Among those who taught at the Academy of Arts and Design, Tsinghua University, Zhu Danian (1916-95) and Wu Guanzhong (1919-2010) were two prominent artists themselves who formed distinctive styles, and who contributed greatly to the development of the 20th-century Chinese art.

Zhu once studied ceramic art in Japan and was a trailblazer of modern Chinese ceramics design. He also produced monumental mural works and paintings marked by details of delicacy and intense colors.

Wu was trained in China and France. His wide-ranging practices of painting expanded the realm of Chinese ink traditions, and built a bridge between the abstraction art of the West and the minimalism of Chinese art.

The two donated their works to Tsinghua, which are currently on display in rotation at a gallery named after them both, at the Tsinghua University Art Museum, where one get to understand how the two figures found their respective ways in pursuit of beauty.