The Geyi Art Museum is located by the Wenfeng Pagoda in Nantong. It was built in 1989. Wang Geyi is a disciple of Wu Changshuo and a master of traditional Chinese painting. Geyi has comprehensively inherited the excellent traditions of the Wu school art. After more than seventy years of exploration, he is known as the ‘contemporary Fu Weng’. The museum houses more than 200 paintings and calligraphy works donated by Mr.
Wang Geyi’s relatives to the Nantong Municipal Government in accordance with the wishes of Mr. Geyi and the famous calligraphy and paintings of past dynasties collected by him. Wang Geyi (1897 – 1988), named Xian, with the courtesy name Qizhi, is from Haimen County. At the age of 16, he went to Nantong to study and was deeply fond of poetry, prose, epigraphy, and painting. Throughout his life, Wang Geyi has achieved high accomplishments in painting, calligraphy, seal engraving, and poetry, all with his personal style. His paintings incorporate the essence of Fu Lu, take nature as the teacher, delve into life, and have a unique style. In his later years, his bold brushstrokes break through the pattern of the Wu school and elevate the Shanghai school art to a higher level. His calligraphy in the style of stone drum script has a combination of dynamic and static brushstrokes, is powerful and vigorous, and full of the spirit of inscriptions on bronze and stone. His running and cursive calligraphy is superb and magical without intention. His seal engraving directly pursues the styles of the Qin and Han dynasties. Within a small square inch, it is full of vigor and smoothness, all to his satisfaction. His poems are like folk songs of Yuefu and have the style of Bai Juyi.Opening hours: Open all year round from 09:00 to 17:00.
