China-Ukraine Contemporary Art for Meeting in Dnieper 

Dream (ceramics) Vladimir Odlesivsky 

Sunset (oil painting) Vassili Berevaliski 

Glance of Dnieper (oil painting) CHEN Ye 

Looking back of Dnieper (oil painting) WANG Yingsheng 

Old Train Station (oil painting) ZHANG Lujiang 

The great Dnieper, magnificent Boyim Chapel in Lviv, obscure Льв?в, dazzling Carpathian Mountains, mysterious caves monastery, peaceful silk road, dilapidated old train stations and exuberant towns…… all the unique landscapes of Ukraine are framed in the paintings as if they were informing the viewers with the country’s splendid history.

Meeting in Dnieper--- China-Ukraine Contemporary Art Exhibition has been held at the Imperial Ancestral Temple Art Museum on 10-30, November. Co-hosted by Central Academy of Fine Arts, Ukraine National Academy of Fine Arts & Architecture, Beijing General Labor Union and China Power Media Group Co., Ltd, the event was undertaken by Co-innovation Art Creation and Research Center for Silk Road of CAFA and Imperial Ancestral Temple Art Museum. Over 70 artworks by 23 Ukraine artists and more than 100 artworks by 24 Chinese artists shown at the exhibition are eventually created by the CAFA sketching group and artists from Lviv, Carpathian Mountains and Kiev of Ukraine after traveling, exchanging and discussion. Through diversified forms of painting, such as oil painting, watercolor, print, sketch, paper ink, color offset amongst others, the artists from both countries present the aesthetical custom of Ukraine from their perspectives.

Viewed from different Perspectives, Chiese and Ukrainian Artists Painting Ukraine Customs 

Every great nation relies on a great mother river, the Yellow River in China and the Dnieper in Ukraine has both cradled the ancient and splendid cultures. During this event, painters from the two sides gather together to draw the landscape of Ukraine from their own perspectives, it also symbolizes the combination of two cultures, said by Mr. FAN Di’an, Vice-chairman of China Artists Association and President of CAFA.

During the sketching, the Chinese artists have visited Lviv, Carpathian Mountains and Kiev and invited local artists to exchange views, not only deepening their friendship, but also colliding with the two types of drawing mentality with marvelous sparks of art. For painters from China, Ukraine is most strange in their eyes. However, as a famous cultural heritage city, Lviv holds very rich cultural heritage as the intensive classical architectural complex aroused their creative inspiration. When the aesthetic character of China meets with the classical temperament of Ukraine, such artworks as Lviv at Dawn, Municipal Square of Lviv and the Old Train Station have been penetrated by a kind of unique aesthetic sentiment with tendency of virtual in realism. Being the Guests, Chinese painters looked at Ukraine in a new perspective as artworks of Farmhouses under the Carpathian Mountains, Cavern Monastery and others were filled with a strong sense of mystery, and the bold and quaint lines and colors were telling stories like fairy tales. Moreover, the Light of Dnieper, Setting Eyes on Dnieper and other artworks of the great river were of extreme serenity and peacefulness as if they showed the respect to Ukraine’s mother river by the Chinese painters. The homeland depicted by the Ukraine artists, comparatively speaking, presented with much sense of familiarity as they cast more attention to minor corners, no matter the Grey Cottage, the Sunset Glow or the Winter Symphony and the Cossack, they all reflected the painters’ passion for their homeland. The collision of the two perspectives has jointly showcased the changeable and unified Ukraine style in the exhibition.

Besides the natural landscape and historical and humanistic spectacles, the China-Ukraine cultural exchanges eulogized on the ancient Silk Road and the art education and development of Ukraine have been discussed by the artists, through which their connection has been further deepened with much influence on their artworks in future.

Compose a New Chapter of the Belt and Road Through Literature and Art 

In response to the national "The Belt and Road" initiative, the CAFA has established the Co-innovation Art Creation and Research Center for Silk Road in 2015, dedicated to carrying out diversified cultural exchanges with countries along the Silk Road. As a sustained project, the center’s Serial Exhibitions of Silk Road invites a country’s national art educational institutions or related organizations to jointly conduct exchanges between the two countries’ artists through means of combined sketching activities and cooperative exhibitions on a yearly basis.

On April 2017, the CAFA, under the support of the Chinese Embassy in Ukraine, has successfully organized the New Phenomenon on Silk Road art exhibition, an important project for the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relationship between China and Ukraine, winning commendation from Ukraine audiences. Meanwhile, the CAFA and Ukraine National Academy of Fine Arts & Architecture have signed an agreement of institutions of friendship and cooperation committed to jointly promoting the art exchanges between the two countries, and this marks one of the most important exhibitions in this series. As Mr. FAN Di’an said, with the Belt and Road Initiative, what we have been insisting on is to push forward the cultural cooperation between China and Ukraine with purpose of further promoting bilateral relationship through power of art. Artists from the two countries not only learn from each other in artistic creation, but also deeply exchange ideas in a number of aspects, including art education, conception and research. Showing different features in material cooperation, the cultural exchange is the communication of the spiritual world with its own obvious advantages. With the Belt and Road Initiative implemented to the present time, more attention should be cast upon deeper cooperation with countries along the Silk Road concerning cultural aspect. It shoulders a certain symbolic significance as we set up the China-Ukraine contemporary art exhibition at the Imperial Ancestral Temple with a history of 600 years. As we put much emphasis on cultural exchange nowadays, together with the Belt and Road Initiative, it has been our long-time expectation that the spiritual communication should be put in place between the artists of two countries, said GU Ping, Party Secretary and President of China Power Media Group Co., Ltd.

There is no boundary in art. As we have always expected, the sketching exchanges and artworks exhibition between the two countries’ artists have shown our country’s customs to China, we also hope that further Ukraine-China culture and arts cooperation and exchanges can be realized in future, said Svitlana Fomenko, First Deputy Minister of Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture.