Shi Lu's family donates artist's work to keep his legacy alive

Breeder Wang Chuanhe (above), Lotus and Red Deer are among the works by artist Shi Lu donated by his family to the National Museum of China. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Thanks to his "Red Classic" paintings, which mark the course of the Chinese revolution, Shi Lu (1919-82) is recognized as one of the great Chinese painters of the 20th century.

In a move which will let his artworks be better cataloged and researched, his family recently donated 412 of his paintings, drawings and sketches to the National Museum of China.

It had previously donated nearly 300 of his pieces to the museum in 2012 and 2014.

The three donations mean that the Beijing museum now has a comprehensive collection of Shi Lu's art.

It established a research center of the art of Shi Lu in 2014.

Lyu Zhangshen, the museum's director, says that thanks to this generosity, the museum is planning a grand retrospective exhibition of Shi Lu's works and a publication featuring his art in 2019, to mark the 100th anniversary of his birth.

Born Feng Yaheng in Sichuan province, the artist adopted the pseudonym Shi Lu as a tribute to two historical figures he admired: Shitao was the name used by a prominent Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) painter Zhu Ruoji, and Lu Xun (1881-1936) was an author and scholar.

Shi Lu, who spent a lot of time from the early 1930s in Shaanxi province, was one of the three founders of the Chang'an Painting School, a group of Xi'an-based artists that caused a sensation in the 1960s with their ink-brush works.