During “the Year of China” in Russia in 2007, the National Art Museum of China held two exhibitions entitled The Open Chinese Art and The Art of Chinese Print—Carved Print by Li Lanqing with an elaborate plan in St Michael’s Castle of the Russia Museum from Sept.3 to Oct. 17, 2007. Sponsored by China’s Ministry of Culture and Russia Federal Cultural and Film Administration, the exposition, the new fruit of Sino-Russian cultural exchanges, has written a new chapter in the history of the artistic exchange between both countries.
When “the Year of Russia” fell in 2006 in China, quite a few exhibitions including The 300 Years of Russia and Open Russia have left strong visual and spiritual impacts to the Chinese people. While in 2007, in order to introduce the social changes and developments since the reform and opening up in the late 1970s as well as the current dynamic outlook of the Chinese art, the National Art Museum of China made a particular choice to present oil paintings on the show. Such category, a model form of the European art, was introduced to China in the early 20th century and transformed from the alien art to a language of expressing the Chinese thoughts and affections with great popularity among the public at present. What is more important is the Chinese artists are consciously adding connotations featured by the Oriental cultural concepts and the ethnic flavors on the basis of the traditional Chinese cultural spirits. Such evolution has brought the Chinese oil painting to be a young and rising member of the international family.
