Chinese artists are helping to promote their nation’s cultural presence overseas.
“The Imprints of Times” exhibition in Beijing was organised by the Beijing Service Bureau for Diplomatic Missions and the Dadu Museum of Art for diplomats in the nation’s capital. In a departure from the typical scroll paintings and landscapes, the show featured mainly modern Chinese paintings 20th century.
Museum director Jin Shangyi, whose 1984 portrait of China’s First Lady Peng Liyuan featured in the show, hoped the art exchange would reflect the multitude of styles explored by Chinese painters.
“The show is a kind of art exchange between Chinese and the diplomats,” says Diplomatic Missions director Qian Hongshan. “By knowing more about Chinese contemporary artists they might invite Chinese artists to their countries in the future.”
While Picasso and Monet are household names in China, many art-lovers in the West may not have heard of Jiang Dahai or Chen Danqing. The Bureau is hoping the art show will help showcase the nation’s more contemporary talent.
Artists such as Lin Xiangxiong and Xu Xi are trying to find a voice abroad by fusing Western and Chinese elements into their work. Lin, now living in Singapore, uses freehand brushwork with bold impressionist colours to create a cross-cultural pastiche.
New York-based painter Xu uses traditional Chinese ink painting techniques to capture uniquely Western landscapes in his new home. His work, which is an important exploration of the traditional and modern, is currently on display at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing.