LA CINA È VICINA
Pan Museum, Naples (June, 29 – August 28, 2006)

La Cina è Vicina includes art by well-known contemporary names such as Luo Brothers, He Sen, Shi Xinning, Feng Zhengjie, Andy Warhol, Weng Fen, Chen Lingyang, Ma Liuming. The show has been promoted by the Department of Culture of the Municipality of Naples in collaboration with Ernesto and Claudio Esposito. The exhibition focuses on the evolution of Contemporary Chinese art and its rapid change thanks to showing over 50 works by the most renowned important Chinese artists. The “Cultural Revolution” wanted by Mao Zedong, which ended with the disappearance of the political leader in September 1976, placed all forms of artistic manifestation under strict government control. The exhibited artists were absolutely forbidden to represent the typical subjects of the centennial Chinese pictorial tradition such as landscapes, flowers and birds. The only accepted pictorial current was socialist realism, of a Soviet type, whose subjects, themes and iconographies dealt with social and political issues at the service of the state.
© Mario Milo