He Xiangning Art Museum Celebrates 10th Anniversary

He Xiangning Art Museum celebrated its 10th anniversary April 18 with a special exhibition demonstrating He Xiangning's important status in contemporary Chinese art history and her prominent contribution to the Chinese revolution.
The exhibition, which will run through July 1, features about 100 works by the renowned artist-turned-social activist and national leader.

Rather than a conventional art exhibition, the show displays the works in a multimedia environment, which includes videos, photographs and historical documents, to enable audiences to learn more about the background in which these works were created.

"We have chosen seven significant geographical locations, where He Xiangning once lived and worked, to showcase He's rough life experiences and colorful art career," said Le Zheng-wei, deputy curator of the art museum.

Born in Hong Kong in 1879, He was married to Liao Zhongkai, a senior statesman of the Kuomintang, in Guangzhou in 1897.

In 1902, He sold her dowries to support her husband to study in Japan. In 1903, He followed her husband to Japan, becoming one of the earliest female Chinese students studying abroad.

During her stay in Japan, He got to know Dr. Sun Yat-sen, and started to devote herself to the revolutionary movement.

In 1905, she participated in the establishment of the Chinese Revolutionary League, working as a liaison officer.

In 1909, she was admitted into the Hongo Women's School of Fine Arts in Tokyo to study landscape and flower painting, and then continued to study animal painting under the Japanese royal artist Raiaki Tanaka.

Throughout her life, He enjoyed using her paintings of plum blossoms, pine trees, lions, tigers and landscapes to convey her political views.

When the Revolution of 1911 broke out, He moved back to Guangzhou with her husband. After returning to China, she came under the influence of the Lingnan School of Painting, one of the modern schools of Chinese brush painting, led by renowned artists Chen Shuren and Gao Jianfu.

In her later works, her earlier Japanese painting influence began to be replaced by more traditional Chinese forms.

Around 1924, He and Liao assisted Sun Yat-sen in reorganizing the Kuomintang, and urged the party to cooperate with the Communist Party of China (CPC).
After her husband was assassinated in 1925, He continued to fight against the Kuomintang's right-wing leaders.

During the eight-year War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression from 1937 through 1945, He endeavored to fight against the Kuomintang's dictatorship and infighting, and actively participated in anti-Japanese movements.

In 1948, by uniting the Kuomintang's right-wing leaders, He organized the Kuomintang Revolutionary Committee to answer the CPC's call to hold the new political consultative conference.

After the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, He was appointed vice chairwoman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and vice chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.

In 1960, He was elected chairperson of the Chinese Artists Association. She died in Beijing in 1972.

Approved by the Central Government, He Xiangning Art Museum was established in the city's Chinese Overseas Town on April 18, 1997.

It is the first national gallery that has been named after an individual as well as the second national modern art museum in addition to the National Art Museum of China in Beijing.