Exquisite Exhibition Venue

Along with the preparation and launch of this exhibition, I was privileged to visit Rome three times this year. Following the route in the film, I enjoyed beautiful scenes where love evolved and felt vividly the harmony of art and life in every street and lane in Rome. Moreover, I was greatly amazed at historical sites and art classics—magnificence of ancient Rome architectural sites, masters’ complete expression of true humanity in Renaissance, gorgeous realistic technique in classical arts, and above all, the earnest and persistent pursuit of surpassing predecessors in the Western arts. By coincidence, the theme for this exhibition is also “beyond tradition”, which means, rather than denial of cultural heritage of thousands of years, their respect for tradition and own creation of inheritance and innovation from tradition, and as a matter of fact, expand the connotation and influence in the current circumstance. This is the very example of inherent principle in art evolution and style change. Just like Italian arts that originated from ancient Roman tradition, reached the climax of modern humanistic spirits in Renaissance and after reflection of classical art system, transferred to contemporary arts, Chinese painting, after evolution over nearly twenty centuries, restored its vitality through social and cultural reforms at the end of 19th century and the beginning of 20th century, and endeavored to explore contemporary styles from tradition, which has witnessed outstanding achievement. The six Chinese masters, namely Ren Bonian, Qi Baishi, Huang Binhong, Pan Tianshou, Jiang Zhaohe and Li Keran, are the best representatives of this period.

Passage to Exhibition Hall

Cooperation—Real Transcendence

Preparation for Exhibition

In 2006 when I started my work in NAMOC, I experience Italian Cultural Year in an all-round way. Culture, art and life in Italy brought Chinese audiences to a fresh knowledge of what Italy was and is. As Fan Di’an, president of NAMOC, commented, with a long history of cultural exchange between China and Italy, especially in visual arts, both countries are proud of their abundant classical art heritage and contribution in the course of human civilization. Inspired by mutual appreciation, China and Italy encourage artistic creation in the same spirit of learning from and complementing each other. However, it is the first time in cultural exchange history of the two counties that exhibition of visual arts has been listed as priority on the platform of Cultural Year.

With a collection of totally 100, this exhibition involved those six Chinese masters’ selected works. In the exhibition structure, three parts, ie, three categories of Chinese traditional painting—personage, flower and bird, and landscape were respectively established, in comparison with the three themes in Western classical paintings—personage, landscape and still objects. This deliberate arrangement indicates the similarity and difference in painting themes, and reflects the varied concepts, language and aesthetics for the same theme. In each part, artworks from two masters were selected for audience’s comparison and reference. Obviously, you can find the inheritance in painting style and unique creation in the light of different historical periods. The paintings in this exhibition were created from the middle 19th century till the middle 20th century, which also coincides with the contemporary art campaign in the West. In so many comparisons from different perspectives, the audience will come to realize how those masters viewed tradition of their motherland and Western art influence and how they managed to find contemporary trends beyond tradition.   

Soon after the opening of this exhibition, I would go around the exhibition venue every day to see Italian audiences’ feedback. There were two hundred audiences every day, and more interestingly, some Italia young researchers of art history came from Rome University to explain the paintings for ordinary audiences. Among them, Ye Xing, who once studied in China, said in his fluent mandarin, “As to Italy who is blessed with the same profound art tradition, this exhibition is not only a new starting point for us to know more about oriental classical arts, but also a new to ponder over artistic reform and development.” Indeed, “beyond” symbolizes the significance and approach of trans-cultural exchange more than expansion of art itself.   

A century, six masters, one hundred art treasures, all these must be a brand new visual journey and spiritual appreciation for European audiences who may transfer their attention from grand architecture and noble sculpture to poetic ingenuity in Chinese traditional painting. This, in my opinion, is just the charm of classical dialogue between China and West.