The second season of Century Masters, tells the stories of five outstanding figures – painter Li Kuchan, Peking Opera artist Shang Xiaoyun, and painters Guan Shanyue, Wu Guanzhong and Huang Zhou. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The late painter Guan Shanyue led his peers at the Lingnan School of Painting, formed in the early 20th-century in the southern city of Guangzhou, to revolutionize the classic Chinese mountain-and-water paintings.

The gigantic piece, The Land is So Rich in Beauty, at the Great Hall of the People is among his most famous creations. Guan also donated some 800 of his paintings to build an art museum named after him in Shenzhen in 1997.

The second season of Century Masters, tells the stories of five outstanding figures – painter Li Kuchan, Peking Opera artist Shang Xiaoyun, and painters Guan Shanyue, Wu Guanzhong and Huang Zhou. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Wu Guanzhong, whose fusion of Western modernism and traditional Chinese painting, made him one of China's most forward-looking and admired artists. Coming back to China from Paris, he taught in several prestigious Chinese art institutes.

Trained in traditional Chinese ink and brush painting, as well as Western-style oil painting, Wu went on to develop an artistic hybrid style expressed in landscape views captured on painting trips all over China and beyond.

The second season of Century Masters, tells the stories of five outstanding figures – painter Li Kuchan, Peking Opera artist Shang Xiaoyun, and painters Guan Shanyue, Wu Guanzhong and Huang Zhou. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Masterpieces by Huang, like A Blizzard in the Wilderness, Celebrating the Harvest and On Patrol, represent innovative achievements in contemporary Chinese painting with vigorous strokes and a strong personality.

He co-founded the Research Institute of Traditional Chinese Painting with famous painters Li Keran, Cai Ruohong and Hua Junwu, and presided over the establishment of the Yan Huang Art Museum. His artistic practice and theory exerted a significant influence on the development of contemporary art.