Late modern master Li Keran used to quote the words of Isaac Newton, "If I have seen further, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants," as an encouragement to younger artists.

When he was alive, Li often said the process of acquiring new knowledge was like "a relay race" and that future artists would carry on the legacy of classical Chinese paintings just as he had done after carving a name for himself in China's art history in the latter half of the 20th century.

Li was a pioneer in exploring styles and themes in Chinese ink painting. He developed a school of landscape art to portray the image of his homeland's mountains and streams, based on extensive journeys across China. He rendered his paintings a touch of historic grandeur, romanticism and spirituality to capture the eyes of people from different walks of life.

Research on Li Keran's Art, an ongoing exhibition that opened at the China National Academy of Painting in Beijing on May 23, pays homage to his commitment to enlivening the centuries-old visual art tradition. The show is part of celebrations marking the 40th anniversary of the academy. The academy did not specify when the exhibition will end.

Li was 74 years old when he was appointed the founding director of the academy. Before that, he had taught classical painting at the Central Academy of Fine Arts for several decades.

Born to illiterate parents in Xuzhou, Jiangsu province, Li studied at the Hangzhou Fine Art School, now China Academy of Art, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. It is a prestigious school that produced many important figures in the country's 20th century art.

At the school, Li learned oil painting under then-headmaster Lin Fengmian who had studied in France and was devoted to bridging Chinese and Western art philosophies. The training allowed Li to step aside from the rigid rules of classical Chinese painting, which at the time faced a crisis of existence.

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.