"Wails in the Wilderness" by Chen Danqing [Photo/Shanghai Daily]

Three old friends from Shanghai, who played together as boys and went on to become successful artists, are staging an unusual exhibition of their art and, equally important, of their times, its ups and downs.

"A Story of Four Decades," a joint exhibition by painters Chen Danqing (also a writer and critic), Lin Xudong and Han Xin, is underway at the Shanghai Art Museum through May 3.

All three artists, now approaching 60, are examples of their generation and largely self-taught, spending the tumultuous years of the "cultural revolution" (1966-1976) learning painting by themselves, reading books and listening to classical.

The three used their time well and when China finally opened up, they went overseas to find a bigger world, eventually returning and establishing themselves as respected artists.

In addition to paintings, the exhibition includes sketches, drawings, collages, watercolors, old photographs, albums, letters, private items and descriptions from the three about their painting and their friends.

At the entrance to the exhibition is the blow-up of a black-and-white photograph showing the three old friends happily riding bicycles in the city's longtang or alleyways. Today most of those lanes and old buildings are gone, demolished to make way for modern urban construction.