The other, Kexi Wusheng (it's a pity they are mute) is a metaphor for which Qi believed that the creatures under his strokes, although they couldn't breathe or make sounds, were as lively as those in the real world.

"Qi was one of the most influential and creative artists of 20th-century China," Wu says.

"The Beijing Fine Art Academy has assembled over 2,000 of Qi's works and manuscripts, and is committed to the long-term research and promotion of his art and Chinese ink tradition."

Wu says the exhibition also shows Qi's figure paintings in which his creations of immortals and fairies celebrate the richness of the folk art and literature that nourished his childhood, and his landscape paintings show gracefulness interlaced with a tendency toward life's simple pleasures.

"His brushstrokes are minimalist and modernist, and imbued with the expressive spirit of Chinese calligraphy, by which he celebrated the vigor of all life," Wu says.