The Gallery is named after the notable
painter Lai Shaoqi and exhibits his woodcuts, calligraphies and relevant
historical documents donated by the artist himself and his families and friends.
The Gallery also holds exhibitions of other collections.
Lai Shaoqi (1915—2000) was born in Puning, Guangdong
Province. In his early age, he was famous for his woodcuts. Having inherited
the tradition of the Xin’an Painting School of the Qing Dynasty, Lai was
engaged in calligraphy and painting with a skillful application of dry ink
brush strokes and dots which helped expressing a sense of romance and magnificence
in his works. In his late years, Lai became influenced by international
modernism. Intense colors were applied to reveal his mood and emotions. His
works created in this period display a blending of Chinese and Western
traditions.
The Gallery is furnished
according to an original Xiguan
Mansion. A memorial
archway is built at the entrance of the Gallery with an inscription Wood and Stone Studio, where the artist
created most of his works. Wood and Stone also symbolized the artistic
experience and style of Lai. Exhibits are categorized into four parts in order
of time to demonstrate Lai’s artistic career: Woodcut Period, Huangshan
Mountain Period, Art Revolution in 1986 and After his 80s. Very recently,
exhibitions such as Art Origin of Lai Shaoqi’s Calligraphy and Painting, Works
by Huang Binhong and Lai Shaoqi, A Retrospective Exhibition of Lai shaoqi’s
Woodcuts, Calligraphy and Seal Cutting of Lai Shaoqi, Elegant and Innocent:
Bird-and-flower Paintings by Lai Shaoqi etc. Also GMA cooperated with the Hefei
Lai Shaoqi Art Gellery for several times to share research findings. In the
meantime, various exhibitions of Lai’s masterpieces were jointly presented by
GMA and National Art Museum of China, Zhejiang Provincial Museum, Qingdao Municipal
Museum, and Ningbo Tianyige
Museum.