Brush up on the past

For years, exhibitions have been mounted to help the general audience better understand Huang, his art and his belief in Chinese cultural tradition.

Immortal Legacy, the latest such effort, is currently being held at the Art Museum of Beijing Fine Art Academy. The exhibition, which runs until April 21, is a collaboration with the China Academy of Art Library and the Zhejiang Provincial Museum, both in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, where Huang lived and taught in the later years of his life, and which both house extensive collections of his work, manuscripts and documents.

Wu Hongliang, director of the Beijing Fine Art Academy, says that Huang is recognized as a "pinnacle" of modern Chinese art who "devoted his whole life to carrying on the cultural lineage, and who meanwhile possessed a modern spirit and a universal outlook".