Lingnan spirit in Shanghai: A century of art and renewal

At the Shanghai Art Museum, "Reform Mission: Guangdong Art Centennial Exhibition" has become a powerful cultural moment—a reunion between Lingnan and Shanghai, and between art and the ideals that shaped modern China.
 
For the renowned literary and art critic Mao Shi'an, the exhibition is "a passionate love song between the Shanghai School and the Lingnan School of Painting." It tells the story of how two artistic forces once inspired each other—and how their dialogue continues today.
 
Walking through the gallery, Mao was deeply moved by two works: Tang Xiaoming's The Unceasing Battle, portraying Lu Xun in his final days with a gaze "that still burns with faith," and I Am a Petrel, showing a PLA signal operator climbing a stormy coconut tree, his cape billowing like wings. "I was lost in my youth," Mao recalls. "These paintings reminded me to live with light and ideals."
 
To Mao, the Lingnan School was never just about brushwork—it was a revolution in thought. "They were revolutionaries and artists," he explains. "They modernized Chinese painting by fusing Chinese and Western traditions, art and reality." The motto "to blend the past with the present, and China with the world" became the foundation of modern Chinese art.
 
Mao traces how Guangdong and Shanghai have long been connected by reform and openness. "Guangzhou was China's first window to the world," he says. "When Shanghai rose as a treaty port, it learned from Guangzhou." Later, many Lingnan figures like Kang Youwei, Sun Yat-sen, and He Xiangning brought their reformist ideals to Shanghai. The artists Gao Qifeng, Gao Jianfu, and Chen Shuren founded the Truth Pictorial in Shanhao, spreading a new artistic and political consciousness.
 
That exchange, Mao notes, still shapes Chinese art today. "The Lingnan spirit—open, pragmatic, and innovative—represents the courage to renew. That's why it continues to inspire us."
 
Standing amid the Guangdong Art Centennial Exhibition, Mao smiles: "This exhibition is both a tribute to the Lingnan masters and a living dialogue between Lingnan and Shanghai. It's a story of how art keeps finding light across time, with the courage to begin again."
 
Reporter: Li Fangwang
 
Video: Pan Jiajun

Poster: Li Fangwang

Editor: Hu Nan, James Campion, Shen He