More than 60 of those pieces are now on display at the Utah Cultural Celebration Center until June 18.

The exhibit, titled "From the Masses to the Masses: Art of the Yan'an Cave Artist Group," features the art of nine Chinese painters created between 1955 and the early '80s.

There are four key characters in the Cave Artist Group: Jin Zhilin, Feng Shanyun, Chen Shanqaio and Song Ruxin. The Chinese government sent these four to the city of Yan'an to create art during the Cultural Revolution.

The main mediums are woodcuts, oil and watercolor, but there are some charcoal and pencil pieces as well.

Michael Christensen, UCCC folklorist, said the center will add other traditional Chinese items from local businesses to the exhibit that are not part of the primary collection but represent the Chinese culture.

Billingsley, a documentary filmmaker and director of Combat Films and Research, has collected different kinds of art as a hobby for years.

He began collecting Chinese art when in China to make the documentary film "Helen Foster Snow: Witness to Revolution."

Billingsley doesn't speak Chinese, but traveled to China with a BYU professor of Chinese politics who speaks the language.

"In the process there I met Song Ruxin, and he started telling me about him and these other artists who made Cave Artist Group," Billingsley said.

Since then, he has returned to China every year, trying to acquire as much art as he can, so his collection has been evolving. Billingsley said he doesn't go to China looking for other art: only this group.

"You get a history of the whole Communist China in this group, but also it's just good art," he said.

Billingsley has about 120 pieces, but about half aren't framed or restored, because it's quite expensive, he said.

Although Billingsley is not opposed to selling any of these pieces to help him pay the costs of restoring and framing, he would prefer to keep the items together.

"This is a collection," he said. "It's art of one particular group. That's why I'd hate to sell any of these pieces."

Billingsley's collection has been shown in different galleries before. Since the last showing a year ago he has added five new pieces to the exhibit.

"We've been talking about finding the right timing [to show his collection]," said Susan Klinker, programming director at UCCC.

Klinker and Billingsley met more than a year ago when one of his documentary films was shown as part of the "Silk Road" exhibit at UCCC.

UCCC hosts six exhibits a year, two of which are traditional: "Faces of Utah Sculpture" (summer) and "Trees of Diversity" (winter). Exhibits usually last six to eight weeks, Christensen said, and are free to the public.

'From the Masses to the Masses'

* For more information on "From the Masses to the Masses" exhibit or any other showings, contact the Utah Cultural Celebration Center at 801-965-5100 or visit its Web site www.culturalcelebrationcenter.org. The center is located at 1355 W. 3100 South.