Full coverage: 80th Anniversary of the Victory of the Red Army's Long March

An art exhibition in Beijing commemorating the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Long March has opened at the National Museum of China. Paintings are the main focus of this exhibition, which aims to pass on the spirit of the Red Army's 12,500 kilometer trek to evade Kuomingtang forces in the 1930's.

Art exhibition marks 80th Anniversary of the victory

Sponsored by the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the China Artists Association, this exhibiton is titled "Bearing in mind the history, promote the spirit - commemorating the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Red Army's Long March art exhibition." Its highlights are 12 paintings, depicting the glorious history of the Long March and the great spiritual strength of revolutionary ideal. The artists are from 12 creative teams with a wide range of age groups. 

"We fully mobilized the creative power of old and young artists. The old artists provided a lot of valuable ideas for the young artists' creation process. And the young artists did a lot of research in the field. We hope to draw inspiration from the revolutionary tradition and produce more works to pool strength in pursuit of the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation," said Xu Jiang, director of China Academy of Art.

The exhibition also displays more than 200 sketches by the artists, who revisited the whole route of the Long March in a year's time.

"Such an exhibition, and such a collective research effort and creation in this way, is a new approach to carrying forward the spirit of the Long March in art education and art creation," said Fan Di'an, director of China Central Academy of Fine Arts.

The Long March was a strategic maneuver undertaken by the Red Army of the Communist Party of China between 1934 to 1936. Tens of thousands of soldiers traveled some 12,500 kilometers through remote and hazardous terrain to break the siege of the Kuomintang forces and continue to fight Japanese aggressors.