Saturday 26 October 2013

London's V&A museum plays host to rare Chinese artworks


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In London, some of the finest examples of Chinese painting created over a 1200-year period are about to be displayed at a massive showing. The UK’s prime art institution, the Victoria and Albert Museum, is set to stage one of its most ambitious projects ever. It’s called "Masterpieces of Chinese Painting 700 to 1900".
From intimate small-scale works, to scroll paintings as long as 14 meters, the historic art of China comes in all sizes. But it’s not size that counts at this show. It’s the artistic vitality handed down from generation to generation of Chinese artists, who have collectively created one of the world’s greatest artistic traditions.
According to the exhibition’s curator, the show is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see some of the earliest surviving Chinese paintings, as well as other exceptionally rare works from the greatest international collections.
In London, some of the finest examples of Chinese painting created
over a 1200-year period are about to be displayed at a massive
showing.
Dr. Zhang has spent nearly five years planning the show and sorting through pieces from around the world. He says that it’s all worthwhile though, as long as the great Chinese art tradition is being promoted.
This celebrated work named "Nine Dragons" is on loan from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. It’s one of the three existing pieces by Chen Rong, who lived eight hundred years ago, and whose works are the finest examples of this type.
It’s the first time for the V&A Museum to collect and exhibit Chinese art. The Masterpieces of Chinese Painting will officially open to the public on Saturday, and run for three months. It’s a rare opportunity to explore such precious works of art, a number of which are national treasures and have never before left Asia.

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