Artists with solid basic training before the "cultural revolution", rose to stardom with paintings that were labelled Rural Realist works.
In 1985, over 100 Chinese oil painters and art critics held a seminar near Huangshan Mountains in East China's Anhui Province. They called for artistic diversity and absorption of new ideas from the outside world, which caused a sensation among Chinese artists.
In the following years, the Chinese Oil Painters Society and the Oil Art Committee of the Chinese Artists Association were formed to organize exhibitions, seminars, training classes for novices, and to print publications about oil art in China.
In the early 1990s, China adopted a market economy and opened further to the outside world. New ideas, philosophies and information about vanguard art began flooding in, along with foreign investment.
All these prompted the rise of younger generations of oil artists whose experimental works in a wide range of styles were displayed across the nation, often causing widespread public discussions.
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