Traditions and innovative techniques: Moscow Museum of Modern Art to host Chinese artists’ solo exhibitions

The Moscow Museum of Modern Art invites residents and tourists to gain insight into Chinese painting as in December it will offer solo exhibitions of two famous artists from the Celestial Empire.

The combination of Chinese traditions and techniques of contemporary Russian academic painting can be seen at the Landscapes of Color, an exhibition of artworks by Guo Xiaobin, which will open on December 10 at 25 Petrovka Street.

For a long time, he had studied the techniques of the Moscow school of painting and even traveled along the Golden Ring of Russia.

The exhibition was divided into several parts. The first section displays landscapes of Russian cities and Chinese provinces varying in colors, such as azure, purple, or scarlet. Other room features floral still lifes in a style similar to traditional Chinese lacquer painting, while the third section offers a series of minimalist paintings inspired by the ancient rock paintings of the Helan Mountains. The exhibition will also provide an understanding of the artist’s palette and an insight into how carefully he approaches the process of finding the color. It also features the artist’s comments and his design project for the Huashan metro station in Wuhan, China.

Guo Xiaobin lives and works in Moscow and Troitsk. He is a professor at the Oil Painting Department, Stroganov Moscow State University of Arts and Industry. A PhD holder in art history, he is also an honorary professor at Xiamen University and an honorary foreign member of the Russian Academy of Arts.

The exhibition Contemporary Chinese Painting of another famous artist, Ma Ke, will focus on the mutual influence of Western and Eastern cultures, which was especially evident at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries. Visitors are welcome in the Moscow Museum of Modern Art at: 10/1 Gogolevsky Boulevard starting from December 12.

The exhibition will feature an early series of the artist’s paintings testing Pablo Picasso’s images as the starting point for Ma Ke’s unique style. Viewers will also be able to trace the development of the artist’s favorite technique – the transformation of human figures, animals, and things — which connects the author’s paintings with the global Art Nouveau style. The exhibition displays more than 100 works, ranging from sketches created in the 1990s to recent canvases, visitors to see both small, intimate drawings and large-format paintings.

An alumnus of Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts, Ma Ke taught in the oil painting department and received a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Central Academy of Fine Arts. He boasts over 30 solo and group exhibitions; his works are held in private and museum collections around the globe.

To buy a ticket, follow the link.