In the 1930s, late painter Ding Tianque studied under the discipline of modern artist Wu Dayu while at the national fine art school, now China Academy of Art, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. Ding went on to become an assistant teacher to Wu. For decades, the two experienced life's twists and turns, but maintained a close relationship of mutual trust and support.

An exhibition, now on at Beijing's Ici Labas gallery and set to run through Sept 20, commemorates this genuine, long-lasting friendship by showing dozens of their prints and oil paintings.

Wu was trained in China and France, where he attended the école nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris. His students also included Zao Wou-ki, Wu Guanzhong and Chu Teh-chun, dubbed "the three musketeers" of modern Chinese art.

The exhibition pays tribute to a time when artists like Wu nurtured a new generation of home-grown artists like Ding, teaching them Western art techniques while also passing on the soul of Chinese cultural traditions, as well as a scholarly spirit of integrity and inner peace.