A painting of the Mocao Caves in Dunhuang, Gansu province, by Chang Shuhong, founding director of the Dunhuang Academy, in 1947. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Oil paintings, watercolors and sketches of Chang Shuhong (1904-94), founding director of the Dunhuang Academy, are on show at the Zhejiang Provincial Museum in Hangzhou, Chang's hometown.

The exhibits also include Chang's copies of the murals in the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang, Northwest China's Gansu province — a UNESCO World Heritage Site — as well as zhongcai (heavy-color) paintings, an important genre of Chinese painting with fine, precise delimitation and the layering of pigmented hues.

In his youth, Chang studied oil painting in France and won several awards as an emerging artist. Some of his works are among collections of French cultural and artistic institutions including the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Having accidentally learned about the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang in the 1930s, Chang made up his mind to go back from France to his home country and became devoted to the preservation of the grottoes and the promotion of Dunhuang studies.

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Dunhuang Academy, which currently oversees the Mogao Caves and several other relics sites in Gansu.

The temporary exhibition at the Zhejiang Provincial Museum, running through Oct 20, is in commemoration of the 120th anniversary of Chang's birth, said Zhang Yiqing, curator of the exhibition.

A copy of the murals in Cave 428 of the Mogao Caves by Chang Shuhong in 1944. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Through Chang's own depiction, the exhibition gives a display of early conservation efforts of the Dunhuang Academy, while tracing Chang's artistic exploration and achievements before and after he went back from France.

Despite that Chang's whole-hearted devotion to protecting the Mogao Caves largely cut down the time and effort paid to his own painting practice, his later works were influenced by murals of Dunhuang and a more down-to-earth, local artistic expressions of China popular at that time, Zhang added.

In the late 1990s, Chang's second wife Li Chengxian and their children donated more than 200 pieces of oil paintings, watercolors and sketches of Chang's to the Zhejiang Provincial Museum, a small selection of which are displayed at the museum's permanent Chang Shuhong Gallery.

Zhang added that the temporary exhibition serves as a larger presentation of Chang's works housed at the museum, apart from the collection of Shanghai-based Long Museum and the private collection of Chang Jiahuang, Chang Shuhong's son.

Chang Jiahuang said at the exhibition's opening ceremony on Sunday that as his parents' student, secretary and assistant, he witnessed their twists and turns, accompanied their creation and research, and experienced their art and spirits, following which he grew to become introspective, modest and rigorous.

According to him, the ongoing exhibition is the largest display of Chang Shuhong's paintings since 1990 and shows a clear presentation of the master's spirits conveyed through his works.