Landscape paintings of the new Loudong school are on show at the Taicang Museum, in Taicang, Jiangsu province, starting on Oct 15.

The exhibition contains 64 masterpieces from 17 artists, including Zhu Qizhan (1892-1996), Song Wenzhi (1919-1999), Xing Shaolan (1938), and Song Yulin (1947).

Zhu Qizhan was the bellwether of the new Loudong school. His prolific works cover a wide range of subjects. Western influences like louder colors and more thoughts in creating layers can be found in his works too.

The Loudong School of traditional Chinese painting originated in Taicang more than 300 years ago and thrived throughout the Qing Dynasty (AD 1664-1911).It succeeded the style of Dong Qichang, a prominent calligrapher and painter in the Ming Dynasty (AD 1368-1664), featuring aesthetics of the literati painters.

The new Loudong school is a group of painters born in modern and contemporary times, came from Taicang and focus on traditional Chinese paintings.

Starting in 2006, the Taicang artist association has organized several trips for painters to take in China's most dynamic landscapes. New Loudong school landscape paintings have been displayed in Germany as well as Jiangsu, Guangxi, Taiwan and Shanghai.

By Liu Sitong and edited by Andrew Ancheta