The exhibition shows Li's landscapes and buffalo paintings, a popular theme in his oeuvre.

Li's paintings show an influence of great ancient painters, such as Zhu Da and the "four landscape painters surnamed Wang" of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), to convey a philosophical thinking of coexistence between humans and nature.

Li didn't continue to depict recurring themes of classical Chinese paintings such as court ladies, scholars, hermits and immortals. Instead, he focused on laborers and farmers to give his works a realistic perspective.

"He always said real life and traditions were the sources of knowledge, and were what the National Academy of Painting should focus on," says Lu Yushun, the academy's current director. "He said at the academy's founding ceremony that a mission of the National Academy of Painting was to inherit and develop classical Chinese painting."

At the top of 20th century Chinese art, Li was accomplished in creation and theoretical studies, Lu says, adding that the exhibition is a reminder to artists today to be self-equipped enough to take the baton from predecessors such as Li and pass it onto the next generation for Chinese ink artists to thrive.

A permanent re-creation of Li's former studio, well-known as Shi Niu Tang ("room in tribute to cows"), was also unveiled at the exhibition opening, and the display includes a table Li used to work on and his book cabinet.

Li Geng, a son of Li Keran and head of Li Keran Academy of Painting, says the replicated studio will engage people in a similarly modest environment in which his father used to paint and think.

"Many artists of my father's generation all worked in rather small spaces, where they never ceased to reflect on the changes of life and explore creative possibilities," Li Geng says.