his drama figure art, we can promote the transformation of contemporary artists’ concept and the diversification of the art express way, and provide the enlightenment to contemporary artists on the exploration of our own traditional culture.