An art exhibition in Shanghai is showcasing more than 800 masterpieces from the famed Lingnan School of art, revealing a century-long fusion of Eastern and Western elements.

In 1932, Gao Jianfu, one of the founders of the Lingnan School of painting, created his landmark "New National Painting" masterpiece, "Flames of Eastern Battlefield", in Shanghai. With this work, he staged a revolution in Chinese painting, breaking the traditional boundaries of subject matter. Using a bold fusion of Chinese and Western techniques and a direct engagement with contemporary reality, Gao condensed his era's social and political reflections into a single canvas.

Today, this painting, along with more than 800 other masterpieces of Lingnan art, has returned to Shanghai, the very city where these ideas were first disseminated.

Founded in the early 20th century, the Lingnan School sought to reinvigorate traditional Chinese ink painting by incorporating western artistic techniques, rejecting the long tradition of austere black-and-white works. "Lingnan", which means "south of the mountains", in the present day is generally taken to mean the region covering Guangdong, Guangxi, Hong Kong and Macao. The Lingnan School was so named because its founders, artists Gao Jianfu, Gao Qifeng and Chen Shuren, all hailed from the province of Guangdong.

Wang Shaoqiang, chief curator of the exhibition and director of the Guangdong Museum of Art, said the exhibition is the largest of its kind, showing the historical evolution of the Lingnan painting.

"The total number of works in this exhibition is the largest in the history of our single-artist exhibitions, with over 800 pieces. From the early 20th century to the founding of the People's Republic of China (in 1949), from 1949 to the Reform and Opening-up (starting from 1978), and from the Reform and Opening-up to the New Era and the current younger generation, one can see artists depicting, through their brushwork, the changes of our times. When this exhibition was held elsewhere earlier, many visitors came multiple times, sometimes two or three times in a week," Wang said.

Wang also highlighted the use of high technologies in the art exhibition, saying it significantly enhanced the visitor experience.
"Through the empowerment of AI and technology, this exhibition is able to bring these static works to life, even recreating the historical scenes of the time, so you will see that this exhibition is filled with a strong sense of technology," he said.