ART | Macau | Exhibition showcases Chinese masterpieces

A watercolor exhibition featuring paintings from various celebrated mainland and local artists was unveiled yesterday. The exhibition serves as a window into the international art community, while bringing like-minded painters together for profound discussions on the nation’s entry into the world of European fine art.
Masters in Painting – Contemporary Watercolors has returned to the region for the fourth consecutive year, with a total of 81 masterful watercolor paintings by 39 artists from across China. It will be free to visit until next Saturday at the Venetian Macao.
“I hope the exposition can increase cultural interaction and cooperation between the mainland and Macau, while building a platform for [the development of] more artists,” said Chang Hong, managing director at Beijing Hong Bao Bo Yi Cultural Development Company Limited, one of the co-organizers, at the media briefing.
Despite Macau being the very first destination in China to receive the concepts of western painting before it spread to other Chinese cities from 1715 onwards, Macau Artists’ Society chairman Lai Ieng still believes that the rapidly flourishing watercolor scene across the border could greatly elevate the artistic sense of local painters.
“We look forward to presenting the specific style of watercolors [that is employed] in Macau through this exhibition, as well as learning from the visiting watercolor artists from mainland China,” he said, adding that both eastern and western features have been influencing local style.
Xu Qing Song, vice head of the China Artists Association, which is the event’s major organizer and also the nation’s premier developer of fine arts, said that the mainland has been striving to gain international exposure in tandem with ongoing domestic engagements.
Almost all of the artistic contributors to this exhibition are the nation’s a-list painters, according to the organizers, and each demonstrates their sophisticated mastery of watercolor painting in their work, which ranges from natural or urban landscapes, to individual portraits of people and animals.
More than 200 Chinese painters have already had their art pieces, around 400 in total, showcased in previous editions of the event.
According to Lai, local watercolor painting style has been a mixture of eastern and western elements. The western roots date back to the 19th century when British artist George Chinnery introduced the fine arts into the region, followed by other European painters who proceeded to share their concepts and techniques. Staff reporter