Bonds of friendship and art redefined

The exhibition is the odyssey of three legendary artists who etched a colorful mark in the 20th century by championing the reform of Chinese ink art. Kou Qin, general manager of the Guardian Art Center, says this rare gathering of three great artists illuminates "their respect and understanding for each other, motivated by a shared goal in art".

The exhibition title in Chinese, Wanglai Qianzai, is borrowed from the inscriptions on a tailor-made square seal that Xu commissioned from engravers. The title implies that many of the things that people pursue are fleeting, whereas art and culture are timeless. He used the seal on his most favored paintings that he created or collected.

The three men differed in backgrounds and developed different approaches to the reinvention of Chinese ink painting, but, says Xu Ji, director of the collection department at Xu Beihong Memorial Museum,"they shared a belief in the renewed vitality of the ink tradition. The close bonds among them were grounded in full respect for the Chinese cultural spirit, which was delivered in their forceful ink strokes".

Born in Jiangsu province in East China, Xu Beihong studied in Paris and traveled throughout Europe in the 1920s. Meanwhile, Qi struggled for decades as a rural artist in his native Hunan province in Central China, before he secured a foothold in Beijing's art community.