Curated by the art historian Lü Peng, Brush & Imprint: Return to Moganshan brings together the work of He Duoling, Lin Haizhong, and Yan Shanchun, examining the ongoing relationship between Chinese artistic traditions and contemporary practice through the lens of Moganshan.
Rather than approaching landscape as a subject of representation, the exhibition considers Moganshan as a historically layered cultural site. Since the late nineteenth century, it has functioned as a point of encounter between Chinese and Western visual traditions—at once a space of retreat and a site of exchange, where different artistic languages and modes of perception intersect.
Grounded in Lü Peng’s long-term art historical research, the exhibition takes xie sheng (working from life) as a point of departure, rethinking it not as a fixed method but as an evolving mode of perception and artistic inquiry. Within this curatorial framework, the practices of the three artists—distinct in background, medium, and visual language—form an open field of dialogue that unfolds across different approaches to image-making.
The works presented extend beyond formal concerns to engage with broader questions of cultural memory, historical continuity, and the transformation of visual experience in a global context. In this sense, Return to Moganshan is not merely a geographical return, but a reactivation of a cultural lineage, situating contemporary artistic practice within an ongoing dialogue between past and present, and between Chinese and Western traditions.