Pioneer with ink celebrated in show at National Museum of Art

Qian held his first solo exhibition at the National Art Museum of China in 1964, not long after it opened in Beijing. The 40-day show received wide acclaim and Qian's inventive approach to the shanshui (mountain and water) genre helped to seal his position at the center stage of Chinese painting.

Among the paintings shown at that exhibition, Paddy Fields in Changshu primarily caught people's attention and was later considered a landmark work in Qian's oeuvre. It depicts an extensive, poetic view of rice plantations in his native Jiangsu province.

Qian executed the painting as a celebration in 1964 of the 15th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

He once recollected how he conceived the motif: "I specialize in the mountain-and-water genre of painting. Jiangsu boasts a landscape of unending paddy fields that look better than mountain ranges. Moreover, rice has been a staple source to feed Chinese people."

Qian chose an unusual vertical composition and a bird's-eye view to depict the rice fields rather than a horizontal perspective, and the audience would feel the view of the fields extending far above, looking like mountains.

Paddy Fields in Changshu is now in the National Art Museum's collection, and it is part of an ongoing 120-painting exhibition there, Art of Songyan, which reviews Qian's career. The show, which runs through Aug 11, commemorates the 120th anniversary of Qian's birth.