Guo Xiyuan has lived in Nanjing for 18 years. After the Reform and Opening up, he went to Shenzhen and spent many years traveling and lecturing in Hong Kong and South-east Asia. He has apprenticed to Liu Haisu and Chen Dayu. Walking along the road of literati painting, he devotes himself to reading, writing, painting and seal cutting for decades on end. His literati paintings enjoy solid foundations of skill, and highlight the painting with calligraphy. His calligraphic stroke is full of strength as strong as stone and metal, and his calligraphic seal cutting is well-tempered. All of this has rendered special charm of tradition to his paintings.

His paintings distinctly develop towards two polarities: one goes towards slenderness and serenity famous for full and substantial pictures, broad and bold composition, which embodies the style of the Song Dynasty. In recent years, he has developed an interest in painting the stationery articles in his study, such as the tea set, books, pictures, or seals. With his brush, he brings engrossing life to these common pieces; the other turns to bold and unconstrained expression. With his vigorous wielding of the brush, and the spontaneous splashes of ink and paints, his works are brimming with vigor and life. The application of ink is highlighting the contrast of the dry and wet, the thick and thin of ink, with robust rhythm flowing in the pictures. His works boast the charm “dry as the autumn wind, and humid as the spring drizzle”. The strokes and the vigor in the painting give prominence to his works. He has solid grounding in painting, and has incorporated in his painting the Xingshu and Zhuanshu style of calligraphies. With a bold brush, he gives easy, reserved, fresh and vigorous spirits to his paintings. Whenever he puts his pen to the paper, the style of ShiTao, BaDa, FouLu, and BaiShi will be brought to life, which can be compared to that of the Song and Yuan dynasty but with new ingenuity. With a few sketches, many of his free sketching will present strokes beyond strokes, ink beyond ink and meaning beyond meaning which seem so unconcern but so elegant. His picture radiates with profound sentiments of the literati. This is the spirit of his long time cultivation and the result of his accomplishments in poem, calligraphy, painting and seal carving.

Guo Xiyuan established the “Chinese Literati Painting Institute” in Shenzhen University, advocating the literati painting tradition in China. He devotes himself physically to the art he loves, and what’s more important and praiseworthy is that he writs books, and opens graduate courses to teach the students. Liu Dawei offered his opinion in the preamble of the exhibition that he and Guo Xiyuan are all from Zhucheng, a city with long history and profound culture traditions. The famous painter Zhang Zheduan of Song Dynasty was born in Zhucheng city. Su dongpo the famous poet of Song Dynasty used to serve in the government of the Mizhou (the ancient name of Zhucheng). Gong Yechang, Zhao Mingcheng, LiuYong and the culture and literary figures of the modern times such as Zang Kejia and TaoDun etc are all from Zhucheng. The exhibition has received all-out supports both from the Zhucheng government and enterprises, which manifests the love and respect of the Zhucheng people to culture, calligraphy and paintings. We would like to take advantage of this exhibition to express our thanks to our people in Zhucheng.