The period between the 16th and 20th centuries was a landmark era for the development of Western art. And the famous Fuji Art Museum in Tokyo, Japan, has collected no shortage of paintings from this important time. Now, some of these classic pieces are going on display in Beijing at the Tsinghua University Art Museum.

The exhibition displays works by many important Western master painters like Pablo Picasso, Paul Cezanne and Edouard Manet. From Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo, to Realism, Impressionism, and until the trend of Modernism and Postmodernism, the 60 art pieces outline a 500-year history of Western art.

For art lovers, these artworks are quite an attraction. Ding Nan, an art major graduate, said compared to the exhibitions he visited in Western countries, this one doesn't include as many masterpieces, but there's some special glamour. 

"I think one of the highlights of the exhibition is the introduction of every piece. Reading them is like reading a book, telling stories behind each artwork and how important they are to the painters. Many of the Western oil painting exhibitions I've seen are based on the time structure of Western art history. But here, I see people from the East explain it in a narrative way, based on their own imagination, which is quite fresh."

In response, Chinese curator Yang Dongjiang said this is exactly what a campus museum like Tsinghua University Art Museum has been trying to do, to have more visitors understand art, instead of just appreciating paintings. 

Curators from China and Japan have selected 60 of the most classic works of different periods in the 16th to the 20th centuries, and tried to explain them in detail. 

"We hope visitors could easily summarize the history of the 500 years of Western paintings through our instruction. Western art is a very important collection part of Tokyo Fuji Art Museum. Its systematic collections are very helpful for people in the East to study Western art," said Yang.

These collections of the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum will be on display at the Tsinghua University Art Museum until December 23.