Retrospective exhibition honors artist Luo Yi

Imprints of History — A Retrospective Exhibition of Luo Yi’s Works, hosted by the Academy of Fine Arts of Minzu University of China and the China Committee of the Promotion of the Minority Art, opened on Thursday at the art museum of Minzu University of China in Beijing.

It features over 100 paintings by Luo, a veteran fine arts professor at the Minzu University of China and one of the pioneers of higher education in ethnic groups’ fine arts in China, systematically presenting his artistic achievements and academic lineage. It also serves as an important documentary retrospective of the developmental history of higher education in ethnic groups’ fine arts in New China.

According to Urchaihu, dean of the Academy of Fine Arts at Minzu University of China, over the course of his 70-plus-year artistic career, Luo dedicated himself to artistic creation and fine arts education. His journey as an artist is itself a vivid chapter of history.

“Through oil paintings, gouache, ink and color works, drawings, and various other media, he recorded the changes of his time and expressed his heartfelt devotion to his country. These works are not only imprints of his personal artistic journey but also bear witness to the process of indigenous oil painting in New China, as well as the development of ethnic groups’ fine arts education,” he says.

Wang Yong, a researcher at the Chinese National Academy of Arts, said that Luo’s paintings are imbued with a sense of simplicity, modesty, and renewed poetic charm, reflecting the traditional expression of Chinese painting as well as Luo’s own individual temperament. Luo’s career establishes him as a representative of modern Chinese ethnic landscape painting, holding a distinctive position in the Chinese art world.

The retrospective, combining art, academic lineage, and education, looks back on Luo’s dedication to art and his commitment to nurturing students and other artists of his generation. It allows the audience to understand the developmental journey of ethnic groups’ fine arts in New China through classic works, and to feel the eternal value of art in chronicling the era and expressing the sentiments of the people. The exhibition will run until May 26.