Unfinished journey
When ink artist Li Bo'an died in 1998 at 54, he was close to completing the 10th and final painting of an ambitious landscape series. The body of work, done in the style of Chinese ink painting, depicts the breathtaking views of western China and the life of Tibetans. Out of Bayan Har, the artwork, unveils a panoramic landscape of the Bayan Har Mountains and the rich history and culture of the Tibetan people, as well as hailing the vibrancy of Chinese history and culture. It is the only major work in Li's legacy seen by a wider audience. The series was donated by Li's family to the Tsinghua University Art Museum and went on show in 2019. The museum is showing part of the series and juxtaposing them with preparatory drawings Li made for Out of Bayan Har, as well as his other landscape and figure paintings drawn during his several journeys to the areas inhabited by Tibetan people and along the upper stretches of the Yellow River. Li's output presents a sense of mysterious, extensive space in which culture, religion and humanity crisscross. His paintings reflect the hardships he once went through, and he hid the experience behind his artworks. The exhibition runs through to Aug 14.
9 am-5 pm, closed on Mondays. Tsinghua University campus, Haidian district, Beijing. 010-6278-1012.
