Photo: Courtesy of organizers

A new exhibition at the China Art Museum in Shanghai is the first to systematically display the academic lineage of Chinese painting at the China Academy of Art, Jin Yibin, the Party chief of China's top fine art academy, said Monday.

The Ever Glow, Exhibition for Works from School of Chinese Paintings at the China Academy of Art, which runs until October 27, presents more than 200 works from masters like Huang Binhong, Lin Fengmian and Pan Tianshou to the latest students at the academy. 

According to the exhibition's curator, Sheng Tianye, the exhibition takes "the Academic Lineage" as its core, "Time" as the axis, and "Academic Tradition" as the background. It displays the academic lineage of Chinese paintings through four major sections: Approaching Cloud, Charming Wind, Searching for God and Asking. 

"It is the century-old shaping journey of Chinese paintings, from experience to academic theory, which gradually connects the spiritual and practical clues," said Sheng. 

Among all the paintings is the Endless Rivers and Mountains in Painting that Chinese painting master Li Keran created in 1982, which reminds visitors about Li's wish and ambitions to "create a biography of the mountains and rivers of the motherland." 

With his strong and advanced creativity, he transformed personal possessions into the possessions of the times as well as art. 

"Chinese painting has always been not only a type of painting, but also related to the inheritance and development of Chinese culture," Jin said. 

"We can discover the poetic roots of integration between China and Western cultures and the endless innovation of Chinese paintings in the past century," he noted.