Xi Wo Hou, a painting by Xu Beihong. [Photo provided to China Daily]

When the modern educator Cai Yuanpei initiated the foundation of Beijing Fine Art School in 1908, he hoped the school could be the start of the cultivation of not only home-grown artists and teachers of art but also -- maybe more importantly -- of the general public's acknowledgement of art as a way to understand the world and to improve it.

The Beijing Fine Art School was then integrated with other schools to become the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, a birth place of many prominent artists and scholars.

The Art of Grand Beauty, an exhibition at CAFA's art museum, which runs through Oct 7, shows a selection of works from the academy's collection and loaned from other cultural institutions to review its role in 20th-century Chinese art.

The exhibition also marks the 70th anniversary of the People's Republic of China. Also on show are reproductions of iconic paintings by teachers of CAFA which recorded New China's socialist construction. The originals are distributed in the collections of different art museums.