Exhibition reviews veteran artist's lifelong quest

Yang Xianrang, a retired professor of the Central Academy of Fine Arts now aged 91, has created a body of works which reflect the livelihood of grassroots people, especially peasants and factory workers, following the founding of People's Republic of China in 1949. 

Yang is also known for leading a team 14 times separately to many villages along the Yellow River in the late 1980s. During the trips they interviewed, documented, sketched and collected folk arts and crafts facing extinction. 

The trips inspired Yang to introduce the study of Chinese folk arts into CAFA's curriculum, and encouraged more people to venture into the field to protect and preserve those lively, but endangered forms of China's cultural heritage. 

Artistic Request, an exhibition at the National Art Museum of China until Oct 20, reviews Yang's decades-long career in print making, painting and rediscovering folk arts. 

On show are more than 160 artworks, including 30 pieces Yang has just donated to the National Art Museum.