Huo Chengju

LEADING artist of Sichuan Block Print School Li Huanmin is showing 30 prints and original sketches at a one-man exhibition in Guan Shanyue Art Museum.

Li donated the 30 works to Guan Shanyue Art Museum’s permanent collection at an opening ceremony Tuesday.

The works on display include the “Tibetan Girl,” “Stepping onto the Golden Road,” “Mother of Plateau,” and “Study,” which are regarded as Li’s representative works in his career spanning five decades.

Since the early 1950s, Li has concentrated on depicting the daily life of Tibetans as well as the landscape of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

Born in Beijing in 1930, Li studied at the Beiping National Fine Arts School in 1947. Driven out of the school after he joined the students’ movement in 1948, he fled to the liberated areas in Hebei Province.

In October 1949, he was sent to the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing for six months’ training. In 1951, he was sent to Sichuan Province to work for the provincial artists’ association.

“After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, there emerged three block print groups including the Sichuan, Jiangsu and Beidahuang schools,” said Qi Fengge, professor of block prints at the College of Art and Design at Shenzhen University.

“Adopting the techniques and style of socialist realism, Li has vividly recorded the living conditions and mental outlook of the Tibetan people with a large number of his works in New China over the past half century,” Qi said.

“Li is no doubt one of the leading artists of Sichuan Block Print School, occupying an important place in the history of modern Chinese block prints,” Qi added.

Li has been to the Tibet Autonomous Region more than 30 times since his first trip to the region in 1953.

“Over the past 50 years, I have made numerous prints, which were given to me as special assignments,” Li said.

“Today, when some of my best works are put together in such an exhibition, audiences will be able to see my works have not only illustrated a historic event at a specific time, but also revealed the beauty of the times,” he said.

Dates: Through March 30

Hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Closed Monday

Venue: Guan Shanyue Art Museum (关山月美术馆)

Add: 6026 Hongli Road, Futian District (福田区红荔路6026号)

Buses: 10, 14, 25, 34, 105, 111, 215, 228, 238, 322, 350, 371

Metro: Shao Nian Gong Station (Children抯 Palace Station,

少年宫站), Exit B

"The World Has Changed"by Li Huanmin.

Huo Chengju