Starting from September 19, a rare large-scale oil painting exhibition - "The Towering Glory - Thirty Years of Art Exhibition of the Chinese Oil Painting Society" was on display at the Shanghai Art Museum, bringing together more than 800 works by 370 Chinese oil painters, including older generation artists such as Zhan Jianjun, Jin Shangyi, Quan Shanshi, as well as the most representative artists and outstanding young oil painters of contemporary Chinese oil painting, allowing the audience to relive the thirty-year development of Chinese oil painting.
Revisiting the Growth of Chinese Oil Painting
The exhibition is divided into four major sections: "Epic Splendor", "People's Commemoration of Gods", "Mountain and River Scenic Spots", and "Plants and Trees Expressing the Heart". It displays more than 800 works by 370 Chinese oil painters, focusing on presenting classic works of oil painters from different periods in the past 30 years since the establishment of the Chinese Oil Painting Society, and comprehensively demonstrating the overall creative strength of Chinese oil painting.
"This exhibition is arguably the largest oil painting exhibition in recent years. More importantly, it doesn't just display one painting per person, but one path of oil painting exploration for each person. Through several works by each artist, it expresses their artistic thinking and presents the relationship between the artist, the earth, and the people in their artistic creation." said Xu Jiang, President of the Chinese Oil Painting Society and chief planner of the exhibition.
Exhibition site
The late renowned artist Zhan Jianjun was the first president of the China Oil Painting Society. Thirty years ago, it was a group of Chinese oil painters, led by Zhan Jianjun, Jin Shangyi, Quan Shanshi, Wen Lipeng, Zhu Naizheng, and Zhang Zuying, who initiated the establishment of the China Oil Painting Society. The exhibition features several works by Zhan Jianjun, many of which represent his later figure paintings. These paintings, focusing on the human figures of the plateau, are richly colored and exude a distinctly Chinese flavor.
In his later years, he also painted many landscapes, depicting cedars on cliffs and pines on seashore rocks. A 1.8-meter-high and 3-meter-wide oil painting, "Listening to the Waves - Red Clouds," is located in the center of the exhibition hall. This nearly 2-meter-high masterpiece hangs in the high-ceilinged exhibition hall of the Shanghai Art Museum, creating a majestic atmosphere.
Zhan Jianjun, "Listening to the Waves - Red Clouds", 180x300cm, oil on canvas, 2013
The artist masterfully incorporates the freehand spirit of traditional landscape painting into the language of oil painting, using a scraper to build up a rich, rich texture. This approach preserves the texture of the oil painting medium while also alluding to the rhythmic "cun rubbing" technique of Chinese landscape painting. For example, in the painting "Listening to the Waves - Red Clouds," waves, swirling with white foam, resemble frozen sculptures, capturing the tension just before an explosion. This work, created in 2013, not only represents a new peak in the artist's creative output but also offers a crucial insight into the exploration of a nationalized approach to contemporary oil painting: true art is always a song of life, "viewing objects with the heart, conveying the truth through objects." He is embodying the principle of "exploring and creating a Chinese style in oil painting."
Jin Shangyi, Huang Binhong in His Later Years, 115×99cm, oil on canvas, 1996
91-year-old artist Jin Shangyi will also be present at the exhibition. Visitors can view many of his representative works in the exhibition hall. Among them, "Huang Binhong" captures the literati spirit of Huang Binhong, a master of traditional Chinese painting, through realistic techniques. The painting's calm tones and delicate gradations of light and shadow highlight the figure's profound expression and indifferent temperament. The subtle yet powerful brushstrokes blend the weight of Western classical oil painting with the artistic conception of traditional Chinese brush and ink, imbuing the portrait with a sense of substance while conveying the inherent rhythm of Eastern cultural spirit.
Zhong Han, "Still Remembering the Bright Evening Tide," 170cmx340cm, 2010-2020
The late painter Zhong Han had visited the Yellow River many times to sketch. The Yellow River was his artistic theme. His work "Still Remembering the Bright Evening Tide" depicts the figures of boatmen working in the slanting shadows of the setting sun at the evening tide of the Yellow River. The depth of field is used to highlight the tall and majestic figures of the boatmen, and the bright and strong orange-red color is used to set off the atmosphere of the setting sun, showing the boatmen's endless vitality.
Xu Jiang, known for his depiction of sunflower gardens, presents his latest works from this year—"Gorge," "Edge," "Cliff," and "Waterfall"—from his "Labyrinth of Distant Mountains" series, which are truly eye-catching. In recent years, Xu Jiang has dedicated his work to integrating Eastern philosophy with the language of contemporary art, centered around the "spirit of landscape." He frequently journeys to the mountains and rivers of eastern Zhejiang, such as Yandang Mountain and Tiantai Mountain, seeking the "beauty of imperfection"—the disorder and innate nature—in his natural sketches. This series of works, born from this experience of "being in the mountains and rivers," reconstructs the concept of "artistic conception" in Chinese landscape painting through the medium of oil painting, exploring humanity's loss and exploration within nature and history.
Xu Jiang, "About the Labyrinth of Distant Mountains: Gorge", 230cm×160cm, oil on canvas, 2025
Many art professionals expressed that this exhibition exhibited three notable characteristics. First, the works displayed a deep reverence for the people and life. Through their brushstrokes, we can see many vivid images of the people, such as Luo Zhongli's "Father," which exemplifies the image of the people of Daba Mountain. Second, the exhibition reveals that Chinese artists' oil paintings incorporate and understand the spirit of Chinese culture. Third, the works' themes and techniques are rich and diverse, ranging from realism to impressionism, reflecting diverse pursuits and poetic expressions.
Building a Chinese School of Oil Painting
Oil painting, a worldwide art form, has been developed in the West for over 400 years, but has only been introduced to China for over a century. The China Oil Painting Society emerged at a time when Chinese oil painting was undergoing a period of great transformation, facing controversy, confusion, and multiple cultural challenges.
Xu Jiang said, "This year marks the 30th anniversary of the founding of the China Oil Painting Society. As the most important academic organization for the development of Chinese oil painting since the reform and opening up, after 30 years of unremitting efforts, the society has effectively promoted the prosperity and development of Chinese oil painting creation and become a banner that unites the vast number of Chinese oil painters."
Xu Jiang's on-site tour
Over the past 30 years, the Chinese Oil Painting Society has clearly put forward the academic proposition of "consciously building a Chinese school of oil painting". Focusing on the three missions of "rebuilding the profound spirit of local art", "cultivating the research spirit of painting language" and "calling for the poetic spirit of art", it uses historical combing and young talents as two dimensions to ensure that Chinese oil painting in the grand pattern of mutual learning between China and the West always focuses on the Chinese spirit and eulogizes the image of the people, thereby establishing the lofty spirit and academic belief that oil painting art resonates with the times.
Exhibition site
Shanghai, the birthplace of Chinese oil painting and a century-old city, has been the cradle of modern Chinese oil painting and a fertile ground for its continued growth since the early 20th century, with its open-mindedness and pioneering spirit. Wang Yichuan, Secretary of the Party Committee and Executive Director of the Shanghai Art Museum, stated that the exhibition at the Shanghai Art Museum not only continues Shanghai's century-old oil painting heritage, but also represents the museum's in-depth implementation of its "second integration" cultural practice and lays the foundation for the future. It symbolizes the continuous growth and prosperity of oil painting across China, and particularly in Shanghai, a city that has always been at the forefront of openness.
The exhibition, co-organized by the China Oil Painting Society, the China Academy of Art, the Central Academy of Fine Arts, and the China Art Museum (Shanghai Art Museum), will run until January 4, 2026. The museum will carefully curate aesthetic education activities around the exhibition, offering a diverse and in-depth interpretation of the artistic heights and contemporary spirit of Chinese oil painting. Through a series of academic dialogues, renowned lectures, and immersive workshops, the exhibition aims to break down artistic barriers and promote the cross-disciplinary integration of oil painting with fields such as science and technology, literature, and music.
