Tribute to master of rural landscapes

Artists Luo Erchun (right) and Zhan Jianjun once shared a studio at the Central Academy of Fine Arts for several years. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Echoes of Canglang, an ongoing exhibition in Beijing, looks at Luo Erchun's artistic evolution over six decades. Lin Qi reports.

Oil painter and educator Luo Erchun (1930-2015) always liked to visit the Canglang Pavilion whenever he returned to Suzhou, in East China's Jiangsu province.

The garden built in the 11th century is one of the oldest classical gardens of Suzhou that were added to the list of UNESCO World Cultural Heritage in 2000. It was also once the location of Suzhou Academy of Fine Arts where Luo graduated in 1951.

There, Luo studied under Yan Wenliang (1893-1988), where he progressed from an art-loving boy, hailing from rural Hunan province in Central China, to become a professional painter who began to build a visual vocabulary of his own.

Echoes of Canglang, an exhibition now on at Beijing's Shixiang Gallery, looks at Luo's artistic evolution over six decades.

And more than 30 paintings on show are from private collections at home and abroad.

The exhibition opened on Oct 29, the anniversary of Luo's death.