"Shanghai School painting", which started almost at the same time as the modern history of China, not only occupied half of Chinese painting, but also influenced the development direction of Chinese painting for a long period of time. What kind of changes has Shanghai school painting experienced in the past hundred years? In order to clarify its development context, we selected 30 artists from the collection of works who have the blood of Shanghai style and can bring forth new ideas in their respective eras.

As far as the early Shanghai school paintings are concerned, they do show certain characteristics that cater to the market. The characteristics are particularly obvious in the works of Xu Gu, Ren Yi and Wu Changshuo, such as rich secular themes and gorgeous coloring methods. However, the "Shanghai School" painting never deviated from the traditional spirit and ink painting. Even after the May Fourth New Cultural Movement in which Western ideas were introduced in large numbers, we can still learn from Wu Hufan, Lu Yanshao, Zhu Qizhan, Xie Zhiliu, Chen Peiqiu and other painters whose works attach strong classical spirit and literati feelings.

After the mid-twentieth century, "realism" prevailed throughout the country. Shanghai's ink painting was more manifested in the pursuit of ink interest in realist themes, or the visual expression of traditional classic literary themes, such as Han Min, Liu Danzhai, Cai Tianxiong, Dai Dunbang, etc. are the representatives of this period.

With the influx of Western art thought in the 1980s, the Shanghai ink painting circle became more and more active. For a time, experimental ink painting, academic new Chinese painting and traditional Shanghai style coexisted, opening up the diversified pattern of Shanghai ink painting art. Most of the middle-aged painters in this exhibition, such as Chen Jialing, Chen Xinmao, Lu Chuntao, Mao Guolun, Shi Dawei, Yang Zhengxin, Le Zhenwen, Han Shuo, Chu Limin, Che Pengfei, Ding Yiming, Pang Fei, etc. These artists belong to different fields, and have obtained huge achievements in their fields.

Today, the acceleration of urbanization has brought the development of Shanghai ink art into a new era. Almost all young ink artists have begun to think about how to reasonably transform the traditional ink language to express contemporary urban culture and emotional experience. Artists such as Ye Peng, Shao Qijiong, Mao Donghua and Bao Ying are dedicated to discovering new expressive power of ink from the perspectives of concepts, materials and formal language.

Today, when Shanghai school ink art is being paid attention again, we are aiming to calmly examine our own cultural traditions and explore them religiously. This exhibition hopes to highlight the cultural and spiritual characteristics of Shanghai school ink paintings.