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

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.

Shi Lu believed that to reform classic Chinese painting, one should "stretch one hand to traditions and the other to real life".

His works hail both the magnificent plateau views of northwestern China and everyday life of the villagers inhabiting the plateau.

Shi Dan, the painter's daughter, says the latest donation includes ink paintings and pencil and pen drawings, which have already been categorized in chronological order.

She says that thanks to the sorting, researchers can get a quick and clear idea of how her father explored various subjects and styles, starting from the late 1930s.

Among the donated items are sketches and drafts of Shi Lu's most iconic work Fight in Northern Shaanxi. The ink painting depicts Mao Zedong standing on a cliff against a background of mountains. It shows the late Party leader's confidence while confronting the Kuomintang armies in the late 1940s.

Shi Lu produced the painting in 1959, and it is now on permanent display at the National Museum of China's central hall.

The donation also comprises eight of the "mystic" paintings Shi Lu did in the 1970s. He then had suffered a mental breakdown, and layered strong colors on some figure paintings he had produced in the 1950s.

Shi Dan says a public museum is the best place to keep her father's artistic legacy complete and alive.

Meanwhile, a booming art market has not only pushed up the prices of Shi Lu's works but also encouraged forgeries.

"We, the family is incapable of stopping all the faking. But what we can do is to have my father's art well studied, exhibited and cataloged with the assistance of museums and other public institutions," says Shi Dan.

"Only when more people see what his works look like will the copies disappear."