GUANGZHOU — An exhibition featuring 380 works by China Academy of Art professor Xu Jiang opened over the weekend at Guangdong Museum of Art (Baietan) in Guangzhou, presenting a retrospective of the renowned Chinese artist’s nearly 40-year creative journey.

Titled “Sunflower Mountain — Xu Jiang Art Exhibition,” the exhibition spans multiple media, including oil paintings, sculptures, gouache, and copper etching.

“Sunflowers record the passage of time throughout the four seasons, documenting the collective memory and spiritual trajectory of a generation,” the exhibition description notes. “Mountains embrace eternity, carrying Xu Jiang’s deep inquiry into the spirit of landscape painting.”

Born in 1955, Xu Jiang’s artistic journey began with his admission to the China Academy of Art (then Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts) in 1978. In the 1980s, he studied at the Hamburg Academy of Fine Arts in Germany, where he engaged with Western contemporary art movements.

Since 2003, the sunflower has been a central motif in Xu Jiang’s work, after he became deeply moved by the sight of a vast field of sunflowers during a voyage through the Strait of Malacca.

“I am very fortunate to have found 'sunflower' as a creative vehicle in my artistic path – it is a highly representative botanical motif. Compared to traditional subjects like plum blossoms, orchids, bamboo, and chrysanthemums, the passionate, resilient, and humble sunflowers better interpret the spiritual outlook of 20th-century Chinese people. Sunflowers bear the indelible mark of my generation,” Xu said in an interview with Nanfang Daily.

The exhibition runs through Sept 6.

China Daily photographer Parker Zheng captured the sunflower spirit through his lens.