Helen Deng

TO celebrate the 15th anniversary of the foundation of He Xiangning Art Museum, an exhibition of selected works of artist and social activist He Xiangning (1878-1972) is being held.

Visitors will see He’s favorite paintings — plum blossoms, pine trees, lions, tigers and landscapes — at the exhibition. He, one of the earliest Chinese students to study in Japan, studied landscape and flower painting at the Hongo Women’s School of Fine Arts in Tokyo and then continued to study animal painting under the Japanese royal artist Raiaki Tanaka. Her style is also influenced by the Lingnan School of Painting, a modern school of Chinese brush painting, led by renowned artists Chen Shuren and Gao Jianfu.

He was the widow of Liao Zhongkai, the leader of the left wing of the Kuomintang (KMT) during the 1920s. Liao was expected to become the KMT leader after Sun Yat-sen’s death but he was assassinated by gangsters allegedly hired by Chiang Kai-shek.

He then became an important leader of the leftist wing of the KMT and after 1949 stayed in Beijing. Throughout her life, she enjoyed using her paintings to express her political views.

He Xiangning Art Museum is the first national museum named after an individual and the second national modern art museum after the National Art Gallery of China.

The museum is mainly engaged in collecting, displaying and studying He’s painting and calligraphy. It is also devoted to sorting, selecting and preserving historical materials and art works by other artists, organizing exhibitions, and collecting invaluable art works from home and abroad.

The exhibition will run till May 20.

Opening hours: 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m., closes on Monday

Add: He Xiangning Art Museum, Overseas Chinese Town, Shennan Boulevard, Nanshan District

Metro: OCT Station (华侨城站), Exit C