Vibrant view

Shen's links to nature through paints and colors are shown at an ongoing exhibition, named after him, at Tsinghua University Art Museum, through March 26. It shows 97 paintings from different periods of time in Shen's career spanning over six decades, including 10 recently donated pieces by the artist and his family.

Shen's earliest painting on show at the Beijing exhibition is from 1957, a graduation work for a special training program given by art teachers of the former Soviet Union, held at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, his alma mater. His most recent artwork at the exhibition is from 2017.

For decades, Shen taught at Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts in Shaanxi province's capital. His work as a painter and educator exemplifies how his generation of Chinese oil artists endeavored to introduce this style of Western painting to China by establishing their own art vocabulary.

Shui Tianzhong, a researcher with the Chinese National Academy of Arts, says these painters sourced nutrition from both traditional Chinese art and modern art movements in the West. They explored to build connections between natural landscapes and home cultures, and to relate subjects in nature with social development. He says the "compositions, forms and emotions of their paintings are essentially Chinese".