Artworks by Qian Liu and Pan Hongha are among the pieces on show at the Shanghai exhibition that showcases the country's art scene over the past 40 years. [Photo provided to China Daily]   

The past 40 years have marked a period of great economic and social development in China, and towns and cities of the Yangtze Delta region have enjoyed close interactions and have progressed together, says Li Lei, executive director of China Art Museum Shanghai (formerly known as Shanghai Art Museum).

"Shanghai and the neighboring provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Anhui share the same root of culture that has nurtured the art scene. The artists, too, have also nourished and inspired each other."

The Yangtze Delta region has continuously been a pioneer of China's art scene, introducing new waves, ideas, styles and education systems since the early 1900s, according to Xu Jiang, president of the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou.

He went on to say that artists in the region have made fruitful achievements in the past 40 years. As China began to open up to the world in 1978, artists gradually broke away from the traditional propaganda-poster style, and new waves and ideas began pouring in. Contemporary art began to mushroom in China, and one of the most important events in the country's contemporary art scene, the Shanghai Biennale, was founded in 1996. Since then, 12 editions of the event have taken place, each with a socially relevant theme, such as Urban Creation in 2002, Reactivation in 2012 and Social Factory in 2014, Xu recalls.

The exhibition is part of the ongoing China Shanghai International Arts Festival, and also marks the establishment of a new alliance of art museums in Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Anhui.

The four museums-with the new Anhui Art Museum under construction-plan to strengthen their ties and initiate more exchanges and exhibitions in the future.

The closing day of the exhibition has not been announced.

If you go

Ground floor, China Art Museum Shanghai, 205 Shangnan Road, Pudong New Area, Shanghai. 400-921-9021.