The Chinese nation has created a broad and profound Chinese culture, made a unique contribution to the world civilizations. Different civilizations of the human join, mutually learning each other and integrating, to constitute a huge echo, both passing through the space and time in the history, and also surging in the world today.
Listening to the echoes of civilization, let’s turn our eyes to history, tasting and feeling the origin and spread of cultural creation, thinking about the cause and essence of cultural innovation; listening to the echoes of civilization, let’s respect for the value of cultural history in the contemporary cultural innovation and creation, to gain new discoveries, taking rich resources and irradiating abundant spiritual motivation. Along with the country implements China Belt and Roads Initiatives, it discovers the context of cultural fusion in the field of visual art, presenting the results of civilized fusion, in favor of forming the dialogue between the ancient and modern on the creation, to promote social cultural cognition. Based on which, CAFA and the Beijing Municipal Federation of Trade Union jointly organize the “Echo of Civilization” series of exhibitions, and being in cooperation with Dunhuang Academy, China to launch the first round entitled “Crossing Dunhuang”.
Different civilizations blended in Dunhuang that was a strategic town of the ancient silk-road, gave birth to the bright and glorious Dunhuang art. The “Sutra Cave” was discovered in 1900, made the “Study of Dunhuang” spread around the world, Chinese artists’ discovery of the art of Dunhuang started the research and conservation of the art of Dunhuang, becoming stories in modern Chinese cultural history. Since the last century, the protection of the art of Dunhuang is more scientific and the research is more profound. Generation after generation of Chinese artists traveled to Dunhuang for the “pilgrimage” of art, absorbing and drawing lessons from the essence of the art of Dunhuang; or recalled Dunhuang, writing down the imagination, continuing the context of the art of Dunhuang in the creation. “Crossing Dunhuang” showcases both the creative characteristics of Dunhuang art passing through different civilizations, and modern and contemporary Chinese art passing through Dunhuang on the level of spirit.
As the crossover and comprehensive visual art exhibition that connects the ancient and modern, the exhibition presents the facsimiles of Dunhuang mural painting by the Chinese masters, in the collections of Dunhuang Academy and CAFA Art Museum. When the artists copied, they devoutly faced the wall and mediated, not only copied the grand bearing and elegant shaping of the art of Dunhuang, and also reproduced the real bodies of the Buddha in the Dunhuang murals in the form and style, and also feeling the wonderful painting in the implication. Filled with the emotion and talent of the artists, the “facsimiles” are of the double valuations, firstly reproducing the classics, secondly, transforming the creation. It also invites the contemporary artists to present the work, connecting the art of Dunhuang and the silk-road in the spirit, injecting the idea of new times and cultural implications in the ancient motif, with the unique perspective, rich shapes and individual language to pay tribute to civilization, to showcase the creative transformation and innovative exploration of traditional art. The exhibition is unfolded with 4 chapters including “Hollow”, “Flying Apsaras”, “Division of Music”, “Support”, juxtaposition of the ancient and modern, integrating different views to constitute the dialogue in the visual form, in order to further prompt the rich traditional cultural resources inspiring and supporting the current artistic creation.
“Integrate different voices to ring, and gather different feathers to fly” (The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons by Liu Xie). The silk-road connected China with the world, the civilized fusion passes through the time and space in the history, and it will reverberate in the wide space created by the contemporary Chinese art, to create the permanent echo.
Fan Di’an, President of CAFA
In the New Year of 2016
About the exhibition
Opening: January 12, 2015, 15:00pm
Exhibition Date: January 12 through March 16, 2016
Location: The Imperial Ancestral Temple Art Museum of China, Beijing Working People's Cultural Palace (on the east side of Tian'an men), Dongcheng District, Beijing
Hours: Monday to Sunday 9:00-16:00
Organizers: The China Central Academy of Fine Arts
Beijing Municipal Federation of Trade Unions
Dunhuang Academy
Executors: The China Central Academy of Fine Arts Co-Innovation Art Creation and Research Center for Silk Road, The Imperial Ancestral Temple Art Museum of China
Courtesy of the artists and the China Central Academy of Fine Arts, translated by Chen Peihua and edited by Sue/CAFA ART INFO
