CHONGQING (CQNEWS) -- Last week, the exhibition “Liu Yisi’s Art Track” was launched at Art Museum of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute.

Who is Liu Yisi? Liu Yisi’s Pumpkin and Fish are known to almost all students and teachers of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, as they have been hanging in the university for generations of students to study.

Yin Dan, organizer of the exhibition, told the reporter that it is hoped that this exhibition will present to the audience not only the charm of the paintings themselves, but also the genealogy of the history of education in Southwest China and contemporary and modern China as presented by Liu Yisi himself.

The reporter saw that a rather antique “loom” attracts visitors to view. Yin Dan told the reporter that at that time, oil painting was an imported product from the West, and high-quality materials had always been imported. During the period of Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, both pigments and canvas were in short supply; therefore, in order to make wide-mouthed oil canvases, Liu Yisi, who had excellent woodworking skills, made a wide-mouthed loom together with a folk carpenter and explored the possibility of making “earth oil canvases” using cambric as the material, so as to increase his economic income during the difficult times and ease the tight supply of materials for oil painting in Chongqing. After repeated trials, Liu Yisi succeeded in developing a reliable quality canvas for oil painting. Apart from his own use, he also supplied them to Xu Beihong, Feng Fasi and other teachers and friends. However, due to a lack of experience in the market, the oil canvas developed and produced by Liu Yisi could not enter the market on a large scale, but this spirit of exploration enabled him not only to fill a technical gap in the history of contemporary Chinese oil painting, but also to leave his own mark in the history of Chinese weaving technology.

The reporter also learned that the exhibition features paintings donated to Art Museum of the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute by the family of Liu Yisi as the main exhibits.

The exhibition “Liu Yisi’s Art Track” will remain on display up to July 18, with nearly 100 pieces of artwork open to the public free of charge.