Stimulated by Western art techniques, Liu hoped to open traditional Chinese painting to a new look, and in 1910 he and his friends Chang Yu-kuang, Chou Hsiang, and Wu Shih-kuang pooled their resources and founded the Shanghai Academy of the Pictorial Arts.
而海粟先生則在飽受西洋繪畫技巧的衝擊下，極思開啟中國傳統繪畫新風貌，於西元一九一○年與張聿光、周湘和烏始光等友朋，合資在上海法租界創設了「上海圖畫美術院」，以為教育美術人才之用，並在報紙上楬櫫他們辦學的三項宣言：