During December 12 to 20, 2009 the grand exhibition “Going along with the Times: Retrospect on the Sixty Years of Art Creation and Education of Yang Zhiguang and Exhibition of Artworks of Yang Zhiguang Fine Arts Center” will be held in the central rotunda and No. 2 and 3 halls of National Art Museum of China in Beijing in honor of Professor Yang Zhiguang, a celebrated ink and wash figure painter.

This is a spectacular comprehensive art exhibition, distinguished in both its size and rich content. The exhibition is planned and designed jointly by the well-known art critics Fan Di’an, Liang Jiang and Yang Xiaoyan. Chen Lusheng acts as Academic Host and He Jiancheng Art Director for the exhibition. The sponsors include National Art Museum of China, China Artists Association, China National Academy of Painting, Publicity Department of Guangdong CPC Committee, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts and Guangdong Artists Association. The exhibition is co-sponsored by China Association for Children’s Arts and the Primary and Secondary School Fine Arts of China (Zhongguo Zhong Xiao Xue Meishu) and organized by Yang Zhiguang Fine Arts Center.

Professor Yang Zhiguang is a famous ink and wash figure painter. In his sixty years of artistic career, he creates representative figure paintings in almost every major era. These artworks come out as image witnesses and visual symbols of our nation’s development as well as an integral part of Chinese contemporary fine arts writing a great chapter. The exhibition is divided into two parts: the first part is designed to present Yang’s major figure paintings in his first half life so that people can get to know how much enthusiasm and wisdom the old artist put in his artistic creation. The second part is intended to display teaching achievements of Yang Zhiguang Fine Arts Center. This part is characterized by comprehensive exposition of the relationship between art and creativity with multi-faceted demonstrations, showing children’s intellectual development and construction through special art education.

During the exhibition, a summit seminar will also be held on the relationship between Yang’s ink and wash figure paintings and the times and the relationship between his teaching philosophy for art education in his later years and children development. Participants from home and abroad are all artistic research scholars and experts in children’s art education. The seminar is not only to sum up Yang’s art achievements of six decades, but also to make systematic studies as to the inherent relationship between creation, creativity and innovation, hoping to leave a valuable historical record for our fellow artists and art educators in the present and in the future.