Wu Shi's print work To Fight, done in 1940, is on show.[Photo provided to China Daily]

"Wu Shi worked as an editor at several newspapers during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45). He published in these newspapers many prints themed on the resistance," says Zheng Yan, curator of the National Museum of China.

"The original pieces were lost, but we were able to find copies, so the audience can get a comprehensive picture of Wu Shi's work during the war," she says.

In the decades after the founding of New China in 1949, Wu Shi turned his attention to depicting a panoramic view of social and industrial construction across the country, and some of his works have become iconic pieces of 20th-century Chinese art.

Two such prints on show are Harvest, which portrays a lively landscape of people resting in an extensive field of wheat, and Accomplishment, which depicts the construction of a bridge.